Foreign informational lobbying can enhance tourism: Evidence from the Caribbean

There exist legal channels for informational lobbying of US policymakers by foreign principals. Foreign governments and private sector principals frequently and intensively use this institutional channel to lobby on trade and tourism issues. This paper empirically studies whether such lobbying effectively achieves its goal of trade promotion in the context of Caribbean tourism, and suggests the potential for using foreign lobbying as a vehicle for development. Panel data are used to explore and quantify the association between foreign lobbying by Caribbean principals and US tourist arrivals to Caribbean destinations. A variety of sensitivity analyses support the finding of a strong association. The policy implications are obvious and potentially important for developing countries.     

Foreign informational lobbying can enhance tourism: Evidence from the Caribbean

There exist legal channels for informational lobbying of US policymakers by foreign principals. Foreign governments and private sector principals frequently and intensively use this institutional channel to lobby on trade and tourism issues. This paper empirically studies whether such lobbying effectively achieves its goal of trade promotion in the context of Caribbean tourism, and suggests the potential for using foreign lobbying as a vehicle for development. Panel data are used to explore and quantify the association between foreign lobbying by Caribbean principals and US tourist arrivals to Caribbean destinations. A variety of sensitivity analyses support the finding of a strong association. The policy implications are obvious and potentially important for developing countries.     

Escaping the Middle‐Income Trap in Southeast Asia: Micro Evidence on Innovation,Productivity, and Globalization

Microdata studies on innovation, productivity, and globalization are relatively new to the Southeast Asian region. Evidence from microdata studies in middle‐income countries provide valuable evidence for policymaking aimed at graduating these countries to high‐income status. Globalization via trade and foreign direct investment should continue to be important development strategies. A more nuanced approach focusing on exporters and potential exporters, especially SMEs, are likely to be needed. The extent of foreign participation is also likely to have important implications for technological spillovers.     

中国对外直接投资对进出口贸易的影响分析

笔者在分析对外直接投资对进出口贸易影响机制的基础上,使用1993年～2009年中国对105个国家(地区)直接投资和进出口贸易的面板数据,应用动态VAR模型和面板格兰杰因果检验方法对我国的情况进行实证研究。结果表明:我国对外直接投资与出口及进口之间均存在双向格兰杰因果关系,对外直接投资是贸易创造型的,但这种创造效应还较为有限。因此,应积极发展对外直接投资,并发挥其与贸易的良性互动关系。     

Scale economies,cost complementarities and technical progress in Indian banking: evidence from fourier flexible functional form1

The paper analyses the relations between foreign policy and export performance. The paper deals with exports of selected European countries and the USA to Middle Eastern countries including Israel. Cointegration analysis is used to identify common stochastic trends in export series. A long-term relationship implies no significant influence of foreign policy differences on trade performance. According to the Johansen tests applied to bivariate and multivariate models, German, Austrian, Dutch and EU exports to Israel are cointegrated with the US exports, while Swiss exports are never cointegrated with the exports of these countries. This result confirms the importance of foreign policy in trade performance.     

中国和印度贸易模式的比较研究

中国和印度作为两个较大的发展中国家,具有很多共同点,但在对外贸易上存在很大的差异。研究中国和印度对外贸易上的表现,结果发现:两个国家近年来都有较高的外贸依存度,但中国在世界出口中的比重不断上升,而印度在世界出口中所占的比重很小且保持不变;两个国家的贸易在很大程度上是产业内贸易,中国比印度出口更多复杂和精细的产品。中印两国贸易模式存在差异的主要原因是,中国较早注意利用劳动力资源禀赋发展加工贸易,印度对于外向型经济的相关政策出台较晚。     

Does Real Estate Defy Gravity? An Analysis of Foreign Real Estate Investment Flows

This paper investigates the scale and determinants of foreign investment flows between national real estate markets. Using data for over 100 countries over 2007–2012, the results indicate that, consistent with previous studies for trade, foreign direct and portfolio investment variables such as size and distance have significant effects on foreign real estate investment flows. Large positive size effects are consistent with a combination of scale economies and information externalities producing investment concentration across markets and in conjunction with direct and indirect transaction costs specific to real estate markets. Physical distance coefficients are relatively small compared to the studies of FDI.     

