China’s welfare gain from involved mega-regional trade agreements

This article draw upon a 29-country numerical general equilibrium model with trade cost and endogenous trade imbalance to simulate China’s welfare gain from negotiating mega-regional trade agreements (mega-RTAs). We introduce elasticity of substitution distributions instead of normally definite values in the model and generate a distribution of impact results ranging among some specific intervals, which injects a new kind of effect presentation style to existing literature. The results of our article reveal that China will gain from all undergoing negotiation mega-RTAs we mentioned in this article, comparatively Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will benefit China the most.     

Evaluating Russia’s trade patterns

This article offers empirical evidence on the major trends in the nature of Russia’s trade and on the determinants of the different types of trade: horizontal intra-industry trade (HIIT), vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT) and inter-industry trade (INT). The estimation results of gravity-type log-linear models suggest that the combined economic size of Russia and the trading partner has a positive effect, while the distance between the two countries has a negative effect for all types of trade. They also suggest that FDI has a significant effect on all types of trade; however, the effect varies according to whether the partner country is a member of the CIS/CU or not, and whether the FDI is outward or inward.     

Does trade weaken product standards?

We investigate the effects of trade on national minimum quality standards for a product whose quality is unobservable to consumers prior to purchase. Two standard‐setting regimes are considered: (1) where the regulatory authority takes the trade share as given; and (2) where the regulatory authority takes full account of its ability to influence the trade share. We find that standards are not a protectionist instrument in this model, the usual gains from trade apply if standards are maintained at their autarky values, trade can cause private standards to be adjusted in a welfare reducing way, and the welfare of a country is higher if its regulatory authority adopts regime (2) rather than (1).     

Environmental and economic impacts of trade barriers: The example of China–US trade friction

The new age of trade wars could simultaneously affect the worldwide distribution pattern of the economy and environmental emissions. However, previous studies have focused on economic impacts, and on trade liberalization, while little is known about the equilibrium effects of trade barriers on the environment. Using a global computable general equilibrium model and taking the recent anti-trade policies of the Trump administration as an example, this study investigates the possible socio-economic and environmental effects of trade friction. Specifically, this study explores how the implemented six rounds of China–US trade friction and its different long-term development trends affect regional economic output, GHG and air pollutant emissions. Results show that trade barriers harm both countries’ economies and such losses have a certain permanence, while non-participants can benefit indirectly. Trade friction decreases participants’ GHG emissions, modifies global GHG emission distribution patterns, and leads to improved air quality in most countries. If governments continue to impose tariffs, global GHG emissions could counterfactually decrease by up to 5%. However, the change in trade patterns is not conducive to clean energy development in the less-developed regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and emission reductions from trade friction are insufficient to avoid catastrophic climate change.     

Does trade foster contract enforcement?

Contract enforcement is probabilistic, but the probability depends on rules and processes. A stimulus to trade may induce traders to alter rules or processes to improve enforcement. In the model of this paper, such a positive knock-on effect occurs when the elasticity of supply of traders is sufficiently high. Negative knock-on is possible when the elasticity is low. Enforcement strategies in competing markets are complements (substitutes) if the supply of traders is sufficiently elastic (inelastic). The model provides a useful structure of endogenous enforcement that gives promise of explaining patterns of institutional development. Presented to the GEP Conference on ‘New Directions in International Trade Theory’, 8 and 9 June, 2007. An earlier version of this paper under another title was presented to the American Economic Association meetings, January 2004.     

Does trade stimulate product quality upgrading?

This paper investigates whether increased import competition leads firms to engage in incremental innovation reflected in product quality upgrading using Chilean manufacturing firm‐product data and measuring product quality with unit values (prices). We identify causal effects of import competition using an effective trade barrier measure – transport costs – as instruments for import penetration ratios across industries. Transport costs have a negative and significant effect on product quality. The evidence suggests that estimated unit value increases capture product quality upgrading, imports’ competition effects drive quality upgrading, and benefits depend on firms’ industrial specialization. Easier access to intermediate inputs also fosters quality upgrading.     

