Overcoming the “Solow paradox”: Tariff reduction and productivity growth of Chinese ICT firms

This paper examines the phenomenon of the “Solow paradox” in China using the Annual Survey of Industrial Production database and the China Customs Records dataset from 1998 to 2007. We find that China likely fell into the Solow paradox in the period 1998–2002, but the total factor productivity of information and communication technology (ICT) enterprises has achieved rapid growth since 2003. Accession to the World Trade Organization is the key reason for China to overcome the Solow paradox, that is, input tariff reduction significantly promoted the productivity of ICT firms. A series of validity and robustness checks confirmed the results. Mechanism analysis shows that input liberalization promotes the productivity of ICT firms through optimizing factor structure, importing more and high-quality inputs, and increasing research and development investment. The conclusions provide strong empirical evidence for developing countries to overcome the Solow paradox through trade liberalization.     

Domestic Support and Border Measures for Processed Horticultural Products

In horticultural markets, trade barriers often apply to the processed products whereas domestic support applies to farm-produced raw commodities. Here we assess the effects of such trade barriers and domestic support by simulating the effects of policy reform on global processing tomato markets, which are faced with modest processed product tariffs and high domestic support in the European Union (EU). Both protection and EU subsidy drive down world welfare, but we find that reducing import tariffs for tomato products would yield greater effects on markets and larger welfare impacts outside Europe than would reductions in EU domestic support.     

Can R&D-inducing green tariffs replace international environmental regulations?

This paper investigates the link between trade and environment by exploring the effects of green tariffs on innovation, location of production and the environment. It shows that tariffs levied on polluting goods could result in less world pollution than global harmonization of environmental standards by inducing more pollution-abatement R&D effort and generating lower unit emissions from production. Specifically, green tariffs reduce pollution by (1) shifting production to the region where environmental standards are respected, (2) inducing the firm in the clean country to engage in more abatement R&D by granting it a higher market power/share in its home market, (3) instigating green R&D investment by deterring delocation. When these outweigh the R&D-creating effect of environmental harmonization in the dirty country, green tariffs bring about a cleaner environment.     

WHOLESALE PRICES AND COURNOT‐BERTRAND COMPETITION

This note considers the competing vertical structures framework with Cournot‐Bertrand competition downstream. It shows that the equilibrium wholesale price paid by a Cournot (Bertrand)‐type retailer is above (below) marginal costs of a corresponding manufacturer. This result contrasts with the one under pure competition downstream (i.e., Cournot or Bertrand), where the wholesale price is set below (above) marginal costs in case of a Cournot (Bertrand) game at the retail level.     

碳关税壁垒对我国工业品出口的影响及对策研究

全球环境的恶化使人们越来越关注碳排放问题,发达国家正在考虑通过对不实施减排的国家征收碳关税。从碳关税提出的背景出发,阐述低碳经济背景下碳关税壁垒的相关特征,运用局部均衡法分析碳关税对我国整体的影响,同时也运用可计算的一般均衡模型测算不同的碳关税对我国工业品出口影响的程度。通过分析发现碳关税的征收将对我国经济和贸易产生重大影响,建议我国企业要顺应低碳经济发展趋势,加快研究和发展低碳经济。     

发达国家光伏建筑推广政策实施效果的启示

光伏建筑作为太阳能利用的最佳形式,正在各国政府的大力推广下飞速发展,而我国光伏建筑的推广效果却不尽如人意.通过研究日本、德国等发达国家光伏建筑推广政策及其实施效果,揭示了其推广政策取得显著成效的主要原因,并从中获得启示,即我国光伏建筑推广政策应注重科学地制订经济激励政策,重视研发并促进形成合作创新的研发体系,及时展示新成果,培养和造就一流的光伏制造商.研究成果为政府有效地制订光伏建筑推广政策提供了科学依据.     

The value of nonindigenous species risk assessment in international trade

Managing the introduction of nonindigenous species is becoming a major goal of policy-makers at regional, national and international scales. Here we investigate, at the national level, the ideal design and expected net benefits of a risk assessment program for evaluating the desirability of nonindigenous species imports. We show how to enhance the statistical rigor of such a system by correcting a common non-random sampling problem encountered in the data. This correction enables model output to be interpreted in an economically relevant way and facilitates a theoretically rigorous characterization of the balance between trade and nonindigenous species establishment risk. Using reptiles and amphibians imported to the U.S. as a case study, we characterize economic outcomes over a range of cases and demonstrate substantial expected returns to such a screening program, relative to the current effectively open-door policy. Our results are informative for the current debate in the U.S. about whether to require federal agencies to apply risk assessment before allowing a species for import. The framework presented decomposes a complex argument about risk management into component economic and statistical parts, allowing for debate and improved understanding over each element to inform the overall program in a transparent fashion.     

全球经济危机对我国进出口贸易的影响——基于多参数平滑法的定量分析

选取2000-2010年我国进出口的月度数据,运用多参数平滑方法,分析了全球经济危机对我国进出口贸易的影响。定量分析显示全球经济危机使我国2009年和2010年对外出口规模减少额超过10000亿美元,进口规模减少额超过6000亿美元,影响十分巨大,危机开始时对一般贸易的影响超过对进出口的整体影响。随着我国政府实施扩张性的财政政策和货币政策的效果逐渐显现,世界经济逐步回暖,全球经济危机对我国进出口的影响逐渐减少。进一步的研究显示:危机使得我国对欧盟进出口的影响超过了对美国进出口的影响;对欧美地区出口的影响超过进口的影响;对我国不同地区进出口的影响是从东到西影响强度逐步减弱,对外开放程度越高的地区受到的影响越显著,能够充分发挥比较优势的产品或行业受到全球经济危机负面影响的程度较小。     

我国原木进口变化驱动因素的实证分析

过去的十几年间,我国木材进口迅猛增长.木材的大量进口一方面缓解了国内的需求压力,另一方面也带来了诸多不利影响.因此,研究我国木材进口迅猛增长的根源意义重大.在分析我国近年来原木进口变化趋势的基础上,利用逐步回归法定量分析了导致我国木材进口快速增加的主要因素.研究结果表明:1993-2008年间,国内木材产量、家具和木材...     

我国稀土出口贸易中利益相关方博弈分析

稀土进出口贸易中各方的利益获得不仅取决于自己的行为,也受到相关方行为的重要影响。作为世界最大的稀土资源国、生产国、出口国和消费国,我国对稀土出口的管理政策引致世界稀土进口国及其他稀土资源国的一系列反应措施。本文运用完全信息动态博弈模型分析我国与稀土进口国、我国与其他稀土资源国之间的博弈,研究得知各方为获得利益最大化可采取的策略选择以及相关各方博弈的结果,进而对我国稀土出口贸易管理提出建议。