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Abstract: This paper reflects on the career contributions of Professor Chris Milner to the literature on international trade and economic development. As such, it not only provides an overview of a life's work, but also sets the context for the nine papers which follow. All of these were specially written for this Special Issue of The World Economy, and all relate to different areas that Professor Milner worked in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, Jagdish Bhagwati has made numerous contributions to both trade theory and trade policy analysis. The current paper focuses on Bhagwati's major contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the influence of trade liberalisation upon economic development and its potential to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest economies. In order to highlight Bhagwati's contributions in these fields we focus on the arguments developed in two of his numerous landmark publications; first his seminal 1964 paper on the Pure Theory of International Trade and, second, his 2004 book entitled In Defense of Globalization. Although separated in time by some four decades we argue that these two publications, despite their very different characters, each demonstrate beyond doubt the significance of Bhagwati's work in improving our understanding of the true nature of international trade and its potential to address questions of global poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a sharp growth in the number of regional agreements both concluded and under negotiation. This paper attempts to document and discuss this growth focusing on US, EU, Chinese, Indian and other agreements. The form, coverage and content of these agreements vary considerably from case to case. The paper asks why so many, why the variation in form, and why the recent acceleration. Implications for the trading system are discussed in a final section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic implications of international trade in a two-sector overlapping-generations economy with endogenous growth. It analyses the global dynamics of this model for both a closed economy and a two-country world economy. It shows how international trade can cause the world economy to sort itself out into groups of fast and slow-growing economies and can also cause one country to catch up and overtake another's growth rate. U thus provides theoretical support for empirical papers which find that the world distribution of income is diverging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anderson and vanWincoop developed what has become the standard framework for framing and interpreting empirical work using the gravity model. Their framework relies heavily on an assumption of symmetry among countries. For issues related to North-South trade, this assumption is problematic. In this paper, we develop an asymmetric extension of the Anderson-vanWincoop framework appropriate to the analysis of North-South trade, where Northern countries produce differentiated goods and Southern countries homogenous ones. In addition, we use an appropriately extended version of Baier and Bergtrand and Taylor linear expansion - thus permitting its estimation using (good old) OLS. The result is an empirical model that (i) is better suited to the analysis of North-South trade, (ii) is easy to estimate and compute comparative statics, not requiring a customised NLS routine and, given the way the South is included, (iii) provides a simple explanation of zero trade flows between some country pairs, a fact still not fully explained in the literature. As an illustration of its use, we examine the empirical link between foreign aid and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the effect of international trade on income growth depend on the economy’s level of development? More specifically, is trade more beneficial to lower income economies? Does trade contribute to a smaller international income inequality? The present paper seeks to answer these questions by employing the empirical model of Frankel and Romer (1999 ), which shows trade increases income growth in a cross section of 150 countries. We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that international trade benefits the lower income economies more than it benefits the higher income economies. This finding is robust in the presence of control variables including distance from the equator and institutional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, China and North Korea have been described as 'blood brothers' because of their common socialist ideological ground. Since 2000 the basis of their relationship has shifted from one-sided economic support by China into strategic and mutual cooperation. In this paper, we analyse changes in their relationship by examining two specific points: first, China's growing investment and trade in North Korea, and second, close linkages of regional development strategies between the two countries. While the prevalent discussions around North Korea and its relations with China concentrate on geopolitical issues, this research shed more light on geoeconomic engagement between China and North Korea. This paper argues that it is crucial to grasp how China and North Korea perform geoeconomic calculations toward each other and how this affects geopolitical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research has generally attributed the dismal performance of Africa's economic growth to country-specific socio-economic and geo-political factors. This paper shows that while country-specific issues matter for Africa's economic growth, common global economic factors do matter as well. The importance of common global economic factors has been augmented by increased globalization, the introduction of the World Trade Organization and the current global economic crisis. Using system GMM panel data techniques that extend previous literature on Africa's growth, the estimation results provide new insights into the positive relationship between the world business cycle and the growth rates of African countries. