Welfare Effect of Mergers and Multilateral Trade Liberalization

In a two‐country model where firms behave à la Cournot, we show that trade liberalization increases (decreases) the social desirability of those mergers that generate sufficiently large (small) reductions in marginal cost. There exists a range of intermediate levels of marginal cost savings such that marginal tariff reductions increase (decrease) the desirability of merger at sufficiently low (high) tariff levels. Moreover, in the neighborhood of free trade, we show that if trade liberalization increases the profitability of a merger, it necessarily also increases its desirability.     

Bilateral versus Multilateral Free Trade Agreements: A Welfare Analysis

Why is a proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between certain types of countries observed instead of progress in attaining global free trade through a multilateral FTA? This paper answers this question by exploring the enforceability of different types of FTAs through comparing minimum discount factors that are necessary to sustain them in an infinitely repeated game framework. The authors search for the globally welfare maximizing trade agreements that are sustainable under different conditions. The results depict that transportation costs, differences in country sizes and comparative advantages are all obstacles for having a multilateral FTA. Accordingly, international development policies conducted for the removal of such obstacles should be the main goal toward achieving a multilateral FTA, which is shown to be the first‐best solution to the maximization problem of global welfare.     

Regional versus Multilateral Trade Liberalization,Environmental Taxation,and Welfare

The paper considers trade between identical countries with imperfectly competitive markets, and compares the impacts of regional and multilateral tariff reduction on strategic environmental taxation and welfare. While both forms of trade liberalization increase production and consumption in tariff‐reducing countries, regionalism also reduces production in a non‐participating country and may decrease its consumption. Consequently, regionalism and multilateralism change pollution tax and welfare in the tariff‐reducing countries in similar ways when pollution is local, but in dissimilar ways for global pollution. When pollution is global, regionalism is likely to be preferred to multilateralism for the establishment of free trade among countries.     

加工贸易、企业生产率和关税减免-来自中国产品面的证据

本文研究两个问题:一是不断深化的进口关税减免对我国企业生产率提升有何影响,二是企业参与加工贸易能否有助于促进企业生产率的提升。一方面,最终产品的进口关税减免强化了企业间在本土市场的竞争,从而有助于提高生产率;另一方面,企业参与加工贸易能得到额外的贸易所得,从而促进企业生产率的增长。通过采用2000—2006年间我国外贸产品的海关数据和规模以上制造业企业生产方面的大型微观数据,本文构建了各企业所面临的关税税率,并精确计算出企业的全要素生产率。基准回归结果显示,关税下降10%,企业生产率会上升大约3%—6%。更重要的是,在考虑企业间由所有权造成的差异性后,发现加工贸易企业相对于非加工贸易企业有更高的生产率。     

Trade Structure, Transboundary Pollution and Multilateral Trade Liberalization: The Effects on Environmental Taxes and Welfare

This paper considers a trade situation where the production activities of potentially heterogeneous countries generate pollution which can cross borders and harm the well-being of all the countries involved. In each of those countries the policy maker levies pollution taxes on the polluting firms and a tariff on imports in order to correct that distortion. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effect of a reduction in the tariff on equilibrium pollution taxes and welfare. The existing literature has investigated this problem for trade between two identical countries. This paper analyzes the problem in the more realistic context where countries are not necessarily identical and trade can be multilateral. It becomes possible to show what bias is introduced when those two realities are neglected. I find that a tariff reduction can actually lower output; it can also lower welfare even if pollution is purely local.     

Tariff Reductions in the Presence of Foreign Direct Investment

This paper argues that the welfare effects of trade liberalization in the presence of foreign direct investment obtained under perfect competition cannot be extended to imperfectly competitive markets. In the Heckscher-Ohlin model, trade liberalization may be paradoxically immiserizing when the traditional welfare-increasing result is corrected for the change in foreign capital revenue. Under imperfect competition this cannot occur, except under rather implausible assumptions. Indeed, a tariff reduction is expected to increase welfare when the welfare indicator is corrected for the presence of foreign capital, regardless of the type of market structure and the form of competitive rivalry.     

