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.     

Competing Industrial Standards and the Impact of Trade Liberalization

The main purpose of this study is to illustrate, with simple trade theory, the relationship between competing industrial standards and trade liberalization. We assume that there are two competing industrial standards in an international context, each of which applies to a group of differentiated products. A product can be used only in combination with other products based on the same industrial standard. We examine the impact of trade liberalization (i.e., a decline in trade costs) on consumers’ choice of a standard. It will be shown that the degree of indirect network effects, captured with substitution between differentiated products, plays an important role as a determinant of the impact of trade liberalization.     

Trade Liberalization and Gender Wage Inequality in Mexico

Abstract

After twenty years of trade liberalization in Mexico, the relationship between gender wage inequality and trade remains insufficiently studied, in spite of evidence of increasing numbers of women in industrial employment. This study aims to analyze the effects of export orientation and other characteristics that represent the industrial underpinnings of restructuring on gender wage inequality for 2001–5. There is consistent evidence of the negative impact of export orientation on men's and women's wages and the gender wage ratio, signifying that women lose in both absolute and relative terms. This result holds after controlling for women's share of employment and the skills of both genders, contrary to the expected effect from trade on equality. There is also a negative relation between a rise in the proportion of unskilled workers and the gender wage ratio, which suggests that the trade-induced skill hypothesis cannot be considered an adequate explanation for gender inequality.     

贸易自由化中并购问题的经济学剖析

在贸易自由化对并购影响进行考察的基础上 ,可以发现 ,贸易自由对于潜在的并购者来说有两种意义 :受到保护的市场中的低效企业此时更容易被并购 ,对相对低效企业进行的并购变得越来越缺乏吸引力 ,不能实际地融合在一起 ,或者如果已经融合在一起的话 ,就出现了 (资源的 )耗散。无论在哪种意义上贸易的自由化都会激发并购活动的发生 ,但其中并不是所有的都符合整个社会的利益     

政策干预下我国贸易自由化的福利效应

近年来,贸易和环境问题越来越成为各国关注的焦点,传统贸易理论忽视了环境资源的合理使用和保护,给发展中国家带来了严重的环境问题。文章在揭示传统贸易理论在环境资源分析不足的同时,建立了一个政策干预下的发展中国家的自由贸易模型,在此基础上结合我国实际情况分析贸易自由化的福利效应。     

Economic Deregulation and Trade Liberalization in Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda: Growth and Poverty

With economic growth as a principal target, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have implemented deregulation and trade liberalization policies. By tracing the trends in major economic aggregates, the progress of these economies is reviewed. While acknowledging the conceptual arguments supporting the measures adopted, constraints in both the international economy and domestically have resulted in disappointing outcomes. International trade rules and practices, particularly in the agricultural sector, have worked against all three countries. Moreover, their domestic economies lack crucial resources. The results suggest that it may be a long time before the deregulation policies lead to a reduction in poverty.     

Trade liberalization,wilful credit defaults and bank bribery in a credit-constrained economy

The rising incidence of credit defaults may cause credit crunch. This affects the ability of firms to finance working capital and also fixed capital formation. Naturally, this is a major macroeconomic shock. This paper is an attempt to address the microeconomic foundation of such macroeconomic shock. We provide a theoretical framework to explain the economic rationale behind ‘wilful corporate defaults’ and ‘financial corruption’ in the specific context of trade liberalization. First, we model the behavioural aspects of wilful corporate defaulters and bank officials to determine the bank bribe rate as an outcome of the Nash bargaining process in a two-stage sequential move game. Based on the results of the partial equilibrium framework, we examine aspects of trade liberalization in an otherwise 2 × 2 general equilibrium framework. We also compare the efficacy of punishment strategies to economic incentives to deter credit defaults and banking sector corruption. Methodologically, our analytical model integrates finance capital distinctly from physical capital in Jonesian general equilibrium framework. Interestingly, our findings indicate that there exists a trade-off at equilibrium between curbing credit defaults and bribery. We also find that not all punishment strategies are equally effective at deterring credit defaults if general equilibrium interlinkage effects are carefully dealt with.     

