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We study the effects of income distribution on comparative costs and show that the presence of produced means of production dramatically affects the possibility to build a “chain of comparative advantages” to explain the direction of trade. Specifically, we show that: i) comparative autarky costs are bad predictors of the trade pattern because comparative costs are no longer proportional to relative wages; ii) to ensure that a single break in the chain suffices to separate imported from exported commodities, at most one tradable capital good may be employed in production. With heterogeneous capital goods, the chain may need to be broken into many segments. iii) A change in the profit rate may alter the ordering of the links, even if the chain is well behaved for a constant profit rate. And iv) the plausibility of the chain of comparative advantages requiring multiple links for the same industry increases with the profit rate.

This paper builds upon Pasinetti's pure labour model, formalizing some of the insights that he has provided into the structure of international trade. A systematic approach is followed, starting with restrictive assumptions that are relaxed in subsequent stages of analysis. The starting point is a model in which two countries, one advanced and the other underdeveloped, have equal costs of production. This implies that there are no incentives for trade. At a second stage, we introduce and formalize the conditions required for these countries to exhibit absolute cost advantages, based on wage disparities. Finally, the paper establishes the conditions required for comparative advantage, based on relative differences in technology. Building on an interpretation of Ricardo's writings on trade, it is shown that absolute advantage is critical for the two countries to realise potential cost reductions afforded by comparative advantage. This abstract insight, based on the Pasinetti pure labour system, suggests that absolute advantage has a more fundamental role in international trade than given by previous studies, which focus more on either the international mobility of money capital or the international fragmentation of production.

Does the growth of non-polluting exports lead to better environmental performance? The answer depends on how these exports rest on local comparative advantages. The more exports rely on polluting inputs, the worse their environmental performance would be. In practice, it is difficult to directly measure the polluting inputs for exporting products at the local level. This study proposes an approach to measure the reliance of exports on local polluting inputs, based on the product relatedness theories and the resource-based view of firms. This approach applies the locational quotient to indicate local resource advantages. Then, it uses the co-occurrence probability to measure the product relatedness of one export to local resource advantages. Finally, it distinguishes the product relatedness to polluting resource advantages from non-polluting ones. A higher level of polluting product relatedness is expected to depress the environmental performance of exports. Using 30 sectors in 281 Chinese cities as a case, this study applies the fixed effect model and the threshold regression model to examine the effects of product relatedness on environmental performance. Empirical results support the efficiency of using product relatedness to predict the environmental performance of exports. A higher level of polluting product relatedness leads to poorer environmental performance and more adverse effects of export growth on the environment.

Labour force participation rate (LFPR) is always a concern in economic view in Malaysia. This research study on how the labour force factors will affect the LFPR according to gender perspective for every state in Malaysia from the year 2011 to 2016. Static Panel Data analysis were used in this study. By using Fixed effect model (FEM), outside labour force, non-married, secondary, and tertiary education level have inverse relationship with male LFPR, while the marital status of labour force has positive relationship with male LFPR. Next, for the effect of determinants and characteristics of labour force on female LFPR, Random effect model (REM) was used. The model shows that unemployed, widowed status, outside labour force, and marital status have an inverse relationship with female LFPR. Meanwhile, non-formal education level, tertiary education level, and age group between 40-64 have positive relationship with female LFPR. In conclusion, it is important to understand the LFPR according to gender in Malaysia because it will shape the comparative advantage and describes the situation of Malaysia’s labour market. This study provides an overview of labour force in Malaysia using an appropriate statistical modelling known as panel data approach.

PurposeUnder the circumstance that the development of developing countries is a major issue that has long been of concern to Marxist scholars, the research is focused on the category of development benefit, which Xi Jinping has mentioned many times.Design/methodology/approachBased on the Marxist theory of international value, the authors of this paper indicate that development benefit is the result of developing countries' consistently increasing labor productivity, reducing squandering in labor and transforming more labor into real value, and thus the fundamental cause of unequal development in international economics turns from the field of circulation to the area of production.FindingsAlso, the authors summarize China's experience of obtaining the development benefit and China's development path featuring common development and criticized the comparative advantage of mainstream Western economics, revealed the path of dependency development represented by mainstream Western economics.Originality/valueFinally, the authors analyze the essence of the economy and trade conflict between China and the US and the respective strategic goals of the two countries and provide an outlook on the contest between the two roads of development and the evolutionary trend of the relationship between developed and developing countries.

