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This study aims to examine the trend of industrial competition between the US and China, which is the most crucial determinant in the future development of the global economy. For decades, the global economy has strengthened the global production network based on the division of labor between countries. Thus, the ripple effect of competition between the two countries should be analyzed in terms of the global production network. Therefore, this study uses the product space model, which explains the development process of industries with comparative advantage by country. We constructed the model based on the products of HS 4-digit code for the 2010–2019 period. The analysis results on the trend of the industrial competitiveness of major countries are as follows. First, the current industrial competitiveness of China is concentrated on low-tech industries. In the case of high-tech items, China shows a tendency of lower export sophistication compared to major manufacturing powerhouses such as Germany, the US, Japan, and Korea. Second, with respect to the possibility of a future industrial structure upgrade evaluated by density, the trend of China overtaking other manufacturing powerhouses is observed. As implied by the product space model, the advancement of the industrial structure through active participation in international trade enhances the industrial competitiveness. Therefore, the outcome of US-China industrial competition depends on who ensures more openness and industrial complexity.

This paper aims to examine whether the extent and type of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Indian public listed companies are associated with firm ownership and board characteristics.

Data analysis is based on the top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (2007-2011) using a 17-item CSR disclosure measure.

The extent of CSR disclosure is positively associated with foreign ownership, government ownership and board independence and negatively associated with CEO duality. Promoter ownership has a negligible effect on the extent of CSR disclosure. In terms of the type of CSR disclosure, community information increases with government ownership and board independence, while environmental information expands with foreign ownership and board independence. Information on employees/human resources has a positive association with foreign ownership but decreases with CEO duality. The amount of product and services information increases with promoter ownership, foreign ownership and board independence and CEO duality.

Given the positive impact independent directors have on the extent of CSR disclosure, their role can be further strengthened in terms of overseeing quality of information disclosed. Stakeholders and regulators will need to develop greater awareness of firm CSR disclosure biases associated with ownership and more carefully scrutinize firm CSR activities that firms are “not” reporting on.

Empirical evidence on the link between corporate governance and CSR disclosure from a developing nation context is limited. This paper provides much needed evidence in this area from India – one of the largest, rapidly developing economies in the world.

IT and society There oughta be a law. Too much of the UK legal profession is in the dark when it comes to information technology, says Professor Brian Napier. Speaking at his inaugural lecture as the first holder of the Digital chair at Queen Mary and Westfield College, itself the first established chair in IT at a British University, Napier called for law reformers to wake up to the ramifications of IT.

Discusses the coming enlargement of the European Union by ten states, which also increases the population from 378 million to 483 million (if Bulgaria and Romania are also accepted in 2007). Notes that because of their membership, the new members will pay the price of reduced access to former trading partners and borders of new Member States will open up west and north, although some customs’ revenue will disappear there will be EU budget transfers to compensate.

China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has risen remarkably over the past two decades. Does such increase affect the sophistication of Chinese exports, is a significant issue that has surprisingly remained unaddressed? The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Chinese OFDI on bilateral export sophistication of China and its OFDI receiving partner countries during 2003–2017 by applying Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood approach based on gravity model.

The analysis has been performed for total sample, region-wise grouped sample (Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, North America and sub-Saharan Africa) and income-wise grouped sample (high income, upper middle income, lower middle income and lower income group sample).

The results confirmed the significant and positive effect of Chinese OFDI on bilateral export sophistication in total sample, regions-wise and income groups sample.

The study provides a helpful suggestion regarding policy towards achieving more sophistication in export and thus to achieve comparative advantage in trade.

This paper aims to examine the experience of ten Asian countries with respect to growth, trade and FDI. It seeks to explore relationships between the nature of exports and imports and growth, as well as the relevance of FDI as a channel for these relationships.

The paper opted for an empirical approach. It included collecting standardize data on international trade, GDP per capita, and FDI inflows. The trade data and GDP data were used in creating the productivity level for exports and imports for all of the relevant countries. The paper analyses how these productivity levels compare to GDP per capita, change over time, and relate to FDI inflows.

