Corruption and International Trade: An Empirical Investigation of African Countries

This paper attempts to estimate the effect of corruption on the flows of exports and imports of African countries. Using the gravity model approach and annual data for the period 1998–2007, we obtain negative and statistically significant correlations between the values of exports and imports and the levels of corruption in Africa and trading partners. Thus the results support the view that corruption adversely affects international trade. Our estimates suggest that if a country with Africa’s average corruption perception index of 2.8 were to improve its corruption level to Botswana’s 5.9, its exports would improve by about 15 per cent and imports by about 27 per cent.     

International trade in durable goods: Understanding volatility, cyclicality, and elasticities

Data for OECD countries document: 1. imports and exports are about three times as volatile as GDP; 2. imports and exports are pro-cyclical, and positively correlated with each other; 3. net exports are counter-cyclical. Standard models fail to replicate the behavior of imports and exports, though they can match net exports relatively well. Inspired by the fact that a large fraction of international trade is in durable goods, we propose a two-country two-sector model in which durable goods are traded across countries. Our model can match the business cycle statistics on the volatility and comovement of the imports and exports relatively well. The model is able to match many dimensions of the data, which suggests that trade in durable goods may be an important element in open-economy macro models.     

THE IMPACT OF CURRENCY INCONVERTIBILITY ON TRADE FLOWS

This study investigates whether the relationship between the real exchange rate and trade volumes (exports, imports, and the trade balance) differs for countries with and without import restrictions. A theoretical model points out that in countries with import restrictions, the volume of imports is often constrained by the export income. A real depreciation should stimulate exports and then also stimulate imports, as the volume of exports limits the volume of imports. Empirical evidence for a large international sample confirms that trade elasticities with respect to the real exchange rate importantly depend on the presence of trade restrictions. This suggests that earlier work in this area that ignored the importance of such restrictions has been misleading.     

Cultural Distance and the US Immigrant–Trade Link

Using data from the World and the European Values Surveys, we calculate cultural distances between the US and 54 immigrant home countries and examine the influences of cultural distance and immigrant populations on US imports from and exports to immigrants’ home countries during the years 1997–2004. Our study indicates that, for both US imports and exports, the trade‐enhancing effect of immigrants partially offsets the trade‐inhibiting effect of cultural distance. Further, decomposing our measure of cultural distance into two component dimensions and revisiting the immigrant–trade relationship, we find significant variation in the extent to which immigrants counter the trade‐inhibiting influences of the underlying dimensions of culture for both US imports and exports. Our findings have the implication that by countering the trade‐inhibiting influences of cultural differences between their home and host countries, immigrants exert pro‐development effects.     

Globalization and female labor force participation: The role of trading partners

This paper uses industrial level data from 21 developing and emerging economies over the period of 1995–2013, to analyze the impact of globalization, in particular, trade orientation of industries onto female employment share. The fractional probit estimation reveals that taking cumulative measures of export and import share often camouflages the impact of trade on female employment. The disintegration of export and import share according to their trading partners reveals that exports and imports from the developed world alone contribute to higher female employment. Moreover, it is the low-tech exports to developed countries and high-tech imports from developed countries which results in an increase in female employment. These findings call for the strengthening of trade ties with the developed world, especially when it comes to promoting low-tech exports and high-tech imports. Our results also reveal that the trading links with the developed world can further enhance female employment if developing country possesses a greater pool of educated female labor force.     

The gravity model,African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and US trade relations with sub-Saharan Africa

The United States of America enacted the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000 to grant sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) a preferential treatment in their exports to the USA. With this Act, most of the exports from SSA can now enter the USA duty-free, and this is expected to boost the exporting and manufacturing sectors in SSA. Hopefully, this singular act of assistance from the USA will spur entrepreneurship in SSA, thereby creating jobs and jump starting meaningful economic growth in the region. Since trade is a major catalyst in economic development, AGOA is arguably the most meaningful intervention from a developed country to an under-developed region such as SSA in recent times. Has AGOA had any impact on US trade with SSA? This paper sheds some light on this issue by examining the flow and composition of trade between the USA and AGOA countries. The analysis uses trade data (US imports) for 36 countries over 12 years. Empirical estimations based on the gravity model show that receiving AGOA status has a strong positive and significant impact on overall trade with the US. Interestingly, however, the analysis also shows a disproportionate impact of crude oil imports from the oil-producing countries of Angola, Gabon, and Nigeria, which is clearly not the intent of the Act.     

Trade,Diaspora and Migration to New Zealand

This paper examines the hypotheses that a greater stock of migrants in New Zealand from a particular country leads to more trade between that country and New Zealand, and a greater stock of New Zealanders living overseas in a particular country leads to more trade between that country and New Zealand. It also examines the relationships between migration, diaspora and tourism exports. The literature suggests that migrants can stimulate trade by lowering transaction costs, and by bringing with them preferences for goods produced in their home country. Our approach is to apply panel data techniques, within the framework of a standard gravity model of trade, to a dataset consisting of information on 233 countries in each of the 26 years between 1981 and 2006. We estimate a random effects panel sample selection model using correlated random effects. Our results indicate that migration does indeed stimulate trade. In our benchmark specification, merchandise exports from and imports to New Zealand both have a statistically significant relationship with numbers of migrants in New Zealand; imports also have a statistically significant relationship with numbers of New Zealanders overseas. Our results also suggest that migration stimulates imports more than exports.     

