The price and income elasticities of the top clothing exporters: Evidence from a panel data analysis

This paper studies the main export function features of twelve top clothing exporters (China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK and USA) in the period between 1992 and 2011. Price and income elasticities are estimated for each economy using a panel data approach, after controlling for nonstationarity, cointegration and Granger causality. Rolling regressions are also performed, and show the existence of some elasticities instability over time, fundamentally related to the profound economic and institutional changes affecting the clothing trade in the period under consideration. The analysis suggests that most advanced economies, including Hong Kong, changed their position in the global value chain towards an “organizational” role. China confirms its leadership in clothing exports although its rising price elasticity sounds a warning with regard to future prospects.     

International Capital Mobility in the Short Run and the Long Run: A Daily Data Study for Japan,Singapore and Taiwan*

Using daily data from between 1993 and 2003, covered interest differential and cointegration tests are applied to examine short‐run and long‐run international capital mobility for Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, and, for comparison purposes, the UK. Despite the high short‐run mobility in Japan (Singapore and Taiwan), being slightly (significantly) lower than in the UK, perfect long‐run mobility exists in all three Asian economies, especially when the Asian currency crisis is excluded. Different short‐run and long‐run mobility implies the existence of a response lag in the financial market. As expected, although the impulse response reaches the significant long‐run equilibrium level shortly after the shock in the UK, lagged responses appear in the three Asian economies, particularly in Singapore and Taiwan.     

Income and Price Elasticities of China＇s Exports

The appearance of new product varieties and improvements in the quality of goods have both played key roles in the rapid growth of China's exports. However, these two important elements have not been formally integrated into the demand equations for China's exports. As we demonstrate in this paper, income elasticity will be underestimated if new varieties of goods and quality improvements are omitted in price index and quantity index calculations, which are necessary for estimating the export demand function. Moreover, the faster new product varieties enter export markets, the greater the underestimation will be. In this paper, we develop an export demand equation that takes into account new product varieties and improvements in quality, and then calculate the demand function for China's exports using the data from 1992 to 2006. According to our estimation, the short‐term income elasticity of demand for China's exports is approximately 2.34, and the short‐term price elasticity is approximately –0.65. Our estimation predicts an increase in China's export value in the case of an RMB appreciation or export rebate rates reduction in the short term, due to the low price elasticity of China's exports, whose absolute value is less than 1. Our findings are novel and could have significant policy implications.     

The impact of the composition of exports on export performance

Summary This article presents an analysis of the impact of the composition of exports on export performance. With the help of a set of different trade models employing two suppliers and two regions of destination it is demonstrated that regional preferences and commodity specialization can have a strong influence on export performance, both directly and indirectly. The reason for the latter is that the composition of exports not only has an impact on total exports but also influences the sensitivity of total exports for changes in the variables determining export competitiveness. Using data derived from the literature these points are illustrated for Germany and France as suppliers, and the USA and Japan as regions of destination. The same models have been applied to variants using a commodity dimension.     

DETERMINANTS OF DEMAND FOR FIJI'S EXPORTS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Fiji is no exceptin to the rule that exports are an important source of growth and development. In this light, it is important to know the determinants of exports. However, there is no empirical study on Fiji's export demand. This paper uses the modern econometric techniques—in particular, the autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration—to investigate whether the standard export demand variables, viz., trading partner income, export price, and competitor price, have a long‐run cointegration relationship with Fiji's real exports for the period 1970 to 1999. In addition, the long‐run results are also estimated by using the dynamic ordinary least squares and the fully modified ordinary least squares. The empirical results indicate the existence of a cointegration relationship among the variables. The long‐run foreign income, own‐price, and cross‐price elasticities are found to be 0.7 to 0.8, −1.3 to −1.5, and 2.1 to 2.2, respectively.     

