#OBSERVER SYSTEM REDUX CASE 944 DRIVERS#

We develop a simple model of international trade with heterogeneous firms that is consistent with a number of stylized features of the data. Alternatively, we use information on average trade-weighted tariff rates as provided by the TRAINS Database (available from the World Bank's WITS). For the latter, we pursue two models, one which involves an indicator variable for the absence of preferential trade agreements as notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and such agreements outside the WTO information about which has been collected byEgger, Larch, Staub, and Winkelmann (2009) and Egger and Larch (2010). Figures on exporter and importer nominal GDP in current US dollars for the respective years come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators).Furthermore, we employ three types of trade barriers: ones related to geographical distance between countries' economic centers from the Centre d'Études Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales' Geographical Database ones related to cultural distance in terms of a absence of a common official language indicator variable from the same source and ones related to tariffs.

While limitations are acknowledged, the present study provides useful insights on the distinctive and unusual aspects of the phenomenon consistent with the available – mainly qualitative – literature on LSLAs, and delivers critical findings about the economic geography of the phenomenon and the role of institutions, which overall call for immediate policy intervention.

#OBSERVER SYSTEM REDUX CASE 944 DRIVERS#

The basic model is subsequently extended in order to include the main drivers highlighted in the LSLAs specific literature. Initially the model is tested using different specifications and variables that traditionally are found to be significant in the FDI literature, using four different model specifications: OLS, OLS robust, TOBIT and PPML. A gravity model has been adapted to the context of LSLAs, in order to identify the determinants not just of the deals but also of the deals’ size. Given the volume of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) and the central role played by international investors, land entered now the field of international economics. Over the last decade the demand for land has dramatically changed and the competition over land reserves has now crossed national borders.

Observer system redux case 944