新兴经济体国家城镇化发展对碳排放影响的比较研究

新兴经济体十六国是重要的发展集团,由“金砖五国”和“新钻十一国”组成,高效低碳的城镇化是其进一步提升在全球经济发展中增量贡献的动力保障。借助EKC模型和STIRPAT模型,分别研究这两个国家集团城镇化发展与碳排放量之间的关系以及城镇化对碳排放的影响。研究结果表明：在二者的关系方面,新兴经济体国家的城镇化水平与碳排放量呈现出微弱的倒“U”型关系,其中,“金砖五国”已经跨过倒“U”型曲线的拐点,而“新钻十一国”则处于拐点前期;在城镇化对碳排放的影响方面,城镇化发展对“新钻十一国”碳排放量的影响大于“金砖五国”;城镇化水平越高的国家,碳排放量越大,但随着工业化水平的提升和产业结构的优化升级,碳排放量逐步降低。     

国际友好城市与中国出口贸易*

作为正式协议和制度安排的重要补充，缔结国际友好城市关系加强了中外城市之间的信任和深层次交流，成为国际经济合作的重要催化剂和助推器。本文从外贸高质量发展视角切入，基于2002—2015年287个中国城市与136个国家或地区的匹配对数据，考察了国际友好城市形成的“朋友圈”是否以及如何影响城市间的出口贸易。研究发现：（1）缔结国际友好城市协议使得中国城市出口量和出口额分别提高了100%和116%。（2）国际友好城市的贸易促进效应更多源于贸易创造而非贸易转移。（3）除了影响出口集约边际，国际友好城市还从产品种类数和高技术行业所占比例等方面促进了出口扩展边际。（4）以非典和全球金融危机作为事件冲击，国际友好城市协议在一定程度上增强了中国城市出口的风险抵抗能力。（5）异质性分析结果表明，国际友好城市协议对非“一带一路”倡议国家与地理邻近国家或地区的出口促进效应更明显。以上结果得到了一系列稳健性检验的支持。本文的研究有助于全面认识国际友好城市的经济内涵以及探讨外贸高质量发展的新路径。     

Little Divergence: Evidence from Cotton Textiles in Japan and China 1868–1930

This paper looks at the role of textile exports in Japan and China's economic development in the period of 1868–1930 as a major explanation for the “Little Divergence” between the two countries in the context of the “Great Divergence” between Europe and Asia. Because of textiles' large weighting in proto‐industrialization gross domestic product (GDP), we postulate that China's initial 20‐year lag in textiles vis‐à‐vis Japan turns out to be fatal for its industry and that it eventually ordains totally different development patterns for the textile industry in the two countries, which ultimately led to different growth patterns for the overall economy. Although both countries saw rapid growth of textile exports, the nature of those exports and the entailed position of each country in the industry value chain of trade were quite different. We then use Granger causality tests to show that in one case (Japan) it is in support of the export‐led‐growth hypothesis (ELG) while in another (China) it is not. Our study then also explains why Japan's industrial revolution took place much earlier than China's.     

Internal Quota-Allocation Schemes and the Costs of the Mfa*

This paper suggests that schemes used within developing countries to allocate textile export quota among domestic producers typically have more severe negative effects on developing-country economic performance than the MFA export quotas themselves. We summarize allocation schemes in 16 countries, highlighting common “lock-in” and “rent-dissipation” effects of such schemes. We then use a global general-equilibrium model to evaluate the effects of MFA removal with and without these additional effects. Results indicate that estimates of gains to developing countries from an MFA removal increase sharply when internal quota-allocation schemes are taken into account.     

东北区东部交通通道体系建设与区域城镇化演进机制

东北区东部中俄、中朝边境线长达2 000多km,是我国东北部重要的生态屏障和边疆要地,也是典型的经济发展严重滞后于城镇化发展水平的资源型地域。文章分析了东北区东部交通通道体系建设与城镇化演进的区域基础,探讨了区域城镇化的现状特点和演进轨迹,预测了交通通道体系的发展趋势及其对区域城镇化演进态势与城镇空间发展格局的影响。更具意义的是,战略性地探讨了区域资源与地理环境系统对交通通道体系建设和区域城镇化发展的响应及其对城镇化演进的制约,提出了未来区域城镇化发展战略的建议。     

Do Patent Rights Regimes Matter?

