Does Trade Expansion Still Promote Employment in Korea?

According to the Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson (HOS) model, trade can be an important source of job gains for developing economies, but, conversely, result in job losses for developed economies. Empirical research to date, however, has provided mixed results regarding the direction and size of the employment effects for both developing and developed economies. This paper attempts to evaluate the employment implications of trade for Korea over the 1975–2000 period. Korea merits attention because it has successfully transformed itself from a developing to a semi‐developed economy during this period. Empirical results show that trade has indeed played an important role in enhancing job opportunities in Korea throughout this period, but its role as a job creator has diminished since 1985, suggesting that such a role could soon end, or even reverse.     

A South–South Survival Strategy: The Potential for Trade among Developing Countries

Trade between developing countries, or South–South trade, has been growing rapidly in recent years following reductions in tariff barriers. However, significant barriers remain, and there is currently reluctance in many developing countries to undertake further reductions, with a preference instead for focusing on opening up access to developed country markets, or maintaining the status quo given that multilateral liberalisation may result in the erosion of preferential access enjoyed by some developing countries. This emphasis on Northern markets represents a missed opportunity for developing countries. To assess this we compare the potential effects of the removal of barriers on South–South trade with the gains from developed country liberalisation and from regional free trade areas within Africa, Asia and Latin America. A general equilibrium model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model, containing information on preferential bilateral tariffs, is used to estimate the impacts. The results indicate that the opening up of Northern markets would provide annual welfare gains to developing countries of $22 billion. However, the removal of South–South barriers has the potential to generate gains 40 per cent larger. The results imply that giving greater emphasis to removing barriers between as well as within continents could prove a successful Southern survival strategy.     

Real and Nominal Effective Exchange Rates for LDCs: 1971–2004

International Monetary Fund constructs and publishes real and nominal effective exchange rates mostly for industrial countries. Recently it has begun publishing such data for some newly industrialized developing countries as well. There remains some developing countries that still have not received any attention by the IMF. This paper bridges that gap by constructing quarterly real and nominal effective exchange rates for 11 developing countries over the 1971–2004 period. As an application we try to assess whether nominal depreciation in these countries has led to real depreciation.     

The saving rate and the upgrade of the trade commodity structure in developing countries: A dynamic H–O model under an oligopolistic market structure

This paper constructs an oligopolistic dynamic Heckscher–Ohlin (H–O) model of a small open economy to analyze the relationship between the saving rate and the upgrade of the trade commodity structure. The analysis shows that the saving rate determines the trade commodity structure of a country in the long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, a developing country with a low capital–labor ratio in the initial state will change from exporting labor-intensive goods in the initial state to exporting capital-intensive goods in the long-run equilibrium if it has a higher saving rate, and this upgrade of trade commodity structure has a social welfare effect under an oligopolistic market structure. The effect of trade policy on the upgrade of the trade commodity structure is uncertain in our model; therefore, a high saving rate is the irreplaceable driving force for trade commodity structure upgrades in developing countries.     

Facilitating international production networks: The role of trade logistics

Networked trade in parts and components is more sensitive to the importer's logistics performance than is final goods trade. The difference between the two trade semi-elasticities is over 45%, which is quantitatively important. We also find that logistics performance is particularly important for trade among developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which is where the emergence of production networks has been most pronounced. Logistics performance is also more important for South–South trade than for South–North trade. Our results suggest that developing country policymakers can support the development of international production networks by improving trade logistics performance.     

The impact of international trade on emigration in developing countries

This paper studies how international trade affects emigration in developing countries. This is a new aspect as previous studies investigated the impact of immigration on trade from host countries perspective. However, there are also reasons to believe that trade may affect the propensity to emigrate in the home countries, leading to potential brain drain in developing countries, especially given the theoretical hypothesis in Stolper–Samuelson (S–S) theorem within Heckscher–Ohlin (H–O) factor-proportion model that more educated workers are more likely to emigrate due to an increase in international trade. When low-skill abundant developing countries liberalize trade, the reward of the scarce factor (skilled labor) is reduced in these countries, but it increases in the high-skill abundant developed countries. Therefore, skilled workers in the developing countries see a strong incentive to migrate to developed countries. To test this hypothesis, this paper utilizes a panel of 133 developing countries for the period of 1980–2010 and finds that high-skilled workers are more likely to emigrate with trade while there appears to be no effect of trade on low-skilled workers.     

The Impact of Bilateral Free Trade Agreements on Bilateral Foreign Direct Investment among Developed Countries

Previous studies find that a trade treaty positively impacts foreign direct investment (FDI). But does a trade treaty always have positive effects on FDI? What is the effect of bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on bilateral FDI among developed countries? Based on the Knowledge‐Capital model, I hypothesize that bilateral FTA has negative effects on bilateral FDI in developed–developed country pairs, but positive effects in developed–developing country pairs. To test this hypothesis empirically, I conduct the within estimator, the Difference‐in‐Difference estimator and the Arellano–Bond estimator with panel data of bilateral FTA and outward FDI in 30 OECD countries and 32 non‐OECD countries between 1982 and 2005. The result supports the hypothesis. The existence of bilateral FTA decreases bilateral FDI in the OECD–OECD country pairs but increases bilateral outward FDI in the OECD–non‐OECD country pairs. The finding of negative effects of bilateral FTA on FDI is robust to different country classifications by gross national income (GNI) per capita and secondary school enrolment. Hence, the results are consistent with what Carr et al. (2001) predicts about the effects of trade cost on FDI in developed–developed country pairs and in developed–developing country pairs.     

