Impact of trade openness on GDP growth: Does TFP matter?

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to empirically explore the impact of trade openness on GDP growth initiating with the idea that trade openness cannot be fully characterized through the different openness measures only, we propose to account for total factor productivity (TFP) development level as an additional dimension of countries’ trade integration. Our empirical application is based on 35 years’ balanced panel of 82 countries spanning 1980–2014. To address the potential endogeneity issue, we use the system GMM estimator developed for dynamic panel data models. The results outline that there exists an interesting non-linear pattern between trade openness and GDP growth when TFP development level is taken as an intervening variable into account: trade may have a negative impact on GDP growth when countries have specialized in low-TFP development level; trade openness clearly boosts GDP growth once countries exhibit a minimum threshold of TFP development level. Therefore, there is some pattern of complementarity between trade openness and TFP development level so that the higher the TFP development level, the higher the impact of the trade openness on GDP growth.     

A Note on Impacts of International Trade on Economic Growth and Inflation

Results of this study indicate that short- and long-term effects of international trade on inflation, GDP, and inflation-adjusted GDP growth vary over periods with fixed or freely floating exchange rates or a big accumulated trade deficit. Causalities between trade and other macroeconomic variables are also different in different periods.

This study does not find supportive evidence that “phantom GDP gains” may significantly change impacts of imports on productivity, CPI, and inflation-adjusted GDP and causalities between imports and other macroeconomic variables, although a structural break is found in the relationship between imports and GDP at the beginning of 2003.     

Productivity Versus Employment: Quantifying the Economic Effects of an EU–Japan Free Trade Agreement

The European Union and Japan recently entered into negotiations over a bilateral free trade agreement intended to stimulate growth and create wealth. Since customs duties are already low, the success of the liberalisation process hinges on the elimination of non‐tariff barriers. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on two possible liberalisation scenarios: a less ambitious liberalisation and a comprehensive liberalisation. In contrast to classic studies, our paper builds on the modern trade literature, accounting for the dominance of intra‐industry trade in both economies and the existence of heterogeneous firms. Furthermore, we model a search‐and‐matching labour market, allowing us to quantify employment effects of trade liberalisation. We find that a comprehensive liberalisation increases Japanese GDP by 0.86 per cent, whereas the EU experiences only an additional 0.21 per cent of real GDP growth. Most of the growth in real GDP is due to firms' efficiency gains, whereas unemployment is reduced by only a small amount. Other world regions experience small reductions of GDP due to trade diversion effects.     

The International Effects of China’s Growth,Trade and Education Booms

China’s international trade flows have increased by 500 per cent since 1992, far outstripping GDP growth. Likewise tertiary education enrolments have increased by 300 per cent. We simulate these changes using a multi‐sector growth model of the Chinese and USA economies. A decade of trade biased growth in China is found to raise USA GDP by approximately 3–4.5 percentage points and has a large impact on the demand for tertiary education in China. Despite these positive effects of growth, the results suggest that the expansion of China’s education sector per se has practically no long‐run impact on the USA economy.     

TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND GROWTH: Evidence from Mexican Cities

Applying the most recent methodology for explaining economic growth differences across countries (Barro, 1997), education, learning by doing, infrastructure, and knowledge spillovers due to specialization have been considered relevant in explaining productivity growth differences in Mexican urban manufacturing (de León, 1999). In this article, I evaluated whether there is a significant change in the relevance of these variables under trade liberalization. In particular, I evaluated the hypothesis that trade liberalization would promote productivity growth in the northern cities as result of the dynamic effect of trade given that these cities are close to the new central market for Mexican manufacturing and the loss of relevance in the previous accumulated growth factors (Livas and Krugman, 1992; Hanson, 1994). In contrast to that hypothesis, I observed that urban manufacturing close to the United States did not show a better performance than the rest of the cities as expected and that accumulated growth factors, such as education, learning by doing, and infrastructure are still relevant in explaining productivity growth across urban manufacturing in Mexico.     

Investment in Transition Economies

Summary

All centrally planned economies suffered from overinvestment. Due to low capital productivity, reasonable growth rates in output could be maintained only with high investment/GDP ratios. Nevertheless, the sharp reduction in investment during transformational recession and its slow growth during subsequent recovery are viewed as negative phenomena, since transition economies offer numerous opportunities to increase output with relatively small targeted investment.

This paper seeks to develop and test two major hypotheses. The first one explains the behavior of aggregate investment during transition: we find that changes in external financing (current account balance), in the government budget deficit and in the institutional capacity of the state (as measured by the share of government revenues in GDP) explain up to 75% of the variations in investment/GDP ratios during transition, while the progress in reforms (cumulative liberalisation index) and in privatisation (share of the private sector in GDP) do not matter a great deal. With respect to sources of investment financing, there is some evidence that better investment performance is supported by budgetary funds, by credits to the private sector and by the strength of the stock market, whereas foreign aid is a substitute rather than a complement (i.e., it is negatively related to investment) and the inflow of foreign direct investment is not important.

