An Economic Analysis of Maritime Piracy and its Control

Modern‐day piracy on the high seas poses a serious threat to international shipping. This paper develops an economic of model of piracy that emphasizes the strategic interaction between the efforts of pirates to locate potential targets, and shippers to avoid contact. Implementation of optimal enforcement policies is complicated by the need for international cooperation in the apprehension and prosecution of pirates. Free riding and other problems therefore impede the effectiveness of current international laws against piracy.     

Household Food Insecurity and Maternal and Child Nutritional Status: Evidence from Maharashtra

In this paper we rigorously examine the association of household food security status with maternal and child nutritional status exploring a rich micro‐level database, the Comprehensive Nutrition Survey Maharashtra 2012. Using Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) as a metric to measure household food security, we apply simultaneous probit models to estimate the effect of food insecurity on maternal and child nutritional outcomes. The modelling framework addresses possible endogeneity in the above relationship. Findings indicate that household food insecurity increases the risk of maternal and child underweight with no effect on child stunting, wasting or maternal overweight. Women’s decision‐making power mediates these associations. Food security interventions should be effective in tackling the concerns with undernutrition, however, food alone is not the solution. A mix of nutrition‐specific and nutrition‐sensitive policies is warranted. Food security interventions should be integrated into policies for human development.     

The Impact of Visibility on Trade: Evidence from the World Cup

Success in the FIFA World Cup provides countries with substantial international visibility. This paper uses this information shock associated with the World Cup to show that visibility has a significant impact on trade flows. In isolating the visibility effect, two identification problems are solved. Match outcomes in the World Cup are subject to significant uncertainty. This uncertainty, when combined with controls for economic development, makes World Cup success exogenous to exports. By contrast, hosting the World Cup is potentially endogenous owing to self‐selection issues. The paper exploits FIFA's host selection policy to construct exogenous instruments for hosting. The results show that success in the World Cup raises exports temporarily by around 5%.     

FDI对国际贸易的影响：来自中国的证据

本文利用2003~2006年的面板数据检验了我国外向与内向FDI存量与进出口贸易之间的关系。通过实证分析发现:我国的外向FDI与进出口均存在互补关系,因此外向FDI具有贸易创造效应,其中又以出口创造效应为甚,从而使我国的外向FDI具有"净出口"效应;而内向FDI与进出口的关系都不显著。     

技术性贸易壁垒与出口的边际效应——基于产业贸易流量的检验

本文以1995—2008年WTO成员TBT通报构造了进口覆盖率作为技术性贸易壁垒的量化指标,并基于全球105个国家产业层面的双边贸易数据和HMR两阶段重力模型,就技术性贸易壁垒对出口的边际效应进行了实证检验。整体检验结果发现,作为成本增加型壁垒,技术性贸易壁垒同时影响了贸易国出口的变动成本和固定成本,由此影响了贸易国出口量的调整和出口概率的变动。分组检验结果发现,技术性贸易壁垒对国际贸易流量的影响存在明显的国别差异和行业差异。     

Trade liberalization and volatility: Evidence from Indian firms

I look at the impact of trade liberalization on sales growth volatility of firms. Exploiting India’s externally imposed trade reform to identify trade liberalization effects, I find that while a fall in the tariff on the final product produced by the firm is associated with an increase in volatility in Indian manufacturing firms, a fall in the tariff on intermediate inputs is associated with a decrease in volatility, with the latter effect dominating the former. I hence propose an additional channel for gains from trade liberalization to the ones documented in the literature.     

Trade and Rural-Urban Income Inequality: Evidence from China

Using the provincial panel data from 1978 to 2007, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the relationship between international trade and rural-urban income inequality in China. The results show that international trade has a fundamental impact on rural-urban income inequality. For the whole country, the development of international trade from 1978 to 2007 enlarged the rural-urban income gap. During the three different periods (defined in section 3.3), the impact was also noticeable in terms of extent, direction and significance respectively at the national and regional levels. During the three periods, the relationship has an inverted “U” shape for China as a whole, central China and western China, but for eastern China the relationship has a “U” shape. At the same time, exports and imports have different influences on the rural-urban income gap in China, the influences were also different across regions; and the imports has had a more significant influence on these regions than exports has had.     

Unintended Consequences of Lockdowns: Evidence from Domestic Helpers in Urban China

This paper addresses the reactions of domestic helpers to the Wuhan (Hubei Province) lockdown that began on January 23, 2020. We use a novel dataset containing the information of over 40,000 Chinese domestic helpers registered on a leading professional website from November 2019 to June 2020. The results indicate a declining pattern of short-term labor supply of domestic helpers across 11 major Chinese cities, which shows an increase in the expected monthly wage of domestic helpers in these cities. More importantly, using a difference-in-difference (DID) model, this paper provides some evidence on the existence of labor market discrimination against domestic helpers born in Hubei Province due to employers’ fear of infection.     

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence from India

We evaluate empirically the impact of the dramatic 1991 trade liberalization in India on the industry wage structure. The empirical strategy uses variation in industry wage premiums and trade policy across industries and over time. In contrast to most earlier studies on developing countries, we find a strong, negative, and robust relationship between changes in trade policy and changes in industry wage premiums over time. The results are consistent with liberalization‐induced productivity increases at the firm level, which get passed on to industry wages. We also find that trade liberalization has led to decreased wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in India. This is consistent with the magnitude of tariff reductions being relatively larger in sectors with a higher proportion of unskilled workers.     

Production Networks and Patterns of Trade: Evidence from Taiwan

This paper investigates the role of production networks in determining the pattern of international trade. Using Taiwan's trade data for 1991, production networks are found to have a discernible impact on the pattern of trade, aside from the variables typically envisaged by conventional and new trade theories, including factor proportions and technological difference. Taiwan's industries are shown to be relatively strong in horizontal networks, but weak in vertical ones. However, the strength in horizontal networks can be undermined by high wages, and the weakness in vertical networks can be strengthened by high R&D intensities. Both networks are conducive to intra-industry trade, which means that networks are useful devices for product differentiation.     

