Does Gravity Matter in a Service Economy?

This paper estimates gravity equations for bilateral services trade in a sample of 28 countries. It finds that the standard gravity variables of economic size and geographic proximity are significant factors in services trade. It also reveals positive effects of linguistic ties on services trade. There is evidence of a positive link between regional trade arrangements and services trade. Much of that effect appears to reflect the impact of bilateral goods trade on services trade. This implies that efforts to enhance goods trade—bilateral or multilateral—should lead to more services trade as well. JEL no. F13, F15, L80     

International Trade, OECD Membership, and Religion

Transaction costs in trade gravity equation are proxied by the distance that separates two trading partners, under the assumption that the distance elasticity is the same across all trading partners. We show that distance elasticity, however, critically depends on whether trading partners are industrial countries (i.e., members of the OECD) or share same religion. These heterogeneities are both statistically and economically significant. For instance, expected trade flows are the largest when an OECD member trades with a non-member and both are non-religious. Expected trade flows fall as much as by 62.9% between two non-religious, non-OECD members. Expected bilateral trade drops by 48.1% when both countries in the pair are OECD members while one is Christian and the other is Islamic. Both religion and OECD membership significantly affect the typical transaction costs implied by the gravity equation. JEL Classification Number: F13     

中国货物贸易对于服务贸易的促进作用——基于服务贸易引力模型的实证分析

本文利用中国和22个OECD成员国家和地区之间2002～2006年双边服务贸易和货物贸易的面板数据,构建服务贸易引力模型实证研究了中国货物贸易对于服务贸易的作用。实证结果显示,中国的货物贸易对于服务贸易起到了一定程度的促进作用,并且这一作用主要表现为货物贸易对于服务进口的促进,货物贸易对于服务出口的作用则不显著;同时,货物贸易对于服务贸易的促进作用尚未得到充分有效发挥,相对于贸易伙伴国的经济发展水平而言,这一作用十分有限。本文最后对这一结果产生的原因进行了分析,并提出了促进货物贸易和服务贸易协调发展的相关对策建议。     

服务贸易、非对称开放与全球失衡:一项跨国的经验研究

文章从贸易内部结构出发，分析非对称开放条件下，服务贸易兴起与全球失衡之间的关系。并利用全球59个主要贸易国家2000-2014年双边贸易数据对两者之间的关系进行计量分析，实证结果显示：第一，服务贸易净值与经常账户余额之间存在显著的负向关系，服务贸易净值提高100万美元，经常账户余额减少98.7万美元。在引入交互项之后这种关系依然显著成立。因此，服务贸易的非对称开放是造成全球失衡的重要原因。第二，技术进步和利率上调可以扭转服务贸易对经常账户的抑制作用。第三，金融危机之后，服务贸易和经常账户的负向关系进一步强化。后危机时代，全球失衡现象有可能继续恶化。第四，分位数回归发现，在低点位处服务贸易净值对经常账户的影响更为强烈。文章的研究为理解中国的服务贸易逆差提供了新的视角，并为扭转服务贸易逆差奠定了理论基础。     

Bilateral Trade Performance in West Africa: A Gravity Model Estimation

This study provides empirical insights on the functioning of regional trade agreements within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by identifying bilateral trade barriers that affect the extent of trade flows among member countries. Also, it highlights some trade barrier indicators that are rarely covered in extant studies, such as the multilateral resistance term, the extent of trade complementarity, and the presence of economic integration agreements among ECOWAS member countries. We then provide augmented gravity model estimation on the determinants of bilateral trade in the region. We find, among other things, that trade complementarity had a positive and significant effect on bilateral trade within the sub‐region region. Other important determinants of intra‐regional trade include multilateral trade resistance and economic integration agreements — meaning that countries with some kind of agreement like the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) tend to trade more among themselves than other member countries.     

Currency unions and trade: The special case of EMU

In this paper, the impact of the adoption of the euro on the commercial transactions of EMU countries is investigated. It seeks to disentangle the effects of eliminating exchange rate volatility — and those of other policy factors that promote integration — from the influence of the emergence of the European currency union. Since EMU is a relatively new phenomenon, a panel estimation of the gravity equation in a dynamic framework is used in order to capture effects like trade persistence. The main finding is that the adoption of the euro has had a positive but not an exorbitant impact on bilateral trade between European countries (ranging between 9 and 10 per cent). The impact is much lower than that shown in the recent literature on a larger and heterogeneous set of countries. One reason for this divergence seems to be that the euro was adopted after decades of integration policies had already worked through in Europe. JEL no. F4, F15, C230     

Determinants of bilateral trade: evidence from ASEAN+3

In this research, we investigate the determinants of international trade, employing a dataset of bilateral trade and economics characteristics in the ASEAN+3 countries. We include a large number of independent variables that potentially drive international trade. We also use various standard gravity model variables to maintain consistency with the current literature. The results provide some important insights into the determinants of bilateral trade and offer policy implications regarding the promotion of international trade for governments worldwide. In particular, we find that output asymmetry between countries positively explains bilateral trade. Moreover, the findings suggest that making use of comparative advantage by differentiating the export product structure is important in promoting international trade. We do not find a consistent impact from bilateral exchange rate volatility on bilateral trade. This result points to the importance of providing opportunities for the hedging of currency uncertainty to avoid its adverse effects on trade. The results for other standard gravity model variables are consistent with the results of previous theoretical and empirical research.     

