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The purpose of this study is to explore the underlying assumption that macroeconomic factors (legal, cultural, social, financial and/or economic) might support or constrain countries’ decisions to timely and fully transpose the Directive 2014/95/EU (EUD) on non-financial information disclosure.

The research design relies mainly on exploratory factors analysis, regression techniques (linear, logistic and multinomial) and additional robustness and sensitivity tests, all performed to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the results.

The results reveal that the directive’s transposition process is driven more by regulatory and social legitimisation forces than by economic and financial pressures. Stronger governance and weaker interests’ protection ensure appropriate compliance with new regulations, while highly educated countries express openness towards developing accounting systems that enhance information transparency.

The results are useful for practitioners currently engaged in the directive’s implementation process, academics interested in challenging debates concerning this topic and regulatory bodies to better support its full enactment.

This paper approaches the newsworthy topic of non-financial information disclosure settled by the EUD and marks an essential step towards harmonising non-financial reporting across Europe. It enriches the scientific literature through the first empirical analysis that sheds light on its explanatory drivers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the inter-industry wage premium, and how such effects vary according to the unskilled-labor intensity of the industry and to the implementation of the Nova Matriz Economica policy in 2008.

The paper empirically examines the effects of the Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the wage premium using a linear instrumental variables model and data from Brazilian household surveys and censuses.

The estimates show the Chinese import penetration positively affecting the wage premium in unskilled-labor intensive. And the implementation of the new macroeconomic policy strengthened this effect.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to study the effects of Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the inter-industry wage premium.

The purpose is to market a reinterpretation of Brazilian economic history highlighting the importance of non-tradable goods to understand major historical developments such as the lack of industrialization in the mining boom; the rise and contribution of industries to development in the early 20th century; indexation as hyperinflation in the late 20th century; growth and cycles in the early 21st century.

Section 2 introduces analytical perspectives on the relationship between non-tradables, transport costs and external shocks. Section 3 presents a historical overview of the gold and coffee cycles in the Brazilian economy, which highlights the crucial role played by transport costs in the genesis of industrialization. Thus, in a more precise way, industrialization was not an import substitution process but the substitution of non-tradables by the domestic tradable manufactures.

Section 4 shows that Brazilian statistical records and historiography disregard this characterization and, to that extent, underestimate economic growth in the primary export phase (1872–1920) and overestimate growth rates in the industrialization period (1920–1940). Section 5 shifts to the end of the 20th century to analyze the relationship between non-tradables, indexation and hyperinflation. Section 6 concludes with a brief discussion of the role played by the terms of trade and non-tradables in the unfolding of the 2014 economic crisis.

Distance from international markets and a continental geographic size made transport costs in Brazil historically prohibitive: the relevance of non-tradables in the Brazilian economic history. While the theme is not new, it seldom received proper attention in the historiography.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Chinese import penetration on industrial production and inflation in low income countries, specifically, the impact on textile, wood and furniture, paper and chemical in Zimbabwean industries.

The study adopted bounds test of co-integration advocated by Pesaran et al. (2001) to distinguish between short- and long-run impacts. A sector-specific regression models were specified for textile, wood and furniture, paper and chemical industries and the other one on inflation

The effect of Chinese imports varies across industry. A negative impact on wood and furniture and paper industries is confirmed and rejects an anticipated negative effect on textile industries. However, import penetration had a negative effect on inflation.

The study recommends that the country should consider the trade-off between industrial shrinkage and low prices when formulating trade policy, especially import restrictions, as trade protectionism has failed in most African countries. Temporary trade restriction measures should be implemented and this will encourage dynamic efficiency in domestic industries.

The study identified the need for sector-specific impact of Chinese import penetration on manufacturing sector and the dynamics on inflation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trading with China on Botswana’s domestic and third markets. The paper also assesses the structure and magnitude of Botswana–China bilateral trade.

The paper used descriptive statistics such as graphic analysis to describe and summarize the basic features of the data. To reach conclusions that extend beyond the immediate data alone, the study applied Chenery Decomposition Approach and also applied the extension of Constant Market Share (CMS) analysis.

Botswana mainly exports primary products to China and imports intermediate and capital goods, which are mainly used as inputs in the development of infrastructure in the country. Increased imports from China into Botswana’s domestic market has mainly replaced imports from other countries, and China’s textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) exports gained market share from Botswana’s TCF exports in the third markets, i.e. South Africa. Unlike Lesotho, the loss of market share by Botswana’s TCF exports in the South African market increased over the period under study. The Botswana Government needs to consider ways of enhancing Botswana’s TCF export competitiveness and learn lessons from China in relation to enhancing productivity in the TCF and other exporting industries.

