Open Countries Research Articles

RENEWABLE ENERGY AS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY FACTOR UNDER GLOBAL TRADE OPENNESS

The key to this study is to explore the relation between renewable energy and trade openness under climate change impacts on international trade. This study is based on the analyses of trade openness index and the Notre Dame-Global Adaptation Index in measures of research of the transfer of renewable energy technologies globally, promotion of the growth of renewable energy share, and the country's current vulnerability to climate disruptions. Research is focused on evaluation of low-carbon trade, analysis of renewable heat, and estimation of the impact of renewable energy on trade openness under climate disruptions. Research verified that development of renewable energy can reduce the human impact on climate change, but such technologies are not available to all countries; because of this, different countries may be affected by climate change to varying degrees. The implementation of renewable energy technologies should help countries become more resilient to climate change through the availability of appropriate means of producing renewable energy; however, this is possible subject to the country's openness to the arrival of goods and technologies from outside-increasing trade openness level. Countries with open and competitive markets are more inclusive to adopt and support the renewable energy technologies and their development. From another position, development of trade and deep integration of economy can create external dependence on imported energy sources and block the development of domestic renewable energy sectors. The economic challenges in the field of renewable energy need the focus of governments and policy makers on supporting the stability of renewable generation facilities, increasing the reliability of energy supply, protection from seasonal changes in demand for electricity, support of the energy cooperatives and private consumers of renewable energy, and transition the public transport sector for renewable energy sources. Further research in this direction has prospects, because globalization is a stable trend of recent decades, and allows for an even distribution of efforts to produce various products and provide them to the population, but decarbonization potential of renewable energy production is untapped as fossil fuels dominate in largest world markets.

Economic Openness and the Behaviour of Great Ratios in G20 Countries

Most of the macroeconomic models suggest that great ratios of economics should be stable in the long term. Keeping the theoretical consequences in mind, the present study investigates the order of integration of two great ratios, viz. consumption–output and investment–output ratios. The study employs both mean shift and trend shift unit root tests with a structural break to examine the stationarity property of great ratios. This article attempts to analyse the relationship between economic openness and the behaviour of great ratios. Results of the study indicate a balanced growth path for 10 out of 18 G20 countries considered in our analysis. Findings show that countries that have a deficit trade balance with surplus foreign direct investment are more likely to demonstrate a balanced growth path. The multivariate analysis shows evidence in support of the balanced growth hypothesis in 13 of the 18 G20 countries. Of the 18 countries analysed, 8 internationally open and 6 financially open countries provide support for the balanced growth path. JEL: C20, E20, O50

Trade openness and green technology: The extent of trade openness and environmental policy matter

Much effort has been devoted to understanding how trade openness is linked to technological progress. Less documented is the effect on green technology, which is particularly important as it is green technological progress that alleviates environmental degradation while improving economic growth. To fill the void, this paper empirically examines whether trade openness drives green technology development and whether the effect depends on the extent of trade openness and environmental policy stringency. In a sample covering both advanced and developing countries, the paper finds that green technology first decreases and then rises with increased trade openness, meaning that a sufficient level of trade openness is required for green technological progress. Tighter environmental policy is also found to weaken the beneficial effect of trade openness on green technological progress, implying that lax environmental policy creates a better environment for more open countries to develop green technology. However, these effects vary across countries, depending on the origin and destination of trade.

Commonality in Tail Risk Premia around the World

This study examines tail risk premia for 44 countries from 1990 to 2015 and provides evidence on the existence of common and systematic components in the variation of tail risk premia across countries. Specifically, we found that individual countries’ tail risk premia significantly comove with U.S., regional, and global tail risk premia. The first five principal components explain all variation in the premia, with the first principal component alone explaining over 30% of the variation. The comovement, or commonality, is stronger for developed market countries and more open countries. We also provide evidence that premia are affected by the U.S. economic environment and global stock market volatility, leading to a common variation in tail risk premia around the world.

Ripple effect: Disentangling the global impact web of US monetary policy

This paper uses a GVAR model to analyze the direct and indirect (via commodity prices and cross-country interactions) spillover effects of US monetary policy on foreign economies and the ensuing spillbacks to the US. A ten basis points cut in the US interest rate directly boosts an average foreign economy's output by 0.06 percentage points, but indirect effects amplify this to 0.47 percentage points. These findings underscore that the recent increase in spillovers is primarily driven by global, rather than US-specific, integration. Indirect cross-country effects are most pronounced in financially open countries, regardless of their exchange rate regime.

