Globalization and individual gains from trade

We analyze the impact of globalization on individual gains from trade in a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition featuring product diversity, pro-competitive effects and income heterogeneity between and within countries. Although trade reduces markups in both countries in our framework, its impact on variety depends on their relative position in the world income distribution: product diversity in the lower income country always expands, while that in the higher income country may shrink. When the latter occurs, the richer consumers in the higher income country may lose from trade because the relative importance of variety versus quantity increases with income. Using data on GDP per capita and population, as well as on the U.S. income distribution, our theoretical results are illustrated in two different contexts: the hypothetical bilateral trade liberalization between the U.S. and 188 countries; and the historical sequence of U.S. free trade agreements since 1985.     

Country experience in providing for basic needs

The basic needs approach to development--i.e., providing such basic needs as health and education to the poorest sectors of the population--replaced a previous emphasis on general economic development. Basic needs include food, nutrition, health services, education, water, sanitation, and shelter. A World Bank study to evaluate the success of developing countries in meeting their populations' basic needs discloses great disparity among countries. The study used literacy and life expectancy figures for the evaluation. All developing countries had improved their provision of basic goods and services in the time between 1960 and 1977, but the improvement was not uniform. The countries' previous performance in this area and the national level of per capita income influenced their improved performance. Countries having egalitarian income distributions tended to perform better than would have been expected from the per capita income alone; countries with maldistributed incomes tended to perform worse. The following 3 types of economies were most successful in providing basic goods/services for their populations: 1) rapidly growing, market-oriented economies; 2) centrally planned economies; and 3) "mixed" economies with welfare intervention. Very poor economies, those with rapid growth and no substantial poverty reduction, and those with moderate growth and moderate poverty reduction were less successful. Macroeconomic frameworks can provide guidelines.     

Trade Liberalization and China’s Exports of Renewable Energy Products: Evidence from Product Level Data

Using a large panel dataset that covers 116 countries and 62 renewable energy products over the period 2000–2012, this study evaluates the effects of trade liberalization on the export expansion of China’s renewable energy products. The results reveal that trade liberalization plays a crucial role in encouraging the exports of renewable energy products. Specifically, tariff reduction, in general, not only encourages the entry into new export markets, but also induces an increase in the volume of renewable energy products already traded. In addition, the positive effects of trade liberalization are more pronounced for foreign-owned exporters than for state-owned or privately-owned exporters. Also, the ways in which trade liberalization promotes exports of renewable energy products differ by the type, destination or origin of the renewable goods being exported.     

Doha Merchandise Trade Reform: What Is at Stake for Developing Countries?

The LINKAGE model of the global economy and the latest GlobalTrade Analysis Project (GTAP) database (version 6.05) are usedto examine the impact of current merchandise trade barriersand agricultural subsidies and possible reform outcomes of theWorld Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Doha DevelopmentAgenda. The results suggest that moving to free global merchandisetrade would boost real incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa proportionatelymore than in other developing countries or in high-income countries,despite the terms of trade loss in parts of that region. Particularattention is given to agriculture, as farmers constitute thepoorest households in developing countries but the most assistedin rich countries. Net farm incomes would rise substantiallyin Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing country regions,alleviating rural poverty. Partial liberalization could movethe world some way toward those desirable outcomes, the moreso the more developing countries themselves cut applied tariffs,particularly on agricultural imports.     

Economic policy uncertainty and sovereign credit rating decisions: Panel quantile evidence for the Eurozone

We employ a panel quantile framework that quantifies the relative importance of quantitative and qualitative factors across the conditional distribution of sovereign credit ratings in the Eurozone area. We find that regulatory quality and competitiveness have a stronger impact for low rated countries whereas GDP per capita is a major driver of high rated countries. A reduction in the current account deficit leads to a rating or outlook upgrade for low rated countries. Economic policy uncertainty impacts negatively on credit ratings across the conditional distribution; however, the impact is stronger for the lower rated countries. In other words, the creditworthiness of low rated countries takes a much bigger ‘hit’ than that of high rated countries when European policy uncertainty is on the rise.     