We develop a model where selection into marriage and household search generate a marital wage premium. Beyond selection, married individuals earn higher wages for two reasons. First, income pooling within a joint household raises risk-averse individuals’ reservation wages. Second, married individuals climb the job ladder faster, as they internalize that higher wages increase their partner’s selectivity over offers. Specialization according to comparative advantage in search generates a premium that increases in spousal education, as in the data. Quantitatively, household search explains 10–33 percent and 20–58 percent of the premium for males and females, respectively, and accounts for its increase with spousal education. (JEL D83, J12, J16, J24, J31, J64)

The presented paper aims to evaluate the development and competitiveness of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic for the period 2016 – 2020. In the article, we present the priorities of Slovakia within the commodity structure. We use the RCA indicator to identify comparative advantages. In this paper, we also compare the actual and estimated development of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic in the years 2018 – 2020. Based on the reached results, we can state that we achieve an ever-increasing trade balance deficit in agri-food foreign trade. Produced results confirmed all the research assumptions presented in the paper. Despite the increase in export and import of agri-food products, the negative trade balance is still deeper. A significant deviation of real development from the predicted values can be explained by the influence of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19, which slowed down the possible further development of agricultural trade.

The main characteristics of approaches to the discussion of the sufficiency of grounds for the introduction / cancellation of state regulation due to the identification of failures in the price mechanism are revealed. The comparison of approaches is presented on the basis of the problem of externalities. In this regard, the provisions from the theory of externalities have been clarified in terms of their definition and correlation with the conditions for optimal allocation of resources, and certain types of external effects are presented. The key types of correction of price mechanism failures are considered, including regulatory intervention, setting up the price mechanism (including the creation of missing markets), maintaining the status quo with externalities. On this basis, the main properties of the Pigouvian and Coasian approaches in economics are determined in relation to the problems of this form of market failure. The features of Coasianism as a functionalist approach to research in contrast to fundamental liberalism are revealed. Taking into account the importance of values, the opportunities for designing of compensatory transactions and the supply and demand of economic knowledge, assessments of the prospects of functionalism and fundamentalisms are presented as a guide to action in the field of discussion and political decision-making. The comparative advantages of functionalism and fundamentalisms in the intellectual traditions of discussing the role of the state in the economy are shown.

In this study, it is aimed to determine the comparative advantages of 15 countries, which are party to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement as a new economic entity in the Asia-Pacific region, in exports on the basis of standard product groups. To do so, calculations were made with the Balassa Index to measure the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) between 2011 and 2020. The products exported by the countries are divided into 13 standard product groups in total according to their factor intensities in production (low, medium, high technology; labour, raw materials, capital intensive; easy-to-imitate and hard-to-imitate, minerals and metals, mineral fuels, agricultural products, textiles, manufacturing). and RCA coefficients are determined for each group separately. According to the findings, RCEP countries (9 countries) are mostly specialised in agricultural product groups. This sector is followed by the manufacturing industry (8 countries) and raw material-intensive goods (7 countries). In the easy-to-imitate and hard-to-imitate groups where research-based goods are included, 7 countries, and in the high technology group, 6 countries have specialised and achieved a comparative advantage in exports. In these research-based groups, especially China, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Japan are advantageous., Bu çalışmada, Asya-Pasifik bölgesinde yeni bir iktisadi oluşum olarak Bölgesel Kapsamlı Ekonomik Ortaklık (RCEP) anlaşmasına taraf olan 15 ülkenin, standart ürün grupları bazında ihracattaki karşılaştırmalı üstünlüklerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bunun için 2011-2020 arası yıllar seçilmiş ve Açıklanmış Karşılaştırmalı Üstünlükleri (RCA) ölçmek için de Balassa İndeksi ile hesaplamalar yapılmıştır. Ülkelerin ihraç ettiği ürünler, üretimdeki faktör yoğunluklarına göre (düşük, orta, yüksek teknoloji; emek, hammadde, sermaye yoğun; kolay taklit ve zor taklit, madenler ve metaller, mineral yakıtlar, tarımsal ürünler, tekstil, imalat) toplamda 13 standart ürün grubuna ayrılmış ve her grup için ayrı ayrı RCA katsayıları belirlenmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, RCEP ülkeleri (9 ülke) en fazla tarımsal ürün gruplarında uzmanlaşmıştır. Bu sektörü imalat sanayi (8 ülke) ve hammadde yoğun mallar (7 ülke) izlemiştir. Araştırma bazlı malların yer aldığı kolay taklit ve zor taklit gruplarda ise 7 ülke, yüksek teknoloji grubunda ise 6 ülke uzmanlaşmış ve ihracatta karşılaştırmalı üstünlük elde etmiştir. Araştırma bazlı bu gruplarda özellikle Çin, Vietnam, Güney Kore, Malezya, Tayland, Filipinler, Singapur ve Japonya’nın üstünlüğü söz konusudur.

