Market integration,environmental policy,and transboundry pollution from consumption

Recent empirics report that transport cost reductions significantly contribute to rapidly growing world trade. This article develops a reciprocal market model of intra-industry trade with transboundary pollution from consumption to consider how market integration in the form of transport cost reductions affects the noncooperative choice of an environmental policy and the equilibrium welfare. I show that market integration can improve welfare locally, but that welfare under any non-prohibitive trade cost can not be higher than welfare under autarky. This possibility of trade losses exhibits a sharp contrast to the case of production-generated pollution.     

Unionized labor markets and globalized capital markets

This paper studies the effects of international integration of capital markets in a world where countries differ in their labor market institutions: one country has a perfectly competitive labor market while the other is unionized. We show that workers should favor autarky in the unionized country, but oppose it in the non unionized country and vice versa for owners of capital. Aggregate gains from integration, however, are negative. We also show that, under capital mobility, an increase in relative bargaining power of unions does not always improve workers' welfare.     

Can the standard international business cycle model explain the relation between trade and comovement?

Recent empirical research finds that pairs of countries with stronger trade linkages tend to have more highly correlated business cycles. We assess whether the standard international business cycle framework can replicate this intuitive result. We employ a three-country model with transportation costs. We simulate the effects of increased goods market integration under two asset market structures, complete markets and international financial autarky. Our main finding is that under both asset market structures the model can generate stronger correlations for pairs of countries that trade more, but the increased correlation falls far short of the empirical findings. Even when we control for the fact that most country-pairs are small with respect to the rest-of-the-world, the model continues to fall short. We also conduct additional simulations that allow for increased trade with the third country or increased TFP shock comovement to affect the country-pair's business cycle comovement. These simulations are helpful in highlighting channels that could narrow the gap between the empirical findings and the predictions of the model.     

Endogenous market structure and the growth and welfare effects of economic integration

This paper studies the growth and welfare effects of integration in a world economy populated by global oligopolists. In economies that move from autarky to trade, growth and welfare rise because exit of domestic firms is more than compensated by entry of foreign firms so that integration generates a larger, more competitive market where firms have access to a larger body of technological spillovers that support faster growth. The effects of a gradual reduction of tariffs are different because economies start out from a situation where all firms already serve all markets. In this case, the global number of firms falls so that the variety of consumption goods and the diversity of innovation paths fall. The surviving firms, on the other hand, are larger and exploit static and dynamic economies of scale to a larger degree. These homogenization and rationalization effects work in opposite directions. Under plausible conditions, the rationalization effect dominates and growth and welfare rise.     

Cultural resistance and the gradual emergence of modern marketing and retailing practices in Spain, 1950–1975

The backwardness and autarky of early Francoism explain why Spain failed to enter the age of mass consumption before the late 1960s. The modernization of commercial practices lagged behind the rapid growth in income per capita. This article examines the different ways in which modern marketing methods were introduced in Spain during the 1950s and the 1960s. It demonstrates that marketing as both concept and practice faced fierce cultural resistance, manifest in the derided image of the salesman and an enduring distrust of advertising.     

Globalisation and factor returns in competitive markets

The standard competitive trade model, extended to include many goods and factors, is used to analyze the effect of goods and factor market integration on average international disparities in the real returns of internationally immobile factors. It is shown that goods market integration decreases international real return differentials for all factors. We derive sufficient conditions for this result to hold for the subgroup of internationally immobile factors as well. While there is a presumption for similar results to hold with international factor market integration, we show that this is true for international migration but in general not for international investment.     

中国文化贸易结构和贸易竞争力分析

基于文化产品和服务进出口数据,对中国文化贸易结构、国际市场占有率、贸易竞争力指数、显示性比较优势指数的分析表明,尽管中国是文化产品出口第一大国,但文化贸易结构不合理,文化产业总体国际竞争力较弱且发展不平衡;中国文化贸易的竞争优势主要体现在手工艺品、设计、视觉艺术品和新媒体这些外围的文化产品中,具有核心内容的影视媒介、音乐媒介、出版物及版权、文化休闲娱乐服务等文化出口比重低、竞争力弱。     

Does integration of services differ from integration of goods?

