Definitions of Factor Abundance and the Factor Content of Trade

This paper points out that the different definitions of factor abundance in the empirical trade literature are weaker than in the Heckscher-Ohlin model, which compares endowments of two factors across two countries. These different definitions in practice lead to different factor abundance rankings when there are three or more countries or factors. A lack of correlation between a weak measure of factor abundance and the factor content of trade provides no ground to claim that factor proportions trade theory fails. A working definition of factor abundance more in line with the traditional one is proposed.     

RCA indices,multinational production and the Ricardian trade model

The practice of using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Indices to determine the flow of goods trade among countries is well established. But an important issue that demands attention is whether the RCA indices reflect the essentials of comparative advantage theory. Deb and Basu Foreign Trade Rev 46(3):3–28, (2011) examined the consistency of alternative RCA indices with the Heckscher-Ohlin theory of comparative advantage, leaving scope for re-examination of the indices in the context of the Ricardian comparative advantage theory, which insists on relative factor productivity differences among countries contrary to Heckscher-Ohlin’s relative factor endowment differences. The other issue which has been overlooked in much of the existing literature is the importance of value-added trade. With the growing importance of global production chains, RCA indices based on gross export values may not portray an accurate picture of the underlying comparative advantage of countries. In this context, adjusting the RCA indices to incorporate domestic value-added in exports seems to be quite relevant. This paper explores the consistency of RCA indices based on domestic value-added in exports with the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage using a panel data approach. A brief review on the structures of alternative RCA indices is also provided. The Log-of-Balassa index is found to be the best performer in this empirical examination, although the deficiencies of the index for cross-country or cross-commodity comparison must be acknowledged. The index of Yu et al. Ann Reg Sci 43(1):267–282, (2009) does possess the latter feature but in our study its performance is quite poor and hence its consistency with the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage is questionable.     

Skill, trade, and international inequality

Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory suggests that greater opennesstends to enlarge inter-country differences in stocks of skill(or human capital), which new growth theory suggests would causeinter-country divergence of per capita incomes. Econometricanalysis of data on about 90 countries during 1960-90 confirmsthat greater openness tends to cause divergence of secondaryand tertiary enrolment rates between more-educated and less-educatedcountries, and also between land-scarce and land-abundant countries.These findings may have implications for the optimal choiceof trade policies by poor countries.     

COMMENTS ON FACTOR PRICES AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN LESS INDUSTRIALISED ECONOMIES, 1870–1939: REFOCUSING ON THE FRONTIER

A great deal of the current research into nineteenth- and twentieth-century globalisation has been focused through a neoclassical trade theory lens. Applying the Stopler-Samuelson paradigm from Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory, the result is an approach that sees price convergence as pivotal in defining, identifying, and measuring globalisation. This focus, however, obscures the implications of frontier incorporation and other insights achieved by viewing nineteenth-century globalisation as a mechanism whereby peripheral economies were incorporated into the core of organised economic activity. A frontier-centred perspective also reintroduces the role of economic institutions as a crucial element of economic growth and development.     

Demand patterns and Canada’s trade in services

Canada’s trade in commercial services appears inconsistent with what manufacturing-oriented Heckscher-Ohlin theory predicts. Canada’s services trade is overwhelmingly intra-industry, involving countries whose factor proportions and demand patterns are similar—findings consistent with the ‘new’ trade theory, and the Linder hypothesis: that there is a uni-directional causal relationship flowing from the similarity (convergence) in demand patterns amongst trading partners, to Canada’s exports to those partners. Support for this conjecture is found for the US, the UK, and Japan. We infer that liberalization of trade in commercial services is likely welfare enhancing, with gains greater within trade arrangements and entities such as the NAFTA, the EU, and the OECD.     

Factor proportions in East-West trade: The case of Finland and Sweden

Conclusions In this study, the role of factor intensities and factor proportions in Swedish and Finnish trade with Eastern Europe have been examined. In the two-factor model, the Swedish results conform with the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem. Finland, on the other hand, shows a paradoxical trade pattern, i.e. the results are contrary to the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem.     

Prospects for Japanese-Russian trade expansion in the second half of the 1990s

During the Soviet period, trade between the USSR and Japan was relatively unimportant, constituting approximately 2 percent of the Soviet Union's total foreign trade turnover. The composition of trade goods, moreover, was primitive. The USSR exported unprocessed raw materials in exchange for high value added industrial products. This paper examines the impact of Russia's fledgling transition on its trade with Japan and finds some hopeful developments. Although the volume of trade has contracted, Russian exports are reviving, the commodity structure is adjusting appropriately to changes in relative prices, and embodied factor content is import-capital-intensive as required by the Leontief variant of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. The primary cloud blighting this performance is Russia's continuing inability to export its industrial goods.     

