东亚各国(地区)承接生产者服务外包的竞争力研究

20世纪90年代"东亚奇迹"模式使经济发展水平各异的东亚经济体实现了不同程度的经济增长和产业结构升级,在以零部件贸易为代表的生产网络框架下东亚地区生产者服务贸易呈现出快速增长的趋势,本文认为东亚生产者服务贸易增长因素主要体现在生产服务链接需求、产业结构升级需求以及东亚地区的促进政策等方面,在此基础上,本文利用贸易相似度指标和面板回归分析方法研究了不同的生产者服务行业中东亚承接服务外包的竞争力状况,结果表明东亚地区的生产者服务业已呈现出类似于制造业转移的特征:继制造业后美国和日本等较为先进的生产者服务提供国继续带动了东亚区域服务业结构升级。     

中国农产品国际竞争力研究

农产品国际竞争力的提升,不仅可以扩大对外贸易,还能提升产品质量和推动产业升级。受政府的政策、成本和价格、质量素、劳动力、生产经营模式、贸易保护主义等因素影响,中国农产品国际竞争力还不是很强。中国应采取加大对农业的扶持力度、加强农业科研的资金投入、培育高素质的农业科技人才、推行农业产业化经营模式、完善农产品的技术法规和标准等措施,以提高农产品国际竞争力。     

中国茶叶产业国际竞争力分析

中国是茶叶生产和出口大国,茶叶出口在对外贸易中占据比较重要的地位。通过构建评价指标体系,运用国际市场占有率、贸易专业化指数、显性比较优势指数对中国茶叶产业的国际竞争力进行评估分析,进而提出了提升其国际竞争力的对策建议。     

French textile specialisation in long run perspective (1836–1938): trade policy as industrial policy

Abstract

This article concerns textile industry dynamics. Using a new database covering French international trade between 1836 and 1938, it focuses on France’s specialisation in various textiles. It demonstrates, for the first time, the major influence of trade policy on the French textile trade during the first globalisation. Tariffs appear to be key factors in specialisation, measured by the Lafay Index and intra-industry trade in textiles. By analysing changes in tariffs between textile raw materials and finished textiles and decorrelation between tariffs, we show that an effective trade protection approach was applied by successive French governments in order to sustain the industrial competitiveness of textile firms. Such trade policy slowed down textile de-specialisation in silk and wool fabrics until World War One.     

The influence of social capital on strategic choice: An examination of the effects of external and internal network relationships on strategic complexity

In this research we investigated the direct contributions of social capital via network involvement to the strategic complexity of firms. Specifically, we looked at three network types - trade associations, external personal networks, and internal personal networks - to assess their individual and collective effects on strategic complexity. We empirically tested the relationships in the rural telecommunications industry using a mailed survey to this population's CEOs. We obtained 203 responses (30% response rate). Using Poisson regression, we found that all three network types were positively associated with strategic complexity, which was measured as product portfolio breadth. We also discovered that initial conditions affected strategic outcomes, with larger firms and cooperative ownership associated with greater strategic complexity.     

我国旅游服务贸易竞争力的国际比较

本文采取出口市场占有率指数、贸易竞争力优势指数和显示性比较优势指数,比较分析了我国与其他9个旅游服务贸易强国彼此的旅游服务贸易竞争力的状况。结果表明,我国旅游服务贸易有一定的竞争力,但与先进国家相比还有距离,需要进一步采取有效政策措施,加快提升我国旅游服务贸易的国际竞争力。     

Enrolling in global networks and contingencies for China's solar PV industry

This study tests the contention in the Asian business systems literature that interacting with global managers and increasing experience via international education are ways by which Asian firms enroll in global networks, thus potentially leading to changes in their broader network contingencies. Chinese solar PV firms are examined given the competitiveness of Chinese products in the global marketplace and the importance being placed on solar energy domestically as China confronts increasing pressure to protect its environment and control pollution while meeting mounting energy needs. Results indicate an emphasis on extra-firm institutional network relationships both within and outside of China for all firms, characteristic of a bourgeoning energy sector. A unique result is that buyer–supplier networks are spatially influenced by extra-local managerial education. Enrolling in wider networks also matters as firms with internationally educated managers have more non-mainland Chinese managers, which mitigates traditional management practices at home.     