Index of Economic Stability and Financial Integration of Small Open Countries

Over the recent decades, we have witnessed advanced processes of liberalization of capital flows, and increasing integration and globalization of financial markets. Along with the globalization trend, ever since the end of the 1980s, the process of financial integration has also been taking place, as a consequence of removing barriers to free movement of capital between countries. Therefore, this research explores financial integration of small open countries and aims to make conclusions on how this integration can affect their economic stability. Qualitative definitions of small countries point out that they typically have a limited territory, relatively small population and limited resources. The research hypothesis is postulated as follows: the economic stability index of small open countries is conditioned by their financial integration. The analysis includes small open countries of Southeast Europe observed from 2005 to 2020, with relevant statistical data used for the total inflow and outflow of investments, the share of assets and liabilities in gross domestic product and the calculated value of the economic stability index. The analysis was made using the methods of correlation analysis and correlation test. The results show that there is a correlation between financial integration and the economic stability index in small open countries.

Interdependence Between Liberalization of Capital Flows and Economic Growth of Small Open Countries

It is known that liberalization of capital flows may help countries achieve a faster growth, but also that, if not implemented gradually; it may lead countries into crisis and recession. In recent decades, many developed countries, as well as developing countries, have opened up their financial systems. In this way, they opened up to foreign competition and allowed the free movement of capital across their borders. The aforementioned phenomena arose as a consequence of the advanced processes of capital flow liberalization in these countries, as well as the increasing integration and globalization of financial markets. This problem is particularly important to investigate for small open countries, which due to their special characteristics have limited opportunities to act on the financial market. The general goal of the paper is to determine, based on theoretical and empirical scientific findings, the interdependence between the liberalization of capital flows and economic growth of small open countries. The research included small open countries of Southeast Europe in the period from 2005 to 2020. Correlation and regression analysis was used in the paper. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, we came to the conclusion that there is a significant correlation between the liberalization of capital flows and economic growth of small open countries.

Understanding the globalization‐crisis linkage: A “differenced” approach

AbstractThe recent string of adverse global shocks (financial crisis, trade war, COVID‐19, Ukraine war) poses a potential challenge to the well‐known welfare enhancing effects of globalization, necessitating a better understanding of the longer run globalization‐crisis linkage as opposed to its shorter run effects. Focusing on the Great Recession, we discover an evolving role of trade and financial openness from one that propagates and deepens the negative effects of crises to one that confirms its well‐established contributions. Key to this is generating counterfactual output for open countries as if they were closed and examining the comparative impact of the crisis.

Does Trade Openness Affect Global Entrepreneurship Development? Evidence from BRICS Countries

Emerging nations focus more on new and innovative business activities across national borders for economic advancement. Further, trade openness has recently emerged in BRICS countries. Thus, global entrepreneurship development can be a great opportunity for the traded open countries. In line with this, the study aims to examine the impact of trade openness on global entrepreneurship development in BRICS countries. The study collected balanced-panel data from BRICS countries for 2001–2020 and applied random-effects estimation to analyze the data. The study drives a cross-sectional dependence test, unit root test, and model specification test before applying the estimated model. The study further checked the robustness of the findings by alternative estimation methods like FMOLS and DOLS and found similar results. The results revealed that trade openness positively influences global entrepreneurship development, but average tariffs can discourage entrepreneurs. Specifically, trade openness through trade spread, trade freedom, and average tariffs increase the total early-stage entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial intentions rate in BRICS countries. Through cross-country analysis, the study found that trade openness significantly enhances global entrepreneurship development in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa rather than in Russia. The study found similar results after checking the robustness of the findings by alternative estimation methods like FMOLS and DOLS. Thus, the findings could be a great insight for the policymakers of BRICS countries. Governments, academics, international entrepreneurs, etc., can use the findings in future decisions as a policy dialogue.

Open access and its potential impact on public health - A South African perspective.

Traditionally, access to research information has been restricted through journal subscriptions. This means that research entities and individuals who were unable to afford subscription costs did not have access to journal articles. There has however been a progressive shift toward electronic access to journal publications and subsequently growth in the number of journals available globally. In the context of electronic journals, both open access and restricted access options exist. While the latter option is comparable to traditional, subscription-based paper journals, open access journal publications follow an "open science" publishing model allowing scholarly communications and outputs to be publicly available online at no cost to the reader. However, for readers to enjoy open access, publication costs are shifted elsewhere, typically onto academic institutions and authors. SARS-CoV-2, and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the benefits of open science through accelerated research and unprecedented levels of collaboration and data sharing. South Africa is one of the leading open access countries on the African continent. This paper focuses on open access in the South African higher education research context with an emphasis on our Institution and our own experiences. It also addresses the financial implications of open access and provides possible solutions for reducing the cost of publication for researchers and their institutions. Privacy in open access and the role of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in medical research and secondary use of data in South Africa will also be discussed.

