Currency unions and trade: The special case of EMU

In this paper, the impact of the adoption of the euro on the commercial transactions of EMU countries is investigated. It seeks to disentangle the effects of eliminating exchange rate volatility — and those of other policy factors that promote integration — from the influence of the emergence of the European currency union. Since EMU is a relatively new phenomenon, a panel estimation of the gravity equation in a dynamic framework is used in order to capture effects like trade persistence. The main finding is that the adoption of the euro has had a positive but not an exorbitant impact on bilateral trade between European countries (ranging between 9 and 10 per cent). The impact is much lower than that shown in the recent literature on a larger and heterogeneous set of countries. One reason for this divergence seems to be that the euro was adopted after decades of integration policies had already worked through in Europe. JEL no. F4, F15, C230     

Intra-firm trade and Swedish multinationals

Zusammenfassung Firmeninterner Handel und schwedische multinationale Unternehmen. — In diesem Aufsatz werden verschiedene Hypothesen zu den Bestimmungsgründen des firmeninternen Handels getestet, wobei einmalige Firmendaten schwedischer multinationaler Unternehmen benutzt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ die Neigung ausl?ndischer Filialen, von den Mutterfirmen zu importieren, positiv mit der Forschungsintensit?t des gesamten multinationalen Unternehmens korreliert ist. Einfuhrbeschr?nkungen des Gastlandes haben eine erhebliche negative Wirkung auf die Importe der Filiale von der Mutterfirma. Diese scheinen auch mit dem ProKopf-Einkommen im Gastland zuzunehmen. Die internationalen Reserven des Gastlandes schlie\lich, die herangezogen werden, um m?gliche Anreize für eine Manipulation der Transferpreise zu erfassen, führen zu keinen eindeutigen Ergebnissen.

---

Résumé Commerce intra-entreprise et les entreprises multinationales suédoises. — Les auteurs testent plusieurs hypothèses concernant les déterminants du commerce intra-entreprise en utilisant des données uniques du niveau d’entreprise pour des firmes multinationales suédoises. Les résultats suggèrent qu’il y a une relation positive entre les tendances des sociétés affiliées étrangères à importer les biens des sociétés mère et l’intensité de recherche de l’entière entreprise multinationale. Les politiques des gouvernements d’h?te qui visent à restreindre les importations ont un effet significatif et négatif sur les importations des sociétés affiliées. Ces importations semblent accro?tre avec le revenu par capita du pays d’h?te. Finalement, les réserves internationales du pays d’h?te qui sont introduites comme variable approximative des incitations possibles à une manipulation des prix de transfert ne produisent pas de résultats conclusifs.

---

Resumen Comercio intracompa?ía y las multinationales suecas. — Varias hipótesis sobre las determinantes del comercio intracompa?ía son sometidas a un test empírico utilizando datos a nivel de empresa para multinationales suecas. Los resultados sugieren que la propensidad de las filiales de importar de sus casas matrices está positivamente correlacionada con la intensidad de investigatión de la empresa multinational. Las políticas de importaciones restrictivas por parte de los gobiernos de los países donde operan las filiales tienen un impacto negativo significativo sobre las importaciones de la filial provenientes de la casa matriz. Las importaciones parecen aumentar con el ingreso per capita del país donde operan las filiales. Finalmente, las reservas internationales del país donde operan la filial, variable introducida para captar posibles incentivos para manipulaciones en los precios del comercio intracompania, arrojan resultados no concluyentes.

     

Efficiency wages, trade unions, and employment

This paper integrates union bargaining into an efficiency modelwith imperfect monitoring of worker performance. The model isused to examine the effects of an increase in the benefit replacementratio on wages, employment, and effort. It is shown that, incontrast to both standard shirking and trade union models, theseeffects are all ambiguous. In particular, if unions have somebargaining strength, a higher replacement ratio may reduce wagesand increase employment Whenever employment is increased thelevel of effort falls.     

