ON THE BIASES IN FOREIGN TRADE INDICES*

Starting out from the observation that both imports and exports may be viewed as the difference between domestic consumption (use) and production, static standard theory of biases in consumption and production indices is brought to bear upon trade indices: Laspeyres tends to overrate when applied to imports and to underrate when applied to exports; for Paasche, the opposite holds true. Hence, terms of trade tend to be underrated (exaggerated) when based upon Laspeyres (Paasche) price indices. The problem of extending these conclusions to the case of changes in production frontiers and preference maps is discussed. When homotheticity is absent, correlation between price and quantity relatives may upset the simple conclusions. This is of special importance in the large-country situation. Dynamics further complicate the situation. A cobweb mechanism in exports may thus reverse the static results.     

JAPANESE STUDIES OF RICARDO'S THEORY OF FOREIGN TRADE*

The standard interpretations of Ricardo's theory of foreign trade assume that money ˙is neutral and conclude that the terms of trade cannot be determined since reciprocal demands are not taken into consideration. In Japan, however, Kojima and Morita emphasized the role of non-neutral metallic money and insisted that Ricardo can determine the terms of trade without introducing the reciprocal demands. A model is constructed to show that their arguments using numerical examples are. justified and that Ricardo's theory has conditional determinacy of the terms of trade without explicitly considering reciprocal demands.     

全球化背景下湖南省对外贸易发展对策

湖南省具有农业自然资源、有色金属资源、交通条件等方面的优势,区位条件也好于其它中西部内陆地区。改革开放以来湖南对外贸易取得了较大的发展,但与沿海发达省份相比,外贸发展滞缓,甚至和中西部某些省份比也有较大差距。文章在分析湖南对外贸易的差距基础上,对加快发展提出了一些建议。     

ALTERNATIVE OPTIMAL TRADE POLICIES IN THE PRESENCE OF FOREIGN INPUT MONOPOLY

Abstract.  This paper develops a generalized three-country model with downstream and upstream industries to analyze optimal import and export trade policies in the presence of monopoly distortion in a foreign intermediate input market. It shows that the import tariff and export tax are linearly dependent. Thus, the optimal choice of the tariff gives rise to the same results as the optimal choice of the export tax, which implies that the domestic government, to avoid tariff retaliation, can use export tax as a substitute for the import tariff.     

现代国际贸易理论对中国对外贸易发展的启示

萨缪尔森认为在全球化进程中,中国在美国原来具有比较优势的领域里的技术进步,会导致美国贸易条件的恶化和福利的下降。但从现实数据看,中国在劳动密集型产品的出口扩大恶化了中国的贸易条件。从长远看,中国基于廉价劳动力为基础的纵向对外贸易的比重将逐步下降,而基于规模经济为基础的横向贸易的地位将逐渐上升。     

农产品对外贸易促进农民增收的区域差异——基于中国省际面板数据的实证分析

运用中国1999—2008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促进农民增收的区域差异。结果显示:东、中部地区农产品进、出口依存度与农民收入增长正相关,且中部地区要明显强于东部地区;西部地区农产品进、出口依存度与农民收入增长负相关。在对实证结果进行讨论和解释的基础上,就中国农产品对外贸易促进农民收入增长提出了政策建议。     

ON THE OUTPUT EFFECTS OF BARRIERS TO TRADE*

We study the macroeconomic effects of international trade policy by integrating a Hecksher–Ohlin trade model into an optimal‐growth framework. The model predicts that a more open economy will have higher factor productivity. Furthermore, there is a “selective development trap” to which countries may or may not converge, depending on policy. Income at the development trap falls as trade barriers increase. Hence, cross‐country differences in barriers to trade may help explain the dispersion of per capita income observed across countries. The effects are quantified, and we show that protectionism can explain a relevant fraction of TFP and long‐run income differentials across countries.