Political economy of the US–Mexican tomato trade agreement

We develop a political economy model to analyse the US–Mexican tomato trade agreement by treating the minimum import price as a negotiated settlement. We incorporate the special characteristics of the US–Mexican tomato dispute, namely trade among large countries, the role of competing fresh and processed tomato lobbies, quota revenues accruing to Mexican producers, bargaining for a minimum import price rather than a tariff, and the role of the Canadian tomato market. We show the importance of the size of the lobby group's supply, the weight elected officials' place on national welfare, and the elasticities of export supply and import demand in determining the optimal price wedge. For the United States, larger fresh tomato or cherry–grape tomato supply intensifies the degree of protection awarded to US growers, while US processors work to mitigate this effect. From Mexico's perspective, larger Mexican fresh or cherry–grape output induces a push towards free trade due to the agreement's depressing effect on Mexican prices, while Mexican processors and quota revenues exacerbate the price wedge.     

Host market characteristics,FDI, and the FDI – trade relationship

This paper empirically examines how a host nation's market characteristics, particularly its market maturity and role as an export platform, affect the amount of inward FDI it receives and its FDI?–?bilateral trade relationship with the FDI source. For the period 1989?–?1999, using Japanese outward FDI into 85 geographically and developmentally diverse countries, we find a positive and significant relationship between FDI inflows and the host's market maturity levels. However, the FDI?–?trade interaction between the host and the FDI source appears to vary inversely with the host country's market maturity level. In addition, after controlling for the host's market maturity, we find that the nature of the host's ‘export platform’ status also significantly impacts both inward FDI flows and the FDI?–?trade relationship.     

The impacts of the U.S.–China trade war

Business Economics - The trade war has received an enormous amount of attention. Its impacts today have been limited because the U.S. and China have been a bit restrained. Lots of firms have gotten...     

Strategic inertia,financial fragility and organisational failure: The case of the Birkbeck Bank, 1870–1911

This article looks at the key factors behind the failure of the Birkbeck Bank in 1911. Using a wide range of primary source material, it charts how the Bank emerged from its philanthropic roots as a mutual building society in the 1870s to go on and enjoy spectacular growth during the late nineteenth century before eventually faltering and failing in the early twentieth century. Throughout the analysis, particular attention is given to the investment decisions taken by the Bank's management and the impact that these had on the Bank's fortunes. In addition, the article also looks at the extent to which the Birkbeck Bank's overall business model differed from those of other banks in this period. Ultimately, what it shows is that the Bank's failure to modify its investment strategy quickly enough in response to changing market conditions – most notably the fall in the value of Consols and other gilt-edged securities – proved to be the decisive factor in its eventual collapse. For this reason, the article contends, it is appropriate to categorise the 1911 Birkbeck Bank failure as one caused by strategic inertia rather than excessive risk-taking.     

The volatility of world trade in the 21st century: Whose fault is it anyway?

This paper explores the drivers of the volatility of international trade. It decomposes trade growth into six components that have gained attention in the literature and studies their contribution to overall volatility. It yields three main findings. First, trade volatility in the 1990–2015 period is mostly explained by a common factor, changes in the gravity‐related characteristics of a country's trading partners and country‐specific factors. Product composition and the identity of trading partners appear to be less important in explaining volatility. Second, the pre‐2009 decline in volatility and the post‐2009 increase in volatility appear to be driven by different factors. The former is mostly explained by a decline in the variance of country‐specific factors; the latter appears to be driven by an increase in the volatility of common factors. Third, diversification is a likely force behind the steady decline in the volatility stemming from country‐specific factors, especially in developing countries.     

Shanghai splendor: economic sentiments and the making of modern China, 1843–1949

This response to the critique of my article by David Gutzke focuses on the definition and impact of the word ‘progressive’. It is agreed that Sydney Nevile was a progressive brewer in relation to the industry of his time, but his connections with the broader movement of Progressivism are called into question. The links Gutzke suggests can have other explanations, which are briefly outlined. Some misunderstandings about the social status of Nevile are also corrected.     