The second hypothesis deals with the impact of investment on economic performance as measured by changes in GDP during transition: we find that differences in performance arc, in great part, associated not with investment patterns, but with varying marginal capital productivity. The latter in turn is determined mainly by differing magnitudes of restructuring required in various countries, i.e., by the distortions in industrial structure and trade patterns inherited from central planning, and by the institutional capacity of the state (as measured by the share of shadow economy and government revenues in GDP). The degree of liberalisation in this case appears to be a relatively important determinant of capital productivity, while the rates of inflation are not.     

GDP growth,terms-of-trade effects,and total factor productivity

The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of each one of the major factors explaining Australian nominal GDP growth: technological change, movements in the terms of trade, increases in the endowments of labour and capital, and changes in domestic output prices. We use an index number technique as well as an econometric approach. Moreover, we look at several methods to decompose total factor productivity growth into secular and unexpected components. All our empirical results have a tight theoretical foundation, being based on the GDP function approach to modelling the production sector of an open economy.     

The Macroeconomic Effects of the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement on Canada: A Counterfactual Analysis

We evaluate the macroeconomic effects of the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Canada's economy using a counterfactual analysis. We exploit the dependence of GDP growth (labour productivity and unemployment, respectively) among different economic entities and construct the counterfactuals using data from countries other than Canada. We find that in the adjustment period from 1989:Q1 to 1992:Q1, Canada's economy bore the short‐run adjustment costs of the FTA with a decline of the annual real GDP by 2.56 per cent and a decline of the labour productivity by 0.62 per cent. After the adjustment period, the FTA had a positive and permanent effect of 1.86 per cent on Canada's annual real GDP growth and raised the labour productivity from 1992 to 1994 by 2.39 per cent on average. Moreover, the FTA increased Canada's annual unemployment rate by 1.81 per cent in the period 1989–94.     

中国服务贸易周期波动的实证分析

本文用增长率直接法、增长率趋势法分析了中国服务贸易的短周期、中周期和中长周期波动,并结合GDP长波采用协整分析方法研究了中国服务贸易的长波特征.研究结果表明,1982年以来的中国服务贸易经历了8次短周期波动、3次中周期波动(其中目前的第3次中周期波动具有适度高位平滑的特征)、2次中长周期波动(目前正处于第2次中长周期波动的扩张期),服务贸易长波与GDP长波具有基本相同的特征.     

Trade Liberalisation and Economic Growth

There has been a long‐held belief that there is an association between economic growth and increased levels of international trade. However, more recent work has questioned this hypothesis and the re‐opening of the debate has identified two key areas of contention. One is the extent to which the effects of openness are conditional on factors omitted from the core regression relationship and hence how the hypothesis is tested. The other is the meaning and measurement of openness and liberalisation. This paper addresses both these areas by exploring the nature of heterogeneity in growth performance among liberalising countries using a difference‐in‐difference approach. The results show that, while in aggregate there appears to be a positive but small impact of trade liberalisation on growth, this masks a huge range of responses. Empirical analysis of this heterogeneity shows that a one‐size‐fits‐all policy is not necessarily the most effective, and suggests a case‐by‐case approach is more appropriate.     

Who Supports Free Trade in Latin America?

This paper examines individual trade policy preferences across 17 countries in Latin America. The focus is on whether skilled or unskilled workers are more likely to support liberalised trade and on whether country characteristics, such as factor endowments, alter the preferences of skilled and unskilled workers. Based on the standard Heckscher‐Ohlin model and the Stolper‐Samuelson theorem, wage inequality in developing countries will decrease under free trade and unskilled workers will benefit. We find that on average skilled workers are more likely than unskilled workers to support free trade in Latin American countries. Separate country regressions reveal that this pattern is only statistically significant in 8 out of 17 Latin American countries. However, there are no countries in our sample in which unskilled workers are statistically more likely to support free trade than skilled workers, not even in the lowest skill‐endowed country in the sample. We also find that people from Latin American countries with higher GDP, faster growth, more cropland and a longer period of time since reform were more likely on average to support free trade.     

Temporary trade and heterogeneous firms

Using Hungarian firm-transaction level export data, we show that about one third of firm–destination and about one half of firm–product–destination export spells are short-lived, or temporary, each year. This is in odds with theories where comparative advantage is stable and market entry costs are sunk. We show how endogenous choice between variable and sunk cost trade technologies can explain the empirical importance and some characteristics of temporary trade. We build a model in which the likelihood of temporary trade depends on productivity and capital cost of the firm as well as well-known gravity variables of destinations. These predictions are borne out by the data; the likelihood of permanent trade, defined by a simple filter, rises with firm productivity, financial stability, proximity and GDP of destination countries.     

