Trade and income convergence: Sorting out the causality

This paper studies the linkage between international trade and income convergence across countries. Different theories offer conflicting predictions regarding how they might affect each other. In the existing empirical literature estimating the trade impact on income convergence, a long-lasting problem is the reverse causality from income convergence to trade. This paper provides a disaggregated bilateral trade data analysis to solve this problem. The results show that the reverse causality from income convergence to trade exists in differentiated product sectors, but not in homogeneous product sectors. Trade in homogeneous sectors reduces the income gaps among trade partners, but it is not significantly affected by their income difference. Therefore, the negative effect of trade in homogeneous sectors on the income gap is free from the reverse causality problem. It can be taken as a pure evidence of trade-induced income convergence. This result is robust to various econometric methods.     

贸易条件变动对中国经济增长影响的实证分析

文章根据1980-2006年的数据对价格贸易条件、收入贸易条件与经济增长之间的关系进行了经验分析,主要结论有：（1）贸易条件调整的实际GDP指标分析表明,从总体上看,价格贸易条件变化对我国的经济增长产生了负效应。（2）协整分析的结果表明,经济增长与价格贸易条件、收入贸易条件之间存在着稳定的长期均衡关系,但是价格贸易条件对经济增长的影响不显著,收入贸易条件对经济增长的影响也不是非常显著。（3）Granger因果检验、脉冲响应和方差分解也都验证了协整分析的结果。最后,根据实证分析的结果,提出了相应的对策建议。     

Changing Trade Structure and its Implications for Growth

There is a long tradition in the development literature that what a country exports matters for its growth prospects. Recent work has refocused on this issue by attempting to produce numerical scores for different types of product to identify the complexity or sophistication of a country’s export basket. Based on the insight that the type of product an economy exports can have important implications for its economic performance and that goods exported predominantly by rich countries will have different characteristics from those exported by poor countries, Lall et al. (2006) put forward a means of classifying commodities based on the income levels of a product’s main exporters. At around the same time, Hausmann et al. (2006), following a similar approach, put forward a slightly different form of product classification and Rodrik (2006) applied this specifically to an analysis of China. This paper highlights the difference between the approaches and its implications for the analysis of China, which appears less ‘special’ using the approach of Lall et al. It argues that the classification of products at a disaggregate level is a helpful starting point for assessing issues of trade competitiveness and that further work using either or both forms of classification is justified.     

Growth Potential for Maritime Trade and Ports in Europe

Global economic development in recent decades has been characterised by a rapidly progressing intensification in world trade and the international division of labour. As a result of the expansive development of international merchandise trade, cargo shipping has been one of the fastest growing economic sectors. The progressive global integration processes, the future reduction in trade barriers and the expected increase in prosperity in numerous regions of the world will also call for a marked expansion in world trade and cargo shipping. This designates maritime logistics as an economic sector with favourable perspectives for development. What growth rates can be expected for EU maritime trade? And what impact will these have on Europe’s ports? This article is based on the HWWI and Berenberg Bank study “Maritime Trade and Transport Logistics” published in 2007.     

我国贸易战略选择与“贫困化增长”

本文对“贫困化增长”的涵义和模型进行论述,从“贫困化增长”的前提条件、贸易条件以及国际竞争力角度论证了我国的出口贸易中劳动密集型产品的扩张可能导致“贫困化增长”,并分析其原因。从扶植战略性产业、改造传统产业、引进优质FDI三方面探讨了我国如何把比较优势转化为竞争优势,以规避“贫困化增长”。     

我国工业制成品贸易条件的影响因素分析

本文运用1981-2006年的数据,对我国工业制成品的价格贸易条件、收入贸易条件和单要素贸易条件的影响因素进行了实证分析。结果表明:技术进步与我国工业制成品的价格贸易条件和收入贸易条件呈显著正相关关系,人均资本存量与收入贸易条件呈显著负相关关系,资本技术密集型产品出口占工业制成品出口的比例与价格贸易条件呈显著正相关关系;经济增长与收入贸易条件、单要素贸易条件呈显著正相关关系,累积外国直接投资占国内资本存量的比例与价格贸易条件和收入贸易条件呈显著负相关关系;以直接标价法表示的实际汇率变动与三种贸易条件均呈显著负相关关系。本文在此基础上提出了相关的政策建议。     

Trade, wages, and the political economy of trade protection: evidence from the Colombian trade reforms

