Nations,clusters and culture: Nycomed and world leadership in the field of x-ray contrast media

Abstract

The topic of the article is to offer a new interpretation of the history of Norway's agricultural protectionism in a West-European context. Agricultural protectionism was not deeply rooted economically, politically or institutionally prior to the Second World War. Before the First World War the most commercially oriented part of Norwegian agriculture – milk production and the dairy industry – was export-oriented. Norway was the last country to join the protectionist wave in the late nineteenth century and in practice it followed the most liberal trade policies in agricultural products next to Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is argued that the 1920s were generally relatively more important and the 1930s relatively less important for later developments than assumed in the most of the literature on agricultural protectionism.     

The Danish cattle trade during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Abstract

Danish production and exports of oxen have been the subject of frequent investigation from various points of view. Historians have chiefly tended to stress the social lop-sidedness of the trade and the dependence of these exports on the vicissitudes of the international market. While the dominant political position of the Danish nobles enabled them to monopolize the production of oxen, their economic prosperity depended on the successful maintenance of the exports.¹ Against this interpretation, however, some historians have argued that the cattle production was not only of fundamental importance to Danish agriculture but that it also made a significant contribution to the European supply. According to Erik Arup, oxen provided Denmark in the fifteenth century with an export commodity of high quality, and Astrid Friis has stressed the fundamental importance of oxen exports to the economic development of sixteenthcentury Denmark. Both interpretations, however, maintain that the production and export of oxen provided a solid economic foundation for the aristocratic rule of Denmark.²     

The Danish agricultural revolution in an energy perspective: a case of development with few domestic energy sources

This article examines the case of Denmark—a country which historically had next to no domestic energy resources—for which new historical energy accounts are presented for the years 1800–1913. It demonstrates that Denmark's take‐off at the end of the nineteenth century was relatively energy dependent. This is related to Denmark's well‐known agricultural transformation and development through the dairy industry, and thus the article complements the literature which argues that expensive energy hindered industrialization, by arguing that similar obstacles would have precluded other countries from a more agriculture‐based growth. The Danish cooperative creameries, which spread throughout the country over the last two decades of the nineteenth century, were dependent on coal. Although Denmark had next to no domestic coal deposits, this article demonstrates that Danish geography allowed cheap availability throughout the country through imports. On top of this it emphasizes that another important source of energy was imported feed for cows.     

China's Foreign Trade: A “New Normal”

Since the global financial crisis of 2007/2008, China's foreign trade has continued to grow faster than international trade, but its drivers are now different from those prevailing before. The participation of the Chinese economy in the global production chains through processing activities is no longer the main driver of its trade performance. The new driving force of change is ordinary trade, based mainly on local inputs and domestic demand. China, which played a major role in the globalization process as an export base for multinational companies, is now shifting to having a “normal” foreign trade system, which is more closely integrated into the domestic economy.     

The Economic Determinants of the Number of Minority Farmers in the Southeast Region of the United States, 1969-1997

The primary purpose of this research was to identify and quantify the determinants of the number of minority farmers in the Southeast region of the United States during the time period, 1969 to 1997. A second objective was to determine the potential impacts of globalization and international trade agreements on the number of minority farmers in the Southeast region of the United States. Regression results indicated that the number of minority farm owners was responsive to the returns to agricultural labor relative to nonfarm labor returns, as well as to cotton and rice prices. An increase in the cotton price was associated with a smaller rate of minority migration out of agriculture in the Southeast region of the United States. To the extent that globalization is likely to result in higher cotton export prices, international agricultural trade agreements are likely to result in decreased movement of minority farmers out of agriculture in the Southeast region of the United States. A third objective was to compare occupational migration rates out of agriculture of minorities with farmers of all races in the Southeast region. The data demonstrate that minority farm owners exhibited distinctly different migration patterns relative to all farm owners during 1969–1997.     

Did APEC's Trade Facilitation Action Plans deliver the goods?

This paper uses new data to examine whether APEC achieved its aim of reducing trade transaction costs by 10% over the 2002–2010 period. An inversion of the familiar gravity model makes it possible to infer trade costs based on the observed pattern of trade and production across economies. Analysis of trade costs calculated in this way shows that although intra- and extra-APEC trade costs fell during the sample period, they did not do so substantially more quickly than elsewhere in the world. Indeed, the region taken as a whole did not meet the 10% reduction goal. However, a considerable number of individual economies not only met the goal, they greatly exceeded it. Consistent with their outward oriented development strategies and leverage of global and regional value chains, some APEC economies saw very rapid falls in their trade costs over the 2002–2010 period, Viet Nam being a standout performer. Overall, about one third of the forum's membership for which consistent data are available met or exceeded the 10% reduction goal. APEC's two Trade Facilitation Action Plans can therefore be seen as having had mixed records of success.     