The present study investigates the impact of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the comparative advantage (CA) of the Belt and Road countries (BRCs). This study uses the national-l...

This study examines the evolution of non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries in the twenty-first century in terms of steel trade and aims to shed light on how emerging/developing countries have evolved since the early 2000s. For this purpose, the revealed symmetric comparative advantage index and the trade balance index were developed for the whole steel industry and some broad product categories. Further, multilevel analysis over time provided important insights into the catch-up dynamics in non-OECD countries, indicating how they have evolved in recent years. The macro-level analysis showed that there were considerable differences in patterns of comparative advantage and international competitiveness between OECD and non-OECD countries. In the twenty-first century, non-OECD countries certainly experienced a steady increase in steel production/exports; however, the results suggest that only a limited number of non-OECD countries improved their international competitiveness. Nevertheless, some seemed to have gradually gained their comparative advantage, albeit marginally. This implies that although the catch-up of non-OECD countries in the international steel market may be progressing gradually, it is still not enough. The micro-level analysis assessed the linkages between technology selection and export performance of major non-OECD steel-producing countries over time. Although the current catch-up of the steel industry in non-OECD countries is limited, the technology selection of steel firms in some countries in the twentieth century and Chinese steel firms’ blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace technology selection in the twenty-first century have significantly impacted their catch-up progress.

Using a granular model of international trade, we study the rationale and implications of various government interventions targeted at large individual firms. In antitrust regulation, governments face an incentive to be overly lenient towards domestic mergers in comparative advantage sectors. In trade policy, targeting individual foreign exporters rather than entire sectors minimizes the pass-through of import tariffs into domestic consumer prices, shifting the burden towards foreign producers. In industrial policy, subsidizing ‘national champions’ is generally suboptimal in closed economies as it leads to an excessive build-up of market power, yet it may become unilaterally welfare improving in open economies at the cost of the foreign consumers.

This paper develops a dynamic model of innovation and international trade in which agents can direct their research efforts to specific goods in the economy. Trade affects the direction of innovation through its impact on the expected market size for an invention, leading to a two-way relationship between trade and technology absent in standard quantitative Ricardian models. Following a theory-consistent strategy to estimate the extent of endogenous adjustments in technology, I find that they can account for about half of the observed variance in comparative advantage in production in a sample of 29 countries and 18 manufacturing industries. In addition, the model suggests that standard Ricardian models overestimate the reductions in real income from increases in trade costs and underestimate the rise in real income due to trade liberalizations. (JEL F11, F14, L60, O31, O32)

In the last decades Brazil has become a global agri-food powerhouse. The article interrogates the shape and its stability of revealed comparative advantages in 46 of its agri-food products for the period 1995-2017. The results support the argument that the Brazil's agri-food trade was formed by comparative advantages of specific agri-food sectors. The results show that the external shape of agri-food specialization has strengthened, first since early 2000s and second when the trade shifted more towards China. The pattern was stable according revealed comparative (dis)advantage of particular products, more changes occurred in each product's score and in ranking of products. Products without initial comparative advantage seem to remain uncompetitive whilst the products with strong initial comparative advantage continue to be competitive. The persistence in distribution has increased. This suggests, the shape of Brazil's revealed comparative advantage in agri-food trade has evolved towards its finite structure (ceteris paribus).

