The choice of an invoicing currency in international trade and the balance of trade impact of currency depreciation

Cross-country differences in the choice of an invoicing currency in international trade is one reason for cross-country differences in estimated exchange rate coefficients in short-run balance of trade equations. If exports are invoiced in domestic currency while imports are invoiced in a foreign currency, a depreciation will increase the domestic currency value of outstanding import contracts, and may cause the balance of trade to fall in the short run. Countries with different invoicing patterns will have different effects on the short-run trade balance following a depreciation. We explore a simple theory of invoicing currency choice, drawing inferences regarding the likely choices for 14 countries. This allows a classification of countries according to the expected short-run balance of trade effect of a currency depreciation. Empirical estimates support the hypothesized groupings based on suggested currency invoicing patterns.     

Preferential trade agreements and the structure of international trade

In this paper we examine the impact of membership in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on trade between PTA members. Rather than considering the impact of PTA membership on the volume of trade we consider the impact of membership on the structure of trade. For a large sample of countries over the period 1962–2000 we find that membership in a PTA is associated with an increase in the extent of intra-industry trade. Our results indicate that this is especially the case for PTAs formed between richer countries, with the effects of PTAs between poorer countries found to be smaller.     

Two-way trade between unequal partners: The EU and the developing countries

Two-Way Trade between Unequal Partners: The EU and the Developing Countries. — This paper analyses the intra-industry trade specialization between the EU and the developing countries between 1980 and 1992. It shows that EU intra-industry trade with the developing countries has greatly increased and that the traditional measure of intra-industry trade, the Grubel-Lloyd index, is inappropriate when applied to trade between developed and developing countries. By and large, the empirical analysis confirms that intra-industry trade between the developed and the developing countries increases with average and per capita income, and with reduced differences in economic size and capital-labour ratios.     

Asian trade flows: Trends,patterns and prospects

Over the past four decades merchandise trade of developing Asian economies (DAEs) has grown at a much faster rate than growth in world trade, with a distinct intra-regional bias. Global production sharing has become a unique feature of the region's economic landscape, with China playing a pivotal complementary role as the premier assembly centre within regional production networks. According to the projections made using the standard gravity model of international trade, total real non-oil trade of DAEs would increase at an annual rate of 8.2 percent during the next three decades, with a notable convergence of individual countries’ rates to the regional average. The share of intra-regional trade in total nonoil trade would increase steadily from 53 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2030. The trade-to-GDP ratio would increase from 39.4 percent and 74.4 percent between these two years.     

借鉴和思考:国际贸易政策性融资剖析

剖析各国国际贸易政策性融资体制,可以理清其制度特征,为我国同类机构的运作提供有益借鉴,促使学界对国际贸易政策性融资方式的发展多加思考。     

International trade and worker flows: empirical evidence for Germany

Using a linked employer–employee data set for Germany, this paper studies how worker flows are related to establishments’ international trade involvement. Unconditional figures show that trading establishments have lower worker turnover rates than non-traders, suggesting a higher degree of employment stability. Conditional on an extensive set of control variables, exporting is further associated with a higher net job flow rate, which is almost entirely due to a lower separation rate (particularly for high-skilled workers and transitions into non-employment). In contrast, both an increase and a decrease in import intensity are (weakly) associated with a lower accession rate. These results are predominantly driven by smaller establishments, and they partly lose statistical significance once unobservable establishment characteristics are taken into account.     

Trends and patterns of the international tropical hardwood trade

In spite of the rapid expansion of tropical hardwood exports since 1960, there was no change in the structure of the trade. For a more equitable distribution of gains from the trade, tropical developing countries need to move away from log exports into domestic processing of wood. The main obstacles to future expansion of tropical hardwood exports are a lack of necessary complementary inputs in the producing countries and the restrictions to market access in the major importing countries. Rationalization of the production and trade of tropical hardwoods could contribute significantly to world welfare.     

China's emergence and the reorganisation of trade flows in Asia

The emergence of China has intensified the international segmentation of production processes within Asia, but has not created an autonomous engine for the region's trade, as Asia still depends on outside markets for its final goods exports. The reorganisation of production has weakened the position of the advanced economies in Asia's trade, but up to now has not severely affected the position of the emerging Asian economies. However, the deterioration of China's terms of trade raises the question of the sustainability of its recent growth strategy.     

