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This paper aims to examine the changes in global value chains (GVCs) in the years 2020–2022 (times of the COVID-19 pandemic) compared to 2019 (last year before the pandemic). GVCs are illustrated by diagrams based on the statistics on international trade measured by value-added exports and imports. In this paper, the final demand approach is applied to measure international trade by value-added exports and imports and they were computed based on inter-country input-output tables delivered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The catchphrase “Made in the World” makes an impression, but in reality, value chains are rarely global. They are rather regional with three centers. “Factory Europe”, “Factory Asia”, and “Factory America” can easily be identified in the years 2019–2022 as there were three large regional supply hubs in GVCs: Germany, China, and the United States. When the years 2020–2022 were compared to 2019, “Factory Asia” with center in China elevated their position in GVCs at the expense of “Factory Europe” with center in Germany and “Factory America with center in the USA.”

This paper assesses the genealogy of competitive indices in international trade and theoretically develops a measure of export threat which estimates direct competition in vertical market segments. We identify the assumption of homogeneity in these export threat measures as a weakness that undermines accuracy. Hence, we develop a new measure of export threat, the direct intra-market threat (DIMT), which incorporates relative vertical and market share changes over time to accurately estimate a country’s direct threat to other exporters in a third market. We argue that the market segmentation method applied in complement to the DIMT estimate provides an all-encompassing methodology in the estimation of export threat, which we argue is superior to the Dynamic Index of Competitive Threat (DICT) and Direct Threat methodologies. The paper uses the case of China and India (CHINDIA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to assess the empirical estimates of the DIMT relative to DICT and Direct Threat over the period 2000–2021. Our study is motivated by a research gap in the estimation of the competitive threat posed by a large, diversified exporter on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and technological intensity on exports. It incorporates technological intensity and firm heterogeneity into a simplified static, partial equilibrium model, proposing that BITs increase the extensive margin of exports and have a greater impact in technologically underdeveloped sectors. The empirical analysis utilizes a comprehensive dataset covering 191 countries and 22 sectors, employing Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation with various fixed effects to estimate the gravity equations. It provides robust evidence that BITs primarily affect exports by increasing the extensive margin of exports. Furthermore, in sectors with the lowest average technological intensity, an additional BIT is estimated to increase the extensive margin by approximately 18.6 % , while in sectors with the highest average technological intensity, the increase is estimated to be only 8.1 % . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the integrated effects of the USJTA, USJDTA, and the agreement on minerals for electric vehicle batteries. While most previous studies adopted the perfect competitive Armington model to analyze the economic effect of FTAs, it is unrealistic since monopolistic competition is taking place in export markets. To overcome those gaps, this study introduces the computable general equilibrium framework with monopolistic heterogeneity. The empirical results utilize the GTAP-HET transformed data using seven commodity sectors and seven countries which consist of four developed countries such as US, Japan, Canada and the EU and three developing countries such as China, Mexico, and the ROW. The new finding shows that the changes in industry outputs, domestic industry sales, demand for labor and capital, industry sector price, and terms of trade appeared significantly different according to perfect, monopolistic competition, and firm heterogeneity models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions. This study extends the footloose capital model to investigate consumption-generated emissions and consumption taxes in the presence of endogenous firm locations and different market sizes. We find that consumption taxes cause firm relocation and carbon leakage. That is, tax increase in one country induces firms to relocate to the other country; meanwhile, emissions decrease in that country but increase in the other country. We also show that when countries decide on their consumption taxes cooperatively to maximize the joint welfare, the optimal taxes are identical across them, regardless of different market sizes. However, under consumption tax competition, the larger country imposes a higher tax than the smaller country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1911, the Taft Administration undertook one of the most consequential antitrust prosecutions, charging U.S. Steel with violating the Sherman Act. Some accept Taft's claim that he was bound to act by legal principles. Others view these prosecutions as a pre-emptive attack on Theodore Roosevelt, sparked by rivalries within