Public Open Access and Private Timber Harvests: Theory and Application to the Effects of Trade Liberalization in Mexico

A common popular assertion is that trade liberalization encourages deforestation. But whether this is true depends on how trade policies affect the allocation of land among competing uses and how they influence illegal cutting of public forests. A model is presented that allows for forests to be either public or private, and public forests are divided into protected (or managed) and threatened categories. Effects of price changes are shown on each part of the forest. An empirical version of the model is applied to the case of Mexico with NAFTA. Most scenarios considered show that NAFTA will have positive long-run effects on forest cover in Mexico but that this is net of losses on private lands.     

Trade of Permits for Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Bilateral Trade Need not be the Answer

The Kyoto Protocol sets national quotas on GHG emissions and allows international trade of these quotas. Taking terms-of-trade effects into account, we argue that this trade is characterized by asymmetric, identity-dependent externalities, and show that bilateral trade of permits may not be sufficient for an efficient allocation of emissions. We derive conditions under which bilateral trade does improve the allocation of permits. The conditions are strong. In this sense, we argue that, for emissions permits, market design matters.     

水权交易管理比较研究

水权交易是解决水资源短缺问题,进行水资源优化配置的重要手段之一,我国的水权交易尚在探索阶段。文章通过对中外水权交易的比较研究,得出水权交易的关键问题为初始水权配置、水权交易制度和水权交易价格。由此提出了我国发展水权交易的建议：建立与完善相应的水权交易制度;加强流域统一管理,进行水权初始分配;引入水权期权交易方式。     

Ambiguity aversion and trade

What is the effect of ambiguity aversion on trade? Although in a Bewley??s model, ambiguity aversion always leads to less trade; in other models, this is not always true. However, we show that if the endowments are unambiguous, then more ambiguity aversion implies less trade for a very general class of preferences. The reduction in trade caused by ambiguity aversion can be as severe as to lead to no trade. In an economy with MEU decision makers, we show that if the aggregate endowment is unanimously unambiguous, then every Pareto optima allocation is also unambiguous. We also characterize the situation in which every unanimously unambiguous allocation is Pareto optimal. Finally, we show how our results can be used to explain the home-bias effect. As a useful result for our methods, we also obtain an additivity theorem for CEU and MEU decision makers that does not require comonotonicity.     

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR TRADE LIBERALIZATION: POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE RELATED GOVERNMENT SPENDING FOR THE URUGUAY ROUND IN JAPAN

This paper investigates the effect of political factors on the interregional allocation of the budget to assist farmers in coping with agricultural trade liberalization in Japan. We present a simple model to show the relationship between political factors and interregional budget allocation and empirically examine whether political factors played a key role in the interregional allocation of Japanese government spending for the Uruguay Round agricultural trade liberalization. Our findings show that this allocation was distorted due to political reasons, which was problematic from the standpoints of fairness and social efficiency.     

Output decline and the demise of the CMEA and the USSR: The case of Hungary

The direct effect of market losses in CMEA on Hungarian output was 4%, out of the 18% decline registered in gross output in 1988–1992. Total (direct and indirect) effects amounted to 8%. In the same period Hungary's export expansion in western markets led to direct and total effects equivalent to 2.9% and 5.6% of the 1988 output, respectively. The share of reorientation within this switch from east to west was not negligible, it amounted to 19% of respective trade volumes. The 1991 price explosion of imported inputs inhibited the activity of Hungarian firms only moderately, due to earlier realistic domestic prices. In 1991 Hungary suffered a 26% terms of trade loss, and could have experienced an income terms of trade loss of USD 1400 to 1600 million, had the trade volume of 1990 been repeated. Since adjustments in 1991, much smaller income losses accrued. Due to earlier special tax arrangements, much of the burden of terms of trade losses had to be born by the budget.     

CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS OF CONSISTENCY IN TERMS-OF-TRADE ANALYSIS*

The debate on how to deal with changes of relative prices in national accounts has, so far, remained inconclusive, especially with regard to the question of how to measure gains from changes of terms of trade. Keeping the experiences of the 1970s in mind (i.e. substantial changes of relative prices sparked off by increased oil prices), this state of affairs is not considered tenable. On this background, the paper takes up the old debate on how to deflate figures of domestic product, total as well as by industries. It tries to argue that deflated figures should be presented not only as real product figures by industries (using the double deflation method), but also as real income figures, obtained by deflating the current-prices figures of a certain year by the same general price index. When this is done according to procedures spelled out in detail, gains/losses from changes of the terms of trade in foreign trade will show up as an integral part of the framework. In the paper, special attention is given to the concept of industry terms of trade. On the basis of simplifying assumptions (which are, however, relaxed in the final part of the paper), it is shown how the ratio of real income divided by real product of a certain industry will be proportionate to the terms of trade of the industry concerned, when the latter concept is defined in the appropriate way. Furthermore, the sum of the industry gains/losses from changes of their terms of trade will be equal to the gain/loss of the economy taken as a whole from changes of the terms of trade in foreign trade.     

Product differentiation and the gains from trade under Bertrand duopoly

Abstract.  In the literature on the welfare effects of free trade under imperfect competition, one important case seems to have been overlooked, and that is the Bertrand duopoly model with differentiated products. Although many authors have analysed the welfare effects of free trade under Cournot duopoly and demonstrated the possibility of losses from trade, there has been no thorough analysis of the welfare effects of free trade under Bertrand duopoly. In this article we present a thorough analysis of the welfare effects of free trade under Bertrand duopoly with differentiated products, and it is shown that there are always gains from trade. JEL Classification: F12     

企业异质性、贸易理论与经验研究:综述

贸易的企业异质性理论正逐渐兴起,本文围绕该理论的拓展思维和微观基础进行系统述评;不同于传统贸易理论的行业间资源配置分析,异质性理论强调要素在企业间的配置从而通过效率改善实现福利优化。而基于微观生产率差异的理论模型强调企业出口的自我淘汰机制,这一核心基础改变了传统贸易理论的基础动因、模式和福利收益。最后,异质性理论发展和国际经验考察对我国当前具有重要启示。     

中国贸易发展与经济增长影响机制的经验研究

本文对贸易和人均产出之间的影响机制进行了分析。中国改革开放以来的经验数据证实 ,国际贸易通过提升国家要素禀赋结构和加快制度变革进程对人均产出产生了正面影响 ;但国内贸易则相反 ,国内市场分割的加剧 ,阻碍了国内市场的一体化进程 ,进而对经济产生负面影响。另外 ,本文还发现 ,尽管人力资本对人均产出有着重要而显著的影响 ,但贸易的变化却较少通过这条途径对人均产出产生影响。     

Water Trade in the Southern Murray–Darling Basin

In this paper, we use TERM-Water, a bottoms-up regional computable general equilibrium model of the Australian economy, to examine the regional effects of expanding trade of irrigation water in the southern Murray–Darling basin. We find that water trading dampens the impact of water allocation cuts on gross regional product (GRP). The benefits of introducing trading within irrigation districts are greater than those of a further expansion of trade between regions. Permitting trade of seasonal allocations allows irrigators to reallocate water in reaction to climatic conditions and water availability; and it is this flexibility that enables GRP reductions to be minimised.     

Economic Implications of Alternative Allocation Schemes for Emission Allowances*

For reasons of political feasibility, emission trading systems may have to rely on free initial allocation of emission allowances in order to ameliorate adverse production and employment effects in dirty industries. Against the background of an emerging European‐wide emission trading system, we examine the trade‐off between such compensation and economic efficiency under output‐based and emissions‐based allocation rules. We show that the emissions‐based allocation rule is more costly than the output‐based rule in terms of maintaining output and employment in energy‐intensive industries. When the international allowance price increases, the inferiority of emissions‐based allocation vis‐à‐vis output‐based allocation becomes more pronounced, as emission subsidies drastically restrict efficiency gains from international trade in emission allowances.     

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERSECTORAL TERMS OF TRADE(1) FOR DENMARK IN THE PERIOD 1949 TO 1965

This article is an extension of an earlier article dealing with gains and losses from changes in the terms of trade. The object of the present article is to show how gains and losses in foreign trade are distributed among the branches of domestic industry. To this end, price changes for gross domestic product at factor cost in each of 25 branches of industry over the period 1949–1965, computed where possible by the double deflation method, are compared with the change over the same period in final demand—i.e., consumption plus gross investment.     