The trade‐GDP ratio as a measure of openness

AbstractThe ratio of trade to GDP is often used as a summary measure of a country's openness to the rest of the world. It is well‐known that the trade–GDP ratio is affected by relatively time‐invariant factors, such as country size and remoteness from trading partners, that can largely be controlled for in cross‐country panels by using country fixed effects. It is shown here that there are also other important, time‐varying influences on the trade‐GDP ratio that have been little investigated, such as the prices of commodity exports and imports, the real effective exchange rate, and the ratio of investment to GDP. These factors are shown to be significant, and not only in the short run, and need to be taken into account in estimating the long‐run effects of transport costs or trade policy on the trade/GDP ratio.

Financial connectedness and risk transmission among MENA countries: Evidence from connectedness network and clustering analysis

This study examines the financial connectedness and risk transmission among MENA economies by accounting for financial connectedness in the short and long run as well dependency under extreme market conditions and network graph analysis. To this end, Composite Financial Stress Indices are constructed for 11 MENA countries. In addition, a battery of econometric models is applied including the standard spillover approach, the frequency domain method, the quantile connectedness technique, and connectedness networks analysis. Using daily data over the period from June 30, 2006 to June 30, 2021, the empirical results show a positive and strong association between financial stress co-movements and spillovers in those MENA countries, particularly during the long run and high extreme stress periods. Furthermore, the five Gulf countries are strongly financially connected among themselves than with the other countries. Contrary, to Tunisia, Saudi Arabia is the main financial stress and risk transmitter to other MENA economies whereas, the North African countries are relatively mild receivers of risk. Finally, the more open countries in terms of capital controls, particularly Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and UAE seem to play a more central role in financial connectedness and risk spillovers.

Banking Integration in Open, Small Economies of the Pacific Island Countries

Abstract This is the first study to systematically investigate the extent of financial integration in the small, open Pacific Island Countries (PICs). The study applies Autoregressive Distributed Lag co-integration technique on interest rate spreads and covers Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tonga, while controlling for the effects from Australia and the United States for the period 1992 to 2019. In the short run, there is some evidence of regional as well as global integration. In the long run, both regional and global integrations become more pronounced. Explanations, consequences and policy implications are discussed.

The roles of globalization, renewable energy and technological innovation in improving air quality: Evidence from the world’s 60 most open countries

Air pollution is considered by many researchers to be one of the causes of global warming, with detrimental effects on the environment, economy, and society. Therefore, identifying the roles of some possible factors for air pollution is an important research agenda. To this end, using unbalanced panel data, this study endeavours to explore the roles of globalization, technological innovation and renewable energy in identifying the factors of air pollution and thus in improving air quality for the world’s 60 most open countries over the period 1960–2020. A series of econometrics tools, for example Driscoll and Kraay’s (1998) standard error technique and the Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) model are used, focusing on of autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, and cross-sectional dependence problems to obtain robust outcomes. The results demonstrate that trade openness, technological innovation, and per capita GDP have positive effects, and renewable energy and square per capita GDP have negative effects the on air quality. The pair-wise Granger causality also discloses the one-way and two-way causal affiliation between the considered variables. All the findings are valid in terms of both theoretical and empirical grounds and are significant for policy directives.

Financial Market Globalization, Deglobalization Policies and Growth

This paper develops a world economy growth model to explore the consequences of financial market globalization. The model consists of small open countries that are plagued by domestic credit market imperfection and are connected via knowledge spillovers. When knowledge diffuses from the technology leader to the world as an international public good, the model predicts that financial market globalization promotes growth despite uphill credit flows dividing the world economy into a high‐income core and a low‐income periphery. But the associated world growth rate is not optimal. Barriers to cross‐border credit flows can give rise to a higher worldwide rate of growth through which all countries can benefit.

