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The authors extend the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) for 30 additional countries and 13 additional years. The authors develop an inexpensive method for extending survey data when frequent, universal surveys are unavailable. The authors identify groups of country characteristics that influence LPI scores.

Using data from the World Development Indicators—the broadest global dataset of country socioeconomic features—the authors test machine learning algorithms for their ability to predict the LPI. The authors examine importance scores to identify factors that influence LPI scores.

The best performing algorithm produces predictions on unseen data that account for nearly 90% of observed variation, and are accurate to within 6%. It performs twice as well as an OLS model with per capita income as the only predictor. Explanatory factors are business environment, economic structure, finance, environment, human development, and institutional quality.

Machine learning offers a simple, inexpensive way of extending the coverage of survey data. This dataset provides a richer picture of logistics performance around the world. The factors the authors identify as predicting higher LPI scores can help policymakers and practitioners target interventions.

This paper is one of the first applications of machine learning to extend coverage of an index based on an international survey. The authors use the new data to provide the most wide-ranging analysis of logistics performance across countries and over time. The output is an important resource for policymakers tracking performance, and researchers particularly in smaller and lower income countries. The authors also examine a wider range of explanatory factors for LPI scores than previous work.

This paper aims to provide new evidence that the US phytosanitary regime is associated with a restrictive market access environment for fruit and vegetable products. One chief reason seems to be that the US regime uses a positive list approach, under which only authorized countries can export.

The methodology of the paper is primarily qualitative. This paper reviews the US sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) system and its scope for use to protect markets, in addition to protecting life and health. The approach is institutional and political economic.

For most products, only a portion of global production is authorized for export to the USA. Even among authorized countries, only a small proportion is actually exported. As a result, the number of countries exporting fresh fruit and vegetables to the USA is far lower than those exporting to countries like the EU and Canada, but it is on a par with markets known to be restrictive in this area, such as Australia and Japan. Using a data set of fruit and vegetable market access and political contributions, this paper also provides evidence showing that domestic political economy considerations may influence the decision to grant market access to foreign producers.

The US SPS system has not previously been analyzed in this way, and the distinction between negative and positive list approaches is highlighted in terms of its implications for third-party exporters. Similarly, the analysis of political contributions is novel and suggestive of an important dynamic at work in the determination of the US policy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify major challenges that Asia-Pacific policy makers face in drawing up international logistics policies, and to seek possible solutions to the problems.

Case study method: the paper includes seven case studies that attempt to address various types of logistics challenges. The paper introduces both intra- and extra-regional examples of the ways in which those challenges have been overcome in particular contexts through concerted action by government and the private sector.

There are a lot of interesting experiences of overcoming logistics challenges, both inside and outside the Asia-Pacific region. Good practice experiences can be replicated by other countries in the region.

While there have been a lot of discussions on logistics policy reforms, this paper is one of the first attempts that clearly link challenges with concrete case experiences where those are overcome. The paper discusses very practical issues in an analytically sound manner, using case method.

Can transparency mitigate the trade-distortive effects of nontariff measures (NTMs)? This chapter explores the trade impact associated with promoting greater transparency in NTMs, using a new database of transparency provisions in over 100 Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). The investigation surveys the incidence and scope of transparency provisions in RTAs, and econometrically assesses the trade effects of these instruments on bilateral agricultural and food trade. The findings demonstrate that transparency provisions in RTAs are associated with greater agricultural trade flows, suggesting that transparency should remain an important element of ongoing policy efforts to make NTMs less onerous for trade in agriculture.

This thesis deeply studies the impact mechanism of digital service trade on the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry from the aspects of technological innovation and industrial structure.

In this thesis, 40 countries from 2010 to 2020 were selected as samples, and the panel fixed-effect model and intermediary effect model were used to empirically analyze the impact path of digital service trade on the high-quality development of global manufacturing.

Overall, digital service trade has a positive impact on the high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry. Through the analysis of the intermediary effect mechanism, it is found that digital service trade can further positively affect the high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry by promoting technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading.

Based on the empirical results, targeted countermeasures and suggestions are given in this paper.