Can cross-listing relax financial frictions in trade and equity holdings? A sector-level analysis

Previous studies have documented the positive mutual relationship between bilateral aggregate goods trade and asset holdings. This article examines whether financial frictions play an important role in this mutual relationship. Instrumental variable Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (IV-PPML) estimation method is applied to a new panel of data on US imports and foreign equity holdings in 20 manufacturing sectors from 43 countries over the period 2001–2007. The results confirm the significantly positive relationship between goods trade and equity holdings, and show that financial frictions are an important factor causing this positive correlation. In addition, we find that equity cross-listings in the US stock markets provide external funds to relax financial frictions and promote goods trade. This impact varies with different measures of financial frictions in developing and developed countries.     

外商直接投资对中国对外贸易影响的实证分析

本文以中国和其它24个国家或地区的最近3年的外贸和外资的实际数据为基础,用统计计量学方法对外商直接投资(FDI)和国际贸易关系进行实证研究,定量论证了FDI的贸易促进作用,在此基础上,还对中国与各个国家或地区之间贸易规模差异进行了阐述.     

外贸对经济增长的影响分析:理论与经验模型验证

国际贸易理论的核心问题是探究贸易利益的产生及其分配,国际贸易与经济增长具有密切联系。理论分析和经验证据均表明,一国外贸规模对经济增长有着重要作用,对外贸易的变动往往成为决定一国经济增长趋势的关键因素。文章从理论和经验模型上对我国近10多年来外贸和经济增长的关系给出了相关的实证检验,旨在探讨并揭示国际贸易促进经济增长的内在机制。     

Selected MENA countries' attractiveness to G7 investors

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relative attractiveness of seven MENA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey) as a location for foreign portfolio investment (FPI) from the G7 investors' viewpoints over the period 2001-2005. We suggest a methodology based on the combination of the gravity model, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the goal programming model (GP). The gravity model is used to determine the attractiveness factors of a country with respect to FPI for 30 investing and 43 receiving countries. Results show the importance of information costs and bilateral trade in the determination of the bilateral asset holdings. The AHP method is applied to prioritize the set of FPI location alternatives according to variables' significance in the gravity model outcome; information costs, bilateral trade, GDP, investment freedom, institutional quality, and geographic distance. Results show that in general Saudi Arabia is the best destination for Japanese and US investors, Turkey is the favorite location for French, German, Italian and British investors and Algeria is the preferred country for Canadian investors. A combined AHP-GP model has been used to determine the degree of portfolio investment in each MENA country from the viewpoint of G7 investors. The relative attractiveness of MENA countries varies over time and across investors. In general, over the period 2001-2005, the most attractive country is Iran for Canadian, French and Italian investors, Turkey for German and British investors and Saudi Arabia for Japanese and US investors. For a MENA country to attract more FPI it should especially improve bilateral trade and institutional quality and reduce foreign investment restrictions and information costs.     

对外直接投资的贸易效应研究--基于中国经验的实证分析

对外直接投资与出口贸易之间的关系一直是相关理论和实证研究的争论主题。运用引力模型,对中国FD I的贸易效应进行实证分析表明:中国对东道国的直接投资促进中国对东道国的出口,但对从东道国的进口却具有替代效应。因此,大力促进中国对外直接投资,是促进中国的对外出口、绕开东道国贸易壁垒的重要途径。     

我国出口依存度的比较分析

目前我国出口依存度增长迅速,比美、日等发达国家高。加工贸易比重高,存在大量外资企业,服务业比重低,使得出口依存度被高估。我国贸易还存在需求弹性、供给弹性和收入分配影响的不对称,贸易不平衡等问题。     

Foreign Investment and the Mediation of Trade Flows

How does foreign direct investment affect the trade between nations? While many theories of the multinational firm are based on the premise that foreign production and trade are substitutes, most empirical studies of foreign investment and trade uncover a complementary relationship. This paper shows that the mismatch between theoretical work and empirical findings is a byproduct of data aggregation. When the unique country–industry patterns of mostly OECD country foreign investments in the US are analyzed, predicted substitution patterns are revealed at the data level that roughly corresponds to broad products. The complementary effects of foreign investment on trade emerge at higher levels of aggregation.     