Worker industry affiliation plays a crucial role in how trade policy affects wages in many trade models. Yet, most research has focused on how trade policy affects wages by altering the economy-wide returns to a specific worker characteristic (i.e., skill or education) rather than through worker industry affiliation. This paper exploits drastic trade liberalizations in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s to investigate the relationship between protection and industry wage premiums. We relate wage premiums to trade policy in an empirical framework that accounts for the political economy of trade protection. Accounting for time-invariant political economy factors is critical. When we do not control for unobserved time-invariant industry characteristics, we find that workers in protected sectors earn less than workers with similar observable characteristics in unprotected sectors. Allowing for industry fixed effects reverses the result: trade protection increases relative wages. This positive relationship persists when we instrument for tariff changes. Our results are in line with short- and medium-run models of trade where labor is immobile across sectors or, alternatively, with the existence of industry rents that are reduced by trade liberalization. In the context of the current debate on the rising income inequality in developing countries, our findings point to a source of disparity beyond the well-documented rise in the economy-wide skill premium: because tariff reductions were proportionately larger in sectors employing a high fraction of less-skilled workers, the decrease in the wage premiums in these sectors affected such workers disproportionately.     

Determinants of Trade Costs and Trade Growth Accounting between India and the European Union during 1995–2010

This study aimed to utilise the micro‐founded measure of trade cost derived by Novy to estimate the relative bilateral trade costs of India with its European Union partners. The advantage of using such a model is that the trade costs can be derived entirely using observable trade data. The results show that Indian tariff equivalent with its major EU trading partners has declined by 20 percentage points between 1995 and 2010, with Malta and Latvia experiencing the greatest decline. The study then decomposes the bilateral trade growth to ascertain whether it is an outcome of increased domestic production or reduction in bilateral and multilateral trade barriers. Novy's model indicates that the decline in relative bilateral trade costs explains the greatest percentage of this trade growth, which is partially offset by decline in multilateral resistance terms that has diverted trade away to other trading partners primarily in South and South‐East Asia and North America.     

中国进出口贸易对经济增长方式转变的影响分析

文章基于中国1980-2010年GDP和进出口的相关数据对中国进出口贸易和经济运行的轨迹进行分析,测算了外贸依存度、贡献率和拉动度三个指标。运用协整理论和格兰杰因果关系检验方法对中国进出口贸易与经济增长的关系进行实证分析。结果表明中国经济增长与出口之间是正相关的关系,出口增长对经济增长具有明显的促进作用:出口每增长1%,中国GDP将增长约0.714%;同时,经济增长与进口之间也是正相关的关系,弹性为0.0286,进口每增长1%,中国GDP将增长约0.0286%。因此,可以看出中国进出口贸易的增长都促进经济的增长。     

Export Growth and Trade Policy in Ghana in the Twentieth Century

Ghana's exports on a per capita basis failed to grow over the course of the twentieth century. The reasons for this outcome are examined in this paper. It is argued that the success which characterised the period before independence was due to the combination of an open trade policy and flexible factor markets. The reversal of such policies at the time of independence was the source of the subsequent decline. While the terms of trade for Ghana's exports have fluctuated substantially there has been little change in their level over the century. Economic failure since independence has been due to domestic policies limiting export growth. The reforms of the post 1983 period have succeeded in preventing further decline; they have failed to provide a policy environment in which rapid growth of exports can occur. The nature of this policy failure is discussed.     

中国—欧盟贸易条件研究

在中欧经贸关系高速发展的背景下,对中国-欧盟贸易条件的研究相对缺乏。本文运用较详尽的贸易数据计算得出中国-欧盟双边商品贸易的贸易条件,得出1992-2003年间中国-欧盟价格贸易条件恶化但收入贸易条件改善的结论。并通过进一步实证分析,得出其影响因素为:中国经济增长、欧盟经济增长、中国对欧盟出口商品结构和在华的外商投资。     

中国农产品对外贸易与农民收入增长——基于时间序列和动态面板数据的实证检验

文章运用中国1978-2007年时序数据,以及1999-2007年29个省、直辖市、自治区的面板数据,实证了中国农产品对外贸易与农民收入增长关系及其区域差异。结果显示:中国农产品对外贸易与农民收入增长在总体上存在着长期稳定的均衡关系,农产品进口依存度与农民收入增长正相关,出口依存度与农民收入增长负相关,但区域差异显著。东、中部地区进、出口依存度与农民收入增长呈正相关,且中部要明显强于东部;西部进、出口依存度与农民收入增长呈负相关。文章依此提出了政策建议。     

