Competitive blind spots and the cyclicality of investment: Experimental evidence

We report laboratory experiments investigating the cyclicality of profit-enhancing investment in a competitive environment. In our setting, optimal investment is counter-cyclical when investment costs fall following market downturns. However, we do not observe counter-cyclical investment. Instead, we see much less strategic behavior than our rational investment model anticipates. Our participants exhibit what Porter (1980) terms a competitive blind spot, and heuristic investment models where individuals invest a fixed percentage of their liquidity, or a fixed percentage of anticipated market demand, better fit our data than does optimal investment. We also report a control treatment without cost changes and a treatment with asymmetric investment liquidity. Both of these extensions support our main result.     

Roads to innovation: Firm-level evidence from People's Republic of China (PRC)

Although infrastructure and innovation play important roles in fostering a country's economic growth, discussion in the literature about how the two are connected is limited. This paper examines the impact of road density on firm innovation in the People's Republic of China. The analysis uses a matched patent database at the firm level and road information at the city level. Regional variation in the difficulty of constructing roads is used as an instrumental variable to address the potential endogeneity problem of the road variable. The empirical results show that a 10% improvement in road density increases the average number of approved patents per firm by 0.71%. Road development spurs innovation by enlarging market size and facilitating knowledge spillover.     

FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

Public spending and economic growth: evidence from Ghana (1970–2004)

Governments undertake expenditures to pursue a variety of objectives, one of which is economic growth. This paper examines aggregated and disaggregated expenditure on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1970–2004. Expenditure on education and health represents human capital development, while expenditure on roads and waterways captures infrastructure development. The study reveals that the aggregated government expenditure retarded economic growth. The study's findings show that expenditures on health and infrastructure promote economic growth, while those on education had no significant impact in the short run. In addition, the political economy variables?namely the nature of governance (democracy) and political instability (years of changes in government and military dictatorship)?proved significant in explaining Ghana's economic growth over the study period.     

The pro-export effect of subnational migration networks: new evidence from Spanish provinces

Review of World Economics - The paper investigates the effect that subnational networks of immigrants and emigrants had on exports from Spanish provinces (NUTS3) over the period of 2007–2016...     

The myth of export pessimism (even) under the mfa: evidence from indonesia and thailand

Zusammenfassung Der Mythos vom Exportpessimismus (sogar) unter dem Multifaserabkommen: Empirische Evidenz aus Indonesien und Thailand.—Trotz der erwiesenen Exporterfolge der asiatischen Schwellenl?nder und einiger anderer Entwicklungsl?nder ist in politischen und intellektuellen Kreisen wieder die Vorstellung vom Exportpessimismus verbreitet. Die Verfasser sind dagegen der Ansicht, da? die Bedeutung der Nachfragebeschr?nkungen für Produkte aus Entwicklungsl?ndern übertrieben wird. Sie belegen dies mit einer Fallstudie der Textilexporte zweier südostasiatischer Schwellenl?nder. Sie zeigen, da? effiziente und flexible Volkswirtschaften auch ?u?erst schwierige Handelsschranken überwinden k?nnen.

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Résumé Le mythe du pessimisme d’exportation (même) sous l’accord des multifibres: L’évidence de l’Indonésie et de la Tha?lande.—La notion du pessimisme d’exportation est devenue populaire dans quelques milieux politiques et intellectuels malgré le succès qui s’est montré aux exportations des pays nouvellement industrialisés en Asie et d’un nombre d’autres pays en voie de développement. Dans cette étude les auteurs affirment que l’importance des restrictions de la part de la demande pour les exportations des pays en voie de développement est exagérée. Ils soutiennent ce point de vue sur la base d’une étude des exportations de textiles de deux pays en Asie de Sud-Est qui sont en train de s’industrialiser tard. L’étude montre que des économies efficientes et flexibles peuvent surmonter les restrictions du commerce les plus sévères.

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Resumen El mito del pesimismo exportador (incluso) bajo el MFA: evidencia para Indonesia y Tailandia.—A pesar del éxito exportador demostrado por los NICs del Asia y ciertos otros paises en vias de desarrollo la noción del pesimismo exportador una vez más alcanzó popularidad en algunos círculos cercanos a la politica económica y de intelectuales. En este trabajo se sostiene que la importancia dada a las restricciones de demanda sobre las exportaciones de los países en vías de desarrollo es exagerada. Se basa esta proposición en un estudio de caso de las exportaciones de productos textiles de dos paises de industrialización tardía del Sudeste asiático. En este trabajo se demuestra que economias eficientes y flexibles pueden superar incluso las restricciones más severas al comercio international.