基于整体网分析法的中国服务贸易国际竞争力分析

文章采用联合国贸发会议统计数据库服务贸易数据,基于服务贸易进出口关系,构建六个服务贸易关联网络,选取整体网分析法中的点度中心性指标、中间中心性指标和基于CONCOR算法的核心-边缘结构性指标,对中国服务贸易在2008年金融危机前后10年间的国际竞争力状况及其变化进行了研究。分析显示:金融危机后全球各经济体间的服务贸易往来愈加密切;中国在全球服务贸易网络中的竞争力总体偏低但地位有所上升,且进口地位优于出口地位;金融危机后中国在国际服务贸易网络中的权力地位快速提升,渐由半边缘地带转向核心地带,对其他经济体的影响力增强,尤其是东亚和东南亚等周边区域。总之,中国在全球服务贸易网络中的竞争力正在由弱转强。     

Uganda's policy reforms,industry competitiveness and regional integration: a comparison with Kenya

The paper reviews, first, Uganda's economic policies affecting the industrial sector and analyses the international competitiveness of Uganda's manufacturing industries, using a sample of 21 firms in 12 industries. It computes indices of comparative advantage, export and domestic competitiveness and compares the Ugandan indicators with those of Kenyan firms. It also identifies the main sources and obstacles to competitiveness using a decomposition method, which breaks the unit cost indices down into their main components. The study is timely as Uganda is re-establishing a free trade zone with Kenya and Tanzania, and also faces liberalized trade with the rest of the world. The numerical results of the study suggest that Ugandan firms, although not generally cost-competitive with Kenyan and other international firms, due to the country's land-locked geography and its de-industrialization under the preceding political regimes, have benefited from a recently established business-friendly environment and are more competitive in several industries than is generally assumed. This means that they may not be able to export internationally, but they are likely to hold their ground against Kenyan imports under regional free trade.     

政府行为与产业国际竞争力:一个分析框架

本文尝试建立一个分析政府行为影响产业国际竞争力的框架。分析产业国际竞争力问题的起点是成本与差异化两个范畴,而比较产业国际竞争力的两类指标是显示性指标和决定性指标,确定政府影响产业国际竞争力的领域则是存在市场失灵的地方,区分政府行为影响产业国际竞争力的两类途径是贸易政策与产业环境,在这些范畴基础上建立的分析框架,能够显现政府如何通过一种影响机制,实现产业国际竞争力的提高。     

Beyond Trade Costs: Firms’ Endogenous Access to International Markets

In this paper, we explore another factor besides trade costs that can affect firms’ exports: strategic interaction between firms in R&D investment. Three results can be highlighted. First, the volume of trade is higher in the presence of R&D than in the absence of it, given that R&D reduces marginal costs. Second, like with reductions in trade costs, international trade grows with increases in the return on R&D, since technological progress enhances firms’ competitiveness. Third, when firms differ in commitment power in R&D, the R&D leader plays strategically in R&D in order to become more competitive and to be more active in international markets than the R&D follower.     

对外贸易的环境效应问题研究综述

随着经济全球化和国际贸易自由化的纵深发展,关于国际贸易与环境问题的理论探索日益成为国际贸易理论与政策研究领域的热点话题。就一国而言,在大力发展对外贸易、追求贸易自由化收益的时候,会不会陷入国内生态环境恶化的泥潭呢？在保护生态环境的时候．是否又会失去对外贸易的比较优势,削弱对外贸易国际竞争力呢？学术界对此众说纷纭．不同流派从不同角度进行了不同的阐释。本文基于国内外研究文献努力探索对外贸易环境效应问题的渊源．归纳分析相关研究成果的进展,为研究我国对外贸易的环境效应奠定科学的基础。     

The Political Economy of Strategic Trade Policy and the Brazil–Canada Export Subsidies Saga

In this paper we study the on‐going trade dispute between Canada and Brazil on export subsidies in the aircraft industry and the reasons for its escalation. This is a peculiar case of strategic trade policy insofar as the good, i.e. regional jets, is heavily dependent on sub‐systems that are imported in the two countries. The hypothesis that the dispute solely derives from the search for rents and externalities is therefore incomplete. Without downplaying the role of interest politics, we argue that in both countries ideas about the goals of trade policy have an important place in explaining why this dispute drags on. For Canada, the belief in a rules‐based trading regime has led it to strongly oppose violations, while insecurity about its competitiveness has led to a variety of government schemes to support firms in advanced sectors like aerospace. For Brazil, its place as a leader of the developing world acted as a rallying point for government and firms alike. The research also argues that the WTO process has actually made a resolution of the dispute more difficult by making it too costly for firms and countries to comply with the costs of losing.     