Agricultural Tradables and Economic Recovery in Uganda: The Limitations of Structural Adjustment in Practice

Uganda's economic reform program has been widely regarded as a success story for structural adjustment. Nevertheless, a large trade deficit persists, shored up by inflows of aid and private remittances. The poor performance of the agricultural tradables sector is presented as the key explanation for this trade imbalance. Two main reasons for this poor performance are found to be the failure to liberalize producer prices quickly and the failure to overcome early institutional resistance to reforms of marketing arrangements. Uganda's recovery is therefore much less impressive than it appears and the sustainability of the now heavily aid-dependent economy must remain in serious doubt.     

Sino-US trade balance from national income perspective and global income chains

ABSTRACT

Trade volume biases trade benefits under the background of economic globalization. Employing the input-output technique, important progress has been made in research on trade in value-added. It is noteworthy that capital globalization is one of the important manifestations of economic globalization. Owing to the ever-increasing transnational flow of capital, mainly by foreign direct investment (FDI), production of exports shows great dependence on foreign capital. A large part of value-added in exports are obtained by foreign factors owners, since foreign-invested enterprises account for a large proportion in host country’s total exports, which is foreign income. The ultimate goal of trade is to boost national income. We propose to study trade benefits and trade balance from national income perspective, and further introduce the concept of global income chains to reveal economic benefits distribution within international specialization.     

Trading away what kind of jobs? Globalization,trade and tasks in the US economy

Economists and other social scientists are calling for a reassessment of the impact of international trade on labor markets in developed and developing countries. Classical models of globalization and trade, based upon the international exchange of finished goods, fail to capture the fragmentation of much commodity production and the geographical separation of individual production tasks. This fragmentation, captured in the growing volume of intra-industry trade, prompts investigation of the effects of trade within, rather than between, sectors of the economy. In this paper we examine the relationship between international trade and the task structure of US employment. We link disaggregate US trade data from 1972 to 2006, the NBER manufacturing database, the Decennial Census, and occupational and task data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Within-industry shifts in task characteristics are linked to import competition and technological change. Our results suggest that trade has played a major role in the growth in relative demand for nonroutine tasks, particularly those requiring high levels of interpersonal interaction.     

How Mobile Are Resources in Chinese Agriculture？ —— Implications for China＇s Agricultural Trade Policy

Agricultural trade policy in China has been the subject of heated discussion since China's accession to the WTO. Studies have been carried out and propositions put forth regarding comparative advantage, food security, development of the industry, and farmers’ income. In this paper, we attempt to provide an analysis from another important perspective: resource mobility, which is an essential assumption in free trade theory. By examining the mobility of different production resources in Chinese agriculture, namely natural resources, capital inputs, human resources and institutional arrangements, we found that for most production resources in Chinese agriculture, mobility is low. The results have significant policy implications in two respects: first, protective measures in the transitional period for certain crops in certain areas in China are legitimate and necessary to ensure social stability; and second, policy instruments to improve resource mobility in Chinese agricultural should be explored and implemented to realize more trade benefit in the future. (Edited by Xinyu Fan)     

中国RTAs发展及与拉美国家区域经济合作

本文通过对近年来中国区域贸易安排(RTAs)发展进程的分析,阐明了中国RTAs发展的特点。中国RTAs及其发展体现了多边贸易合作和双边贸易合作并举、广泛参与RTAs谈判活动、先易后难、策略灵活务实、选择的贸易合作对象与中国的经济具有较强的互补性等特点。在此基础上,文章进一步探讨了中国与拉美国家发展RTAs的利弊,认为在经济全球化的大背景下,中国是多边贸易制度的最大受益者之一。为此,在兼顾区域贸易合作发展的同时,要以长远的战略眼光促进WTO多哈回合谈判的成功。     

Climate change impacts on China's agriculture: The responses from market and trade

