On the static and dynamic costs of trade restrictions

We analyze the costs of trade restrictions for a small developing economy. Capital goods are only introduced on the market if it is profitable to do so. The economy evolves to a balanced growth path in which income, welfare, and the share of introduced capital goods increase if trade restrictions fall. The adjustment path is asymmetric: an increase in trade restrictions will slow-down economic growth, while a decrease may give rise to a rapid catch-up process. The static costs of trade restrictions are smaller than the dynamic costs if, and only if, it changes the share of introduced capital goods.growth, development, static and dynamic costs, trade restrictions, new goods

Transfers, Non-Traded Goods, and Unemployment: An Analysis of the Keynes – Ohlin Debate

In the famous debate between Keynes and Ohlin on the transfer problem, the interaction between non-traded goods and unemployment complicates the analysis considerably. We analyze these issues using four different models to conclude that Keynes’s concern regarding the large burden imposed on Germany was justified. Simultaneously, we show that Ohlin’s presumption that a transfer does not affect the donor’s terms-of-trade either favourably or unfavourably was also justified. Moreover, Ohlin was also right in asserting that a transfer tends to lower the price of non-traded goods for the donor and raise them for the recipient.

On the Static and Dynamic Costs of Trade Restrictions

We analyze the costs of trade restrictions for a small developing economy. Capital goods are only introduced on the market if it is profitable to do so. The economy evolves to a balanced growth path in which income, welfare, and the share of introduced capital goods increase if trade restrictions fall. The adjustment path is asymmetric: an increase in trade restrictions will slow-down economic growth, while a decrease may give rise to a rapid catch-up process. The static costs of trade restrictions are smaller than the dynamic costs if, and only if, it changes the share of introduced capital goods.Growth, development, static and dynamic costs, trade restrictions, new goods.

On the Static and Dynamic Costs of Trade Restrictions

We analyze the costs of trade restrictions for a small developing economy. Capital goods are only introduced on the market if it is profitable to do so. The economy evolves to a balanced growth path in which income, welfare, and the share of introduced capital goods increase if trade restrictions fall. The adjustment path is asymmetric: an increase in trade restrictions will slow-down economic growth, while a decrease may give rise to a rapid catch-up process. The static costs of trade restrictions are smaller than the dynamic costs if, and only if, it changes the share of introduced capital goods.growth, development, static and dynamic costs, trade restrictions, new goods

It’s a Big World After All

Thomas Friedman’s book the world is flat has been a bestseller since it appeared in 2005. The remarkable success of the book reflects to a certain extent the present fears with respect to increasing globalization. Using many examples, Friedman argues that distance (however defined) is no longer a dominant characteristic of the world economy, or will cease to be so in the very near future. Competition is thought to be a race to the bottom, with the lowest-wage countries as the big winners. We disagree, and with us many other economists (see, for example, Leamer, 2006). Distance dominates all aspects of international trade and many stylized facts of international trade can only be understood by pointing towards the importance of distance. Furthermore, there is little evidence of income convergence. Using various methods and data sets, we show that many threats of global competition for the position of the traditionally developed (OECD) countries are unwarranted.income levels, convergence, trade, distance, leapfrogging

Lumpy Countries, Urbanization, and Trade

Lumpiness of production factors within a country might overturn the predictions for the structure of trade by the factor-abundance (HO) model. Trade patterns, as predicted by this model, can both be magnified or reversed by uneven concentration of production factors within a country. Cities are the most characteristic manifestation of lumpiness of production factors and as a consequence different patterns of urbanization between countries might cause trade patterns to differ from HO predictions on the basis of the overall availability of production factors. We argue that urbanization indeed affects trade patterns. The consequence of this result is that urbanization should be included in empirical trade analysis; urbanization could, e.g. to the understanding of the ‘missing trade’ puzzle.Heckscher-Ohlin, factor endowments, agglomeration, geographical economics

Firm Heterogeneity and Development: Evidence from Latin American countries

Motivated by the work of Melitz (2003), Helpman, et al. (2004) and Yeaple (2005), micro-firm data provided by the World Bank Enterprise Survey is used to study the empirical productivity distribution across 15 Latin American countries. This paper differs from previous work in identifying four types of firms by their ownership characteristics and their exporting status. We compare the productivity distribution of these four types of firms to reflect on theoretical modeling deficiencies. First, the productivity distributions for each type show no sign of a productivity cut-off at the lower end, contrary to current theoretical modeling. Second, we see that exporting activities are nonexclusive to firms with high productivity. In other words, by distinguishing groups of firms with different degrees of international involvement (domestic producers, exporters, nationally-owned and foreign-owned firms), we find that the productivity distributions of different groups of firms overlap with one another. This contradicts with the modeling in Melitz (2003), which suggests sorting into different international engagement according to productivity level. Third, we find a superior productivity distribution among foreign-owned firms as compared to domestic firms. The foreign ownership premium is significant and more prevailing in the services sectors than the manufacturing sectors. Exporters also show superior productivity, but this productivity premium is only enjoyed by the nationally-owned manufacturers. The premium is not constant over the quantiles. Lastly, with the cross-country data, we find a positive relationship between the overall productivity level and a country's development level, as often found in other research. However, we find that firms with low productivity in a given sector are more constrained by the macroeconomic development level of the country than firms with higher productivity, which seem to be able to advance productivity with individual micro- firm characteristics.Firm heterogeneity; Productivity distribution; Exporting; Development; Latin America

An Introduction to International Money and Foreign Exchange Markets

This five-chapter introduction into international money and foreign exchange markets covers all the basics, theoretical, institutional, as well as empirical. After a brief review of the money market, we discuss the size and structure of the foreign exchange markets. This information is then used in discussing purchasing power parity and interest rate parity. We conclude with an overview of the main international money organizations and the institutional framework of the past 150 years.

Market liberalization in the European Natural Gas Market The importance of capacity constraints and efficiency differences

In the European Union, energy markets are increasingly being liberalized. A case in point is the European natural gas industry. The general expectation is that more competition will lead to lower prices and higher volumes, and hence higher welfare. This paper indicates that this might not happen for at least two reasons. First, energy markets, including the market for natural gas, are characterized by imperfect competition and increasing costs to develop new energy sources. As a result, new entrants in the market are less efficient than incumbent firms. Second, energy markets, again including the market for natural gas, are associated with capacity constraints. Prices are determined in residual markets where the least efficient firms are active. This is likely to lead to price increases, rather than decreases.natural gas, capacity constraints, efficiency, market liberalization

Locational Competition and Agglomeration: The Role of Government Spending

With the completion of EMU, tax competition and, more in general, locational competition is high on the EU policy agenda. In contrast to the standard neo-classical reasoning, recent advances in the theory of trade and location have shown that tax competition does not necessarily lead to a ‘race to the bottom’. In these recent discussions the relevance of government spending as an instrument for locational competition is unduly neglected. We therefore introduce a more elaborate government sector in a geographical economics model by analyzing government spending and government production. By changing the relative size, direction or efficiency of the production of public goods, our simulation results show that governments can change the equilibrium between agglomerating and spreading forces. In addition, we show analytically that the introduction of public goods fosters agglomeration. Ultimately, our paper shows that by restricting attention to taxes, one ignores that government spending also determines the attractiveness of a country as a location for the mobile factors of production.