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Maximum residue limits (MRLs) on pesticides and veterinary drugs in plant and animal products are established to promote food safety and animal and plant health. In practice, however, they are often accused of creating unnecessary trade barriers. The controversy is more prominent when a given MRL is stricter than the corresponding international standard developed by Codex. Using the score indices constructed by Li and Beghin (2012), we empirically assess the implications of stringency in MRLs in plant and animal products, relative to Codex levels, for Canadian and US trade performance. We find little evidence that US imports are influenced by domestic stringency or those imposed by its trading partners. However, US exports are negatively affected by stringency in destination markets. Canada’s stringent MRLs facilitate its exports of plant and animal products and these exports do not seem to be impeded by MRL stringency in destination markets. Canada’s imports do not appear to be systematically influenced by either its own or its trading partners’ MRL stringency. We draw implications for the potential harmonization of MRLs between the two countries.

Nursing facility inspections routinely produce statistics revealing sharp disparities in care at both the facility and the state level. But whether high rates of deficiencies are more indicative of stringent enforcement of standards, leading to improved care, or ongoing poor quality care remains unclear. Until this question is answered, families of nursing facility residents, responsible public officials and interested professionals, are all unable to make sound decisions about long-term care quality. We employ cross-sectional, panel data to compare states on multiple indices of both care quality and enforcement stringency. We use the multi-method-multi-trait approach to distinguish these concepts. We find that low rates of deficiencies are positively associated with independent measures of high quality care. But, a prominent nursing facility enforcement index likely registers poor quality care more than stringency of enforcement since it is associated positively with independent indices of poor quality care and negatively with independent measures of enforcement. Attentive publics can have reasonable confidence that low rates of deficiencies indicate high quality care. High rates tend to reflect glaring deterioration in care quality. They are less signals of stringent enforcement than of obviously poor care which prompts more visible enforcement activities. Sadly, there is little evidence suggesting that these enforcement measures improve state-level care quality and thus reduce cross-state disparities in the quality of nursing facility long-term care. However, at least some of the factors responsible for sharp disparities in nursing facility care lie within the capacity of states to rectify even in the short term.

African Economies are a mix of emerging and developing economies, characterised by regional imbalances and socio-economic differences. Foreign Direct Investment and Trade has been important for the growth prospects of African Economies. In this paper, we attempt to study the impact of FDI and Trade in a COVID-19 scenario on the African Economies. We also study the lockdown restrictions in different regions of Africa. Applying Neural Network Analysis for the sample of 36 African Economies we identify the significant economic variables for GDP. The analysis based on a feedforward structure suggests that Merchandize Exports (MEXP) and Foreign Direct Investment Stock (FDIS) have very strong causal linkages with the GDP for African Economies sample. On the other hand, Merchandise Imports (MIMP), Services Exports (SEMP), Services Imports (SIMP), and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows (FDII) have a strong and significant relationship with GDP for the African Economies. Tariff Measures (TRFF), Anti-Dumping measures (ADP) and Foreign Direct Investment Outflows (FDIO) have no significant relationship.

The critical issue in the debate over the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) is whether the location choice of international investment is influenced by the stringency of environmental regulation. So far previous empirical studies focused on the outward investment from developed countries, while little work has been done on the issue from developing countries. To fill the gap, this paper selects data from China enterprises, using a Logit estimation to determine whether there is a pollution haven effect in the location choice of developing countries’ outward investment. Our results show that Chinese enterprises are attracted by countries with lax environmental regulations; resource-intensive enterprises from China are more sensitive to the stringency of regulation than are technology-intensive enterprises. We contribute to the literature in two ways. First, we provide new evidence in support of the PHH by analyzing investment from developing countries. Further, we show that differences exist in the FDI behavior between resource-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises. Based on this finding, we explain why some previous studies have not found robust evidence of the PHH.

This chapter investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic stimulus policies. Based on data from 156 economies, empirical results show that in the medium term, cumulative effect of COVID-19 pandemic is positively correlated with the economic stimulus policies but not in the short term. Heterogeneity tests show that while economic policies are used in developed economies more often, restrictive measures in developing countries are likely used as a substitution; deaths have a positive impact on economic stimulus policies but confirmed cases not. The results suggest that the pandemic may reinforce economic inequality due to potential stimulus policy capabilities, requiring international coordination and assistance to low-and-middle income countries in various aspects.

