Are Imports and Exports Cointegrated? An International Comparison

In this paper we use the Johansen and Juselius cointegration technique to examine the long‐run convergence between imports and exports for a number of industrialized countries. The results indicate that there exists a long‐run steady‐state relationship between imports and exports for most countries in the sample. The policy implications of our findings are that the countries are not in violation of their international budget constraints and, more importantly, there is no productivity gap between the domestic economy and the rest of the world, implying a lack of permanent technological shocks to the domestic economy.     

China＇s International Competitiveness of the Telecommunications Industry--After Its Seven-year Accession into the WTO

To the end of 2008, China＇s accession into WTO has been seven years. During those seven years, informationization has been upgraded globally, the acquisitions of transnational corporations, based on global strategy, are changing the pattern of the global communications industry. China is gradually opening up the telecommunications market according to its commitments when entering the WTO. At the same time, it is deepening the telecommunications system to promote effective competition.     

Why Has the Adjustment Business of Foreign Exchange Been Canceled?

ThePeople'sBankofChinaandtheStateAdministrationofExchangeControldeclaredthatfromDecember1,1998,theadjustmentbusinessofforeignexchangewillbecanceledandtheforeignexchangeadjustmentcentresinvariousplaceswillbeclosed.ThismeansthatthebusinessofinstitutesforbuyingandsellingforeignexchangewithinChina'sterritoryhasbeenbroughtunderthebankclearanceandsaleofforeignexchange.Forthis,aspokesmanforthePeople'sBankofChinamadethefollowinginterpretations;Since1979,Chinesedomesticenterpriseshaveenjoyedtherig…     

How Has Kodak Held 63.1 Percent of the Market Share in China?

Though at the end of last Marchwhen Ye Ying, vice president of KodakCorp (Asia and Pacific) and generalmanager of public relations department,said that nobody knows Kodak's exactmarket share in China, the Survey andConsultant Center of the CCTV announced a few days ago an exciting figure for the corporation.The corporation's market share inChina has hit a new historical record,attaining a market share of 63.1 percentof film products.According to a survey of consumersin major cities in 20…     

The Trends of the International Arbitration Development

The international arbitration, as a kind of the methods to resolve the disputes in the international society, is flourished in recent years. On the basis of the international arbitration's features, the jurisdiction to relevant to the political issues is omission in the session of the disputes. Increasing of the disputes express to the globalization of the economy in the world. Not only do the position of the arbitration and the parties of the cases come from the region, but also the Europe as the traditional arbitration center, replaced by the Pacific/Asia region. The reason of the trend developing for the international arbitration results from the international arbitration's feature- the forum is neutral, treaty ensures enforcement abroad and no appeal, limited discover. Less time consuming, greater degree of the voluntary compliance, procedure is less costly and the result are more predictable.     

What's the Point of Reciprocal Trade Negotiations? Exports,Imports, and Gains from Trade

This paper explains why trade‐policy makers may prefer reciprocal trade negotiations (RTN) to unilateral tariff reductions (UTR) for economic reasons. It answers puzzles like ‘Why WTO reciprocity?’ and strengthens the unnecessarily weak case made for the WTO by those who downplay or dismiss benefits from foreign tariff reductions (FTR). RTN is superior to UTR because it provides economic benefits that UTR cannot – namely, FTR benefits which are clearer than potentially important UTR benefits: Whereas each policy offers efficiency gains, any terms‐of‐trade effect of UTR generally detracts from these gains, while any terms‐of‐trade effect of FTR is typically beneficial (especially for a small price‐taking country) with this benefit augmenting FTR's efficiency gains. Moreover, benefits from reductions in foreign barriers may come from several sources; they are not solely the result of terms‐of‐trade improvement – or economies of scale (the two benefits already noted in the literature, though often dismissed). For example, with foreign NTB elimination, possible home benefits are shown even with rising costs and terms‐of‐trade deterioration. RTN is also superior to UTR because, by eliminating protection in either NTB or tariff form, RTN provides an escape from not only a terms‐of‐trade prisoners’ dilemma, but many other previously unrecognised prisoners’ dilemmas, including one in international rent transfers, and several others with no economies‐of‐scale or terms‐of‐trade motivation. Of course, if superior RTN is not an option, UTR may well be desirable. If reciprocity is an option, but only in a narrower CU or FTA form, such reciprocity may still be superior to UTR, or it may be inferior; theory cannot unambiguously rank these.     

A Brief Introduction to the Business of Certification/Legalization of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and China Chamber of International Commerce

Since its founding in 1952,the ChinaCouncil for the Promotion ofInternational Trade(CCPIT) has beenengaged,as a commercial chamber,in issuingand certifying/legalizing foreign-relateddocuments.Over the past forty years,theCCPIT has gained a high internationalreputation for its fairness and authority inissuing and certifying/legalizing documentsused in export and import,such as documentsfor customs clearance,the settlement ofexchange and licensing,and certificates oforigin,certificates of contractual liabilitiesand certificates of force majeure.     

Too Much of a Good Thing? The Adequacy of International Reserves in the Aftermath of Crises

This paper has a number of purposes. First, it revisits the older theory of reserve adequacy and optimality to see whether this can still be used and perhaps strengthened in ways that would inform the current debate. Second, it explores the connection between reserve adequacy and currency crisis in the light of recent experience and empirical research. Third, it critically investigates alternative rule‐of‐thumb measures of reserve adequacy. Fourth, and drawing on the foregoing analysis, it examines the extent to which crisis countries should seek to replenish and build up their international reserves in the post‐crisis period. Additional owned reserves represent a guaranteed and unconditional source of liquidity; is this what is needed?     

