金融发展对江苏省工业制成品比较优势和国际贸易结构的影响

在相关研究的基础上,探讨了金融发展与工业制成品比较优势与贸易结构的内在关系。采用VAR模型与Johanson协整检验,脉冲响应、方差分解,以江苏省数据为例,实证检验了江苏省金融发展的三种不同指标与工业制成品比较优势及江苏省贸易结构的关系,检验结果表明金融发展与工业制成品比较优势存在协整关系;在短期内,金融发展对贸易结构的优化贡献度较小,金融中介的投资储蓄转化率对工业制成品比较优势的影响最大,并在此基础上,根据实证结论提出相应的政策建议。     

中印工业制成品贸易的本地市场效应比较研究

本地市场效应意味着一国的国内市场规模对工业制成品的出口具有促进作用。本文利用两个模型对中国和印度工业制成品贸易中的本地市场效应进行了检验,并通过相应的比较分析认为中国的工业制成品出口存在较为显著的本地市场效应,而印度出口的本地市场效应并不显著。相比之下,中国更具有本地市场效应带来的贸易持续发展的动力。但是,随着产业转移的推进和国内市场的日益扩张,印度多类工业制成品也具备获得本地市场效应的潜力。对于中国而言,在传统比较优势日益减弱的趋势下,更应充分重视本地市场优势对出口贸易的决定性作用,这样才能保证获得出口贸易上的持续优势。     

The great realignment: How factor-biased innovation reshaped comparative advantage in the U.S. and Japan, 1970–1992

Recent changes in comparative advantage in the largest OECD economies contradict static Heckscher–Ohlin–Vanek theory. Japan's rising share of machinery exports and the improved comparative advantage of the USA in heavy industry were accompanied by growing scarcities of factors used intensively in these sectors. We show that under factor-price equalization, directed technical change leads to increasing specialization in goods intensive in each country's abundant factor. Testing this hypothesis with 1970–1992 export data from 14 OECD countries, we find that international comparative advantage was reshaped by biased innovation in the largest economies that increased the effective stocks of their abundant factors.     

Rise of China and India in International Trade： From Textiles to New Technology

China and India are two demographic giants that have become big developing economic powers. They have maintained their specialization in textiles and developed outward-oriented sectors linked to new technologies, taking advantage of offshoring and outsourcing. Their increasing contribution to international trade is changing the world supply and demand of manufactured goods, primary goods and services. They are new leaders in the international division of labor, but beyond technological catch-up, their challenge is quality upgrading. Both countries are increasingly contributing to global economic growth, but they cannot yet trigger the growth of the rest of the world by themselves.     

Is Financial Development Another Source of Comparative Advantage？ Evidence from China

Using panel data for 29 provinces in China during 1990-2004, the present paper attempts to explore a possible link between financial development and China＇s foreign trade. Three measures of comparative advantage in manufactured goods have been applied in our study, including Balassa＇s revealed comparative advantage, the net manufactured export index, and the Michaely index. We also use four indicators of financial development to identify the different functions of regional financial development, and to determine both size and efficiency features of financial institutions. The estimation results suggest that besides factor endowments, foreign firms and infrastructure, financial development has a quantitatively large and robust effect on China ＇ s manufactured goods trade. Therefore, further reform of China＇s financial system should be encouraged to fully exploit the comparative advantage of China＇s foreign trade.     

R&D,trade in intermediate inputs,and the comparative advantage of advanced countries

This paper examines the accumulation of physical capital versus knowledge (R&D) capital as a determinant of advanced countries’ comparative advantage. I show that advanced countries are abundant in R&D resources, specialize in knowledge-intensive stages of high-technology industries, and outsource labor-intensive stages of the industries to labor-abundant countries. In contrast, global data on production and trade cannot support the conventional view that advanced countries specialize in and export capital-intensive goods. My results indicate that the accumulation of knowledge capital plays a vital role in explaining advanced countries’ comparative advantage.     