Do High-technology Exports Cause More Technology Spillover in China？

The volume of China’s high-technology exports has grown sharply since the implementation of its export promotion strategy "Revitalizing Trade through Science and Technology" in 1999.This paper investigates whether technology spillover effects are greater for hightechnology exports than for primary manufactured goods exports.We present a generalized multi-sector spillover model to identify both between spillover effects from exports towards non-exporters and within-spillover effects among export sectors.Using panel data for 31 provinces in China over the period from 1998 to 2005,we find that although high-technology export sectors have higher productivity compared with other sectors,this productivity advantage does not lead to technology spillover to both domestic sectors and other export sectors,and export technology spillover mainly derives from traditional export sectors rather than high-technology export sectors.As such findings can be largely attributed to the fact that China’s high-technology exports depend significantly on processing trade by foreign- invested firms,policy implications are discussed in relation to how to best promote the role of China’s high-technology exports during economic expansion.     

Analysis of Chinese Manufacturing Export Duration

This paper studies the duration of Chinese manufacturing exports and its determinants, using disaggregated 6‐digit level Harmonized System product trade data from 1995 to 2007. Cox proportional hazard, Weibull and exponential models are used to examine the effects of various factors on export duration. It is revealed that export duration tends to be rather short‐lived. It is also found that GDP and GDP per capita of the export destination have positive effects on export duration, while trade relationships with distant and landlocked countries are generally of shorter duration. In addition, export duration is longer for differentiated and parts and components products, as well as products with large initial trade values. WTO membership is also important for longer export duration. Our empirical analysis suggests that developed markets, such as the USA and the EU, are important to China, and should still be the major sources for Chinese export growth in the long run. Moreover, technical innovation of firms and free trade agreement negotiations will be helpful for sustainable export growth.     

中国对美国出口决策机制实证分析

本文通过误差修正模型,对1994-2007年中国对美出口决策机制进行短期动态分析得到:1994-2001年中国对美出口与美国国内物价指数(GDP deflator)存在显著关系,2002-2007年中国对美出口与美国经济增长率以及出口价格指数密切相关。通过脉冲响应分析得出,长期影响中国对美出口主要因素是美国经济增长率和出口价格指数。     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF OECD GROWTH FOR SOUTH AFRICAN EXPORTS

This paper examines the role of OECD growth on South African exports using a vector error correction model. In the long run both OECD growth and the real effective exchange rate were found to influence South Africa's export performance, while in the short run, the real effective exchange rate was found to be an important driver of export growth. The policy implications that emerge from the study underscore the importance of fully exploiting current trading relationships, diversifying South African export destinations and enhancing competitiveness.     

Assessing systemic risk and its determinants for advanced and major emerging economies: the case of ΔCoVaR

The paper examines conditional risk relationships among sovereign CDS prices and stock market indices for 11 economies with particular relevance for international portfolio investment holdings (Canada, China, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the USA, and the UK). The analysis is based on delta conditional value at risk (ΔCoVaR). The UK, France, and Italy significantly contribute to the overall systemic risk in both markets. The USA, the UK, and Russia appear to be important contributors to it in the stock market. In the meantime, the advanced economies exhibit much higher resilience to the systemic risk propagation in comparison with China, Brazil and Russia. Gross government debt to GDP, state fragility index, EU membership and world gross GDP share of a country in distress are key determinants of ΔCoVaRs for the sovereign CDS prices. Stock market total value traded to GDP and world gross GDP share of a country in distress drive ΔCoVaRs in the stock market. In both cases geographic distance tends to deter systemic risk propagation. Inflation, trade and financial openness as well as common language and time zone differences are less important predictors of bilateral ΔCoVaR exposures.     

