The China–US Trade War: Deep‐Rooted Causes,Shifting Focus and Uncertain Prospects

The USA has waged a trade war against China, whose rapid rise has come to be seen as a threat to US hegemony. Besides imposing additional tariffs on imported Chinese products, the USA is also tightening restrictions on the transfer of technology to China and the business activities of some Chinese high‐tech companies, notably Huawei. The escalation of the trade war into a tech war could lead to a decoupling between the US and Chinese economies, if not a world economy divided into two economic blocs that centered on them.     

Accounting for China's Saving‐Investment Imbalance from 2002–2008

This paper decomposes and analyzes China's saving‐investment imbalance (equivalent to current account imbalance) from 2002–2008. We first use the Flow of Funds Accounts to calculate the saving and investment rates (propensity) of the household, corporate and government sectors and to evaluate their relative contribution to the aggregate saving‐investment surplus. The results indicate that the increase of saving‐investment surplus can be attributed to the steady increase of saving by the household and government sectors and the short‐term downsizing of investment by the corporate and government sectors. We then use more disaggregate supplementary datasets to explore the factors behind the evolution of the saving and investment rates for the three sectors. The rise of the household saving rate mainly sources from the urban sector. The corporate saving rate experienced a steady increase because of the rise of profitability. Government macroeconomic policies have had a strong influence on the saving and investment patterns of the corporate and government sectors.     

中美贸易失衡的经济理论分析——以马克思的经济理论为基础

中美贸易失衡的原因和解决方案众说纷纭,莫衷一是。然而,试图通过马克思的经济理论来求解还尚属少见。马克思的生产的国际关系理论、生产-分配-交换-消费理论、虚拟资本理论、两大部类理论和汇率理论对于研究现实的中美贸易关系仍然裨益匪浅,从中也可以窥见中美贸易失衡的必然性。     

Regional Trade Agreements and Cross‐border Lobbying: Empirical Evidence from the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement Negotiations

This paper documents participation of special interest groups in negotiations of the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement. Using data on the tariff reduction schedules mandated by the agreement, it shows that industries represented by strong lobby groups were faced with more favorable tariff reduction paths in both countries: phase‐out periods were longer at home and shorter in the partner country. This result provides evidence on the involvement of industry lobbying in negotiation of regional trade agreements and suggests that countries negotiating trade agreements are responsive to the interests of lobbying groups from across the border. Both results provide important implications for the political economy theory of trade agreements.     

Diversification into Emerging Markets – An Australian and the US Perspective Using a Time‐varying Approach

Over the past two decades, a number of studies have examined the benefits of diversifying equity investments internationally, particularly into emerging markets. In the portfolio construction process, many researchers have criticised Markowitz's Portfolio Theory because of its inherent assumptions such as symmetric and constant correlations. In this study, we use a conditional copula model to estimate the time‐varying asymmetric correlations of stock markets and construct optimal portfolios by using estimated correlations. We find that optimised portfolios provide significant benefits for both Australian and the US investors. Out‐of‐sample results show Copula model provides results closer to the in‐sample‐estimated benefits of diversification. The results have important implications for portfolio managers who seek to diversify into emerging markets.     

The China–United States Bilateral Trade Balance: How Big Is It Really?

There are huge discrepancies between the official Chinese and US estimates of the bilateral trade balance. The discrepancies are caused by different treatments accorded to re-exports through Hong Kong, re-export markups, and trade in services. Deficit-shifting between China, on the one hand, and Hong Kong and Taiwan, on the other, owing to direct investment in China from Taiwan and Hong Kong, is partly responsible for the growth in the China–US bilateral trade deficit. The 1995 China–US bilateral balance of trade in goods and services, adjusted by both re-exports and re-export markups, may be estimated as US$23.3 billion, a large deficit but considerably smaller than the often-cited official US figure of US$33.8 billion.     

Growth‐Friendly Tax Structures: An Indicator‐Based Approach

This paper designs a horizontal indicator‐based assessment methodology aimed at identifying those EU countries presenting a potential need and scope for shifting taxation away from labour to other tax bases less detrimental to growth. The assessment methodology, as a first step, selects a set of indicators measuring specific aspects of tax policy. Subsequently, for each individual indicator, performance thresholds are calculated based on a benchmarking approach. Finally, a screening algorithm based on commonly accepted findings from the relevant economic literature is used to assess the overall performance of a country in two policy areas, namely the need for a tax shift and the scope for it. Various robustness checks are performed.     