China's food security has been facing several challenges, which are likely to be worsened due to climate change. The purpose of this paper is to provide an evidence on the impacts of climate change on China's agriculture, with particular attention to the market and trade responses. Using projected crop yield changes for China and its' main trading partners under changing climate, we employ an agricultural partial equilibrium model (CAPSiM) and a linked national and global equilibrium model (CAPSiM-GTAP) to assess the impacts on food production, price, trade and self-sufficiency of China. Our results show that climate change will have significant effects on crop production though with large differences among crops. Under the worst climate change scenario RCP 8.5, wheat yield in China is projected to decline by 9.4% by 2050, which is the biggest yield reduction among the crops. However, the market can also respond to the climate change, as farmers can change inputs in response to reduced yields and rising prices. As a result, production losses for most crops are dampened. For example, wheat production loss under RCP8.5 reduces to only 4.3% due to market response. The adverse impacts on crop production will be further reduced after accounting for the trade response as farmers adjust production to much higher prices in the more severely affected countries. The paper concludes that we need to learn more from farmers who optimize their production decisions in response to the market and trade signals during climate change. A major policy implication is that policymakers need to mainstream the market and trade responses into national plans for climate adaptation.     

The Evolution and Reshaping of Globalization: A Perspective Based on the Development of Regional Trade Agreements

With the weakening role of the World Trade Organization multilateral trading system, the globalization pattern is moving toward regional economic integration. As a result, the number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has rapidly increased. New trends in international economics and trade, such as the withdrawal of the US from the Trans‐Pacific Partnership and the trade disputes between the US and China, have revealed the intention of the developed countries represented by the US to reshape the direction of globalization. This paper combines the relevant research conclusions and current stylized facts to examine the evolution and reshaping of globalization. We find that: (i) countries have different attitudes toward the recent round of globalization, which are related to changes in the patterns of income distribution within countries caused by the last round of globalization; and (ii) regional economic development is an effective way to reshape globalization. The self‐strengthening effect of the hub country in the trade network has promoted global RTA expansion.     

徐福村:奏起和谐交响曲

百面金鼓,擂开达蓬船埠;秦人徐福,翘盼蓬莱东渡。徐福村就坐落在这颇具神秘特色的达蓬山麓,面向浩瀚东海,环抱青山绿水,在初春晨光的抚拂下,整个村庄显得格外秀美与多彩多姿。徐福村占地0.45平方公里,有耕地1240亩,677户,常住人口2600余人,其中外来人口近千人。改革开放以来,新一代徐福人在村党支部的带领下,秉承了徐福那种不畏艰险、英勇无畏的精神,激流勇进,以贯彻落实科学发展观为先导,不断优化产业布局,努力培植工业核心经济,积极发展现代农业,依托达蓬山旅游区拓展服务业,集体经济不断壮大,村民生活幸福和美,全村走出了一条良性循环的发展之路。2012年,全村实现社会总产值17.8亿元,村集体可用资金758万元,村民人均纯收入达到     

How to Measure Globalization? A New Globalization Index (NGI)

This paper presents the New Globalization Index (NGI). It is a composite index constructed to measure the relative globalization level of a group of countries. With its 21 variables, it accounts for the multidimensionality of this phenomenon instead of relying purely on economic indicators. As compared to other existing globalization indices, three major innovations are introduced in the NGI. Firstly, five variables that have until now not been used in globalization indices enter the calculations, introducing some new and important aspects to the measure, such as international student mobility and environmental issues. Secondly, the NGI forms a weighted sum of bilateral trade flows using the geographical distances between trading partners as weights. This modifies the usual trade openness measure by placing more weight on distant trading partners. In effect, intra-regional trade is given a lower weight in the NGI. One of the effects of this procedure is a significant downward movement in the ranking of some EU countries, whose international openness comes primarily from trade within their region and reflects regional integration more than globalization. A final innovation in the NGI is the use of a statistical method (principal component analysis) to form subcomponents of globalization according to the statistical features of the variable structure. The goal of this step is the analysis of the multidimensionality of globalization. Three dimensions emerge by the use of this technique: finance, trade and politics, and social globalization. Principal component analysis is also employed for producing weights for individual indicators within the overall index. Additionally, a control for country size is employed for some of the variables, as has been done in some other globalization indices before. The final index contains 70 countries and covers a period between 1995 and 2005.     