Do digital governments foster economic growth in the developing world? An empirical analysis

The research has largely documented favorable economic outcomes of investing in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). Does implementation and adoption of ICT in the public sector also lead to favorable economic gains? The answer to this question has received little attention. The available evidence is largely country-specific from the developed world. This study contributes to the empirical literature on ICT-growth nexus by analytically exploring and empirically testing the relationship of e-government with economic growth of 122 developing economies over the period 2003–2015. The empirical analysis is based on Fixed Effects, Random Effects, and System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The results show that an implementation of an e-government in developing economies causes a robust positive impact on economic growth. This finding is shown to be robust to different specifications, to different econometric techniques and to the endogeneity problem.

     

The impact of exchange rate regimes on economic growth: Empirical study of a set of developing countries during the period 1974–2006

An increment in the quantity of services/goods manufactured per-head of the population over time denotes economic growth of a country. Exchange Rate Intermediate Regimes are unable to continue under conditions of capital movement. To examine the relationship between exchange rate regimes and economic growth. This study has kept its focus on the economic growth of a set of developing countries during the years (1974–2006). Fixed effects and pooled regression for 16 developing countries have been incorporated as the methodologies techniques for data. Analysis of data was performed through SPSS. A relationship between exchange rate regimes and economic growth has been identified through statistical approaches. The results indicated that as compared to flexible exchange regime, growth rate was higher by 1.2% when fixed exchange regime was adopted; and a growth rate of 0.64% was achieved under the intermediate regime when compared with the flexible regime. A positive impact has been identified in exchange rate regimes upon economic growth of the developing countries. Countries following the flexible exchange rates are facing scarcity for the existence of advanced financial systems, which deprives them of enjoying the benefits of flexible regime.     

Bifurcations in the evolutionary approach to multilateralizing trade policy

The Doha Round on multilateral trade liberalization, originally intended to better integrate developing countries into the world economy, has been largely considered a failure. With the Doha outcome falling short of expectations, North–South trade remains underdeveloped. Embedding the political economy and the resulting importance of reciprocating trade liberalization in an evolutionary model along Axelrod–Rapoport lines indicates that factor endowments are crucial in triggering trade policies. Their pivotal nature gives rise to bifurcations, thereby tilting policies towards or away from liberalization trajectories. The theoretical insights are reflected in an empirical analysis, thus strengthening the case for a variable-geometry approach.     

The impact of external environmental on business process management and organizational performance

The external business environment as a variable for explaining the impact of business process management (BPM) on organization performance is investigated. The developed model is tested using partial least squares, using a survey on human resource/information technology managers in Malaysia. Statistical results show that dynamism and hostility influence the degree of implementation of BPM. The extent of BPM also has an impact on organization performance. The model can be used by organizations to assess their level of BPM success depending on specific environmental characteristics. This research also contributes to understanding an environment–BPM–performance interface in a developing economy, not previously examined.     

Developing Countries in the WTO System: Applying Robert Hudec's Analysis to the Doha Round

In his 1987 Developing Countries in the GATT System, Robert Hudec concluded that the identity of developing countries in the GATT system was primarily a matter of their demanding non‐reciprocal and preferential treatment, developed countries responding grudgingly to those demands and that this situation had been unfruitful either to support developing country reforms or to discipline developed country restrictions aimed at developing countries. Hudec was pessimistic about the relationship becoming more productive, but his expression of despair offered a glimmer of hope: ‘There are those who believe that the GATT has become so committed to the current policy that the only way to change it would be to start a new organization’. A new organisation was started, the World Trade Organization, but has the WTO achieved what Hudec hoped a new organisation might? At the 1987–95 Uruguay Round, developing country leaders acted as Hudec had hoped. They used international rules and bindings as leverage to support their own internally‐driven reforms; to overcome generations of accumulated protection, to lock in reforms against the backsliding that had undone previous reforms. Dealing with the Uruguay Round's ‘unbalanced outcome’ and the overlapping ‘implementation problem’ have shaped the Doha Round, but the negotiations have misconceived and mismanaged both issues. Rather than seeking to identify their real economics, the negotiations have gone back to the traditional idea of special and differential treatment. Perhaps the largest cost of this mismanagement is that in many developing countries the unilateral momentum for liberalisation has waned. To the extent that the Doha negotiations have drawn attention away from the domestic issues that were the basis of developing country liberalisation – and enhanced the status of negotiators relative to the leaders who fought at home for reform – they have contributed to that waning.     