动物福利壁垒对我国畜产品贸易的影响及对策

目前在关税大幅度降低和传统非关税壁垒不断被消除并逐步规范的情况下，动物福利正成为新一轮的贸易壁垒。动物福利壁垒将对我国畜产品出口产生一系列的不良影响，如增加企业的出口成本、影响农产品出口等，因此，我们应通过倡导健康的消费理念、制定并完善动物福利立法等措施应对动物福利壁垒。     

The Interaction Between Technology Adoption and Trade When Firms are Heterogeneous

This paper develops a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms to study the interaction between technology adoption and trade in a world of two countries facing different technology adoption costs. It shows that a reduction in the technology adoption cost in one country increases productivity, induces more firms to adopt advanced technology, and improves welfare in this country, while decreasing productivity, inducing more firms to switch back to old technology, and reducing welfare in the other country. Furthermore, although a reduction in transport costs always makes the country with the lower adoption cost better off, it can hurt the other country.     

外国技术授权策略与本国关税政策之探讨

本文将以一个拥有技术优势，且将其产品输往本国寡占市场中的外国厂商为对象，探讨其对本国厂商的最适技术授权策略，以及该策略是否受关税保护贸易政策之影响。在本文的研究结论中，我们可以发现下列三点：（1）在自由贸易条件下，当外国企业可授权国内二家厂商时，其最适授权策略，会选择同时授权于国内二家技术劣势厂商。当外国厂商仅可授权国内一家技术劣势厂商时，若市场规模相对较小，国外技术优势厂商之最适单位权利金订定为存在内部解，且会受市场规模的影响，市场规模值愈大，权利金愈高。当市场规模相对较大时，则国外技术优势厂商之最适单位权利金恰等于其技术创新所能节省的成本幅度。（2）在关税政策条件下，国外技术优势厂商可同时授权国内二家厂商时，其授权策略不受关税政策影响。在可授权国内一家技术劣势厂商时，若市场规模相对较大，其授权策略不受关税政策影响。若市场规模相对较小，在自由贸易条件下外国厂商的授权权利金将高于采取关税政策条件下的水准。（3）在本国政府的最适关税政策下，不论是当外国厂商可授权本国二家厂商之Nash均衡或可授权本国一家厂商之Nash均衡，皆有助于本国福利水准的提升。     

Bilateral Trade Agreements and the Feasibility of Multilateral Free Trade

We studied how the pursuit of bilateral free‐trade agreements (FTAs) affects the likelihood of achieving multilateral free trade. We derive and compare the stable Nash equilibria of two games of trade liberalization: in the FTA game, each country can either form an FTA with one of its trading partners or both of them or none of them, whereas in the (restricted) No FTA game, purely bilateral FTAs are not permitted. The major result is that there exist circumstances under which the freedom to pursue (discriminatory) bilateral FTAs is necessary for achieving multilateral free trade.     

A Theory of Trade Secrets in Firms*

This article provides a simple theoretical model of trade secrets in hierarchical firms. A crucial assumption is that each manager has access to trade secrets pertaining to his own hierarchical level as well as to all lower levels. The article explores some implications of this assumption for optimal degree of trade secrets accumulation and protection as well as for the wage structure in firms. In addition, the model implies that managers may have an incentive to overpay their subordinates and protect their firms’ trade secrets too much.     

Welfare effects of subsidizing higher education when access and quality are endogenous

Tuition and product quality are determined in cases where subsidies offset inefficiencies. Lower subsidies imply a tradeoff between access and quality. For all quality levels, social welfare increases in the subsidy whenever tuition exceeds the marginal cost.     

Multilateral Reforms of Trade and Environmental Policy

The paper analyzes environmental tax policy reform using a competitive model of world trade that includes production‐generated environmental damage (pollution) and trade tariffs. The authors examine the feasibility of Pareto‐improving multilateral reforms of environmental taxes, and show that any environmental tax reform that is mutually welfare‐improving when compensating lump‐sum transfers are assumed is also welfare‐improving when a suitable tariff reform (but no transfers) is combined with the tax changes. Several specific reform proposals are developed. These results expand the feasible set of mutually improving policy proposals for international policy initiatives.     