Because of lack of data, this paper failed to estimate the impact of import penetration in the manufacturing subsectors and analyze the rapidly growing Botswana–China bilateral trade in services. There has been no estimate of the impact of intermediate and capital goods on production costs of Botswana’s productive sectors. Lastly, because of lack of data, there have been no estimates of Botswana’s consumer surplus generated from consuming relatively low-priced goods from China.

This is the first study to carry out an empirical analysis of the Botswana–China trade relation. The study will be of value to academia and to policymakers who are interested in studying the China–Africa relation.

To provide an opinion as to the demise or metamorphosis of the UK clothing industry within the wider European context. Recently conducted research, along with a range of pertinent published (1978‐2004) statistical data are used to inform the authors' viewpoint on the development of the UK clothing industry. The statistical evidence describing the change in import penetration, employment levels and the impact of the national minimum wage support the view that a new typology of the clothing industry is emerging from the ashes of a rapidly declined manufacturing base. Some of the detail of garment types is hidden by the SIC system. Conversely, at times, the very categories used appear to have little contemporary relevance. Three areas of concern would remain: first, that over time the cluster itself would lose its critical mass; second, that the cluster might collapse if the central core of manufacturing is hollowed out; and third, that over time some of the “knowledge based” tasks such as design and product development might themselves be subject to migration to lower‐cost locations. This paper contributes a carefully considered, and compiled, viewpoint from experienced observers of the UK clothing industry that augments the debate centred on the development of the EU clothing industry.

The development in information communication and technology (ICT) has led to many changes such as reorganization of economics, globalization and trade. With more innovation processes being organized and adopted across technologies, trade, etc., these are getting more closely related and needs fresh research perspective. This study aims to empirically investigate the interrelationship between ICT penetration, innovation, trade and economic growth in 20 developed and developing nations from 1995 to 2018.

The present paper examines both long-run and short-run relationships between the four variables, namely, innovation, ICT penetration, trade and economic growth, by applying panel estimation techniques of regression and vector error correction model. ICT penetration and innovation indices are constructed using principle component analysis technique.

The findings of the study highlight that for developed nations, growth, trade and innovation are significantly interlinked with no significant role of ICT penetration While for developing nations, significant relationship is present between growth and trade, ICT penetration and innovation. With respect to trade, in case of developed nations, significant relationship is present with ICT penetration. While for developing nations there is no significant result for trade promotion. On further employing the vector error correction model, the presence of short run causality between growth, trade and innovation in case of developed nations is established but no such causality between variables for developing nations is seen.

The present paper adds to the existing strand of literature examining interlinkage between innovation and growth by introducing new variables of ICT penetration and innovation.

This paper looks at the trade performance of the UK building materials and components industries. In particular it analyses recent trade performance and trends from 1980 to 1993. The recession has caused many UK manufacturers and suppliers of building materials and components to go out of business. Faced with the present slow recovery, the remaining UK companies must consider their competitiveness and ability to meet the growing demands of the domestic and overseas markets. Import penetration has left the construction materials and components industries with small capacity, less able to invest in the research and development necessary to compete effectively in the world market and to provide for increasing demand as growth in the economy picks up. The balance of trade in these goods is likely to worsen with a consequent detrimental effect on the UK balance of payments.

As might be expected, steel product prices fell during the recession of the early 1990s. Between 1990 and 1992, steel prices fell by about a third. As the economies of the EC recovered from the recession from early 1993, steel prices rose but by mid‐year it was clear that the increase was much below what was expected. It soon became clear that expected price rises were being mitigated by rising imports from Eastern European countries. This paper considers the process of steel price determination in the EC and the effect of cheap imports on EC prices. It shows that unregulated and relatively cheaper imports from the Former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern European countries indeed had a more depressing effect on EC prices by raising supply than would have been the case otherwise.

Strategy researchers typically avoid using data more than a few years old for estimation of cross-sectional models. However, problems that might be caused by older data generally reflect more basic weaknesses in research design. This chapter develops criteria for evaluating the importance of the age of data used in cross-sectional research and indicates ways that better research design may be more effective than the substitution of newer data sets.