A Perfect Impasse? Cuba's Move Towards the Market and the United States' Move Towards Cuba

This article first analyses the internal economic trajectory of the Cuban economic reforms and evaluates their effectiveness in delivering the extensive and intensive development needed to correct Cuba's structural and economic imbalances. It concludes that without the lifting of the US economic sanctions success will at best be only partial, with serious implications for long‐term stability. The article then evaluates the reasons for the US economic sanctions against Cuba and argues that while the embargo policy might have failed to topple the Cuban communist regime, it has served other, largely unacknowledged, purposes that are important in explaining why the policy has persisted. The article concludes by suggesting that the US is not likely to jettison the sanctions regime while Cuba's single‐party, state‐led economic system remains. At the same time, Cuba is not likely to jettison its single‐party system while the sanctions remain.     

Should Australia be concerned by Beijing’s trade threats: modelling the economic costs of a restriction on imports of Australian coal

A country’s economic dependence on its trade with various other countries is often expressed in terms of trade values and shares. A country’s vulnerability to economic coercion by the countries with which it trades is similarly expressed in such terms. Using the recent issues relating to Australia’s coal trade with China as an example, we propose a better framework for assessing vulnerability to coercive trade instruments. We argue that the capacity for a given export trade to fund real consumption is a superior indicator of economic vulnerability than the simple value of the underlying trade flow. Our framework takes account of trade diversion, foreign capital ownership, the terms of trade, resource mobility, and capital and production tax rates. Using this framework, we demonstrate that the damage from trade sanction is far less than might be expected from a simple focus on the value of the affected trade flow alone.     

我国进口粮食的风险评价

本文根据工业过程的一般规律,利用比较优势理论,分析了当前阶段扩在粮食进口是提高我国经济福利水平的内在需求,而加篱世贸组织是扩大粮食进口的外部推动力量,在此基础上,重点讨论了粮食进口的经济风险和政治风险,并给出了风险评价的量化指标。     

美国贸易保护主义的历史渊源

长期以来,美国一直被视为经济自由主义的大本营,然而次贷危机后,美国贸易政策却明显地转向保护主义。回溯美国经济发展的历史与美国学派的经济思想,保护主义一直是美国早期所惯用的政策选择,自由贸易只是其确定经济霸权地位后的选择。因此,美国在危机后的贸易保护主义有着其历史渊源,不能说是其贸易政策从自由贸易向保护贸易的根本性转向,而是其经济政策又回归了保护主义的传统。     

What goes around comes around: The effects of sanctions on Swedish firms in the wake of the Ukraine crisis

This study uses the sanctions imposed on and by Russia in 2014 as an exogenous shock on Swedish firms. The results suggest that the total short-run cost of these sanctions on the Swedish economy amounted to around 1 billion SEK in 2013 prices, which implies a rather limited impact (around 0.025% of the Swedish GDP). The sanction effects were, however, highly asymmetric, and the direct effect on firms exporting banned products to Russia was a 70% drop in exports to Russia and an increased probability of exiting this market with 0.6 units. The indirect effects on nonbanned products were a 36% drop in sales and an increased probability of exiting of around 0.2 units. The disruption on the Russian market also created ripple effects outside this market, which was manifested in a 20% drop in the domestic production of banned products, a 12% drop in sales on markets outside Russia and a new export pattern. These negative ripple effects were also found to be pronounced in firms with their core products exposed to these sanctions, in firms with financial distress and in regions with a relatively low level of labour productivity.     

粮食出口禁运的福利及政策效应分析

粮食出口禁运是各国政府十分关注的、敏感的国际贸易问题,粮食禁运政策的实施会对相关各国的生产者福利、消费者福利和总福利水平产生影响.本文通过禁运政策实施对各国福利影响的经济学分析,进而分析禁运政策效应,为国家粮食贸易政策的制定提供参考依据.     

Cuba’s reform and economic growth: a comparative perspective with Vietnam

Cuban reform process lags behind the GDP growth reached by the Vietnamese. When comparing the evolution of the different sectors and demand components of GDP, Vietnam has had higher growth rates in all cases, highlighting exports first and investment second. Once the Balance of Payments Constrained Growth model has been estimated, the significant effect of the foreign exchange constraints on growth for both countries is confirmed. However, the Vietnam growth can be explained not only by its export success. International openness, which included the end of the US embargo, and institutional factors also explains the differential of results.     

我国粮食安全与耕地保护

一些学者认为,粮食产量低于一定的数量,就意味着出现了粮食安全问题或者存在粮食危机;播种面积低于一定的数量,意味着中国出现了粮食安全问题.但本文认为,建国以来的数次粮食价格上涨,与耕地面积没有直接关系.通过计量分析发现,影响粮食产量的主要因素是价格、政策、投入等因素,而非耕地面积.不能简单地将粮食产量与播种面积或者耕地面积挂钩,不能认为保有了一定的耕地面积或保证了一定的播种面积就必然保障一定数量的粮食产量.