多边贸易谈判中的政策协调与交易

针对目前多边贸易谈判过程中出现的愈演愈烈的双边(诸边)合作和发展中国家的不断边际化问题,本文分别从国家和议题的视角对多边贸易谈判中的政策协调与交易进行了分析,指出国际经济领域将长期表现为多边合作和双边(诸边)合作的并行发展,建议发展中国家应充分利用谈判议题的互换来影响国际经济规则的制定。     

Output/Endowment and Commodity/Factor Price Relationships and Welfare in a Multilateral Trade Model with Partial Factor Mobility

A multilateral model of trade with both commodity flows and partial mobility of factor flows is set up. This model is used to develop factor endowment/output relationships as well as commodity/factor price relationships. Welfare consequences of these parametric shifts are examined. The model is built on the customs union framework which involves three countries and both commodity and factor flows. Owing to spillover effects in multilateral trade models, many nontraditional results are obtained. Many developed countries accept skilled and unskilled migrants from other countries. These migrants are generally accepted on a quota system. Moreover, it has been established that an increase in the migrant quota in the presence of factor mobility may raise or lower the output and welfare in the country not receiving migrants. In fact it is shown that the non‐migrant receiving country could be immiserized due to loss of capital. The main message of this paper is that in a multilateral trade framework there exist international spillover effects which must be taken into consideration in national policymaking.     

Tariff Liberalization and Trade Integration of Emerging Countries

This paper investigates how tariff liberalization has affected exporting at the product‐destination level in emerging countries. We use a highly disaggregated (six‐digit level of the harmonized system—HS—classification) bilateral measure of market access to compare tariffs applied in 1996 and 2006, which includes the timing of the Uruguay Round and episodes of bilateral liberalization. Our econometric estimations consider impacts of tariff cuts on three components of the trade margins: extensive margin of entry (new trade relationships at the product‐destination level), extensive margin of exit (disappearance of existing relationships) and intensive margin of trade (deepening existing relationships). Our main estimates indicate that a reduction of bilateral applied tariffs of 1 percentage point increases the extensive margin of entry by 0.1% and the intensive one by 2.09%, while it reduces the extensive margin of exit by 0.25%.     

技术贸易壁垒与我国出口贸易

技术贸易壁垒是目前发达国家实行贸易保护的最主要手段之一。技术贸易壁垒对国际贸易发展有消极和积极两个方面的影响。利用世贸规则以防不合理的技术贸易壁垒和提升我国出口商品科技含量显得尤为重要。     

多边贸易框架下国际贸易摩擦的发展趋势

1995年,世界贸易组织(WTO)取代关税与贸易总协定(GATT)成为多边贸易谈判与贸易磋商机构。WTO的成立,极大促进了全球贸易自由化的发展。但贸易自由化也引起世界市场竞争的激化,贸易自由化带来的国家利益与要素收入的重新分配,导致各国间贸易关系的紧张。文章分析WTO成立后国际贸易摩擦的趋势。     

多边贸易体制下环境与贸易政策的结合

国际社会对全球环境危机的真实关切使世界贸易组织面临协调环境保护和自由贸易的任务。《建立世界贸易组织》前言第一次明确将可持续发展确立为新的多边贸易体制的基本原则和宗旨。本文首先论证了只有当环境政策和贸易自由化共同发展的时候，贸易才能对环境产生积极的影响，然后说明世界贸易组织的机制使环境和贸易政策的结合成为可能，最后介绍了世界贸易组织有关环境与贸易政策结合的法律与实践，并分析了存在的问题。     

国外异质性厂商贸易理论研究综述

异质性厂商贸易理论代表了国际贸易理论最新发展趋势,研究的是微观经济主体--厂商的贸易和投资行为与自身特征的关系.厂商的市场进入方式与其生产率水平是相对应的,出口和贸易自由化能够提高行业生产率,汇率变化、贸易政策和产业集聚对厂商出口具有重要的影响,厂商进入出口市场前后存在自我选择效应和出口中学习效应,这两种效应都导致厂商生产率提高,最终生产率最高的厂商将以对外直接投资的方式进入国际市场.