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.     

国际贸易中的反倾销调查原因分析与对策研究

近年来,中国已经成为全球范围内遭受反倾销调查案最多的国家,为中国企业国际市场开拓带来严重阻碍。本文围绕国际贸易中反倾销调查原因进行分析探讨,结合国内市场实情寻求解决对策,希望通过本文的论述,唤起政府有关部门以及国内企业对反倾销问题的重视。     

Impact of political dispute on international trade based on an international trade Inoperability Input-Output Model: A case study of the 2012 Diaoyu Islands Dispute

While political disputes occur frequently and widely among many countries, their impact on the international trade is unclear and less systematically investigated. Considering the 2012 Diaoyu Islands Dispute, under several premised assumptions, this paper applies the international trade Inoperability Input-Output Model to determine the indirect economic loss and to screen out Chinese industries that are sensitive to the dispute. Results based on Leontief's technical coefficients matrix show that the total indirect economic loss of China's gross trade is between RMB 540.4226 billion and RMB 1023.3068 billion. Industries that are sensitive to the dispute include electrical equipment and machinery, general special equipment manufacturing, metal smelting and rolling processing, manufacture and processing of metals and metal products, and chemical. The empirical findings suggest that China establish an early-warning mechanism and trade assistance system, so that key industries that were damaged could be properly compensated.     

国际贸易环境下我国对外贸易政策的发展方向

近十几年来,全球贸易量取得了惊人的跨越式增长,而自由贸易与环境的关系问题也日趋尖锐。一方面,许多发达国家利用不对等的贸易和投资手段从发展中国家攫取大量战略性资源,却造成这些国家境内生态环境的严重失调;另一方面,一味地追求贸易扩张、资金积累和工业化又实际加剧了全球环境的恶化。环境效应对贸易的挤压性制约日益上升为国际贸易发展的焦点。在此背景下,引入环境变量,促进贸易策略的可持续性便成为实现我国对外贸易科学发展的必然之路。     

Corporate social responsibility research in international business journals: An author co-citation analysis

This paper aims to describe the development of research on corporate social responsibility in international business (IB) journals and to suggest future research directions. We conducted a bibliometric study of articles published in twelve leading international business journals over three decades in a longer time frame (1996–2015). Five research trends were found in IB journals: business ethics, integration of stakeholder management, the evolution of the CSR concept, the political and social demands of CSR, and the financial implications of CSR. Our results thus have several implications and suggest numerous opportunities for future research.     

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。     

Corporate social responsibility in international joint ventures: Empirical examinations in South Korea

This study aims to investigate organizational characteristics and develop a framework relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of international joint ventures (IJVs) established in the South Korean market. Based on institutional and stakeholder theories, regression analyses produced a framework facilitating a better understanding and identification of factors that drive CSR in local markets. Consumers, competitors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were discovered to be primary determinants of responsible behaviors. Additionally, some significant differences were found with respect to CSR related to IJV’s formative characteristics. This study contributes to furthering knowledge of IJVs and CSR, as well by providing some practical implications for organizations pursuing international markets.     

The political economy of regulations and trade: Wine trade 1860–1970

Dramatic changes in the 1860–1970 wine trade provide insights on the political economy of regulations and policy instrument choice and trade. An invasion of Phylloxera in the 1870s turned France from the world's leading exporter to a massive importer of wine and grapes. When French production recovered a combination of tariffs, safety regulations and quality standards were introduced to protect its French producers, causing dramatic changes in global wine and grape production and trade, including in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Changes in wine regulations were caused by relative income and loss aversion factors in political economy. Tariffs were the preferred policy instruments as they directly restrict imports, bring in revenues, have low transaction costs and are preferred political instruments when there are information imperfections. Safety regulations and quality standards, including labelling and input prohibitions, reduce asymmetric information for consumers or undesirable externalities, and simultaneously protected domestic producers. Regulations were often targeted at imported products (wine and raisins) when tariffs were ineffective or constrained by institutions (such as on colonial wine). Hence, tariffs and quality regulations were jointly used in wine policy, both as complements and as substitutes in policy design.     

企业社会责任与贸易壁垒研究

文章结合国际贸易法学和公司治理学两种范式探讨了企业社会责任运动中出现的"贸易壁垒化"倾向,比较分析了"绿色贸易壁垒"、"蓝色贸易壁垒"两种主要形式对发展中国家及整个国际贸易自由化产生的消极影响。我国"入世"后,为应对新近出现的"蓝色贸易壁垒",政府和企业需要借鉴以往GATT/WTO框架内应对"绿色贸易壁垒"的立法和司法经验。     

Firm heterogeneity and international trade in services

This study, using panel data on Japanese firms, analyses the relationship between services trade and firm heterogeneity. It finds that the number of firms engaged in services trade is far less than that engaged in goods trade. Further, the productivity of services traders is higher than that of domestic firms and goods trading firms, whereas the productivity of firms that export services beyond the boundary of their firm groups is higher than that of those that export services only to their affiliate firms. These results suggest that only productive firms can engage in services trade by incurring the relatively large fixed costs.     

