The present study examines the long-run and short-run relationship between tax structure and state-level growth performance in India for the period 1991–2016. The analysis in this paper is based on the model of Acosta-Ormaechea and Yoo (2012), and for the verification of the relationship between taxation and economic growth the panel regression method is used. With the use of 14 Indian states data, Panel Pool mean group estimation indicates that income tax and commodity–service tax have negative effects whilst property and capital transaction tax have a significant positive effect on state economic growth. This study finds ‘U’ shape relationship between tax structure and growth performance. Based on the analysis, we conclude that for faster growth of Indian states, policymakers should give more focus on property taxes along with the reduction in income taxes.

The study seeks to foster fresh empirical evidence on how FDI is relevant to the foreign trade growth in India under a time-varying parameter model with vector autoregressive specification. The Johansen’s cointegration test documents a significant and positive long-run co-movement between FDI and foreign trade in India. The vector error correction model suggests a unidirectional long-run causality from foreign trade to FDI. However, the Granger causality test confirms a bidirectional short-run causal relationship between these variables. Further, the variance decomposition analysis approves strong exogeneity of foreign trade. Again, the impulse response function analysis reveals that the responses generated from a positive shock of foreign trade to FDI and vice versa are small and initially negative and thereafter remain persistently positive at a constant level. The study finally concludes that the absence of long-run causality from FDI to export is the result of much domestic market orientation of foreign investors and less emphasis on the export-oriented sectors in India.

There is a long debate among policymakers and academicians regarding whether assessments of international financial integration have significant growth benefits and whether such benefits compensate for the accompanied risks. Recent financial crisis has revived this debate. The previous empirical studies have not been able to establish conclusive presumed benefits of financial integration for economic growth. This paper attempts to analyze the financial openness and total factor productivity (TFP) growth nexususing dynamic panel regression models for a substantial sample of countries ranging from year 1970 to 2014. Different measures of financial openness are incorporated in the dataset. We find evidence that financial integration is associated with higher TFP growth. A range of integration measures (both de jure and de facto) shows robust association with financial integration and TFP growth. The result also suggests that financial development might reduce the marginal effects of financial integration on TFP growth. This finding, however, appears to be influenced by the recent global economic turmoil and excessive private finance, especially in recent years.

The movement of labor in the Southeast Asia and particularly Thailand, which is home to more than half of all ASEAN migrant workers, is an issue of growing interest and increasing importance. As Thailand is now confronted with the new challenge of the so-called “middle-income trap”, the Thai government has recently implemented the long-run economic development plan called “Thailand 4.0”, focusing on high productivity and innovative creation from skilled foreign workers. To put Thailand 4.0 in action, the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), which is an example of region-based development, serves as a pilot project. However, while demand for high-skilled workers from developed countries increases, the majority of immigrants in Thailand is considered to comprise low-skilled workers from neighboring countries within ASEAN. This article, therefore, examines the impact of international labor migration on regional economic growth in Thailand from 2003 to 2015 through an econometric estimation of the production function by considering the economic consequences of immigration through production and productivity separately for skill-classified migrant workers. The findings empirically indicate that immigrants, and particularly high-skilled ones, have a statistically significant and positive impact on the growth of the regional economy as well as labor productivity in Thailand, thereby suggesting more attention should be paid to the role of regional area-based development policies as well as the ability of the host country to absorb high-skilled migrant workers.

CGE models are usually used for policy analysis. The conventional CGE models use CES function because of being a convenience for modeling. Moreover, some of the CGE models use a multi-CES function to model the multi-layered production process. These multi-layered CES functions are frequently used in the energy and environmental policy analysis. However, the CES function is rigid for considering various substitution–complement relationships. In this regard, this study suggests another type of CGE model that uses the translog function for modeling of power generation. Taking the model into practice, we analyze the effects of the carbon tax on power generation in substitution and complement scenarios, as an application. We compare three carbon tax scenarios (289 Yen as BAU, 600 Yen, and 2000 Yen/CO2 ton) to investigate the impact of carbon tax on power generation. The results of the simulation show that industrial production decreases and substitution of the power sources for thermal power generation being significant in response to a carbon tax increase. Moreover, the result suggests that the translog function model is available for analysis of electricity industry under environmental policies.

This paper studies the birth of the market for Japanese black tea, its decline, and its rebirth. Currently, the black tea consumed in Japan is mostly imported. But the production of Japanese black tea has gradually increased, and more than 200 tons was produced in 2016. We investigate the history of Japanese black tea, the use of manufacturing technology, and the components of tea and their effects on humans to influence quality. We found the main reasons for the revival and spread of Japanese black tea were production and manufacturing innovation. Fermentation was especially an important process because it determined tea quality. Manufacturing technology for fermentation was established by entrepreneurial farmers and transferred to other Japanese black tea farmers, resulting in the rapid market creation of the Japanese black tea.