农业增长对降低农村贫困真的更重要吗?——对世界银行观点的反思

世界银行认为,相对于中国其他产业的增长,农业增长对农村贫困的降低更重要,然而本文的研究结果并不支持这一观点。本文认为中国降低农村贫困的经验在于:中国先采取不平衡的经济发展战略推动了工业化和实现经济的腾飞,非农部门的壮大使得贫困农户有机会进入到非农业部门就业或从事非农业生产,这才是中国降低农村贫困的重要力量;在人多地少的条件下,优先发展附值和净利润较低的农业来推动经济发展和降低农村贫困未必是一个好策略。     

Trade Preferences to Small Developing Countries and the Welfare Costs of Lost Multilateral Liberalization

The proliferation of preferential trade liberalization overthe last 20 years has raised the question of whether it slowsmultilateral trade liberalization. Recent theoretical and empiricalevidence indicates that this is the case even for unilateralpreferences that developed countries provide to small and poorcountries, but there is no estimate of the resulting welfarecosts. This stumbling block effect can be avoided by replacingthe unilateral preferences with a fixed import subsidy, whichgenerates a Pareto improvement. More importantly, this paperpresents the first estimates of the welfare cost of preferentialliberalization as a stumbling block to multilateral liberalization.Recent estimates of the stumbling block effect of preferenceswith data for 170 countries and more than 5,000 products areused to calculate the welfare effects of the European Union,Japan, and the United States switching from unilateral preferencesfor least developed countries to an import subsidy scheme. Ina model with no dynamic gains to trade, the switch producesan annual net welfare gain for the 170 countries that adds about10 percent to the estimated trade liberalization gains in theDoha Round. It also generates gains for each group: the EuropeanUnion, Japan, and the United States ($2,934 million), leastdeveloped countries ($520 million), and the rest of the world($900 million).     

Textiles and Clothing in a New Round of Trade Negotiations

Because developing countries generally have a comparative advantagein the production of labor-intensive textiles and clothing,the liberalization of trade in these products is critical totheir prospects for increasing foreign exchange earnings. Thenew round of trade negotiations is likely to be less importantfor trade in textiles and clothing, however, than were the recentrenegotiations of the fourth Multifibre Arrangement (MFA). Asthe MFA remains in effect until July 1991, this limits the rangeof measures which can be altered in the interim. Nonetheless,textile trade will influence the process and outcome of thecurrent negotiations because of the overlap of textile tradedisputes with other broader trade issues. These include tariffs,the rollback of tariffs and quotas, voluntary export restraints,and other nontariff barriers, all of which have been appliedto textiles trade at various times. Each of these measures hasan influence on trade flows and a cost to both the importingand exporting countries. Any proponents of liberalization oftrade in textiles and clothing must not only be familiar withthese costs but also must be knowledgeable about the economicand political forces which have initiated and sustained theprotective measures. The following discussion suggests thatthere are groups and transitional approaches which may favorsome progress in textile trade liberalization in the currentround of negotiations.     

The interest group theory of financial development: Evidence from regulation

We use a new dataset of de jure measures of trade, capital account, product market, and domestic financial regulation for 91 countries from 1973 to 2005 to test Rajan and Zingales’s (2003) interest group theory of financial development. In line with the theory, we find strong evidence that trade liberalization is a leading indicator of domestic financial liberalization. This result is robust to the use of different data frequencies (annual, 5-year intervals), estimation methods (OLS, 2SLS, system GMM) and a check for non-linear effects. However, in contrast to the theory, we do not find consistent evidence of an effect of capital account liberalization.     