The paper asks whether exports are affected by importers’ patent rights regimes using a gravity trade equation. US export data to 71 countries from 1970 to 1992 are used. A two‐way random‐effects panel indicates that patent rights regimes per se do not matter; they matter with importing countries’ imitative abilities. For a country with an “average” imitative ability, US R&D‐intensive exports increase by 4–9% for a unit increase in the patent rights index; a unit increase in the patent rights index leads to a drop in US non‐R&D‐intensive exports by about 8–11%.     

The engine of growth or its handmaiden?

This paper presents an analysis of time-series data for the countries in the Summers-Heston (1991) data set, in an attempt to ascertain the evidence for or against the export-led growth hypothesis. We find that standard methods of detecting export-led growth using Granger-causality tests may give misleading results if imports are not included in the system being analyzed. For this reason, our main statistical tool is the measure of conditional linear feedback developed by Geweke (1984), which allows us to examine the relationship between export growth and income growth while controlling for the growth of imports. These measures have two additional features which make them attractive for our work. First, they go beyond meredetection of evidence for export-led growth, to provide a measurement of itsstrength. Second, they enable us to determine the temporal pattern of the response of income to exports. In some cases export-led growth is a long-run phenomenon, in the sense that export promotion strategies adopted today have their strongest effect after eight to 16 years. In other cases the opposite is true; exports have their greatest influence in the short run (less than four years). We find modest support for the export-led growth hypothesis, if “support” is taken to mean a unidirectional causal ordering. Conditional on import growth, we find a causal ordering from export growth to income growth in 30 of the 126 countries analyzed; 25 have the reverse ordering. Using a weaker notion of “support”—stronger conditional feedback from exports to income than vice versa, 65 of the 126 countries support the export-led growth hypothesis, although the difference in strength is small. Finally, we find that for the “Asian Tiger” countries of the Pacific Rim, the relationship between export growth and output growth becomes clearer when conditioned on human capital and investment growth as well as import growth.     

A further examination of the export-led growth hypothesis

This article challenges the common view that exports generally contribute more to GDP growth than a pure change in export volume, as the export-led growth hypothesis predicts. Applying panel cointegration techniques to a production function with non-export GDP as the dependent variable, we find for a sample of 45 developing countries that: (i) exports have a positive short-run effect on non-export GDP and vice versa (short-run bidirectional causality), (ii) the long-run effect of exports on non-export output, however, is negative on average, but (iii) there are large differences in the long-run effect of exports on non-export GDP across countries. Cross-sectional regressions indicate that these cross-country differences in the long-run effect of exports on non-export GDP are significantly negatively related to cross-country differences in primary export dependence and business and labor market regulation. In contrast, there is no significant association between the growth effect of exports and the capacity of a country to absorb new knowledge.     

Exchange rate bands of inaction and play-hysteresis in Greek exports to the Euro Area,the US and Turkey: sectoral evidence

In this paper a non-linear model is applied, where suddenly strong spurts of exports occur when changes of the exchange rate go beyond a zone of inaction, which we call “play” area—analogous to mechanical play. We implement an algorithm describing path-dependent play-hysteresis into a regression framework. The hysteretic impact of real exchange rates on Greek exports is estimated based on the period from 1995Q1 to 2014Q4. Looking at some of the main export partners of Greece, the euro area, Turkey and the US, and some of its most important tradeable sectors we identify significant hysteretic effects for a part of the Greek exports. We find that Greek export activity is characterized by “bands of inaction” with respect to changes in the real exchange rate and calculate the further real depreciation needed to trigger a spurt in Greek exports. To check for robustness we (a) estimate Greek export equations for a limited sample excluding the recent financial crisis, (b) use export weight instead of deflated nominal exports as the dependent variable, (c) employ a political uncertainty variable as a determinant of the width of the area of weak reaction. Overall, we find that those specifications which take uncertainty into account display the best goodness of fit. In other words: the option value of waiting dominates the real exchange rate effect on Greek exports.     

