Trade and Renewable Resources in a Second Best World: An Overview

We provide an overview and introduction to the emerging field of trade and renewable resources, and discuss the potential impact of trade liberalization on welfare and resource conservation. A key factor determining the effect of trade reform is the institutional context or property rights regime, and our survey is organized such that it loosely follows the development of new insights with respect to institutions in this literature. This implies a transition from the benevolent planners model to the polar opposite benchmark of open access in the 1990s. Currently the pendulum is swinging back towards management and regulation, but institutions are treated as endogenous. We discuss and compare various key models in some detail and search for common ground between protagonists and antagonists of free trade. Paper based on Keynote address by Erwin Bulte, 12th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Bilbao (Spain), June 28–30, 2003.     

Trade Liberalization and Environmental Taxation in Federal Systems

The literature on trade liberalization and environment has not yet considered federal structures. In this paper, we show how the design of environmental policy in a federal system has implications for the effects of trade reform. Trade liberalization leads to a decline in pollution taxes, regardless of whether pollution taxes are set at the federal (centralized) or local (decentralized) level, and it increases social welfare. The effect under a decentralized system is smaller than if these taxes are set by the federal government, and pollution emissions therefore decline in this case. Moreover, majority bias interacts with trade liberalization if federal taxes are used.     

Competing Industrial Standards and the Impact of Trade Liberalization

The main purpose of this study is to illustrate, with simple trade theory, the relationship between competing industrial standards and trade liberalization. We assume that there are two competing industrial standards in an international context, each of which applies to a group of differentiated products. A product can be used only in combination with other products based on the same industrial standard. We examine the impact of trade liberalization (i.e., a decline in trade costs) on consumers’ choice of a standard. It will be shown that the degree of indirect network effects, captured with substitution between differentiated products, plays an important role as a determinant of the impact of trade liberalization.     

日本资本市场开放:动因、过程与经验教训

战后日本经济的恢复与发展和来自美国、OECD等外部环境的压力是日本资本市场对外开放的内外两大背景因素,日本采取的是全方位的有限制的渐进的直接开放模式。日本政府采取的逐步开放政策,对于日元向资本项目下自由兑换体制的平稳过渡发挥了积极作用。由于我国目前的情况与日本有相似性,因此,深入分析日本资本市场开放的动因、过程与经验教训,可对我国资本市场的开放提供借鉴。     

Volatility of capital flows and financial liberalization: Do specific flows respond differently?

This paper examines the volatility of capital flows following the liberalization of financial markets. Utilizing a panel data set of overlapping data, the paper focuses on the response of foreign direct investment, portfolio flows, and other debt flows to financial liberalization. The financial liberalization variable comes from the chronology and index developed by Kaminsky and Schmukler [Kaminsky, G.L. and Schmukler, S.L., 2003, Short-run pain, long-run gain: The effects of financial liberalization, IMF Working Paper WP/03/34.]. Different types of capital flows are found to respond differently to financial liberalization. Surprisingly, portfolio flows appear to show little response to capital liberalization while foreign direct investment flows show significant increases in volatility, particularly for the emerging markets considered.     

国际投资协定中最惠国待遇条款的新发展与中国的应对之策

在经济全球化时代，跨国投资日益成为与跨国贸易相提并重的国际经济支柱之一。对跨国投资的保护也成为当今社会各国间谈判的主要议题。国际投资协定在具体内容上已显现出与传统国际投资协定的很大区别，最惠国待遇条款作为其中的一个核心要素，在具体内容、适用范围以及投资仲裁实践中也出现了一些新的发展，成为国际投资领域经济自由化的一个重要手段，体现了国际投资领域的发展趋势。     

Whether to Abolish or Introduce Dual Regulation as Trade and Environmental Policy?

China, which has already introduced an environmental tax in an effort to decarbonize, has recently begun emissions trading and is using two environmental policies in tandem, but there are concerns about the impact on growth and trade. Trade and environmental policies affect firms' entry and exit, resulting in changes in aggregate productivity and pollution emissions. This study compares the impacts of single regulation and dual regulation on welfare, using a research-and-development based growth model with heterogeneous firms. Under single regulation, the cleansing effect of trade liberalization could be undermined. Under dual regulation, trade liberalization decreases pollution and improves average productivity whereas decreasing total permits reduces pollution. From the perspective of improving welfare it is desirable to choose dual regulation because trade liberalization can reduce total pollution emissions via the cleansing effect of trade liberalization.     

Addressing climate change cause and effect on land cover and land use in South Asia

This paper evaluates the role of trade liberalization and agricultural intensification in mitigating climate change cause and effects on land use and emissions using a computable general equilibrium model. Our results indicate that cropland expansion triggered by climate-induced crop productivity changes results in deforestation and increases emissions in South Asia and globally. Global full trade liberalization on all goods is the optimum policy for South Asia despite significant global deforestation, but for the world, unilateral partial trade liberalization on all goods is a more appropriate policy while ensuring a considerable emissions reduction for South Asia. These results indicate that mitigation responses to climate change are location specific and no one trade policy is suitable at the regional and global levels. Lastly, agricultural intensification by improving productivity growth is the best strategy in land-based emissions mitigation, thereby avoiding the transformation of forest and pasture lands for agricultural cultivation both at regional and global levels.     

货物贸易、服务贸易与技术贸易发展趋向

通过对世界货物贸易、世界服务贸易和国际技术贸易这三者的发展状况进行对比分析,考察三者在贸易自由化方面的关系,认为技术贸易自由化的阻力是技术贸易、服务贸易和货物贸易中最小的,且发展最快;服务贸易自由化的阻力又小于货物贸易自由化的阻力,其发展速度快于货物贸易,并据此提出我国应采取的对策建议。     

贸易自由化与环境保护的关系:世界贸易组织(WTO)的角色与作用

自上世纪70年代以来,环境问题在贸易谈判中占有越来越重要的地位。随着国际贸易的发展及其带来的环境恶化问题,经济自由化与环境保护的关系更加紧密。世界贸易组织(WTO)作为唯一的国际性贸易管理机构,成为环保与贸易发展问题专家关注的焦点。WTO在对待环保问题上采取一系列积极的措施:WTO的导言特别强调可持续发展的重要性;同时,WTO中设立了贸易与环境委员会(CTE)。尽管如此,WTO在贸易自由化与环境保护问题中应该扮演何种角色仍然受到人们的关注。自由主义学者认为作为贸易管理组织的WTO在环保的问题上过于激进;而环保专家则认为WTO在环保方面过于保守。本文分析了WTO在贸易自由化与环保问题中的作用,从而得出结论:WTO必须做出相应的调整,才能使贸易自由化与环境保护互惠互利,达到双赢的目的。