OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
There is a small but growing literature on the effect of diaspora networks on flows of global trade and capital. This literature, however, only explores the direct effect of co-ethnic networks on international trade and investment. But the argument about the role of co-ethnic networks has important implications beyond this direct effect. Because transnational networks of migrants and co-ethnics help transmit information across national borders they can serve as a substitute for weak institutions or poor arbitration mechanisms that may otherwise hinder cross-border economic activity. And because these networks provide mutual trust between agents they can help alleviate problems of contract enforcement. We test this argument on a dyadic panel of countries over the period 2001-2007 and find a positive and substantively important substitution effect of diaspora networks on global economic flows.