Tariffs, Transport Costs and the WTO Doha Round: The Case of Developing Countries

The WTO Doha Round of multinational trade negotiations is labelled the “development round” to highlight the fact that progress could be achieved through the enhanced integration of the poor countries into the world economy. Since the trade agenda focuses to a large extent on the levels of direct and indirect trade barriers as well as other aspects of trade and competition policy, an important aspect of the relative trade performance of developing countries has been neglected somewhat. This paper argues that, in addition to trade barriers, other trade costs, such as communications and transport costs, have to be taken into account. These other costs can be significantly higher in developing countries, which impedes their successful integration into world markets.developing countries, transport costs, WTO Doha Round, International Relations/Trade,

Trade, environmental regulations and the World Trade Organization : new empirical evidence

The paper empirically explores the linkages between environmental regulations and international trade flows. So far, empirical studies either have failed to find any close statistical relationship or have delivered questionable results due to data limitations. Using a comprehensive new database for environmental regulations across countries, a thorough empirical investigation of that linkage for 119 countries and five high-polluting industries is performed. No evidence is found to support the pollution hypothesis that industries facing above-average abatement costs with environmental regulations would prefer pollution havens and relocate their activities. The exception is iron and steel products, where a negative and statistically significant link is established, implying that higher compliance with international treaties and conventions and more stringent regulations are associated with reduced net exports. High-income countries, where environmental regulations are usually more stringent in comparison to middle or low income countries, have experienced a considerable decline in the export-import ratio of iron and steel products since the late 1970s. There is no clear evidence that national governments choose sub-optimal policies that result in insufficient regulations, so the case for environmental standards within the WTO framework is relatively weak.Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Administrative&Regulatory Law,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Water and Industry,Administrative&Regulatory Law,Trade and Services

Trade Effects of the East African Community

This article evaluates the trade effects of the new East African Community, which fosters trade liberalisation among Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The analysis uses a disaggregated approach at the two-digit level of the Standard International Trade Classification. The commodities that will be particularly affected by the customs union are identified. The results show that considerable trade effects cannot be expected, except for a very narrow range of products. The transitional fund, which has been proposed to counter trade imbalances due to the new customs union in East Africa, becomes less urgent from this perspective.Customs Union, EAC, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, International Relations/Trade,

Gender Inequality and Trade

The paper empirically explores the international linkages between gender inequality and trade flows of a sample of 92 developed and developing countries. The focus is on comparative advantage in labour-intensive manufactured goods. The results indicate that gender wage inequality is positively associated with comparative advantage in labourintensive goods, that is, countries with a larger gender wage gap have higher exports of these goods. Also, gender inequality in labour force activity rates and educational attainment rates are negatively linked with comparative advantage in labour-intensive commodities. --Gender Inequality,Trade,Comparative Advantage

Democracy and FDI

Many believe that multinational enterprises insensitively ignore political rights and civil liberties in the countries of their investments. Frequently, non-governmental organisations accuse multinationals of fostering repressive regimes in developing countries and consider foreign direct investment (FDI) as a tool of exploitation. This paper tries to examine empirically the complex relationship between democracy and FDI in a systematic way, using cross-sectional and panel data analysis. The results indicate that – on average – investments by multinationals are significantly higher in democratic countries, thereby refuting the hypothesis that political repression fosters FDI. Yet this positive link does not hold for the 1970s, when a considerable share of FDI flowed to countries with repressive regimes

Does Africa really benefit from trade?

We empirically analyse the impact of trade on income levels in the sub-Saharan African countries. The results indicate that the linkage between these two variables is negative for these countries. This outcome may explain the negative sign of the Africa dummy in income (or growth) regressions. --Trade,Income Levels,Sub-Saharan Africa

Technology Trade in Economic Development

Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that – once endogeneity is considered – institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure for technology diffusion as a source of productivity growth and propose to focus on imports of research and development (R&D) intensive goods instead. Overall, we confirm previous findings that institutions matter most and that overall trade is not positively associated with per-capita income levels. Yet this does not hold for technology trade, as there is a positive and significant linkage between technology imports and income levels. This outcome is robust to various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach.Growth, Technology Diffusion, Trade, R&D Spillovers.

Technology trade in economic development

Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that - once endogeneity is considered - institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure for technology diffusion as a source of productivity growth and propose to focus on imports of research and development (R&D) intensive goods instead. Overall, we confirm previous findings that institutions matter most and that overall trade is not positively associated with per-capita income levels. Yet this does not hold for technology trade, as there is a positive and significant linkage between technology imports and income levels. This outcome is robust to various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach. --Growth,Technology Diffusion,Trade,R&D Spillovers

Competition intensity, potential competition and transaction cost economics

As the process of globalisation of the world economy progresses, the degree of international competition among enterprises increases as well. Yet not all industries or branches are affected to the same extent by this development. One of the most important factors which determine the degree of globalisation of an industry is the level of transaction costs. Whereas low transaction costs tend to result in globalised markets, high transaction costs induce segmented markets. Because they may also indicate the degree of potential competition, transaction costs can be of great importance for competition authorities in the case of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Heterogeneous consumer preferences and product differentiation, as two additional determinants of the degree of globalisation, however, limit the meaningfulness of this approach. In some cases, the precision of the measurement of transaction is also inaccurate. This methodology hence cannot be generalised, but does make more sense in particular cases.Mit der fortschreitenden Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft nimmt auch der Grad des internationalen Wettbewerbs zwischen den Unternehmen zu. Von dieser Entwicklung sind aber nicht alle Firmen im gleichen Ausmaß betroffen. Einer der wichtigsten Determinanten des Globalisierungsgrades einer Branche ist die Höhe der Transaktionskosten. Niedrige Transaktionskosten führen tendenziell zu globalisierten Märkten, hohe Transaktionskosten entsprechend zu segmentierten Märkten. Hinzu kommt, dass Transaktionskosten auch Auskunft über den Grad des potentiellen Wettbewerbs geben können. Damit erhalten Wettbewerbsbehörden einen wichtigen Indikator für die Beurteilung der räumlichen Marktabgrenzung, das heißt ob Unternehmen aus verschiedenen Ländern miteinander im Wettbewerb stehen. Hierbei sind jedoch mit heterogenen Präferenzen und Produktdifferenzierungen zwei weitere potentielle Einflussfaktoren auf den Grad der Globalisierung zu berücksichtigen. Zudem können Transaktionskosten nicht immer genau gemessen werden. Deshalb ist dieser Ansatz vielmehr in Einzelfällen sinnvoll anzuwenden und kann nicht verallgemeinert werden

Foreign Direct Investment and Labor Rights: A Panel Analysis of Bilateral FDI Flows

The paper analyses the impact of fundamental labor rights on bilateral FDI flows to 82 developing countries. The results indicate that investments by multinationals are significantly higher in countries that adhere to labor rights, thereby refuting the hypothesis that repression of these rights fosters FDI.FDI, Labor Rights, Developing Countries