International Trade Patterns and Labor Markets – An Empirical Analysis for EU Member States

During the last decades, international trade flows especially of the industrialized countries allegedly became more and more intra-industry. At the same time, employment perspectives particularly of the low-skilled by tendency deteriorated in these countries. This phenomenon is often traced back to the fact that intra-industry trade, which should theoretically involve low labor market adjustment, became increasingly vertical in nature and might thus entail labor market disruptions. Against this background, the present paper investigates the relationship between international trade patterns and selected labor market indicators in European countries, with a focus on vertical intra-industry trade. As the results show, neither inter- nor vertical intra-industry trade do have a verifiable effect on wage spread in EU member states. As far as structural unemployment is concerned, the latter increases only with the degree of countries’ specialization on capi-tal intensively manufactured products in inter-industry trade relations. Only for unemployment of the less-skilled, a slightly significant impact of superior vertical intra-industry trade seems to exist. However, the link between unemployment of the lower qualified and inter-industry specialization on labor intensive goods as well as parts and components imports is considerably higher.intra-industry trade, trade and labor market interactions, unemployment

Determinants of International Fragmentation of Production in the European Union

The last decades were characterized by large increases in world trade, not only in absolute terms, but also in relation to world GDP. This was in large parts caused by increasing exchanges of parts and components between countries as a consequence of international fragmentation of production. Apparently, greater competition especially from the Newly Industrializing and Post-Communist Economies prompted firms in ‘high-wage’ countries to exploit international factor price differences in order to increase their international competitiveness. However, theory predicts that, beside factor price differences, vertical disintegration of production should be driven by a multitude of additional factors. Against this background, the present paper reveals empirical evidence on parts and components trade as an indicator for international fragmentation of production in the European Union. On the basis of a panel data approach, the main explanatory factors for international fragmentation of production are determined. The results show that, although their influence can not be neglected, factor price differences are only one out of many causes for shifting production to or sourcing components from foreign countries.economic integration, international fragmentation of production

Skill Content of Intra-European Trade Flows

In recent decades, the international division of labor has expanded rapidly in the wake of European integration. In this context, especially Western European high-wage countries should have specialized on (human-)capital intensively manufactured goods and should have increasingly sourced labor-intensively manufactured goods, especially parts and components, from Eastern European low wage countries. Since this should be beneficial for the high-skilled and harmful to the lower-qualified workforce in high-wage countries, the opening up of Eastern Europe is often considered as a vital reason for increasing unemployment of the lower-qualified in Western Europe. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing the skill content of Western European countries’ bilateral trade using input-output techniques in order to evaluate possible effects of international trade on labor demand. Thereby, differences in factor inputs and production technologies have been considered, allowing for vertical product differentiation. In this case, skill content of bilateral exports and imports partially differs substantially, especially in bilateral trade between Western and Eastern European countries. According to the results, East-West trade should be harmful particularly to the medium-skilled in Western European countries

Problematik der zuchtzielsetzung fur landwirtschaftliche nutztiere aus ökonomischer sicht

International audienc

Productivity Progress in Sugar Beet Production - With Special Emphasis on the Contribution of Breeding

Sugar beet production during the past 50 years has been characterised by remarkable progress in productivity. In this contribution the influence of the different production factors on productivity and value added growth is analysed by regarding input and output development as well as price changes, with special focus on the breeding progress. During this period there has been a shift in the importance of the different factors of production for productivity development. Until the 1980s sugar beet breeding mainly initiated remarkable yield and quality improvements as well as seed and especially labour savings. Since then, technical progress in plant protection, mechanisation and organization allowed considerable cost savings especially through labour savings and partly yield and quality growth. On the whole, the contribution of sugar beet breeding to value added growth during the last 30 years annually amounted to around 80 DM per hectare. During the last 20 years, based on beet price reductions, the seed related progress only amounted to around 20 DM per hectare, whereas cost savings and partly yield increases of 80 DM per hectare, based on chemical, mechanical and organizational technical progress, where considerably high. But, the remarkable benefit of various disease resistant varieties developed since the 1980s is not included here. As sugar beet cropping in large infested areas without the new resistant varieties would not be competitive any more, their benefit partly amounts to more than 2000 DM per hectare. With the technical optimisation of the production process for sugar beets being mostly completed now, further productivity progress is mostly expected from bio-technological progress.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

Ölpreis und Außenhandel: Wie stark profitieren Industrieländer vom “Recycling“ der Petrodollars?