Intrafirm trade and the developing countries: an assessment of the data

The state of general empirical knowledge of the extent of and trends in intrafirm international trade are surveyed with attention concentrated on United States and Canadian data sources. Focus is on conceptual and definitional distinctions, U.S. trade with U.S. majority-owned foreign affiliates, U.S. related-party imports, international subcontracting and value added tariffs, aggregative data from individual developing countries, and customs documents as micro-level data soruces. In this effort to outline the reasons for the growing concern with the phenomenon of intrafirm trade and to summarize the most readily available data on its nature and growth, the following were among the important points made: 1) it is essential to arrive at clear and uniform definitions as to what is meant by "intrafirm trade"; 2) the share of U.S. non-petroleum imports from developing countries which originates in majority-owned foreign affiliates of U.S. firms is declining; 3) very high proportions of some U.S. imports from developing countries originate with "related parties," and there are frequently large differences between import unit values in related-party trade and those in non-related-party trade; 4) international subcontracting, as indicated by the usage of value added tariff provisions, continues to be a rapidly growing element in manufactured goods trade between the U.S. and developing countries; and 5) further data should be collected and empirical research conducted.     

Foreign trade model of the centrally planned economies

This paper presents a linked econometric model of the foreign trade of seven European socialist countries grouped in the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). The model aims at analysing the role of the international and regional trade in the economies of the socialist countries. The central part of the model is formed by foreign trade equations which allow analysis of the economic processes of the CMEA countries in relationships with the intra-CMEA and international trade. The assumptions of the model structure and some empirical results are discussed.     

Identifying foreign suppliers in U.S. import data

Relationships between firms and their foreign suppliers are the foundation of international trade, but data limitations and reliability concerns make studying such relationships challenging. We evaluate and enhance supplier information in U.S. import data and present new facts about importer–exporter relationships. Count of foreign exporters from U.S. import data tends to exceed those from source country data, especially from China. The pattern of U.S. imports from origin countries changes substantially by tracing trade back to the supplier's location instead. Related‐party relationships trade more, while larger countries have more relationships.     

Foreign trade and early industrialisation in the Habsburg Monarchy and the United Kingdom — Two extremes in comparison

The concept of socio-ecological transitions is used to analyse the quantitative importance of physical imports and exports for the Habsburg Empire and the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For the Habsburg Empire, a new dataset of foreign trade and social metabolism is presented. For the United Kingdom, the analysis relies on previously published data. Foreign trade volumes increased in both countries in the long run. Total trade volumes were much higher in the United Kingdom throughout the entire time period, on average by around a factor four. Physical factors explaining the disparities in structure and volume of foreign trade in the two countries are differences in (1) the temporal patterns of the socio-ecological transition and (2) domestic resource endowments. In both countries, energy carrying materials, i.e. fossil fuels and biomass, were the dominant resources in physical foreign trade. The analysis focuses on the physically most important material groups: coal, wood and cereals, and discusses the role of imports and exports in relation to domestic resource provision and environmental pressures. Physical foreign trade increased at a faster pace than domestic resource extraction and consumption. The socio-ecological transition was thus accompanied by rising international integration of resource supply.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Foreign Aid: A Panel Approach

This paper uses a panel approach to examine the determinants of foreign aid. It examines the extent to which taxes on international trade and the scope of government activities, ethnicity, private credit, and education determine foreign aid. The paper specifies and estimates a model that explains the allocation of foreign aid among 151 countries over the period 1975 to 1998. The key empirical finding suggests that Taxes on Trade increases foreign aid dependency. Moreover, trade, private credit, foreign direct investment, GDP per worker, and government consumption are important determinants of foreign aid. The factors that appear to decrease foreign aid include: Years of schooling, private credit, trade, and GDP per worker. The factors that appear to increase foreign aid include: Taxes on international trade, ethnicity, and government consumption.     

Restricted origin principle under triangular trade flows: Implications for trade and tax revenues

In this paper we try to show that, even when we allow for the assumptions embodied in the standard literature of border tax adjustments, and furthermore restrict ourselves to the case of uniform as well as general taxes, across products and countries, the choice between origin and destination principles need not be irrelevant. In particular, when a triangular trade flow of products takes place between two states of a federation and foreign countries, unless the same principle of border tax adjustments is adopted on both domestic and foreign trade, part of the state tax base is transferred from one state to the other, leading to an undesirable reallocation of local tax revenues. We found that adoption by the Brazilian states of the restricted origin principle (origin principle applied to interstate trade and destination principle applied to foreign trade) led to a reallocation of local tax revenues from the Northeastern states to the residents of the rest of country. An obvious implication of this analysis is that reallocation of tax revenues due to bilaterally unbalanced trade could be easily adjusted by adoption of the same principle, origin or destination, for both domestic and foreign trade.