The intergenerational transmission of historical conflicts: An application to China’s trade

We study the legacy effect and transmission mechanisms of historical conflicts on contemporary trade. Using new data on the regional dispersion of civilian deaths due to massacres in the Sino-Japanese war (1931–1945), we find that local conflict intensity predicts international trade patterns of Chinese corporations three generations later. We further explore the transmission mechanism of collective war memory. Conflict intensity correlates with measures of anti-Japanese sentiments inferred from survey data and it appears to be transmitted both through war dramas in the mass media as well as official commemorations. We also find evidence that the trade-inhibiting effect increases with the time exposed to collective war memory.     

Is trade in electrical and electronic products sensitive to IPR protection? Evidence from China’s exports

This article attempts to provide the first empirical evidence on the effect of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on China’s export of electrical and electronic products. It adopts a gravity model for unbalanced panel data of China’s 146 important trading partners over the period of 2002–2012. To eliminate the effects of FDI in determining the linkage between IPR and exports, the panel excludes the destination countries and territories that invest in China. The results reveal that the level of IPR protection in destination countries has a positive impact on China’s flow of exports. Further analysis on data disaggregated by IPR score demonstrates that a higher level of IPR protection in destination countries and territories is positively linked with China’s exports of these items in each of the IPR protection clusters and indicates a strong market power effect by the interplay between R&D expenditure and IPR in the destinations. Finally, both market power and market expansion effects are found to be prevalent in the destinations, as implied by the coefficient of IPR protection disaggregated by income level of China’s export destinations. The results generally resemble those in the literature that describe the linkage between IPR protection and trade flows.     

Does top management Team’s academic experience promote corporate innovation? Evidence from China

This study investigates whether top management teams’ academic experience affects corporate innovation, using manually-collected data on Chinese firms from the period of 2008–2017. The results indicate that academic experience has a strong positive effect on corporate innovation. The positive effect of academic experience on corporate innovation is more pronounced, when firms grow faster or are non-state-owned. By exploring the transmission channels, the results generally show that academic experience influences corporate innovation by improving internal controls and reducing the degree of information asymmetry. These findings are among the first empirical evidence of the association between academic experience of top management teams and corporate innovation.     

The trade effects of Albania’s trade agreements with CEFTA members

Since the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) was signed in 2006, Albanian exports to CEFTA member countries have increased four-fold. Applying a trade growth decomposition methodology, we show that Albanian firms that did not export to CEFTA countries before the agreement account for a large share of this export growth. Exports also increased among goods that were the least traded before the agreement. Estimating a gravity equation, we find that the CEFTA increased Albanian exports between 34% and 144%, depending on how the previous bilateral agreements with CEFTA countries are accounted for. Additional regression analyses conclude that the CEFTA fostered exports through the reduction of tariffs.     

Are China’s sovereign credit ratings underestimated?

A key implication of Becker’s (1957) work on discrimination is that greater product market competition can reduce employment discrimination generally, and discriminatory wage gaps in particular. Using US data on manufacturing wages and import exposure, we explore whether increased competition, in the form of a heightened exposure to imports, reduces the racial wage gap. Our findings support Becker’s contention. We find that import exposure helped narrow the racial wage gap by about 1.4 percentage points between 1983 and 1993. The effect is especially pronounced among the most disadvantaged: unskilled Southern workers. For them, import exposure helped reduce racial wage disparities by 2.2 percentage points.     

China’s Growth Prospects

China’s diminished growth prospects are in the news and seem to spell bad news for just about everybody. This article assesses the evidence, arguing that China’s economic growth will be much slower from now on, reducing international trade. Perhaps the biggest challenge for China will be future political tensions in reconciling economic dreams with economic realities.     

Where have China’s state monopolies gone?

If China’s economy is an example of “state-capitalism,” then its large, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) could be expected to monopolize key sectors. But previous estimates of industrial concentration, using the Herfindahl—Hirschman Index (HHI), have suggested that the level of industrial concentration—and therefore the potential for the abuse of monopoly power—is very low. These studies have significantly underestimated HHI, since they do not consolidate subsidiary enterprises in Chinese survey data into larger business groups, or according to ultimate ownership. After making these adjustments, a measure of potential HHI shows that large state monopolies remain in oil and gas, electricity, tobacco and, potentially, automobiles. In particular, SOEs supervised by the central government are heavily invested in potentially concentrated industries. But aggregate profits of the state sector are driven more by the portfolio distribution of assets between resources, manufacturing and utilities, rather than industrial concentration within sectors.     

