Preferential trade agreements and manufactured goods exports: does it matter whom you PTA with?

This article explores two questions. First, do preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect manufactured goods exports of developing countries? Second, does it matter for developing countries whom they sign the PTAs with? We find that the answer to both questions is yes. Using bilateral manufactured goods exports data from 28 developing countries during 1978–2005; we find that South–South PTAs have a significantly positive effect on manufactured goods exports. In contrast, no such effect is detected in the case of South–North PTAs. We confirmed the robustness of these findings to estimation methodology, sample selection, time period, zero trade flows and multilateral trade resistance.     

Credit growth,current account and financial depth

Exploring the determinants and dynamics of the current account balance is one of the priorities of academic literature and policy circles. Although the effects of structural variables are deeply analysed, a lesser attention has been paid to the impact of financial variables. Drawing on standard empirical current account models and with a large sample of industrial and developing countries, we report a significant deterioration in the current account balance in case of an increase in the credit growth. Moreover, we find that this link is substantially stronger for the developing ones motivating a closer examination. Therefore, we further advance our analysis and show that credit growth causes a stronger impact on the current account balance for lower levels of financial depth. In other words, at the early stages of financial development, acceleration in the credit growth might cause a larger deterioration in the current account balance; thus, it might be suggested that monetary policy and macro-prudential measures aimed at preventing financial excess might be more effective to reduce the external imbalances at the early stages of financial deepening.     

Impulse response analysis and Orcutt’s hypothesis in trade: evidence from developing countries

Orcutt’s hypothesis in international economics implies that trade flows respond to exchange rate changes faster than to changes in relative prices. Most previous studies used import and export demand models and tested the hypothesis by imposing and comparing lag lengths on the exchange rate and relative prices. One recent study, however, employed impulse response of trade flows to one SD shock to the nominal exchange rate and one SD shock to relative prices and tested the Orcutt’s hypothesis for several industrial countries. In this article we follow this study and test the hypothesis for six developing countries using impulse response analysis. Like the other study for industrial countries, we do not find much support for the hypothesis.     

The dynamic evolution and technological diffusion in Taiwan's TFT-LCD industrial cluster: a network perspective

Industrial clusters evolve dynamically as the external environment changes. To better understand the nature of cluster evolution, which has nurtured economic growth in early 2000s, strategy and organisation scholars have attempted to unpack contributors to cluster evolution from the perspective of the ‘environmental uncertainty’ and ‘resource abundance’ effects. The paper adopts and extend an earlier extant model through empirical testing of the thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industrial cluster in Taiwan, a developing country. This study modifies the extant network model by adding a diffusion of technological innovation index to cluster evolving. Using the extended case study, the study examines the dynamic evolutionary process in the TFT-LCD industrial cluster. It was found that the evolution of the TFT-LCD industrial cluster resembles the theoretical argument in some respects. The characteristics of network change are modified according to these results. Implication for policymakers and decision-makers of developing countries are also discussed.     

“环中国圈国家”的战略合作及其三大基础

"环中国圈国家"的提出,是世界经济研究的一个新范畴.在经济全球化和中国因素日益凸现的时代背景下,"环中国圈国家"在经济、政治和多边组织合作框架基础上开展战略合作十分必要,也有可能.当今世界格局中的"环中国圈国家"合作,特别是中国、印度和俄罗斯之间的合作,能影响或改变世界政治经济格局,对于中国综合国力的提升具有现实和深远的意义.     

发达国家城市环境治理的五大措施

城市环境治理是运用法律、经济、行政、技术和教育等各种手段,调控人类生产生活行为,协调城市经济社会发展与环境保护之间的关系的一种经济社会管理模式。城市环境治理具有综合性、区域性、群众性与动态性等特征,其本质是影响人的行为,转变城市经济发展模式。发达国家在治理过程中,先后采取了环境行政、环境经济、环境立法、环境技术与环境教育等措施,有效地控制了主要污染的肆意蔓延,从根本上改善了环境质量。     

服务业对外直接投资的发展及其影响

全球对外直接投资的结构逐渐转向服务业,而我国服务业的发展水平与发达国家相比仍然存在相当大的差距,且缺乏国际竞争优势。本文通过研究服务业对外直接投资对东道国的资金来源、国际收支平衡等方面的影响,以及产生的就业效应、技术外溢效应、行业挤出效应和出口竞争力效应,总结了对我国服务业引资工作的若干启示。     

国外循环经济立法经验及其对我国的启示

国外循环经济发展的法制建设,特别是发展循环经济领先的国家的经验表明,发展循环经济需要强有力的法律做保障;都把立法作为推进循环经济发展的重要手段和制度保证;我国应该积极借鉴其有益经验和做法,应立法先行,做好立法规划,加快立法进程,强化制度创新,健全法律法规体系,为建设循环型社会构筑坚实的法律保障体系。     

国际货币体系改革方向与中国策略选择

国际货币体系是当今世界经济活动的一个重要方面,本文首先分析了现行国际货币体系的缺陷对发展中国家的影响,然后探讨了国际货币体系未来的发展方向,最后提出了中国应对此变化的策略选择。     

发达国家移民政策中的人才筛选及启示

发达国家移民政策中引进的人才可分为基于国家战略需要的杰出人才、基于劳动力市场需求的高技能人才、基于人力资本存储形式的潜人才和基于国家经济发展需要的创业投资人才等四类,这四类人才的筛选原则是：特殊贡献和学术机构推荐、移民职业清单和积分评估、学历层次和学术成就、经济贡献等.我国应当借鉴发达国家移民政策人才筛选的成功经验,引入积分评估制度,适当放宽技术移民的筛选条件,完善投资移民的评估体系.