This paper investigates how relative environmental regulation influences the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI), and thereby assesses the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). In this field, conflicting results exist, partly due to the mere consideration of absolute environmental regulation or the inadequate consideration of endogeneity. Concerning these, we study China’s inward FDI from 26 developed countries and 12 developing countries over 1996–2009, and collect four different environmental regulation indicators at relative values of CO₂, SO₂, PM10, and an environmental regulation index. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find strong PHH evidence no matter for the subsample of FDI from developed countries or the one from developing countries. Moreover, we show how such results can be masked if failing to consider the endogeneity.

The central debate on pollution havens concerns whether the level of environmental regulation in developing countries influences foreign investment location decisions. Most empirical studies are based on aggregate data, while micro-level evidence is relatively lacking in the literature. To fill this research gap, this paper tests for the existence of intracountry pollution havens in China by estimating the determinants of foreign investment flows based on a large firm-level panel dataset. Evidence from this study supports the existence of pollution havens within China in certain industries. However, the sensitivity of foreign investment to environmental regulation varies significantly across industries with different pollution characteristics. Furthermore, when the impact of government subsidies on foreign investment is accounted for, the results show that subsidies can compensate for pollution treatment costs in provinces with stricter environmental regulation.

This case discusses the journey of SELCO Foundation, a Bengaluru based not-for-profit organization. It provides key learning and insights for social transformation and poverty alleviation. With the vision of “creating inclusive development pathways that were socially and environmentally sustainable,” the Foundation fostered and scaled ecosystems for democratization of access to clean energy and sustainable solutions for the marginalized communities. Using decentralized renewable energy (DRE), SELCO’s initiatives had established linkages between SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG4 (Quality Education), SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Throughout its journey, it continuously challenged normative development paradigms and perceptions about gender issues, poverty, and sustainability as a whole through a people-centric approach; empowering individuals, communities, and institutions. The recent COVID-19 pandemic landed a massive blow to the country’s socioeconomic structure. SELCO Foundation’s teams deployed in remote locations for livelihood interventions programs had faced a multitude of challenges due to COVID-19 lockdown. As a response to COVID-19 crisis, SELCO Foundation rallied its resources to support relief efforts across India. It leveraged its expertise in energy by deploying a pan India network of grass-root partners; community-sourced innovations to ramp-up last mile healthcare infrastructure, build community resilience programs, and strengthen existing capabilities. Leveraging sustainable solutions as a medium, SELCO’s transformative work extended beyond access to clean energy, and sought to address complex issues such as healthcare, education, reduction in drudgery in manual jobs, creating opportunities for dignified work and more. Through this case study, this chapter discusses the emergence, journey, and initiatives of SELCO Foundation. It explores a practice-based pedagogy of social transformation, and challenges faced in ecosystem building during the times of the pandemic. The chapter initiates a discussion for a way forward for the social enterprise in times of uncertainties and stringencies in order to continue impacting underprivileged lives to the best.

On 24 January 2020, France informed WHO of three cases of novel coronavirus, all of whom had travelled from Wuhan, China. These three cases were the first confirmed cases in Europe. By 13 March 2020, Europe had become the epicentre of the pandemic with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from the People’s Republic of China. Many European countries like Italy, France and Germany took drastic actions and subsequently announced a lockdown, while other countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden were much more hesitant to introduce such far-reaching safety measures. This chapter provides a literature overview of how the variation in such measures in Europe has ultimately resulted in changes in daily activities and travel behaviour during the pandemic. It focusses on five main themes: (i) reduction in mobility and activities, (ii) spatial-temporal adjustments in out-of-home activities in which people still participated, (iii) modal adjustments especially among people who used to travel by public transport before the pandemic, (iv) new out-of-home activities including new outdoor activities and (v) digital adaptations as several out-of-home activities were replaced by digital activities, with special attention to the experience of teleworking.