Research on the Impact of China’s Foreign Trade Technology Spillover on Green Total Factor Productivity of Countries Along the“Belt and Road”:Based on the Institutional Quality Threshold Effect

China’s growing trade with countries along the“Belt and Road”Initiative is accompanied by a focus on green development.Based on the panel data from 2007 to 2018,this paper establishes a threshold regression model to empirically analyze the institutional quality threshold effect of China’s foreign trade technology spillover on the GTFP of countries along the“Belt and Road.”The results show that China’s foreign trade technology spillover has a significant institutional quality double threshold effect on the green total factor productivity of the countries along the“Belt and Road.”As the institutional quality of the countries along the“Belt and Road”crosses a specific threshold value,the impact of China’s foreign trade technology spillover on the green total factor productivity of the countries along the“Belt and Road”has a significant positive promoting effect,and corresponding suggestions are put forward.

Institutional Quality,Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Recipient Countries

Foreign aid is an important aspect of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)for enhancing two-way cooperation with BRI countries. Based on the panel data of China’sforeign aid over the period 2000-2014, this paper employs the Worldwide GovernanceIndicators (WGI) to conduct an empirical study on the economic growth effects of China’sforeign aid and recipient countries’ institutional quality with the endogeneity of aid takeninto account. Results of our empirical study suggest that (i) China’s foreign aid, especiallyinfrastructure aid, can effectively promote economic growth in recipient countries;(ii)sound institutional development offers an important assurance for economic growth inrecipient countries;(iii) sample-specific regression reveals that the institutional quality ofrecipient countries can significantly influence the economic growth effects of China’s foreignaid, especially economic infrastructure aid for recipient countries in Asia and Europe.To improve aid effectiveness and quality, China needs to improve aid structure, superviseaid program implementation, and mitigate the impact of institutional risks in recipientcountries.

Impact of Institutional Quality on Multilateral Aid in Nigeria

The linkage between quality of institutions and economic performance of nations has generated a lot of interest among scholars,due to their influence on development of many countries and effective use of resources including foreign aid from multilateral organizations.Two strands of theories emerge on the institutions-multilateral aids nexus:those for benefits of aid to growth and development;and those for harms caused by aid.The research objective is to investigate the impact of institutional quality on multilateral aid in Nigeria.To do this,the study applied auto-regressive distributed lag(ARDL)bounds testing approach.Data for the study were sourced from the ICRG data,WGI data,QoG database,Transparency International,and World Development Indicators(WDI).The findings show that institutional quality variables do not have any influence on the multilateral aid in Nigeria,except the‘independence of judiciary’which appeared statistically significant.In the short-run analysis,the disequilibrium in the long-run equilibrium is corrected for in the next quarter period by about 25%;almost all the variables are statistically and significantly influencing multilateral aid.It is therefore recommended that donor agencies should consider other factors that negatively influence official development assistance(ODA)such as politics,location and colonial history.

Institutions and FDI:evidence from developed and developing countries

This study investigates the impact of institutional quality on Foreign Direct Investment(FDI)inflows using panel data for low,lower-middle,upper-middle and high-income countries for the sample period of 1996-2016 using the system Generalized Method of Moments(GMM).The empirical results confirm that institutional quality has a positive impact on FDI in all group of countries.The magnitude of the coefficients of control of corruption,government effectiveness,political stability,regulatory quality,rule of law,and voice and accountability for FDI inflows are greater in developed countries than in developing countries.We conclude that institutional quality is a more important determinant of FDI in developed countries than in developed countries.However,GDP per capita,agriculture value-added as a percentage of GDP,and inflation influence FDI inflows negatively in developed countries,while GDP per capita,trade openness,agriculture value-added as a percentage of GDP,and infrastructure have positive and statistically significant impacts on FDI inflows in developing countries.Trade openness as a percentage of GDP and infrastructure positively affect FDI in developed countries.From our analysis,we infer that institutional quality is a more important determinant of FDI in developed countries than in developing countries.

Does green growth in E-7 countries depend on economic policy uncertainty,institutional quality,and renewable energy?Evidence from quantile-based regression

Environmental degradation is one of the most debatable topics at international forums and it is considered a prime concern for the entire world.Therefore,researchers and policymakers have turned their attention from conventional economic growth to green growth.Although the existing literature has discussed several determinants of green growth,the impact of economic policy uncertainty(EPU),renewable energy consumption(RENE),and institutional quality(IQ)on green growth(GGDP)is relatively unexplored.Hence,this study is the earliest attempt to investigate the impact of EPU,IQ,and RENE on GGDP for emerging seven(E-7)countries from 1996 to 2019.In doing so,we apply panel quantile regression(PQR).The empirical findings delineate that EPU has a negative impact on GGDP,whereas IQ and RENE enhance the GGDP in E-7 countries.Based on the outcomes,this study suggests policy implications for achieving targets of the SDG 07,SDG 08,SDG 13,and SDG 16.The governments of these countries can achieve higher GGDP by ensuring political stability and reliable macroeconomic policies and through making such flexible policies that can easily control or address unpredictable future economic issues.

