Trade in services, trade in goods, gravity model, economic freedom,

Using the overall FDI inflows for 89 countries during the period from 1985 to 2007, we empirically investigate the effects on inward FDI of various components of political and financial risk. We examine the effects of not only the level of these risks but also their changes over time. One of the major findings is that among the political and financial risks, only the political risk is adversely associated with FDI inflows. Specifically, not only the initially low level of political risk, but also a decrease in the level of political risk helps to bring a greater amount of FDI inflows. On the other hand, lower financial risk does not attract FDI inflows, especially to developing countries. Among the various components of political risk, in the sample of developing countries only, it is found that internal conflict, corruption, military in politics, and bureaucracy quality are inversely related to inward FDI flows.

Using panel data for 142 countries for the period from 1960 to 2014, we assess the effects of population aging on economic growth. We find that population aging proxied by old-age population share (or old-age dependency ratio) negatively affects economic growth only when it reaches a certain high level and its negative effects grow stronger as population aging deepens. We also find that population aging has hampered economic growth during more recent years, especially in more aged countries which are mostly developed countries. This nonlinear effect of aging is mainly driven by the fact that we use old-age population share as a proxy for aging. If we use lower working-age population share as a proxy for aging, the nonlinear relationship disappears: working-age population share is positively related to economic growth in a linear way.

Hence, there should be increased efforts by both LDC governments and the international community to alleviate the detrimental link between food price inflation and undernourishment and also the link between undernourishment and infant mortality.

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