Biofuel Subsidies and International Trade

This paper explores optimal biofuel subsidies in a general equilibrium trade model. The focus is on the production of biofuels such as corn‐based ethanol, which diverts corn from use as food. In the small‐country case, when the tax on crude is not available as a policy option, a second‐best biofuel subsidy may or may not be positive. In the large‐country case, the twin objectives of pollution reduction and terms‐of‐trade improvement justify a combination of crude tax and biofuel subsidy for the food exporter. Finally, we show that when both nations engage in biofuel policies, the terms‐of‐trade effects encourage the Nash equilibrium subsidy to be positive (negative) for the food exporting (importing) nation.     

Reforming Tariffs and Subsidies in International Trade

This paper analyzes unilateral and multilateral reform of ad valorem tariffs and subsidies. The paper shows that under substitutability, extensive subsidization of exports is required for an increase in the lowest tariff rate to raise economic welfare. The paper derives also conditions for when a radial reduction of ad valorem tariffs and subsidies may fail to raise economic welfare.     

会计盈余质量与资本结构动态调整

本文以我国2003²012年沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,研究会计盈余质量对资本结构动态调整的影响,研究发现:上市公司的会计盈余质量越高,其实际资本结构偏离最优资本结构的幅度越小,资本结构越合理;会计盈余质量的上升会显著加快资本结构调整速度;会计盈余质量对资本结构动态调整的影响存在异质性,企业负债水平较高时,会计盈余质量对资本结构偏离度的影响更加显著,而企业负债水平较低时,会计盈余质量对资本结构调整速度的影响更明显。     

Trade Competitiveness and Employment: Job Creation or Job Destruction

This paper empirically examines the impact of fluctuations in international trade competitiveness on employment in the UK manufacturing sector over the period 1999–2010. We find statistically significant but economically small effects of a shock to international trade competitiveness on the level of employment. Our results show that the adjustment process in employment mainly works through job creation. We also find that compared to large firms, small firms contribute more toward job creation than job destruction. Our results that changes in GDP growth rate and average wages are significantly related to employment suggest that the UK labour market significantly responds to market forces. Finally, we find that the effect of changes in the real exchange rate on both job creation and job destruction differs between exporting and non-exporting firms.     

Trade,Job Losses and Gender: A Policy Perspective

This paper presents a gender perspective of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The TAA is the primary US policy to assist the transition of workers displaced due to trade related economic restructuring. In comparison to the relatively substantial research on gendering trade policies in developing economies there is very limited focus on gendering policy responses to trade in the US. We argue that there is a specific gender trend in the trade-displacement patterns in the US which calls for a gender sensitive policy response. We examine the TAA in light of this trend and offer some suggestions for a gendered approach to providing assistance to workers negotiating an increasingly flexible global labor market.

中间品贸易自由化与制造业就业变动——来自中国加入WTO的微观证据

本文基于2001年中国加入WTO的准自然实验,采用倍差法研究了中间品贸易自由化对中国制造业就业变动的影响效应。研究发现:(1)中间品贸易自由化通过"提高就业创造"与"降低就业破坏"两个渠道显著促进了企业的就业净增长;(2)中间品贸易自由化对不同生产率企业的就业变动具有异质性影响,它促进了高生产率企业的就业创造,但会促进低生产率企业的就业破坏,同时提高了低生产率企业退出市场的概率;(3)良好的地区制度环境有利于强化中间品贸易自由化对制造业就业集约边际变动与广延边际变动的影响;(4)就业再配置效率的改善是中间品贸易自由化促进制造业生产率增长的重要渠道。上述结论意味着,将外部贸易自由化改革与内部市场化改革双管齐下,对培育就业和实现产业转型升级至关重要。     

Marginal Intraindustry Trade and Labor Adjustment

In the context of Ethier's model of the division of labor, this paper accomplishes three tasks. First, it complements existing literature on the algebraic properties of marginal intraindustry trade (MIIT) measures by embedding one of these measures in a general equilbrium model. Consistent with the existing literature, it is found that change in the Grubel–Lloyd index provides systematically different economic information from change in the MIIT index. Second, it examines the connection between intraindustry trade and intra- industry adjustment. Here it is found that the informal assumption that intraindustry trade generates only intraindustry adjustment cannot be sustained. That is, intraindustry trade will generally induce interindustry adjustment. Finally, because intraindustry trade generates interindustry adjustment, increased intraindustry trade will generally induce long-run changes in relative factor prices. This suggests, given the prominence of intraindustry trade in OECD countries, that there may be problems with inference on the link between rade and wages undertaken in a strict Heckscher–Ohlin framework.     

货币政策与贸易不平衡的调整

本文建立了一个开放小国随机动态一般均衡模型,研究不同的货币政策和汇率政策对调整贸易不平衡的作用,同时考虑了资本开放与否对不同政策效果的影响。分析发现,由于名义粘性的作用,无论资本开放与否,调整价格都无法快速实现贸易平衡,并会引起产出和物价的较大波动。而较快的汇率调整政策会较快实现贸易平衡,且无论资本开放与否,都不会引起经济波动。从福利角度比较,较快的汇率调整总是优于价格调整,且在资本开放环境下的调整总是优于资本封闭下的调整。通过中国数据校准和模拟发现,在渐进调整汇率的政策下,价格水平被迫作出调整可能是带来2005年人民币汇率改革之后经济波动的原因。     

“绿箱补贴”——财政支农政策的调整取向

WTO《农业协定》中有关农业国内支持的政策主要由“黄箱补贴”和“绿箱补贴”组成。黄箱补贴是对农产品的价格、市场或贸易有直接影响的补贴政策,包括种子和肥料等农业投入品补贴、农产品营销贷款补贴、休耕补贴等。绿箱补贴是基于农业的弱质性和其它非贸易因素而制定的补贴政策,包括科学研究、病虫害防治、基础设施     

Pitfalls in the Theory of International Trade Policy: Concertina Reforms of Tariffs, and Subsidies to High-Technology Industries

This paper explores the links between international trade theory and the practice of trade and industrial policy in open economies, with special attention to three areas where theoretical lessons have been misunderstood in policy debates. I argue that the "concertina rule" for tariff reform justifies reductions in high tariffs but not moves towards uniformity and particularly not increases in low tariffs. I show that the basic principles of tariff reform are the same in unilateral, multilateral and customs union contexts. Finally, I suggest that the theory of strategic trade policy does not justify subsidies to high-technology industries.     

