The relationship between trade,FDI and economic growth in Tunisia: An application of the autoregressive distributed lag model

The relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), trade openness and economic growth in host countries remains one of the most important issues in the economic literature and met with renewed interest in recent years mainly for countries suffering from unemployment problems and lack of technological progress. This paper examines this issue for Tunisia by applying the bounds testing (ARDL) approach to cointegration for the period from 1970 to 2008. The bounds tests suggest that the variables of interest are bound together in the long run when foreign direct investment is the dependent variable. The associated equilibrium correction is also significant, confirming the existence of a long-run relationship. The results also indicate that there is no significant Granger causality from FDI to economic growth, from economic growth to FDI, from trade to economic growth and from economic growth to trade in the short run. Even though there is a widespread belief that FDI can generate positive spillover externalities for the host country, our empirical results fail to confirm this belief for the case of Tunisia. They go against the generally accepted idea considering the positive impact of FDI on economic growth to be automatic. The results found for Tunisia can be generalized and compared to other developing countries which share a common experience in attracting FDI and trade liberalization.     

Remittances and economic growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin American-Caribbean countries: a panel unit root and panel cointegration analysis

This study estimates the macroeconomic impact of remittances and some control variables such as openness of the economy, capital/labor ratio, and economic freedom on the economic growth of African, Asian, and Latin American-Caribbean countries using newly developed panel unit-root tests, cointegration tests, and Panel Fully Modified OLS (PFMOLS). We use annual panel data from 1985–2007for 64 countries consisting of 29 from Africa, 14 from Asia, and 21 from Latin America and the Caribbean region, respectively. We find that remittances, openness of the economy, and capital labor ratio have positive and significant effect on economic growth for all regions as a group and in each of the three in study. While the economic freedom index also has a positive and significant effect on growth in Africa and Latin America, however, its effect on the economic growth of Asia is mixed.     

吉林省民营外贸企业对外贸易与经济增长的相关性的实证分析

我国政府从1999年开始,先后多次放开了民营企业对外贸易方面的限制,为民营企业创造了更为透明和公正的经营空间。吉林省各级地方政府已经开始高度重视民营企业的发展。吉林省民营企业的进出口贸易与经济增长之间有着非常密切的关系。通过使用协整分析、格兰杰因果检验等计量经济学分析方法对吉林省2004年一季度至2008年第三季度数据进行检验,可以证明吉林省民营企业对外贸易与经济增长之间存在协整关系,格兰杰因果检验也表明吉林省民营企业进出口与经济增长之间存在因果关系。因此,高度重视吉林省民营企业的发展,对推动吉林省经济振兴具有十分重要的指导作用。     

The conflict mitigating effects of trade in the India-Pakistan case

We examine whether greater inter-state trade, democracy and reduced military spending lower belligerence between India and Pakistan, beginning with a theoretical model covering the opportunity costs of conflict in terms of trade losses and security spending, as well as the costs of making concessions to rivals. Conflict between the two nations is best understood in a multivariate framework where variables such as economic performance, integration with rest of the world, bilateral trade, military expenditure, democracy orientation and population are simultaneously considered. Our empirical investigation based on time series econometrics from 1950 to 2005 suggests that reduced bilateral trade, greater military expenditure, less development expenditure, lower levels of democracy, lower growth rates and less general trade openness are all conflict enhancing. Globalization, or a greater openness to international trade with the rest of the world, is the most significant driver of a liberal peace, rather than a common democratic orientation.     

Trade and Growth: Reconciling the Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Evidence

Abstract.  Many empirical studies based on plant-level data have found that firms that enter the export markets are more productive than non-exporters and that this difference in productivity is achieved before firms become involved in exporting. These findings have challenged the traditional view that openness to trade increases productivity and economic growth. This article reconsiders the literature on trade, growth, and trade policies and argues that a careful examination of these new findings is consistent with the idea that exporting increases productivity and economic growth.     

Economies in Transition: How Important Is Trade Openness for Growth?*

We investigate the effect of trade openness on economic growth in transition countries using a transparent statistical methodology that leads to data‐driven case studies. In particular, we employ synthetic control methods in a panel of transition economies and compare GDP growth in treated (that is, open) countries with growth in a convex combination of similar but untreated (that is, closed) countries. We find that trade liberalization tends to have a positive effect on the pattern of real GDP per capita. One of our most robust results shows that making the transition without opening up to trade considerably hampers growth.     

