Poor institutions as a comparative advantage

Classic theories of comparative advantage point to factor productivity and factor abundance as determinants of specialization and trade. Likewise, geography and topography can determine trade patterns. Institutions, however, are increasingly seen as important sources of comparative advantage. A global drug prohibition regime implies that institutional quality matters more than traditional sources in the drug trade. This paper theoretically models trade patterns of illicit goods and confirms the role of institutions empirically with respect to the drug trade. In particular, illicit enterprises gain force in countries where resources are scarce, drug enforcement is uncertain, and institutions are weak in absolute terms and relative to neighboring countries. I propose several policy alternatives that emphasize economic opportunity for the poor and institutional quality that complement drug prohibition.     

产品内分工与中国制造业国际竞争力的实证研究

从比较优势、规模经济、国际技术溢出、产业内资源再配置四个方面,深入分析了产品内分工对发展中国家产业国际竞争力的影响机制,并就中国制造业参与产品内分工对产业国际竞争力的影响进行了实证研究.分析发现产品内分工对中国制造业的竞争力提升产生了积极影响,并且对资本(技术)密集型行业国际竞争力的影响更为显著.     

International Productivity Differences,Infrastructure, and Comparative Advantage*

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effect of infrastructure provision on industry‐level productivity and international specialization, as suggested by Clarida and Findlay’s (1992 ) model. We calculate total factor productivity (TFP) for 18 developed and developing countries and 10 manufacturing industries, and study the effects of supplies of roads, telecommunications and electric power on international variations in sectoral TFP, i.e. comparative advantage. We also examine the effects of infrastructure on the sectoral composition of output across countries. Using a three‐stage least‐squares estimation strategy to control for endogeneity of infrastructure provision, we find that infrastructure, especially roads, helps to explain patterns of comparative advantage and international specialization.     

电子信息产业国内价值链省域比较优势测度及空间差异研究

为应对后疫情时代全球电子信息产业加剧的“比较优势陷阱”,中国亟需通过国内价值链省域比较优势的互补协同提升整体国际竞争力。在价值链产品内,基于垂直专业化分工框架,兼顾增值能力与劳动生产率两个维度,使用非竞争型投入占用产出模型,设计一个评测国家内部区域电子信息产业真实比较优势的新指标。结果表明,东部沿海省域比较优势强度与广度最为显著,内陆省域比较优势集中于上游能源型部门;制造业部门比较优势凸显,服务业部门比较优势相对薄弱;比较优势高省域集中度与低省域集中度的产业部门中,均存在整体比较优势强弱差异,其中,高省域集中度产业部门比较优势强度更高。     

论比较优势的成本基础——从生产成本向“全成本”的拓展

贸易理论的历史演进表明,比较优势是一国参与国际分工和贸易的基本动因。古典、新古典和新贸易理论分别从劳动生产率、要素禀赋、生产规模等不同视角论证了基于生产成本的比较优势,进而可表达为"相对生产成本不等式"。随着制度、生态环境、"可持续性"等要素在国际贸易中日趋重要,使用制度要素所形成的交易成本、使用生态环境要素所形成的环境成本、耗费"可持续性"要素所形成的代际成本也逐步成为比较优势的成本基础。于是,可将使用或耗费广义要素的代价理解为"全成本",它构成了一国参与国际分工和贸易的比较优势的基础。     

A Neo-Heckscher–Ohlin Model of Trade with Endogenous Production Patterns*

We propose a Neo-Heckscher–Ohlin (HO) model of trade that combines comparative endowment advantage, comparative technological advantage, international capital mobility and trade costs. Using an inframarginal approach, we produce a partition of the exogenous parameter space in a host of parameter value subsets that demarcate the various equilibrium patterns of production and trade. The results are startling! They suggest that production within the diversification cone – a key assumption of the Heckscher–Ohlin theory that is required for its core propositions (such as factor price equalisation) to hold – may only prevail on the razor's edge, or under exceptional circumstances. In addition, our findings nominate a mechanism by which improvements in transaction efficiency facilitate international trade thereby stimulating cross-country division of labour. Contrary to other generalisations of the Heckscher–Ohlin (such as the various derivatives of the Kemp–Jones model of trade), our model does not assume a purely Ricardian character: comparative endowment advantage may determine the pattern of trade even in the presence of opposing technological differences, as long as total factor productivity coefficients adjusted for transaction efficiency and factor intensity do not confer unambiguous comparative (technological) advantage. Still, ‘intensity-efficiency’-adjusted comparative technological advantage supersedes factor endowments in determining the flow of trade.     