Trade Liberalization and Welfare Inequality: A Demand‐Based Approach*

There is strong evidence suggesting that different income groups consume different bundles of goods. Hence, trade liberalization can affect welfare inequality via changes in the relative prices of goods consumed by different income groups (the price effect). In this paper, I develop a framework that enables us to explore the role of the price effect in determining welfare inequality. I find that trade liberalization does benefit some income classes more than others. In particular, I show that the relative welfare of the rich with respect to that of the poor has a hump shape as a function of trade costs.     

Foreign Direct Investment in Australia Following the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement

A model of inward foreign direct investment for Australia is estimated. Foreign direct investment is found to be positively related to economic and productivity growth and negatively related to foreign portfolio investment, trade openness, the exchange rate and the foreign real interest rate. Foreign direct investment is found to be a substitute for both portfolio investment and trade in goods and services. The exchange rate and the US bond rate affect foreign direct investment through the relative attractiveness of domestic assets. Actual foreign direct investment outperforms a model‐derived forecast in recent years, consistent with the liberalisation of foreign investment screening rules following the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement.     

The S‐curve Dynamics of US Bilateral Trade*

A few studies in dynamic general‐equilibrium setting have argued that the trade balance is negatively correlated with current and future movements in the terms of trade but positively correlated with past movements, hence the S‐curve phenomenon. Using aggregate trade data and the terms of trade has not provided strong empirical counterpart. However, in this paper, when we disaggregate the trade data between the US and her trading partners we find stronger results in support of the S‐curve.     

Do National Borders Really Matter? Canada–US Regional Trade Reconsidered

This paper reconsiders the Canada–US border's effect on trade. The authors first test whether the findings of McCallum (1995) and Helliwell (1996)—that the border substantially decreases trade—change when better data are used. It is found that the "border effect" may be substantially less than previously measured—up to 50% smaller—but remains surprisingly large. An explanation of the border's effect is sought. Transportation equipment offers a natural experiment, as North American trade has been completely liberalized for several decades. A higher border effect is found for these freely traded goods, which rules out standard protection as the border effect's cause.     

Stolper–Samuelson Time Series: Long‐Term US Wage Adjustment

Factor prices adjust to product prices in the Stolper–Samuelson theorem of the factor proportions model. The present paper estimates adjustment in the average US wage to changes in prices of manufactures and services with yearly data from 1949 to 2006. Difference equation analysis is based directly on the comparative static factor proportions model. Factors of production are fixed capital assets and the labor force. Results have implications for theory and policy.     

Dynamic Gains and Market Access Insurance: Another Look at the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement

We revisit the benefits of the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) and, in particular, evaluate the insurance value of this agreement in the face of regional and global trade wars. The insurance benefits are quantified by comparing the AUSFTA against alternative scenarios where some or all regions raise tariffs by 10 percentage points. Issues regarding expectations and the timing of potential trade wars are considered by using a dynamic model. The potential gains relative to these alternative trade war status quo scenarios are found to be as much as four times larger than the traditional efficiency gains.     

US–Japan Trade Frictions: The Past,the Present,and Implications for the US–China Trade War

The United States and Japan have been involved in trade frictions over a number of products including textiles, steel, automobiles, semi‐conductors, and agricultural products over the last 50 years. US–Japan trade frictions have taken basically two forms: (i) the United States attempting to restrict Japan's exports to the United States; and (ii) the United States attempting to increase its exports to Japan by “opening” the Japanese market. By putting pressure on Japan to adopt necessary measures, the United States sought to achieve two main objectives: (i) to reduce its trade deficit vis‐à‐vis Japan; and (ii) to protect and/or promote US industries. The United States failed to achieve the first objective, while some success was achieved for the second objective. The United States triggered a trade war against China with the objectives of: (i) reducing the bilateral trade deficit; and (ii) stopping unfair trade practices by Chinese firms such as violations of intellectual property rights and forced technology transfer. Based on the experiences from the US–Japan trade frictions, the United States may achieve some success for the second objective, but not for the first. The chances of achieving the second objective would increase if the United States cooperates with countries such as Japan and the European Union, which are faced with similar problems.     