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the main causes of bilateral trade flows in OECD countries. The specific features of the study include the explicit introduction of R&D and FDI as the two important explanatory variables, conduct of unit root tests in the panel data framework and careful consideration of endogeneity. The main findings are that the levels and similarities of market size, domestic R&D stock and inward FDI stock are positively related to bilateral trade, while the distance, measured by both geographical distance and relative factor endowment, between trade partner countries has a negative impact. These findings lend support to new trade, FDI and new growth theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to quantify the potential gains in trade performance from the implementation of trade facilitation reform. The study applies a gravity model augmented with trade facilitation, regulatory quality and infrastructure indicators to assess the impact of trade facilitation and other trade-related constraints on export performance. Quantitatively, our results suggest that a 10 per cent improvement in trade facilitation would yield an increase in exports of about 5 per cent. Identical percentage improvements in the regulatory environment and in the quality of infrastructure provision would result in increases of 9–11 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The results confirm that while trade facilitation can contribute to improved export performance, improvements in the quality of the regulatory environment and the basic transport and communications infrastructure are equally or more important, in facilitating export growth. The conclusion is that trade facilitation alone is unlikely to result in a significant improvement in export performance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with status-seeking agents. We show that the introduction of status-seeking behavior brings about new properties in equilibrium dynamics. While there exists a continuum of steady states in the standard dynamic models, the present framework demonstrates that, under some conditions, there uniquely exists an incompletely specialized steady state, which is locally saddle-point stable. Therefore, catching-up and overtaking phenomena seen in economic development can be explained, and comparative statics analysis also is made possible. Our comparative statics analysis illustrates, for example, that trade pattern is determined in the Heckscher–Ohlin manner; the patient country acts just like a capital abundant one to export the capital-intensive good. Furthermore, as distinct from the existing literature, the present study shows that the existence of an incompletely specialized steady state can be ensured even if the two countries conduct different policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates various channels through which foreign technology diffuses to the manufacturing sector of developing economies. These economies undertake virtually no own R&D, so they rely on foreign technology to a much larger extent than developed economies. We investigate the direct effect of foreign R&D, as well as technology embodied in imports of intermediate and capital goods and foreign direct investment, on the growth of total factor productivity and value added in the manufacturing sector of 32 economies during 1965–92. We find that foreign R&D typically has the biggest positive impact on domestic productivity and value-added growth. Imports of capital goods and foreign direct investment also play a similar role, but their effect is of smaller magnitude and is not always significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long tradition in the development literature that what a country exports matters for its growth prospects. Recent work has refocused on this issue by attempting to produce numerical scores for different types of product to identify the complexity or sophistication of a country's export basket. Based on the insight that the type of product an economy exports can have important implications for its economic performance and that goods exported predominantly by rich countries will have different characteristics from those exported by poor countries, Lall et al. (2006) put forward a means of classifying commodities based on the income levels of a product's main exporters. At around the same time, Hausmann et al. (2006), following a similar approach, put forward a slightly different form of product classification and Rodrik (2006) applied this specifically to an analysis of China. This paper highlights the difference between the approaches and its implications for the analysis of China, which appears less 'special' using the approach of Lall et al. It argues that the classification of products at a disaggregate level is a helpful starting point for assessing issues of trade competitiveness and that further work using either or both forms of classification is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically focuses on examining the hypotheses of export premium (exporters are more productive than non-exporters), selection-into-exporting (more productive firms are ones that tend to become exporters) and learning-by-exporting (new export market entrants have higher productivity growth than non-exporters in the post-entry period). The propensity score matching method is used to adjust for observable differences of firm characteristics between exporters and non-exporters, allowing an adequate 'like-for-like' comparison. We also use the difference-in-difference matching estimator to capture the magnitude of different productivity growth between matched new export market entrants and non-exporters in the post-entry period up to two years. Drawing on 2,340 Chinese firms in the period 2000-02, we find evidence for export premium and self-selection, and once the firm has entered the export market there is additional productivity growth from the learning effect, in particular in the second year after entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reprints the paper "Uses and Limitations of International Trade in Overcoming Inequalities in World Distribution of Population and Resources," by Folke Hilgerdt, which was presented to the first post-war World Population Conference in Rome in 1954. Discussion about international disequilibrium; Utilization of modern technology in a manner permitting organic economic growth; Factors involved in the problem of international economic integration.

The aim of this paper is to re-appraise the significance of the "real" as distinct from the "monetary" aspect of Smith's international trade theory. It will be argued that Smith's theory of foreign trade is so closely interwoven with his theory of domestic economic development that the two have to be considered together. This means that Smith's trade theory should not be treated simply as a static cross-section analysis of the existing pattern of trade based on the allocation of the given resources with the given productivity; rather it should be considered as an attempt to study the longer-run mutual interaction between foreign trade and domestic economic development, essentially involving an increase in the total volume of the resources and a rise in their productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade in a bilateral context, that is, home country's exports and FDI to a host country are analyzed using a gravity-model approach. The home country's primary concern in this study is on the possible loss of employment due to more FDI than trade. There have been concerns on knowledge spillovers and the erosion of technological leadership due to capital outflows. For a host country, the focus is on the effects of FDI on economic growth and development and technology trasfer. In this study, it is being hypothesized that institutional requirements are likely to be different for trade and FDI transactions. While geography and poverty may discourage trade, good institutions can help in other forms of economic integration with the rest of the world.