Financial Dependence and International Trade

Does financial development translate into a comparative advantage in industries that use more external finance? The author uses industry‐level data on firms’ dependence on external finance for 36 industries and 56 countries to examine this question. It is shown that countries with better‐developed financial systems have higher export shares and trade balances in industries that use more external finance. These results are robust to the use of alternative measures of external dependence and financial development and are not due to reverse causality or simultaneity bias.     

Industrial subsidy policy and the optimal level of specialization

Despite compelling rationale based on the theory of comparative advantage for free trade, many countries adopt restrictive trade practices. In this paper we investigate this puzzle in a stylized two-country two-good Ricardian model of international trade. Governments can offer protection to domestic industries via industrial subsidy policy in this model. We prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium in the two-player game where industries choose the level of specialization. We determine the necessary conditions for complete specialization in (a) the free-trade regime; and (b) the protectionist regime implemented through industrial subsidy policy. Our results show that if the government intends to promote complete specialization, then a high degree of comparative advantage and a large elasticity of substitution between export and import goods are required. Empirical evidence on these two parameters indicate that complete specialization is unlikely to survive in the protectionist regime.     

Technology and the dynamics of comparative advantage

This paper explores how trade affects innovation in a two‐country, two‐good, two‐factor Heckscher–Ohlin model with heterogeneous firms. Trade openness induces an increase in process innovation in both industries. The increase is stronger in the comparative advantage industry. Trade openness boosts prospective entrants' profits in that industry, which leads to further increases in product innovation. Trade liberalization generates a different relative impact on innovation across industries, depending on trade costs. When they are high (low), it increases process innovation relatively more in the comparative advantage (disadvantage) industry, leading to TFP divergence (convergence) across industries.     

International Productivity Differences,Trade and the Distributions of Factor Endowments

This paper presents a model of task assignment and worker matching to explore how the distributions of labor endowments within countries influence aggregate productivity and international trade patterns. Higher moments of the skill distribution have complex relationships with the organization of the labor force. First, labor endowments skewed toward high abilities exhibit positive assortment of workers across tasks, while countries with distributions of ability skewed towards low abilities exhibit underemployment. Second, greater dispersion improves aggregate productivity in countries that experience underemployment, but worsens productivity where there is assortative assignment. Furthermore, the shape and size of factor endowments are shown to jointly determine a global pattern of comparative advantage. Countries are more likely to export their abundant factors when labor markets organize heterogenous workers effectively. These predictions receive empirical support from Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries using measures of diversity constructed from educational attainment.     

动态比较优势与政策干预

在产品价值链全球化过程中,各国生产技术、要素禀赋结构和产业发展环境等方面的差异造成了各国比较优势产品结构的不同,而比较优势产品处于低端的国家获得较少的贸易利益。为了提高对外贸易利益,以低端产品为比较优势的国家应不断提升比较优势产品附加值水平,转变比较优势结构。比较优势结构的变动内生于技术进步和要素禀赋结构的转变,所以应通过加强边干边学、技术创新和对技术扩散的吸收促进技术进步;通过促进资本积累转变要素禀赋结构,特别应注重教育与职业培训,提高人力资本水平和技术创新能力。同时,政府对当前并不具有比较优势但附加值较高的产业进行政策支持,则能够使动态比较优势结构发生逆转,有效促进比较优势产品向高端过渡。     

出口贸易、企业异质性和生产率:一个比较优势的分析框架

引入比较优势理念分析贸易与行业生产率增长之间的关系,构成企业异质性视野下出口贸易影响生产率的机理。通过数理模型构建出口贸易、比较优势与生产率之间关系的模型,并通过企业微观数据和行业层面数据对此关系进行实证检验。     

国际生产分割的生产率效应

国际生产分割对参与国的生产率产生了重要影响。本文使用符合中国特点的生产分割指标考察了中国参与国际生产分割对于工业行业生产率的影响。研究结果表明:中国参与生产分割有利于生产率的提高;非加工贸易形式的生产分割对生产率的提升作用要高于加工贸易形式的生产分割;生产分割提高生产率的效果对不同行业是不同的,中低技术行业最为明显,其次是高技术行业,最低为初级产品、劳动和资源密集部门;从发达国家承接的生产分割对生产率的提升作用要大于从非发达国家承接的生产分割。     

Ad valorem versus unit taxes: monopolistic competition, heterogeneous firms, and intra-industry reallocations

Real-world industries are composed from heterogeneous firms and substantial intra-industry reallocations take place, i.e. high productivity firms squeeze out low productivity firms. Previous tax-tool comparisons have not included these central forces of industry structure. This paper examines a general equilibrium monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms and intra-industry reallocations. We show that the welfare superiority of ad valorem over unit taxes under imperfect competition is not only preserved but amplified. The additional difference between the tools arises because unit taxes distort relative prices, which in turn reduces average industry productivity through reallocations (the survival and increased market share of lower productivity firms). Importantly, numerical solutions of the model reveal that the relative welfare loss from using the unit tax increases dramatically in the degree of firm heterogeneity.     

