The calculation of bilateral trade patterns in a Ricardian model with intermediate products and barriers to trade

After arguing for a computational approach to the theory of international trade the paper presents an algorithm for solving a generalized Ricardian two-country model. The algorithm focuses on the ‘critical exchange ratios’ at which the pattern of specialization changes. In the absence of barriers to trade there is one exchange ratio (defined as the value of one country's labor in terms of the other country's labor) at which production of a good moves from one country to the other. With barriers to trade there are two critical ratios for each good, between which it is not traded. Taking the critical ratios in sequence the trade balance can be calculated as a discontinuous function of the exchange rate; where the balance equals zero (or some given transfer) the problem is solved. The method works with arbitrary demand functions and can handle intermediate products.     

Reswitching,primary inputs and the Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson theory of trade

The 2× 2 × 2 Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson model of trade is examined under all the usual assumptions, except that a positive rate of interest is assumed. The factor-price-equalization and Stolper-Samuelson theorems are shown to be unaffected by the positive interest rate. The H-O-S theorem on the pattern of trade still holds in its ‘quantity’ form but is shown to be invalid in its ‘price’ form. Consequently trade need not ‘harm’ a country's scarce factor. It is to be expected that, in general, international equilibrium will not be unique.     

On the transformation of theorems

Professor W. Ethier (1979) has argued that replacing land by capital in the familiar 2×2 trade model leaves the four basic theorems unaffected, with time-phasing and a positive interest rate. In fact, Ethier's HOS and FPE theorems are different in kind from the traditional ones. The traditional theorems predict certain results in terms of trade-independent data: Ethier's theorems describe equilibrium in terms of factor endowments and intensities defined by equilibrium prices. Hence his theorems do not support his central message that nothing is lost in trade theory by treating capital as if it were homogeneous land.     

Free trade's intertemporal Pareto-optimality

Emmanuel's thesis of ‘unequal exchange’ — that free trade at equalized profit rates and unequal wage rates (1) involves deadweight loss to the world, and (2) explains a one-way trend toward deterioration of poor country's wellbeing and double-factoral terms of trade — is found on analysis to be incorrect. Careful time-period analysis shows that such free trade is actually intertemporally Pareto optimal, despite misleading steady-state comparisons.     

A note on Mill's theory of international values

This note provides an algebraic formulation of the analysis contained in section 7 of John Stuart Mill's chapter on international values. It is shown that Mill's results can be obtained as the solution to a pair of nonlinear programming problems. In addition, an error in Mill's analysis regarding the post-trade terms of exchange is pointed out.     

Time structure of production and the theory of international trade

This paper reexamines aspects of international trade theory by taking account of the time required for transforming inputs into outputs. The discussion focuses explicitly upon the time structure of production, characterized by profiles of inputs and outputs over time. Each of the model's two consumer-good sectors has different flow-input flow-output technology, with which labor produces heterogeneous capital goods and final output. As shown by the analysis, intersectoral differences in the time structure of production have important implications for the impact of world trade on a country's employment of labor, accumulation of capital and level of income.     

Labour market reforms in a globalised world

In the traditional model of international trade, labour market reforms in one country are often viewed as beggar-thy-neighbour policies, because they negatively affect the competitiveness and employment levels of the country’s trading partners. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that this is not the case. By addressing labour market reforms in the context of intra-industry trade, this article explains how such reforms, while boosting employment, ultimately reduce a country’s terms of trade, thereby benefitting the country’s trading partners. The authors call for more international policy coordination to achieve optimal outcomes.     

The Niehans paradox,flexible exchange rates,and macroeconomic stability

This paper re-examines Dornbusch's suggestion that monetary expansion under a floating rate system will not cause a temporary decline in economic activity — the Niehans paradox — because households will cut their saving to maintain consumption spending on domestic goods. Despite this terms of trade effect on saving, it turns out that devaluation in the standard Keynesian model, in which trade flows, however, respond to the exchange rate with a simple distributed lag, produces a temporary decline in economic activity under certain plausible conditions. Consequently, the Niehans paradox still can arise if domestic expenditures respond sluggishly to lower interest rates.     