Role of Institutional Quality in Determining the R&D Investment of Chinese Firms

This study adds to the understanding of China ＂s innovation prospects by examining how variations in institutional quality within China impact on the R ＆D efforts of firms located in different provincial regions. In the process of identifying the effect of institutional quality, the roles of other factors such as ownership types and market structures are revealed, which provides interesting insight into firms ＂ R＆D behavior. The key findings suggest that institutional quality positively affects the decision offirms to engage in R＆D activities. Once firms start to engage in R ＆D, the subsequent expansion of firm-level R ＆D intensity depends on factors such as market structure. Therefore, strengthening domestic institutional quality is the first critical step towards the goal of building a knowledge-intensive economy in China. Efforts to nurture market development are also important for achieving this goal.

Threshold Effects in the Capital Account Liberalization and Foreign Direct Investment Relationship

This paper examines how capital account liberalization （CAL） affects foreign direct investment （FDI） inflows. Authors use a dynamic panel model encompassing 14 Middle East countries over the period from 1985 to 2009. The findings suggest that countries that are able to reap the benefits of the capital openness policy satisfy certain threshold conditions regarding the level of financial development and institutional quality. Thus to promote FDI, governments in this region should develop a set of policies that not only focus on financial openness, but also on the improvement of the financial system and legal institutions.

Digital Economy Development,Institutional Quality and Upstreamness of Global Value Chains

By building a composite index for measuring national digital economy development and sectoral digital intensities,this paper derives metrics of industry-level digital economy penetration under the framework of specialization within global value chains(GVCs),systematically analyzes the mechanisms through which digital economy development affects GVCs upstreamness,and examines the moderating effect of institutional quality.The study shows that different dimensions of digital economy development significantly boost GVCs upstreamness,a conclusion that holds even after accounting for endogeneity through dynamic panel models with instrumental variables based on past data.Further research shows that technological innovation capabilities and resource allocation efficiency have gradually become important channels for digital economy development to boost GVCs upstreamness.Adding indicators on institutional quality reveals that greater institutional quality not only directly promotes GVCs upstreamness but also reinforces the impact of digital economy development on higher GVCs positioning.

An Analytic Study on Internal Linkages Between Human Development and Globalization

Globalization is often understood as increasing global economic integration, global forms of governance, and globally inter-linked social and environmental developments. The target of this paper~ is to demonstrate the connection among human development, globalization, and institutional quality. The second part provides the methodology of measuring the overall globalization with an emphasis on the 2011 Konjunkturforschungsstelle （KOF） Globalization Index. The KOF Globalization Index includes economic, social, and political contexts. The third part shortly introduces one of the parameters of institutional quality--Human Development Index （HDI） （or rather Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index （IHDI） as the real indicator of the level of human development） and its methodology and results. For the analysis, two out of three dimensions of IHDI were used （long and healthy life and access to education） and two dimensions of Globalization Index were employed （social and political globalization）. The third part compares indices and scores together, analyzes them, and assesses the relationships between the HDI and the Globalization Index. It is possible to conclude from the results achieved in the study that the social globalization has stronger linkages with human development than with the political globalization, yet, spurring growth rates and reduced poverty in countries with poor institutions cannot be achieved simply by globalizing their economies.

Role of knowledge economy in managing demand-based environmental Kuznets Curve

Aggregate demand or supply at equilibrium is commonly used as a representative of the macroeconomic activity of an economy whereby aggregate demand denotes the behaviour of individuals and households.However,aggregate demand can also directly affect environmental deterioration via changes in aggregate production.This study tried to explore this relationship,known as the demand-based Environmental Kuznets Curve(Demand EKC)and the role of different knowledge economy indicators.Knowledge economy indicators are proposed to influence consumption patterns,altering the demand EKC that empirical studies have understudied.For this purpose,secondary data for 147 countries were collected from 2008 to 2018,also classified as development-wise.This study found that aggregate demand significantly affects carbon emissions.The long-run results are estimated using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square method.Controlling factors like renewable energy consumption,population density,and financial development significantly affect carbon emissions in sample countries.This study has incorporated four pillars of a knowledge-based economy and the results showed that these indicators helped reduce consumption-related CO_(2) emissions.