跨国公司在华员工援助计划及其启示

员工援助计划的经济效益性以及我国激烈而快速的经济和社会变革是在华跨国公司实施该项计划的深刻动因。跨国公司员工援助计划存在服务外包化、服务对象本土化以及付费方和服务对象非同一性的重要特点,给该项计划在华的实施效果带来了挑战。另外,跨国公司员工援助计划日益具有投资性色彩。这都给我国政府及其企业的员工援助工作提供了很好的启示。     

Dynamics of Intraindustry Trade and Labor-Market Adjustment

This paper investigates some dynamic aspects of the 'smooth adjustment hypothesis' that is commonly associated with intraindustry trade (IIT). The analysis is conducted on a panel of plant-level employment data and industry-level production and trade data for Ireland. Rates of intraindustry job turnover are used as a proxy for labor-market adjustment. Three findings stand out. First, a measure of marginal IIT is found to be more appropriate for the analysis of adjustment issues than the traditional static IIT index. Second, the effect of marginal IIT on labor-market adjustment is most significant in the short term, namely for indices calculated on one-year ntervals and lagged by one year. Third, the most significant determinants of the intraindustry job turnover rate are sector-level plant concentration ratios and trade openness.     

Unobserved Heterogeneity,Job Training and the Employer Size–Wage Effect in Australia

This study attempts to clarify the nature of the employer size–wage effect in Australia by determining the extent to which it can be explained by observed and unobserved quality differences of workers. Our empirical results show that, for men, quality‐adjusted employer size–wage effects are quite small and are mostly driven by lower wages for workers in the smallest firms (fewer than 20 workers). For women, size–wage effects disappear when unobserved quality differences are accounted for. We also find that accounting for differences in the incidence of job training has no effect on the structure of wage differences by employer size.     

Exchange Rate Volatility,Earnings Uncertainty and Bidirectional Trade Flows: Empirical Evidence on Ghana

Although the empirical findings on the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade is diverse, the growing consensus in the literature appears to suggest that for developing economies, the theoretically expected negative relationship almost always exists. The paper takes a different approach to empirically assess this relationship by analysing the impact of exchange rate volatility independently on total trade, imports and exports. The intuition behind this approach is to assess exactly how exporters and importers are incentivised (differently or similarly) by exchange rate volatility costs. Whereas adequately risk-aversed Ghanaian exporters in the presence of higher exchange rate volatility and the absence of hedging facilities effectively compensated against exchange rate risk by increasing volume of exports, import decisions were to some extent (although not effectively) negatively affected by exchange rate volatility. The different responses by Ghanaian exporters and importers to higher exchange rate volatility costs are reflected in the relationship between volatility and total trade. The useful policy lessons and the challenges that the empirical evidence present are discussed.     

Labour Rents,Adjustment Costs and the Cost of US Steel Trade Restraints in the 1980s

Recent studies have compared labour gains from protection in import-competing industries with the costs of protection and found that those gains are not large enough to justify trade restraints. This study utilizes a new empirical technique for estimating the costs and benefits of protection in a partial equilibrium framework, and provides a complete and consistent accounting of labour benefits including both labour rents and adjustment costs saved. We find that a small steel tariff could have generated net welfare gains for the US in the 1980s, even though actual protection through Voluntary Restraint Agreements generated net welfare losses.     

我国出口贸易政策的缺失及调整取向

改革开放以来，我国出口贸易创造了被国际社会称之为的“出口奇迹”，出口商品结构亦呈明显动态升级特征。然而这一骄人成绩背后却隐藏着一些隐忧：外商主导我国出口局面形成；中间品介高质低，影响下苷产业的竞争力；贸易条件长期恶化等，这与我国外贸政策在某些方面的缺失有着密切关系。为此，应及早对我国出口贸易政策进行调整，采取对应措施，使我国成为真正意义上的贸易强国。     

Trade, Skills and Adjustment Costs: A Study of Intra-Sectoral Labor Mobility

The relationship between the ability of workers to change job, sector or industry and the short‐run adjustment costs associated with a reallocation of labor is the subject of lively debate among academics. This paper examines recent sector and industry level labor market adjustment in the UK using data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. We explore the link between the nature of UK trade patterns and labor adjustment within the manufacturing sector and employ a multinomial logit approach to examine the determinants of “within” and “between” industry mobility. By controlling for individual skill specificity we find some evidence of a link between intra‐industry trade and intra‐industry labor adjustment.     

财政补贴、税收与公司投资行为

为了增强本地区公司的市场竞争能力,实现地区利益的最大化,各级政府对本地区公司实行了财政干预包括税收政策措施,这种干预必然会对公司的投资行为产生影响.本文建立了一个公司投资行为模型,研究财政补贴和税收对公司投资行为产生的影响.研究结果表明,当财政补贴小于长期负债时,财政补贴能够抑制公司的过度投资行为,但投资不足的趋势会增强,而减税能够抑制公司投资不足;当财政补贴大于长期负债时,财政补贴和减税都能减少公司的投资不足.