South-north trade and southern growth: Bleak prospects from the structuralist point of view

A three-country, three-commodity model is developed to illustrate the dynamics of growth among the ‘North’, the ‘South’ and ‘OPEC’. One conclusion is that the Southern growth rate will be increased by faster growth of Northern capital, with a steady state response coefficient of unity. However, if the steady state is perturbed by increases in Northern productivity or the oil price, then the coefficient becomes less than one. In the short run, higher capital flows from North to South increase the former's growth rate but may have only marginal impact on growth in the South. Higher productivity in the South will slow its growth rate and reduce its terms of trade when the Engel elasticity of Northern demand for its exports is less than one. These and other results follow from surplus labor in the South and its dependent position in international trade, from which it will be difficult to escape.     

自由贸易及跨界污染背景下的国际环境政策协调

文章构建了一个考虑跨界污染损害的福利函数,推导出自由贸易背景下某国的最优污染税,并与世界福利最大化时的最优污染税进行比较,以说明国家间环境政策协调的必要性。文章考虑了四种情况,分析结果表明,只有在该国为小国且污染不跨界时不需要国际协调;当该国为大国或者污染跨界时,单个国家的独立行为通常不会产生合意的世界福利水平,此时需要国际协调以实现世界福利最大化。大国的污染政策具有贸易条件效应,因而出口国有设定过高污染税的激励,而进口国则会设定过低的污染税,双方都寻求转变贸易条件以有利于本方。而污染跨界时单个国家通常会有"搭便车"的激励,此时会实施较为宽松的环境政策。     

A Ricardian model of market sharing

The latest generation of multi-sectoral trade models has abandoned the conventional strategy that regards the similarly named exports of different countries as homogeneous products. Armington's assumption, that the products of different countries compete as imperfect substitutes, has become the theoretical rationale for an alternative, heterogeneous modeling procedure. This paper describes some problems with the assumption and develops a more rigorous framework for the heterogeneous strategy. The processes that lead to heterogeneity in trade are modeled explicitly: comparative advantage theory is applied at a sub-sectoral level to explain the detailed structure of international specialization. Implications of the new framework for empirical estimation are also explored.     

中国企业全球攻略:“三位一体”廓清贸易障碍

当今形势下,全球化战略成为中国企业的必然选择。中国企业应从战略高度上,以全球为市场、以学习为手段,来积蓄国际化经营的知识经验和管理技能,培育能带来持久竞争优势的战略资源与核心能力,构筑全新的竞争优势。但金融危机爆发以来,国际贸易保护主义重新抬头,各国因自身利益而产生的贸易摩擦越来越多。作为世界贸易大国,受国际国内双重因素影响,我国也面临着国际贸易摩擦的高发期,贸易摩擦日益成为阻碍我国企业全球化战略发展的消极因素。为有效破解国际贸易壁垒,妥善处理贸易摩擦问题,推动国内企业向国际型企业成功转变,必须从国家、行业、企业三个层面入手化解国际贸易摩擦。     

Regional Productive Complementarity and Competitiveness

A positive international environment favors growth of the several economies in a given region, but it does not assure that the differences in the economic potential of the several countries are reduced in this process. Alternatively, the presence of productive complementarities might foster competitiveness and contribute to increasing the degree of homogeneity, even in situations of adverse terms of trade. This article reviews the experience of six sub-regional groups in Asia and Latin America in the last two decades. Latin America has recently benefitted from significant improvement in terms of trade and yet the economies in that region remain as different in their relative economic potential as they were in the beginning of the 1990s. In Asia, however, the negative impact of terms of trade has not blocked a quite fast pace of GDP growth; furthermore, productive complementarity has led to an increasing convergence of the several economies, with a sharp increase in their share of the international market. There are clear lessons from the Asian experience.     

国际服务贸易与国际物流服务贸易——战略性的发展机遇

国际服务贸易作为国际间新的经济形态,是世界经济高度化、一体化发展的结果,应当看到这个新的经济增长点和经济发展的重要机遇,进行战略性的思考和长远的安排.国际物流服务贸易作为国际运输服务贸易的升华和发展,是国际服务贸易一个新的课题,对于促进国际间从商品、技术、知识到服务的全面融合,提高我国国际服务贸易水平具有重要意义,将成为我国新的经济增长点和战略选择.为推进国际物流服务贸易,可从两方面着手进行:一方面是以系统物流为独立的服务形态进入到国际服务贸易领域里面去,这是国际物流服务贸易的主体;另一方面是作为国际实物商品贸易共生、配套、派生的物流服务,随同实物商品国际贸易进入到国际贸易领域,在多数情况下,这已经成为国际商品贸易的一部分,不容忽视.此外,推进国际物流服务贸易,除了要从数量上推进外,还要注重内涵的扩展.而且国际服务贸易与国际物流服务贸易的发展,会遇到很多困难和问题,对此要有充分的准备.     