Short-Term and Long-Term Margins of International Trade: Evidence from the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement

We investigate the impact of the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) on Canadian exports to Chile, particularly the dynamic effects of the agreement on extensive and intensive margins of trade. Consistent with the literature, we find that the extensive margin effects occurred later than the intensive margin effects and became more prominent in the long-term. Surprisingly, the intensive margin effects died off in the long-term. A theoretical model is constructed to show that our results can arise in a standard setting of intra-industry trade.     

Trade Liberalization and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing

The impact of trade liberalization on productivity growth is still an empirical issue; the theoretical literature is as yet unclear on the direction of any such association. This paper develops an analytical framework and employs it to empirically test whether trade liberalization in Indian manufacturing has raised total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The answer is in the affirmative. The results also support a key postulate of the new growth theories, that liberalization of the intermediate-good sectors has a larger favorable impact on TFP growth than that of the final-good sectors.     

Trade Openness and Environmental Emissions: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

Environmental and Resource Economics - How trade affects environmental emissions has generated heterogeneous results over the years. This is due to empirical ambiguities that are endemic in the...     

汇率波动与国际贸易量的不确定性关系-基于中国的经验证据

对于汇率波动与国际贸易量的关系,学界一直存有很大争议,但经验检验尚不足以为理论分析提供有说服力的证据.本文着重在如下三个细节方面做深做细:第一,更精确地测算汇率波动,发现并注重汇率波动对冲击可能存在的非对称特征;第二,以严格的内生性检验指导工具变量的应用;第三,模型设定采用联立方程同时考察出口需求和供给.文章发现,无论是贸易方向上还是贸易方式上,均没有理由认为汇率波动显著影响了出口需求,但汇率波动却显著抑制了中国的出口供给.     

The Role of Migration in the Variety and Quality of Trade: Evidence from Germany

We explore the migration‐trade nexus in the case of Germany over the period 2000–09, disentangling the two dimensions of intra‐industry trade (vertical and horizontal). We find that immigration is positively and significantly related to intra‐industry trade. However, the magnitude and statistical significance of migration's impact on trade are considerably higher for horizontal intra‐industry trade and increase with the difference in the level of development between Germany and the partner countries. This pattern is consistent with the view that information flows between migrant communities and their country of origin may be more important for consumer goods (where trade in varieties prevails) and that this information effect is more important if trading countries are very different.     

汇率波动与国际贸易量的不确定性关系-基于中国的经验证据

对于汇率波动与国际贸易量的关系,学界一直存有很大争议,但经验检验尚不足以为理论分析提供有说服力的证据。本文着重在如下三个细节方面做深做细:第一,更精确地测算汇率波动,发现并注重汇率波动对冲击可能存在的非对称特征;第二,以严格的内生性检验指导工具变量的应用;第三,模型设定采用联立方程同时考察出口需求和供给。文章发现,无论是贸易方向上还是贸易方式上,均没有理由认为汇率波动显著影响了出口需求,但汇率波动却显著抑制了中国的出口供给。     

Trade Wars and the World Trade Organization: Causes,Consequences, and Change

The rise in trade tensions and launch of a trade war by the USA is in part a result of World Trade Organization (WTO) working practices that have impeded the ability to use the organization to address the underlying sources of conflict through dialogue, analysis, and rule‐making. Open plurilateral agreements between the major protagonists offer an avenue for revitalizing the ability of the WTO to resolve trade conflicts. More generally, reform of WTO working practices is needed for the organization to be more effective in providing a platform for members to cooperate on trade policy matters.     

Trade Liberalization and Productivity Growth: Time-Series Evidence from Australian Manufacturing

This paper uses historical annual data for 27 years from 1968-69 on eight two-digit ANZSIC industries to assess the impact of the changes in industry assistance on economic efficiency. The empirical analysis shows that a 1 per cent decline in the nominal rate of assistance leads to between O.J 8 and 056 per cent gain in total factor productivity, the latter our measure of economic efficiency. This finding has strong policy implications for the future of tariff reform in the manufacturing sector.     

International Trade and Gender Wage Discrimination: Evidence from East Asia

The paper explores how competition from international trade affects gender wage discrimination in two open economies. According to neoclassical theory, if discrimination is costly, then increased industry competitiveness from international trade lessens the incentive for employers to discriminate against women. This effect should be stronger in concentrated sectors, where employers can use excess profits to cover the costs of discrimination. Alternatively, increased international trade may reduce women's bargaining power to achieve wage gains. Results for Taiwan and Korea indicate that, in contrast to neoclassical theory, competition from foreign trade in concentrated industries is positively associated with wage discrimination against women.     

对外贸易、金融改革和经济增长:来自中国的证据

本文根据技术扩散模型阐释,中国的技术进步取决于它对先进技术的吸收能力和可吸收的世界先进技术集合的乘积。金融改革通过消除经济扭曲提升我国的吸收能力。如果国际先进技术通过对外贸易扩散到中国,那么对外贸易和金融改革在增长中就存在相互促进的作用。利用中国改革开放后的数据,我们没有发现对外贸易(出口或进出口)和金融改革在促进经济增长中有显著的互补作用。该结论在控制条件收敛、其他经济增长因素、分省和时间效应后成立,并在解决贸易的内生性后仍然稳健。将该结论和我们已发现的金融改革和外商直接投资在促进经济增长中有显著的互补作用的结果相对照,可见,与国际贸易相比,国际先进技术更可能通过外商直接投资扩散到中国。