     

The effect of export tax rebates on export performance: Theory and evidence from China

This paper develops a Cournot quantity competition model to examine the effect of export tax rebate policy on export performance. The main conclusions drawn are as follows: (i) when a government raises the export rebate rate, the output of final goods for export by the domestic firm increases, while the output of the foreign competitor decreases; (ii) when a government raises the export rebate rate, the profit of the domestic firm increases, while that of the foreign competitor decreases; and (iii) the optimum export rebate rate is positive and greater than 1, indicating that the domestic government not only refunds fully the custom duties paid by the domestic firm on imported intermediate goods, but also offers export subsidies for its export of final goods.To corroborate the conclusions drawn based on the theoretical model, empirical analysis was carried out using the statistical data of China from 1985 to 2002. The test results of Spearman rank correlation coefficient show that China's export tax rebate policy has significant positive correlation with its exports, final domestic consumption, and foreign exchange reserve.     

互联网数据中心（IDC）竞争力分析

大大小小的ISP(Intemet Ser-vice Provider互联网服务提供商)公司曾经是人们刚刚踏入Internet世界时最熟悉的指路航标。但是,正如历史的变迁一样,纳斯达克市场2000年的风云变幻,推动着互联网经济热点的转换。2001年,这一热点转到了IDC(Internet Data Center,互联网数据中心)。而且,随着人们对互联网经济理解的加深,IDC从一开始就为人     

Economic freedom in the long run: evidence from OECD countries (1850–2007)

This article presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an aggregate index for the developed countries of today, specifically pre‐1994 OECD members. Economic liberty expanded over the last century‐and‐a‐half, reaching more than two‐thirds of its possible maximum. However, its evolution has been far from linear. After a substantial improvement from the mid‐nineteenth century, the First World War brought a major setback. The postwar recovery up to 1929 was followed by a dramatic decline in the 1930s. Significant progress took place during the 1950s but fell short of the pre‐First World War peak. After a period of stagnation, steady expansion since the early 1980s has resulted in the highest levels of economic liberty of the last two centuries. Each of the main dimensions of economic freedom exhibited a distinctive trend and its contribution to the aggregate index varied over time. Overall, improved property rights provided the main contribution to the long‐run advancement of economic liberty.     

异质性出口质量与出口价格变动效应研究——来自中国情境下的微观证据

文章利用2000~2006年间151多万条的中国海关和工业库统计数据,通过采用Tornqvist指数和需求结构模型(DSM),构建适应中国情境的出口价格与质量指数,并进行分析发现:(1)中国出口价格总体呈现下降趋势,加入WTO后趋势更为凸显,而产品质量出现轻微下降趋势;(2)中国企业产品出口质量与出口价格间存在显著的促进效应,即质量效应占优,并且这种效应在产品质量差异较大行业以及一般贸易方式样本中更为显著,证实了本文异质性质量模型的主要结论;(3)对于中国加工贸易方式而言,产品质量对出口价格影响不显著,甚至呈现负向效应,同样,政府补贴与企业出口价格间也呈现显著负相关关系。上述因素对当前中国低质竞价出口模式起到了一定的固化效应。以上这些发现不仅为理解中国出口产品价格的变化和动因提供了经验证据,也为中国对外贸易政策的调整提供了有现实意义的参考依据。     

The effect of financial deepening on inequality: Some international evidence

This paper uses an unbalanced panel data analysis of 126 countries for the period 1963–2002 to analyze the effects of financial deepening on inequality. The principal findings can be summarized as follows: (1) financial deepening reduces inequality; (2) economic growth reduces the equalizing effects of financial deepening; (3) inequality increases with an increase in trade openness; (4) the disequalizing effects of trade openness decrease as a country grows; (5) financial deepening and trade openness therefore have asymmetric effects on inequality; and (6) these effects are robust to the choice of financial variables, inequality measures, and model specifications.     

Revisiting the labor supply effect of social security earnings test: New evidence from its elimination and reinstatement in Japan

We explore the labor supply effect of the social security earnings test in Japan on those aged 65–69 years through a combined examination of the elimination of the earnings test in 1985 and its reinstatement in 2002. We present evidence showing that the effects of changes in the earnings tests on the labor supply of the elderly are not symmetric, controlling for changes in the attributes of workers and firms. The repeal of the earnings test in 1985 did affect the earnings distribution of the elderly (especially for male), while its reinstatement in 2002 did not alter the earnings distribution.     