The national defense tariff argument reconsidered

What is a country's optimal trade policy when embargoes and other trade interruptions are threatening? In addressing this issue, the paper emphasizes the nature of adjustment impediments when an effective embargo forces the economy to alter its production pattern abruptly. A production subsidy on the imported good represents the optimal policy choice, a tariff being a second-best instrument. The tariff's superiority to free trade implies, in turn, that the conventional classification of the national defense tariff as a noneconomic argument is inappropriate since economic efficiency criteria alone can justify the tariff.     

中国对外贸易的劳动就业效应:贸易结构视角

文章旨在分析中国对外贸易结构变动在劳动就业以及城乡劳动力转移中产生的作用。文章认为中国对外贸易的发展有利于劳动就业水平的提升;对外贸易结构的改善有利于促进中国农村劳动力向城市转移,优化劳动就业结构;城乡劳动力转移,农村人口比重的降低,不能仅仅依靠农业的发展,而必须以第二、三产业发展为依托,不能单纯依靠经济规模的扩大和投资的增加,而需要通过产业结构调整,促进城乡联动;对外贸易劳动就业效应的可持续发挥需以经济增长和资本积累为基础;社会劳动就业的增长,就业结构的改善有利于促进经济增长和资本积累。     

国际贸易影响就业的实证分析——以广东省为例

传统国际贸易理论几乎都把充分就业作为基本前提,这明显与现实不相符合.广东是外贸大省,同时也是一个就业大省.实证分析表明,广东省的进口和出口都是就业的Granger原因.广东出口增加1%,广东城镇就业增加0.76%:进口增加1%,广东城镇就业减少0.77%.就业是民生之本,我们要实行更加有利于促进就业和减少失业的对外贸易政策,将促进国内就业作为制定、调整货物和服务进出口政策以及处理贸易争端的重要依据.     

Factors influencing United States comparative advantage

One of the more famous results in international trade is Leontief's demonstration that the conventional wisdom of trade theory—the two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin model, coupled with the empirical judgement that the U.S. is capital-rich—does not appear to provide an explanation of the composition of U.S. trade. A major conclusion of many recent studies is that an adequate model of comparative advantage will be, of necessity, a multi-factor one. This paper examines the implications of a modified multi-factor-proportions model by measuring the simultaneous impact of a variety of factor intensities on the comparative advantage of all U.S. (trading) industries, classified and disaggregated by the 1958 input-output table. The novelty of the study lies in using a binary measure of comparative advantage. In order to by-pass several econometric difficulties, logit analysis is used to estimate the model. The principal conclusion of the paper is that capital-intensity has a significantly positive impact on the comparative advantage of U.S. manufacturing industries and, therefore, that the U.S. is, in fact, relatively capital-rich.     

An extension of Bale's labor displacement cost estimates

Bale (1976) failed to extend his labor displacement cost estimates to the more interesting question of whether these costs outweigh gains from trade liberalization. This note addresses that question by applying Bale's estimates to Magee's (1972) study of the welfare effects of U.S. trade restrictions. Our results indicate that gains far outweigh costs of tariff removal on imports directly competing with U.S. production.     

Accounting for the Differences Between Gross and Value Added Trade Balances

One of the main stylised facts that has emerged from the recent literature on global value chains is that bilateral trade imbalances in gross terms can differ substantially from those measured in value added terms. However, the factors underlying the extent and sign of the differences between the two measures have so far not been investigated. Here, we propose a novel decomposition of bilateral gross trade balances that accounts for the differences between gross and value added concepts. The bilateral analysis contributes conceptually to the literature on double counting in trade by identifying the trade flow in which value added is actually recorded for the first time in international trade statistics. We apply our decomposition framework to the development of intra‐EU‐27 trade balances from 1995 to 2011 and show that a growing share of intra‐EU bilateral trade balances is due to demand in countries other than the two direct trading partners. The latter accounted for 25 per cent of the total variance of intra‐EU gross bilateral trade balances in 2011, which marks a considerable rise from 3 per cent in 1995.