The transition of postwar Asia-Pacific trade relations

The purpose of this paper is to examine the feature and the transition of trade relations in the Asia-Pacific region during the post-World War II period. The paper employs the gravity model with some regional dummy variables to estimate trade flows among 80 economies through temporal cross-section data analysis, for every five-year-term from 1960 to 1995. Its main findings are the following: First, ASEAN has had no effect of its own on promoting trade among its member countries. Second, the volume of trade among EAEC has been at a high level compared with the hypothetical trade level since 1960. Third, the amount of trade between EAEC economies and other APEC countries has been growing throughout the postwar period. Fourth, there has been close trade relations among APEC economies plus some other Asian countries.     

对EMU启动前后欧盟国家贸易状况的实证研究

EMU的启动对EMU成员国、欧盟其他国家甚至全世界都有着很大的影响。但是在EMU启动至今已十年,它是否真的发挥了它应有的作用?为了研究这个问题本文选取了对EMU成员国贸易情况进行实证研究的角度来透视EMU启动所带来的影响。本文选取了1992～2007年的面板数据,并通过扩展引力模型实证检验了EMU对其成员国贸易的影响情况。本文研究结果表明:从整体上而言,EMU对其成员国的贸易影响是正面的,即:EMU的实施增加了EMU成员国与其它国家的双边贸易,但对于不同国家EMU的影响具有差异性。     

引力模型在中国与东盟贸易中的实证分析

本文将引力模型运用到中国与东盟贸易的定量分析中，利用2000-2004年的面板数据建立了包括GDP、人均GDP和距离等基本变量的基本引力模型，在此基础上增加了华人人口、通用华语等变量，得到了扩展的引力模型。然后运用得到的模型来评价中国与东盟的贸易潜力，最后运用模型预测出2006年中国与东盟各国贸易额的增长率。     

Does Cultural Distance Hinder Trade in Goods? A Comparative Study of Nine OECD Member Nations

We examine the effect of cultural distance, a proxy for the lack of a minimum reservoir of trust necessary to initiate and complete trade deals, on bilateral trade flows. Employing data for 67 countries that span the years 1996–2001, we estimate a series of modified gravity specifications and find that cultural dissimilarity between nations has an economically significant and consistently negative effect on aggregate and disaggregated trade flows; however, estimated effects vary in magnitude and economic significance across measures of trade and our cohort of OECD reference countries. The consistently negative influence of cultural distance indicates that policymakers may wish to consider mechanisms that enhance the build-up of trust and commitment when seeking to facilitate the initiation and completion of international trade deals. Our findings also imply that coefficient estimates from related studies that do not account for the trade-inhibiting effect of cultural distance may be biased.     

Is SAARC a viable economic block? evidence from gravity model

Intra-South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) trade appears to be very small compared to other existing regional blocks. This might be because of normal outcome or because of unexplored trade opportunity. If the latter is the case, then increased trade within this region might be welfare improving. This study attempts to make a formal analysis of these issues, and estimates a gravity model of international trade to examine whether intra-SAARC is lower or higher than what is predicted by an economic model. This gives an idea about the structure of comparative advantage in the SAARC countries that helps to explain why intra-SAARC trade is low and how trade among them can be increased. It also helps us to understand the possibility of trade creation and trade diversion effect resulting from South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangements among SAARC countries. Whereas the gravity model has been extensively used to measure bilateral trade among countries, they have, to the best of my knowledge, never been used to measure intra-SAARC trade. Our gravity model results suggest that SAARC member countries are yet to achieve trade-creating benefits. Appropriate policies need to be formulated for more regional integration. Liberalization of trade in SAARC countries offers significant gains for all the economies in the region. Efforts should be made to liberalize border trade and strengthen bilateral trade relations through the removal of tariff and nontariff barriers in the general framework of South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangements.     

Skills and changing comparative advantage: The case of Japan

Is the skill gap of net exports widening? This question is nontrivial for many industrial countries because, with the rapid growth of emerging countries, human capital is considered one of the most important sources of comparative advantage. Theoretically, however, the answer is not necessarily obvious because of changing comparative advantage. This paper attempts to answer this question by extending the analysis of Wolff (2003) and by focusing on one of the largest OECD countries, Japan, for the period 1980–2005. The results indicate that the answer to the above question may well be “no.” Although Japan is still a net exporter of skill-intensive goods, the skill gap of net exports has been narrowing since the mid-1990s, mainly as a result of the changes in the composition of trade. This implies that some OECD countries, including Japan, may have been losing their comparative advantage in skill-intensive goods in recent years.     