中美贸易中隐含的碳排放以及贸易环境效应——基于环境投入产出法的实证分析

中美贸易的巨额逆差带来的不仅仅是贸易问题,还包括一系列的环境问题。利用环境投入产出模型测算1997年-2009年中美贸易中所隐含的CO2排放量,得出如下结论:中美贸易中中国大部分行业污染贸易条件均大于1,且呈不断恶化趋势;出口规模越大、贸易竞争力越强的产业单位出口的CO2排放强度越小,中国出口美国的产品与污染品并无必然联系;美国对华FDI转移并未引起美国污染产业向中国转移,而全球FDI向华转移使得"污染天堂"理论在华成立;中国出口CO2排放速度低于其出口速度,单位出口的CO2排放强度呈下降趋势;改变中国污染顺差国的地位,中国需加强对美国污染品的进口,积极改变粗放型的生产方式,加快对价值链高端清洁产品的生产。     

解释中国农村区域间的收入不平等:一种基于回归方程的分解方法

本文提出了一个分解不平等的框架 ,在这一框架中 ,诸如收入之类的因变量的不平等可以分解为相关的回归方程中自变量或代理变量的贡献。本文所提出的分析框架可以被运用于分解任何不平等指标 ,并且对回归模型的限制条件也不多。通过将Box Cox和Box Tidwel收入决定函数结合起来的方式 ,本文定量分析了导致中国农村地区间收入不平等的根源     

Exchange‐Rate Risk and Japanese–Thai Industry Trade

Over the past decade, many papers have studied the effects of exchange‐rate volatility on international trade, particularly at the bilateral level for large numbers of individual industries. This is necessary because the underlying theory is ambiguous and because earlier papers failed to uncover significant results at a higher degree of aggregation. This paper examines the case of Japan and Thailand over the period from 1970 to 2010. We find that slightly more than half of 117 export industries and 54 import industries are affected by volatility in the short run. In the long run, 6 export and 2 import industries are affected positively, and 22 export and 9 import industries are affected negatively. Small Japanese export industries are more likely to be negatively affected, while imports show no differences regarding industry size. In a sectoral analysis, we find some evidence that Japanese exports of manufactures and certain machinery and transport equipment might be relatively more affected by the exchange‐rate risk. Raw material imports are least affected. These findings therefore suggest which industries might benefit most by a policy promoting a stable yen.     

美国贸易逆差:增长惯性与可持续性

美国的经常项目逆差特别是贸易逆差“历史悠久”,尤其是近年来高速增长,已引起人们广泛的关注。本文作者认为:20世纪90年代以来的美国贸易逆差已很难单从汇率、贸易政策及产品竞争力等单个变量来加以解释。通过运用滞后一年的时间数列相关分析及回归分析,本文得出的结论是:当期美国贸易逆差是前期美国贸易逆差的惯性增长,并且只要美国资本与金融账户的盈余足够冲抵贸易逆差,美国的贸易逆差便具有可持续性。针对近期美国人制造的“人民币升值论”,结合近十年来中美双边贸易现实,说明美国贸易逆差与人民币汇率之间没有必然联系,人民币升值也不可能改善美国的贸易收支状况。     

An Absorption Approach to Modeling the US Current Account

This paper derives and estimates a current account model based on the absorption approach (which views the current account balance as the difference between domestic saving and investment). This approach provides a framework which allows drivers of cross‐border financial flows and other determinants of saving and investment to be included in a current account model, an advantage not offered by the elasticity approach (which views the current account balance as the sum of net exports, net investment income, and net unilateral transfer). We estimate and compare vector error‐correction models of the absorption and elasticity approaches, with the absorption model nesting the elasticity model. We find that (1) the restrictions imposed by the elasticity model are rejected; and (2) the mean‐squared prediction errors of the absorption model are significantly smaller than those of the elasticity model.     

The effect of the Canada‐US Free Trade Agreement on Canadian multilateral trade liberalization

In this paper show that the Canada‐US Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) tariff preferences have triggered a decline in Canadian external tariffs, explaining a two percentage point reduction in the average tariff between 1989 and 1998. Next, we found that industries that generate the least export rent to the US firms experienced deeper tariff cuts in Canada; this result provides evidence of cooperation in trade policies between the US and Canada. Finally, we estimate the effect of the CUSFTA on the intensity of industrial lobbying for trade policy in Canada and find no relationship between preferential trade liberalization and lobbying activity.