the Republican Party. Neither account is persuasive. The Republicans did split, but the resulting cleavage does not align with either of these arguments. These prosecutions sprang from a struggle over trade policy. Taft tried to liberalize trade twice. With his second failure, Taft abandoned those efforts. He joined the protectionist Stand-Pat wing, turning to antitrust policy to defend the protectionists' interests. The trade-based interpretation resolves several inconsistencies in the traditional narratives, and yields a clearer description of the resulting cleavage. Taft shifted antitrust policy for tactical reasons, not because of legal principles, nor a personal rivalry with Roosevelt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the trigger conditions behind trade wars and explore the prerequisites required to institute trade subsidies. Additionally, it investigates the potential effectiveness of both a trade war and a trade subsidy within an economic framework shaped by the international division of labor, particularly focusing on intermediate goods production. The study formulates a theoretical model for trade wars and derives three crucial findings. Firstly, it establishes that a critical condition for triggering a trade war hinges on maintaining a balanced self-price coefficient of demand, neither excessively large nor small relative to the cross-price coefficient of demand. Secondly, failure to meet this condition would preclude the occurrence of a trade war; instead, it would prompt the emergence of trade subsidies and reciprocal actions between the two countries involved. Lastly, the scale of the trade war or a trade subsidy in this study is not influential in the countries of trade war. Therefore, this study recommends that changing the current market structure of the international division of labor would be necessary to make the trade war or trade subsidies effective.

Trade in intermediate goods has grown in importance over the past decades. However, there is an apparent inability of trade theory to deal with it. A suitable place to look for an explanation is the classical theory, which puts emphasis in the circular aspect of production. This paper uses a classical-production framework, based on Sraffa’s contributions, to investigate the globalization of production. It presents a novel closure to the system of international prices based on given wage disparities. This novel closure emphasizes the relevance of absolute cost advantages in the determination of international prices and the geographical distribution of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigate how some MNEs which spread their home culture over time and space to the rest of the world are affecting, in turn, trade flows from home. By selling products embodying cultural information related to their country of origin, those MNEs embrace the role of ambassadors of their home country. We argue that IKEA offers an ideal case to identify a multinational's culture-promotion effect on trade. We build a dataset on IKEA's presence in foreign markets between 1995 and 2015 and merge it with disaggregated product level trade between pairs of countries. We find solid evidence of an externality linked to IKEA: a setting of an IKEA new store in a destination increases trade flows by around 2% from Sweden for products that resemble to what the multinational offers (despite being completely unrelated to that multinational). This result is driven primarily by the products identified to encompass a high-cultural content. Other robustness checks and tests seem to be very much consistent with the hypothesis of IKEA promoting the Swedish culture to the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by a mutation in the C1 esterase inhibitor gene. HAE affects 1/50,000 people worldwide. Three main types of HAE exist: type I, type II, and type III. Type I is characterized by a deficiency in C1-INH. C1-INH is important in the coagulation complement, contact systems, and fibrinolysis. Most HAE cases are type I. Type I and II HAE result from a mutation in the SERPING1 gene, which encodes C1-INH. Formally known as type III HAE is typically an estrogen-dependent or hereditary angioedema with normal C1-INH activity. Current guidelines now recommend subdividing hereditary angioedema with normal C1 esterase inhibitor gene (HAE-nl-C1-INH formerly known as HAE type III) based on underlying mutations such as in kininogen-1 (HAE-KNG1), plasminogen gene (PLG-HAE), myoferlin gene mutation (MYOF-HAE), heparan sulfate-glucosamine 3-sulfotransferase 6 (HS3ST6), mutation in Hageman factor (factor XII), and in angiopoietin-1 (HAE-ANGPT-1). The clinical presentation of HAE varies between patients, but it usually presents with nonpitting angioedema and occasionally abdominal pain. Young children are typically asymptomatic. Those affected by HAE usually present with symptoms in their early 20s. Symptoms can arise as a result of stress, infection, or trauma. Laboratory testing shows abnormal levels of C1-INH and high levels of bradykinin. C4 and D-dimer levels can also be monitored if an acute HAE attack is suspected. Acute treatment of HAE can include IV infusions of C1-INH, receptor antagonists, and kallikrein inhibitors. Short- and long-term prophylaxis can also be administered to patients with HAE. First-line therapies for long-term prophylaxis also include IV infusion of C1-INH. This review aims to