Tariff liberalization and trade specialization: Lessons from India

This paper analyzes the effects of policy reform on the structure of India’s trade in manufactures, from 1990 to 2006. It computes comparative advantage indicators on the basis of disaggregated trade flow data and assesses the effects of trade liberalization on the evolution of India’s pattern of trade specialization. Industries where import tariffs have been reduced the most have experienced the highest increase in specialization. Moreover, trade liberalization has helped India improve its comparative advantage in industries with medium- to high-technology content, as well as in some of the industries enjoying the most robust growth in global demand. Liberalization policies have been instrumental in enhancing the international competitiveness of industries.     

自然开放度、政策导向开放度与劳动生产率提升——理论和基于中国省际面板数据的实证研究

本文以李嘉图模型为基础,分析了贸易开放对提升中国劳动生产率的效应。本文使用1994-2005年间中国省际面板数据,就贸易开放对提升中国劳动生产率水平所产生的效应进行了实证研究。本文得出两个重要的分析结果:第一,贸易开放可以通过比较优势来确定一国专业化产品的生产,如果一国的比较优势存在于干中学系数较大的部门,贸易开放将提高劳动生产率;但若一国的比较优势存在于干中学系数较小的部门,贸易开放将降低劳动生产率;第二,本文将贸易开放度分解为自然开放度和政策导向开放度,结果发现,当自然开放度较小时,政策导向开放度的增加将降低劳动生产率;当自然开放度较大时,政策开放度的增加将提高劳动生产率水平。     

Productivity growth from an international trade perspective

This paper presents a framework to assess the relative importance of three key sources of productivity growth that international trade research focuses on: (1) inter‐industry specialization; (2) intra‐industry reallocation of resources across heterogeneous firms; and (3) technological progress. We illustrate how to apply the framework by deciphering the productivity dynamics of the Swiss manufacturing industry. We find that intra‐industry reallocations are the most important source of growth in aggregate total factor productivity, spurred by the productivity growth of large, incumbent firms and the entry of new firms. Inter‐industry specialization and general technological progress, nevertheless, remain important supplementary sources of productivity growth.     

Absolute and Comparative Advantage, Reconsidered: The Pattern of International Trade with Optimal Saving

The paper obtains new results about absolute and comparative advantage, by introducing international technological differences into the three–sector Findlay–Komiya and two–sector Oniki–Uzawa–Stiglitz models of open–economy growth with optimal saving. For example, if a country has the same Hicks–neutral advantage in all industries, it exports the capital–intensive tradable, even though the technological advantage is only absolute rather than comparative. Alternatively, even a small comparative advantage in some good is sufficient for the advanced country to export this product, regardless of relative factor supplies. In either case, the fundamental reason for trade is technological superiority rather than factor abundance.     

中国制造业贸易的要素含量:中间产品贸易对测算的影响

本文从理论上指出,传统计算贸易要素含量的方法不适用于加工贸易比重较大的发展中国家,并提出了区分中间产品贸易和最终产品贸易的改进计算方法。通过传统方法计算中国制造业1997年、2002年和2007年贸易的要素含量,发现中国的要素贸易情况符合比较优势理论,并且贸易开放后中国制造业技术水平不断提高,熟练工人密集度显著提高。用区分中间产品贸易和最终产品贸易的方法计算2002年中国制造业贸易的要素含量,发现加工贸易企业与非加工贸易企业生产技术差异很大,忽略中间产品贸易的传统计算方法会造成中国制造业要素净出口的严重高估。     

中美贸易顺差的结构性成因分析

中国和美国之间的贸易顺差问题似乎已经成为中美关系的一个较大阻碍,理性地分析中关之间贸易顺差的成因已渐显迫切。本文从中美贸易顺差的规模和结构入手,详细分析了造成这一现象的结构性成因,得出中美贸易顺差是以比较优势为基础的正常的国际贸易不平衡的结论,从而两国应该以正确且双赢的态度来看待和处理这一问题。文章认为,要素禀赋理论肯定了各国发挥比较优势所能给自己所带来的福利的改善。中美的贸易顺差,从长远来看,它不仅有利于中国充分发挥其劳动丰裕国的优势,增进就业并推动中国经济的腾飞,同时有利于美国将其国内有限的资源应用到效率更高的其他行业当中去,促进产业结构升级和经济增长。这也意味着,两国应该正视并充分肯定这一现象,毕竟贸易不平衡是经济发展的结果而非原因,同时也需要两国拿出合作共赢的姿态尽早尽快地放松政策管制,以免给正常的双赢贸易带来扭曲。