Trade Liberalization and Environmental Taxation in Federal Systems

The literature on trade liberalization and environment has not yet considered federal structures. In this paper, we show how the design of environmental policy in a federal system has implications for the effects of trade reform. Trade liberalization leads to a decline in pollution taxes, regardless of whether pollution taxes are set at the federal (centralized) or local (decentralized) level, and it increases social welfare. The effect under a decentralized system is smaller than if these taxes are set by the federal government, and pollution emissions therefore decline in this case. Moreover, majority bias interacts with trade liberalization if federal taxes are used.     

发达和发展中经济体对华贸易救济的比较研究

本文在对发达经济体和发展中经济体对华贸易救济的特征差异进行分析的基础上,运用贸易救济指控指数和贸易救济涉案金额指数两项指标,进一步分析了其对中国出口贸易影响的差异,得出的结论是:发达经济体和发展中经济体在立案数量、措施选取、涉案行业、涉案金额、案件执行率和诉诸WTO等方面呈现出明显的特征差异,相对其在中国出口贸易中的地位而言,发展中经济体的贸易救济对中国出口贸易的影响大于发达经济体。     

Occupational choices of working children in Bangladesh

The article looks into the determinants of occupational choices of working children in Bangladesh. Using data from 6668 Bangladeshi working children aged 5 through 14, the article estimates several binary and multinomial logit regressions, separately for boys and girls. The article confirms that most children work in the informal sector where formal sector’s jurisdiction and regulations are absent. Specifically, the article finds that children are least likely to work in the service occupation and are more likely to work in the textile sector. The findings highlight the diversity in the occupational distribution of child workers by gender and show how their individual and family characteristics influence occupational choices. The service sector, which comprises of mostly maids, is a hidden sector. This sector makes children vulnerable to abuse. Thus, it is suggested that policy makers need to come up with effective legislations that would protect the children who work in the ‘hidden informal’ sector.     

服务贸易自由化与中国应对策略的探析

服务贸易自由化是在服务贸易重要性显现以及全球经济一体化背景下提出的。随着国际服务贸易发展程度的深化,全球经济一体化进程的加快,以及《服务贸易总协定》的签订,服务贸易自由化可谓是大势所趋。这必将对世界各国服务贸易的发展和政府经济政策的制定产生众多深远的影响。服务贸易自由化既具有积极的经济效应,又具有一定的负面效应。作为既是发展中国家也是WTO成员方的中国,服务贸易自由化对我们来说是机遇也是挑战。我们必须要在这一趋势下认清中国服务贸易发展的现状,抓住机遇,并勇于迎接挑战,制定符合中国实际的应对策略,提高中国服务贸易的竞争力。     

Oil price shock and informal workers in dual labor markets

This paper examines the impact of a rise in oil prices on the wages of workers in the unorganized sector of a developing economy. The model economy is comprised of two non-traded transport sectors, formal and informal, along with other sectors. The main results that we obtain are as follows. The informal transport sector contracts when fuel price rises and lowers the real income of the informal workers. The per-unit return to land rises, and the factor readjustments even raise the output of other sectors in the economy. We also show why inclusion of non-passenger transport services does not alter the main outcomes of the model.     

发达国家农业可持续发展模式研究

可持续发展是当前世界各国经济发展的主题,可持续农业作为其中一个重要分支,已在世界范围内逐步发展起来。发达国家的可持续农业起步较早,已取得良好进展,尤以美国、日本、法国、德国、韩国及以色列等国家的绩效最为突出。本文分析了上述六国的农业可持续发展模式及其主要特点,挖掘出发达国家农业可持续发展经验,以期对我国农业可持续发展有所启示。     

集聚与扩散:异质性劳动力和多样化贸易成本的空间经济效应

文章将异质性劳动力及地区内和地区间的多样化贸易成本同时引入空间经济模型,建立了一般均衡模型。分析结果表明,低成本约束的人力资本比高成本约束的普通劳动力流动更容易打破空间经济集聚和扩散的对称均衡,促使产业空间结构稳定地向人力资本丰富的地区集聚。文章还从福利最优化的角度分析了政府对空间经济结构的规划选择,结论显示降低普通劳动力在地区间流动的成本有利于形成分散均衡的经济格局,实现社会公平。     