Since 2004, prices for crude oil nearly tripled at international commodity markets. In the wake of the oil crises of the 1970s and ‘80s, numerous empirical studies analysing the macroeconomic effects of sharp increases in commodity prices were carried out pointing at the risks of oil price rises for GDP growth in oil-importing countries. However, in most of these analyses, the impact of oil price increases on international trade of oil-importing countries, which gained in importance in the course of globalisation, is considered only marginally. This is especially the case for the additional revenues of oil-exporting countries spent in large parts for imports from and investment in the industrialised economies. The present article examines the impact of oil price increases on merchandise exports and imports of single oil-importing industrialised countries. The results show that the curbing effects on merchandise exports are lower than on imports. Whereas import demand responds disproportionally high on the decline in consumption and investment in consequence of oil price increases, the effects on merchandise exports are ambivalent. On the one hand, exports to oil-importing trading partner countries decline due to the local economic downturns, but on the other, exports to oil-exporting countries sharply increase. As a consequence, the negative impact of rising oil prices on macroeconomic activity in oil-importing countries is lowered by the external sector due to growing net exports.

Has the Euro Increased International Price Elasticities?

This paper analyzes the role of common data problems when identifying structural breaks in small samples. Most notably, we survey small sample properties of the most commonly applied endogenous break tests developed by Brown, Durbin, and Evans (1975) and Zeileis (2004), Nyblom (1989) and Hansen (1992), and Andrews, Lee, and Ploberger (1996). Power and size properties are derived using Monte Carlo simulations. Results emphasize that mostly the CUSUM type tests are affected by the presence of heteroscedasticity, whereas the individual parameter Nyblom test and AvgLM test are proved to be highly robust. However, each test is significantly affected by leptokurtosis. Contrarily to other tests, where skewness is far more problematic than kurtosis, it has no additional effect for any of the endogenous break tests we analyze. Concerning overall robustness the Nyblom test performs best, while being almost on par to more recently developed tests in terms of power.European Integration, introduction of the Euro, import price elasticity, panel data, Kalman-filter, structural vector autoregression

International Competitiveness of Sugar Production

Sugar market is one of the most protected markets for agricultural products world wide. In almost every sugar producing country the sugar market is regulated in some way. With an increasing liberalization of agricultural trade in the "Millennium Round" of the WTO trade negotiations, the question of international competitiveness is of increasing importance. Based on empirical studies, in this article the competitiveness of sugar production in the most important sugar producing countries is analysed, including the whole production process from beet or cane production in the field to sugar processing in the factory. Special emphasis is focussed on the different location factors and their influence on competitiveness, so that finally, conclusions can be drawn on future development of the world sugar market and the single production locations. From the countries included in this study, at present only Brazil, Australia, Thailand and partly South Africa would be able to produce sugar under world market conditions. While Brazil and Australia profit from favourable natural, economical and political location factors, in Germany high opportunity costs as well as high environmental and social standards predominate the advantages of high efficiency in the sugar industry. In the United States partly disadvantageous climatic conditions together with high opportunity costs are responsible for the insufficient international competitiveness of sugar production. Low productivity in Thailand and South Africa is overbalanced by low wages as well as comparatively low environmental and social standards. Without standardised environmental and social regulations, a liberalization of the world market would force movements of sugar production from beet to cane areas with favourable natural, economical and political conditions.Crop Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Die Zukunft der Agrarwissenschaften

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Exportweltmeister trotz Euro-Höhenflug: Zum Einfluss der Wechselkurse auf die deutschen Ausfuhren

In the first decade after its introduction, the Euro didn’t just hold up well, but compared to important currencies even appreciated considerably. Of course, exchange rate risks were noticeably lowered by introducing the single currency, since the bulk of EMU Member States’ exports are conducted within the currency union. Nevertheless, a strong Euro is unfavourable especially for open economies like Germany. The article investigates the effects of exchange rate movements on German exports over time. The analyses reveal a downward impact of nominal effective exchange rates, not only for total, but also for exports to countries outside the currency union. Although an increasing pass-through of exchange rate changes to export prices is apparently at hand, further reasons for the dwindling effect of nominal exchange rates on exports are likely to exist. In this context, it is shown that exports are less sensitive not only with respect to nominal, but also with respect to real effective exchange rate changes, suggesting a declining price elasticity of demand. Instead, exports are increasingly determined by economic activity in trading partner countries. In consequence of its geographic proximity, Germany did particularly benefit from the economic upswing in Eastern Europe, overlaying the appreciation of the Euro. Additionally, the latter could hardly impair German export industries due to their specialization on capital and high-quality consumer goods less vulnerable to exchange rate fluctuations.