Transportation,freight rates,and economic geography

We investigate the role of competitive transport markets in shaping the location of economic activity and the pattern of trade. In our model, carriers supply transport services for shipping manufactured goods, and freight rates are set to clear transport markets. Each carrier must commit to the maximum capacity for a round-trip and thus faces a logistics problem as there are opportunity costs of returning empty. These costs increase the freight rates charged to firms located in regions that are net exporters of manufactured goods. Since demand for transport services depends on the spatial distribution of economic activity, the concentration of production in one region raises freight rates to serve foreign markets from there, thus working against specialization and the agglomeration of firms. Consequently, a more even spatial distribution of firms and production prevails at equilibrium when freight rates are endogenously determined than when they are assumed to be exogenous as in the literature.     

Transportation, freight rates, and economic geography

We investigate the role of competitive transport markets in shaping the location of economic activity and the pattern of trade. In our model, carriers supply transport services for shipping manufactured goods, and freight rates are set to clear transport markets. Each carrier must commit to the maximum capacity for a round-trip and thus faces a logistics problem as there are opportunity costs of returning empty. These costs increase the freight rates charged to firms located in regions that are net exporters of manufactured goods. Since demand for transport services depends on the spatial distribution of economic activity, the concentration of production in one region raises freight rates to serve foreign markets from there, thus working against specialization and the agglomeration of firms. Consequently, a more even spatial distribution of firms and production prevails at equilibrium when freight rates are endogenously determined than when they are assumed to be exogenous as in the literature.     

中国出口产业结构优化评估——基于垂直专业化比率指标的改进与动态分析

为解释中国出口产业结构提升的原因,我们通过对平新乔等(2006)方法进行修正和改进后,对中国出口中的垂直专业化比率进行了测算,结果发现:中国的出口贸易依然具有明显的"加工贸易"特征,而亚洲国家和地区则是提供给中国中间品的主要来源地;其次,出口份额与垂直专业化比率具有明显的正相关性,充分表明当前中国出口产业结构提升的主要原因在于进口中间品所做出的贡献,中国出口商品的比较优势依然在于廉价的劳动力;第三,尽管中国目前仍处于国际垂直生产体系的低附加值阶段,但随着时间推移,中国已开始优化其出口产业结构,改变过度依赖加工贸易的生产与贸易模式。     

垂直专业化分工体系下贸易波动的行业差异性研究

本文计算了中国、日本、美国、英国等国各个部门出口波动情况,同时借助垂直专业化比率(VSS)这一指标衡量了各个部门参与垂直专业化分工的程度。测算结果表明:以其他商业服务(OCS)为典型代表的服务贸易相比于货物贸易尤其是高端货物贸易较少地参与了垂直专业化生产,服务贸易尤其是其他商业服务贸易以及传统货物贸易在国际金融危机中表现出较好的稳定性。     

Why Are Agricultural Goods Not Traded More Intensively: High Trade Costs or Low Productivity Variation?

This paper empirically studies the sizes of agricultural trade costs and productivity variation in the agriculture sector. In a general Ricardian trade model, I identify these two factors as possible causes of the observed low trade intensity of agricultural goods. Using data on bilateral trade flows, prices of agricultural goods and sectoral production from a sample of 46 countries, I estimate the variation of agricultural productivity as well as trade costs on agricultural and manufactured goods. I find that trade costs are substantial, with agricultural trade costs roughly twice as large as manufacturing trade costs. Moreover, consistent with the existing literature, I find that distance is the dominant part in the estimated trade costs. Lastly, relative to existing estimates of the heterogeneity of manufacturing productivity, the heterogeneity of agricultural productivity is large. These findings suggest that high trade costs are the main impediments to agricultural trade.     

垂直专业化分工及我国的分工地位

垂直专业化分工是国际分工的深化,是同一产业或行业内同一产品的不同生产阶段之间的国际分工。基于比较优势的垂直专业化分工,其表现形式是包含中间产品的产业内贸易,其分工和贸易模式是可预测的。我国在全球垂直专业化分工中的地位是进口半制成品并加工装配成消费品,然后出口,其主要形式是加工贸易。     

Local costs of distribution,international trade costs and micro evidence on the law of one price

This paper connects trade flows to deviations from the law of one price (LOOP) in a structural model of trade and retailing. It accounts for the observed cross-country dispersion in prices of goods, based on retail price survey data, by focusing on two sources of goods market segmentation — (i) international trade costs, and (ii) non-traded input costs of distribution. I find that a multi-sector Ricardian trade model, ala Eaton–Kortum, augmented with a distribution sector, can account for the average price dispersion for a basket of goods fully and generates 70% of the variation in price dispersion across goods within the basket. While tradability of goods is important in explaining the average price dispersion for the basket of goods, distribution costs are important in explaining why, within the basket, some goods show more price dispersion than others.     

