Trade and Labour Market Adjustments: What Role for the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund?

Trade agreements have become a growing source of concern due to the potential job losses that some sectors can incur as a result of increased competition. Although the economic literature shows that the overall results of trade liberalisation are positive, some sectors may be adversely affected, leading to job losses and adjustment costs. In 2006 the European Commission established the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to help workers who have lost their jobs due to globalisation. Despite the relevance of the EGF as a trade-adjustment mechanism, the existing evidence suggests that its use is still limited compared to its potential. This paper reviews some of the constraining factors identified in the latest mid-term evaluation by the European Commission and suggests several avenues for further improvement.     

Competition and political organization: Together or alone in lobbying for trade policy?

This paper employs a novel data set on lobbying expenditures to measure the degree of within-sector political organization and to explore the determinants of the mode of lobbying and political organization across U.S. industries. The data show that sectors characterized by a higher degree of competition tend to lobby more together (through a sector-wide trade association), while sectors with higher concentration and more differentiated products lobby more individually. The paper proposes a theoretical model to interpret the empirical evidence. In an oligopolistic market, firms can benefit from an increase in their product-specific protection measure, if they can raise prices and profits. They find it less profitable to do so in a competitive market where attempts to raise prices are more likely to reduce profits. In competitive markets firms are therefore more likely to lobby together, thereby simultaneously raising tariffs on all products in the sector.     

Trade Credits and Bank Credits in International Trade: Substitutes or Complements?

Trade credits are an important financing tool for internationally active firms. This is surprising, as trade credits are generally more expensive than bank credits and thus a costly substitute for bank financing. In this paper, we investigate the relation between trade credits and bank credits for exporting firms. We develop a theoretical model and show that trade credits convey a quality signal which reduces the risk of the transaction and may thus facilitate obtaining additional bank credits. Hence, exporters who are not able to obtain bank credits in the first place use trade credits and bank credits complementarily. Using panel data on large German manufacturing firms, we provide supportive evidence for our theoretical predictions. In general, trade credits and bank credits are substitutes. For financially constrained exporters, the overall substitution effect is attenuated which is consistent with a positive signalling effect.     

Role of Trade Promoting Institutions in Exhibition

China has developed to a big exhibition country in Asia andPacific area although the exhibition industry has been developed just for a short period. China＇s trade promotion system, including direct subsidiaries of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade（CCPIT）, local trade promotion institutions and professional trade promotion institutions, have performed a very important role. Under the condition of market economy,     

1994: A Fruitful Year for Beijing's Foreign Trade and Ecnomic Cooperation

In 1994, foreign trade and economic cooperation in Bejing made major progress following overall growth for the previous three years. By 1994, the number of foreign-funded enterprises approved by the city exceeded 10, 000, the foreign capital actually used amounted to US $ 1.9 billion, and exports totalled US $ 2.1 billion, representing three major breakthroughs. In 1994, 2, 675 foreign-funded enterprises were approved, involving a     

Does Trade Liberalisation Trigger Tax Competition? Theory and Evidence from OECD Countries

This paper aims at assessing the empirical relevance of new economic geography models of tax competition. We rely on a simple model to specify tax reactions functions, which we estimate with a panel covering (up to) 26 OECD countries over the period 1982 to 2006. We provide striking support for the two main predictions regarding the slope and the constant of the reaction function: national governments seem to adjust their corporate tax rate towards the level chosen in countries that are more populated, and they tend to set higher corporate tax rates when their country enjoys a high real market potential. Through the latter effect, trade integration exerts a positive influence on the level of corporate taxation. However, using a theoretically grounded index of bilateral trade integration, we also show that trade liberalisation gives rise to significant tax interactions in the setting of effective average tax rates in the case of European countries, thus exerting a downward pressure on corporate tax rates.     

EU Trade Regulation for Baby Food: Protecting Health or Trade?

This paper explores the effect of European Union (EU) food safety regulations on EU imports of baby food. Pesticides and contaminants contribute to various health problems. Children are more vulnerable to the dangers of pesticides and contaminants because as soon as they start eating solids, they consume a limited number of food items, most of which are fruits and vegetables. To protect the health of the most vulnerable part of the population, the EU regulations stipulate that no more than 0.01 mg/kg of any single pesticide residue is permitted in baby food. In this respect, the EU differs from most of its trading partners, the majority of which do not differentiate food safety regulations according to the age of the consumer. The purpose of this paper is to compare the EU regulations on maximum residue limits of pesticides to those of its major competitors through a severity index. This index is then introduced into a gravity equation to assess the impact on EU imports of baby food. We find that the EU regulation had a negative impact on the volume of trade but a positive one on the probability of setting up new trade relationships.     