Trade dependence and stock market reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war

Using data from 83 countries, we show that the decline in the value of stock market indices in response to the Russia-Ukraine war was sharper in countries that have stronger trade ties (both exports and imports) with Russia and Ukraine. We also find the relationship between trade dependency and market drop is weaker in countries with more trade openness.     

国际产品内分工与进出口贸易——基于我国工业行业面板数据的经验研究

在经济全球化兴起和科技迅猛发展的大背景下,以国际产品内分工为基础的中间品贸易日益盛行,并成为当今国际贸易领域的重要特征之一。本文分年度、分行业地测算了连续14年我国工业行业参与国际产品内分工的程度,并实证研究了其对我国进出口贸易的影响。结论是:近十余年来,国际产品内分工有力地促进了我国工业各行业进出口贸易额的增长;同时,垂直专业化比重(VSS)的上升也在一定程度上推动了我国工业行业贸易顺差的增长。     

中印贸易合作的潜力及实现路径研究——基于随机前沿引力模型

在分析中印双边贸易结合度、相似度、互补性的基础上,利用随机前沿引力模型测算中国对印度的进口和出口效率,以及中印双边的贸易潜力,提出了中印贸易合作的实现路径。研究发现:中印双边贸易额稳步增加,但印度对华出口增长乏力,中方贸易顺差逐年扩大;中印两国贸易关系紧密,贸易产品互补性较强,且在两国主要出口市场的竞争性较弱;中国对印度的出口效率小于进口效率,出口和进口贸易潜力最大值分别为794亿美元、177亿美元;互相削减关税增加了两国的总经济效应,且印度的收益大于中国;印度加入上合组织促进了其与中国的贸易增长。建议中国扩大对印度的投资,增加从印度进口,积极推动RCEP尽快达成协议。     

Intermediary Products: FDI Strategies,Imports, Exports,and Trade Balances in Developed Economies

Has the relationship between the dominant investment motives of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and national trade balances, imports, and exports changed over time? A 1996 study hypothesized and found that the MNE market versus resource seeking investment motives in developed countries (DCs) resulted in different aggregate impacts on national trade balances, imports, and exports. In this study, we ask whether the increased use of intermediary products, a major change in the way MNEs conduct business, affect the previously found patterns. Because firm‐level data on intermediary products is not widely available across countries, we indirectly test their impact, hypothesizing that the rise in use of intermediary products has changed MNE investment motives in DCs, resulting in stronger relationships between foreign direct investment (FDI) and imports/exports in high‐FDI DCs but weaker links between FDI and national trade balances. Implications and future research directions are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exchange-rate sensitivity of commodity trade flows: Does the choice of reporting country affect the empirical estimates?

While the effects of currency fluctuations on trade have long been of interest to economic researchers, the most recent trend in the literature is to estimate commodity trade flows between pairs of countries. This raises an important question: Does it matter which country reports the data? This study investigates 96 industries that are reported both as exports by the United States and as imports by South Korea. Since export data are FOB and import data are CIF, the Korean imports are expectedly larger than the US exports. Correspondingly, our cointegration analysis produces drastically different results between specifications. Nonparametric analysis shows that the Korean imports are more sensitive to real exchange-rate fluctuations than US exports, signifying the importance of cost of insurance and freight, as well as the data's conversion into dollars.     

我国农产品进出口形势分析及对策研究

随着经济全球化和贸易一体化进程的不断深入,我国各种农产品的出口出现大幅增长的势头,但随着各种进口关税的降低及配额制和许可证的逐渐取消,我国农产品的进口也出现了显著增长。同时,发达国家利用其先进的技术,以食品健康和安全为由制定各种技术性壁垒和绿色壁垒,给我国农产品的出口造成了种种障碍。因此,认清我国农产品的进出口形势,积极采取各种应对措施,有利于我国农产品赢得更大的出口贸易。     

反倾销、反补贴和保障措施——三大贸易救济措施比较分析

众所周知,虽然世贸组织极力倡导国际贸易自由化,并通过多边贸易谈判机制推进国际贸易自由化的进程,但世贸组织并不排斥一定程度和形式的贸易保护,尤其是当大量进口对进口国产生消极影响时,允许进口国采取一定的贸易救济措施来限制进口。近年来,随着我国出口的持续高速增长,越来越多的国家开始频繁对我国的出口实施限制措施,本文通过对反倾销、反补贴和保障措施三大贸易救济措施的比较分析,为我国企业的应对提供了参考意见。     

Fending off waste from the west: The impact of China's Operation Green Fence on the international waste trade

China launched the first Operation Green Fence (OGF) on 1 February 2013 to fend off inflows of illegal waste. The main objective of OGF was to enforce waste trade policies already adopted by China and thereby restrict illegal waste imports. We use a gravity model of international trade with annual bilateral waste trade data at the 6-digit HS code level to assess the impact of OGF on the international waste trade. First, we study the direct impact of OGF and find that the intervention resulted in a 26% drop in low-quality waste exports to China from developed countries. Second, we assess the impact of OGF on exports from developed countries to developing countries, excluding China. We do not find a statistically significant effect of OGF on low-quality waste exports from developed countries to developing countries (excluding China). We also test the waste haven hypothesis and do not find evidence that waste exports were disproportionately diverted to countries with lax environmental regulation.     