Impacts of trade liberalisation on aggregate import in Bangladesh: An ARDL Bounds test approach

Bangladesh has been liberalising its trade regime extensively since 1992 in order to achieve higher trade performance and GDP growth. However, despite the long period of liberalisation, imports are still growing faster than exports, increasing the trade deficit. Trade liberalisation is considered a crucial contributory factor. The paper examines the impact of trade liberalisation on the aggregate import in Bangladesh, using the ARDL Bounds Test approach with annual time series data from 1972–1973 to 2004–2005. Empirical results suggest that trade liberalisation through reduction of the import duty rate increases the aggregate import substantially in the short run, but insignificantly in the long run. Trade liberalisation using simplification of non-tariff measures shows a significant but low positive impact on the aggregate import in the long run. Liberalisation interaction with price decreases imports slightly hence improves the trade balance, while interaction with income increases imports slightly hence worsens the trade balance. An increase in imports is mainly stimulated by an increase in income. Moreover, higher income elasticity compared to price elasticity indicates that an effort to maintain imports at the desired level by increasing import duty could be counter balanced and ineffective. Therefore, a consistent policy to promote not only consumption of domestically produced products, but investment, production, and backward linkage industries is essential in order to improve the trade balance and GDP growth in Bangladesh.     

The common trend and common cycle of exports and the real exchange rate: Empirical results from Swiss data

Conclusion This paper contains an empirical analysis of the relationship of Swiss goods exports, the real exchange rate and world trade, using the common-trend-common-cycle methodology. This exercise shows that the trend and cyclical dependence of these variables are strongly different: exports and the real exchange rate exhibit a positive long-run or trend dependence of world trade whereas the short-run or cyclical relationship of exports to the real exchange rate is strongly negative with approximately a unit elasticity. These results, which differ strongly from standard dynamic regression or error correction estimates, can be interpreted as follows. In the short run we observe the strong negative cyclical relationship between exports and the real exchange rate, which we expect from short-run macroeconomic models with sticky prices. If we make the reasonable assumption that short-run real exchange rate movements are exogenous to exports and, for instance, caused by monetary policy then we come to the conclusion that cyclical real exchange rate variations lead to strong export cycles. However, in the long run, there is a completely different positive comovement of these two variables, which are both driven by the world trade trend. This common trend of exports and the real exchange rate can be understood as an equilibrium reaction of both variables, price and quantity of the exported goods, to exogenous changes in world trade given a production technology available for the country.     

Bilateral Trade Balances: Evidence from Malaysia*

This study examines the impacts of real exchange rates on the bilateral trade balances of Malaysia with the USA, Japan and Singapore. The results for the long‐run cointegrating vectors show that depreciation or devaluation of real exchange rates will improve bilateral trade balances. In the short run, there is some evidence of the J‐curve phenomenon. Changes in real money supply contribute greatly to changes in real exchange rates. Generally, changes in real exchange rates contribute significantly to changes in bilateral trade balances. Monetary policy can be used to influence bilateral trade balances.     

增加值视角下金砖国家制造业的贸易利得与竞争力研究

基于贸易增加值核算的基本原理,对金砖五国制造业出口增加值进行分解,同时利用标准显示性竞争指数测算金砖国家制造业竞争力,研究发现：中国的贸易利得与庞大的出口总额严重不匹配,其他金砖四国的贸易利得远远高于中国;对中国、巴西和印度而言,基于国内增加值测算的NRCA值要高于基于出口总额测算的NRCA值,而俄罗斯和南非恰恰相反;金砖五国在低技术制造业上表现出各自的竞争优势,除了中国在电子通信和光学设备制造业及机械制造业有相对的竞争优势外,金砖五国整体上在高技术产业层面与美日德等发达国家存在较大差距。应从培育高级要素、产能合作、共建科技创新体系等方面来提高金砖国家制造业竞争力。     

中国制造业出口贸易的技术结构分布及其国际比较

借鉴Lall(2000)及OECD(2008)的方法,利用1995～2006年三位数《标准国际贸易分类》数据,本文分析了中国制造业出口贸易的技术结构分布,并与世界主要国家和地区进行了比较。研究发现:(1)从贸易统计上看,中国制造业出口的技术结构已经由低技术制造业转向了高技术制造业。(2)与日本、美国和德国等世界主要发达国家以汽车、化工和机械等中技术制成品出口为主不同,中国的出口主要集中在低技术制成品和高技术制成品,其中低技术制成品以纺织、皮革和鞋类为主,而高技术制成品则以信息和通信技术产品为主。(3)中国出口贸易的技术结构与发展中经济体更为相似,特别是向亚洲新兴工业经济体不断趋同;与发达经济体的差异虽然较大,但正迅速向其趋同。由于中国高技术产品的出口贸易主要依靠外资企业和加工贸易,中国出口贸易的技术结构分布和贸易竞争力可能被夸大了。     

Do Export Promotion Agencies Increase Exports?

