This article investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic affected home and host countries’ FDI margins. Heckman estimation of monthly bilateral FDI data indicates the following: (1) The pandemic reduced both the FDI margins. (2) COVID-19 mortality in home countries reduced extensive FDI margin. (3) FDI was more sensitive to host countries’ pandemic situation for both OECD and emerging countries; moreover, in emerging countries, FDI was affected by its domestic pandemic control because they were typically the host countries. (4) The service sector’s FDI was severely affected by the pandemic than other sectors’ FDI.

The business of international trade has never been identified as zero-sum. Yet, dependence on regional agreements to provide alternate means for countries to overlook shortcomings persists. China’s recent rise up the trade value-chain has fostered an assumption that the regional agreement provides various advantages to exports from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. This paper provides an empirical assessment of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) impact on ASEAN export efficiency into the Chinese market, in pre and post eras. Using a structured gravity approach to estimate potential export pattern at aggregate and industry level, this research indicates that though not consistent across years, the ACFTA offers improvements to ASEAN exports to China. No clear effects of the ACFTA can be extrapolated from the years surrounding the initial signing (Article 8—2004). However, following its full enactment (2010), the ACFTA resulted in more sustainable trade from ASEAN members towards China, at both the industry and country levels. While seeing improvements in export efficiency during its era, ACFTA’s facilitation of efficiency measures with China came at no expense to other major export destinations.

Motivations behind a country’s importation of waste are categorized into the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the resource hunting hypothesis (RHH). The importation of wastes can lead to environmental sustainability concerns, requiring governments to intervene when the market fails to reduce the negative externalities by strengthening and implementing environmental regulations. Motivated by China’s position within a rapidly growing but environmentally damaging sector of trade, this paper has three goals: (1) to classify the primary hypothesis that governs China’s flow of traded wastes; (2) to verify the heterogeneous impact of the pollution paradise motivation and resource demand motivation of waste imports from developed and developing countries, and across industries; (3) to assess the impact of domestic environmental regulations on the motives behind China’s waste imports. Using 28 imported waste-varieties from 20 of China’s major trade partners across 24 years, findings indicate that the flow of Chinese waste imports is relatively unresponsive under the pollution haven effect. However, the resource hunting effect from developing countries is significantly greater than what originates from developed countries, despite the laws of 2011 and 2017 established to restrict resource hunting activities. These results have important implications for improving the efficiency of China’s waste sorting and recycling systems.

In the drive towards economic globalization, companies are faced with both opportunities and challenges. As the global landscape changes, company and by extension countries increasingly grasp the level of importance innovation has to their survival and continued development. The element of innovation, within the business environment, has become the necessary condition for sustainable development of a country or nation. In the case of Germany, the authors acknowledge the country’s fascinating ability in innovation management; therefore have sought to gain a better understanding through a sampled analysis of German private enterprises. In the process, quantitative model and qualitative model were utilized together. On the one hand, a qualitative method is adopted to collect primary data. On the other hand, a quantitative process is used to collect secondary data. According to the data analysis of the sampled corporations and businesses, the indices of each factor vary across the different industries. Results also suggested that stronger enterprises give greater attention to innovation (factors) and therefore reap higher gains. In such companies, various rules and regulations are designed to stimulate the employees’ creativity; while communication is established across all parts of companies. Similarly, the company would be design on the basis of adapting different market strategies. Worthy of note is that companies in each industry treat technological innovation as an important element to their development. Such emphasis on the importance of innovation management is a vital factor that can aid in explaining why German enterprises have gained such success to date. Hence, companies in other world economies, including fast pace China should take note of the German companies and strengthen their own management structure regarding innovation.

This article estimates the trade and revenue impacts of implementation of the European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in Barbados. The simulations show that the trade and revenue impacts of the EPA in Barbados depend critically on whether the rates applied are the statutory or not. When the rates charged differ from statutory rates, overall imports are expected to rise, revenues fall and trade diverted to the European Union (EU), primarily from the USA. Conversely, application of statutory rates would result in lower imports, greater revenues and trade diverted primarily to Barbados’ other trade partners, particularly the USA. Despite the differences between both scenarios, the overall trade and revenue impacts on Barbados are likely to be small. This is likely due to the list of excluded products, which are among the most protected, and which make up a substantial fraction of all goods imported from the EU.