贵州省对外贸易与经济增长的经验研究

我国学者已有的经验研究普遍支持对外贸易促进经济增长的假设命题,但其中有关西部经济落后省份的对外贸易是否带动了当地的经济增长进行的研究甚少。针对对外贸易促进经济增长的假设,本文根据1978-2005年贵州省GDP、进出口的统计数据,运用ADF检验、协整关系、Granger因果检验、以及向量误差修正模型等研究方法,分析了对外贸易与经济增长之间的关系。结果表明:贵州省进出口贸易与经济增长之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,且经济增长是出口、进口增长的Granger原因,而进出口之间则存在双向因果关系。     

Demand shifts and willingness to pay in applied trade models

Emerging issues facing open economies, including global value chains and non-tariff measures, have important implications for demand that are often not well suited for analysis with the supply-side mechanisms commonly found in economic models – namely taxes and productivity. The aim of this paper is to provide a methodological approach for implementing demand-side changes. Specifically, the approach adapts the Armington equation to model a change in consumers' willingness to pay for imports. To illustrate, we estimate the impacts of the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Estimated ad valorem equivalents of the TFA are applied as demand-side shocks to consumers' willingness to pay in a global applied general equilibrium model and the results compared to those obtained using Samuelson's iceberg approach. We find that the iceberg approach results in a technical change which increases the productivity of imports, raising real GDP, while the willingness-to-pay approach causes a smaller rise in real GDP, although trade increases further. The impact on the terms of trade differs significantly between the two mechanisms, with prices falling as costs fall, under the iceberg method, and rising with increased willingness to pay. Our results clearly show that the choice of mechanism matters.     

南北贸易模式与中国贸易条件决定模型实证研究

贸易条件是衡量一国贸易利益得失的重要指标。本文在南北贸易模式中讨论了南方国家贸易条件。研究发现,南方国家贸易条件是否随着劳动生产率提高而恶化,依赖于南方国家是否具有垄断定价能力。我国贸易条件实证分析表明,1997年之前贸易条件主要受到我国人均国民收入提高的影响而不断改善,1997年后随着劳动生产率提高,我国贸易条件不断恶化。     

和谐社会引发的经济学思考

文章从经济学角度分析了和谐社会带来的三点思考:和谐社会呼唤主流经济学“经济人”假设研究范式的变革;和谐社会所追求的经济增长是社会和谐GDP的增长;和谐也是生产力。     

The rise of the machines: Capital imports and real manufacturing wages in 57 nations

Outward-oriented policy reform has attracted a large number of academics to the study of the trade-labour market nexus. One of these fields has focused on capital intensive (machinery) imports and its effect on manufacturing wages. The skill-enhancing-trade (SET) hypothesis was put forth to explain a potential relationship where an inflow of capital imports results in increased demand for skilled labour and decreased that of unskilled labour, and thus resulted in a rise in skilled wages and a decrease in their unskilled counterparts. This study revisits this hypothesis with a panel from the manufacturing sector of 57 nations. We improve upon previous studies in a number of ways. We add developed nations to the sample and examine capital imports from rich countries as well as the rest of the world. This takes into account the prominence of vertical production networks in international trade. We adhere closely to the neo-classical trade model and employ definitions of skilled and unskilled workers that capture the production process of particular items. Finally, we fit a robust dynamic panel data model that accounts for the endogeneity of the determinants of trade and wages. In this way we test whether the SET hypothesis is generally applicable as opposed to previous studies which use an ad hoc selection of countries and variables. We find that the SET hypothesis is not driving changes in manufacturing wages. Instead, worker productivity and GDP per capita explain these labour market outcomes.     

浙江省对外贸易与经济增长关系的实证研究

改革开放以来,浙江省对外贸易和GDP双双高速增长,是我国外贸快速发展的典型代表。基于浙江省1978-2005年GDP及进出口贸易数据的协整分析表明:浙江省实际GDP和实际出口总额、实际进口总额之间存在着长期稳定的均衡关系。格兰杰因果检验则得出进口增长是经济增长的单向原因,经济增长是出口增长的单向原因的结论。在此结论基础上,提出了浙江省对外贸易发展的政策建议。     

Does International Trade Cause Economic Growth? A Survey

This study surveys the literature on the relationship between international trade and economic growth, and succinctly reviews the role of GATT/WTO in fostering free trade. Most studies support the gains of trade and recognise the substantive contributions of GATT/WTO in fostering free trade; the evidence is, however, not ubiquitously unambiguous. The macroeconomic evidence provides a dominant support for the positive and significant effects of trade on output and growth, while the microeconomic evidence lends larger support to the exogenous effects of productivity on trade, as compared to the effects of trade on productivity. The GATT/WTO remains surrounded by barriers to trade and avowed preferences for preferential trade agreements. The strength of the argument for the gains of trade needs to be evaluated in juxtaposition with several methodological and measurement issues that surround the trade‐growth empirics. Most studies focus on partial equilibrium analysis of trade policy and ignore the general equilibrium aspects of macroeconomic policy. It is difficult to disentangle the effects of trade policies from those of other macroeconomic policies and unequivocally interpret the observed correlations between trade policies and economic growth. Trade is one of the several catalysts of productivity and growth and hence its contribution is contingent on its weight in economic activity.     

中国与东盟贸易的决定因素分析

本文以中国与东盟间的双边贸易为研究对象,利用贸易引力模型分析中国与东盟之间贸易的决定因素。中国的GDP、东盟国家国的GDP和人均GDP对于中国-东盟贸易具有显著的促进作用,而中国的人均GDP和距离对于中国-东盟的贸易具有阻碍作用。