Copyright of Politics & Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT: Following United States withdrawal, the Trans‐Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) is likely to be replaced or complemented by a series of bilateral deals between the US and TPP partners. In this case, TPP will shape trade, finance and public policy globally even without formal US participation. Proponents of TPP emphasize its prospective economic benefits, with economic growth increasing due to rising trade volumes and investment. Widely cited projections suggest modest GDP gains after 10 years, varying from less than half a percentage point in the USA to 13 per cent in Vietnam. However, these projections assume full employment and constant income distribution in all countries, excluding some of the major risks of trade liberalization. This article provides alternative projections of the TPP's economic effects using the United Nations Global Policy Model, which allows for changes in employment and income distribution. Using this model, the authors obtain very different results. They find that the benefits to economic growth are even smaller than those projected with full‐employment models, and are negative for Japan and the USA. More importantly, they find that the TPP will likely lead to losses in employment and increases in inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Asian economies have become more connected through physical and institutional infrastructure, the region's trade has grown and changed. Intraregional trade has increased its share, in large part through the expansion of trade in intermediates in connection with development of global value chains. At the same time, as part of the same process and as part of the structural transformation that underlies most economic development, the share of services in Asia's trade has risen. Policies that support the development of regional infrastructure and the flow of goods and services, as well as factors of production, can increase the benefits from connectivity. Meanwhile, regional cooperation has a key role to play in mitigating negative impacts that may arise from the vulnerabilities that accompany greater connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the tools of network analysis to graphically and analytically represent the characteristics of world trade. The structure of the World Trade Network is compared over time, detecting and interpreting patterns of trade ties among countries. The results show that the trading system has become more intensely interconnected, and trade integration at the world level has been increasing, but it is still far from being complete, with the exception of a few areas. At the same time, we observed a strong and increasing heterogeneity in countries' choice of trade partners, with countries holding very different positions within the network, so that it is very difficult to talk of a representative country in the international trade system. Network indices were also used in a gravity model regression, adding to the explanatory power of the model. Furthermore, the analysis shows that trade policies do play a role in shaping the trade network, and that WTO members are more closely connected than the rest of the world. The structural difference between the extensive and the intensive margin of trade is also highlighted. An important feature of these results is that they pertain to the trading system as a whole, giving a unified view of the system characteristics and complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the effects of a common currency. In particular, the impact of a common currency on growth via trade and tourism is explored for a panel dataset which includes 179 countries as destination and 30 OECD countries as origin over the period 1995-2006. This research contributes to previous work in three ways: (i) tourism is included as an additional channel for a common currency to promote growth; (ii) the heterogeneity of countries is addressed by dividing the sample into three groups of countries by income; and (iii) up-to-date data including the case of the euro are considered. The results obtained suggest that a common currency strengthens economic growth by promoting not only international trade but also tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much ownership is enough to exert strategic control over partners in the global marketplace? Top management frequently will attempt to have strategic influence over partners when it comes to the strategic direction of the organization. The question becomes, 'what gives one partner control over another, and where does that power come from in the relationship?' This research examines the issue of strategic control in organizations in Australia and the United States to determine how to control global relationships. The research found that: (1) ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (2) directness of ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (3) dispersion is negatively related to the degree of strategic control; (4) board membership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; and (5) strategic control between U.S. and Australian organizations/relationships is different. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial competitiveness (IC), reflecting a country's ability to produce and export manufactures competitively, is closely associated with economic growth. How does globalization affect IC? While the topic is of great importance, empirical studies on the issue in the literature have been limited. This article attempts to close the gap by estimating the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade with cross-country data in 1985 and 1998. Taking advantage of a recently constructed IC index, we estimate several regression models of effects of FDI and trade on industrial performance. Results suggest that FDI and trade have a positive impact on IC, and increasing integration with the world economy through FDI and trade contributes to better industrial performance. ( JEL F02, F10, F21, L60) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1250) Eric Hazard, Lotje De Vries, Mamadou Alimou Barry and Alexis Aka Anouan, with Nicolas Pinaud African countries have deepened their commercial and diplomatic relationships with China and India, and Senegal has been no exception. The historical context of the relationships, however, has differed. While Senegal already enjoyed a long-lasting and stable relationship with India, relations with China have been more erratic, in particular on account of Dakar’s recognition of the Republic of China. We analyse trade and investment patterns with the Asian Drivers and how Senegal can form a relationship with these two superpowers that can contribute to its national development objectives. Contrary to other countries in Africa, Senegal is not a large producer of natural