Demand elasticities for international message telephone service

Using a point-to-point model of toll demand, this paper provides estimates of own-price demand elasticities for international message telephone service. The study improves on previous studies by using more recent data and endogenizing price. Consistent with earlier studies, the demand for IMTS is found to be price inelastic, about??0.28 on average, in the short-run and near unitary elastic,??1.04 on average, in the long run. Both the level and the elasticity of demand are found to be positively related to the size of the telephone network. The own-price elasticity of demand for a select group of countries is provided.     

Demand for international telephone services between US and Africa

This paper uses a two-equation dynamic simultaneous equation model that accounts for call externality and arbitrage, and a dynamic panel estimator to investigate the demand for international telephone calls between the US and African countries. Using panel data from 45 African countries over the 1992–1996 period, we find that the demand for telephone calls from African countries to the US is price elastic while the demand for telephone calls from the US to African countries is price inelastic. We find telephone calls originating from African countries to the US are complementary to calls from the US to African countries while calls originating in the US to African countries are substitutes for calls to the US that originate in African countries, and calls between the two sets of countries exhibit reciprocal and arbitrage effects. We also find that the demand for telephone calls between the US and African countries show strong dynamic effects. Finally, we find that telephone demand between African countries and the US responds positively to income and trade. Our results have interesting research and policy implications.     

Dominant carrier market power in US international telephone markets

An econometric model is used to examine market power in US international telephone markets. Lerner index estimates suggest AT&T's collection rate-cost margin was between 12% and 24% during 1991 to 1995. Although Lerner estimates imply deadweight welfare losses of up to US $261 million per annum, such losses are small compared to those from the inefficient pricing of international interconnection. Settlement rate-cost margins on US bilateral markets of approximately 89% translate into a US $4907 million transfer from consumers to carriers in 1995.     

Trade imbalance and the endogenous optimal tariff

Endogenous tariff literatures reveal empirically that trade imbalance is negatively related with import tariff, this article gives a theoretical evidence and explanation to support this finding with the methodology of multi-country numerical general equilibrium modelling and simulation. We explore how optimal tariff changes after trade imbalance is introduced, and find that optimal tariffs decrease substantially, either for surplus or deficit countries, when imbalance is considered. Specifically, when the imbalance is modelled in endogenous monetary and inside-money structures, the optimal tariffs decrease by 26% globally on average. Our results suggest that the deepening trade imbalance is beneficial to the global trade liberalization due to its driving tariffs down.     

中国手机出口的国际竞争力分析

随着世界生活水平的不断提高,全球手机市场消费需求不断增长.中国国产手机在不断满足国内市场需求的基础上,也在不断开拓海外市场.然而,由于出口市场过于集中、手机产品对“外“依存度较高、缺乏自主知识产权、专利权使用费阴影不散、出口价格呈现大幅下跌趋势等问题的存在,中国国产手机出口的市场占有率还比较小,国际竞争力还相对比较薄弱.本文在对中国国产手机出口现状进行大致了解的基础上,通过SWOT分析方法对中国国产手机出口的竞争优势和劣势、面临的机会和威胁进行了详细分析,探讨了影响中国国产手机出口的SWOT因素.本文对诺基亚手机与波导手机进行了实证分析,探讨了国外品牌手机与中国国产手机的竞争差异.最后,针对目前中国国产手机出口过程中存在的问题,笔者提出了加大自主创新力度、加强品牌建设等建议.     

Trade taxes and international investment

Abstract .  This paper demonstrates that international investment disturbs the conventionally understood equivalence between import tariffs and export taxes. Fundamentally, remittances to foreigners introduce an additional pecuniary channel between countries so that two-good Lerner Symmetry generally will not hold. Moreover, because tariffs subsidize investors in the local import competing sector while export taxes can extract rent from foreign investors in the export sector, the pattern of international investment will influence government preferences over trade policy  instruments  as well as levels. Notably, trade tax symmetry is restored by introducing a third policy tool in the form of a direct a tax on international remittances.     

