Published annually since 1968, the Review provides an analysis of structural and cyclical changes affecting trade, much of which is amongst multinationals, and transport, especially in developing countries.

Abstract: "We use a new firm level data set that establishes the location, ownership, and activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries -- close to a comprehensive picture of global multinational activity. A number of patterns emerge from the data. Most foreign direct investment (FDI) occurs between rich countries. The share of vertical FDI (subsidiaries which provide inputs to their parent firms) is larger than commonly thought, even within developed countries. More than half of all vertical s more...

Abstract: "This paper studies the relationship between multinational firm proximity and the formation of new export connections by private Chinese exporters between 1997 and 2003. The results indicate that growth in the presence of multinational firms is positively associated with the formation of new trade by local Chinese firms. Further exploration suggests that information spillovers may drive this result, as the positive association due to own-industry multinational presence is particularly more...

Abstract: "In a number of influential papers published by V. N. Balasubramanyam and collaborators during the decade of the 1990s, compelling arguments and supporting evidence was presented to indicate that export-promoting trade and investment strategies attract more and more productive inflows of foreign capital than do import-substituting strategies. This paper revisits these hypotheses in the context of more recent cross-section data and reports evidence to suggest that the earlier findings a more...

European politicians began puzzling over tax harmonisation in 1962. It was the year Americans dedicated themselves to sending man to the moon before the end of the decade. American space travel was a triumph; Europeans have had a harder time realising their dream. But now European Union plans for a common tax base have begun to gain pace and may even take wing, in spite of several countries' efforts to stop them.

Trade between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Asia-Pacific (AP),
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that had increased
substantially -albeit from a small base- in the first half of the 1990s, began to slow down after the
outbreak of the economic and financial crisis in Asia in mid-1997 and the ensuing severe economic
recession in the majority of LAC countries. The incipient drive in bi-regional trade up to the Asian
crisis was triggered by the economic boom of the majority of AP countries on the one hand, and
g more...

Foreign direct investment in London has jumped to £52bn from £38bn two years ago, with India now the second biggest source, a survey has said.

he International Finance Corporation (IFC) said on Thursday it plans to invest $1 billion in Africa this year compared with $140 million in 2003, the business atmosphere in many countries having greatly improved.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), typically employing between 10 and 250 workers, form the backbone of modern economies and can be crucial engines of development through their role as seedbeds of innovation. In much of the developing world, though, SMEs are under-represented, stifled by perverse regulatory climates and poor access to inputs. A critical missing ingredient is often capital.

Poor countries are rarely challenged in formal WTO trade disputes for failing to live up to commitments, reducing the benefits of their participation in international trade agreements. This paper examines the political-economic causes of the failure to challenge poor countries and discusses the static and dynamic costs and externality implications of this failure. Given the weak incentives to enforce WTO rules and disciplines against small and poor members, bolstering the transparency function o more...