resources other than phosphates and fisheries and its consumer market is also rather limited. We find scarce evidence of large-scale FDI flows and the amount of official development assistance is similarly anecdotic. For China and India, Senegal is of some interest as a logistical and commercial centre, rather than a production base for regional or foreign markets. Over the longer run, as these two countries are likely to become more important for Senegal simply on account of their increasing relevance on the world stage, we argue that it is essential that the authorities take these factors into account in developing policies that cater for economic development and social priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral Trade Agreements (BTAs) have been proliferating. Why are they so popular? What are their impacts on multilateralism and the world trade system? The article identifies the general and specific factors driving the growth in BTAs, and examines how BTAs in general and different types of BTAs are affecting the world trade system. Although the sheer number of BTAs is fragmenting the world trade system, the impact of individual BTAs often depends on their underlying motivation. The article also portrays scenarios for the future landscape of world trade and possible responses. Is the consolidation of BTAs into region-wide agreements a solution or simply a new problem? How can we multilateralise bilateralism and repair the world trade system? The article attempts to answer these questions, with or without Doha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does openness affect economic development? This question is answered in the context of a dynamic general equilibrium model of the world economy, where countries have technological differences that are both sector neutral and specific to the investment goods sector. Relative to a benchmark case of trade in credit markets only, consider (i) a complete restriction of trade and (ii) a full liberalization of trade. The first change decreases the cross-sectional dispersion of incomes only slightly, and produces a relatively small welfare loss. The second change, instead, decreases dispersion by a significant amount, and produces a very large welfare gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the question of whether economic aid, international trade or a combination of both is most helpful to the poorest countries. Poor countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, have not been able to sustain any economic growth despite receiving billions of dollars in aid. While some believe that aid has been misused and wasted prohibiting growth, others think that inherent characteristics of those countries such as geography, poor government and economic structure cause them to remain poor. Most developing countries, including the poorest, have attempted to facilitate and encourage a dynamic trading private sector by liberalizing trade but with little success.

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The effect of increasing openness on real output growth in China is examined. The framework of analysis is a regression model that uses time-series data for each province. For east coastal provinces, increasing openness is found to have positive effects on real output growth, and some of the effects are statistically significant. The results appear to be broadly consistent with the new growth theories that openness enhances long-run growth through its impact on technological improvement. However, inland provinces in China have been isolated from world trade for several decades and their economies devastated. An increased openness in these provinces is found to have, in most cases, negative effects on real output growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade in promoting economic growth across selected developing countries and examines the interaction among FDI, trade, and economic growth. Data from 66 developing countries are examined. Results of the study suggest that FDI, trade, human capital, and domestic investment are important sources of economic growth for developing countries. It is discovered that there is a strong positive interaction between FDI and trade in advancing economic growth. Results also show that FDI stimulates domestic investment. The contribution of FDI to economic growth is enhanced by its positive interaction with human capital and sound macroeconomic policies and institutional stability. With the results, there is an implication that lowering the inflation rate, tax burden, and government consumption would advance economic growth in developing countries.

In an Economic Viewpoint published in the September 2005 edition of Economic Affairs , ‘Can Globalisation Depress Living Standards in the West?’, Professor E. J. Mishan argued that globalisation may reduce living standards in the West by decreasing the labour–capital ratio in developed countries as firms move production to countries where labour is cheaper and/or migrants to the West from the developing world bid down wage rates. In a reply to Professor Mishan's article, Dr John Meadowcroft argues that this view of globalisation is far too pessimistic and explains why free trade, not protection, will secure the prosperity of developed and developing economies. In a final comment, Professor Mishan responds to this critique of his analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Libya's economic prosperity in 2006 and the coming years as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 20, 2007. According to the directors of IFA that the market performance of the country is due to large petroleum reserves and high hydrocarbon prices. Thus, government authorities have been improving the business environment including halved the consumption tax on imported goods and abolished all remaining state import monopolies.

The article focuses on the African Trade Initiative launched by Bob Geldof and the Africa advocacy group Data. This trade plan seeks to ensure Africa's economic growth despite increased exports and regional trade as it highlights the need for the European Union (EU) and U.S. markets to welcome African products and subsidy reform. Data contends that the EU is exposing Africa into potentially unfair trade agreements. Geldof advocates the termination of the enforcement of trade liberalization on the poor.

The article reports on the aid and trade relation between European Union (EU) and Africa to counter China in the quest for energy and other resources. It aims to position Europe more favorably than China in terms of economic growth. The comment from the European Commission on EU's partnership with Africa is stated. In relation, it also offers information on the EU-Africa summit to be held in December in Lisbon, Portugal, wherein efforts to improve control of African migration to Europe and human trafficking will be discussed.