thoroughly understand HAE, its clinical presentation, and how to treat it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research sheds light on how multinationalization affects basic research by firms and how their product scope influences this relationship. Using a matched firm-patent data set, we apply the generality measure of patent citation to investigate the effect of multinationalization on the extent to which patents registered by firms are applicable to diverse technology fields. We find that multinationalization is generally associated with less fundamental patents. However, engaging in more international activities while operating a more diversified portfolio of products is conducive to patents that open the way for follow-up research and inventions. These findings are robust to various specifications and sampling tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power laws in productivity and firm size are well documented empirical regularities. As they are upper right‐tail phenomena, this paper shows that assuming asymptotic power functions for various model primitives (such as demand and firm heterogeneity) are sufficient for matching these regularities. This greatly relaxes the functional‐form restrictions in economic modeling and can be beneficial in certain contexts. We demonstrate this in a modified Melitz (2003) model, which embeds an innovation mechanism so as to endogenize the productivity distribution and generate both of the above‐mentioned power laws. We also investigate the model's welfare implications with regard to innovation by conducting a quantitative analysis of the welfare gains from trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a four-country North-South trade model with two identical countries in each region, this paper studies two types of bilateral free trade agreements: symmetric free trade agreements between countries in the same region, and asymmetric free trade agreements between countries from different regions. It first shows that a symmetric free trade agreement is always beneficial to its members and characterizes when it will increase or decrease the welfare of all countries. It then characterizes when an asymmetric free trade agreement is beneficial to its members and when it is beneficial to all countries. Results of this paper provide a digital technology perspective for international trade agreements. In particular, they imply that countries with less advanced digital technologies in general have incentives to catch up to the more advanced countries and that in some instances it is also in the interest of the digitally more advanced countries to help the digitally less advanced countries shrink the technology gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effects of renewable and nonrenewable energy demand on export product diversification, economic growth, natural resources, human capital, and trade in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries using data of six countries from 1990 to 2019. The empirical analysis integrates the panel unit root tests (IPS and CIPS), panel quantile regression, and fully modified OLS models. The empirical results confirm that there exists a significant negative relationship between renewable energy and export diversification; signifying that diversification of products will reduce renewable energy. Similarly, when compared to the square of export product diversification, it shows a positive and significant correlation. The empirical findings highlighted the presence of Kuznets's hypothesis between export product diversification, renewable, and non-renewable energy consumption. Furthermore, the findings suggest that natural resources and economic growth may increase overall energy consumption in GCC countries. It implies an important policy suggestion that encouraging export diversification will reduce GCC countries' reliance on oil to meet energy demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 highlighted the weaknesses in the supply chain. Many have argued that a more resilient or robust supply chain is needed. But what does a robust supply chain mean? And how do firms' decisions change when taken that approach? This paper studies a very stylized model of a supply chain, where we study how the decision of a multinational corporation changes in the presence of uncertainty. The two standard theories of supply chain are just-in-time and just-in-case. Just-in-time argues in favor of pursuing efficiency, while just-in-case studies how such decision changes when the firm faces idiosyncratic risk. We find that a robust supply chain is very different specially in the presence of systemic shocks. In this case, firms need to concentrate on the worst-case. This strategy implies a supply chain where the allocation of resources and capabilities does not correspond to the standard theories studied in economics, but follow a heuristic behavioral rule called "probability matching." It has been found in nature and in experimental research that subjects appeal to probability matching when seeking survival. We find that a robust supply chain will reproduce this behavioral outcome. In fact, a multinational optimizing under uncertainty follows a probability matching which leads to an allocation that is suboptimal from the individual producer point of view, but rules out the possibility of supply disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]