Journal Press India^®

It gives me immense pleasure to introduce yet another issue of FOCUS to our readers. This issue covers a wide range of diverse topics in the field of international business ranging from international trade and investment to international finance and taxation. The first paper on international trade examines the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem in the context of India which is one of the central results of Heckscher-Ohlin theory. On the basis of the empirical findings, the paper concludes that the theorem doesn’t hold good in the case of India. Another paper on international trade examines the impact of globalisation on India’s exports with special focus on Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). It examines the impact of RTAs through two variables; one indicating the presence of an RTA and the other indicating the number of RTAs between India and its partner country. The paper shows interesting results in that while the presence of an RTA may not be a prime consideration affecting Indian exports, the width of integration as measured by the number of RTAs is having a significant positive impact on India’s exports.

            Another paper in this issue deals with an interesting dimension of trade-off between degree of patent and rate of taxation. It provides various criticisms of North-South trade failure. In this context, it discusses the case of market access of Indian pharmaceutical goods in the US market. The aspects of international finance are dealt with in two papers; one that focuses on the evolving dimensions of Indian OFDI and the other dealing with inter-linkages between Equity Markets of Select A5 Countries and US. This issue also includes a paper on wage determinants for India using NSSO socio-economic survey. The paper finds that wage of an average male is higher than wage of an average female, almost all due to unexplained factors indicating substantially high degree of wage discrimination in India.

            I hope this issue of FOCUS makes for an interesting reading and provides new insights into some pertinent issues in international business. I also hope that the journal would continue to get the patronage of its readers and contributions from diverse and unexplored areas of international business.

Dr. Niti Bhasin

Editor-in-chief