Patterns of Trade and Growth across Cones

This paper examines the implications of the Heckscher-Ohlin (HO) Model for the patterns of production and trade that will emerge as a country grows. It focuses primarily on world equilibria that include two or more cones of diversification. Starting with the textbook model of two factors and two goods, growth paths for production and trade are derived in terms of a country's capital-labor ratio relative to that of the world. With additional goods and countries, multiple cones create a ladder of comparative advantage that a country will climb as it accumulates capital relative to the world. With additional factors as well, more complicated patterns can emerge. In a three-factor model based on Krueger (1977), a country with fixed land, growing labor, and faster growing capital can first work its way down the ladder of comparative advantage before climbing back up. Using a graphical representation due to Leamer (1987) of a more general three-factor model, cones of diversification with large numbers of goods take the form of polygons that a growing country may pass through, then cross between. In all cases, the lesson of the HO Model is that growth causes repeated and extreme changes in patterns of specialization and trade over time.     

Skills and changing comparative advantage: The case of Japan

Is the skill gap of net exports widening? This question is nontrivial for many industrial countries because, with the rapid growth of emerging countries, human capital is considered one of the most important sources of comparative advantage. Theoretically, however, the answer is not necessarily obvious because of changing comparative advantage. This paper attempts to answer this question by extending the analysis of Wolff (2003) and by focusing on one of the largest OECD countries, Japan, for the period 1980–2005. The results indicate that the answer to the above question may well be “no.” Although Japan is still a net exporter of skill-intensive goods, the skill gap of net exports has been narrowing since the mid-1990s, mainly as a result of the changes in the composition of trade. This implies that some OECD countries, including Japan, may have been losing their comparative advantage in skill-intensive goods in recent years.     

Trade in manufactured goods: patterns of change

This paper looks at the changing pattern of trade in manufactured goods between the developed industrial countries and the developing countries. It first reviews recent changes in this trade and the policies applied. Then it analyses the comparative advantages of the industrial and the developing countries and indicates the commodity composition of this trade. The implications of the results are drawn with reference to the benefits of trade in manufactured goods for the participants.     

中国制造业参与产品内国际分工的影响因素分析

在经济全球化背景下,发达国家将制造业生产的劳动密集型环节转移到中国等发展中国家,产品内国际分工迅速发展.理论与实证分析表明,低成本劳动力的比较优势是我国制造业参与产品内国际分工的基础,而劳动力的素质与效率、制造业发展水平、国内经济状况与对外开放程度等宏观经济环境方面的因素对吸引和承接发达国家的跨国外包均有重要影响.     

货物贸易与服务贸易:总量互补与差额替代关系

对相关主要国家货物贸易和服务贸易的数据分析表明,服务贸易和货物贸易总量上呈现出互补性特征,但是在各自差额上却呈现明显的替代性。本文研究认为,货物贸易和服务贸易差额的替代性体现了不同国家的比较优势所在。该结论的启示在于,服务部门发展和服务贸易发展是一个渐进的过程,而仅拥有劳动密集型制造业优势的发展中国家将可能长期存在服务贸易逆差。     

Dynamic comparative advantage and the welfare effects of trade

Developing economies may face a trade-off between specializingaccording to existing comparative advantage (in low-technologygoods), and entering sectors in which they currently lack acomparative advantage, but may acquire such an advantage inthe future as a result of the potential for productivity growth(in high-technology goods). Comparative advantage is endogenouslydetermined by past technological change, while simultaneouslyshaping current rates of innovation. Hence, specialization accordingto current comparative advantage under free trade may be welfarereducing. Selective intervention may be welfare improving, bothfor the economy undertaking it, and for its trade partner.     

中国乳制品国际竞争力研究

通过对乳品行业贸易专业化指数、显示比较优势指数和国际市场占有率指数的分析发现我国乳制品的国际竞争力低,与发达国家存在较大差距。提升乳制品国际竞争力迫在眉睫。     

International subcontracting: Improved prospects in manufactured exports for small and very poor LDC's

In recent years one of the most dynamic manufactured export sectors in developing countries has been the assembly and processing operations subcontracted from multinational firms. The paper analyzes this relatively new phenomenon as a possible opportunity for the small and very poor developing countries to increase their manufactured exports. After making a case that domestic size and level of economic development are not preconditions of success in exporting manufactures, it is further argued that small and very poor countries may even have a comparative advantage in international subcontracting. Not only does international subcontracting avoid some of the traditional obstacles which these countries experience in exporting manufactures, but the gains from this activity seem to be particularly beneficial to them.     