Show to the world, show the excellence

At present, the exhibition economy is a wide topical is sue which is much concerned by various cirdes of the society. Sinceour country‘s reform and opening to the Outside world, especially since China‘s entry into the WTO, the exhibition economy is like the rising sun, making rapid progress and creatingaln unprecedented grand occasion.     

Pacific trade and regionalization, 1965–1990

The configuration of the Pacific continues to be vague despite much discussion of regionalization of the Pacific countries. This article discusses the factors contributing to regionalization in the Pacific and examines Pacific trade over the 1965–1990 period in order to define the geographic structure of the region. Our results indicate that Pacific trade is characterized by a hierarchy with dominant vertical linkages centered on two main market cores: Japan and the United States. The presence of several subregional cores reveals the Pacific to be a multiple node trading region rather than a unified region. Implications of our findings for emerging global trade patterns are discussed.     

Marketing in the Second Industrial Revolution: A Case Study of the Ferranti Computer Group, 1949–63

In the early 1950s the UK emerged as a world leader in the design and construction of electronic digital computers, a fact illustrated by Ferranti Ltd., the Manchester electronics firm. Ferranti achieved its dominant position with a blend of innovative technology and government support, but eventually found the computer business unprofitable. Marketing failures were partly responsible, particularly an obsession with technology and a failure to target the most profitable sectors of the industry. But paramount in the factors leading to Ferranti's sale of its computer interests were: firstly, the greater resources and market opportunities of the Americans; and secondly, the conservation of the Ferranti family, who found the manufacture of defence computers a safer and more profitable alternative than the highly competitive data-processing market.     

The effects of integration agreements in Western Hemisphere trade, 1970–2014

The paper analyzes the effects of four regional integration agreements (Common Market of the South [MERCOSUR], Andean Community [ANCOM], Central American Common Market [CACM] and North America Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]) on bilateral trade in 19 countries from the Western Hemisphere for the period 1970–2014. For this purpose we estimate different gravity models to control for trade creation and diversion, export diversification and intra-industry trade using OLS log-linearized gravity model and Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood panel data estimators that allow controlling for zero-value trade flows. We find trade creation for ANCOM, MERCOSUR and CACM and trade diversion for NAFTA and MERCOSUR countries. Export diversification negatively affects bilateral trade in all American agreements, while intra-industry trade has contributed to trade expansion in ANCOM and the opposite for NAFTA, MERCOSUR and CACM. Global supply chains may help us explain these results. Finally, we find anticipatory effects on trade several years before the signing of the agreements, but only NAFTA countries seem to be natural trading partners in the region while the rest of Latin American regional agreements have not resulted in a comprehensive, profound and consolidated common market.     

The evolution of private equity: corporate restructuring in the UK,c.1945–2010

The article analyses the role of private equity (PE) in restructuring the UK corporate economy. It develops a theoretical synthesis to show that the evolution of the PE industry and firms in which it invested were governed by the relations of corporate governance between investor and investee companies. Effective governance relations were a necessary condition for success and complement firm specific resources to create competitive advantage. Four case studies are used to show the contrasting effects of these determining factors, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) and Slater Walker, and the two waves of buy-out centred restructuring that developed with the maturity of the PE industry after 1980. In contrast to the evolutionary approach, the periodisations utilised in this study show that structural breaks associated with points of institutional reform are also necessary to make firm specific resource and governance determinants of competitive advantage operable.     

European Competition in Woollen Cloth, 1870–1914: The Role of Shoddy

It has long been recognised by historians that Quakers are overrepresented in the ranks of successful businessmen during the formative phases of Britain's industrialisation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This article uses primary records to confirm the validity of Raistrick's pioneering work on Quaker networks as an important source of capital funding. It extends Raistrick's work by focusing attention on the Meeting House system as an institution conducive both to the internal surveillance of business conduct and the maintenance of commercial confidence. The article concludes with a case study of Quaker entrepreneurship in the early railway sector.