In this paper, we examine the role of export promotion agencies (EPAs) in promoting exports from Japan and Korea. Looking at two home countries enables us to tackle endogeneity issues by controlling for both country‐pair time‐invariant characteristics and importing‐country time‐varying characteristics. Our empirical results indicate that EPA has a positive and significant effect on exports even when we control for endogeneity. However, the size of the effect becomes substantially smaller, implying the importance of addressing endogeneity in accurately measuring the impact of EPA on exports. In addition, we find that EPA's (marginal) effects are larger in exporting to low‐income trade partners than in exporting to high‐income trade partners.     

An aggregate import demand function for greece

This study estimates the aggregate import demand function for Greece using annual data for the period 1951–92. There are two methodological novelties in this paper. The authors find that the variables used in the aggregate import demand function are not stationary but are cointegrated. Thus, a long-run equilibrium relationship exists among these variables during the period under study. The price elasticity is found to be close to unity in the long run. The cross-price elasticity is also found to be close to unity. Import demand is found to be highly income elastic in the long run. This implies that with economic growth, ceteris paribus, the trade deficit for Greece is likely to get worse.     

Purchasing Power Parity under Regime Shifts: An Application to Asian Countries*

This paper re‐examines the long‐run purchasing power parity (PPP) relationship for nine Asian countries relative to the USA and Japan during a period containing significant structural breaks. The relevance of considering structural breaks in PPP tests is demonstrated by utilizing the Johansen et al. (2000) procedure that allows for up to two pre‐determined structural breaks. Using conventional tests without considering breaks, one is able to reject the null of no cointegration for only four countries. The Johansen et al. procedure clearly demonstrates the importance of allowing for structural breaks and provides strong support for long‐run PPP for all the countries, regardless of the base country, except in the case of the Philippines vis‐à‐vis Japan. The Hansen–Johansen parameter constancy test indicates stability for all the countries except the Philippines relative to the USA and Malaysia relative to Japan.     

An estimate of aggregate supply response in South African agriculture

Agricultural supply has traditionally been assumed to be relatively inelastic. Time series estimates have generally supported this hypothesis. Estimates based on cross‐sectional observations have generally yielded higher elasticities. It has been argued that cross‐sectional analyses are more appropriate than time series analyses for estimating long‐run elasticities. A cross‐sectional analysis was done on South African data. Quantity supplied was shown to be a function of output/input price ratios, land quality, average rainfall and time. The long‐run supply elasticity appears to be approximately 0,92. This has important implications for agricultural price policy. Policies based on the assumption of very low supply elasticities are likely to distort markets and production.     

Inflation Transmission in Greater China

This paper examines inflation dynamics in Greater China. Using an asymmetric error correction model, we investigate how inflation in Hong Kong and Macao are related to inflation in Chinese Mainland. Our results based on data from July 1997 to December 2012 reveal that a long‐term equilibrium relation exists between inflation in Chinese Mainland and inflation in both Hong Kong and Macao, the two Special Administrative Regions of China. The degree of inflation pass‐through is higher for Macao than for Hong Kong. Moreover, we find no evidence of asymmetries in either Hong Kong and Macao's adjustment speeds towards long‐run equilibrium or in the short‐run pass‐through of accelerating or decelerating inflation in the Mainland. Collectively, our results show a close relationship among price dynamics of the three economies and call for a reconsideration of the exchange rate anchor in the Greater China Region.