European Accounting Harmonisation: Consequences of IFRS Adoption on Trade in Goods and Foreign Direct Investments

This paper focuses on the importance of accounting harmonisation in foreign activities at country level. The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is considered to reduce information costs among countries and, therefore, encourage international trade in goods and investment. The results provide evidence that benefits exist in terms of trade in goods and foreign direct investments (FDI) when IFRS are adopted.IFRS, trade in goods, FDI, gravity

The Role of Institutional Environment in International Trade. The Case of Spanish Regions

We move beyond the nation-state as the unit of analysis and use subnational spatial variation to study the effect of the institutional environment on international trade. Additionally, we address the heterogeneous effect of trade agreements on different regions within a country. Employing a gravity model approach, we use a region-to-country dataset to estimate the determinants of Spanish regional exports and we apply quantile regressions for panel data. We find that better institutional quality of trade agreements leads to an increase in both the intensive and the extensive margins of trade. The institutional quality of trade agreements exerts a differential effect on regional exports at different locations within a country, although differences across Spanish regions seem to be larger for the intensive margin than for the extensive margin. We do, however, find a common trend: for the relatively more important exporting regions, the institutional quality of TAs is less relevant for trade margins. Therefore, our results posit that subnational spatial variation should be added to the analysis of the determinants of international trade flows.The author gratefully acknowledges the support and collaboration of Universitat Jaume I and Generalitat Valenciana (P1-1B2013-06; PROMETEOII/2014/053

Regionalism, subnational variation and gravity: A four-country tale

This paper argues that the use of subnational data allows an accurate assessment of the effect of trade agreements on bilateral exports within a gravity model framework. We examine the effect of regional integration on trade flows from regions in Argentina, Brazil, Poland and Spain to a sample of importing countries. Specifically, we focus on two events that occurred in the EU and in Latin America over a decade ago: the EU enlargement to the Central and Eastern European countries, and the signing of a Free Trade Agreement between two Latin American regional blocs, the Southern Common Market and the Andean Community.The author gratefully acknowledges the support and collaboration of Universitat Jaume I and Generalitat Valenciana (P1-1B2013-06; PROMETEOII/2014/053). Thanks to Àlvar Franch Doñate for his contribution to database processing. I would also like to thank Benedikt Heid, María Luisa Recalde and Stanislaw Uminski for their very helpful comments and suggestions

The Effect of Trade Facilitation on Sectoral Trade

This paper aims to analyse the effect of trade facilitation on sectoral trade flows. We use data from the World Bank’s Doing Business Database on the fees associated with completing the procedures to export or import goods in a country, on the number of documents needed and on the required time to complete all the administrative procedures to import and export. An augmented gravity equation is estimated for 13 exporters and 167 importers using a number of estimation techniques, namely OLS, PPML and the Harvey model. A common result is that trade flows increase by lowering transport costs and the number of days required to trade. The outcome supports multilateral initiatives, as that in the WTO, which encourages countries to assess their trade facilitation needs and priorities and to improve them. The measures adopted will not only benefit the country that improves trade facilitation, but also its trading partners.gravity model, trade facilitation, time, trade cost

Bridging the gap between academic and policy-oriented activities in higher education institutions

[EN] There are three different types of activities performed in higher education institutions that, taken together, form the components of a trilemma in higher education. These include traditional academic activities (research and teaching), along with those that aim to transfer knowledge beyond academic research (policy-/industry-oriented activities). I argue that there are potential synergies across these three components that can be exploited to resolve this trilemma. This is illustrated in an augmented research value chain that introduces teaching and policy-/industry-oriented activities as phases that complement the research process. The interaction of the different phases in the research process contributes to the generation of new knowledge, increasing the value-added of the organization. This proposal relies on an application in an organizational unit specializing in international trade within an Australian university. Australia provides an interesting case study because research-intensive Australian universities are no longer evaluated purely in terms of their research quality, but also in terms of their transfer of knowledge and contributions beyond academic research. In this context, I conceptualize how to resolve the trilemma, and increase the feasibility of bridging the gap between academic and policy-/industry-oriented activities in higher education institutions.Márquez-Ramos, L. (2020). Bridging the gap between academic and policy-oriented activities in higher education institutions. En 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. (30-05-2020):883-892. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd20.2020.11168OCS88389230-05-202

