Formation of interdependent regional trade agreements and production networks

Production networks (PNs) can be defined as a determinant of trade partnership. Deepening PNs may generate positive welfare effects and lead to a proliferation in the formation of interdependent regional trade agreements (RTAs). This paper theoretically develops the link between PNs and the formation of RTAs and empirically investigates the link by applying a qualitative choice model estimation methodology (probit) with panel data that covers bilateral country‐pairs among 147 countries between 2000 and 2010. We find that the RTA formation has been strongly driven by deepening PNs between members as well as with third countries. We also find that production network‐driven RTA interdependence is member specific.     

The de minimis threshold in international trade: The costs of being too low

With tariffs largely negotiated away, trade facilitation issues such as custom delays and border costs are one of the next key barriers for trade policymakers to address. One important trade facilitation issue is the de minimis threshold (DMT )—a valuation ceiling for imports below which no duty or tax is charged and the clearance procedures are minimal. Customs assessments are costly and low thresholds can hinder trade flows. We offer a detailed analytical approach to assess the direct economic effects of raising the DMT . We focus on Canada, which has one of the lowest DMT s among developed countries. We utilise a unique data set and find that raising Canada's DMT would have positive effects for consumers and businesses, particularly small businesses because the cost saving for smaller entities is disproportionately large. For the government, foregone duty and tax revenues are outweighed by the cost saving, resulting in a fiscally neutral or even positive effect for government revenues.     

Overlapping free trade agreements and international trade: A network approach

In our work, we have analysed the effect of the hub‐and‐spoke nature of free trade agreements (FTA s) on trade. Contrary to previous analyses, we have considered the effects of the country's position in the FTA network on the bilateral trade of the hub country. We have conducted an in‐depth analysis of the global network of FTA s, focusing particularly on its evolution in the last 15 years. We have utilised a panel data set covering the period 1960–2010 to investigate the effects of the hub‐and‐spoke on trade. Our results show that the countries that are more connected to FTA s export more than those that are less involved, although not all the partner countries you can connect with are the same. An increase in the number of spokes that have no link between them has, on average, a negative effect on the trade of the hub, which indicates that signing FTA s with every country is not the optimal strategy for increasing trade. However, if we consider the way new FTA s change the relative position of a country, we can see that if new FTA s make the country more central or less constrained in the network, these new agreements have a strongly positive and significant pro‐trade effect.     

Global production sharing: Exploring Australia's competitive edge

Cross‐border dispersion of production processes within vertically integrated global industries (“global production sharing”) has been an increasingly important structural feature of economic globalisation in the recent decades. This paper examines patterns and determinants of global production sharing with an emphasis on how Australian manufacturing fits into global production networks (GPNs). Though Australia is a minor player in GPNs, there is evidence that Australian manufacturing has a distinct competitive edge in specialised, skill‐intensive tasks in several industries such as aircraft, medical devices, machine tools, measuring and scientific equipment and photographic equipment. Specialisation in high‐value‐to‐weight components and final goods within GPNs, which are suitable for air transport, helps Australian manufacturing to overcome the “tyranny of distance” in world trade. Being predominantly “relationship specific,” Australian GPN exports are not significantly susceptible to real exchange rate appreciation.     

我国外贸企业应谨防国际贸易欺诈

随着我国外贸额的不断增长及更多的企业开始从事国际贸易业务，我国外贸企业正在越来越多的成为国际不法商人欺诈的对象。本文从国际贸易合同主体欺诈、海运欺诈、结算欺诈三个方面论述了我国外贸企业所可能面临的欺诈风险以及相应的防范措施。     

Orchestrating international production networks when formal authority shifts

We investigate how a brand-owning MNE can coordinate and safeguard exchanges in its international production network following a decline in formal authority and a shift in ‘hub firm’ status to another member of the network. Our empirical material is drawn from a case study of a Norwegian shipbuilder. We illuminate what mechanisms are used by a network orchestrator in a peripheral position with limited formal authority, when they are used, and by whom they are developed and deployed. Our findings question and extend theorizations that assume a single, stable orchestrator, and that typically give primacy to the ‘executive suite’.     

