International trade in goods requires service inputs such as transport, banking and financial services for production and transportation. Trade in goods and services are now closely linked and contribute to the growth of international trade. The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of restrictions in the banking, accounting, transportation and logistics sectors (cargo handling and custom brokerage) on food trade. We use a gravity model with panel data from 2014 to 2018 for 36 OECD countries, the OECD indices of individual country restrictions and regulatory difference by country pair to capture the level of restrictions in these sectors. Our results suggest that importing and exporting country restrictions have non-significant effects on aggregate food exports, but negative and significant impacts on exports of agricultural raw materials and perishable products (meat, dairy products, eggs, etc.). The regulatory disparity between countries in logistics and banking sectors emerge as the main barrier for food exports. However, these results can be mitigated through regulatory cooperation or harmonization of regulations.
This paper investigates the effects of global and sectoral restrictive measures on cross-border FDI among 49 advanced and emerging countries. We use a gravity model with panel data from 2010 to 2019 and the FDI Restrictiveness Index of the OECD that quantifies the level of restriction in FDI. Our results suggest that global restrictive measures do not significantly affect cross-border FDI in OECD countries, while restrictions in the service sector have negative and significant effects on FDI. Moreover, the overall restrictive measures and those in the service sector negatively impact inward FDI among OECD and big emerging countries. In addition, restrictions in the services sector impede inward FDI in African countries. Interestingly, restrictions in the secondary sector boost FDI between advanced and African countries, with larger effects for inward investments in African countries. The analysis of disaggregated sectoral restrictive measures shows that restrictions in business and other financial services are negatively associated with intra-OECD FDI, while restrictions in the banking sector have a significant positive impact on FDI. We also find that restrictions in the manufacturing sector have restrictive impacts on inwrad FDI in big emerging countries, and those in the mining, quarrying, and oil extraction sector hinder inward FDI in African countries. Reforms to liberalize sectoral restrictions by country have positive effects on FDI, but deregulation of the services sector has beneficial effects on inward FDI in all countries.
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