Optimal International Taxation and Growth Rate Convergence: Tax Competition vs. Coordination

Optimal international taxation and its implications for convergence in long run income growth rates are analyzed in the context of an endogenously growing world economy with perfect capital mobility. Under tax competition (i) the residence principle will maximize national welfare; (ii) the optimal long run tax rate on capital incomes from various sources will be zero in all countries; and (iii) long term per capita income growth rates will be equalized across countries. Under tax coordination, (i) becomes irrelevant while (ii) and (iii) will continue to hold. In other words, optimal tax policies are growth-equalizing with and without international policy coordination. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Capital Account Openness,International Trade,and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Investigation

New empirical estimates of the effects of capital restrictions on growth support capital account liberalization, especially for developed countries. Capital restrictions reduce the benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth in developing countries. Estimation results for long-term capital flows demonstrate that countries with higher flows grow faster, challenging the belief that countries must attain a threshold level of development or human capital to benefit from capital inflows. Moreover, findings show that trade with developed countries and FDI inflows are substitutes in developing countries. Overall, the results support capital account liberalization in developed and developing countries.     

Trade in Financial Services and Capital Movements

International financial liberalization may alter saving–investment imbalances and patterns of capital flows across countries. Using a panel of OECD countries for 1990–1996, I examine how the liberalization of capital movements and financial services trade affects net private capital flows. Capital inflows tend to fall (rise) with the liberalization of commercial presence in banking and securities (insurance) services, possibly reflecting an increase (decrease) in saving. I find that capital account liberalization stimulates capital inflows, suggesting that better access to external financing helps sustain larger current account deficits. When cross-border trade is liberalized, capital inflows change insignificantly.     

Trade liberalization and the skill premium in developing economies

Empirical evidence shows that while the skill premium narrowed in some developing countries following trade liberalization, it widened in others, or even exhibited non-monotonic behavior. This paper studies a simple dynamic general equilibrium trade model in which differences in initial conditions across developing countries play a key role in explaining the variety of skill premium behaviors. Differences in initial conditions in terms of skilled labor and physical capital emerge in the model due to differences in trade policies. The model can generate non-monotonic behavior for the skill premium following trade liberalization.     

Economic Reform and Labor Unions: A General-Equilibrium Analysis Applied to Bangladesh and Indonesia

Noting the trend toward more independent trade unions in developingcountries, this article examines whether the presence of unionsstrengthens or weakens the benefits to be gained from economicpolicy reform. We show that the presence of "passive" unions—onesthat choose their wage-employment contract given the firm'scost-minimizing strategy—increases the welfare gains fromtrade liberalization, because trade reform lowers the wage premiumenjoyed by the unionized sector, reducing a distortion in thelabor market. These gains are amplified when the unions are"active", namely, when they negotiate a contract with the firmthat is off its labor demand curve. Such a contract resultsin featherbedding—paying workers more than their marginalproduct—and trade reform reduces the amount of featherbedding.The policy implication for Bangladesh—a country with strongtrade unions and a protected unionized sector—is thatthe benefits of further trade liberalization may be greaterthan otherwise predicted. In Indonesia, where both unionizationand import tariffs are low, allowing greater independence tounions may preserve flexibility and reward workers better thanthe current minimum-wage policy.     

Poverty and progress: choices for the developing world

Some development strategists equate progress with economic growth and others consider increased equity in income distribution or a reduction in poverty as indicators of progress. This report examined the empirical relationship between economic growth and income distribution using data derived from a number of recent comparative studies. Various studies supported the Kuznets hypothesis, which states that during the early phases of development income distribution worsens and improves during the later phases. These studies demonstrated that as per capita income increases in poor countries, income distribution worsens until the per capita income reaches the $800 level. After that level is reached, income distribution generally improves. In a study of 11 countries, the relationship, in recent years, between income growth for the rich and for the poor, and income growth for the country as a whole was examined. Of the 11 countries, Taiwan, Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Costa Rica were ranked as good performers, since more than 30% of the increment in national income was allocated to the poorest 60% of the population. The countries of India, Philippines, Turkey, and Colombia were ranked as intermediate performers since 20-30% of the increment in national income went to the poorest 60%. Poor performance countries were Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. In these countries less than 20% of the income increment was allocated to the poorest 60%. A table provided comparative national income and income distribution data for the 11 countries. These findings did not permit an assessment of different development strategies; however, they did indicate that: 1) some countries, such as Taiwan, Yugoslavia, and Korea, achieved both rapid growth and greater income distribution equity; and that 2) although some countires, such as Sri Lanka, which stressed equity, grew less rapidly than other countries, such as Mexico, which stressed economic growth, the poor fared much better in the former countries than in the latter countries. The conclusion was reached that proverty must be reduced by: 1) improving income distribution; 2) promoting economic growth; and 3) reducing population growth. Efforts must be directed toward preventing the poor from falling behind the rich as development proceeds.     