Trade Structure during Accession to the EU

This article discusses the degree of trade restructuring between the EU and the new member states during the accession process. Intra-industry trade is selected as a composite indicator of trade structure. Factor endowments, market size and distance are the most important determinants of intra-industry trade. The estimations for the OECD countries are used to compute predictions for EU15 trade with the CEE countries. In general, this approach predicts well the EU15 trade structure with CEE, which proves significant restructuring in the new member states. High shares of intra-industry trade imply lower welfare losses and less resistance to further deepening of integration in the participating countries.     

International trade between consumer and conservationist countries

We consider trade between a ‘consumer’ country with an open access renewable resource and a ‘conservationist’ country that regulates resource harvesting to maximize domestic steady-state utility. In what we call the mild overuse case, the consumer country exports the resource good and suffers steady-state losses from trade, as suggested by the conventional wisdom that weak resource management standards confer a competitive advantage on domestic firms in the resource sector but cause welfare losses. Strikingly, however, when the resource stock is most in jeopardy, the conservationist country exports the resource good in steady state and both countries experience gains from trade.     

Globalization, Asymmetric Tax Competition, and Fiscal Equalization

Trade integration and the increasing mobility of firms have raised the need for international coordination in corporate tax. In this paper, we study the ability of fiscal equalization to avoid the misallocation of capital across asymmetric countries arising from tax competition. Such a reform respects the principle according to which the tax decision is entirely left up to the nation and links nations engaged in strategic tax policy by transfers. We use a model of trade and location where firms produce under imperfect competition. Our analysis suggests that falling trade costs increase the distortion created by tax competition in the international allocation of production. However, we show that fiscal equalization based on differences in tax revenues or tax base can implement a more efficient tax wedge and spatial allocation of the tax base.     

人民币汇率变动影响中国贸易条件机制研究

人民币汇率变动影响中国贸易条件及其机制是一个需要将理论与实证结合起来研究的问题,因为其中汇率变动对贸易条件的变化影响较大,衡量一国对外贸易中竞争能力的三类贸易条件均为反映资源配置效率及福利水平高低的指标。以人民币实际有效汇率变动的实证为例,分析汇率变动对贸易条件影响的内在机制,得出的结论是人民币实际有效汇率对中国价格贸易条件影响显著,对收入贸易条件影响不显著。     

Environmental and economic impacts of trade barriers: The example of China–US trade friction

The new age of trade wars could simultaneously affect the worldwide distribution pattern of the economy and environmental emissions. However, previous studies have focused on economic impacts, and on trade liberalization, while little is known about the equilibrium effects of trade barriers on the environment. Using a global computable general equilibrium model and taking the recent anti-trade policies of the Trump administration as an example, this study investigates the possible socio-economic and environmental effects of trade friction. Specifically, this study explores how the implemented six rounds of China–US trade friction and its different long-term development trends affect regional economic output, GHG and air pollutant emissions. Results show that trade barriers harm both countries’ economies and such losses have a certain permanence, while non-participants can benefit indirectly. Trade friction decreases participants’ GHG emissions, modifies global GHG emission distribution patterns, and leads to improved air quality in most countries. If governments continue to impose tariffs, global GHG emissions could counterfactually decrease by up to 5%. However, the change in trade patterns is not conducive to clean energy development in the less-developed regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and emission reductions from trade friction are insufficient to avoid catastrophic climate change.     

产业内贸易与经济增长:基于人力资本的分析框架

贸易的知识扩散效应和贸易竞争的资源配置效应是长期内产业内贸易影响增长的最根本的两个方面。本文将包含贸易知识扩散程度参数的人力资本积累函数引入Bucci提出的经济增长模型,把模型拓展到开放经济环境,在动态贸易均衡中考察这两种效应。研究发现：贸易的知识扩散效应促进人力资本积累,有利于经济增长;贸易竞争效应使人力资本更多地配置到低效率的非竞争性部门,不利于经济增长。因此,产业内贸易对经济增长的影响取决于知识扩散效应和贸易竞争效应的影响程度的相对大小比较结果。     

Trade policy and distortions in intra-Asian trade

This paper analysis wheather the level of tariffs and non-tariff barriers affect the pattern of inter-industry trade within Asia. The Heckscher–Ohlin theorem is based on the assumption of efficient resource allocation. However, markets in many developing countries protect the domestic production by trade barriers. We would therefore expect the pattern of production and trade not to reflect comparative advantages perfectly. It is found that import charges and non-tariff barriers have a significant positive impact on capital intensities in net export.