The quality and variety of exports from the new EU member states

The goal of this article is to evaluate the variety and quality of exports from the new EU member states (NMSs) in the period 1999–2009. The practical relevance of such an analysis is threefold: recent studies underline the importance of export variety for economic growth; empirical results show that export variety was influenced by the EU membership; and looking separately at export quality permits a better understanding of price competitiveness. Our results show that all NMSs significantly increased the average number of brands exported to the EU market, the largest increases being observed in 2004 and after. This indicates that integration into the EU market occurs in the extensive as well as the intensive dimension. We also find that all NMSs increased the average quality of their exports during the decade studied although there are differences between countries. Thus, a large part of the increase in the prices of exports from NMSs resulted from improving quality and did not result in a loss of competitiveness. Finally, estimates of relative quality are much more stable than relative prices, suggesting that our measure of relative quality is better than the traditional proxy.     

A Proposed Segmentation Framework for the Outdoor Recreation Market

Various segmentation variables and their usefulness are examined in the context of the outdoor recreation market.The utilization of values as an augmenting variable is proposed and discussed. In addition, a model of the interrelationship between values, demographic, attitudes toward outdoor recreation, and outdoor recreation behavior is developed.     

Representativeness and Authenticity in African Craft Exports

Abstract

African countries face opportunities for the export of cultural products. Demand for these products has increased in recent years and has found distribution outlets via American and European mass retailers. The potential for African countries to exploit demand for locally produced crafts and cultural products depends critically on their ability to anticipate and respond to the market. This paper compares and contrasts craft production in Kenya and in Ghana in order to analyze the impact of culture on the countries' ability to exploit export opportunities. Key distinctions are raised in the areas of internally focused versus externally focused production and between products that are subject to local control in their production versus those that are not. Issues of authenticity versus representativeness are also raised relative to demand for craft products.     

Which manufacturing firms learn by exporting?

Using a longitudinal database (1996–2003) at the plant level, this article analyses the causal nexus between international trade engagement and productivity in Portugal. By applying the propensity score matching and a differences-in-differences estimator, the learning-by-exporting hypothesis is analysed in particular. A higher growth of labour productivity and total factor productivity is found for new exporting firms. To uncover the channels through which the learning effects are driven, the same methodology is applied to some sub-samples. Learning effects are higher for new exporters that are also importers or start importing at the same time. Other factors affecting learning ability are found in firms exporting to more developed markets, in those that achieve a certain threshold of export intensity and mainly for those firms that belong to sectors where Portugal has a comparative disadvantage.     

An Analysis of the Linkage Between Agricultural Exports and Economic Growth in Pakistan

Summary

This article examines the relationship between agricultural exports and economic growth. Pakistan is used as a case study due to its large amounts of agricultural exports which have competed with industry for government support. This study estimates three simultaneous equations representing GDP, agricultural exports, and total imports while incorporating factors such as income remittances from abroad, investment, and manufactured exports as independent variables. The timing of this information is critical as Pakistan's policy makers now face major agricultural reforms in their quest for development. The estimation results show that a favorable relationship exists between agricultural exports and growth in GDP.     

China's Exchange Rate Reform and Exports

The paper argues that exchange rate reform is a vital supply-side factor in China's export growth. It contributes to China's export expansion by affording a realistic exchange rate and allowing freer access to foreign exchange, thereby leading to the reduction of anti-export bias and strong supply response. In an imperfect substitutes model, China's long-run export supply and demand functions are estimated in a system context. Evidence is found that the exchange rate reform is one of the most influential factors in China's long-run export expansion, inducing significant response of exports supply. In the short-run, the exchange rate reform and the export volume are also cross-linked through the error-correction process. China's exchange rate policy adjusts speedily to ensure the long-run equilibrium of the supply-side relationship and is likely to have played a dominant role in the adjustment. The study confirms, thanks to the exchange rate reform, China's exchange rate policy has benefited China's remarkable growth of exports before 1994.     

Monetary shocks,exchange rates,and the extensive margin of exports

This paper develops a two-country Dynamic General Equilibrium model to assess the relationship between the real exchange rate and the extensive margin of exports. Exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices governs the relative strength of a demand channel onto the exporting decision of a firm. With incomplete pass-through, a favorable movement in the real exchange rate generates increased export participation and an expansion in the extensive margin of exports. This result is consistent with firm-level studies, and contributes to an ongoing empirical debate as to the importance of changes in export participation over the business cycle.     

Is Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Pork Meat Export Prices Constrained by the Supply of Live Hogs?

The impact of lags in the production and marketing of agricultural products on the degree of exchange rate pass-through in export prices is investigated. The predictions of the theoretical model are tested by investigating Canadian pork export prices in the United States and Japan. The empirical methodology accounts for unit root and cointegration using the dynamic seemingly unrelated regression framework and a minimum distance estimator. Predetermined hog supplies have a statistically significant impact on export prices of two out of three Canadian provinces. The degree of misspecification involved with standard pass-through models that do not account for production lags is also illustrated.     

Product Cycles, Innovation, and Exports: A Study of Indian Pharmaceuticals

This paper studies the product cycle and neo-technology theories of trade in the context of generic pharmaceuticals. It analyzes the export performance of 131 Indian pharmaceutical firms for the period 1989–2004. The results indicate that technology proxied by foreign patent rights has a positive impact on exports. This suggests that developing countries with innovation skills for process innovations are capable of penetrating international markets in the later stages of the product cycle by using patents, which were the barriers to trade in the early stages of the product cycle.