Enforcing Domestic Quality Dominance through Quotas*

We study duopoly competition between a domestic and a foreign firm who first choose their quality and then compete in prices in the domestic market. As is well known, the free‐trade equilibrium exhibits quality differentiation and indeterminacy of the quality leader. We show that an import quota can enforce, as the unique subgame‐perfect equilibrium outcome, the quality ranking that favors the domestic producer and thereby can increase domestic welfare.     

Domestic trade protection in vertically-related markets

We consider trade policy in a setting where home country firms are fully dependent on vertically-integrated foreign firms for supplies of a key input. We find that vertically-integrated firms' strategic considerations play an important role and that, in particular, a tariff on final goods may either increase or decrease the domestic price of final goods. The import of final goods is always taxed to extract and shift rents from foreign firms, while the import of intermediate goods can be either taxed or subsidized. The market structure is shown to be an important consideration when making trade policy.     

Price dispersion across US districts of entry

Price dispersion of US imports are investigated across US districts of entry. Markups explain about 31% of price dispersion, while marginal costs of production explain about 69%; effects of trade costs, for which we have actual data, are almost none.     

Signaling Product Quality by Price

This paper analyzes the role of price as a signal of the quality of a monopoly firm's new product. The quality of the goods is drawn from a continuum and is unknown to consumers. We establish a unique separating equilibrium using equilibrium characterization results for signaling games. The equilibrium price monotonically increases with quality levels and exceeds the complete-information monopoly price for all quality levels but the lowest one. However, the upward distortion decreases as the proportion of pre-informed consumers increases. These results extend both the signaling role of price and characteristics of the separating equilibrium as established in Bagwell and Riordan (1991).     

论产品质量与扩大国内需求

解决“过剩经济”问题 ,当然应当主要从需求角度入手 ,但目前需求不足 ,原因很多 ,其中一个重要的原因是我国产品质量不过关 ,本文试图从如何处理不合格产品 ,以及如何提高产品质量的角度 ,来分析需求的扩大。     

Why don't firms export more? Product quality and Colombian plants

Exporting firms around the world ship only a small fraction of their output overseas. For firms in a large country, such as the United States, this behavior can be explained by the existence of a large domestic market. For firms in a small lower income country, such as Colombia, the lower share of exports remains a puzzle. This paper begins by illustrating the failure of current models to explain plant export patterns in Colombia. Even models that do well in describing the US export distribution fail when confronted with the Colombian data. In response to this puzzle, this paper suggests that Colombia's export distribution can be explained with a two-dimensional productivity space where output productivity is considered separately from quality productivity. Predictions of this theory are tested on Colombian plant level data from 1981–1991. Overall, product quality is shown to be a significant factor in explaining the tendency for Colombian plants to under-export manufactured goods to the United States.     

High Price Strategy and Quality Signalling

I investigate a high price strategy by a durable‐goods producer for signalling the high quality of goods. It is assumed that two types of monopolists exist: high‐quality and low‐quality. The monopolist's type is assumed to be unknown to consumers in the first period. Before the beginning of the second period, a product reputation established in the past period enables consumers to recognize the real type of the monopolist. I show that there occurs a signalling equilibrium where the high‐quality type monopolist uses a high price strategy. An interaction between the new and old products peculiar to the durable‐goods markets plays an important role in the pricing strategy.     

外部冲击对国内农产品价格波动影响分析

在我国农产品持续市场化改革背景下,尤其是2001年加入世界贸易组织,进口关税和非关税壁垒不断削减、农产品进口量不断增加、农产品期货市场的建立和完善导致国内外农产品市场的联系日益紧密。全球农产品价格在2006-2008年上半年大幅上涨,大豆、玉米、小麦期货价格均创30年来新高;同期在国内,大豆、豆粕价格接近翻番,豆油价格涨幅达76%。本文基于2005.1-2010.11的月度数据,采用回归模型考察国际农产品价格、石油价格、全世界流动性(货币供应量)和美元/人民币汇率等外部因素对国内农产品价格的整体影响。在控制其它变量不变的情况下,研究表明国际农产品价格对我国农产品价格的影响并不显著,而石油价格每上升1%将带动国内农产品价格整体上升0.43%;国际流动性指数上升1%,国内农产品价格相应地上升0.252%;当期人民币升值1%将使国内农产品价格降低3.497%,滞后一期的人民币升值1%仅使国内农产品价格降低1.234%。     

The effect of firm-level productivity on exchange rate pass-through

A heterogeneous-firm trade model can explain the recent decrease in exchange rate pass-through to aggregate US import prices as a result of decreased trade costs. This paper finds support for this explanation by testing another implication of this type of heterogeneous firm model: lower exchange rate pass-through for goods that are traded for short periods of time.     

The effects of labour unions on international capital tax competition

Abstract We analyze the impact of labour market rigidities on tax competition between two imperfectly integrated countries. Following a shift from a competitive to a unionized labour market in both countries, the capital tax can be adjusted upward in the country with the less rigid labour market, whereas the capital tax is always adjusted downward in the other country. Moreover, by reducing the labour cost differential between countries, trade liberalization gives rise to tax and welfare convergences. Finally, when a country adopts a flexible labour market, the unionized country may attract the majority of capital.     

The convergence dynamics of a transition economy: The case of the Czech Republic

In this paper we develop a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model by means of which we seek to explain the long-run path of a transition economy. The model's novel feature is the inclusion of quality investment in the standard framework of applied general equilibrium two-country models. This feature is necessary to explain the trend in the real exchange rate. We present an application to the Czech economy.     

