The growing importance of the former USSR countries in world agricultural markets

The major countries of the former Soviet Union—specifically Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—are becoming increasingly important in world agricultural markets. The two main developments are that this region has become a large grain exporter, especially of wheat and barley, and Russia a big agricultural importer, especially of meat. These trends should continue for the next decade. However, policies to expand the livestock sector could mitigate these developments, as increased domestic meat production would reduce both meat imports and surplus feed grain for export. Also, further growth in the region's grain exports will require improvement in the infrastructure for storing and transporting grain.     

人民币双边实际汇率与中国对美出口的实证研究

本文通过建立人民币双边实际汇率与中国对美出口的分析模型,运用协整分析、误差修正模型和脉冲响应函数进行实证研究。结果表明:期望通过人民币升值来解决中美贸易失衡问题的愿望很难有效实现,近年来中国对美出口的大幅增长是与美国自身经济发展的需求有较大关联的,而且这种需求有逐渐增强的趋势;短期内,对美出口的增长远胜于通过人民币升值所期望减少的出口;美国国民收入水平有拉动人民币升值的潜在作用。     

Efficiency of research investments in the presence of international spillovers: wheat research in developing countries⋆

Expenditures on agricultural research in the public sector, including the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) have stagnated and in some cases, declined sharply in recent years. This has focused attention on issues of efficiency of agricultural research systems, especially the number, size, scope, type, and locations of their programs. This paper examines the issue of research efficiency through a case study of wheat improvement research in developing countries. The basic premise of this study is that the optimal level of research investment should be determined in a global model that incorporates direct research spill‐ins. An analytical framework is developed to determine the threshold levels of crop production in a country (or a region within a country) needed to justify crop improvement research programs of different sizes in the presence of spill‐ins from abroad. Spill‐in coefficients are estimated from yield performance of varieties of different origins grown across a range of environments. The model is then applied to analyze the efficiency of current investments in 69 wheat improvement research programs in 35 developing countries. A major conclusion of the paper is that given the magnitude of potential spill‐ins from the international research system, many wheat research programs could significantly increase the efficiency of resource use by reducing the size of their wheat research programs and focusing on the screening of varieties developed elsewhere. ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.     

Commodity price stabilisation: macroeconomic impacts and policy options

A macroeconometric simulation study is undertaken to evaluate the impact of commodity price stabilisation (CPS) schemes for the export tree crop industry in Papua New Guinea. The findings suggest that there is a negligible level of favourable macroeconomic impacts of CPS. Contrary to the expectation, CPS adversely affects the stability of monetary and external sectors (BOP). CPS policy has failed to stabilise the macroeconomy. The price stabilisation policies are no longer appropriate from the macroeconomic point of view. Technical change, futures market and rural savings are the possible alternative policy options to manage the price risk.     

内需的扩大是增加还是减少出口？——基于异质企业视角的理论模型和实证研究

中国的贸易失衡表现为巨大的贸易顺差,有一种观点认为扩大内需可以减少出口,降低贸易失衡。本文在考虑企业异质性的基础上,对中国制造企业内需能否促进出口的作用进行了理论和实证分析。理论模型预测,如果企业生产率足够高,可以进行贸易,企业内需的增加总能促进出口数量和出口额的增加,且贸易成本的减小会促进这种效应。我们运用中国工业企业数据对这一推论进行了实证研究。我们首先利用半参数估计的Olley和Pakes(OP)方法估计企业生产率,然后控制企业生产率、企业要素禀赋、行业固定效应、地区固定效应和企业所有制的影响进行计量分析。实证结果发现,出口企业内需的扩大显著促进了企业的出口,而且处于规模经济行业的企业的这种作用更为显著,东部地区企业和国有企业的国内销售对出口的作用也高于其他地区和其他企业。另外,本文对不同出口规模的企业应用分位数回归方法发现,企业出口规模越大,企业内需对出口的作用越显著。     

小麦胚芽的综合利用

本文对麦胚油、谷胱甘肽、天然维生素E、麦胚凝集素的提取和麦胚焙烤食品、蛋白饮料、豆制品等麦胚食品的开发利用进行较为全面的论述,并分析小麦胚芽资源开发利用存在的问题和应用前景。     

A league of their own: services exporters – a developing country perspective

This paper provides a firm-level portrait of services exporters along with goods exporters in a developing country. Current findings of firm-level services trade literature suggest that the stylized facts of goods trade apply to services trade as well for a set of developed countries. This paper investigates if similar results hold for a developing country, Turkey, for the period 2003–2008. Most results lend support to the evidence found in the previous literature. However, the analysis of Turkish data shows that firms that export both goods and services are larger than those exporting goods or services only while multinationals that sell only goods are bigger than multinationals exporting both goods and services or those exporting only services.     

Who rides the tide of regionalization: Examining the effect of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on the exports of Chinese firms

This study draws on the institutional economics and the resource-based view to examine the impact of regional institutional changes on firm exports. Specifically, we utilize the establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area as our research context. Our difference-in-difference analysis of a four-year panel of 700 Chinese listed firms lends support to our arguments that (1) regional institutional changes aimed at increasing economic incentives for intraregional business exchanges will stimulate firm exports in the regional market and that (2) private firms, more technologically competent firms, and firms with richer regional exporting experience are affected more strongly by this institutional influence.     

Export intensity of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises: The role of trade finance availability

We examine the relationship between the role of trade finance availability and the export intensity of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In developing our hypotheses, we draw upon insights derived from “new” internalisation theory (international business literature) and international trade finance (international economics literature). We empirically test these hypotheses using survey data compiled from subsidiary managers in six ASEAN countries, supplemented with host-country level data. We conceptualise, empirically test, and establish that the subsidiary-level capability in combining and utilising internal and external debts is an important subsidiary-specific advantage to support export intensity. We find that subsidiaries employ intra-firm loans from MNE internal capital markets and, to some extent, bank loans from external financial institutions to boost their export intensity. Subsidiaries may have concerns about foreign exchange risks, but the use of appropriate foreign exchange risk management is positively associated with export intensity. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

The mediating role of export-oriented Japanese foreign direct investment in China

Since the early 1990s, China has become the largest destination of Japanese foreign direct investment （FDI）. Observing this trend, the authors analyzed whether Japanese FDI did promote exports from China to the rest of the world, and more importantly, whether this is a strategy adopted by Japanese multinationals to penetrate not only the Chinese market but also the global market. This analysis takes into account not only the direct effects of FDI on exports, but also the indirect effects, by examining the mediating role of export oriented Japanese FDI in China from 1998 to 2007 through panel analysis. The study contributes to the conceptual framework of indirect relationship among the macroeconomic variables, FDI and exports provides some insights into the strategy of export oriented Japanese FDI in creating a win-win platform for Japan and China.