Dynamic comparative advantage and the welfare effects of trade

Developing economies may face a trade-off between specializingaccording to existing comparative advantage (in low-technologygoods), and entering sectors in which they currently lack acomparative advantage, but may acquire such an advantage inthe future as a result of the potential for productivity growth(in high-technology goods). Comparative advantage is endogenouslydetermined by past technological change, while simultaneouslyshaping current rates of innovation. Hence, specialization accordingto current comparative advantage under free trade may be welfarereducing. Selective intervention may be welfare improving, bothfor the economy undertaking it, and for its trade partner.     

How preferences shape the welfare and employment effects of trade

Review of World Economics - We set up a trade model with two countries, two sectors, and one production factor, which features a home-market effect due to the existence of trade costs. We consider...     

Economic integration, market size and the welfare effects of trade liberalisation

Economic Integration, Market Size and the Welfare Effects of Trade Liberalisation. — This paper examines the welfare effects of regional and global integration in a model where market size matters. Regional integration leads to higher welfare in the countries of a preferential trading arrangement (PTA), but to lower welfare outside. In case the countries also decide to form a customs union (CU), both countries will experience further gains if the creation of the CU means that the average external trade barriers are raised. In turn, the outside country will in this case experience further welfare losses. If it retaliates and creates a trade war, this will lower welfare in all countries. In contrast, global integration mostly benefits both PTA countries and outside countries.     

International trade and the relative dispersion of industrial wages and production techniques in 14 OECD countries, 1970–1985

The Factor Price Equalization theorem implies that freer trade would narrow the gap in returns to similar productive factors across countries over time. To determine the empirical relevance of this implication, data for 11 industries in 14 countries over the period 1970–1985 are investigated. Moreover, the paper examines the data for seven industries in the nontrade sector. Regression analyses suggest that the industry-level wages across countries are significantly influenced by the relative dispersion of production techniques at the industry level and, to a lesser extent, by international trade. The estimation of a wage model indicates that the diffusion of technology may have also played a role in the apparent convergence of wages. The findings of this paper suggest that FPE is capable of explaining the cross-country variation in returns to productive factors.     

Innovations and manufacturing export performance in the OECD countries

This paper addresses two puzzles in international trade, namelywhy traditional estimates of income elasticities of exportsare implausibly high and why export growth varies much moremarkedly across countries than can be explained by changes inprice competitiveness and variations in income growth in exportmarkets. Using data for 18 OECD countries it is shown that marketintegration and the level of technology and competitivenesscan, to some extent, explain these two puzzles.     

On the bilateral trade effects of free trade agreements between the EU-15 and the CEEC-4 countries

The expansion of regionalism has spawned an extensive theoretical literature analysing the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on trade flows. In this paper we focus on FTAs (also called European agreements) between the European Union (EU-15) and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC-4, i.e. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania) and model their effects on trade flows by treating the agreement variable as endogenous. Our theoretical framework is the gravity model, and the econometric method used to isolate and eliminate the potential endogeneity bias of the agreement variable is the fixed effect vector decomposition (FEVD) technique. Our estimation results indicate a positive and significant impact of FTAs on trade flows. This finding is robust to the inclusion in the sample of a group of control countries (specifically Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine) that did not sign an FTA. Besides, we show that trade growth after the FTA agreement with the EU was signed exceeded trade growth of the control group of countries, which did not become members.

On the trade,growth, and welfare effects of intellectual property rights protection

To examine how intellectual property rights protection affects trade, growth, and welfare, I develop a two-country R&D-based growth model in which final goods firms in both countries determine the range of imported varieties in the overall use of intermediate inputs. I show that strengthening patent protection in either country increases the range of imported varieties of intermediate goods and stimulates economic growth in the country that strengthened patent protection. Moreover, I also show that the Nash equilibrium level of patent protection is stronger than the globally optimal level of patent protection.     

Factor market distortions and gains from trade revisited

Zusammenfassung Gesamtwirtschaftliche Au\enhandelsgewinne bei unvollkommenen Faktorm?rkten. — In diesem Aufsatz werden die Standardtheoreme über die Vorteilhaftigkeit des Au\enhandels unter der Annahme untersucht, da\ auf beiden Faktorm?rkten (für Kapital und Arbeit) intersektorale Faktorpreisunterschiede bestehen. Wenn Unvollkommenheiten auf beiden Faktorm?rkten angenommen werden, ergeben sich Resultate, die erheblich von denen bei Unvollkommenheiten auf nur einem Faktormarkt abweichen. Die interessanteren Ergebnisse der Untersuchung sind: 1. Alle üblichen Theoreme über Wohlfahrtsgewinne aus dem Au\enhandel k?nnen auf einer niedrigeren inferioren Transformationskurve gelten; 2. eine Zunahme (Abnahme) des Verzerrungsgrades kann die Wohlfahrt erh?hen (reduzieren); 3. eine Verbesserung (Verschlechterung) der Terms of Trade kann gr?\ere Wohlfahrtsgewinne (-Verluste) bewirken, als es ohne Verzerrungen der Fall w?re; 4. sollte der Grad der Verzerrung auf dem Kapital- und auf dem Arbeitsmarkt gleich gro\ sein, dann entspricht eine Politik der Produktionsbesteuerung mit Subventionen einer Politik der Faktorbesteuerung mit Subventionen; folglich gibt es dann keine ?second? und ?first best?-Politik.

