The Reasons for and the Impact of Antidumping Protection: The Case of People's Republic of China

Over the past few decades, the liberalization in international trade has progressed at a rapid speed. While tariffs and quotas have been and continue to be reduced, another type of trade barrier, antidumping, is being used more and more frequently as a measure of protection. This paper focuses on the case of China, explores the characteristics, the reasons for and implications of antidumping. China is the largest targeting economy of antidumping (AD) trade disputes and there is evidence that China is more susceptible to antidumping than other economies, even after controlling for factors such as the non-market economy (NME) status. Our paper analyzes the reasons for China being so broadly and intensively targeted. In particular, the domestic characteristics of exports structure and industrial structures are examined. Our analysis also reveals that foreign direct investment (FDI) may be a significant factor explaining AD cases against China. There is also evidence that low concentration ratios in Chinese industries have contributed to the competitive price and low profit margins. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the APEC Capacity-Building Workshop on Quantification of NTMs and Trade Facilitation, October 8-10, 2003, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Deregulation and productivity growth: a study of Indian commercial banking

This paper examines the impact of regulatory reform on the performance of Indian commercial banks. Using a balanced panel data set covering from the beginning of the deregulation period (1992) to the most recent years (2004) and employing a DEA-based Malmquist index of total factor productivity change, this paper attempts to quantify the magnitude of total factor productivity change and identify its main sources. We also explore whether deregulation has had a different impact on the performance of public, private and foreign banks and whether it affected the risk-taking behaviour of market participants. The empirical results seem to indicate that, after an initial adjustment phase, the Indian banking industry experienced sustained productivity growth, driven mainly by technological progress. Banks’ ownership structure seems to have an impact on bank efficiency but does not appear to have an influence on total factor productivity change. Although ownership per se does not seem to matter as much as increased competition, during the deregulation process foreign banks appear to have acted as technological innovators, thereby increasing even further the competitive pressure in the Indian banking market. Finally, our results also indicate an increase in risk-taking behaviour along with the whole deregulation process.Deregulation; Indian banking; Productivity Change; Malmquist Index

Unitary and non-unitary N=2N=2 minimal models

The unitary $N = 2$ superconformal minimal models have a long history in string theory and mathematical physics, while their non-unitary (and logarithmic) cousins have recently attracted interest from mathematicians. Here, we give an efficient and uniform analysis of all these models as an application of a type of Schur-Weyl duality, as it pertains to the well-known Kazama-Suzuki coset construction. The results include straightforward classifications of the irreducible modules, branching rules, (super)characters and (Grothendieck) fusion rules.Comment: 32 page