Measuring health expenditures and outcomes in saarc region: health is a luxury?

The objective of the study is to investigate the link between health care expenditures (HCE), economic growth and health outcomes (i.e., life expectancy (LE), infant mortality and the share of elderly people) for a panel of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries; namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka; over the period of 1995–2010. The developed panel cointegration technique is employed for analysis of short and long-run relationship between the variables. The results of panel cointegration found that there is a long-run relationship between health expenditures, economic growth and health outcomes in SAARC region. The estimated results indicate that both, LE and share of elderly people in population have a negative relationship related to the HCEs which signifies that HCEs are luxury goods in SAARC countries. The burden of aging population can be lowered by provision of quality health services and utilization of their experience and knowledge in dynamics of economic development forecasting. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship found between infant mortality rate (IMR) and HCEs which implies that HCEs do not provide sufficient benefits to reduce infant mortality. Similarly, HCEs are not enough in generating GDP, lowering IMR and increasing LE in SAARC region. The implementation of appropriate tax reform, stable food prices and trade promotion for low transaction cost medical equipment is required for the SAARC region.     

Regional integration: an empirical assessment of Russia

Using a statistical model of commodity trade, we quantify the evolution of regional economic integration within Russia during 1995–1999, and explore potential determinants of this evolution. Our integration measure exhibits rich regional variation that, when aggregated to the national level, fluctuates substantially over time. In accounting for this behavior, we draw in part on theoretical models that emphasize the potential role of openness to international trade and regional disparities in income in threatening economic integration. Controlling for a host of additional regional- and national-level variables, we find a strong negative correspondence between openness to international trade and internal economic integration.     

两岸贸易对台湾经济增长影响的实证分析——基于1980年—2010年的时间序列数据

运用1980年—2010年的相关时间序列数据,在回顾两岸经贸发展历程的基础上,分析两岸贸易对台湾地区经济增长的作用机理,系统地运用协整理论对两岸贸易与台湾地区经济增长的关系进行实证研究。研究结果表明,两岸贸易与台湾地区经济增长之间存在着长期均衡关系,且两者之间显现着双向的Granger因果关系,但相互的影响程度不同。台湾地区经济增长对两岸贸易增长的影响并不十分显著,而两岸贸易增长对台湾地区经济增长的影响却十分显著。     

标准化与产业内贸易——基于中国机械行业的面板协整分析

本文通过对1992～2007年的机械行业中9个种类的面板数据进行实证检验,建立协整方程并对其进行误差修正,分析了我围机械行业中的标准存量与产业内贸易之间的关系。实证结果表明两者有着长期的均衡关系,机械行业中标准的使用会对该行业的产业内贸易水平产牛正的促进作用。标准的进入将在长期内改善我围的产业结构,促进产业内贸易发展。     

Economic integration and government revenue from financial repression

We study a relationship between economic openness via financial and trade integration and government revenue from financial repression. An implicit budgetary saving, the financial repression revenue, as measured by the stock of government domestic debt multiplied by the difference between effective foreign and domestic interest rate, has declined significantly from the 1980s into the 2000s across the upper-income, the middle-income, and the low-income developing countries. While we find that both the financial and trade openness have a negative association with the financial repression revenue in the panel of countries, the effect of financial openness is stronger and the empirical correlations depend on the quality of governmental and budgetary management.     

Expansionary effects of the welfare state in a small open economy

We examine the relationship between welfare state policies and economic performance in a small open economy with (i) free trade in final goods and international capital mobility, and (ii) aggregate increasing returns to scale. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, we find that a retrenchment of welfare programmes is not an inevitable consequence of economic integration. Instead, by improving the exploitation of aggregate scale economies, social expenditure policies and international openness complement each other in facilitating an improvement in economic performance that can sustain a more generous welfare protection.     

What Does Trade Openness Measure?