The authors find that FDI is positively correlated with higher productivity levels in exports and imports for many of the countries in their sample. The effect for imports is particularly apparent for imported intermediate goods, reflecting the emergence of greater trade fragmentation. In turn, both imported intermediates and exports that are associated with higher productivity levels are positively correlated with per capita GDP.

There are a couple of research limitations. First, the work does not determine causality; future econometric work should help to identify the causality mechanism. Second, trade fragmentation might lead to an overestimation of “productivity” levels; future work should try to identify the extent of the bias and a way to fix the issue.

This work may have implications for how policymakers view trade and FDI policies, and the possible links between them, in the context of promoting growth.

This work may have implications for understanding the links between growth and structural change in the economy, which is in turn linked to societal change.

This paper brings together empirical evidence that integrates discussions of FDI, trade fragmentation and improvements in the productivity of traded goods.

The Lamfalussy process was implemented from early 2001, following the report of the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of European Securities Markets, chaired by Alexandre Lamfalussy. Four years on, this paper concludes that, while it is too early to assess progress in areas such as implementation and enforcement (Levels 3 and 4 of the Lamfalussy process), significant progress has been made in implementing the proposals contained in the original Lamfalussy Report. Preparation of EU legislation affecting securities markets is now more transparent, with better involvement of external stakeholders and enhanced political cooperation between all the institutions (Commission, Council and European Parliament). This has resulted in an improvement in the quality of legislation and an acceleration of the legislative process. The use of implementing measures will make it easier and faster to adapt Community legislation in the future. The process is also encouraging regulatory and supervisory convergence. Nevertheless, this paper suggests further improvements that could be made in areas such as consultation, including better involvement of consumers; timetables for transposing measures into national law; focusing more on general rules and principles in framework legislation (Level 1) and avoiding over‐prescription in implementing measures (Level 2); achieving more consistent implementation across member states (Level 3); further strengthening political accountability; and strengthening efforts to foster greater understanding of the Lamfalussy process.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the degree of structural change of the Philippine economy and examine how linkages among sectors evolved during 1979‐2000.

The authors use the input‐output tables of the Philippines to draw the economic landscape of the Philippines and to examine the degree of structural transformation that the economy has undergone since the 1970s. They perform a linkage analysis of 11 major economic sectors and through the multiplier product matrix, plot the economic landscape of the Philippines for 1979‐2000. This allows identification of the sectors that have exhibited the highest intersectoral linkages. The authors also undertake a more disaggregated analysis within manufacturing and consider export sophistication and competitiveness.

Manufacturing is consistently the key sector of the Philippine economy. Resource and scale‐intensive manufacturing industries exhibit the highest linkages. The authors also find a growing impact on the economy of private services and transportation, communication and storage sectors, probably due to the globalization of these activities. But overall, compared to manufacturing, the service sector exhibits lower intersectoral linkages.

The economic landscape of the Philippines shows the structural changes that have taken place. The empirical findings lead to the conclusion that the Philippines cannot afford to leapfrog the industrialization stage and depend solely on a service‐oriented economy, when the potential for growth still lies primarily on manufacturing. The results of this study can be used for government policy formulation. The government should institute policy reforms that directly target the industrial sector to accelerate economic growth.

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures on firms' profitability and its persistence.

The study has been conducted for listed firms operating in India from 2008 to 2017. Content analysis has been utilized to estimate the CSR disclosures score. Further, dynamic panel regression has been utilized to estimate the relationship between CSR disclosures and profit persistence.

The results confirm positive profit persistence for Indian companies. The results further show that different dimensions of CSR disclosure have differential impact on firms' profitability. CSR dimensions concerning total community development and product-related disclosures have a positive relationship, whereas dimensions related to environmental and customer-related disclosures have a negative relationship with financial performance. The results also indicate that CSR disclosures are significantly related to profit persistence.

The study is first of its kind that analyzes the impact of CSR disclosure on profit persistence for Indian companies. The results can provide useful implications for managers and regulators in terms of formulation of overall CSR policies.