Can China harness globalization to reap domestic carbon savings? Modeling international technology diffusion in a multi-region framework

This paper is devoted to examine the effect of globalization, particularly the international technology diffusion (ITD), on China's domestic carbon savings. Building on a multi-region global modeling framework, we explicitly consider both indigenous R&D and foreign technology diffusion as the dual drivers of endogenous technical change (ETC) for domestic carbon savings. Simulation results show that 1) traditional economic globalization policies like trade and FDI liberalization can boost the growth of production output, but this is at the cost of more fossil energy uses and carbon emissions; 2) technology globalization policies like removals of technology transfer barriers can facilitate the inflows of foreign technologies for domestic carbon savings; and 3) domestic emission control policies have an effect to induce restructuring and reorganization of production technology into a knowledge-intensive one and thus help lower climate compliance costs. Consequently, to create China's domestic carbon savings from globalization, policy should focus on promoting cross-country technology diffusion, beyond traditional cross-border transactions of product and capital goods. Domestic emission-based climate regulation should also be implemented to create market demand for carbon-efficient technologies and thus induce inflows of foreign advanced technologies.     

Producer cooperative resettlement projects in Zimbabwe: Lessons from a failed agricultural development strategy

Zimbabwe epitomizes the contradictions driving the failure of state-directed agricultural development policies. In its second decade of independence, the government takes the credit for the country's agricultural and rural development success. Zimbabwe's “Green Revolution” record in Africa is enviable. Yet, this peasantry-led success story is problematic. It hides serious policy flaws in development strategy, namely, lack of performance and waste characterizing the Model B producer cooperative resettlement projects. Individually and collectively, the cooperatives, the government's preferred mode of production, are a complete failure. Lessons for development programs elsewhere, and in emergent South Africa, in particular are clear. The political economy of government assistance is not sufficient to produce agricultural surpluses and sustainable development. The social economy of cooperation in production organization by Africa's traditional farmers also does not, necessarily, translate into modern cooperatives, as Zimbabwe's policy makers assumed. Producer cooperatives are unproductive because of the prevailing organizational culture which enables leading members to seek individual self-interest and private gain, making it hard for the rank and file to cooperate and work for the common good.     

The economic impact of the Russian import ban: a CGE analysis

The aim of this paper is to assess the economic impact of the Russian embargo from 7 August 2014 on certain agricultural food products from the EU, the USA, Norway, Canada and Australia. The effects of this economic sanction are analysed in the framework of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with a particular focus on bilateral and total exports, production and welfare. The detailed, based on real trade data, calibration of the model allows for an exact identification of the sectoral shares and prohibitive tariffs aggregated to match the CGE model’s sectoral level of aggregation. In addition, the paper carries on a validation exercise to compare the model’s predictions with real trade data developments. The modelling simulation results show that the impact of the ban on total exports of the EU, the USA, Norway, Canada and Australia is limited. Nevertheless at a disaggregate level there are sectors – ‘vegetables and fruits’, ‘other meat’ and ‘dairy products’ – which experience two digit percentage change declines.     

Red Holocaust

ABSTRACT

Reduced transport costs and income growth in industrialising European countries changed the market conditions for European farmers in the late nineteenth century. Grain prices fell while dairy prices rose. It has been claimed that these price changes hit large grain farmers with vested interests in grain trade particularly hard, while owner-occupiers and smallholders fared better and with help of developing cooperative associations, came out as successful commercial agriculturalists by switching to intensive branches, foremost dairying. Recent research on the Danish case, shows, however, that change was initiated on large elite estates with long-term dairy traditions. The literature on the Swedish case indicates, that larger farms switched to intensified fodder production quicker than smaller farms did, while in the early twentieth century smaller farms played an un-proportionally large role on the dairy market. Using individual farm data from two East-central Swedish parishes in 1878/80, 1895/96 and 1910/11, it is shown, that larger farms tended to modernise crop rotations and switch towards dairy production earlier than small farms did. Smaller farms caught up, and by 1910 their land use was about as strongly adapted to commercial dairy production as larger farms’ land use was.     

Changes in Chinese Competitiveness in Major Food Products: Implications for WTO Membership

Chinese entry to the WTO in December 2001 marks a new phase in agricultural trade, both nationally and globally. After a context review of Chinese agriculture and WTO-related policy issues, this paper first uses a Balassa index approach to examine China's relative competitiveness in some major food products over the period since 1985, followed by an analysis of price-cost ratios and production cost structures for these products. It is found that China has revealed comparative advantages in meat products but disadvantages in cereals. With limited land resources, its production and trade competitiveness has declined despite rapid substitution of capital for labour, due to a marked rise in relative labour price in agriculture. In the long run, it is expected that WTO membership will boost Chinese agricultural trade, but its impact on competitiveness will probably depend more on production costs, and will differ between crops and animal products.