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.     

“Low-Balling” and Efficiency in a Two-Period Specialization Model of Auditing Competition*

This paper develops a simple, two-period specialization model to analyze the effect of start-up costs on auditing competition. Audit firms in the model make strategic specialization and pricing decisions. Through specialization, an audit firm achieves a comparative cost advantage over its competitors for all clients whose characteristics are closer to its area of specialization. This comparative cost advantage is further fortified by the presence of start-up costs. As a result, each audit firm obtains some market power and is able to price-discriminate across clients by offering “specialization-and-relationship-specific” audit fee schedules. This paper demonstrates that the practice of “low-balling” is a natural consequence of competition among audit firms. However, low-balling occurs only in a certain market segment where audit firms compete fiercely. This paper also shows that a policy of banning low-balling acts as a substitute for the commitment of the audit firms to partially collude their pricing policies and results in increased profits for audit firms and increased fees. However, it also results in audit firms choosing specializations in a more efficient way, thereby reducing total auditing costs.     

Asymmetric Information,Bargaining, and Comparative Advantage in Trade Relationships: An Interactive Game

The concept of comparative advantage is a fundamental tool in economics. Yet, it is a concept that new students of economics frequently find challenging to grasp. In this interactive classroom game, I highlight the three essential lessons of comparative advantage: (i) individuals can have a comparative advantage (and thus benefit from specialization) in an activity despite not having an absolute advantage, (ii) the gains from specialization are greatest when individuals have the most heterogeneous skill sets, and (iii) the extent of each individual's share of the gains from specialization is often left to negotiation, with asymmetric information playing an influential role. This classroom game allows each player to possess a unique production function, thus better resembling the diverse pool of potential trade partners that characterizes real life.     

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.     

基于广义价值论的内生增长理论初探

增长理论是经济学的重要部分,关系到每一个人的福利和一个国家的地位。文章运用广义价值论研究经济增长问题,以分工为切入点,把分工产生的新增利益和该利益的公平分配统一起来,论述了递增性假设之外另一条增长的可能路径。主要结论如下：（1）基于比较优势的分工交换可以持续地产生比较利益即超过自给自足收益的净收益,这一收益不依赖于技术的递增或递减变化,具有普遍持久稳定性;（2）由分工交换产生的净收益构成原始积累的重要来源,既促进了生产规模和分工范围的扩大,又支持了研发和技术进步;（3）劳动生产力任何提高的效应都通过分工交换产生的比较利益加以放大,在一个分工交换系统中,行为主体提高比较优势产品和比较劣势产品的生产力分别具有正的和负的外部性;（4）基于广义价值论的内生经济增长体现了效率与公平的统一,一个好的制度是能够保证在交易中各方的比较利益率相等,掠夺性制度不仅直接损害经济增长,也不具备长期可持续性。     

制度环境与服务贸易比较优势的形成：基于跨国截面数据的实证研究

基于服务品与制造品产品特性差异的比较,本文从理论上分析了制度环境对服务贸易比较优势形成的重要影响,并利用2005年跨国截面数据进行了实证检验。经验研究表明,以服务贸易出口RCA作为比较优势衡量指标,无论是全部样本还是剔除了小国的样本,制度环境对服务贸易出口RCA的影响均十分显著,而且在制度环境“糟糕”的国家,制度对服务贸易出口RCA的影响更为明显。制度改善能够促进服务贸易出口RCA的提升,并提高服务经济在GDP中的比重。最后,针对后危机时代国际分工模式可能的变化,以及我国所面临的调整经济结构、转变发展方式的任务,本文从改善制度环境的角度提出了相关建议。