The theory of economic integration has been well developed over time but mainly with regard to goods. Conceptually integration for services needs to be differentiated from goods according to the characteristics of services and the nature of barriers to integration. The need for personal interaction between supplier and user gives rise to different ways in which services are traded from goods with suppliers and users crossing borders and a different balance between cross-border trade and permanent presence. Obstacles to trade take place behind rather than at the border. The European Union has been chosen as an example of integration for services both on the basis of past experience and because of its ability to remove obstacles for services using specific institutional powers. Existing levels of integration for goods and services are compared with those to be expected on the basis of theory. Market integration for manufactured goods is lower than previously estimated and services higher, although services remain considerably less integrated. Finally, explanations for differing levels of integration both compared to goods and those expected among different services are sought in terms of the barriers to cross-border trade and permanent presence in the form of regulation, market structures and cultural factors.     

The evolution of consumption inequality and risk-insurance in Chile

Using micro survey data, I show that income and consumption inequality fell substantially in Chile since 1987. Consumption inequality between and within groups fell substantially over the last 35 years, especially for within groups. During this period, households' use of financial services increased substantially. Estimating a standard consumption model, the results reject both the autarky and the full risk sharing frameworks. It is found that for services and non-durable goods, consumption is almost half-way between autarky and full risk-sharing. However, purchases of Semi-Durables, Durables, Medical, Insurance, and other financial products are strongly affected by income fluctuations.     

The Utility of Prestige: Chinese and American Hedonic Ratings of Prestige Goods

ABSTRACT

China is rapidly becoming the most important luxury market in the world (Lung, 2005). The reason for this is not simply due to the market size but also to the Chinese consumer's particular penchant for luxury goods. This study will investigate the differences between U.S. and Chinese consumers based on their hedonic and utilitarian ratings of luxury goods and the relationship that these ratings have with individual and cultural traits, with the expectation that a collectivist background will lead to a more utilitarian view of prestige goods. A sample of more than 600 Chinese and U.S. respondents was analyzed based on the ratings of three prestige goods. The results show that China is rapidly becoming a more individualistic nation and that the expected utilitarian use of prestige goods is confirmed through multiple statistical techniques.     

Portfolio autarky: A welfare analysis

A variant of the standard Heckscher-Ohlin model, a model of a two-country world economy populated by Samuelsonian overlapping generations, is presented and then used in a welfare analysis of two international economic policy regimes: A laissez-faire regime, characterized by free trade in goods and complete freedom of portfolio choice; and a portfolio autarky regime, characterized by free trade in goods and a prohibition, applicable world-wide, on the ownership of foreign assets (land). Using a ‘growth model’ version of the traditional welfare criterion, it is shown that the laissez-faire regime is optimal and that the portfolio autarky regime is not.     

Buy Local? Governmental Incentives to ‘Inform’ Consumers

This paper considers governmental incentives to provide information to local consumers about the relative merits of local versus foreign goods. We construct a model in which a local firm in a small, open economy competes in its domestic market with imports. Consumers are willing to pay an idiosyncratic premium for the local product, drawn from some support that the importing country government can affect through a costly information campaign. We examine incentives to undertake such a campaign in autarky and in the case of trade. We show, inter alia, that while a national welfare‐maximising government will always wish to shift this distribution upwards, it may not wish to reduce the variance of valuations, and that the optimal response of a foreign government will be to increase any support it offers to its exporters. Furthermore, falling world prices generally reduce the attractiveness of such a campaign both to a welfare‐maximising government and to one that cares only for domestic profits.     

What leads to cultural intelligence?

The ability to interact effectively in multiple cultures is not a skill possessed by all; yet, it is becoming more important in today's global business world. Recently, this skill has been labeled cultural intelligence (CQ), and has caught the attention of business leaders and researchers alike. While previous studies have examined potential outcomes of cultural intelligence, possible antecedents are examined herein. This investigation generates some insight regarding the impact of cultural exposure on CQ, as well as developing an understanding of how the depth of cultural exposure influences a person's cultural intelligence. Findings indicate that certain types of exposures to other cultures (such as education abroad and employment abroad) and the level of exposure from these experiences increases cultural intelligence. These findings are critical for multinational firms as managers hire, promote, train, and prepare employees for international assignments. Additionally, some have discussed how cultural intelligence is a critical skill for global business leaders, and it seems likely that CQ will become increasingly important due to the rise of diversity in the workforce.     

