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Articles 91 - 120 of 153

Full-Text Articles in International Economics

Country Image And International Trade, Pao Li Chang, Tomoki Fujii Jul 2012

Country Image And International Trade, Pao Li Chang, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the impact of country image on international trade flows. We find that a one percentage point increase in the positive response ratio - the proportion of people in the importing country who view the exporting country positively - is associated with at least a one percent increase in the aggregate trade flow. By disaggregating trade flows by the type of goods, we also find that both homogeneous and differentiated goods are positively affected by better country image and that the impact of country image tends to be larger when more substitutes are available in the international market.


Why Smes Should Aim At Becoming Exporters, Hian Teck Hoon Jul 2012

Why Smes Should Aim At Becoming Exporters, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

In the fortnightly series entitled 'Engage SMU profs', Professor Hoon Hian Teck, Associate Dean of the School of Economics, answers the questions: Should SMEs aim to become exporters rather than serve only the domestic market? What are the benefits to SMEs in doing so? Does the smallness in size limit their productivity growth? Are there any channels for SMEs to get assistance from the authorities, and what are these? He commented that if more of our local SMEs look towards the international marketplace and sell to foreign markets, not only will Singapore's GDP be boosted, local businessmen will also get …


Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Manova Kalina May 2012

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Manova Kalina

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the collapse of international trade flows during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis using detailed data on the evolution of monthly U.S. imports over the November 2006 - April 2009 period. We show that credit constraints and the reduction in the availability of external capital were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes. We identify the effects of credit tightening by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial dependence across sectors. We find that countries with higher interbank interest rates and thus tighter …


Organizing The Global Value Chain, Pol Antras, Davin Chor May 2012

Organizing The Global Value Chain, Pol Antras, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a property-rights model of the firm in which production entails a continuum of uniquely sequenced stages. In each stage, a final-good producer contracts with a distinct supplier for the procurement of a customized stage-specific component. Our model yields a sharp characterization for the optimal allocation of ownership rights along the value chain. We show that the incentive to integrate suppliers varies systematically with the relative position (upstream versus downstream) at which the supplier enters the production line. Furthermore, the nature of the relationship between integration and “downstreamness” depends crucially on the elasticity of demand faced by the final-good …


Why Was The Arab World Poised For Revolution? Schooling, Economic Opportunities, And The Arab Spring, Filipe R. Campante, Davin Chor Mar 2012

Why Was The Arab World Poised For Revolution? Schooling, Economic Opportunities, And The Arab Spring, Filipe R. Campante, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

What underlying long-term conditions set the stage for the Arab Spring? In recent decades, the Arab region has been characterized by an expansion in schooling coupled with weak labor market conditions. This pattern is especially pronounced in those countries that saw significant upheaval during the first year of the Arab Spring uprisings. We argue that the lack of adequate economic opportunities for an increasingly educated populace can help us understand episodes of regime instability such as the Arab Spring.


Risk And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu Mar 2012

Risk And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper incorporates risk into the FDI decisions of firms. The risk of FDI failure increases with the gap between the South's technology frontier and the technology complexity of a firm's product. This leads to a double-crossing sorting pattern of FDI—firms of intermediate technology levels are more likely than others to undertake FDI. It is with the attempt to relax the upper bound of the technology content of FDI, we argue, that many FDI policies are created. The theory's predictions are consistent with the empirical patterns of FDI in China by US and Taiwanese manufacturing firms.


In Support Of The Trips Agreement, Amanda Jakobsson, Paul S. Segerstrom Feb 2012

In Support Of The Trips Agreement, Amanda Jakobsson, Paul S. Segerstrom

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that the TRIPs agreement is bad for developing countries. We present a dynamic general equilibrium model of North-South trade that allows us to study the implications of stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and simultaneous trade liberalization. In our model, stronger IPR protection in the South (TRIPs) leads to more innovation in the North, more technology transfer to the South and higher long-run southern consumer welfare. The South also benefits from trade liberalization but the welfare gains from TRIPs are considerably larger.


Optimal International Agreement And Treatment Of Domestic Subsidy, Gea M. Lee Jan 2012

Optimal International Agreement And Treatment Of Domestic Subsidy, Gea M. Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate how a domestic subsidy is treated in an international agreement, when a government, having incentive to use its domestic subsidy as a means of import protection, can disguise its protective use of subsidy as a legitimate intervention with which to address a market imperfection. We show that any optimal agreement, as opposed to the conventional message of the targeting principle, restricts the home government’s freedom to select its domestic subsidy in order to increase the market-access level for foreign exporters. Our finding suggests that a proper restriction on domestic subsidy is somewhere between GATT and WTO rules.