Trade costs and productivity in services sectors

This paper provides the first evidence linking lower international trade costs with higher productivity in services sectors. On average, lowering trade costs by 10% is associated with a gain in total factor productivity of around 0.5%, which is an effect of similar magnitude to that for goods sectors.     

Trade and the governance of ecosystem services

We work with a basic general equilibrium model of an economy with an industrial good and a rural good. Industrial good production results in pollution that affects the provision of ecosystem services and thereby the production of the rural good. The assignment of ecosystem rights to the industrial polluters or to the rural pollutees results in differential transaction costs that affect production possibilities between the two goods. Ecosystem rights are assigned to maximize social welfare. Over time, technological change and differences in income superiority affect the choice of the assignment of rights. Opening to trade affects the choice of the assignment of ecosystem rights depending on the nature of technological change, but the relative income superiority of goods no longer affects the assignment of ecosystem rights in a small economy. Thus, among other findings, we demonstrate that the phenomena known as the environmental Kuznets curve does not hold for the protection of ecosystem services in production, or production externalities generally, because trade separates consumption from production.     

论区域协定和服务贸易的政策问题

原载:《世界银行政策研究工作报告》第2852号,002年6月一、前言有关货物贸易一体化协议的成本和收益的文献可谓众多,但分析服务贸易中这类协议的涵义的文献却几乎没有①,这是令人感到奇怪的,因为几乎每一部主要区域协定都涉及到服务领域。人们不禁要问:是否因为服务贸易是如此的不同。以至我们必须修改迄今为止适用于货物贸易领域的结论呢?尤其是,如果一国的自由化的服务贸易在区域的环境下比在多边环境下更快会出现什么情况?要是一国获得优先的国外货物市场准入并从中受益,那么是否表明该国理应以国内市场服务领域的优先准入来交换呢?我们…     

Trade policy reform and international trade tax revenue in Uganda

This paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between tariff reform and customs tax revenue by explicitly capturing the institutional features of decision making in the econometric modeling. The results show that exchange rate depreciation has had pass through effects to the domestic market price of imports which reduces trade tax revenue to GDP ratio in the long run, though it increases trade tax revenue in the short term. There are also seasonal patterns in the short term trade tax payment. The results point to some scope to harness the benefits associated with trade policy reform without having to worry a lot about its effects on trade (and overall) tax revenue. In fact, it would be possible to realise modest increases in trade tax revenue if the exemption regime were to be reviewed and if there was capacity to contain the disruptive impact of sharp exchange rate depreciations.     

Demand for international telephone traffic in Spain: An econometric study using provincial panel data

In this study we model the demand for outgoing international telephone traffic in Spain. We make use of a standard theoretical framework that incorporates the special characteristics of this type of telephone service. Consequently, equations for real expenditure per line and for the number of international calls per line are estimated.We use annual data for the 50 Spanish provinces for the period 1985–1989, and employ appropriate panel data techniques. The selected equations (one for expenditure per line in international traffic and another for the number of international calls per line) pass a battery of diagnostics. We conclude that this type of traffic, whether measured by expenditure per line or by the number of international calls per line, presents both high income and price elasticities. Moreover we find that price and income affect both the number of calls and their average duration.Likewise, we find a significant increase in social welfare when a tariff rebalancing that maintains the profit of the operating company is carried out.     

Greasing the wheels of international commerce: how services facilitate firms’ international sourcing

Abstract We use plant‐level data to study the link between the local availability of services and the decision of manufacturing firms to source materials from abroad. We develop a model to generate predictions about how the intensity of international sourcing of materials depends on the availability of services and firm characteristics. These predictions are supported by the data. Greater availability of services across regions, industries, and time increases firms’ foreign sourcing of materials relative to sales. The impact of services differs by firm type. National firms’ sourcing responds to changes in regional service conditions, whereas multinationals tend to be less affected.     