Learning by Trading and the Returns to Human Capital in Developing Countries

Recent evidence shows that the returns to labor and the skillpremium both increase in developing countries after trade liberalization,despite the low skill content of their exports. The author explainsthis apparent puzzle by arguing that trade increases technologytransfers from industrial to developing countries and that thetransfer technology is biased in favor of skilled labor. Therelative demand for skilled labor increases during the transitionfollowing liberalization, and so the gains enjoyed by skilledlabor are temporary, even in the absence of supply responses.The gains become longer lasting when the transferred technologyis also skill-biased.     

Trade Liberalization and Exports Promotion: A Dynamic and Heterogeneous Analysis Under the Case of Chile

We develop a dynamic and heterogeneous firm model that embodies a firm’s joint decisions to export and innovate and allows both decisions to affect the firm’s production growth. We then calibrate the model with data obtained from Chilean manufacturing plants between 2005 and 2007 and simulate the impact of trade liberalization under different combinations of industry age and speed of trade liberalization. On the one hand, a quickly implemented trade liberalization policy significantly increases the exports intensity of a young industry newly opening up to the world. The increase in exports intensity is greater with quicker implementation of trade liberalization. On the other hand, trade liberalization for a mature industry does not lead to a significant impact on exports intensity.     

贸易自由化对制造业企业现金储蓄的影响——预防性动机还是投资挤压?

随着加入世界贸易组织,中国企业的出口及投资机会增多,但与此同时面临的进口竞争压力也与日俱增。本文基于1998-2007年中国工业企业数据和行业进口关税数据,以中国2001年加入世界贸易组织为准自然实验,采用双重差分法(DID)模型,首次系统地考察了贸易自由化对制造业企业现金储蓄的影响及作用机制。研究发现:(1)中国贸易自由化不仅没有提高国内制造业企业的现金储蓄率,反而通过投资挤压显著降低了企业的现金储蓄率,这与发达国家的相关研究结果大相径庭。(2)贸易自由化对企业现金储蓄的作用依赖于市场竞争程度,即关税减让会显著降低竞争性行业以及高集聚区域内企业的现金储蓄率。(3)高关税行业的关税降低后,进口竞争会侵蚀纯内销企业的投资机会,尤其是小规模企业,进而降低其现金储蓄。经过一系列检验后,结论依然成立。     

贸易与金融双视角下的跨境贸易人民币结算影响因素研究

基于国际贸易结算货币选择理论,运用2009~2012年的月度数据从贸易和金融双视角出发,采用协整检验、脉冲响应函数及方差分解等实证方法对跨境贸易人民币结算的影响因素进行研究。实证得出：其中四个因素对跨境贸易人民币结算职能产生冲击效应,其影响程度从大到小依次为:人均GDP增长率、我国与发达国家贸易占比、我国与东盟贸易额增长率、人民币实际有效汇率波动,且证实汇率波动冲击对跨境贸易人民币结算占比有动态的负向影响。     

The inequality-credit nexus

This paper explores the inequality-credit nexus from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The paper develops an overlapping generation model in which the effect of income inequality on private credit depends on the countries’ per capita income and on the quality of laws protecting creditor rights. The model predicts that greater inequality leads to higher levels of private credit in countries with low per capita incomes and weak legal rights, while this effect is ambiguous or negative in economies with higher aggregate income and stronger credit protection. Using a panel dataset of 155 countries over the 1982–2015 period, the paper shows empirical evidence that is robust and consistent with the model’s predictions. The paper’s major finding suggests a credit channel through which inequality may affect economic outcomes.