Swedish foreign trade in the mid-sixteenth century

Abstract

For many years our image of economic conditions in 16th-century Sweden has been that depicted by Eli F. Heckscher: a medieval economy, reorganised by a central government of increasing authority in the person of King Gustav Vasa, and gradually transformed after his death in 1560. Sweden's foreign trade appeared to Heckscher as a particular example of his general rule. Its role in the national economy as a whole was very small: such commodities as were imported in exchange for exports were for the most part luxury goods; the only notable exception was the import of salt, to which Heckscher assigned extreme importance, because a vast consumption of salted food featured in his concept of the Swedish ‘medieval’ pattern of overall consumption. Heckscher saw no reason to postulate any major changes in the form and direction of Swedish trade during the reign of Gustav Vasa himself (1521–60); on the contrary, a theme vigorously argued in his book is that the political liberation of Sweden from the influence of Liibeck in the 1530s did not produce any shift of trade routes: most Swedish foreign trade still went via Lübeck. The customs ledgers of a single year, 1559, had an important influence on Heckscher's views.     

Unemployment and aids: the social‐democratic challenge for South Africa

Addressing Aids and unemployment is one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa at present. Health and welfare interventions will be costly and are likely to meet with resistance from taxpayers. Expanding employment (which will help alleviate poverty and expand the pool of taxpayers) is thus necessary. An inclusive social accord could help, but only if organised labour is prepared to make concessions, as was the case in the new social accords in Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands.     

The political economy of social democratic economic policies: the Pasok experiment in Greece

This article looks at the political economy of social democraticeconomic policies. It focuses on those policies that seek toextend democracy to the social and economic spheres and examineswhy such experiments have met with limited success in the past.It compares external constraints on the viability of such policies,such as the freedom of capital movements and globalization,with internal constraints. Since social democratic policiesrely on promoting coordination and cooperation between economicagents and groups, it is argued that an important, but oftenneglected, internal constraint is the extent to which socialdemocracy can draw upon, or, if they are lacking, foster thoseinstitutions within society which promote coordination and cooperation.The paper examines in detail the social democratic experienceof PASOK in Greece and draws some conclusions for the widerrelevance of the future viability of social democratic economicpolicies.     

The labor market effects of trade unions in an open economy: Layard meets Melitz

Trade unions are typically able to convert their industrial power into political power. We show that, depending on the constellation of parameters, stronger trade unions may improve welfare in terms of an increase in aggregate employment and output if they successfully lobby for lower trade barriers set by the government.     

The effect of trade on earnings--evidence from Swedish micro data

Using a large longitudinal data set, we study the effects ofincreased trade on earnings in the Swedish labor market. Earningsrespond significantly to changes in industry sales, whethergenerated by domestic market forces or international trade:Swedish exports (imports) raise (lower) annual earnings, butchanges in trade affect earnings just as any other shift inmarket conditions. We also examine whether the effects of tradevary by skill. We do not find systematic differences in theeffects of trade across the skill distribution.     

Quality differentiation and factor proportions in international trade: An empirical test of the Swedish case

Review of World Economics -     

Social trust and international trade: the interplay between social trust and formal finance

Social trust can facilitate access to alternative sources of finance to firms when formal finance is scarce or entails large transaction costs, especially in economies with less developed financial systems. Since exporting firms are relatively more dependent on external finance, we find that high levels of social trust in an economy with a relatively less developed financial sector have positive effects on exports. We combine the World Values Survey that provides information on social values and the UN Comtrade data for the period 1995–2007. Our analysis is carried out at the level of bilateral trade in 2-digit and 3-digit digit industry classifications that not only allows controlling for industry-level heterogeneities but also mitigates concerns of potential reverse causality.     

The impact of state legislation on the organisation of trade unions: The case of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) in Botswana

Labour legislation is the unique device governments use to lay down standards and conventions in the workplace and to control industrial relations. Using focused interviews with unionists, government officials, employers and other relevant parties, this field study investigated the way in which labour legislation in Botswana affects the organisation of the country's federation of unions. The findings indicate that the BFTU's organisation is affected by the Trade Union and Employers Organisation Act. In particular, the restric‐ tions in this Act separate policy and administration in the BFTU and this has had negative implications for the union's effectiveness. The fact that its policymaking body is part‐time negatively affects coordination, communication and cooperation processes in the BFTU. According to the Act, public sector workers are not technically employees and therefore cannot belong to unions. This gives the impression that the state is not particularly convinced about the benefits of unionisation. This may create a difficult environment in which the BFTU and other unions must operate.     