Viewpoint: From cities to productivity and growth in developing countries

Abstract.  This paper reviews the evidence about the effects of urbanization and cities on productivity and economic growth in developing countries using a consistent theoretical framework. As in developed economies, there is strong evidence that cities in developing countries bolster productive efficiency. Regarding whether cities promote self-sustained growth, the evidence is suggestive but ultimately inconclusive. These findings imply that the traditional agenda of aiming to raise within-city efficiency should be continued. Furthermore, reducing the obstacles to the reallocation of factors across cities is also desirable.     

Pursuing manufacturing-based export-led growth: Are developing countries increasingly crowding each other out?

This study empirically investigates the presence of “crowding out” effects emerging from intra-developing country competition in export markets for manufactured goods. Export equations are estimated for a panel consisting of 22 major developing country exporters of manufactures, after constructing trade-weighted price and quantity indices based on their exports to 13 major high-income countries. The results, which are robust to various price and expenditure measures, suggest the presence of significant demand-side constraints on export growth, and that rapid Chinese export growth has had a noticeable impact in this regard. The estimated effects vary across time periods, SITC categories, and export destinations.     

Reaching for a sustainable,resilient urban future using the lens of ecosystem services

Based on recent research on erosion of ecosystem services, planetary boundaries and predicted pace of urbanization, it is now apparent that humans need to reconnect to the biosphere and that cities in this context, properly managed, could provide great opportunities and arenas for social ecological change and transformation towards sustainability To take advantage of these opportunities one needs to keep in mind that most of the ecosystem services consumed in cities are generated by ecosystems located outside of the cities themselves, not seldom half a world away. In order to operationalize our knowledge, hypothesis and theories on the connections between the work of nature and the welfare and survival of humans over time, we suggest the use of the ecosystem service framework in combination with the merging of the concept “ecology in cities”, mainly focusing on designing energy efficient building, sustainable logistics and providing inhabitants with healthy and functioning green urban environments, and the “ecology of cities”. The “ecology of cities” framework acknowledges the total dependence of cities on the surrounding landscape and the ever-ongoing dance between urban and rural, viewing the city as an ecosystem.     

The chosen fortunate in the urbanization process in China? Evidence from a geographic regression discontinuity study

After decades of delayed urbanization, since 1998, China has implemented the “county‐to‐district” policy to promote urbanization and stimulate regional economic development. This policy was designed to expand the urban area of large cities by merging counties (rural areas) with nearby cities (urban areas). Intuitively, these regions are the “chosen fortunate” since they are the privileged beneficiaries of this policy experiment. However, at the time of writing (2018), recent studies have been inconsistent regarding this issue, and several studies have revealed that this policy has impeded regional growth. Therefore, the true effect of this policy must be carefully examined. Using grid‐level nighttime light data and a border‐based regression discontinuity design framework, we find that the average effect of the “county‐to‐district” policy on nighttime light growth is significant and positive, and this result also coincides with the increase of entry and decrease of exit of manufacturing enterprises, and the increase of the county‐level manufacturing employment. However, the policy effect on nighttime light turns to be negative in the long run, implying that short‐term economic growth may outweigh the long‐term economic growth potential. A further investigation of the underlying mechanism indicates that industrial enterprises in the experimental policy area do not perform better in terms of total factor productivity (TFP) and profit margin than their counterparts. Moreover, this policy aggravates the polarization between central and border areas.     

Sovereign rents and quality of tax policy and administration

Windfall revenues from foreign aid or natural resource exports can weaken governments’ incentives to design or maintain efficient tax systems. Cross-country data for developing countries provide evidence for this hypothesis, using a World Bank indicator on “efficiency of revenue mobilization.” Aid’s negative effects on quality of tax systems are robust to correcting for potential reverse causality, to changes in the sample, and to alternative estimation methods. Revenues from natural resources are also associated with lower-quality tax systems, but results are somewhat sensitive to the choice of resource dependence indicators, and to a few extreme values in the data. Disaggregating by resource type, revenues from fuel exports are found to be more strongly associated than revenues from metals and ores exports with inefficient tax systems.     