The role of extensive and intensive margins and export growth

We investigate and compare countries' export growth based on their performance at the extensive and intensive export margins. Our empirical approach is motivated by an extension to the Melitz (2003) model of heterogeneous firms in which exporters are subject to a one-time sunk cost and also a per-period fixed cost. With imperfect information a firm may enter export markets but shortly exit when it learns its per-period fixed costs. We apply this insight to disaggregated export data and confirm that indeed most export relationships are very short lived. We then show that the survival issue is a significant factor in explaining differences in long run export performance. We find that developing countries would experience significantly higher export growth if they were able to improve their performance with respect to the two key components of the intensive margin: survival and deepening.     

信息商品价格的形成

一、信息商品的定义“信息”一词由来已久，古今中外都曾使用过它。由于人们从不同的角度去认识和理解信息的定义，因此，很难形成一个公认的统一的定义，但是我们不难发现，信息的实质在于它是有一定的内容的，它是一种描述，而其描述对象很广，覆盖了主客观世界。一般说来，当一种信息被生产出来以后，它必须依赖于一定的载体才能存在。特别是在现代社会，信息作为商品，要广泛地参与市场流通，更要依赖载体才能进行存储和传输。信息商品是指经过人类劳动加工后用来交换的再生信息。因此，我们认为可以把信息商品定义为：信息商品是指经过…     

Temporary shocks and offshoring: The role of external economies and firm heterogeneity

We construct a model of offshoring with externalities and firm heterogeneity. Due to the presence of externalities, temporary shocks like the Y2K problem can have permanent effects, i.e., they can permanently raise the extent of offshoring in an industry. Also, the initial advantage of a country as a potential host for outsourcing activities can create a lock in effect, whereby late movers have a comparative disadvantage. Furthermore, the existence of firm heterogeneity along with externalities can help explain the dynamic process of offshoring, where the most productive firms offshore first and the others follow later. Finally, we work out some unexpected welfare implications which show that net industry profits can be lower in an outsourcing equilibrium than in a regime of no outsourcing. Consumer welfare rises, and under fairly plausible conditions this effect can offset the negative impact on profits.     

Trade costs and the timing of competition policy adoption

Abstract This paper first presents stylized evidence showing how the date of the adoption of competition policy is correlated with country size. Smaller countries tend to adopt competition policy later. We then present a theoretical model with countries of different size, trade costs, and firms competing à la Cournot. In the model we show that reduced trade costs following from increasing globalization affect countries differently depending on their size. This has implications for the incentives to introduce competition policy. The predictions of the model are consistent with the empirical regularity presented.     

Countries, regions and trade: On the welfare impacts of economic integration

We study the impact of falling international trade costs and falling national transport costs on the economic geography of countries involved in an integration process. Each country is formed by two regions between which labor is mobile, whereas there is no international mobility. Goods can be traded both nationally and internationally at positive, but different, costs. A decrease in trade costs and/or in transport costs has a direct impact on prices and wages, which allows us to account for the impact of changes in these parameters on the economic geography and welfare of each country. We show that, as trade barriers fall, the benefits of integration come after its costs. We also show that national transport policies are of the beggar-thy-neighbor type. On both counts, policy coordination is required in the process of economic integration.     

安徽省蔬菜价格保险研究

安徽省是全国蔬菜大省,产业优势比较明显,增收作用突出。根据安徽省蔬菜产业发展现状、蔬菜价格波动情况等提出蔬菜价格险的必要性,并分析了保险体系的介入应如何正确引导蔬菜均衡种植,以此稳定菜价,保障供给。     

A welfare analysis of unilateral trade and FDI liberalization

This paper uses a heterogeneous‐firms model to examine the pro‐competitive channel through which FDI affects national welfare. The model shows that the country from which FDI originates experiences a welfare gain following liberalization. However, a counterintuitive finding is that the welfare of the host country deteriorates. This is explained by the production relocation process that leads to an increase in the mass of domestic firms in the source country and a decrease in the host country. The model also confirms that unilateral trade liberalization brings a similar result even in the presence of bilateral FDI flows.     

Welfare, home market effects, and horizontal foreign direct investment

Abstract.  We investigate the spatial distribution and organization of an imperfectly competitive industry when firms may choose to operate more than a single production unit. Focusing on a short-run setting with a fixed mass of firms, we first fully characterize the spatial equilibria analytically. Comparing the equilibrium and the first-best, we secondly show that both organizational and spatial inefficiencies may arise. In particular, when fixed costs are low, when transport costs are high, and when products are close substitutes, the market outcome may well have to too many multinationals operating from a social point of view ('over-investment'). As a by-product, under-agglomeration of exporters in the larger market may arise.     

On the welfare effects of trade and investment liberalization

Using a three-factor knowledge- and physical capital model of trade and multinational activity, we consider a set of policy experiments to assess the welfare effects of trade and investment liberalization in general equilibrium. Specifically, we address the question of whether and under which circumstances a single versus a combined trade/investment liberalization strategy or a unilateral versus a bilateral policy change is preferable from a single country's and the world's point of view. The focus of this paper is to look at three relevant questions. First, when is investment liberalization beneficial and when is it harmful for a single economy or the whole world? Second, is pure investment liberalization a welfare maximizing strategy? Third, when is either kind of liberalization (trade, investment, or both) welfare improving and when neither of them?