对中国—智利自由贸易区贸易效应的引力模型分析

近年来,区域经济一体化的进程不断加快,这是世界经济发展的必然结果。随着中国与拉丁美洲经贸关系的不断发展,中国已和智利、秘鲁和哥斯达黎加三个拉美国家签订了自由贸易协定,为双方的贸易带来了可观的收益,极大地推动了中国参与区域经济一体化的进程。本文在综述国内外相关文献的基础上,以中国与智利的自由贸易协定为例,采用引力模型,定量研究两国的经济一体化程度以及区域经济一体化所创造的贸易效应。     

中国民营企业对外贸易与中国经济增长的协整分析

近年来,中国民营企业对外贸易的持续发展,为中国经济的增长做出了积极的贡献。文章采用计量经济模型实证分析了中国民营企业对外贸易与中国经济的相关性,揭示出中国民营企业对外贸易对中国经济增长做出了突出的贡献,并由此提出了发展民营企业对外贸易的战略性思考。     

A Tree-form Constant Market Share Model for Growth Causes in International Trade Based on Multi-level Classification

This paper introduces a tree-form constant market share (CMS) model for analyzing growth causes in international trade based on multi-level classification. The tree-form CMS is a collection of CMS models at different levels, including the entire, branch- and leaf-models, which consists of a large amount of information and has a wide application spectrum. Basic properties of this model are investigated in detail. It is shown that the tree-form CMS model is superior to other CMS models in the literature. It is also shown that well known CMS formulations are special cases of a linear class with two parameters, which control how the interaction term is divided into the demand growth and competitive terms. Application to bilateral trade between China and Germany shows that the growth causes in different periods are clearly different. It is shown that the outputs of the tree-form CMS model can be used for further suitable statistical analysis. Furthermore, our theoretical findings are also confirmed by those data examples.     

贸易开放度、经济增长与劳动密集型产业结构调整

本文通过构建联立方程模型对贸易开放度、劳动密集型产业结构和经济增长之间的统计关系进行实证,同时利用VAR模型检验三者之间的相互作用。研究结果表明:经济增长不利于劳动密集型产业的发展,同时劳动密集型产业的发展也不利于经济增长;但贸易开放促进经济增长的同时阻碍了劳动密集型产业的发展。本文研究的政策含义是,当前政府应该优化劳动密集型产业结构,促进要素资源的合理配置;政府外贸政策的重心应该放在改变出口产业结构,使之朝着有利于转变经济增长方式的方向转变。     

江苏对外贸易与经济增长的实证研究

随着“一带一路”倡议的实施,对外贸易已成为影响经济增长的关键因素。江苏是全国经济发达省份,对外贸易增量迅速。本文以江苏为例,选取1992—2018年江苏相关数据,进行研究。结果表明:江苏进口和出口是经济增长的格兰杰原因,出口会促进经济增长,而进口会对经济增长产生一定的抑制作用。根据实证分析的结果,对如何促进江苏对外贸易发展与经济高质量发展提出建议。     

Foreign Direct Investment,Trade Openness and Economic Growth in Ghana: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

This paper investigates the long-run impact of foreign direct investment and trade openness on economic growth in Ghana (1970–2011) within the framework of the endogenous growth literature. Adopting the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach to cointegration the results suggest that the interaction of foreign direct investment and exports has been crucial in fostering growth, thus validating the famous Bhagwati hypothesis. From a policy oriented point of view, the study recommends the channeling of foreign direct investment to export-oriented sectors and the promotion of export-led growth strategies in long-term development plans.     

Beyond Border Barriers: The Liberalisation of Services Trade in Tunisia and Egypt

Tunisia and Egypt have both recently undertaken significant steps toward trade reform. They have committed to a partnership agreement with the European Union. Both countries have also joined the WTO and are participating in Doha Round discussions on the liberalisation of non‐tariff barriers on both goods and services trade. These developments provide an interesting context within which to investigate not only the changes in welfare associated with reforms affecting the trade in goods, but also the impacts of services liberalisation. Using open‐economy computable general equilibrium models for both Tunisia and Egypt, this paper explores the reasons why structural differences in these two economies imply different opportunities and challenges with trade reform and services liberalisation. The gains from eliminating barriers at the border for goods trade are significantly greater for Tunisia than Egypt. Both countries, however, gain substantially from liberalisation of foreign direct investment in services. Furthermore, economic growth is more evenly distributed across sectors than with liberalisation of trade in goods alone. In addition to reporting on the impact of alternative policies on income, output, employment and trade, sector‐level effects are also considered.