Market orientation of retail brands in the grocery chain: the role of supplier relationships

The role of retail brands has grown gradually and today they are regarded as one of the key strategic factors in the positioning of retail firms. However, developing retail brands that are competitive in terms of price and quality as well as in offering unique and specific values to consumers requires long-term, mutually beneficial retailer–supplier relationships that involve information exchange and a combination of the parties' core competencies and resources. This study investigates inter-firm activities in developing market-oriented retail brands in the grocery chain in four European countries. The aim is to identify critical factors that influence the role of these activities. Factors related to the internal organization, the nature of the supplier relationships and the market structure are discussed.     

The impact of the Generalized System of Preferences on imports

Although the EC’s Generalized System of Preferences has been in force since July 1, 1971, vagueness still prevails with regard to the question to what extent the system has contributed to the lowering of tariff barriers and of what service it has thus been as a tool for the promotion of exports from the developing countries. Now that EC statistics on preferential imports in 1973–1976 are available, it is for the first time possible to undertake a detailed evaluation of the GSP in the light of more germane and comprehensive evidence than the general foreign trade statistics and a few incidental figures at hand previously.     

Trade Policy and Environmental Regulation in the Asia–Pacific: A Simulation

The Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has the potential to become the world's largest free trade area, encompassing both developed and developing countries. At the same time environmental standards vary substantially in the region. A multilateral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model combined with environmental sub–models simulates the environmental effects of trade and environmental policy changes. The simulations show: (i) Even drastic reductions in trade barriers have only a small effect on pollution; (ii) Low environmental standards relative to trade partners do not necessarily result in increased pollution when trade is liberalised; (iii) Unilaterally raising environmental standards does not crowd out pollution to countries with laxer standards.     

Petty services,profit‐led growth and rural–urban migration in a developing economy

This paper develops a structuralist urban dual economy model for a developing economy consisting of a capitalist formal sector and a “petty” or informal service sector. The petty service sector plays an important role in wage determination and capital accumulation in the formal sector. The urban dual economy is situated in the midst of a rural area endowed with generous amount of surplus labour. The rural area augments urban labour supply over time through rural–urban migration. The paper, therefore, incorporates rural–urban migration within a structuralist framework and highlights its implication for growth and structural change in urban spaces of developing economies riddled with persistent formal–informal duality.     

Trade openness,tax reform and tax revenue in developing countries

This article investigates empirically whether the effect of tax reform (involving the progressive replacement of trade tax revenue with domestic tax revenue) in developing countries' tax revenue performance (measured by tax revenue‐to‐GDP ratio) depends on the degree of trade openness of these countries. The analysis has used an unbalanced panel data set of 95 developing countries over the period 1981–2015 and the two‐system GMM approach. Results suggest that tax reform is positively and significantly associated with tax revenue performance in developing countries, with the magnitude of this positive effect increasing as countries experience a higher development level. Additionally, and more importantly, countries that further open up their economies to international trade enjoy a higher positive effect of tax reform on tax revenue than countries that experience a lower degree of trade openness. Therefore, these findings should help dissipate the concerns of policymakers in developing countries that greater openness to international trade would further erode their tax revenue, including by lowering their international trade tax revenue. In fact, the implementation of an appropriate tax reform in the context of greater trade openness would generate higher tax revenue, while concurrently allowing countries to reap the well‐known benefits of international trade.     

The Journal of Advertising and the Development of Advertising Theory: Reflections and Directions for Future Research

In this article, I provide some thoughts that guided my decision making while I was editor of the Journal of Advertising (2003–2006). Specifically, I reflect on the definition of theory and how it has been and should be used in the advertising discipline. In particular, I attempt to distinguish between weaker (contextual) and stronger (universal) theories and present my views on how future research in advertising can proceed in developing useful theories within this domain.     

Using English as Economic Capital in a Chinese–Australian Workplace: Implications for Teaching Business English in China

With China’s economic growth over the past 30 years, a large number of Chinese enterprises are facing the challenge of developing their businesses internationally. Thus, it has become necessary to improve the effectiveness of transnational and intercultural business communication for these enterprises. In this article, through narrating the first author’s ethnographic observations in a Chinese–Australian company, the researchers explore the challenges of transnational and intercultural business in terms of English communication and services. They suggest how these challenges can be met from the perspective of future employees in globalizing enterprises and practitioners of Business English education in Chinese universities. This study contributes to developing effective practices for transnational and intercultural communication and services in globalizing enterprises and the pedagogy of Business English in Chinese universities, with the aim of enabling future university graduates to develop language as economic capital in a globalized business context.     

Aid for trade and export diversification in recipient‐countries

The Aid‐for‐Trade (AfT) Initiative was launched by the Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a view to helping developing countries and the least‐developed countries (LDCs) expand their trade. The current paper contributes to the literature on AfT effectiveness by examining how AfT affects recipient‐countries' export product diversification. The analysis has been carried out on a sample of 104 AfT recipient‐countries over the period 2002–2015 and uses the two‐step system generalised methods of moments (GMM) approach. Results show that AfT flows are conducive to export product diversification in recipient‐countries. In addition, the analysis has shown a positive impact of the cumulative AfT flows on the export product diversification path of these countries. These results apply as well to the subsamples of LDCs and other developing countries. One policy implication of these results is that a scale‐up of AfT would help recipient‐countries to diversify their export products baskets and hence facilitate their greater integration into the global trading system.