Are the self-employed really jacks-of-all-trades? Testing the assumptions and implications of Lazear’s theory of entrepreneurship with German data

Using a large representative German data set and various concepts of self-employment, this paper tests the “jack-of-all-trades” view of entrepreneurship by Lazear (Am Econ Rev 94(2): 208–211, 2004). Consistent with its theoretical assumptions we find that self-employed individuals perform more tasks and that their work requires more skills than that of paid employees. In contrast to Lazear’s assumptions, however, self-employed individuals do not just need more basic but also more expert skills than employees. Our results also provide rather limited support for the idea that human capital investment patterns differ between those who become self-employed and those ending up in paid employment.     

International Capital Is Flowing out of China?

I Unstable situation brings concerns about international capital flows in China. International capital flows refers to the country-to-country or region-to-region movement of capital.It consists of the inflow and outflow of capital in the form of FDI,FPI,international borrowing and     

Further Enhancing the International Competitiveness of China's Chemical Industry

Foreign-oriented Economy Entering a New Stage The Eighth Five-year Plan period saw the fastest development of the foreign-oriented economy in China's chemical industry, with an accumulated import and export value of US$100 billion, including US$38.3 billion of exports. In 1996 the total import and export value reached US$30 billion, including US$12 billion of exports. Now, more than 300 chemical enterprises and institutes have obtained foreign trade     

Successful Close of the Sixth Beijing International High-Tech Expo

The sixth Beijing InternationalHigh-Tech Expo closed on Sep-tember 15 in Beijing. The leaders of the Central Com-mittee and Beijing government at-tended today's closing ceremony.They are; Wu Yi, member of the Po-litical Bureau of the Central Commit-tee of the Chinese Communist Party,vice premier of the State Council; LiuQi, member of the Political Bureau ofthe Central Committee of the ChineseCommunist Party,Beijing secretary ofMunicipal Party Committee; Xu     

Has Import Disciplined Swedish Manufacturing Firms in the 1990s?

This paper analyses how increased integration and the ongoing enlargement of the EUs internal market affected the performance of Swedish manufacturing firms. The pro-competitive effect of international trade, in term of intensified import competition on domestic firms market power, has been investigated extensively at the industry-level. In contrast to previous studies, this analysis is based on detailed firm-level information and import data divided into both an EU member group and a group of recently approved EU member candidates. It focuses on how imports from these groups, together with imports from other non-European trading partners, impact on firm-level profitability, while taking firm-specific efficiency effects into account. The findings are that imports from the new EU-candidates, Japan and Asian newly industrialized countries seem to have a disciplinary effect on firm-level profits, whereas imports from EU-member countries only appear to have an impact on firms with large market shares and in highly concentrated industries.     

Speeding Up the Transformation of the Operational Mechanism And Further Developing the International Market

According to customs statistics, China's exports of machinery and electric products in 1996 were worth US$ 48.21 billion, an increase of 9.9 percent over the preceding year, and 8.4 percent higher than the growth rate of the nation's total exports. The proportion of machinery and electric product exports in the nation's total foreign trade volume\ increased from 29.5 percent in 1995 to 31.9 percent in 1996, a growth at 2.4 percent.     

On the Eve of the Enforcement of the Arbitration Law——An interview with Xu Dayou, vice-chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission

The Arbitration Law of the People's Republic of China will go into effect on September 1, 1995, which has become the focus of world attention. This is an important law promulgated by China for handling economic disputes. All the parties concerned are making intense preparations for the successful enforcement of the Law. As the first nongovernmental organisation engaged in arbitration affairs, the China Council for     

Determinants of International Activities: Are SMEs Different?

In this paper we econometrically investigate the factors determining the choice of a specific internationalisation strategy. We distinguish four strategies, ranging from “serving foreign markets through exports only” up to “exporting and locating abroad several business functions such as distribution, production and R & D”. These strategies are evaluated against the reference category “domestic sales only” (multinomial logit model). The analysis, to a large extent, confirms Dunning’s well-known OLI paradigm. O-advantages turn out to be the main drivers of internationalisation, irrespective of firm size and internationalisation strategy. However, the knowledge-base on which O-advantages of smaller firms rests is more narrow than that of large companies. Whereas the former rely, in relative terms, primarily on capabilities related to incremental innovations, the latter draw to a higher extent on assets enabling them to be competitive in terms of far-reaching innovations. L-advantages (wages, regulatory framework, etc.) primarily are relevant in case of small firms; but even for this size class, O-advantages are dominant.     

How much of a socialist legacy? The re-emergence of entrepreneurship in the East German transformation to a market economy

We investigate how institutional change—the transition from a socialist system to a western type market economy—relates to the re-emergence of entrepreneurship in East Germany. This region is particularly well suited for such a study because of the rapid change of the institutional framework and the possibility to use West Germany as a benchmark. It took about 15 years until self-employment levels in East Germany reached those of West Germany. Despite this catch up, we find a number of peculiarities in East German self-employment that appear to be a continuing legacy of the socialist period. There is also a considerable correspondence of the regional levels of self-employment before, during and after the socialist period, suggesting the existence of a long-lasting regional entrepreneurship culture that can be regarded as an informal institution. This is in line with the hypothesis that informal institutions change much more slowly than formal institutions.     

Wu Jinglian Receives Award from the International Academy of Management

"The presentachievements inthe Chineseeconomy cannotbe separated fromthe joint effortsof numerouseconomists. Thereis still a long wayto go towardsperfection of themarket economy."