Anti‐dumping duty circumvention through trade rerouting: Evidence from Chinese exporters

We study the evasion of US anti‐dumping duties by some Chinese exporters through trade rerouting via third countries or regions. Using detailed monthly trade data reported by China and the US Customs during the period of 2002–06, we find that US anti‐dumping actions against China lead to a stronger positive correlation between US imports from third countries and Chinese exports to the same third countries. Such a positive correlation is more pronounced for the products subject to anti‐dumping duties (treatment groups) than similar products not subject to these duties (control groups). The evidence is stronger for less‐differentiated products whose certificates of origins are easier to be modified and is stronger for third countries where the rerouting cost is low. These findings are consistent with a trade rerouting story, rather than a simple story of trade diversion (i.e., increase in some third countries' imports from China) and trade deflection (i.e., increase in some third‐country exports to the US). We also rule out other alternative stories, consider prior production in third countries and concurrent anti‐dumping actions against China or third countries, pay a particular attention to the many zero trade flows in the monthly level data and check the robustness to using an alternative control group and quarterly data, etc.     

对外贸易与经济增长:基于辽宁省的实证分析和检验

本文根据计量经济学的相关理论,利用辽宁省1979年到2004年的年度统计数据,对辽宁省的对外贸易与经济增长之间的长短期关系进行了实证分析和检验。结果表明:从长期来看,辽宁省的对外贸易与经济增长之间存在长期的均衡关系;从短期看,出口对辽宁省的经济增长具有衰减作用,进口对辽宁省的经济增长具有促进作用,文章从供求关系的角度对此进行了解释。研究结果还表明,出口与辽宁省的经济增长之间存在双向的因果关系,但仅存在从经济增长到进口的单向因果关系。     

Regionalism Within Multilateralism: The WTO Trade Policy Review of Canada

The World Trade Organisation published a Trade Policy Review of Canada in 2003. In this paper, we discuss the WTO Review and augment the discussion by presenting original data and reviewing the empirical literature. The WTO concludes that Canada's trade regime is open and transparent but maintains barriers in a few important sectors. We subject this claim to empirical scrutiny, comparing Canada's actual imports to a multilateral benchmark based on the gravity equation. We show that Canada imports about what should be expected given the size of its economy and its location. In a second benchmarking exercise, we show that Canada's anti‐dumping initiations are in proportion to its imports and that Canada's exports are targeted less by other countries’ anti‐dumping investigations than what might be expected based on Canadian export levels. Like many other countries, Canada has pursued trade liberalisation through the World Trade Organisation while simultaneously signing multiple regional trade agreements. Our summary of the recent literature indicates that Canada's regional trade agreements have generated more trade creation than trade diversion. Canada has also spurred imports from the least developed countries by unilaterally eliminating tariffs and quota barriers on 48 of the world's poorest countries in January 2003. We also discuss Canadian progress in opening its agriculture and clothing industries. Overall, we conclude that Canada appears committed to advancing globalisation through multilateral trade liberalisation supplemented by unilateral and bilateral initiatives.     

Impact of Openness on Growth in Different Country Groups

This paper evaluates the impact of openness on growth in different country groups using a panel of 79 countries over the period 1970–98. It distinguishes itself from many existing studies in three aspects: Firstly, both trade and FDI are included as measures of openness. Secondly, countries are classified into high‐, middle‐ and low‐income groups to compare the roles of trade and FDI in these groups. Thirdly, the possible problems of endogeneity and multicollinearity of trade and FDI are carefully dealt with in a panel data setting. The main findings are as follows. Total trade has a general positive impact on growth in all country groups, although the impact from imports is not significant in high‐income countries. FDI has a positive impact on growth in high‐ and middle‐income countries, but not in low‐income countries. With the existing absorptive capabilities, low‐income countries can benefit from both exports and imports, but not from FDI. These findings suggest that trade and FDI affect growth through different channels and under different conditions. The paper also discusses important policy implications.     

Optimum tariffs and retaliation: How country numbers matter

This paper identifies a new terms-of-trade externality that is exercised through tariff setting. A North-South model of international trade is introduced in which the number of countries in each region can be varied. As the number of countries in one region is increased, each government there competes more aggressively with the others in its region, by lowering its tariff, to attract imports from the other region. In doing so, all countries in a region exert a negative terms-of-trade externality on each other, collectively undermining their own terms of trade and welfare. This externality can increase efficiency if the numbers of countries in both regions are increased simultaneously.