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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The global governance of trade is in a deadlock and the WTO is suffering from a long standing crisis of legitimacy. This paper aims to analyse the main issues which might influence the governance of world trade from now until 2030 and present quantitative projections of international trade.

The research on the main issues which might influence the governance of world trade from now until 2030 draws on a detailed analysis of the WTO and trade policies. Four scenarios of the world economy are presented, which are derived from the international AUGUR research project “Challenges for Europe in the world in 2030” coordinated by Paris Nord University. The analysis takes into account econometric forecasting of world trade conducted in the framework of this project.

First, the failure of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations to reach its ambitious agenda derives from the discrepancy between the governance of world trade and the new power relationship prevailing in the world economy, with new emerging powers (China, India, etc.) rapidly increasing their share of world trade. Second, the continuous restructuring of world trade and economy, which goes together with new forms of globalization, will increase pressure for a profound reform of the governance of world trade in the next few years.

This paper calls for a reform of world trade governance, especially of the missions of WTO within a renovated economic world order. Future research could investigate more deeply the potential for regional trade integration, which is reinforced by international production networks. Regional trade agreements might be an increasing alternative to multilateral trade agreements.

This paper brings new ideas by raising the issue of the governance of world trade using a prospective approach, with the aim to identify the key channels through which international trade integration will impact the world economy. This study bases its analysis on potential scenarios from now on until 2030, each of these scenarios corresponding to a specific institutional configuration.

During world price spike periods, the government is more likely to apply trade distortions to stabilize domestic prices, but the trade distortions would amplify fluctuations of international market prices. Which type of policy may stabilize the domestic market price, but not disturb the international market? This paper answers the question by taking public storage policy as a case study in the context of trade policy. Specially, this paper tries to identify the effect of domestic public storage on the world market price.

This article extends a standard theoretical model of trade policy through incorporating domestic public storage policy and makes the model more applicable in the context of China. The extended model is then applied to analysis how domestic public storage policy affects the international market price in the context of trade policy. Finally, a properly identified structural vector auto-regression technique is applied to test the effect of domestic public storage on the world market price by using cotton data from China.

The theoretical model indicates that China's public storage policy could stabilize the international market price. In order to test the working mechanisms, China's soaring public storage between 2010 and 2014 is employed to identify the effects of China's cotton storage on the volatility of the world price. The empirical findings show that China was able to stabilize the international price of cotton to a non-trivial extent through alteration of its public stockpile.

The first contribution is that this paper extends a standard theoretical model of trade policy to incorporate domestic public storage policy, which enables us to explore the effects of domestic public storage policy on the world price in the context of China. The second major contribution is that this paper provides evidence that, as a large player in the world market, China's public storage policy could stabilize the international agricultural price to a substantial degree.

Liner shipping plays a crucial role in facilitating the movement of manufactured goods around the world. While previous literature has shown that liner shipping is an important trade driver, potential differences across trade routes and world regions have not as yet been explored. This paper examines whether the impact of liner shipping on bilateral trade flows differs significantly across world regions, as well as exploring other geographical patterns.

Using state-of-the-art gravity modelling, this paper investigates the impact of the UNCTAD's Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Index on bilateral trade in manufactured goods using a comprehensive database of disaggregated trade data for the period from 2006 to 2019.

The results show that the trade effect of liner shipping is greater in long-distance and interregional bilateral flows. For some regions, such as North America and Oceania, the effect is greater than the world average, while for others, such as Africa and South America, the effect is significantly smaller. The trade effects of liner shipping connectivity on the main east–west routes are average, but clear asymmetry emerges when analysing China's inward and outward trade flows separately.

The results of this paper show that the major east–west routes determine the baseline trade effects of liner shipping, demonstrate that some north–south trades such as those involving Oceania generate larger trade effects and confirm that the trade effects of liner shipping can be improved for some world regions such as South America and Africa.

International political economy is an emerging yet specialized field that combines political analysis with the study of markets, trade, and development. With the global economy having an interdependent effect on politics, environment, and society, and with several major economic events of the last 20 years, the authors perceived a need to provide a guide to the sources in this field. This paper seeks to address this issue.

The authors identified resources using WorldCat and standard reference sources, such as American Library Association's Guide to Reference Books; the annual American Libraries’ “Outstanding Reference Sources” articles; American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) volumes; Booklist's Editor's Choices articles; and Choice's “Outstanding Academic Titles”. Sources were selected from 2000 to the present, concomitant with development of the global economy in the twenty‐first century.

This guide contains reference works and internet resources that include or provide access to primary source documentation and statistical studies and tables, as well as handbooks, guides, encyclopedias and dictionaries that place the field in context.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, focus was placed on sources that emphasize the core focus of international political economy. Related fields of study, including globalization, development, environmentalism and social movements, were largely excluded.

The authors found no other comprehensive bibliographies containing reference, primary and statistical sources that cover the field in its breadth during this time period.