The Social and Environmental Responsibilities of Multinationals: Evidence from the Brent Spar Case

This paper argues that multinational corporations face levels of environmental and social responsibility higher than their national counterparts. Drawing on the literatures of stakeholder salience, corporate reputation management, and evidence from the confrontation between Shell and Greenpeace over the Brent Spar, in 1995, two mechanisms – international reputation side effects, and foreign stakeholder salience – are identified and their contribution in creating an environment more restrictive, in terms of environmental and social responsibility, is elaborated on. The paper concludes with discussing the links of the work presented here with a number of ongoing debates within the filed of international business ethics, and the managerial implications of the two mechanisms identified.     

浅谈商业银行国际贸易融资业务发展现状

国际贸易融资,对于商业银行以及部分进出口企业来说并不陌生,因为近几年,在经济全球化的影响下,进出口贸易无论在数量上还是金额上,均获得了蓬勃发展。各商业银行纷纷推出贸易融资产品以满足企业进出口融资需求,使得国际贸易融资在银行融资业务中的比重不断攀升。一方面可以满足进出口商在国际贸易中对流动资金的需求,促进国际贸易的顺利进行,另一方面,也推动了银行业务的发展、赚取了利润。然而,世界金融危机的爆发,集中揭露了这种信用便利潜在的风险,这不仅影响了其功能的发挥,也将银行资产置于不利之地。本文通过分析国际贸易融资发展状况、存在的风险,提出了可行的防范措施。     

Evidence on the dynamic relationship between international trade and the stock market

This study uses vector autoregressive analysis to examine the dynamic interactions of monthly real stock returns, return volatility, exchange rates, export growth and import growth for Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan for the period 1975–91. We find that exports and imports have significant interactions. The results also indicate that stock returns in Hong Kong and Singapore Granger-cause trade flows. Return volatility is found to react strongly to trade news in all four countries, a result supporting the efficient-market hypothesis.     

国际企业社会责任标准运动及其对我国的启示

本文认为,国际企业社会责任标准的宗旨是确保生产商及供应商所提供的产品符合社会责任的要求,其主要内容包括人权、劳工权益和环境三个方面,其中劳工权益是核心。企业社会责任标准运动作为一种不可遏止的国际化运动,必然会对我国社会和经济的发展产生越来越大的影响。我们必须采取措施,积极应对,趋利避害,将其纳入我国劳动法制建设的轨道。加快完善我国相关法律法规,积极参与国际多边谈判,改善国内劳工条件,推动出口产品结构升级,加强企业社会责任意识,促使这一运动的运作规范化。     

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.     

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.     

Economic integration agreements and the margins of international trade

One of the main policy sources of trade–cost changes is the formation of an economic integration agreement (EIA), which potentially affects an importing country's welfare. This paper: (i) provides the first evidence using gravity equations of both intensive and extensive (goods) margins being affected by EIAs employing a panel data set with a large number of country pairs, product categories, and EIAs from 1962 to 2000; (ii) provides the first evidence of the differential (partial) effects of various “types” of EIAs on these intensive and extensive margins of trade; and (iii) finds a novel differential “timing” of the two margins' (partial) effects with intensive-margin effects occurring sooner than extensive-margin effects, consistent with recent theoretical predictions. The results are robust to correcting for potential sample-selection, firm-heterogeneity, and reverse causality biases.     

Investment liberalization and international trade

This paper estimates the cross-price elasticity of exports with respect to investment costs for bilateral relations between 36 countries. We show that the effect of reducing foreign direct investment costs on exports depends on country characteristics and trade costs as predicted by the [Markusen, 1997] and [Markusen, 2002] model. When countries differ in relative factor endowments and trade costs are low, investment liberalization stimulates exports, whereas when countries are similar in terms of relative factor endowments and size, and trade costs are moderate to high, investment liberalization reduces exports.     

Bifurcations in the evolutionary approach to multilateralizing trade policy

The Doha Round on multilateral trade liberalization, originally intended to better integrate developing countries into the world economy, has been largely considered a failure. With the Doha outcome falling short of expectations, North–South trade remains underdeveloped. Embedding the political economy and the resulting importance of reciprocating trade liberalization in an evolutionary model along Axelrod–Rapoport lines indicates that factor endowments are crucial in triggering trade policies. Their pivotal nature gives rise to bifurcations, thereby tilting policies towards or away from liberalization trajectories. The theoretical insights are reflected in an empirical analysis, thus strengthening the case for a variable-geometry approach.