Trade costs, international production shifting, and growth

In this paper I present a North-South endogenous growth model in which the impact of globalization on production location and growth can be analyzed. In the model the skilled-labor abundant North is the only innovator in the world. Using the model, I illustrate a scenario that is particularly interesting. Globalization (a reduction in trade costs) leads to a relocation of production to the South in a differentiated-product sector. As a result, more resources are shifted to R&D in the North, and the growth rate in the world increases. The model has several empirically consistent implications, such as rising relative wages of skilled to unskilled labor under globalization in both the North and South. I also discuss the welfare impact of globalization in this model.     

上海自贸区的国际经验比较

经济全球化形势下,中国适时设立上海自贸区,是面对全球贸易格局改变采取的积极对策,更是“以开放促改革”国家战略的新试点。上海自由贸易试验区的设立,旨在探索我国对外开放的新路径和新模式,推动加快转变政府职能和完善市场机制,实现以开放促发展、促改革、促创新,形成有助于我国经济转型升级的可复制、可推广经验。要通过借鉴国外传统自贸区经验,结合中国经济贸易发展特色,趋利避害,从而探索适合中国上海自贸区的发展模式。     

Trade agreements and international comovements: The case of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Business cycles correlation between Mexico and the US changed from being on a downward sloping path before 1992 to an upward sloping path after that. This paper suggests that the North American Free Trade Agreement could be the explanation. NAFTA generated not only an increase in the volume of trade but also a change in the elasticity of substitution between imports and exports. The paper tests this hypothesis using the neoclassical business cycles model. Although there are still some discrepancies between the theory and data in the degree of correlation, the direction of change in the model corresponds to the one in the data.     

Trade and direct investment in producer services and the domestic market for expertise

Abstract.  Foreign producer services can provide substantial benefits for domestic firms. We build on earlier monopolistic‐competition models of intermediate producer services in this paper. Results show that: (1) while foreign services are partial‐equilibrium substitutes for domestic skilled labour, they may be general‐equilibrium complements, (2) service trade can provide crucial missing inputs that reverse comparative advantage in final goods, (3) the 'optimal' tax on imported services may be a subsidy, and (4) in our dynamic formulation, there may be earnings losses for immobile workers along a transition path that suggest potentially important equity consequences of reform. JEL classification: F12, F16, F23     

中国-东盟自由贸易区国际投资保护制度分析

随着2002年<中国-东盟全面经济合作框架协议>的签订,正式启动了建立中国-东盟自由贸易区(简称CAFTA)的进程.扩大投资领域的合作是中国-东盟自由贸易区的主要内容之一,但从东盟国家的实际情况看.大多缺乏稳定的投资环境和规范的市场机制.为此,在运用比较分析的方法发现该区域内国际投资保护制度中的缺失,从而完善国际直接投资的法律环境和机制,这既是最终建成中国-东盟自由贸易区的前提条件,也是防范包括政治风险在内的投资风险的必要手段.     

The impact of domestic regulations on international trade in services: Evidence from firm-level data

In order to promote international trade in services, most bilateral and multilateral trade agreements aim at eliminating the discriminatory barriers. However, domestic regulations, which apply to all firms alike and do not intend to exclude foreign sellers, are often seen as serious obstacles to cross-border trade in services. This paper proposes an assessment of the impact of these regulations on international trade of professional services. Our empirical analysis combines OECD measures of domestic regulation and detailed French data on firm-level bilateral export of professional services. Results show a robust and a sizeable negative impact of domestic regulations on both the decision to export and the values exported by each firm. This impact does not vary with firms’ productivity, and remains significant when we focus on the European Union market, where French exporters do not face discriminatory barriers. We conduct a quantification exercise based on our estimates and find an average ad-valorem tariff equivalent of domestic regulations of 60% in 2007. The ad-valorem tariff equivalent ranges from 26% to 88%, depending on the country.     

国际经济与贸易专业“外贸实习模拟教学研究”初探

外贸实习模拟教学是促使外贸专业学生将理论与实践联系起来的桥梁.它有助于学生系统全面地掌握外贸专业知识与技能.同时也弥补了学生校外实习的不足.文章阐述了外贸实习模拟教学的意义以及主要内容,就外贸实习模拟教学中普遍存在的问题进行了分析,并提出了相应的对策.