An empirical measure of trade openness is defined as the ratio of total trade to GDP, and represents a convenient variable routinely used for cross‐country studies on a variety of issues. However, the effects that the crude measure captures remain ambiguous, making it difficult to interpret the empirical results. Drawing on several strands of the literature, this study examines the informational content of the trade openness measure using intranational and international data. We find that, even for fully integrated economies within a country, trade openness is approximately half as variable as it is for segmented diverse countries around the world. The information it conveys is better characterized as the extent of the economic remoteness and idiosyncratic distribution of sectoral production. The cross‐country variation of trade openness derives more from the variability in GDP than trade.     

山东省经济增长与外国直接投资之间的实证分析

本文应用Granger因果关系检验法和协整关系检验,研究了1984-2002年山东省经济增长与外国直接投资之间的关系。研究结果表明,山东省的经济增长与外国直接投资增长之间既不具有双向的Granger因果关系,也不存在长期稳定的协整关系。     

Financial Development,Trade Openness,and Economic Growth in Zambia

This study investigates the causal relationship among financial development, trade openness, and economic growth in Zambia from 1965 to 2011. Two measures of financial development were used： broad money and domestic credit to the private sector, each as a ratio of gross domestic product （GDP）. In this regard, two models were developed for each indicator. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller （ADF） and Phillips-Perron （PP） tests were used to determine stationarity of all the variables. Furthermore, Johansen test was employed to ascertain possible cointegration among variables. The vector error correction model （VECM） was employed to examine the short-run and long-run dynamics among the variables in each model. The results indicate that the relationship among financial development, trade openness, and economic growth is sensitive to the financial development indicator chosen.     

Does Trade Liberalization Cause a Long Run Economic Growth in Turkey

Based on ‘endogenous’ growth theory, the paper examines the effect of trade liberalization on long-run income per capita and economic growth in Turkey. Although the presumption must be that free trade has a beneficial effect on long run growth, counter examples can also be found. This controversy increases the importance of empirical work in this area. Using the most recent data we employ multivariate cointegration analysis to test the long run relationship among the variables in hand. In a multivariate context, the effect of determinants such as increasing returns to scale, investment in human and physical capital are also included in both theoretical and empirical works. Our causality evidence between the long run growth and a number of indicators of trade liberalizations confirms the predictions of the ‘new growth theory’. However, the overall effect of the possible breaks and/or policy change and unsustainability in the 1990s looks contradictory and deserves further investigation.     

How Globalized Really is European Trade?

Abstract

Using a new set of measures of concentration of trade, I suggest that the opening up of trade to date has been greatly exaggerated. At least judging on the basis of trade concentration, agriculture and service sectors should barely be seen as globalized at all. Contrary to other, recent studies, Europe's main economies lag behind the USA in terms of global openness, and most are behind Japan, Canada and China. The Balkans, Poland and the Czech Republic are near the bottom end of the global openness league table. Since there is a strong correlation between concentration of trade and poor economic performance, this should be of concern to those countries and to the EU.     

Openness,rural-urban inequality,and happiness in China

Although the relationship between income inequality and subjective well-being has been extensively discussed in the literature, relatively little is known about the effects of openness on subjective well-being and how rural-urban inequality may influence these effects. This article attempts to address this issue by using the dataset of the China General Social Survey (CGSS). We find that the effect of trade openness on happiness takes an inverted U shape, whereas that of financial openness is U-shaped. We also find that rural-urban inequality has a dampening effect on happiness, and this effect is strengthened by trade openness but weakened by financial openness. These findings extend previous studies on the determinants of happiness by highlighting the different effects associated with trade openness and financial openness and how these effects may interact with rural-urban inequality.     

Do Natural Barriers Affect the Relationship Between Trade Openness and Growth?*

This article investigates whether there are threshold effects in the relationship between openness and productivity growth that are fashioned by a country's natural barriers, using a cross‐country growth model. Alternative methods of modelling thresholds are explored. An endogenous threshold model is shown to be preferable to the use of interaction effects. The results identify critical levels of natural barriers which affect how greater openness or liberalization impacts on productivity growth. We find that only countries with higher natural barriers receive growth benefits from trade liberalization.     

运输服务贸易促进我国经济增长的实证研究

文章以当前我国运输服务贸易持续逆差这一现象为切入口。借助计量经济学的分析软件构建运输服务贸易与经济增长的计量模型,定量分析运输服务贸易与经济增长(GDP)的关系,实证结果表明运输服务贸易与经济增长有着长期的均衡关系与因果关系。