Declining Competition in Food Retailing: An Opportunity for Consumer Food Cooperatives?

Food cooperatives have become more popular among consumers during the past decade. Although consumers can organize cooperatives for several reasons, economic factors may be more important than indicated by previous research. Specifically, the recent growth in consumer food cooperatives may be associated with declining competition in local food markets. This article reports recent research results on market structure and performance by SMSA that address this hypothesis.     

Taming the Chinese Dragon: A Promising Cornerstone for Transatlantic Trade Cooperation?

Intereconomics - The desire of many policymakers to tame the Chinese Dragon is apparent. But what is particularly disappointing is the little, if any, reflection on how to induce the government in...     

Sheyang—A Coastal Window for Trade in Mid-northern Jiangsu

To carry out internationalized economic strategy is one of the "Three Great Development Strategies" that Jiangsu Province faces in the 21st century, Being a coastal-open county, Sheyang will implement, an all-round outwardly oriented strategy to promote its coastal dominance and build a coastal window opening to the outside world in the middle part of northern Jiangsu. Sheyang is located at the middle of the 954-kilometer coastline of Jiangsu, looking towards Japan and Korea across the sea. Its own coastline is 109.6 kilometers in length, the first in the province, and it is in the forward position where the country, the province and the city implement coastal economic     

Contextual and Competitive Interference: Inhibition or Facilitation?

Existing literature has found two sources of advertising interference, competitive and contextual, that decrease the effectiveness of an ad in a cluttered environment. However, to date, the negative impact of competitive and contextual interference has been examined independently. This research explores advertising effectiveness when these sources exist concurrently. Contrary to the supposition concerning the additive effects of both sources of interference when simultaneously present, our findings indicate that viewing ads for the same product category with similar executional elements leads to the dissipation of interference effects (Study 1). Consistent with the process rationale, when a product-brand cue (versus a picture cue) is provided, this novel effect disappears (Study 2). The implications of these findings for advertising are highlighted in the discussion section.     

Europe After COVID-19: A New Role for German Leadership?

Intereconomics - The German change of attitude concerning fiscal policy and the mutualisation of efforts to fight the pandemic is driven by self-interest, and as such might be structural.     

New Curbs on Processing Trade for A New Trade Pattern

China recently announced a new policy that seeks to rein in the de- velopment of processing trade in re- stricted commodities,in a bid to op- timize the country's exporting struc- ture,put strong curbs on the export of"high-energy-consuming, high- polluting and resource-dependent"products,and discourage the export of commodities with low added value and poor technology content,so as to gradually eliminate trade frictions, and promote trade balance to ease tension caused by the too wide trade surplus.The change is instrumental in upgrading the present processing trade system,transforming the pat- tern of foreign trade growth mode, and promoting the sustainable devel- opment of social economy.     

Fair Trade Organizations in Belgium: Unity in Diversity?

This article analyzes the dual process occurring in the field of Fair Trade organizations (FTOs) in Belgium. On the one hand, there has been a gradual diversification of the organizational landscape over time from pioneering volunteer-based non-profit organizations to a broader array including cooperatives, group structures, businesses and individual entrepreneurs exclusively devoted to FT. On the other hand, a process of networking is currently taking place among the various types of FTOs in the context of the creation of a Belgian Fair Trade Federation (BFTF). Drawing on neo-institutional theory, including institutional entrepreneurship, this article examines how and why these two processes have taken place. A qualitative field study in the Belgian FT sector, including interviews with 15 FTOs, offers rich empirical material which illustrates the diverse patterns of these organizations. Based on the observed combinations of different variables among Belgian FTOs, a taxonomy reflecting diverse means of conceiving and organizing FT activity is suggested. The different categories of FTOs and the evolution of these categories over time seem linked to the broader institutional evolutions of FT at the international as well as at the Belgian level. Finally, several factors are reviewed to explain why the diversity among Belgian FTOs has not been an obstacle to their collaboration.     

Wage Inequality in the United Kingdom: Trade and/or Technology?

I employ two alternative intra‐industry trade Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) models to explain some stylised facts of the British economy. The model with skill‐biased technical change (i.e. exogenous skill‐biased technical change à la Solow) can explain the rise in wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers, the decline in manufacturing and the expansion of modern services. However, the model where technical change is trade‐induced (i.e. endogenous sector‐biased technical change à la Romer) performs better, because it can also explain the exponential rise of imported intermediate capital goods and developments in the wage rate of unskilled workers.