This paper focuses on several IMF publications published in the winter of year 2018. Realizing Indonesia’s Economic Potential book uncovers some of the forces that are likely to shape Indonesia’s economy. It analyses the constraints to growth, propose options to boost economic growth, and explore key issues policymakers will need to handle in the future. The ASEAN Way: Sustaining Growth and Stability book provides a comprehensive account of how Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its individual members and as a group, rose above its worst regional financial crisis 20 years ago, to become one of the most resilient in the face of the worst global financial crisis just a decade later. The challenges faced and the policy responses taken, chronicled and analyzed in this study, can hopefully provide further lessons as we face a new global policy paradigm. It is a must-read for academics, the financial community, and policymakers alike.

This paper discusses about countries that must chart their own paths to effectively balance the potential benefits against the risks and challenges, including institutional and capacity constraints, privacy concerns, and new avenues for fraud and evasion. The digital revolution holds vast potential for fiscal policies. By transforming the way fiscal systems collect, process, and act on information, it can expand and reshape the way governments design and implement their tax, spending, and macro-fiscal policies. Countries will need to chart a path based on their individual circumstances—either by taking incremental steps to digitize, or by leapfrogging to newer and more sophisticated methods of policy formulation and implementation. A recurring theme in this book is the need for greater regional coordination in finding solutions to address the Caribbean’s shared and intertwined macroeconomic and structural challenges. The analysis suggests that strengthening regional and global market integration of Caribbean economies would provide an impetus to sustained growth in incomes and jobs.

The Fall-Winter 2018 Research Perspective looks at “New Opportunities and Future Global Challenges.” The guest editor for this issue is Marika Santoro.

Interpretive Research: Economics and Administration Sciences , Livre de Lyon

Within the theoretical framework of the trade-growth and structural transformation-growth nexuses, the book examines the evolution of African (goods and service) trade in terms of value and share of global commerce relative to other regions during the period 1948–2017. It also identifies and discusses discernible changes in the composition and structure of African exports and imports between 1995 and 2015 and their implications for economic development in Africa. The study attributes Africa's laggard trade performance during the period primarily to sub-optimal macroeconomic policies and lack of bold export development policies and initiatives, among other factors. It also offers an incisive discussion of several inhibitions to the structural transformation of African exports and imports, including lack of finance, globalization, tariff, and non-tariff measures in global markets. The discussion of the evolution of African trade during the period 1948–2017 based on statistics and publications of international organizations, including the UNCTAD, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank, among others, is the first of its kind in terms of scope and depth of review of African trade. The analyses of cross-border trade during 1948–2017 and their implications for Africa’s economic development prospects constitute a useful reference material for academics and students of African and development studies and African and international policymakers.

Forward thinking and provocative, this Research Agenda demonstrates different approaches to the field from experts focusing on global and local, and historical and contemporary issues. Eminent global scholars examine a diverse selection of interdisciplinary themes, raising questions surrounding future research, offering examples and linking the theory to its implications for practice and policy.

Canada’s muted productivity growth during recent years has sparked concerns about the country’s investment climate. In this study, we develop a new natural language processing (NPL) based indicator, mining the richness of Twitter (now X) accounts to measure trends in the public perceptions of Canada’s investment climate. We find that while the Canadian investment climate appears to be generally favorable, there are signs of slippage in some categories in recent periods, such as with respect to governance and infrastructure. This result is confirmed by both survey-based and NLP-based indicators. We also find that our NLP-based indicators would suggest that perceptions of Canada’s investment climate are similar to perceptions of U.S. investment climate, except with respect to governance, where views of U.S. governance are notably more negative. Comparing our novel indicator relative to traditional survey-based indicators, we find that the NLP-based indicators are statistically significant in helping to predict investment flows, similar to survey-based measures. Meanwhile, the new NLP-based indicator offers insights into the nuances of data, allowing us to identify specific grievances. Finally, we construct a similar indicator for the U.S. and compare trends across countries.

Dedicated to Professor Peter Buckley, OBE, this volume of Progress in International Business Research explores the new challenges for MNEs, SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and INVs (International New Ventures) emerging from this changing and increasingly unpredictable political, economic, social and technological VUCA world.

China’s Global Disruption: Myths and Reality is the first book to bring world-systemic analyses of China into dialog with domestic analyses, and in so doing, to show how each can challenge or refine the assumptions of the other, ultimately showing that much of the global “common sense” about China is misinformed.

This book discusses the fundamental issues regarding the effect of real estate regulation on housing, urban development, and considerations of justice and efficiency. Bringing together the contributions of prominent scholars representing diverse methodologies and academic disciplines, this book offers new perspectives on core topics such as the effectiveness of land use regulation in terms of housing availability, enhanced equality, and sustainable development; and different modes of regulation and their mutual influences. The book’s eleven chapters are divided into five parts which address different aspects of real estate regulation, combining theoretical analysis with a close observation of diverse case studies, from North America and Europe to China, the Middle East, and developing economies. Part I offers cutting-edge analysis on how to measure, model, and understand the impact of zoning and other modes of real estate regulation, from economic and normative theoretical viewpoints. Part II complements Part I by providing historical observations and empirical knowledge on the actual contribution of zoning and historical conservation regulation to cities’ shape. Part III considers the outcomes of business and industrial land development policies. Part IV studies urban land development regulation and allows to compare between two relevant case studies—one from Germany, and the other from Poland. Finally, Part V concerns standardization in the real estate market by analyzing the justification and outcomes of such attempts, particularly in the mortgages market. Providing an interface between theory and practice, the book will appeal to a broad audience, consisting of scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, and students, interested in an interdisciplinary overlook on real estate regulation.