中国加工贸易升级对策研究——基于全球生产网络视角

改革开放以来,我国加工贸易一直保持了快速的发展势头,但目前总体上仍处于劳动密集型或非差异化加工为主阶段,面临着进一步升级的严峻挑战.文章从全球生产网络视角,基于加工贸易的升级机制和相关问卷调查结果,对影响我国加工贸易升级的制约因素,提出了推动加工贸易进一步升级的对策.     

中国与东盟贸易的决定因素分析

本文以中国与东盟间的双边贸易为研究对象,利用贸易引力模型分析中国与东盟之间贸易的决定因素。中国的GDP、东盟国家国的GDP和人均GDP对于中国-东盟贸易具有显著的促进作用,而中国的人均GDP和距离对于中国-东盟的贸易具有阻碍作用。     

黑龙江省国际化物流园区建设的思考

创新物流服务外包业务可以为黑龙江省对外贸易的发展提供重要的保障和支持.分析黑龙江省物流园区的发展现状、存在的问题,并提出发展对策,具有理论和现实意义.     

中国十大城市群国际贸易综合发展状况比较研究

近年来,经济全球一体化进程的加快使中国城市群的发展面临新的机遇和挑战,研究中国十大城市群国际贸易发展状况具有理论和实践上的重大意义。通过建立多层指标体系,运用因子分析和聚类分析的多层次因子分析方法,对中国十大城市群国际贸易发展状况进行了研究,发现十大城市群国际贸易发展状况之间存在非均衡性差异,呈现出东部城市群先进、中西部城市群落后的格局,并给出缩小非均衡性差异的对策。     

Asymmetric effects of cultural institutes on trade and foreign direct investment

The purpose of a cultural institute is to improve international relations with other countries by promoting language familiarity and cultural awareness. In addition, cultural institutes can provide additional business opportunities that lead to positive economic side effects such as increases in trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). In this study, gravity models were used to analyse the data for the Goethe Institut (Germany), the Cervantes Institute (Spain) and the Confucius Institute (China) to identify any stylised international patterns of the documented economic effects. The study finds significant positive effects on bilateral trade and FDI outflows for all three programmes, along with two important (i) the effects are stronger for non‐advanced economies and (ii) the effects are substantially larger on FDI than on trade. These results suggest that cultural institutes can be an effective policy tool in promoting FDI outflows, with the strongest effect realised when a home country locates its cultural institutes in host countries with developing economies. Importantly, results also suggest that the Chinese government's approach to extend its soft power through rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes worldwide has not been as successful as the efforts by the German Goethe Institut in increasing trade and FDI.     

通用贸易定律及其在中国对外贸易中的验证

在贸易理论中能够定量应用于两个经济之间贸易额计算的,目前只有引力模型。但引力模型在实践中的应用效果并不令人满意。注意到贸易的本质就是交换,贸易额与产出之间应该存在着某种特定的数量关系,本文认为引力模型的基本形式应该能够普遍适用于国内贸易和国际贸易,并称之为“贸易定律”。模型中的距离应该理解为“经济距离”,代表运输成本。据此思路以中国对外贸易数据进行验证,贸易定律是有效的。     

我国单位物流成本对国际贸易的影响——基于贸易引力模型的实证分析

用单位货物周转费用代表单位物流成本,考察物流对贸易的影响,引入贸易引力模型并对其进行合理的改进。并提出模型的理论假设。通过回归分析和因果关系检验,可以得到的结论是：单位货物周转费降低对国际贸易具有明显的促进作用,证明了中国与世界上其他国家的双边货物贸易额与双方的人均收入成正比,与单位货物周转费用成反比。既验证了传统贸易引力模型的正确性。也肯定了对贸易引力模型说进行的改进。     