我国中间产品贸易探析

近年来我国中间产品贸易发展迅速,中间产品贸易已成为我国进出口贸易的重要组成部分.文章从比较优势、垂直专业化、价值链及市场内部化等角度阐述了中间产品贸易产生的理论基础,客观地分析了中间产品贸易产生的现实条件和近年来我国中间产品贸易的发展状况,在此基础上提出中间产品贸易的发展将对我国经济及对外贸易发展所产生的具体影响.     

General equilibrium trade modelling with Canada–US transportation costs

Transportation costs are an important topic in international trade, but seldom have researchers paid attention to general equilibrium trade modelling with transportation costs and explored their relevant effects. This paper uses numerical general equilibrium trade model structures to simulate the impacts of transportation costs on welfare and trade for a Canada–US country pair case. We compare two groups of model structures: Armington assumption models and homogeneous goods models. Within these two groups of models, we also compare balanced trade structures to trade imbalance structures and production function transportation costs to iceberg transportation costs. Armington goods models generate more absolute welfare gains from transportation cost elimination than homogeneous goods models. Welfare gains under balanced trade structures are larger in production function transportation cost scenarios than in iceberg transportation cost scenarios, but under trade imbalance structures, welfare gains are greater under iceberg transportation cost scenarios. Canada's welfare gains in the iceberg transportation cost scenario are significantly larger than gains in the production function transportation cost scenario. On trade effects, homogeneous goods models generate more export and import gains, balanced trade structures have more trade variations, and iceberg transportation costs generate more trade effects.     

我国对外贸易结构对OFDI 影响的研究 ——基于动态面板模型的实证分析

本文使用2003～2010年我国对外直接投资的面板数据,采用GMM估计方法进行动态面板数据分析,考察了我国对外贸易结构对OFDI的影响。对世界样本的研究发现:我国制成品出口比重对OFDI有显著的促进作用,而对我国初级产品进口集中度、我国与东道国的贸易结合度以及总产品出口竞争力却会产生抑制作用。对发展中国家样本的分析则显示我国制成品出口竞争力对OFDI有显著的促进作用,而对我国制成品出口比重和总产品出口竞争力却没有显著的影响。     

Interacting factor endowments and trade costs: A multi-country,multi-good approach to trade theory

We provide a synthetic analysis of the different ways in which countries participate in the world economy. Classic trade questions are reconsidered by generalizing a factor-proportions model to multiple countries, multiple goods or multi-stage production, and country-specific trade costs. Each country's production specialization, trade and welfare is determined by the interaction between its relative endowment and its trade costs. We consider the effects of allowing one good to ‘fragment’ into component and assembly production. The volume of trade and welfare levels are higher with fragmentation for most countries, although for many countries these variables fall with fragmentation.     

On the conservation of distance in international trade

Using disaggregated bilateral trade data, we find that the elasticity of trade to distance increased (in absolute value) by about 10% since 1985. To explore the reasons for this shift, we decompose the change in the distance elasticity of trade into the part due to a shift in the composition of trade among industries and the part due to a change in the distance sensitivity within industries. We find that adjustment in the composition of trade had little effect, but for 40% of industries distance became more important, with nearly all of the remaining industries showing no significant change. We explore alternative hypotheses as to why the elasticity of trade to distance increased in some industries. We find that homogeneous goods, bulky goods, and high tariff goods became significantly more distance sensitive. In contrast, the evidence implies that changes in tariffs and freight costs have reduced the importance of distance on trade. We conclude that the increase in the importance of distance over time is related to the substitutability of goods and the level of trade costs, but not to changes in tariffs or freight costs.     

Trade barriers and the relative price of tradables

In this paper I quantitatively address the role of trade barriers in explaining why prices of services relative to tradables are positively correlated with levels of development across countries. I argue that trade barriers play a crucial role in shaping the cross-country pattern of specialization across many tradable goods. I construct a multi-country, general equilibrium model of trade and derive tractable predictions that show how specialization affects relative prices. I calibrate the model to match the patterns of prices, levels of development, and bilateral trade across 103 countries. Through counterfactuals I find that removing trade barriers eliminates more than half of the gap in the relative price of services between rich and poor countries with only a minimal systematic effect on the absolute price of tradables.     

Is India Specialising in Polluting Industries? Evidence from US‐India Bilateral Trade

Recently, the apex environmental agency of India observed that domestic industrial pollution has been increasing at an alarming rate over the last two decades, and the need to rein in traditional polluting industries. This raises the pertinent question of whether the poor domestic pollution regime has affected the pattern of India's trade in dirty manufactured products in the post‐liberalisation era since 1991. We find that on the whole, India has remained a net importer of pollution‐intensive manufactured goods; however, there is a distinct trend of increasing specialisation in specific dirty industries especially in the bilateral trade with high‐income countries, and to a lesser degree with low‐income countries. The USA being India's single largest country trading partner in the post‐liberalisation era, we test for pollution offshoring at the finer industry level in US‐India bilateral trade. While we find that the pollution haven effect is not significant, India's specialisation in certain dirty manufacturing industries through the last decade remains a disturbing trend. India needs to integrate environmental sustainability within industrial growth urgently, and it is pertinent to implement policies which would reflect the true pollution costs in an industry that is increasingly competing in the international market.     