贸易自由化对发展中国家女性就业影响研究述评

现有文献对贸易自由化影响发展中国家女性就业的研究,主要集中在影响的机制、贸易对就业机会的创造或破坏以及在性别工资收入上产生的差异等领域.贸易自由化通过对商品相对价格的改变来影响女性就业,影响的程度受所在国客观经济条件和女性主观因素的制约.多数的研究认为,贸易自由化增加了女性的就业机会,但在不同国家(地区)以及不同产业(部门)的增加幅度又有所差异.关于贸易自由化对发展中国家性别工资差距的影响,理论界存在着两种截然相反的观点.     

Emerging Consensus on Labour Market Institutions and Implications for Developing Countries: From the Debates in India

Abstract

This paper makes a critical intervention to on-going theoretical and policy debates in the economic analysis of labour market institutions (LMIs) in the context of recent debates in India. It focuses on the internal inconsistency of mainstream economic analyses of LMIs, in particular those based on the new institutional economics (NIE) approach, and what appears to be an emerging policy consensus on LMIs within the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The paper draws out the possible ideological parallels in these two developments, despite different intellectual origins and intentions of those engaged in these debates. A corresponding modification in policy debates in India is observed in the shifting perspectives from the Second National Commission on Labour (SNCL) to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). The apparent emerging consensus in both the theoretical literature and policy debates reveals the tendency for researchers to focus on labour market outcomes and phenomenal forms of LMIs rather than the structures, processes, agencies and relations that underpin them. While this can be seen as an advancement from the traditional distortionist-institutionalist dichotomy, the tendency of this consensus to explain the persistence of seemingly inefficient institutions within the micro-level choice theoretic framework and its appeal to policy agendas on good governance, social capital, trust and civil society, render it vulnerable to appropriation by the mainstream. The paper argues that the emerging consensus on LMIs is an inadequate framework to inform effective policy propositions, and highlights the scope and opportunity for a political economy alternative.     

知识经济时代国际贸易的发展趋势及对策

知识经济是建立在知识和信息的生产、分配和使用基础之上的经济形态。在知识、技术和全球化力量的推动下，全球国际贸易出现了新的发展趋势和特点。为迎接知识经济的挑战，我国必须调整对外贸易战略，加大科技创新，大力发展知识型服务贸易，推行网络贸易及实施“走出去”战略。     

都市农业可持续发展模式及其体系构建

本文回顾了国内外关于都市农业的研究情况。并从其产生的背景、范围、产业结构、发展方向、功能等方面比较了中外都市农业发展的不同点，指出国外都市农业的基本发展模式对我国发展都市农业并不适用。我国必须选择可持续发展模式。通过借鉴国外持续农业的发展经验，本文认为要实现都市农业的可持续发展。必须从都市农业现代化和可持续化两个方面构建都市农业可持续发展体系。     

农业循环经济发展研究

改革开放30年,我国社会经济的面貌发生了巨大的变化,但是,农村经济的发展仍然相对落后。在新的发展时期,如何在科学发展观的指导下,走出一条有中国特色的农业发展道路就成为一个十分重要的课题。以农业循环经济为方向,介绍了农业循环经济的概念,发展农业循环经济的必要性,分析了农业循环经济的发展模式和发展农业循环经济的制约因素,最后提出了我国发展农业循环经济的对策。     

北京平原区都市农业发展战略规划与分析

本文在发达国家发展都市农业的实践和经验基础上，结合北京宜居城市建设的目标，确定北京平原区都市型农业发展模式和在北京发展中应承担的主要功能，同时确定适宜北京平原区发展的主要都市农业类型。针对这些农业类型，根据战略规划布局的原则，在GIS（地理信息技术）的支持下进行北京平原区规划布局与分析，并在此基础上提出了不同分区的发展对策，藉此为北京平原区都市型农业发展提供参考依据。