Migration,FDI, and Welfare

We investigate migration and foreign direct investment (FDI) for a small trading economy. Historically, immigration in small countries has been accompanied by FDI inflows (complementary capital movements). Based on the skill composition of migrants, empirical evidence finds that skilled immigration is accompanied by FDI inflows but unskilled immigration is accompanied by FDI outflows (substitutable capital movements). We prove that the Heckscher-Ohlin model cannot reconcile these apparently contradictory observations. We introduce a theoretical model in which capital and unskilled labor are sector specific, and demonstrate that this model can reconcile the historical and empirical observations on migration and FDI.     

知识产权保护与国际贸易摩擦的理论与实证分析

本文扩展了Samuelson(2004)的国际贸易摩擦的静态理论模型,提出了解释国际贸易摩擦的动态模型,并依据这一模型分析了由知识产权引发的国际贸易摩擦问题。同时还运用相关统计资料,对模型的基本结论进行了实证分析。     

异质性生产率、产品质量与中国出口企业的“生产率悖论”

生产率一直以来被认为是企业间所存在的主要异质性,基于生产率构建的新新贸易理论是目前国际贸易理论研究的最新前沿,而利用中国工业企业数据库所进行的实证研究却得出了"生产率悖论"的结论。本文将主要分析造成这种违背经典理论经验研究的主要原因,首先,重新设定企业异质性,即在生产率外再引入产品质量异质性来重构异质性企业贸易模型,可以看出,仅仅利用企业产量而忽视产品质量计算的生产率可能会得出"生产率悖论",从而"生产率悖论"很可能只是一个计算问题;接着利用最新的2005～2009年中国工业企业数据库检验中国出口企业"生产率悖论"的存在性,检验认为大部分行业的确存在"生产率悖论"。     

A test of the law of comparative advantage,revisited

This paper reconsiders one of the fundamental results in trade theory: the law of comparative advantage from an empirical point of view. The contribution of this paper is to conduct a test of the law of comparative advantage that is consistent with both balanced and unbalanced trade. To do so, this paper utilizes not only net exports valued at autarky prices but also those valued at free trade prices. The results support the empirical validity of the law of comparative advantage even after trade imbalances are taken into account.     

基于改进的引力模型解析我国外贸发展的动因变化

本文通过将Novy改进的引力模型进行分解,发现影响外贸发展的主要因素是经济的发展和贸易成本的下降,通过结合中国、印度和20个国家近15年的贸易和经济发展数据,验证了Novy理论的普适性;在此基础上,本文还将中国与20个国家在中国加入WTO前后和金融危机爆发前后的贸易变化进行经验分析,得到的基本结论是:加入WTO后贸易成本的贡献度明显上升(提升17%),说明加入WTO后良好的贸易环境和各种壁垒的下降确实降低了我国的贸易成本,但经济增长对外贸发展仍然起到至关重要的推动作用(提升了51%)。而金融危机爆发之后,贸易成本的增加是导致金融危机后我国外贸下滑的主要原因,虽然经济增长对外贸有正向的贡献,但贡献度较小(仅为13%),不能弥补贸易成本的负面影响。     

产品内贸易与传统贸易模式对发展中国家经济增长影响的差异性研究——基于中国的实证分析

产品内贸易模式和传统贸易模式将会对一国的长期经济增长带来不同的影响,本文分别从理论和实证的角度对这一问题进行了论证。理论分析部分我们主要从五个方面阐述了两种贸易模式对一国长期经济增长影响的差异性,并认为产品内贸易模式能够为一国长期的经济增长带来更大的推动作用。实证分析部分我们以中国为研究对象,分别以加工贸易和一般贸易作为产品内贸易和传统贸易的典型代表,首先采用协整的分析方法证明了本文理论分析的结论。然后,我们利用脉冲响应函数研究了两种贸易模式对一国经济增长的动态影响。最后,我们又通过面板数据的回归分析,简要说明了影响产品内贸易对一国经济增长作用的主要因素。通过本文的分析我们认为,要大力提高我国参与国际产品内贸易的规模和水平,以更好地促进我国经济的长期健康增长。     

Can Openness Help Make a Miracle?