中国-东盟FTA贸易效应实证研究

中国-东盟自由贸易区(CAFTA)的成立对中国和东盟国家具有重要的经济与政治意义。本文利用一个扩展后的引力模型对CAFTA的贸易效应进行了实证分析。结果显示:CAFTA对区内贸易具有显著扩大效应的同时也显著地促进了与非成员之间的贸易;CAFTA符合"自然的贸易伙伴"的事前贸易关系紧密和空间距离接近标准;同时,CAFTA成员间产品出口结构以互补性为主;进一步降低成员间贸易壁垒、加强贸易合作对CAFTA成员间和世界贸易的扩大具有积极意义。     

Exploring the Intensive and Extensive Margins of World Trade

World trade evolves at two margins. Where a bilateral trading relationship already exists it may increase through time (intensive margin). But trade may also increase if a trading bilateral relationship is newly established between countries that have not traded with each other in the past (extensive margin). We provide an empirical dissection of post–World War II growth in manufacturing world trade along these two margins. We propose a “corner-solutions version” of the gravity model to explain movements on both margins. A Tobit estimation of this model resolves the so-called “distance puzzle”. It also finds more convincing evidence than recent literature that WTO-membership enhances trade. JEL no. F12, F15     

Air cargo transport in APEC: Regulation and effects on merchandise trade

This study aims at assessing the link between a more liberal air cargo regime and increased bilateral merchandise trade in the Asia Pacific region, under the auspices of APEC. Results from a gravity model using the Air Liberalisation Index (ALI) developed by the WTO Secretariat provide strong support for two hypotheses. First, more liberal air services policies are positively, significantly and robustly associated with higher bilateral trade in merchandise. The results also show that air transport policy matters more for some sectors than for others. A particularly strong relationship is found between bilateral liberalisation and trade in manufactured goods, time sensitive products, and parts and components. Prior to taking account of general equilibrium effects, the estimates imply that a one point increase in the ALI is associated with an increase of 4% in bilateral parts and components trade, which is the sector found to be most sensitive to the degree of aviation liberalisation. These findings have important policy implications. In particular, economies actively seeking greater integration in international production networks could greatly benefit from a more liberal aviation policy regime.     

Looking into global value chains: influence of foreign services on export performance

Using data from the OECD Inter-Country Input–Output database, we explore the impact of foreign services value added content of exports on export performance, specifically on duration of trade. Our data show that the share of foreign services content in manufacturing exports grows from 1995 to 2011, in a way similar to foreign goods content, and in contrast to the decreasing share of domestic services. Moreover, the share of foreign services value added content is larger for developing and emerging countries than for advanced countries. Our econometric findings confirm that foreign services value added embodied in manufacturing exports contribute positively to more resilient exports relationships, a positive effect which occurs for the three groups of manufacturing industries (high, medium and low technology industries) and, for each group, it is more pronounced for developing and emerging economies.     

Impact of ICT on trade in different technology groups: analysis and implications

The link between ICT use and trade flows has been widely discussed in the literature. It has been argued that the use of ICT contributes to the fall of trade costs. The analysis presented identifies the role of a specific ICT variable, namely the extent of use of Internet by the business community, in international trade. The export flows between 40 countries (OECD countries plus Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa) are analyzed. The results are presented for different technology groups of products, from high-tech to low-tech. The relationship between the use of Internet and trade in ICT goods is also considered.     

The Rise of China: Prospects of Regional Trade Policy

China now engages in multilateral trade liberalization as a new member of the WTO. Concurrently, the number of regional trade agreements is increasing worldwide. China and its trading partners would benefit from increased regional liberalization. Using a gravity equation for 23 Asia-Pacific countries between 1992 and 2000, we show that ASEAN and APEC currently have small effects on Asia-Pacific exports, which are mainly influenced by growth, trade barriers, and common language. However, we find that China’s participation in regional agreements has large export potentials, not only with respect to ASEAN, but also in a broad agreement including South and East Asian countries. JEL no. F15, F17     

The impact of information and communication technology on international trade in fruit and vegetables in APEC

The global food marketing network is being constantly reshaped, providing opportunities and challenges for information and communication technology (ICT) to develop and improve international trade in food products. A gravity model of international trade is employed to see if ICT positively affects bilateral international trade in fruit and vegetables between member Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies. We examine if the use of the Internet, mobile telephones, and fixed telephone lines determine the value of bilateral trade. Empirical results for the importance of ICT differ markedly between importing activities and exporting activities in the international value chain of fruit and vegetables in APEC countries. Changes in ICT levels in the import sector of the value chain have no effect on international trade in fruit and vegetables. However, in the export sector, growth in some ICT products has significant positive effects on trade in fruit and vegetables between APEC countries. Surprisingly, the strongest impact was discerned for the traditional form of ICT, fixed telephone lines, but this impact probably reflects the fact that fixed telephone lines are a proxy variable for the general level of infrastructure development. Of the two digital ICTs, mobile telephony and the Internet, only the Internet had a significant impact on trade levels. The further development of the Internet and its diffusion should make exporters in APEC countries more competitive in the fruit and vegetables value chain, and boost their trade values in these products.