Through the test of national heterogeneity, it is found that in developing countries, digital service trade mainly acts on the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry by promoting industrial structure upgrading.

In developed countries, digital service trade mainly promotes the high-quality development of manufacturing through technological innovation; from the perspective of industry heterogeneity, the three service industries of information and communication technology (ICT), other business services and property have the intermediary effect of technological innovation and industrial structure.

This manuscript suggests that trade in digital services should be promoted as a national trade priority.

John C. Beghin is the Marlin Cole Professor of International Agricultural Economics in the economics department at Iowa State University (ISU). He is the former director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at ISU which he led from 1999 to 2007. He is a leading scholar on agricultural trade policy analysis, with a long-term interest in nontariff measures. He has held positions at North Carolina State University, the OECD Development Centre, the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, the International Labor Office, and the University of Sydney. He has consulted for various international and governmental agencies and private clients including the American Farm Bureau Federation, FAO, OECD, US Army Corps of Engineers, US General Accountability Office, the US Grains Council, and the World Bank among others. He holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His research work has appeared in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Ecological Economics, Economics Letters, Environment and Development Economics, Health Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Review of Economics and Statistics, and World Development, among other journals.

The recognition of opportunities for sustainable development is considered to be an essential part of sustainable entrepreneurship, but studies that address this phenomenon are scarce. A conceptual model which aims to explain the factors that lead to the recognition of sustainable opportunities was proposed by Patzelt and Shepherd (2011), but published research that tests this model empirically is limited. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sustainable entrepreneurship literature by empirically exploring Patzelt and Shepherd’s conceptual model in order to shed light on how sustainable entrepreneurs recognize opportunities for sustainable businesses in practice.

This paper adopts a qualitative research approach to address the aims of the study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight sustainable entrepreneurs based in Berlin. The data were analyzed by means of thematic analysis.

The findings indicate that sustainable entrepreneurs are influenced in their identification of sustainable opportunities by their knowledge of natural and communal environments, by their motivation to develop gains for themselves and others, and by entrepreneurial knowledge. These findings largely support the model proposed by Patzelt and Shepherd (2011). Furthermore, they extend this model by shedding light on some of the factors that comprise its components, as this study found that spending time abroad and socialization enhance entrepreneurs’ knowledge of natural and communal environments; a desire to be self-employed, aspects of one’s personality and one’s personal circumstances are sources of motivation, while prior jobs and prior projects create entrepreneurial knowledge.

Only two other studies have empirically tested Patzelt and Shepherd’s (2011) model, and these have led to disparate results. The first was conducted by Choongo et al. (2016), who did not find any evidence to support this model. The second was carried out by Muñoz and Dimov (2017), who addressed the model partially. This paper therefore makes four major contributions. First, it is the first to offer preliminary empirical support for each component of Patzelt and Shepherd’s (2011) conceptual model. Second, it extends their model by identifying some of the factors comprising its components. Third, it reflects on possible reasons why extant research has led to disparate findings. Fourth, it proposes avenues of research to resolve the unanswered questions arising from these studies. This paper therefore makes a contribution to the literature on sustainable entrepreneurship and serves as a stepping stone for further theory development and empirical research on sustainable opportunity recognition.

The purpose of this study is to develop the theorisation of cybercrime in the context of the pandemic, and to sketch out a vision of how law enforcement might respond to a transformed landscape of online crime and offending.

This conceptual paper draws on empirical evidence from a range of sources (including official statistics) and the existing research literature, and revisits routine activities theory to illuminate the way that cybercrime patterns are being transformed by the pandemic.

The pandemic is reshaping the routine activities of societies en masse, leading to changes in the ecology of risk and opportunity for cybercrime. There is evidence of a large increase in the prevalence of cybercrime as a result, yet much of this has a paradoxically “local” character.

The authors identify specific practical implications for law enforcement, namely, that the role of local police in policing cybercrime should be re-envisioned, with a democratic, community-oriented approach at its heart.

The theoretical perspective outlined is a novel and critical development of a well-established framework, opening up new paths to the theorisation of cybercrime and cybercrime policing. The authors’ suggestions for practitioners have the potential for direct impact, both at the level of practice and in terms of broader imaginaries and organisation of police and policing.