This study examines the effects of trade policies on economic growth in Africa. The econometric methodology follows the cross-country studies by Barro ( 1991 Barro, R. J. 1991. Economic growth in a cross section of countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106: 407–43. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ) and Kandiero and Chitiga ( 2003 Kandiero, T. and Chitiga, M. Trade openness and foreign direct investment in Africa, paper prepared for the Economic Society of Southern Africa 2003 Annual Conference Cape Town. SAJEMS NSb. Vol. 9, pp.335–70. [Google Scholar] ) with empirical application to a panel of 36 African countries observed over the period 1980 to 2009. Panel regressions are carried out using the fixed-effects models. The aim is to provide an empirical evidence for the driving force of Africa's economic growth. The results illustrate that openness in trade and investment is positively related to economic growth significantly. However, foreign aid, gross national savings and investment have negative relationships to both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and GDP. Using South Africa as benchmark, the regional performance indicates that North Africa is the best one in generating positive GDP growth from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), followed by Middle Africa whilst East Africa and West Africa compete for the third and fourth positions.

The sharp increase in global food prices during 2007–2008 has triggered the awareness of food insecurity problems and their impacts on the low-income, food-deficient countries, many of which are located in East Asia. Protein and fat consumption are higher in East Asia than that of other regions, although the percentage of carbohydrates consumed is slightly lower than the world's average. Nevertheless, the food security situation in East Asia was good relative to other countries in the world. The food security in East Asia is largely contributed by domestic production. Despite of a doubled import of foods over the last decade to meet its ever-growing population, Asia remains the least dependent among all regions on food imports. However, the raised energy costs and grain prices due to increasing grain demand for biofuel purposes appeared to exacerbate the undernourishment of poor households in the region. While most of the government interventions focus on short-term measures such as reducing domestic food prices through trade or price control, the risk of facing a long-term food insecurity still exists, which may render national action inadequate and require multilateral cooperation.

A nonlinear mathematical programming model of the agricultural sector is utilized to examine the potential economic impacts of producing cornstarch-b

Ambient air pollution from energy use and other sources is a major environmental risk factor in the incidence and progression of serious diseases, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This study elucidates the health effects of energy consumption from air pollution in China based on multiple threshold effects of the population-weighted exposure to PM_2.5 (fine particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter) on particle-related mortality rate. We firstly estimate the causal relationship between coal consumption and PM_2.5 in China for 2004–2010 using a panel regression model. Panel threshold models are applied to access the non-linear relationships between PM_2.5 and cause-specific mortality rates that indicate the health effects are dependent on the PM_2.5 ranges. By combining these steps, we calculate the health impacts of coal consumption based on threshold effects of PM_2.5. We find that a 1% coal consumption increase induces a 0.23% increase in PM_2.5. A triple threshold effect is found between PM_2.5 and cardiovascular mortality; for example, increasing PM_2.5 exposure causes cardiovascular mortality rate to increase when PM_2.5 lies in 17.7–21.6 μg/m³ and 21.6–34.3 μg/m³, with the estimated increments being 0.81% and 0.26%, respectively, corresponding to 1% PM_2.5 increase. A single threshold effect of SO₂ on respiratory mortality rate is identified and allows the estimation of the mortality effects of PM_2.5 regarding the two regimes of SO₂. Finally, we access the health impacts of coal consumption under specific estimated thresholds. This study provides a better understanding of sources contributing to related-air pollution mortality. The multi-threshold effect of PM_2.5 could be considered for further applications in harmonizing emission standards in China and other developing countries.