Strategic Trade Policy through the Tax System

If conventional instruments of strategic trade policy are unavailable, the system of foreign profit taxation and transfer price guidelines may serve as surrogate policy instruments. In this paper, I consider a model where firms from two countries compete with each other on a market in a third country. Both firms have affiliates in the third country where (part of) the production takes place. I analyse optimal policy choices of the firms' residence countries aiming at strategically manipulating the competitiveness of their firms. I show that, first, countries prefer the tax exemption system over the tax credit system if there is no intra‐firm trade. Second, if the headquarters provide inputs for production in the affiliate, countries prefer the tax exemption system if the transfer price for these inputs is close to the headquarters' variable cost and if the residence country's tax rate is high. However, if transfer prices are high and the residence country's tax rate is low, I show that the tax credit system is an optimal tax policy choice for both countries. From a policy perspective, the view that the tax exemption system is generally the best policy response if domestic firms' competitiveness is a policy goal has to be qualified.     

An empirical test of the rent-shifting hypothesis: the case of state trading enterprises

A central result in the theoretical literature on strategic trade is the ‘rent-shifting hypothesis’, the idea that government’s can employ trade policy as a precommitment device to transfer profit from foreign to domestic firms. To our knowledge, however, the rent-shifting hypothesis remains untested empirically. This paper constructs a theory-based empirical test of rent-shifting behavior that relies on observations of government precommitment variables employed through State Trading Enterprises (STEs). The analysis applies data on the delayed producer payment structure of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and examines its merits as a rent-shifting mechanism in the international durum market. The model fails to reject the hypothesis that the CWB utilizes a pre-commitment mechanism in the international durum market and several nonparametric tests confirm that the observed transfer payments set by the CWB are consistent with rent-shifting behavior in the 1972-95 pre-WTO period.     

Networks,Internationalization & Policy

This is the introduction to this special issue of Small Business Economics, dedicated to networks, opportunity, internationalization and policy. As the drivers of globalization are removing barriers, which traditionally segmented the competitive environments of small and large firms, firms of all sizes are joining international networks. Former competitors are now working together and this symbiosis is enhancing competitiveness. Consequently, networking is giving rise to unprecedented opportunities, facilitating internationalization. Simultaneously, new realities are creating the need for new policies.     

中美两国运输服务贸易的国际竞争力比较分析

通过对中美两国运输服务贸易的国际竞争力比较分析,得出我国运输服务贸易的国际竞争力比较弱的结论。鉴于运输服务贸易的重要性及我国现实国情,政府应将运输服务贸易作为发展我国服务贸易的重点之一,努力提高其国际竞争力,即加强中国运输产业自身发展,加强对运输服务贸易的政策导向及扶持力度;加强专业人才培养和引进,提高运输服务质量;努力开拓海内外市场,实现规模经营。     

Carbon policy and the structure of global trade

Alternative perspectives on the structure of international trade have important implications for the evaluation of climate policy. In this paper, we assess climate policy in the context of three important alternative trade formulations. First is a Heckscher‐Ohlin model based on trade in homogeneous products, which establishes the traditional neoclassical view on comparative advantage. Second is an Armington model based on regionally differentiated goods, which is a popular specification for numerical simulations of trade policy. Third is a Melitz model based on monopolistic competition and firm heterogeneity. This heterogeneous‐firms framework is adopted in many contemporary theoretic and empirical investigations in international trade. As we show in this paper, the three alternative trade formulations have important implications for the assessment of climate policy with respect to competitive effects for energy‐intensive production (and hence carbon leakage) as well as the transmission of policy burdens across countries.     

Strategic and Functional Orientation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Professional Services: An Analysis of Public Accountancy

This study examines how SMEs in public accountancy remain competitive, promote and deliver their services. The association among strategic planning, functional diversification (services and markets), methods of promotion and delivery is also examined. These SMEs face considerable difficulty in overcoming both in-house and external barriers in accessing clients requiring non-traditional services (e.g. management consulting), and clients involved in international business (broadly defined). The results show that the proactive, functionally diversified, and/or internationally oriented firms outperform the reactive, functionally concentrated, and local market oriented firms. The competitive advantage for the former categories is based on flexible specialisation such as customisation of services for specific groups of clients, speed of delivery collaboration with other producer service firms, and specialised skills. These firms utilise informal networks to promote their services with minimal investments in sponsorships or media selling. Face-to-face interaction with clients continues to be the preferred mode of service delivery despite the increased adaptation of local area networks and other modes of internationally technology by the proactive, functionally diversified or internationally oriented firms.