Empirical Studies Of Commercial Policy

The need for careful research on trade policy is particularly acute, and this volume empirically addresses these and many other important issues. The contributors offer studies which integrate the institutional details of current trade policy with creative economic analyses. Marked by a shift from a traditional reliance on simulation models, these papers take their inspiration from recent changes in the assumptions traditionally underlying research in international trade theory. No longer are government policies viewed as being somehow "given" to the researcher; in part 1, "Analyses with a Political Economy Perspective," four papers treat such policies as endogenous and explicable in terms of political economy. Neither are product and factor markets seen as perfectly competitive; instead, the three papers in part 2, "Trade Policy Effects under Imperfectly Competitive Market Conditions," assume that firms consider the actions of other companies when formulating their decisions. In part 3, "A New Measure of Trade Restrictiveness and Estimates of Trade Policy Effects with CGE Models," the first essay explores the quantitative restrictions on cheese to develop and implement a new model of restrictive trade. Two final contributions address problems for which simulation modeling is especially useful. The first considers the effectiveness of an import surcharge in reducing the U.S. trade deficit and the second treats the welfare effects of liberalization in South Korea where increasing returns to scale are significant These innovative studies focus on economic behavior that will provide valuable insights for policymakers, academic economists, and students.

Since the 1980s, economists have used the concept of strategic trade policy, which takes account of imperfect competition and increasing returns in the international marketplace, to criticize conventional views about free trade. According to the new view, a government can take strategic steps to raise its income at another country's expense—by subsidizing exports or erecting trade barriers, protecting certain firms from foreign competition, or promoting the development of new industries. This volume looks at the experience of specific industries in order to determine the effectiveness of strategic trade policy in promoting economic growth. The nine papers cover the U.S. and European auto industries, the U.S. steel industry, the commercial aircraft industry, airline deregulation in Scandinavia, and labor and industrial policy in Korea and Taiwan. The authors refine the basic techniques for measuring policy effectiveness, extend them to encompass industry dynamics, and test the implications of new trade models. International economists and trade experts in government and business will find important new insights into the role of strategic trade policy in international competitiveness.

Interest in U.S. trade policy has been stimulated in recent years by the massive American trade deficit, by the belief that intervention by foreign governments in international markets has given other countries a competitive edge over the United States, and by concern about the increase in protectionism among industrial countries. In turn, major analytical developments in international economics have revolutionized trade theory, broadening its scope both by introducing in a more formal manner such concepts as imperfect competition, increasing returns, product differentiation, and learning effects and by including the study of political and economic factors that shape trade policy decisions. This collection of papers—the result of a conference held by the NBER—applies these "new" trade theories to existing world cases and also presents complementary empirical studies that are grounded in more traditional trade theories. The volume is divided into four parts. The papers in part 1 consider the problem of imperfect competition, empirically assessing the economic effect of various trade policies introduced in industries in which the "new" trade theory seems to apply. Those in part 2 isolate the effects of protection from the influences of the many economic changes that accompany actual periods of protection and also examine how the effects from exogenous changes in economic conditions vary with the form of protection. Part 3 provides new empirical evidence on the effect of foreign production by a country's firms on the home country's exports. Finally, in part 4, two key bilateral issues are analyzed: recent U.S.-Japanese trade tensions and the incident involving the threat of the imposition of countervailing duties by the United States on Canadian softwood lumber.