Services trade has registered a dynamic evolution in almost all developing countries. Despite the rising share in world services trade by developing countries, the gap between developed and developing countries in service exports have been widening. Developed economies have become service exporters, while developing economies are found to be more receptive towards service imports. This paper attempts to gain some insight into the actual nature and extent of exports of services from developing countries, and examines their emergence as significant players of services trade as well as the underlying factors and broader implications. One of the conclusions of this paper is that developing countries successfully export a variety of services to both developed and developing countries, whereas a relatively limited number of developing countries seem to be heavily involved in services exports trade across a range of sectors. This, alternatively, indicates that services exports, on a large international level, are associated with higher levels of development and that not all developing countries are yet in a position to be large-scale exporters.

This paper aims to provide a detailed account of the evolution of the fair trade discourse of a Belgian fair trade organization, with a specific focus on the changes in the combination of the organization’s trade and social (movement) dimensions.

This study is based on an analysis of the organization’s discourse as found in the member magazine at four periods. These four periods cover different phases in the life history of the organization and in the broader fair trade field.

Throughout the organization’s history, both social (movement) and trade dimensions know drastic changes, also in their mutual relationship. In the earliest history, trade practices are clearly subordinate to goals of a socialist-inspired societal change, while in the more recent history, trade has permeated the entire discourse, putting the trade dimension in a more central position. However, both dimensions seem to evolve in a connected way, as the discourse shows clear similarities on both, and evolutions can be related to changes in the organization’s broader field.

Focusing on the discourse of a specific fair trade organization breaks with a tradition of broad notions of a fair trade history. Moreover, this case provides insight into the evolution of the mix of both social and economic dimensions within a specific organization, and connects this to evolutions in the broader (fair trade) field.

This study aims to examine investor attention by exploring the trading behavior of investors in US-based exchange traded funds (ETFs) of countries active in the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cups.

The present study employs event study methodology to measure abnormal returns and excess trading volume of country-specific ETFs during six FIFA World Cups. The sample of ETFs includes 19 participating countries.

Consistent with investor behavior that might be explained by attention effect, the study finds that country-specific ETFs from participating countries do indeed behave differently during FIFA World Cups events. The authors find significant evidence of abnormal trading volume and, albeit weaker, abnormal returns during cups.

This study contributes to the literature on investor behavior, linking investor attention with salient sports events.

The purpose of this article is to address the question of what it means to be critical in relationship to international business.

Explores the underlying assumptions and objectives in the debates involving international business and trade.

The emotional aspects of the debate have resulted in obscuring the objectives and underlying assumptions of those involved in the discussions. It is proposed that the underlying assumptions are reevaluated and there is a refocusing of objectives in order to produce more productive results from being critical of international business. The debate should resume with an acceptance of well established principles supported by decades of empirical research and history by all parties and the debate should focus on the actual practices of international businesses in an attempt to make international trade work for all rather than attacking international business as an institution.

Explores the overlooked underlying assumptions and differing objectives of those involved in criticizing international business. Focusing on the prime objective of being critical of international business, lessening poverty around the world, rather than on the debate and one's perceived opponents, will lead to academia better fulfilling its role of being an objective observer and reporter of international business activities in the debate and lessen the risk of academia becoming a biased participant.

The outbreak of the novel COVID-19 virus has spread throughout the world, causing unprecedented disruption to not only China's agricultural trade but also the world's agricultural trade at large. This paper attempts to provide a preliminary analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China's agricultural importing and exporting from both short- and long-term perspectives.

This study seeks to analyze how the outbreak of COVID-19 could potentially impact China's agricultural trade. With respect to exports, the authors have pinpointed major disruptive factors arising from the pandemic which have affected China's agricultural exports in both the short and long term; in doing so, we employ scenario analysis which simulates potential long-term effects. With regard to imports, possible impacts of the pandemic regarding the prospects of food availability in the world market are investigated. Using scenario analysis, the authors estimate the potential change in China's food market—especially meat import growth—in light of the implementation of the newly signed Sino-US Economic and Trade Agreement (SUETA).

The results show that China's agricultural exports have been negatively impacted in the short-term, mostly due to the disruption of the supply chain. In the long term, dampened external demand and potential imposition of non-tariff trade barriers (NTBs) will exert more profound and lasting negative effects on China's agricultural export trade. On the other hand, despite panic buying and embargoing policies from some exporting and importing countries, the world food availability and China's food import demand are still optimistic. The simulation results indicate that China's import of pork products, in light of COVID-19 and the implementation of SUETA, would most likely see a sizable climb in quantity, but a lesser climb in terms of value.

Agricultural trade in China has been a focal-point of attention in recent years, with new challenges slowing exports and increasing dependence on imports for food security. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic adds significant uncertainty to agricultural trade, giving rise to serious concerns regarding its potential impact. By exploring the impact of the unprecedented pandemic on China's agricultural trade, this study should contribute to a better understanding of the still-evolving pandemic and shed light on pertinent policy implications.