Journal Press India^®

           In keeping with our tradition of promoting upcoming and diverse areas in the field of international business, this issue of FOCUS presents to our readers a wide range of topical issues in international business arena. These range from allocative efficiency of Special Drawing Rights, bilateral investment treaties, and perspectives on gloablisation to determinants and effects of FDI flows in India and comparisons of female workforce participation across countries.

           The global monetary system and its functioning has a wide ranging influence on international business and investment decisions across countries. In the light of importance of this area, the paper on Allocative Efficiency of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) of IMF addresses a significant yet underexplored area. This paper by Dr. Hiteshkumar Thakkar argues that the method of quota allocation needs to be reworked for better allocative efficiency purpose, to achieve a progressive and inclusive international economic order.

The author observes that with the present system, a significant size of SDRs quota is allocated to developed countries due to their higher weight ratio and SDRs quota allocated to developing and least developed countries is insufficient because they possess low weight ratio and low value. Another interesting paper by Binish Qadri, Mudaser Ahad Bhat and Aamir Jamal extends the perspective of ‘gated globalisation’ to ‘gauged globalisation’ as they argue that during globalization, those gates are opened from which all benefits can be rationally forecasted and then gauged properly by participating players. For better and comprehensive understanding of globalisation, they suggest the need for a good interface of Internalisation, Liberalisation and Universalisation.The importance of relationship between women’s participation in workforce and the economic growth of a country has been highlighted in the paper on ‘Economic Growth and Role of ‘The Missing Half’: A Cross-Country Analysis with Specific Reference to India’ by Megha Jain and Aishwarya Nagpal. This study examines the impact of economic growth and other macoreconomic variables on female workforce participation in South Asian Nations from 2000-2015. The effects of economic development, literacy, urbanization and different unemployment patterns on female labour force participation are found to be negative whereas Gini coefficient is found to be positive.

           A number of papers in this issue deal with foreign direct investment (FDI) which has remained an integral area of international business for long. The paper by Vandana Goswami looks at the effect of institutional variables on FDI inflows in eight South Asian countries. The institutional variables taken in the study include control of corruption, political instability, quality of governance, regulatory quality, and rule of law. The findings of the paper indicate that government effectiveness and trade openness positively influence FDI inflows while control of corruption and regulatory quality have a negative effect on FDI inflows in these countries.   Another paper by Anshuman Kamila and Dr. Mitali Chinara examine the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on FDI inflows in India and investigates whether existing BITs need to be regonetiated. They establish that BITs and the associated safeguards for protecting the interests of foreign investors have been instrumental in ushering in FDI into the country, and therefore much caution needs to be exercised before the model BIT document is significantly altered. A third paper on FDI by Dr. Anil Kumar Goyal identifies the factors responsible for the growth in FDI inflow in India, and the major sources and attractive sectors of FDI inflows. The findings reveal that large market, demand, qualitative labour force and tax incentives are important factors affecting FDI. Further, service sector, telecommunication, computer software and hardware and construction development were the major sectors attracting FDI inflows during the period of study.

           This issue of FOCUS has two review papers. The first one by Komal and Prof. Madan Lal reviews extant literature on the role of trade in growth and poverty reduction. The authors find that there is strong empirical evidence in favour of the growth enhancing effects of exports and trade. Further, a number of studies using firm-level and household data show that exporting can lead to productivity, growth and directly reduce poverty through wage and employment effects. The other review paper by Adithi provides an institutional theory and looks at the application of institutional theory in the context of multinational enterprises. The findings indicate that emphasis of institutional theory has shifted from generalized system of social belief to appropriate means to become legitimate with the pressures.

               I sincerely hope that this issue of FOCUS provides interesting insights to our readers in diverse areas of international business. We look forward to your patronage and feedback to help us in the process of continuous improvement of the journal.

Dr. Niti Bhasin

Editor