Honey has beneficial physiological effects, it is a valuable agricultural export product and widely used worldwide as food and medicine also. The primary aim of this present study is to demonstrate the honey production and trade of the EU member states known as Visegrad Four between 2000 and 2018. Also an objective of this article is the calculation of the actual comparative advantages of the Visegrad Four in foreign trade in natural honey using the RCA (relative comparative advantages) indices. During the research and analysis, different international and EU Databases were used. Secondary data used in the analysis derive from the reports of National Apiculture Programmes, the European Commission and the European Committee and from the databases of Faostat, Trademap and the United Nations Comtrade Database. V4 countries account for about 25% of the total EU apiculture sector, and the cooperation of Visegrad Four countries in the field of beekeeping could make a major contribution to the competitiveness of the sector. Examining the import and export data, using RCA indices it was proved that Hungary has a comparative advantage in terms of natural honey, however the competitiveness of the beekeeping sector in the region depends on the common performance of all four countries. Due to the stability of the sector and the positive externalities, authors suggest the further support of the apiary in the region.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide with a condensed overview of location competitiveness from the perspectives of specific pioneering theories to highlight the main factors, which lay the foundations for latter theories specifically dedicated to location-bound advantages, to specialization processes and, in fine, to location competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach The study is divided into five major sections. First, location competitiveness is tackled from Smith’s frame of reference in the theory of absolute advantages. Second, Ricardo’s comparative advantages are scrutinized and specific complementary findings to Smith are highlighted. Third, Marshall’s industrial districts are investigated, as they constitute the linchpin of numerous latter approaches on location competitiveness. Fourth, the Keynesian perspective is considered as far as the role of government on location competitiveness is concerned. Fifth, endogenous growth theories are considered as they relate to capital, innovation and knowledge, which are factors intrinsically associated with agglomeration patterns and to location competitiveness. Findings The main finding of this literature review suggests that pioneering theories also identify location competitiveness as having a fundamental influence on firms’ ability to prosper in terms of wealth creation and of competitive advantages and vice versa. Originality/value The originality of this study is to investigate seminal authors from the perspective of location competitiveness and to highlight how numerous later researches dedicated to the subject are indeed based on pioneering theories. On this basis, it is subsequently possible to capture location competitiveness and to implement relevant policy measures to improve economic prosperity.

This paper develops a general equilibrium model of international trade in homogeneous intermediate inputs. In the model, trade between countries is driven exclusively by uncertainty in the delivery of inputs. Because their managers are risk-averse, final good firms contract with multiple suppliers located in different countries in an attempt to decrease the variability of their profits. The analysis shows that risk diversification provides an incentive for international trade over and above such reasons as comparative advantages (emphasized in classical models of international trade) and economies of scale (emphasized in new trade models), and highlights a new channel – a reduction in uncertainty – through which trade liberalization increases welfare.

Countries’ scientific systems are a key element of the knowledge economy. This paper explores the convergence pattern of the scientific systems of a wide range of countries around the world during the period 2003–2016. Drawing on data on national scientific production from a sample of 121 developed and developing countries, the log t test methodology has been used to detect whether there has been an overall convergence in knowledge creation among countries, if they have converged in clubs, or if there have been divergent countries. The results show the absence of overall convergence; on the contrary, the presence of five groups of countries that converge together has been detected, showing differentiated knowledge production growth trajectories among them. A divergent country (UK) has also been identified. Furthermore, the paper examines the scientific structure of these clubs and the countries that form them, identifying in which scientific fields the scientific systems of countries have a comparative advantage/disadvantage in relation to the world average.

The Ricardian comparative advantage is one key cornerstone in the international trade theory. There is no shortage of textbooks supposing that Ricardo used solely labour as a factor of production. This approach originates with Haberler in the 1930s, who wrote that Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage is robust, but not the labor-cost doctrine, which, Haberler assumed, Ricardo applied. This paper summarizes why Haberler’s perspective emerged, essaying an explanation of his way of interpreting Ricardo. To do this, we considered the new research on Ricardo, whose facets to be known seem to renew over time and never end.

This paper explores whether the China–Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into effect in 2007, has led to advantages or disadvantages for the participating countries. It assesses the gains and losses associated with the agreement rigorously using two different approaches. First, the revealed comparative advantage index is calculated for 10 commodity groups. This identifies the commodity groups in which the participating countries have a comparative advantage. Second, trade creation and trade diversion are estimated for overall imports and for the commodity‐group level imports. This analysis provides useful information about the commodity groups in which a particular party to the FTA is experiencing an advantage or a disadvantage. The findings of the study show that China has an advantage in producing capital‐intensive goods whereas Pakistan has a comparative advantage in the production of primary and semimanufactured goods. The empirical findings also indicate that, overall, the formation of the bilateral free trade agreement between Pakistan and China enhances trade with member countries as well as with nonparticipating countries.