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Résumé Les distorsions sur les marchés des facteurs de production et les gains de l’échange international. — Cet article examine les théorèmes usuels de gains de l’échange international sous la supposition qu’il y a une différenciation intersectorielle des prix de facteurs sur le marché de capitaux et assi sur le marché du travail. Les imperfections sur les deux marchés conduisent aux résultats qui sont bien différents de ceux qu’on obtient sur la base d’une différenciation des prix de seulement un facteur de production. Les résultats intéressants sont les suivants: (1) Tous les théorèmes usuels de gains de l’échange international sont probablement valables pour des courbes inférieures de transformation; (2) si le degré de la distorsion s’accro?t (décro?t), le bien-être peut s’améliorer (se détériorer); (3) l’amélioration (détérioration) des termes de l’échange peut conduire à une augmentation (diminution) du bien-être qui est plus grande que dans le cas ou il n’y a pas de distorsions; (4) si le degré de la distorsion est aussi haut sur le marché de capitaux que sur le marché du travail, une politique de la taxe sur la production en combinaison des subventions est équivalente à une politique de la taxe sur le facteur en combinaison des subventions; à cause de cela elles cessent d’être une politique de ?second best? et de ?first best?.

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Resumen Revisión de las distorsiones del mercado de factores y de los beneficios del comercio. — Este trabajo examina los teoremas corrientes sobre beneficios del comercio, bajo el supuesto que ambos mercados (capital y trabajo) se caracterizan por una differencia intersectoral en los precios de los factores. Imperfecciones en ambos mercados de factores dan resultados bastante diferentes a los que se obtienen sobre la basis de una ?nica diferencia en el precio de los factores. Los resultados más interesantes son: (1) todos los teoremas corrientes sobre beneficios del comercio pueden ser válidos para las curvas de transformación inferior; (2) un aumento (disminución) del grado de distorsión puede aumentar (disminuir) el bienestar; (3) un mejoramiento (deterioro) en los términos del intercambio puede resultar en una ganancia (pérdida) de bienestar, que es máyor que en el caso en que no hay distorsiones; (4) si el grado de distorsión en ambos mercados, el de capitales y el de trabajo, es igual, entonces una pol?utica de impuestos en combinación con subsidios a la producción se torna equivalente a una politica de impuestos en combinación con subsidios a los factores y, por lo tanto, ellas ya no constituyen más políticas ?second best? y ?first best?.

     

The dynamic effects of shocks to labour markets: evidence from OECD countries

This paper uses a set of plausible long-run identifying restrictionson a three-variable system, including output growth, real wagegrowth, and the unemployment rate, to isolate three independentstructural shocks which drive fluctuations in those variablesin a sample of 16 OECD countries during 1950-96. These shocksare interpreted as aggregate demand, productivity, and laboursupply disturbances. As a by-product of the previous analysis,the cyclical behaviour of real wages in response to a demandshock is re-examined and two indices of real wage rigidity arederived.     

Financial development and top income shares in OECD countries

We examine the causal impact of financial development (FD) on top income shares for a panel of 14 OECD countries—five Anglo‐Saxon countries, eight continental European countries, and Japan—over a 110‐year period. In our main General Method of Moments estimates, we find that a 1‐percentage‐point change in FD increases the top 1% income share by 0.2%. In distribution terms, a 1‐SD incr=ease in FD increases the top 1% income share by around 0.4 of an SD. The effects are robust to various measures of top income shares and FD and alternative estimation techniques, including nonparametric estimation. FD is typically viewed in positive terms in that it makes it easier to access credit and facilitates economic growth. Our results are important because they contribute to understanding of the potential negative effects of FD.     

Trade and welfare effects of a potential free trade agreement between Japan and the United States

Review of World Economics - This paper addresses the trade and welfare implications of a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Japan. In 2019, the two countries signed a “stage...     

Growth differentials in OECD countries: some reflections

This note briefly addresses two questions related to growth performance in the OECD area, namely: 1) why have so few OECD countries seen an increase in productivity related to investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT); 2) how does the environment for firm creation affect growth in OECD countries? The note points to some recent empirical work with firm-level data on these issues and suggests that further cross-country research with such data could be very helpful.     

The role of innovation and opportunity in bilateral OECD trade performance

This paper investigates the specialization pattern in terms of technology and exports and examines the role of innovation intensity and technological opportunity in determining bilateral trade at the aggregate and sectoral level. Some of the major findings are: At the aggregate level, innovation intensity and technological opportunity has positive and significant impact on bilateral trade performance especially during the 1990s. At the sectoral level, innovation intensity affects bilateral trade performance positively mainly in the high-technology sectors. There is also a positive and significant relationship between technological opportunity and bilateral trade for five of the eighteen sectors, which are the high-technology sectors. JEL no. F14, C31, O33     

The main determinants of banking crises in OECD countries

Banks’ stability can be affected by economic fluctuations, banks’ risk-taking behavior, connections among banks and countries’ financial system structure. At the same time, banking regulation and supervision were designed to protect banks from failure, but a large number of banking crises were not prevented recently. Using binary response models for panel data and focusing on OECD countries, this paper studies the main determinants of banking crises over a period of 21 years. Results suggest a bank’s high debt and a country’s low GDP growth rate as the major determinants of banking crises. There is also evidence of contagion across countries from the same geographical region and from G7 to other countries, and that bank-based financial systems are less prone to borderline banking crises. Regulatory and supervision practices are found not to have been relevant in bankruptcy prevention.     

The effects of input tariffs on productivity: panel data evidence for OECD countries

Based on a panel of 16 OECD countries and 10 manufacturing industries over 1996–2007, this paper investigates the impact of tariffs on foreign intermediate goods on productivity growth in downstream manufacturing industries. The results show that imposing tariffs on imported intermediate goods is particularly harmful for industries that operate close to the global technological frontier. We also consider the possibility that input-tariff liberalisation may have different effects depending on the technological content of imported intermediate goods. Our findings suggest that protecting imports of high-technological goods is more harmful for productivity improvements in industries that operate close to global best practice.