Several empirical studies indicate that there is a positive relationship between openness to international trade and growth. Lucas (1988) argues that this relationship poses a paradox for neo-classical theory because trade liberalisation produces only limited level effects, not long-run growth effects, in neo-classical growth models. This paper attempts to resolve Lucas paradox by adding production sectors to the basic one-sector Solow model. This paper demonstrates that these multi-sector models are consistent with the empirical links between openness and growth. These models also blur the traditional distinctions between exogenous and endogenous growth theory. As a result, they substantially complicate the task of discriminating between exogenous and endogenous growth episodes in empirical data.     

Explaining the structure of foreign trade: Where do we stand?

Explaining the Structure of Foreign Trade: Where Do We Stand?— During the last two decades, new research has greatly advanced our understanding of the structure of world trade. This article reviews the empirical literature that grew out of this effort and the theoretical developments that have been relevant for the empirical studies. But despite this research effort, explanations of foreign trade are still incomplete. We need a more technologically oriented trade theory and more emphasis on dynamics in order to understand the developments in international trade. JEL no F1, F14     

农产品关税政策的内生性检验——基于国际数据的分析

关税等贸易干预政策普遍存在于各个国家的对外贸易政策之中,传统的自由贸易理论无法合理解释现实中的贸易扭曲现象,关税的决定问题得到广泛关注。关税政策具有内生性意味着关税由诸多因素影响而形成,是多方博弈的结果。这一判断需要通过实证研究得以验证,对农产品关税政策的内生性进行检验具有理论价值和实际意义。本研究基于国际视角对农产品关税政策的决定性问题进行实证研究,建立农产品进口和关税联立方程组,探讨各国(地区)农产品关税政策是否具有内生性并分析影响关税政策制定的主要因素。研究揭示出各国(地区)农产品关税内生性的一般规律,并为WTO谈判所处的困境提供了较为合理的解释,即一国在制定关税政策时会考虑诸多因素,多边谈判是各国利益角逐和博弈的过程。因此,应充分发挥WTO成员的利益协调机制,加强国家利益集团的作用。同时,充分估计到WTO农业谈判的艰巨性,不断加强我国参与农业谈判的能力建设。     

Not all trade restrictions are created equally

There has been great focus in the recent trade theory literature on the introduction of firm heterogeneity into trade models. This introduction has highlighted the importance of the entry/exit decision of firms in response to changes in trade barriers. However, it is typical in many of these models to use iceberg transport costs as a general form of trade barriers that can be interchangeable with ad valorem tariffs. I show that this is not always an appropriate conclusion. Specifically, I illustrate that profit for an exporter is more elastic in response to tariffs than iceberg transport costs, which affects the entry/exit decision of firms. This has implications for welfare analysis and empirical specifications.     

Technology and trade: Empirical evidences for the major five industrialized countries

Technology and Trade: Empirical Evidence for the Major Five Industrialized Countries. — The conclusion that prices alone cannot explain the major disturbances in trade market shares emerges from many empirical studies on international trade flows. This paper aims at introducing supply-side variables in market shares equations, namely R&D expenditures and gross fixed capital formation, along the lines of the new theory on international trade and of the literature on technology and trade relations. The empirical work is carried out on the major five industrialized countries and on twenty manufacturing industries. The results show that the supply-side variables have played a crucial role over the last decade.     

Production Structure in the Context of International Trade

This paper deals with the recent empirical phenomenon of intra-industry trade, i.e., trade in similar goods between similar countries. It treats this phenomenon from the point of view of the theory of the structure of production, highlighting the importance of the sequential nature of production and the heterogeneity and specificity of factors of production, as developed by Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and their followers of the Austrian School of economics. The reader is first exposed to the historical development of production and capital theory. A simple theory of production structure, along the lines of Austrian economics, is afterwards presented and a useful tool for the analysis of intra-industry trade is developed. In the following discussion of existing theories of intra-industry trade, we make the case for vertical intra-industry specialization, complex manufactured goods and sliced-up production chains across countries. The reader immediately observes the importance of Austrian production structure theory for the analysis of intra-industry trade. We accordingly apply the concepts of the structure of production to intra-industry trade and analyze, in particular, the time- and place-aspects of international production. The concluding section shows the relevance of our approach to intra-industry trade for the analysis of business cycle synchronization across countries, and for the optimum currency areas theory.     

贸易与收入分配关系的理论和实证研究回顾

20世纪90年代末,随着全球化的急剧推进,各国非熟练劳动力的收入日益恶化且收入差距也迅速扩大,使得贸易对收入分配的影响成为各国学者研究的热点。无论是传统的国际贸易理论,还是当代的新国际贸易理论对贸易是否会影响国内收入分配这一问题上一直充满争议。本文对贸易与收入分配关系的理论和实证研究进行简单的回顾和归纳,并在分析现有研究成果的基础上指出今后这一问题的研究动向。