This article introduces collective rationality and comparative advantage into understanding household financial decision-making responsibility allocation and its relationship to wealth accumulation. Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) shows that conscientiousness, memory, and numeracy are favorable personal attributes for household financial decision-making. Greater relative advantages in these attributes predict a higher probability of assuming financial responsibility. Households that assign the disadvantaged spouse as the financial decision-maker tend to have a lower total net worth and a lower financial net worth. Our results suggest that it is critical for financial planning professionals to engage both spouses in the initial discussion of household finances and to assess the efficiency of the status quo financial decision-making responsibility allocation.

Despite the geographical and cultural convergence and the strategic depth that connects Egypt and the countries of the Nile Basin, the value of trade exchange between Egypt and these countries is considered weak, and does not correspond to the desired volume and value of trade, especially the value of Egyptian exports. Results: The value of the net trade balance took a general and statistically increasing trend, and the annual increase amounted to about $ 27.56 million, with an annual increase rate of about 5.03%, and it was found that the average rate of net exchange between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries amounted to about 85.69%. During the same period, while the rate of change during the period reached about -8.54%, which reflects the trend of trade exchange during the study period in favor of the Nile Basin countries, despite the fact that there is a trade surplus in relation to Egypt. The results showed: The previous results show: the existence of an apparent comparative advantage for Egyptian exports during the study period, and both the market share rate and the apparent comparative advantage coefficient of the Egyptian exports to the Nile Basin countries were shown in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, which indicates the interest of the Egyptian state in this The important file in the recent period, thus increasing the volume of trade and economic cooperation between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries. The results revealed that the most important factors affecting the movement of Egyptian exports to the Nile Basin countries (2006-2019), which turned out to be as follows, Q1: The population of the Nile Basin countries (one million people), Q2: The total value of the national income of the Nile Basin countries (Billion dollars), Q3: The total value of the GDP of the Nile Basin countries (billion. Dollars), Q4: The total value of the GDP of Egypt (billion dollars), Q5: the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar (pounds), and it has been found that there is a relationship The two factors are in agreement with economic logic and statistically significant between the two factors of the total value of Egypt's GDP, the exchange rate of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar (pounds), and the elasticity of each of them was estimated at 3.15.292, respectively, and the most important of these two factors affected the increase in exports It is the GDP of Egypt and that there is a direct relationship between them.

This paper studies the factors of comparative advantage within global value chains relying on a framework where comparative advantage is measured through the interaction of country and industry characteristics. We find that good institutions give a comparative advantage in the later stages of the production process, whereas good transport infrastructure gives an advantage in the early stages of production. We explain these results by pointing at whether trade costs are additive or multiplicative.

Labor costs in China have been increasing dramatically in recent years, spurring worries that the country may lose its comparative advantage in manufacturing and its role as the “World’s Factory”. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of rising labor costs on China’s attractiveness to multinationals and its competitiveness in exports, by using regional variations in minimum wage distortion as possibly exogenous shocks to unskilled-labor costs. We first develop a two-sector model by introducing the minimum wage into a general equilibrium model which integrates production and trade in a multi-regional setting. Consistent with model predictions, we find that rising minimum wage distortion reduces more of the exports in unskilled-labor intensive industries. Moreover, exports by foreign invested firms are more sensitive to changes in minimum wage distortion than exports by domestic firms, and both intensive and extensive margins matter for this distinction.