Open access scientific journals: an analysis of the Directory of Open Access Journals

Introduction. The research aims to analyse the publishers, countries of publication, citation indexes, article processing charges, and their inter-relations, in the journals that make up the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), a global directory that offers scientific information in immediate and exclusive open access. Method. Bibliographic, quantitative, and inferential study of 9,005 journals in the DOAJ, focusing on publishers, countries of publication, article processing charges, and citation indexes. Analysis. Calculation of absolute and relative frequencies, measurement of central tendency, chi-squared test, and Mann-Whitney U test using the R statistical software (version 3.2.4) with a 95% confidence interval. Results. Brazil is the country with the largest number of titles (10.9%), followed by the United Kingdom, which has a greater number of titles with article processing charges fees averaging US$ 1,474 for those that are DOAJ No Seal and US$ 862 for those that are certified DOAJ Seal. Europe has the greatest number of open access titles (47.6%). The Hindawi Publishing Corporation, Elsevier, De Gruyter Open, BioMed Central, and Springer are the publishers with the greatest number of journals and a higher presence in citation indexes (Journal Citation Reports and SCImago Journal Rank). DOAJ Seal journals are correlated and more likely to have article processing charges fees. Conclusions. In the consolidation of open access journals, commercial publishers and countries with a tradition of scientific publishing continue to gather the majority of journals. Thus, the oligopoly of commercial scientific publishers is maintained.

Asymmetric openness-environment nexus in most open OIC countries: new evidence from quantile-on-quantile (QQ) estimation

Asymmetric openness-environment nexus in most open OIC countries: new evidence from quantile-on-quantile (QQ) estimation

부산항만공사의 자율성을 위한 법제도 개선에 관한 항만이해관계자의 인식에 관한 연구

Korea is geopolitically impossible to cross-border logistics through land, and has an economic system in which resource-poor countries are highly dependent on international trade. Therefore, maritime transportation using ships is absolutely necessary for trade between countries. A port equipped with facilities that allow ships to safely enter and leave the port and safely load and unload cargo is an essential industrial facility for international trade. Port is a comprehensive facility for the national economy for countries with coasts adjacent to land, and is a key industrial facility that greatly affects other related industries in the front and rear. It is a particularly important industrial infrastructure for open economic system countries with high dependence on foreign trade such as Korea. Therefore, managing and operating ports efficiently for smooth international trade is as important as developing ports. In other words, the port itself has a very symbolic meaning as a key industrial facility in the country, but it is also very important to efficiently operate and manage port. This paper conducted a perception survey on the improvement of the legal system to guarantee the autonomy of the Busan Port Corporation targeting stakeholders in Busan Port. Port stakeholders recognized that it was very important to ensure autonomy in operation, such as the expansion of the Busan Port Authority's business scope. And They shared the recognition that related legal systems such as the Port Authority Act need to be improved in order to strengthen the autonomy of the Busan Port Authority.

Effects of monetary policy shocks on exchange rate in emerging countries

AbstractThis study empirically investigates the effects of monetary policy shocks on the exchange rate in six emerging countries (Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia). VAR models are used, wherein sign restrictions on impulse responses are imposed to identify monetary policy shocks. The empirical model reflects the small open emerging economy features. The estimation period is the recent period in which these countries adopted inflation‐targeting and more flexible exchange rate regimes based on the experience of advanced countries. The main findings are as follows: first, various puzzles such as the ‘exchange rate puzzle’, ‘delayed overshooting puzzle’ and ‘forward discount bias puzzle’ are frequently found in these countries; and second, more severe puzzles are found in these emerging countries than in small open advanced countries.

MAINSTREAMING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH THE ENLARGEMENT POLICY: THE CASE OF THE WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES

The EU enlargement has been considered as the EU’s most efficient foreign policy instrument in terms of its ability to transform communist countries into functional democracies and open market countries. Since the beginning of 1990s, the promotion of human rights has become prominent topic either for the consolidation of human rights within the EU or outside. The argument of this paper is that the EU enlargement policy has influenced Western Balkan countries to improve their domestic legislation in the area of human rights. The paper demonstrates, firstly, how has evolved the EU human rights actorness from the establishment of the EE Community and secondly, discuss strategies and instruments used by the EU to export its norms and values in the Western Balkan countries. The paper addresses the following research question: how, whether and to what extent, the EU has promoted human rights in the Western Balkan countries. Throughout this paper, a doctrinal legal research has been used to analyze EU primary and secondary sources. The value of this paper lies in its comprehensiveness in drawing a complete picture of EU role in promoting human rights in Western Balkan countries through enlargement policy and to discuss the impact of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the candidate countries.