Education as absorptive capacity and its role for economic growth

[EN] Might a country’s economic growth behave in a different manner depending on the evolution of its absorptive capacity? In this research, education is considered as a channel for economic growth since it is a key element for a country’s absorptive capacity. Then, we hypothesize the existence of a threshold for absorptive capacity, so that once it is exceeded, economic growth shows certain (and different) characteristics. Addressing this question requires moving from the traditional linear framework to a nonlinear one and, in this sense, we resort to Smooth Transition specifications. The empirical results point to the existence of nonlinearities in the relationship between absorptive capacity and economic growth. According to the behavior of the country’s absorptive capacity, economic growth displays different dynamics; this asymmetric evolution is clearly appreciated in the two dimensions of absorptive capacity taken into account (i.e., secondary and tertiary), although it is more pronounced in case of tertiary education. Our evidence provides important insights for higher education such as the fact that both secondary and tertiary education matter for countries’ economic growth and that nonlinearities of this relationship should be taken on board.Mourelle, E.; Márquez-Ramos, L. (2017). Education as absorptive capacity and its role for economic growth. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 844-853. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5440OCS84485

Education and Economic Growth: an Empirical Analysis of Nonlinearities

[Abstract] Purpose – Might a country’s economic growth performance differ depending on the evolution of its human capital? This paper aims to consider education as a channel for human capital improvement and then for economic growth. The authors hypothesize the existence of a threshold for education, after which point the characteristics of economic growth change. Design/methodology/approach – To address this question, the authors turn from a linear framework to a nonlinear one by applying smooth transition specifications. Findings – This empirical analysis for Spain points to the existence of nonlinearities in the relationship between education and economic growth at country level, for both secondary and tertiary education. Next, as different patterns emerge in different regions, the authors provide a regional analysis for a number of representative Spanish regions. The results show that both secondary and tertiary education matter for economic growth and that nonlinearities in this relationship should be taken into account. Practical implications – What is learnt from using Smooth Transition Regression models for the education-economic growth link is that the educational level of the population can be understood as a source of nonlinearities in the economic activity of a country (and of a region). Thus, depending on national and regional educational levels, economic growth behaves differently. Originality/value – Although the importance of nonlinearities has been identified, linearity is usually assumed in this field of the literature. This paper calls into question the linearity assumption by using time series techniques for 1971-2013 in Spain, an OECD country, and testing whether the results at country level hold for different regions within Spain as a robustness check

Causes and effects of economic integration in Latin America

El tema central a abordar en este artículo es la medición de las causas y efectos de los acuerdos de integración en Latino América. Se consideran los efectos de la integración en el ALADI y el Mercosur sobre las cadenas de valor o producción en red, sobre las exportaciones de bienes, el grado de profundización y la calidad institucional de estos acuerdos. En este análisis se distingue entre los efectos en el margen intensivo y en el margen extensivo de comercio. Finalmente, se analizan los factores que contribuyen a la creación o profundización de los acuerdos comerciales en Latino América, distinguiendo entre determinantes económicos, geográficos y político-institucionales.The central issue to be addressed in this article is the measurement of the causes and effects of integration agreements in Latin America. The role of integration of two trade agreements, LAIA and Mercosur, in value chains or production networks, in exports of goods, as well as the degree of depth and institutional quality of these trade agreements are studied. In this analysis, a distinction is made between the intensive margin and the extensive margin of trade. Finally, the factors contributing to creating or strengthening trade agreements in Latin America, by distinguishing between economic, geographic, political and institutional determinants, are analyzed

The Effect of Technological Innovation on International Trade

In this paper, the effect of technological innovation on sectoral exports is analysed using a gravity model of trade. The technological achievement index (TAI) and its four components, creation of technology, diffusion of old innovations, diffusion of recent innovations and human skills, are used as proxies for technological innovation. The two first components are considered proxies for knowledge acquisition and assimilation (potential absorptive capacity), whereas the last two are taken as proxies for knowledge transformation and exploitation (realised absorptive capacity). We hypothesise that the effect of technological innovation on trade could vary according to the technological achievement by generating a non-linear relationship between technological innovation and trade. Our findings indicate a positive and non-linear effect of technological innovation on export performance, which indicates that there are thresholds for positive signs to occur. To foster exports, countries have to consider not only acquisition and assimilation capabilities, but also transformation and exploitation capabilities once a minimum level of potential absorptive capacity has been achieve

The Effect of Trade Facilitation on Sectoral Trade

This paper aims to analyse the effect of trade facilitation on sectoral trade flows. We use data from the World Bank’s Doing Business Database on the fees associated with completing the procedures to export or import goods in a country, on the number of documents needed and on the required time to complete all the administrative procedures to import and export. An augmented gravity equation is estimated for 13 exporters and 167 importers using a number of estimation techniques, namely OLS, PPML and the Harvey model. A common result is that trade flows increase by lowering transport costs and the number of days required to trade. The outcome supports multilateral initiatives, as that in the WTO, which encourages countries to assess their trade facilitation needs and priorities and to improve them. The measures adopted will not only benefit the country that improves trade facilitation, but also it’s trading partner