Like Me,Buy Me: The Effect of Soft Power on Exports

In this paper, I quantify a gain that a country receives when its global influence is considered to be admirable by others. I use a standard gravity model of bilateral exports, a panel of data from 2006 through 2013, and an annual survey conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan which asks people in up to 46 countries about whether each of up to 17 countries were perceived to have “a mainly positive or negative influence in the world.” Holding other things constant, a country's exports are higher if it is perceived by the importer to be exerting a more positive global influence. This effect is statistically and economically significant; a 1% net increase in perceived positive influence raises exports by around .8 percent. Succinctly, countries receive a commercial return on their soft power.     

Material and nonmaterial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a low-income country

How have COVID-19-related restrictions affected consumption levels and life satisfaction in low-income countries? We conducted phone surveys with 577 households in Liberia to compare consumption patterns across three points in time: November 2019 (pre-COVID-19), May 2020 (short term), and September 2020 (medium term). This article analyzes the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related restrictions on food and nonfood consumption, which we categorize as “material” welfare and life satisfaction, which we categorize as “nonmaterial” welfare. We find differences between food and nonfood consumption patterns under pandemic conditions. In particular, consumption by households dependent on food and labor markets was negatively affected by the pandemic. In terms of life satisfaction, we find that most respondents perceived their lives to have worsened due to the pandemic.     

Export surges

How can developing countries stimulate and sustain strong export growth? To answer this question, we examine 92 episodes of export surges, defined as significant increases in manufacturing export growth that are sustained for at least 7 years. We find that export surges in developing countries tend to be preceded by a large real depreciation, which leaves the exchange rate significantly undervalued. In contrast, in developed countries, the role of the exchange rate is less pronounced. We examine why the exchange rate is important in developing countries and find that the depreciation is associated with a significant reallocation of resources in the export sector. In particular, depreciation stimulates entry into new export products and new markets. These new exports are important, accounting for over 40% of export growth on average during the surge in developing countries. We argue that a large real depreciation induces firms to expand the product and market space for exports.     

Preferential trade agreements and manufactured goods exports: does it matter whom you PTA with?

This article explores two questions. First, do preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect manufactured goods exports of developing countries? Second, does it matter for developing countries whom they sign the PTAs with? We find that the answer to both questions is yes. Using bilateral manufactured goods exports data from 28 developing countries during 1978–2005; we find that South–South PTAs have a significantly positive effect on manufactured goods exports. In contrast, no such effect is detected in the case of South–North PTAs. We confirmed the robustness of these findings to estimation methodology, sample selection, time period, zero trade flows and multilateral trade resistance.     

The new goods margin in new markets

We analyze the role of the new goods margin in the Baltic countries’ exports and imports growth during the 1995–2008 period. Using the methodology developed in Kehoe and Ruhl (2013), we define the set of least-traded goods as those that account for the lowest 10% of total exports and imports in 1995, and then trace its growth in several markets including the Baltics’ main trade partners, the European Union and Russia. We find that, on average, by 2008 least-traded goods accounted for nearly 50% of total Baltic exports to their main trade partners. Moreover, we find that increases in the share of least-traded exports coincided with the timing of the trade liberalization reforms implemented by the Baltic countries. Least-traded imports also grew at robust rates, but their growth was lower than that of exports, accounting for slightly less than a quarter of total imports, that is, about half of the exports value. Moreover, we find that the shares of least-traded imports from the EU 15 and from Russia started diverging around the time the Baltic countries joined the EU, with the EU 15 share increasing and the Russian one declining. We also find that the Baltics’ share of least-traded exports outpaced that of other economies in Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, exports of new goods from the Baltic countries suffered noticeably during the Global Financial Crisis. After the crisis ended, the restart in new goods exports growth displayed mixed patterns.     

Value-Added Erosion in Global Value Chains: An Empirical Assessment

In the period from 1995 to 2008, many countries experienced what we call the “value-added erosion.” It describes the decline in the sectoral shares of domestic value-added in a country’s exports as the country becomes more integrated into the global value chains (GVCs). We argue that the decline of the domestic value-added share in a country’s exports is likely to be caused by the expansion of high value-adding activities performed by foreign lead firms in the upper stream of the GVCs. The variables of interest — the domestic value-added share in exports and foreign high-skill labor embodied in a country’s exports (a proxy for foreign lead firms’ high value-adding activities) — are estimated using a multi-regional global input-output model. Using these results and other control variables, we apply a panel cointegration model to explain and assess the likelihood of value-added erosion and its possible determinants.