The ladder of internationalization modes: evidence from European firms

How do firms enter international markets? To answer this question, this paper uses a unique multi-country firm-level dataset which, besides direct exporting and FDI, provides explicit information on a number of internationalization modes: indirect exporting, outsourced manufacturing and service FDI. We present a theoretical framework in which modes requiring higher and higher commitment have progressively higher fixed and lower marginal costs. By estimating multinomial and ordered logit models, we present evidence in line with such a sorting framework with respect to TFP and innovativeness. We identify three ’clusters’ of modes: indirect exporters are similar to non-exporters, direct exporters and outsourced manufacturers constitute a second cluster while service and manufacturing FDI are the most demanding internationalization modes.     

Determinants of bilateral trade: evidence from ASEAN+3

In this research, we investigate the determinants of international trade, employing a dataset of bilateral trade and economics characteristics in the ASEAN+3 countries. We include a large number of independent variables that potentially drive international trade. We also use various standard gravity model variables to maintain consistency with the current literature. The results provide some important insights into the determinants of bilateral trade and offer policy implications regarding the promotion of international trade for governments worldwide. In particular, we find that output asymmetry between countries positively explains bilateral trade. Moreover, the findings suggest that making use of comparative advantage by differentiating the export product structure is important in promoting international trade. We do not find a consistent impact from bilateral exchange rate volatility on bilateral trade. This result points to the importance of providing opportunities for the hedging of currency uncertainty to avoid its adverse effects on trade. The results for other standard gravity model variables are consistent with the results of previous theoretical and empirical research.     

Permanent land-use rights and endowment insurance: Chinese evidence of the substitution effect

This paper studies the substitution effect of permanent land-use rights on endowment insurance in China. We first explain the rationality using an overlapping-generations model with heterogeneous households possessing land-use rights or not, and find that economic agents profiting from land in the latter stage of their life tend to save less for retirement than their land-deprived counterparts. Empirical evidence from village-clustered Chinese survey data on rural households supports this finding, locating a significant negative effect of land on social and commercial endowment insurance purchase. Apart from the important policy implication of compensating land-deprived farmers with insurance, our theoretical and empirical models both yield unexpected informing findings.     

The impact of microcredit on women's empowerment: evidence from China

The impact of microcredit on women's empowerment remains controversial, as documented in the microfinance literature. While some studies claim that microcredit helps women increase their income earning abilities, leading to greater power to overcome cultural asymmetries, others contend that small loans allocated to women are usually controlled by their spouses, which results in more severe subordination of women and leaves them more vulnerable to the patriarchy system within the household and/or at society level. This paper evaluates the empowerment impact of microcredit on rural women in China. Logistic regression is employed for empirical analysis and data are collected through a rural household survey. The results confirm that microcredit has a significant impact on five dimensions of women's empowerment, ranging from economic security to awareness of social/legal issues.     

The effectiveness of structural adjustment lending: Initial evidence from Malawi

The World Bank's new programs of structural adjustment lending are likely to prove most effective with those governments which demonstrate shared ideals in their approach to economic adjustment and policy reform. Malawi has long been regarded as a country placing great reliance on the market in resource allocation, showing restraint in public sector expansion and retaining a strong export orientation. The balance-of-payments difficulties and the deterioration in economic circumstances which began in 1980 did not arise solely from “external shocks,” but the structural adjustment lending programs introduced in 1981 as a means of easing the painful reform process found root in a fertile and responsive policy environment. This paper chronicles the first two SALs to Malawi, reviewing in particular the specific policy reforms advocated and required by the Bank, the extent of their implementation and the provisional effects on the Malawi economy.     

Causes and consequences of civil strife: micro-level evidence from Uganda

To bridge the gap between case studies and highly aggregatecross-country analyses of civil unrest, we use data from Ugandato explore determinants of civil strife (as contrasted to theftand physical violence) at the community level, as well as thepotentially differential impact of these variables on investmentand non-agricultural enterprise formation at the household level.We find that distance from infrastructure (a proxy for scarcityof economic opportunities and government investment), assetinequality (social tension), presence of cash crops (expropriablewealth), and lower levels of human capital (ability to takeadvantage of opportunities in the ‘regular’ economy)all increase the propensity for civil strife. Furthermore, civilstrife, in marked contrast to violence and theft, reduces investmentand non-agricultural enterprise startups.