Trading gains: terms-of-trade and real-exchange-rate effects

This paper considers alternative measures of a country's trading gains, i.e., the extra income that it earns (or loses) as the result of changes in the relative prices relevant for international trade, and which makes up the difference between real gross domestic product (GDP) and real gross domestic income (GDI). Looking at both the Laspeyres and the Törnqvist aggregation, we show that the trading gains really consist of two components, a terms-of-trade effect and a real-exchange-rate effect. Nearly all national statistical agencies, receiving no firm guidance from international organizations in this matter, merely consider the first effect, which suggests that the so-called trading-gain estimates they publish are incomplete and misnamed. Even more seriously, it implies that the corresponding measures of real GDI they derive are conceptually flawed. A straightforward way to circumvent these difficulties is to use the gross domestic final expenditure price index as deflator when computing real GDI and the trading gains. Some numerical estimates for Australia are provided as an illustration. The paper also identifies the underlying linear and Translog real GDI functions for which the Laspeyres and Törnqvist terms-of-trade and real-exchange-rate effects are exact.     

Does aging influence structural change? Evidence from panel data

Our study represents a first attempt to single out the effects of aging on the entire structure of the economy that is approximated by employment shares in different sectors. We find that even after controlling for the effects of other relevant factors - e.g., income per capita, share of trade in GDP, government consumption share in GDP, population size - aging does have a statistically significant differentiated impact on the employment shares. In particular, we find that an increase in aging exerts a statistically significant adverse effect on the employment shares in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and mining and quarrying industries. At the same time, an increasing share of the elderly (decreasing share of the youth) in society positively affects employment shares in community, social, and personal services as well as in the financial sector.     

Do Entrepreneurs Need Firms? A Contribution to a Missing Chapter in Austrian Economics

The Review of Austrian Economics -     

U.S. Imports by origin: A system approach

Zusammenfassung U.S.-Importe nach Ursprungsl?ndern: Ein systematischer Ansatz.- Die amerikanischen Import-Nachfragefunktionen werden für sieben Ursprungsregionen gesch?tzt. Sie alle werden aus demselben Strukturmodell abgeleitet und gemeinsam gesch?tzt unter Beachtung der Restriktionen, die sich aus der Nachfragetheorie ergeben. Dieses Verfahren stellt sicher, da\ das System von Importnachfragefunktionen intern konsistent ist; die statistische Effizienz wird erh?ht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ die Elastizit?ten der Importe in bezug auf den eigenen Preis je nach Ursprungsregion sehr stark voneinander abweichen und da\ die besten Substitutionsm?glichkeiten zwischen Einfuhren aus Japan und denen aus einigen europ?ischen L?ndern bestehen.

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Resumen Las importaciones de los EEUU según su origen: un análisis sistemático. - Se estiman funciones de demanda de importaciones de los EEUU para siete regiones de origen. Las funciones de importaciones son derivadas de un mismo modelo estructural y estimadas simultáneamente respetando las restricciones sugeridas por la teoría de la demanda. Este procedimiento asegura que el sistema de funciones de demanda de importaciones sea consistente y que se mejore la eficiencia estadística. Los resultados indican que las elasticidadesprecio de la demanda de importaciones varían ampliamente entre las regiones de origen y que las mejores oportunidades para sustituír importaciones se encuentran en las importaciones provenientes del Japón y de algunos países de Europa.

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Résumé Importations des E.U. par origine: une approche systématique. - L’auteur estime des fonctions de la demande importatrice des E.U. pour sept régions d’origine. Toutes les fonctions d’importation sont dérivées du même modèle structurel, et elles sont estimées en commun sous les restrictions suggérées par la théorie de la demande. Cette procédure assure que le système des fonctions de demande importatrice est internement consistant et l’efficience statistique est augmentée. Les résultats indiquent que les propres élasticités de prix des importations varient largement entre des régions d’origine et que les possibilités de substitution sont les plus grandes entre les importations du Japon et les importations de quelques pays européens.

     

Oil characteristics and the U. S. demand for foreign crude by region of origin

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Canadian Economics Association Meetings in Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 1986. We are grateful to Paul Bradley, Ragaei El Mallakh, Phil Graves, and John Livernois for their comments, and to Pierre Allan and Edward Azar for helpful suggestions.