Production sharing and trade flows: A comparative analysis of Japan and the US

This paper examines the determinants of trade flows in parts and components related to global production sharing in machinery industries, using a newly compiled panel dataset for Japan and the US over the period 1988–2005. The findings show the importance of labour costs, and the quality of the legal system and physical infrastructure in attracting production sharing, as suggested by theory. It is also found that US production networks in the electronics industry have a regional focus on Asia, while those in the automobile industry are concentrated in North America. On the other hand, Japanese production networks in both industries are concentrated in Asia.     

On the elasticity of substitution in international trade

Summary Attention for biases in the measurement of the Elasticity of Substitution (ES) in applied international trade flow modelling has a long tradition. It was mostly directed at the issue of the acceptability of the (often implicit) assumptions made on the parameters of the underlying demand model. The purpose of this paper is to prove both theoretically and with the help of some numerical examples that another strong potential source of biases in assessingES's in trade modelling does exist which gained remarkably little attention in the literature, namely, the regional pattern of international trade flows.     

Economic performance and international trade engagement: the case of Portuguese manufacturing firms

By combining economic and financial data for Portuguese manufacturing firms with data on their exports and imports, we uncover some aspects of the relationship between international trade engagement and firms’ performances. In line with recent theoretical and empirical developments in the international trade literature: (i) we testify that Portuguese international trade is highly concentrated, especially on the import side, and both in inter- and intra-sector terms; (ii) we corroborate previous studies and theses according to which two-way traders outperform only importers, only exporters and above all domestic firms; (iii) we find that the greater the diversification of markets and goods (especially with regard to imports), the better the performance achieved by internationalised firms; (iv) we notice that the higher the intensity of firms’ international trade (especially imports), the better their performance; (v) we also present evidence that destination markets for exports and origin markets for imports are also important in explaining firm’s performance.     

国际农产品贸易体制:回顾与展望

作为国际货物贸易的重要组成部分，农产品贸易已成为当代国际贸易发展与政策协调中最为突出和棘手的问题。在此，本文通过考察国际多边贸易体制下农产品贸易保护的特殊待遇，阐释农产品贸易保护的理论依据、成本与收益，并就农产品贸易自由化的发展前景作一展望。     

Alternative empirical estimates of trade creation and trade diversion: A comparison of the Baldwin-Murray and Verdoorn models

Zusammenfassung Alternative empirische Sch?tzungen von Handelsschaf-fung und Handelsumlenkung. Ein Vergleich der Modelle von Baldwin-Murray und von Verdoorn. - In diesem Aufsatz werden die Eigenschaften zweier Modelle untersucht, die üblicherweise benutzt werden, um ex ante Handelsschaffung und Handelsumlenkung zu sch?tzen. Die Analyse zeigt, da\ beide Modelle hinsichtlich der Handelsschaf-fung zu identischen Ergebnissen führen. Im Fall der Handelsumlenkung dagegen k?nnen die Sch?tzungen je nach dem benutzten Modell differieren, was damit zusammenh?ngt, da\ unterschiedliche Annahmen über das Ausma\ der Substituierbarkeit von Importen aus begünstigten und aus nicht begünstigten L?ndern gemacht werden. Die Unterschiede in den Sch?tzungen werden anhand eines empirischen Beispiels untersucht. Au\erdem wird gezeigt, da\ bei Benutzung der Verdoornschen Annahmen das Ausma\ der Handelsumlenkung auch ohne ausdrückliche Kenntnis der Substitutionselastizit?t gesch?tzt werden kann.

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Résumé Estimations alternatives empiriques de la création et du détournement de commerce: une comparaison des modèles de Baldwin-Murray et Verdoorn. - Cet article analyse le caractère de deux modèles normalement utilisés pour estimer ex ante la création et le détournement de commerce. L’analyse indique que les deux modèles produisent des estimations identiques en ce qui concerne la création de commerce. Cependant, à cause des suppositions un peu différentes concernant le degré de la substitutabilité entre les importations des pays préférés et non-préférés, les estimations du détournement de commerce peuvent différer selon le modèle utilisé. Puis ces différences sont examinées en appliquant un modèle empirique. Il est aussi démontré que le détournement de commerce peut être estimé sans savoir explicitement les élasticités de substitution si l’on applique le modèle de Verdoorn.