Addressing the geographical relocation of the pollution-intensive gray side of low-carbon green production, our study analyzes potential determinants of green and gray growth performance of industrialized/developed countries (IDCs) and industrializing/emerging economies (IEEs) over the 1996–2015 period. We define green growth by low-carbon output, while we link gray growth to comparative advantages of pollution havens. Green and gray growth models include such predictors as domestic income and foreign direct investment (FDI) together with composite indices for globalization, environmental policy stringency (EPS), industrialization, and control of corruption. Considering non-stationarity, cross-section dependency, endogeneity, and heterogeneity concerns, we employ bootstrap and residual-based cointegration analyses followed by long-run estimations using the Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimators and causality examination through Dumitrescu-Hurlin and Emirmahmutoglu-Kose tests. The key findings of the study are as follows: (i) income is positively associated with green growth for both IEEs and IDCs, whereas the income-gray growth nexus is negative for IEEs. (ii) Although inward FDI stocks are positively related to green and gray growth of IEEs and outward FDI stocks are negatively associated with green and gray growth of IDCs, these relationships are mediated by EPS. (iii) Globalization encourages both green and gray growth for IDCs. (iv) Even though EPS inhibits green growth and encourage gray growth in IEEs, these direct effects widely depend on the indirect effects of control of corruption. (v) IEEs’ higher gray growth performance is substantially explained by their increased industrial competitiveness, whereas the link is negative for IDCs. (vi) Control of corruption fosters both green and gray growth in IEEs. Overall, “growing gray” does not necessarily mean “not growing green” and vice versa. Globally, the low-carbon benefits of greening countries may be counterbalanced by the environmental costs of graying economies. From a policy perspective, IEEs need to reinforce environmental policies by green efficiency, green industrialization, and anti-corruption plans to decouple economic growth from carbon dioxide emissions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-13127-x.

This research introduces an approach to the structural optimization of national economies resulting in green economic growth. This study considers the comparative advantages of the sectors of the economy in the final product ratio, energy intensity, and carbonization of the gross output. The input–output model is transformed to a structured form, and the projected gradient of the gross domestic product (GDP) is derived. Factorial models of energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are developed and used to obtain the projected antigradients of these indicators. Each of these vectors determine the locally optimal structural change for each dimension. Their components are found to be proportional to the sectoral deviations from the national average, thus revealing a sectorwise comparative advantage or disadvantage. This observation allowed us to characterize these components as Ricardian gradients. Although it is not possible to move in each of the three vectors concurrently, it is possible to direct the economic restructuring to make the least possible acute angles with each vector. Thus, the locally Pareto-optimal vector of structural change is formed. At each moment in time, the system is directed to move alongside this vector or by the boundary. The suggested approach is applied to simulate the economies of China and the United States. The obtained results reveal that the suggested changes in the structure of the gross output simultaneously allowed for an increase in GDP, a decrease in energy consumption, and the mitigation of CO2 emissions. Applications to international cooperation and trade are discussed.

This study develops a theoretical model of trade with heterogeneous firms and imperfect contracting institutions to examine the impact of trade liberalization on the quality of economic institutions. The model has three main features: (1) institutions are a source of comparative advantage, (2) weak institutions benefit some firms in the open economy, and (3) those firms lobby for sup-optimal institutions in a political game. Greater trade openness increases the distributional effect of institutions and firms' incentive to engage in political lobbying. The political and economic power of firms is linked to the country's comparative advantage. Trade reform is most likely detrimental to institutions in countries specializing in goods requiring bad institutions. The unintended consequences of trade reform on institutions have important implications for the gains from trade and welfare for developing countries in the global economy.

The study based on crop budgets, for 2010-12 crops, was, inter alia, designed to examine economic efficiency and distortions in incentives to production of cotton and basmati rice, long grain aromatic rice, crops in Punjab. The analysis has confirmed the competitiveness of their production in Punjab as farmers’ gross revenues from these crops exceeded their total costs, enabling farmers make some profit. The competitiveness, nevertheless, is sensitive to changes in prices of the produce and those of the inputs. The analysis conducted at economic prices have indicated economic efficiency and comparative advantage of Punjab in producing both basmati rice and cotton. The domestic resource cost coefficients for basmati as well as cotton were consistently less than one, confirming Punjab’s comparative advantage and economic efficiency in their farming. The estimation and analysis of nominal projection coefficients and effective protection coefficients for basmati and cotton crops have indicated implicit taxation as well as some protection to domestic producers. The results of economic efficiency and comparative advantage, of both basmati and cotton, are quite sensitive to the fluctuations and developments in world markets with spill over to the domestic market, impacting their competitiveness.