Paying a visit: The Dalai Lama effect on international trade

Is political compliance a precondition for healthy trade relations with China? The Chinese government frequently threatens that meetings between its trading partners' officials and the Dalai Lama will be met with animosity and ultimately harm trade ties. We run a gravity model of exports to China from 159 partner countries between 1991 and 2008 to test the extent to which bilateral tensions affect trade with autocratic China. In particular, we empirically investigate whether countries that receive the Dalai Lama despite China's opposition experience a significant reduction in their exports to China. In order to account for the potential endogeneity of meetings with the Dalai Lama, the number of Tibet Support Groups and the travel pattern of the Tibetan leader are used as instruments. Our empirical results support the idea that countries officially receiving the Dalai Lama at the highest political level are punished through a reduction of their exports to China. However, this ‘Dalai Lama Effect’ is only observed for the Hu Jintao era and not for earlier periods. Furthermore, we find that this effect is mainly driven by reduced exports of machinery and transport equipment and that it disappears in the second year after a meeting took place.     

Heterogeneous effect of ethnic networks on international trade of Thailand: The role of family ties and ethnic diversity

Ethnic networks have been found to have a pro-trade effect in previous research. However, the heterogeneous effect of different ethnicities is under-studied. Drawing on the literature on social structure, this paper attempts to untangle the heterogeneous effect of ethnic networks on international trade using trade data of Thailand. We found that ethnic networks have a positive impact overall on trade, confirming the results of previous studies. However, the magnitude of the positive effect varies across different ethnicities along two dimensions. First, the strength of family ties in the culture of origin accelerates the pro-trade effect of its ethnic networks, suggesting ethnicities with stronger family ties have a cultural preference for trading within their own ethnic community. In comparison, ethnic diversity weakens the positive effect of ethnic networks on trade, suggesting an informational value of diverse ethnic structure in promoting trade between different ethnicities. Our study contributes new evidence of the enduring influence of social and cultural attributes on economic activities.     

Business cycle synchronisation in East Asia: The role of value‐added trade

We empirically investigate the relationship between business cycle synchronisation and the role of value‐added trade focusing on a panel of 12 Asian countries from 1995 to 2011. In addition, we propose the inclusion of two novel determinants, for example external value‐added trade intensity and exchange rate volatility and also saturate our empirical model with other common determinants found in the literature. Our findings first confirm that value‐added trade intensity, rather than gross trade intensity, has a sizable, positive and statistically significant impact on synchronisation among East Asian countries. Second, the exchange rate volatility has a significant negative effect on the business cycle synchronisation, which verifies that the exchange rate volatility is another important determinant of business cycle synchronisation. Our findings have important implications for the monetary cooperation in the region: strengthening trade linkage could reduce the costs of monetary cooperation by increasing the incidence of symmetric shocks.     

A simple model of firm heterogeneity, international trade, and wages

This paper presents a general equilibrium trade model in which homogeneous firms choose a technology from a set of competing technologies and choose employees from a set of workers of heterogeneous skill. In equilibrium, the interaction between the characteristics of competing technologies, international trade costs, and the availability of workers of heterogeneous skill gives rise to firm heterogeneity. The model generates several of the stylized facts concerning the (apparent) superiority of firms that engage in international trade relative to those that do not and has implications for the effect of international trade on the skill premium and on observed industry-level productivity.     

Social responsibility of countries and their international trade: A gravitational approach

This article presents an econometric study based on a gravitational model estimation of the link between the prevailing social conditions in a country and its exports. It is based on an original indicator of social conditions: the Responsible Competitiveness Index (RCI) launched in 2007 by AccountAbility, the organisation that introduced the international AA1000 Standard. The regressions initially show a positive connection between the social responsibility of the countries and their exports. It is not a linear connection but shows a bell-shaped curve stronger in countries with lower levels of social responsibility (Southern countries): it can be negative in countries with high levels of social responsibility (Northern countries).     

5G时代农产品国际物流供应链生态发展研究

“5G”时代的到来,为农产品国际物流供应链发展提供了先进的理念和科学技术。在阐述农产品国际物流供应链生态发展现状的基础上,从智能化、短链化、共生化、信息化角度探讨了农产品国际物流供应链的发展趋势,同时指出了“5G”时代农产品国际物流供应链生态发展中存在的主要问题,最后提出了相关优化策略。