Does free trade promote environmental technology transfer?

We investigate how environmental and trade policies affect the transfer of environmental technology in a two-country model with global pollution. By comparing free trade and tariff policy with or without commitment, the following results are obtained. First, firms avoid the implementation of environmental tax by contracting technological transfer. Second, there is a case in which free trade is preferable to a tariff policy for both countries when there is no commitment to a tariff level. Third, free trade is not Pareto-preferred to a tariff policy when there is a commitment.     

Does complexity explain the structure of trade?

This paper analyzes whether complexity, measured by the number of skilled tasks that are performed in production, explains countries’ commodity trade structure. We modify the Romalis ( 2004 ) model to incorporate advantage differences in complexity across commodities together with differences in the number of mistakes made by workers in the production process in developed and developing countries as a source of comparative advantage. Our model predicts that the share of developed countries in world trade increases with products’ complexity. Empirical tests confirm this prediction. Moreover, we find that complexity complements the explanation provided by skill‐intensity on countries’ commodity trade structure.     

Confucius Institute’s effects on international travel to China: do cultural difference or institutional quality matter?

This article uses a panel data of China’s inbound tourist flows from 2005 to 2015 to investigate Confucius Institute (CI)’s influence on China’s tourism. We find that CI, as a comprehensive platform for China’s foreign cultural exchange, has a significant positive effect on China’s tourist flows. The effects of CI on China’s inbound tourism are transmitted through bridging cultural gaps and promoting Chinese language, which reduces psychic distance and transaction costs. CI also stimulates China’s inbound tourist flows via reducing information asymmetry caused by different levels of institutional quality. Interestingly, we find that the heterogeneous effects of CI on China’s inbound tourism depend on institutional quality, and the effects of CI to boost China’s tourists are more prominent in departure countries with larger cultural difference.     

China’s international trade development and opening-up policy design over the past four decades

ABSTRACT

China’s opening-up in the past four decades has gone through three waves: the extensive margin of opening-up (1978–2001), the intensive margin of opening-up (2001–2017), and all-around opening-up (since 2017). This paper explores these three stages of the country’s economic reform. China’s gains from trade have been inspired by different economic factors. Before the turn of the century, the large trade volume was due to the realization of comparative advantage based on the country’s factor endowment. However, after its accession to the World Trade Organization, China’s gains from trade have been due, in large part, to the realization of economic scale effects associated with the larger market.     

Does China’s emissions trading system foster corporate green innovation? Evidence from regulating listed companies

Carbon emissions trading system is expected to be both efficient and flexible in carbon reduction through green innovation. As the world’s largest CO₂ emitter, China has launched the emissions trading system (CN-ETS) since 2013 in 7 pilot areas and vowed to build a nation-wide system in the second half of 2017. This study provides preliminary evidence on the impact of the CN-ETS on green innovation and the moderating role of market competition on this relationship at the firm level. Based on data of regulating listed companies in seven pilots, the results show that CN-ETS is significantly positively correlated with green innovation, and market competition weakens the positive relationship, indicating that CN-ETS is effective in the aspect of green innovation, and the effect would be better in less competitive markets.     

Does the value-added tax Reform increase a firm’s collateral bank loans? Evidence from China

By leveraging the value-added tax (VAT) Reform as an exogenous event in China, we examine the impact of the tax cut on bank collateral loan on firms. Our findings suggest that (1) The Reform allows firms to deduct the tax of purchasing fixed assets that leads to a significant increase in the firm's collateral loan amounts. (2) The transmission mechanism is due to the increased level of corporate transparency and a lowered financial risk after the Reform. (3) The impact of the Reform on collateral bank loans is more pronounced for state-owned firms, large firms, firms far away from lenders and firms located in low financial development regions.