Farming in India is experiencing a structural change leading to a crisis. The growth rate of agricultural output is steadily declining in recent years. The relative contribution of the farming sector to the total GDP has been decreasing over time increasingly. The present study was conducted in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat, India. Total 100 agricultural landholders from 20 villages were selected to identify factors experienced by them for avoiding farming as a livelihood by employing Ex-Post-Facto research design. It is observed that ‘r’ computed between factors to avoid agriculture as a livelihood and age (0.589), education (0.330), farming experience (0.250), occupation (0.446), livestock possession (0.207), annual income (− 0.236) was found to be significant at 0.01 level of significance. It could be observed from regression analysis that the personal factors had a powerful effect (0.730) on avoiding agriculture as a profession, influencing in a positive direction. Followed by this, economic factor (0.291) and social factor (0.229) also influenced positively and significantly. The information on the personal, social, economic, psychological, market, situational, labor and next-generation factors experienced by agricultural landholders is analyzed to have in-depth knowledge of each factor. The analyzed suggestions will help to make agriculture a profitable enterprise and attract the farmers and youths to continue the farming activities. The solution to the problem is not in a few packages and programs but in drastic changes in the present policies related to agriculture need to be focused. Other sector’s growth and development must not be at the cost of agriculture.

Ratifying the Paris Climate Change Agreement of 2015, which is the new framework for global environmental measures for change after 2020 onward, Japan is proposing to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030 from 2013 levels. To achieve this target, it is indispensable to transcend the current fossil-fuel-based technologies (petroleum, coal, and natural gas) and shift to renewable energy systems. Neutral fuels or fuels free of carbon dioxide emissions must become the predominant source of energy, in addition to introducing energy conservation technologies in manufacturing, transportation, business, and households. Amid these developments, fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen production technologies are gaining much attention. Our research group is developing a new hydrogen-generating system that directly decomposes hydrogen from methane and separates carbon as a solid substance with zero carbon dioxide emissions. We estimate the carbon dioxide reduction effect of our new hydrogen-generating system and compare it with the current steam reforming method by applying scenario input–output analysis. Our new system is expected to lower carbon dioxide emissions to 14.1% of the conventional system in the industrial sector. With the replacement effect of gasoline vehicles to fuel cell vehicles, carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reduce for both hydrogen production technologies. The new system is more efficient and saves carbon dioxide emissions by 21.7% more than the conventional system, under the assumption that 800 thousand fuel cell vehicles will be available in Japan before 2030.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how aggregate activity in Lebanon fluctuates with regard to recurrent shocks. The research starts by identifying the Lebanese economic business cycle from the first quarter of 1998 to the fourth quarter of 2015 adopting a statistical method. Furthermore, this research studies the relationship between the capacity utilization rate and the inflation rate to explore theoretically and empirically how monetary and real shocks account for the disturbances that affect the economic activity. Findings prove that, over the studied period, the Lebanese economy performs largely under its full capacity and that the capacity utilization rate is related to inflation in the short run, but not in the long run. In other terms, findings prove that monetary factors account for business cycle disturbances of the Lebanese economy in short run, but not in the long run.

This paper uses the input–output analysis to investigate the impact of Japan’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic production and employment in the manufacturing industry. With the expansion of Japan’s overseas business, there is a fear that the production of overseas affiliates will replace parent country’s export and output. As a consequence, it will cause job losses in the home country, especially in labor-intensive manufacturing industry. On the other hand, outward FDI also has export promotion effect on domestic economy of the home country. Parent enterprises need to export capital and intermediate goods for the construction and production of affiliates abroad in the early stage of outward FDI. This effect will enhance the export and employment of the home country. The results of this paper suggest that the negative impact of export substitution effect and inverse import effect is greater than the positive impact of export promotion effect from 2000 to 2014, which means that the total effect of Japan’s outward FDI is negative and it causes the decrease in domestic production in Japan’s manufacturing industry. As a result, it leads to the unemployment in Japan, which is called the “Hollowing-Out” effect. Also, this paper compares the calculation result of the period 2000–2014 with the period of 1990–1999 and finds that the “Hollowing-Out” of Japan has become more serious in recent years with the increase in Japan’s outward FDI. It is necessary to change the structure of economy in Japan to alleviate the unemployment problem caused by outward FDI.