On estimating Armington elasticities for Japan's meat imports

By fully accounting for the distinct tariff regimes levied on imported meat, we estimate substitution elasticities of Japan's two-stage import aggregation functions for beef, chicken and pork. Although the regression analysis crucially depends on the price that consumers face, the post-tariff price of imported meat depends not only on ad valorem duties but also on tariff rate quotas and gate price system regimes. The effective tariff rate is consequently evaluated by utilising monthly transaction data. To address potential endogeneity problems, we apply exchange rates that we believe to be independent of the demand shocks for imported meat. The panel nature of the data allows us to retrieve the first-stage aggregates via time dummy variables, free of demand shocks, to be used as part of the explanatory variable and as an instrument in the second-stage regression.     

General equilibrium trade modelling with Canada–US transportation costs

Transportation costs are an important topic in international trade, but seldom have researchers paid attention to general equilibrium trade modelling with transportation costs and explored their relevant effects. This paper uses numerical general equilibrium trade model structures to simulate the impacts of transportation costs on welfare and trade for a Canada–US country pair case. We compare two groups of model structures: Armington assumption models and homogeneous goods models. Within these two groups of models, we also compare balanced trade structures to trade imbalance structures and production function transportation costs to iceberg transportation costs. Armington goods models generate more absolute welfare gains from transportation cost elimination than homogeneous goods models. Welfare gains under balanced trade structures are larger in production function transportation cost scenarios than in iceberg transportation cost scenarios, but under trade imbalance structures, welfare gains are greater under iceberg transportation cost scenarios. Canada's welfare gains in the iceberg transportation cost scenario are significantly larger than gains in the production function transportation cost scenario. On trade effects, homogeneous goods models generate more export and import gains, balanced trade structures have more trade variations, and iceberg transportation costs generate more trade effects.     

我国主要进口商品的Armington替代弹性估计

本文在对Armington替代弹性进行理论综述的基础上,运用Panel Data回归模型,对我国具有代表性的八种进口商品的Armington替代弹性进行了估计。回归结果表明:八种进口商品的整体替代弹性估计值较低,仅为0.568。其中,原煤的替代弹性估计值最高,为11.502;谷物和电视机的替代弹性估计值较低,分别为1.521和0.788。Armington替代弹性的大小反映的是进口商品与本国商品之间的替代程度,因此,我国原煤的进口敏感性较强,而电视机进口对国内电视机产业的冲击不大。     

The Armington assumption and the size of optimal tariffs

There has been commentary on the seeming success of the world trading system in responding to the large shock of the 2008 financial crisis without an outbreak of retaliatory market closing. The threat of large retaliatory tariffs and fears of a 1930s style downturn in trade have been associated with numerical trade modelling, which projects post retaliation optimal tariffs in excesses of 100%. In the relevant numerical modelling, it is common to use the Armington assumption of product heterogeneity by country. Here, we argue and show by numerical calculation that the widespread use of this assumption gives a large upward bias to optimal tariffs, both first step and post retaliation, relative to alternative homogenous good models used in trade theory. The reason is that optimal tariffs equal the inverse of the foreign export supply elasticity and are negatively related to the elasticity of the foreign offer curve. The Armington assumption model has a much more bowed foreign offer curve, which generates unrealistic larger optimal tariffs.     

Do Imported Commodities Cause Inflation in China? An Armington Substitution Elasticity Analysis

Based on the perspective of Armington substitution elasticity, this article researches the price transmission effect of China’s imported commodities. First, this article focuses on the theory of Armington substitution elasticity of nonhomogeneous products and then estimates the overall level of Armington substitution elasticity of China’s imported commodities. Second, this article studies the fluctuation trend in Armington substitution elasticity’s estimations using a state space model. The results of this article indicate that the value of Armington substitution elasticity of China’s imported commodities is negative and decreased significantly after the international financial crisis, which means that the relationship between China’s imported commodities and domestic products is complementary rather than substitutional. Moreover, this article finds evidence of the price transmission effect in China’s imported commodities. However, this effect is not obvious and weakened after the international financial crisis. Finally, we conclude that, if it wishes to prevent serious inflationary problems in China, the Chinese government should pay attention to the price of domestic products instead of focusing on the hazards of imported inflation (deflation).     

ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF ARMINGTON IMPORT ELASTICITIES FOR A REGIONAL CGE MODEL OF THE ILLINOIS ECONOMY

One of the main concerns associated with the development and use of regional CGE models is the determination of key parameter values, particularly substitution and other price elasticities. A common problem is the lack of appropriate regional data for econometric estimation. Consequently, it is important to identify key parameters that are likely to be important in determining quantitative results and then to prioritize these for estimation where appropriate data are available. In this paper, the focus is on the estimation of the regional trade (import) substitution parameters, which tend to be important in analysis for regional economies (given their openness to trade). Here, commodity import elasticities for the Illinois economy are estimated and tested in a single region CGE model of the Illinois economy. In our econometric estimation, we apply a model that takes account of market size and distance in estimating the substitutability between commodities produced in Illinois and other US states.     

Technology licensing or cost-reducing outsourcing? Game theoretical analysis on consumers' home bias effects and firms' optimal strategies

International cost-reducing outsourcing lowers consumers' perceived quality of products due to home bias. This paper envisages a vertically differentiated Cournot duopoly associated with international, cost-reducing outsourcing and non-outsourcing schemes in both licensing and non-licensing cases. It examines the impacts of home bias effect on the behaviour of firms and welfare. It shows that the optimal strategy of the patent holder varies from situation to situation associated with the home bias effect. In equilibrium, the dominant strategy for the patent holder is licencing and no outsourcing. If a licensee will outsource its inputs after upgrading the quality of its products, then the patent holder will earn higher profits than one in a case where the licensee does not outsource. If both the patent holder and the licensee produce without outsourcing, a welfare-reducing licensing occurs. On the other hand, if the licensee outsources its production inputs but the patent holder does not outsource, then a welfare-improving licensing generates a win-win situation for the patent holder and for society. Furthermore, the smaller the quality gap between two goods prior to implementing licensing, the lower the royalty rate imposed by the patent holder.     

Estimates and Determinants of Armington Elasticities for the U.S. Food Industry

This paper provides estimates of elasticities of substitution between domestic and imported goods for 40 4-digit S.I.C. food manufacturing industries and explains the inter-industry differences among these coefficients in terms of industry sectoral characteristics. The results show that there is a wide range of variation among such elasticities and that the intensity of each industrys percentage of output sold to final consumers, foreign direct investment, expenditures on advertising and the existence of import quotas affect the degree of substitutability between domestic and foreign goods in the face of a relative price change.     

我国油料进口的Armington弹性估计与进口福利波动分析

近年来,油料成为了我国第一大类的进口农产品,为了衡量油料进口对国内生产和整体福利的影响,本文以大豆和油菜籽为例,选取1991-2005年的时间序列数据,测算了其Armington替代弹性和进口福利波动值。从短期来看,大豆和油菜籽进口对国内生产的冲击不大,进口福利的减少主要是由进口价格上涨引起的;而长期替代弹性则较大,如果不重视发展国内生产,提高国内产品的国际竞争力,掌握进口定价权,进口就会对国内生产造成较大冲击,降低整体福利水平。