Comparative advantage,service trade,and global imbalances

The large current account deficit of the U.S. is the result of a large deficit in the goods balance and a modest surplus in the service balance. The opposite is true for Japan, Germany, and China. Moreover, I document the emergence from the mid-nineties of a strong negative relation between specialization in the export of services and the current account balances of a large sample of OECD and developing countries. Starting from these new stylized facts, I propose in this paper a service hypothesis for global imbalances, a new explanation based on the interplay between the U.S. comparative advantage in services and the asymmetric trade liberalization process in goods trade versus service trade that took place starting in the mid-nineties. First, I use a structural gravity model to show that service trade liberalization lagged behind goods trade liberalization, and I quantify the extent of this asymmetry. Second, I show that a simple two-period model can rationalize the emergence of current account deficits in the presence of such asymmetric liberalization. The key inter-temporal mechanism is the asymmetric timing of trade policies, which affects saving decisions. Finally, I explore the quantitative relevance of this explanation for global imbalances. I introduce trade costs in an otherwise standard 2-sector 2-country international real business cycle model. When fed with the asymmetric trade liberalization path found in the data, the model generates a trade deficit of about 5% of GDP. I conclude that the service hypothesis for global imbalances is quantitatively relevant.     

基于产品内分工视角的我国贸易转型升级路径研究

20世纪70年代以来,国际分工经历了由产业间分工、产业内分工向产品内分工不断深化的过程。作为发展中贸易大国,中国参与国际分工的方式也由传统的水平分工向垂直专业化分工演变,并以加工贸易为主要方式切入了全球价值链的低端环节。本文从产品内分工的视角,测度中国参与国际产品内分工的水平,针对中国参与国际产品内分工的各个环节,采用贸易余额贡献率(CTB)指数衡量我国各个生产环节的贸易份额和贸易余额贡献率,并以电器设备、机械器具和纺织品为例,分析这三个部门产品内贸易各环节的情况和近年来的发展趋势。在此基础上,提出了在产品内分工体系下我国贸易转型升级的路径。     

中日两国产业内贸易的实证研究

本文对中日双边贸易中制成品产业内贸易的发展现状、特征以及影响因素进行了实证研究,发现随着中日双边贸易中资本和技术密集型产品比重的提高,制成品产业内贸易比重也有所提高;其中,机械和运输设备产业内贸易所占比重最高;垂直差异化产品产业内贸易是中日制成品产业内贸易的主要形式;日本对华直接投资活动活跃、跨国公司国际一体化生产体系的构筑及其产业内投资的发展、中国持续经济增长引起的市场容量扩大、加工贸易的快速发展、产品差异化发展以及便利的地理区位因素均有利于促进双边产业内贸易的发展,规模经济和贸易壁垒因素对其则尚存消极影响。     

中欧制成品产业内贸易影响因素实证分析

分析了中国与欧盟制成品产业内贸易状况,并对中欧制成品产业内贸易的影响因素进行了实证研究,结果表明:中欧制成品贸易主要是建立在中欧资源禀赋差异基础上的垂直型产业内贸易,中欧人均收入差距和欧盟对华直接投资显著地促进了中欧制成品产业内贸易的发展,而规模经济、市场规模因素对中欧制成品产业内贸易有较强的抑制作用。同时,研发投入对中欧制成品产业内贸易的影响并不显著。表明虽然近年来中国政府对科技教育发展增加投入,一定程度上减小了中欧研发水平的差距,但是对中国出口贸易转型的作用仍然比较有限。     

Impact of Trade Facilitation on Parts and Components Trade

This article utilizes data from seventy-seven countries over the period 2004–07 in a gravity trade model to examine the impact of four dimensions of trade facilitation—physical infrastructure, information and communication technology, business environment, and border efficiency—on parts and components and final goods trade for the machinery and transport equipment sector. The results show that the effect of importers’ overall trade facilitation measures is stronger for promoting parts and components than for final goods trade. Among the four dimensions, border efficiency has the largest impact on trade flows for this sector, and the effect of exporter and particularly importers’ border efficiency is important for parts and components, as compared to final goods trade.     

Can health “halos” extend to food packaging? An investigation into food healthfulness perceptions and serving sizes on consumption decisions

The purpose of this research is to examine how perceived food healthfulness and package partitioning interact to impact intended and actual consumption. Across three studies, findings indicate that both intended consumption and actual consumption of the perceptually healthier food items increase when packaging is not partitioned. Further, partitioning does not change the intended or actual consumption of foods perceived as less healthy. Accordingly, perceptually healthy foods tend to be consumed more when servings are not partitioned, suggesting a positive health halo leading to a “healthy = eat more” consumption pattern. The role of affect regulation theory and, more specifically, guilt, in this process is examined. These findings have implications for marketers, food manufacturers, and public policymakers interested in reducing obesity.