Marco Sanfilippo

Dottorando - XXI Ciclo

e-mail: marco.sanfilippo@unifi.it

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Interessi di ricerca

Investimenti diretti esteri e imprese multinazionali dai paesi emergenti, economia della Cina, sviluppo locale e cluster di piccole e medie imprese, sviluppo sostenibile

Titolo della tesi: China Goes Abroad – Economic interactions with Africa

Paper

I paper sono stati compilati, presentati ed accettati nel programma di dottorato, ma non sono stati sottoposti ad una procedura formale di referaggio

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries: A Focus on the Opportunity Cost of Conservation and on the Incentives Coming from the Global Carbon Markets

Reducing emissions from deforestation is a new, outstanding, concept that has been recently proposed by a group of developing countries as an effective solution to address global climate change. Developing countries are demanding to be financially compensated to curb emissions through reduced deforestation. This proposal is based on the same logic that lies under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol, i.e. developed countries can find more attractive to acquire certificates of emission reductions from projects located in areas where the marginal cost of reducing emissions is low. And forest conservation is, in principle, a cheap way to do it.
Notwithstanding, it is crucial to point out the fact that, together with key environmental services, forests supply also concrete economic opportunities for local communities living at their margins, in terms of financial returns and livelihoods coming from their exploitation. For this reason a deeper assessment of the question has to combine environmental concerns with social and economic considerations.
This paper attempts thus an analysis of the opportunity to establish a market for the environmental services, and in particular for carbon sequestration, that are provided by forest conservation projects. This is done both by referring to the existing carbon markets and, more carefully, through an analysis of the opportunity cost of conservation based on some empirical evidence.
Conclusions are still rough, but they show clearly how, if well designed, incentives for forests conservation projects can offer positive outcomes to all the parties involved.

China goes abroad: Outward Foreign Direct Investment to Africa

After having been for long time a major recipient of FDI, China is now emerging as a growing source worldwide. Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI), together with other two ‘channels’, i.e. trade and economic cooperation (aid), is one of the main indicators of the rising presence of China in African countries over the last years.
This paper presents an empirical investigation based on panel data analysis on the determinants of Chinese direct investments to 43 African countries for the period 1998-2005. Results show clearly how the internal need for natural resources, high market potential in the host country, and the great complementarity of FDI with trade and economic cooperation are the main factors that drive the decision of Chinese companies, both public than privately owned, to invest in Africa.

A Critical Survey of Theory and Evidence on the Internationalization Process of Developing Country MNEs

The rising role of developing country MNEs in the international markets can be considered one of the most recent outcomes of the globalization process. Latest data on the outward expansion of developing country firms, as revealed by UNCTAD (2006), have pushed many authors to analyze in depth this phenomenon, both theoretically and empirically. This study is a first attempt to make a systematic assessment, through a review of the literature, on this relatively new topic.
The aim of this review is twofold. Firstly - at a pure theoretical level - it is meant to shed more light into the infant debate on the adequateness of the ‘old’ theories of internationalization to explain this ongoing process. Conversely, in fact, a strand of ‘new’ theories is calling for more consideration, focusing on the unique features of the internationalization process of developing country MNEs. Secondly – through an analysis of a very recent strand of empirical and descriptive literature – the final objective of this work is to focus on the distinctive features of developing country MNEs in order to suggest additional directions for future and more detailed analyses on the topic under exam.