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Resumen Estimaciones empiricas alternativas de la creación y desviación del comercio: una comparación del modelo de Baldwin y Murray con el de Verdoorn. - En este trabajo se analizan las propiedades de dos modelos comúnmente utilizados para estimar ex ante la creación y desviación del comercio. Empero, debido a supuestos ligeramente diferentes en relación al grado de sustitutabilidad entre importaciones de países preferidos y no preferidos, las estimaciones de la desviación del comercio pueden diferir dependiendo del modelo utilizado. Estas diferencias son examinadas en un ejemplo empírico. También se muestra que la desviación del comercio puede ser estimada con los supuestos de Verdoorn, mas sin conocimento explícito de la elasticidad de sustitución.

     

Unanticipated exchange rate variability and the growth of international trade

Zusammenfassung Unerwartete Wechselkursschwankungen und das Wachstum des internationalen Handels. - Der Verfasser untersucht die oft zitierte These, die Wechselkursvariabilit?t habe den internationalen Handel beeintr?chtigt. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Arbeiten formuliert und sch?tzt er ein Modell mit zwei Gleichungen. Davon sch?tzt die erste die Bestimmungsgründe der Variabilit?t der realen Wechselkurse mit dem Ziel, zwischen den erwarteten und den unerwarteten Komponenten dieser Variabilit?t unterscheiden zu k?nnen. Die zweite ist eine Gleichung in reduzierter Form für die Bestimmungsgründe des Wachstums realer Exporte. Diese wird zum Testen der Hypothese benutzt, da? nur die unerwarteten Schwankungen der realen Wechselkurse das Wachstum der realen Exporte signifikant beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse best?tigen diese Hypothese.

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Résumé La variabilité non-prévue des taux de change et l’accroissement du commerce international. - Dans cette étude l’auteur examine l’hypothèse souvent-citée que la variabilité des taux de change a empêché l’accroissement du commerce international. Contraire aux études antérieures, il formule et estime un modèle à deux équations. La première équation évalue les facteurs déterminants de la variabilité des taux de change réels pour différencier entre les éléments prévus et non-prévus de la variabilité des taux de change réels. La deuxième est une équation à forme réduite et contient les facteurs déterminants de l’accroissement des exportations réelles. Ce mod?le est utilisé pour vérifier l’hypothèse que seulement la variabilité non-prévue des taux de change réels a un effet significatif sur l’accroissement des exportations réelles. Les résultats confirment l’hypothèse.

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Resumen Variabilidad no anticipada de la tasa de cambio y el crecimiento del comercio international. - En este trabajo se investiga la muy citada hipótesis de que la variabilidad de la tasa de cambio ha inhibido el crecimiento del comercio internacional. A diferencia de trabajos previos, se formula y estima un modelo biecuacional. La primera ecuación estima las determinantes de la variabilidad de la tasa de cambio real (REER), con el fin de distinguir entre los componentes anticipados y no anticipados de la variabilidad de la REER. La segunda es una ecuación en forma reducida para las déterminantes del crecimiento real de las exportaciones. Se utiliza este modelo para llevar a cabo un test de la hipótesis de que sólo la variabilidad no anticipada de la REER afecta significativamente el crecimiento real del volumen de exportaciones. Los resultados indican que la variabilidad no anticipada de la REER ha inhibido el crecimiento de las exportaciones, mientras que la variabilidad anticipada no ha tenido efecto alguno.

     

Terms of trade shifts and international macroeconomic fundamentals

This paper focuses on the relationship between developing-country terms of trade and underlying economic fundamentals in the industrial economies. The focus is limited to the terms of trade of the five developing-country regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere). The analysis is based on a version of the arbitrage pricing model, which is used extensively in the literature on capital market analysis. This model links developing-country terms of trade to indicators of international macroeconomic fundamentals. In this model the terms of trade are characterized as the price of a hedge portfolio consisting of a long position in exports and a short position in imports. The primary finding is that there does not appear to be an important link between developing-country terms of trade and underlying funda-mentals in the industrial countries.