The assessment: trade and location

This paper gives an overview of different analyses of the effectsof globalization on industrial location. It suggests that comparativeadvantage is inadequate to explain several aspects of the changingpatterns of trade and location, and that it needs to supplementedby approaches based on new economic geography and theories ofcumulative causation.     

The Swedish model and manufacturing industry:

Abstract

During the post-war period profound changes have occurred in the cluster of institutions and organisations called “The Swedish Model”. This article deals with those changes and with their interplay with other social changes. More specific, changes in the system for industrial vocational training, an early and cherished domain for the Swedish model-type of co-operation, are related to transforming industrial structure and to changes in industrial work organisation. The article results in an economichistorical explanation of how the very centrally managed model of the 1960s was transformed to a more local one.     

利用第三方保管账户解决国际贸易合同欺诈

一、国际贸易合同欺诈在中国的表现 国际贸易合同欺诈是指合同一方当事人或中介公司利用合同当事人之间分处不同国家，相互间缺乏了解，以“影子公司”的名义和对方当事人签订国际贸易合同，造成合同的名义主体和实际主体不符而逃避可能出现的风险和法律责任，最终达到欺诈对方当事人的目的。     

A model of trade,task offshoring and social insurance

The purpose of this paper is to study the role of social insurance design in a comparative-advantage model of offshoring and trade. To do so, we incorporate social insurance into a modified version of the Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (Am Econ Rev 98(5):1978–1997, 2008) model by formalizing its administrative, compensation, cost, labor-supply and productivity effects. The compensation and productivity effects, which are novel, give rise to important offshoring and trade implications that can contribute to explain how social insurance provision can be sustained under globalization pressure and why similar globalization pressure can lead to different skill premia developments in Western economies.     

加强企业社会责任建设减少国际贸易摩擦

加入世贸以来,随着中国从贸易大国向贸易强国的转变,与其他国家的贸易摩擦不断增加,除了原有的反倾销、反补贴和技术贸易壁垒之外,新出现的企业社会责任更是以一种隐蔽的方式对我国劳动密集型企业的出口造成较大的影响,成为杀伤力极大的新的贸易壁垒。我国企业在应对贸易摩擦时,除了要积极应诉外,还要从企业内部调整和转变观念,重视社会责任建设,减少贸易摩擦,共建一个和谐的世界贸易体系。     

The trade depressing and trade diversion effects of antidumping actions: The case of China

China is by far the main target of antidumping (AD) litigation for most of its major trading partners. Recently, however, China itself has started using AD instrument intensively and was, in fact, the third leading country in initiating AD investigations between 2002 and 2004. This paper empirically investigates the impact of China's AD activities on trade by employing the system GMM estimator. The empirical results show that AD protection has significant trade depressing and trade diversion effects. These findings are consistent with Prusa [Prusa, T.A., 2001. On the Spread and Impact of Antidumping, Canadian Journal of Economics 34, 591–611.] and Brenton [Brenton, P., 2001. Anti-dumping policies in the EU and trade diversion, European Journal of Political Economy 17, 593–607] that investigate the trade effects of AD actions in the US and EU, respectively.     

The Swedish banking crisis: roots and consequences

The article analyses the Swedish banking crisis in the early1990s. Newly deregulated credit markets after 1985 stimulateda competitive process between financial institutions where expansionwas given priority. Combined with an expansive macro policy,this contributed to an asset price boom. The subsequent crisisresulted from a highly leveraged private sector being simultaneouslyhit by three major exogenous events: a shift in monetary policywith an increase in pre-tax interest rates, a tax reform thatincreased after tax interest rates, and the ERM crisis. Combinedwith some overinvestment in commercial property, high real interestrates contributed to breaking the boom in real estate pricesand triggering a downward price spiral resulting in bankruptciesand massive credit losses. The government rescued the bankingsystem by issuing a general guarantee of bank obligations. Thetotal direct cost to the taxpayer of the salvage has been estimatedat around 2 per cent of GDP.