International Trade, Distribution and Development brings together a collection of papers that have sought to assess empirically the impacts of policy measures affecting trade. The carefully selected papers analyze the impact of trade barriers and their removal, with a focus on distributional consequences and economic development. Grounded in rigorous empirical analysis, this book covers a range of policy issues such as impacts of trade on wages, non-tariff barriers, trade preferences, export survival and carbon labelling. An invaluable reference for readers seeking to understand the impact of trade policies, the book also seeks to shed light on future research, especially for research on developing countries. Contents:Introduction and Overview (Paul Brenton)Modelling the Impacts of Trade Barriers and FDI Flows:Quantifying the Economic Effects of Non-Tariff Barriers: The Case of UK Footwear (Alan Winters and Paul Brenton)Voluntary Export Restraints and Rationing: U.K. Leather Footwear Imports from Eastern Europe (Paul Brenton and Alan Winters)Anti-Dumping Policies in the EU and Trade Diversion (Paul Brenton)The Potential Trade Effects of an FTA Between the EU and Russia (Paul Brenton, Natalia Tourdyeva, and John Whalley)Technical Barriers to Trade in the European Union: Importance for Accession Countries (Paul Brenton, John Sheehy, and Marc Vancauteren)Economic Integration and FDI: An Empirical Analysis of Foreign Investment in the EU and in Central and Eastern Europe (Paul Brenton, Francesca Di Mauro, and Matthias Lücke)Assessing the Adjustment Implications of Trade Policy Changes Using the Tariff Reform Impact Simulation Tool (TRIST) (Paul Brenton, Christian Saborowski, Cornelia Staritz, and Erik von Uexkull)Trade, Wages and Adjustment:Outsourcing and Low-Skilled Workers in the UK (Robert Anderton and Paul Brenton)What's Trade Got to Do with It? Relative Demand for Skills Within Swedish Manufacturing (Robert Anderton, Paul Brenton, and Eva Oscarsson)Trends in Disaggregated Import and Export Prices in Europe: Implications for the Trade and Wages Debate (Paul Brenton and Anna Maria Pinna)Adjustment to Globalisation: A Study of the Footwear Industry in Europe (Paul Brenton, Anna Maria Pinna, and Marc Vancauteren)Trade and Development:Integrating the Least Developed Countries into the World Trading System: The Current Impact of EU Preferences Under ‘Everything But Arms’ (Paul Brenton)Making EU Trade Agreements Work: The Role of Rules of Origin (Paul Brenton and Miriam Manchin)Watching More than the Discovery Channel to Diversify Exports (Paul Brenton and Richard Newfarmer)The Life and Death of Trade Flows: Understanding the Survival Rates of Developing Country Exporters (Paul Brenton, Martha Denisse Pierola, and Erik von Uexkull)What Explains the Low Survival Rate of Developing Country Export Flows? (Paul Brenton, Christian Saborowski, and Erik von Uexkull)Product Specific Technical Assistance for Exports — Has It Been Effective? (Paul Brenton and Erik von Uexkull)Carbon Labelling and Low-Income Country Exports: Review of the Development Issues (Paul Brenton, Gareth Edwards-Jones, and Michael Friis Jensen) Readership: Postgraduates, researchers, academics, and policymakers interested in international economics, developmental economics and globalization. Key Features:Covers a range of policy issues including the impacts of trade on wages, non-tariff barriers, economic development and carbon labellingExplores the impact of trade policies grounded in rigorous empirical analysisKeywords:Trade;Economic Development;Empirical Studies;Modelling

Handbook of Commercial Policy explores three main topics that permeate the study of commercial policy. The first section presents a broad set of basic empirical facts regarding the pattern and evolution of commercial policy, with the second section investigating the crosscutting legal issues relating to the purpose and design of agreements. Final sections cover key issues of commercial policy in the modern global economy. Every chapter in the book provides coverage from the perspectives of multilateral, and where appropriate, preferential trade agreements. While most other volumes are policy-oriented, this comprehensive guide explores the ways that intellectual thinking and rigor organize research, further making frontier-level synthesis and current theoretical, and empirical, research accessible to all. Covers the research areas that are critical for understanding how the world of commercial policy has changed, especially over the last 20 years Presents the way in which research on the topic has evolved Scrutinizes the economic modeling of bargaining and legal issues Useful for examining the theory and empirics of commercial policy

Centering on questions of the potential optimality of some trade protection, these original contributions present research at the frontier of international trade and trade policy. They expand and test the new trade theory that has developed during the last decade, incorporating elements of industrial organization and political economy into the study of trade structure and the formation of trade policy. Essays in the first two parts take up trade policy, addressing issues such as the formation of trading blocks, strategic trade policy, the political economy of protection, growth-oriented trade policies, and including empirical studies of the welfare effects of quality - upgrading voluntary export restrictions and import quotas. Essays in the third part discuss various structural issues such as trade in services, intersectoral adjustments, and the advantage of early entry. Elhanan Helpman and Assaf Razin are Professors of Economics at Tel Aviv University and NBER Research Associates. Contents: Trade Policy: Theory. Is Bilateralism Bad? Paul R. Krugman. Strategic Trade Policy and Direct Foreign Investment: When Are Tariffs and Quotas Equivalent? James A. Levinsohn. Making Altruism Pay in Auction Quotas, Kala Krishna. On the Ineffectiveness of Made-to-Measure Protectionist Programs, Aaron Tornell. Export Subsidies and Price Competition, Peter Neary. Adverse Selection in Credit Markets and Infant Industry Protection, Harry Flam and Robert W. Staiger. Protection, Politics, and Market Structure, Arye L. Hillman. Growth and Welfare in a Small Open Economy, Gene M. Grossman and Elhanan Helpman. Trade Policy: Evidence. Quality Upgrading and Its Welfare Cost in U.S. Imports, 1969-74, Randi Boorstein and Robert C. Feenstra. Counting the Cost of Voluntary Export Restraints in the European Car Market, Alasdair Smith and Anthony J. Venables. Structural Issues. Services in International Trade, Wilfred J. Ethier and Henrik Horn. First-Mover Advantages, Blockaded Entry, and the Economics of Uneven Development, James R. Markusen. Wage Sensitivity Rankings and Temporal Convergence, Ronald W. Jones and Peter Neary.

Internationalization of the world economy has made trade a key factor in the growth potential of nearly every economy. Hence, economists have become increasingly interested in the determinants of international trade and competitiveness. Empirical Models i

In this volume, the author has selected an impressive range of critical papers by leading academics which have contributed significantly to making international trade an empirical science.