Antecedents of Taiwan Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intentions Toward U.S.- and Japanese-Made Household Appliances

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to understand the factors influencing Taiwan's Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions toward U.S. and Japanese household appliances. The authors attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model linking such purchase intentions to several constructs including Taiwan Chinese consumers’ openness to foreign cultures, consumer nationalism, product familiarity, traditional cultural values orientation, and product-country image. The result of analysis using structural equation modeling shows that consumer nationalism has a strong indirect effect on purchase intention via the product-country image construct. Taiwan Chinese consumers’ traditional cultural values orientation and openness to foreign cultures have direct effects on consumer nationalism and, hence, are important antecedents in explaining the purchase intentions toward foreign-made goods by Taiwan Chinese consumers. With the growing importance of the Chinese domestic market, this study provides international marketing managers with practical implications in important areas such as market segmentation, branding strategy, and market research and practices in the Chinese consumer market.     

Cosmopolitanism, individual-level values and cultural-level values: A cross-cultural study

Cosmopolitanism (COS) is an important consumer characteristic for international market segmentation. To date, no empirical studies investigate how COS relates to consumer values. This research, involving samples of Canadians and Turks, focuses on the associations of individual- and cultural-level values to COS dispositions, and compares these relationships cross-culturally. The findings support the cross-cultural applicability of these constructs. While some of the COS-values relationships are consistent across the two cultures, others differ. Overall, COS is much more strongly associated with Schwartz's individual and cultural level values than with either Hofstede's cultural dimensions or demographics.     

The impact of home–host cultural distance on foreign affiliate sales: The moderating role of cultural variation within host countries

Research on how multinational firms deal with home–host cultural differences argues that cultural differences are minimized and assumes that foreign cultures are homogenous. In this paper we relax the cultural homogeneity assumption. In the presence of cultural variation in host countries the minimization of cultural differences leads existing mean-based indices of cultural differences to overestimate the actual cultural differences these firms have to deal with. We test this argument in a 25-year panel analysis of total US multinationals' foreign sales in 54 host countries. At the sample average of cultural variation, the use of mean cultural difference indices yields a 74% overestimate of the actual cultural difference effect. This suggests that home–host cultural differences are a substantially smaller barrier to multinational sales than hitherto assumed. The assumption of cultural homogeneity leads to conclusions in which a too large role is attributed to cultural differences.     

Buyer power in international markets

This paper investigates the implications for international markets of the existence of retailers/wholesalers with market power. Two main results are shown. First, in the presence of buyer power trade liberalization may lead to retail market concentration. Due to this concentration retail prices may be higher and welfare may be lower in free trade than in autarky, thus reversing the standard effects of trade liberalization. Second, the pro-competitive effects of trade liberalization are weaker under buyer power than under seller power.     

中国文化贸易的决定因素——基于分类文化产品的面板数据考察

中国文化进口主要集中于综合国力较强的发达国家,而且绝大多数文化产品进口受到出口国市场容量大小的影响,如建筑和设计、珠宝等,但受中国购买力水平影响较小;中国绝大多数文化产品出口受进口国购买力水平影响较为明显;中国文化生产效率的提高可促进其他视觉艺术、珠宝、电影和录像、建筑和设计等文化产品的出口,但对中国文化进口的影响并不明显;除古董进口及其他视觉艺术的出口以外,中国绝大多数文化产品的进、出口与距离变量呈负相关关系;自由贸易区可以促进中国绝大多数文化产品的进、出口。     

欧盟商品市场一体化的影响因素研究:基于边界效应的视角

本文选用2000-2005年欧盟成员国之间以及欧盟成员国与外部主要贸易伙伴国之间的双边出口贸易额等数据,使用面板数据方法,基于边界效应的视角,分别探讨了欧盟25国和欧盟15国的商品市场一体化影响因素。结果表明:欧盟这样的区域贸易协定对其成员国具有正面影响。地理临近性和文化联系鼓励紧密的贸易伙伴,距离、税率和人口对双边贸易存在负面影响,这与以往的研究结果相同。非关税壁垒成为重要边界可部分解释欧盟25国的内部边界效应高于欧盟15国的研究结果。     

温州文化产业发展的反思——兼论政府在其中的作用

自十七大提出“文化强国”战略以来，全国各地掀起了发展文意产业的浪潮，具有“敢为人先”精神的温州同样竞相出台了各种促进文化产业发展的各项政策法规，以追求文化产业的经济性，这种对文化产业采取“实用主义”至上的态度，致使温州文化产业只是实现了空间上的聚集，而文化与产业的叠加显著不够，整个文化产业凸显着一种结构性缺陷。因此，应廓清对文化产业的认识，发挥政府政策在文化产业中提供基础性支撑的作用，同时通过政府制度和市场机制的创新，在政府、市场和社会的共同作用下，促进温州文化创意产业的协调和包容性增长。