In 2019, I published a study titled “Reexamining the Influence of Conditional Cash Transfers on Migration from a Gendered Lens,” to which Oded Stark has since issued a formal comment. This response has been written to address the major themes of Stark's comment. While the first three sections focus on specific items related to framing, selection bias, and endogeneity, the fourth and final section tackles a more substantive theoretical debate between Stark and me over how to conceptualize the New Economics of Labor Migration framework in relation to gender. In my original paper, I argued that conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are gendered in their program conditions in ways that promote a normative gendered division of labor and that constrain beneficiary women from migrating. I note here that Stark's primary issue with this point appears to be his contention that CCTs are not necessarily gendered but rather that women have a comparative advantage in completing housework and care work. My response first compares Stark's argument to that made by Gary Becker in A Treatise on the Family and engages with the literature that has emerged to critique Becker's own arguments regarding gendered comparative advantage. I then conclude my final section by offering some suggestions that might open a common theoretical path forward—one that insists on grounding microeconomic analyses of family behavior on assumptions that take gender and other aspects of culture and institutions seriously and one that also moves toward a bargaining model of microeconomic behavior rather than one that assumes consensus among all relevant actors.

Using an endogenous preferential trade agreement (PTA) formation model, we examine the effects of continual reduction in tariff bindings on the extent of PTA formation and its role in attaining global free trade. When countries are completely symmetric, no country has an incentive to free ride from global free trade while exclusion incentives arise when tariff bindings are sufficiently tight. Due to the relatively flexible nature of the free trade area (FTA) formation, such exclusion incentives go unexercised and free trade always obtains as the coalition-proof Nash equilibrium (CPNE) of the FTA game. However, since customs union (CU) expansion leads directly to global free trade and member countries are able to veto CU expansion, they exercise the exclusion incentive and thus free trade fails to be a CPNE. We then consider a scenario where countries are asymmetric with respect to their comparative advantage. The country with a weaker comparative advantage has an incentive to free ride on trade liberalization of the other two countries and lower tariff bindings discipline this incentive via constraining the ability to set optimal tariffs. As a result, continual reduction in tariff bindings facilitates FTA formation in attaining global free trade.

This study analyzes the economic cooperation between EAC and China across the trade development based on the trade intensities. It shows its influence on EAC countries welfare and puts frontwards pertinent countermeasures to improve the troubles. The indices of the export intensity and the import intensity index are used to analyze the intensity of existing trade for the period 2000-2019. The impacts of comparative advantage on EAC-China imports and exports are considered. Our findings show that due to EAC-China bilateral trade agreements, EAC and China trade overall has increased over the years, even if they have been marked by fluctuations. From the results, we find also that unfortunately the EAC still has a trade deficit with China. In addition, for the future bilateral trade, we moved forward suggestions that the Community must improve its productive capacity to consolidate its trade intensity to branch out exports and enter the Chinese market. In the end, it provides new understanding of the economic cooperation in trade between EAC and China.

China has suited a noteworthy economic partner position in African countries, specifically Tanzania. Consequently, this research is aiming at determining the reality of the Ricardian theorem of comparative advantage by assessing its applicability to 21st Century International trade practice particularly the Sino-Tanzania bilateral trade from 2015 to 2019. To find out if Sino-Tanzania bilateral trade resembles the Ricardian theorem, the classical Balassa index (RCA), import and export intensity indexes were used to establish the revealed comparative advantage by-products between Tanzania and China in their bilateral trade. With the aid of International trade data obtained by the United National conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD), (World Trade Organization) WTO and the Observatory of Economic Complexity (O.E.C.). The Balassa index, as well as import and export indexes, carried out some statistical tests grounding on both export and import merchandise trade (Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), Revision 3) related products; the study results established confirm the comparative advantage theory application in 21st Century reality particularly in Sino-Tanzania bilateral trade in the timeline of 2015-2019 import-export trade.

Indonesia's growing middle class is the key driver of the rapid growth of the country's automotive industry over the last decade. Stable economic growth and government policies are other contributory factors, especially during the commodity boom period (2006-15). While there is some indication of improvements in the competitiveness of the industry, several structural weaknesses continue to hamper its growth. Traditionally, the industry has been dominated by Japanese car manufacturers, but Korean and Chinese carmakers have recently entered the sector. Although Japanese players have a strong comparative advantage in producing Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars, the newcomers are targeting a fresh segment-Electric Vehicles (EVs). The latter has been identified as one of the new priority industries based on global trends. This paper examines the recent developments and challenges in Indonesia's automotive industry. It examines key policies and their implications for the future of the sector.