Countries in Africa should strive to maintain trade flows during the crisis to secure access to medical goods and services, and food and other essential items such as farm inputs. This requires keeping borders open to the largest extent possible and avoiding measures such as export bans or...

Commodity prices that are increasingly determined on global commodity derivative markets are important for economic and social development. The historically unprecedented commodity price boom - combined with high volatility - since the early-2000s has led to a debate about the functioning of...

Given the far-reaching implications of commodity prices for developing countries an understanding of the factors behind recent commodity price developments is crucial. ÖFSE research shows that besides structural changes in fundamental supply and demand conditions, the increasing presence of...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the apparel sector in several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has experienced significant growth in the context of preferential market access. But expectations of FDI leading to spillovers to the local economy and the development of locally-embedded apparel...

The urgency of effective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the reliance of many low-income countries on imports of medical products, requires new approaches to regulation of these products. The challenge will be particularly acute for the new tests to identify infection, drugs to alleviate...