International Capital Flows With Limited Commitment And Incomplete Markets, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Dec 2011

International Capital Flows With Limited Commitment And Incomplete Markets, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Recent literature has proposed two alternative types of financial frictions, i.e., limited commitment and incomplete markets, to explain the patterns of international capital flows between developed and developing countries observed in the past two decades. This paper integrates both types of frictions into a two-country overlapping-generations framework to facilitate a direct comparison of their effects. In our model, limited commitment distorts the investment made by agents with different productivity, which creates a wedge between the interest rates on equity capital vs. credit capital; while incomplete markets distort the investment among projects with different riskiness, which creates a wedge between the …


The Informal Economy And Bribery In North Korea, Byung-Yeon Kim, Yumi Koh Oct 2011

The Informal Economy And Bribery In North Korea, Byung-Yeon Kim, Yumi Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper uses the data of 227 North Korean refugees who have settled in South Korea to investigate the relationship between working in the informal economy (market component of the economy) and bribe-giving, and between bribe-giving and the number of hours worked in the formal sector (planned component of the economy). The first relationship is positive, and the second relationship is negative. These results imply that widespread informal economy activities in North Korea have been undermining the socialist regime through bribery.


The Wto Trade Effect, Pao Li Chang, Myoung-Jae Lee Sep 2011

The Wto Trade Effect, Pao Li Chang, Myoung-Jae Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper re-examines the GATT/WTO membership effect on bilateral trade flows, using nonparametric methods including pair-matching, permutation tests, and a Rosenbaum (2002) sensitivity analysis. Together, these methods provide an estimation framework that is robust to misspecification bias, allows general forms of heterogeneous membership effects, and addresses potential hidden selection bias. This is in contrast to most conventional parametric studies on this issue. Our results suggest large GATT/WTO trade-promoting effects that are robust to various restricted matching criteria, alternative GATT/WTO indicators, non-random incidence of positive trade flows, inclusion of multilateral resistance terms, and different matching methodologies.


Risk And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu Aug 2011

Risk And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper incorporates risk into the FDI decisions of firms. The risk of FDI failure increases with the gap between the South's technology frontier and the technology complexity of a firm's product. This leads to a double-crossing sorting pattern of FDI firms of intermediate technology levels are more likely than others to undertake FDI. It is with the attempt to relax the upper bound of the technology content of FDI, we argue, that many FDI policies are created. The theory's predictions are consistent with the empirical pattern of FDI in China by US and Taiwanese manufacturing firms.


Teaching Rebels, Filip Campante, Davin Chor Feb 2011

Teaching Rebels, Filip Campante, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.


Explosive Behavior In The 1990s Nasdaq: When Did Exuberance Escalate Asset Values?, Peter C. B. Phillips, Yangru Wu, Jun Yu Feb 2011

Explosive Behavior In The 1990s Nasdaq: When Did Exuberance Escalate Asset Values?, Peter C. B. Phillips, Yangru Wu, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

A recursive test procedure is suggested that provides a mechanism for testing explosive behavior, date stamping the origination and collapse of economic exuberance, and providing valid confidence intervals for explosive growth rates. The method involves the recursive implementation of a right-side unit root test and a sup test, both of which are easy to use in practical applications, and some new limit theory for mildly explosive processes. The test procedure is shown to have discriminatory power in detecting periodically collapsing bubbles, thereby overcoming a weakness in earlier applications of unit root tests for economic bubbles. An empirical application to the …


Trade And Divergence In Education Systems, Pao Li Chang, Fali Huang Dec 2010

Trade And Divergence In Education Systems, Pao Li Chang, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper presents a theory on the endogenous choice of a country's education policy and the two-way causal relationship between trade and education systems. The setting of a country's education system determines its talent distribution and comparative advantage in trade; the possibility of trade by raising the returns to the sector of comparative advantage in turn induces countries to further diferentiate their education systems and reinforces the initial pattern of comparative advantage. Specifically, the Nash equilibrium choice of education systems by two countries interacting strategically are necessarily more divergent than their autarky choices, although the difference is still less than …


The Wto Trade Effect, Pao Li Chang, Myoung-Jae Lee Dec 2010

The Wto Trade Effect, Pao Li Chang, Myoung-Jae Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper reexamines the GATT/WTO membership effect on bilateral trade flows, using nonparametric methods including pair-matching, permutation tests, and a Rosenbaum (2002) sensitivity analysis. Together, these methods provide an estimation framework that is robust to misspecification biases, allows general forms of heterogeneous treatment effects, and addresses potential hidden selection biases. This is in contrast to most conventional parametric studies on this issue. Our results suggest large GATT/WTO trade-promoting effects, robust to various restricted matching criteria, alternative indicators for GATT/WTO involvement, different matching methodologies, non-random incidence of positive trade flows, and inclusion of multilateral resistance terms.


Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor Nov 2010

Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops an approach for quantifying the importance of different sources of comparative advantage, by extending the Eaton and Kortum (2002) model to predict industry trade flows. In this framework, comparative advantage is determined by the interaction of country and industry characteristics, with countries specializing in industries whose production needs they can best meet with their factor endowments and institutional strengths. I estimate the model parameters using: (i) OLS; and (ii) a simulated method of moments procedure that accounts for the prevalence of zeros in the bilateral trade data. I apply the model to explore various quantitative questions, such …


International Capital Flows And Aggregate Output, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Oct 2010

International Capital Flows And Aggregate Output, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a tractable multi-country overlapping-generations model and show that cross-country differences in financial development explain three recent empirical patterns of international capital flows. Domestic financial frictions in our model distort interest rates and aggregate output in the less financially developed countries. International capital flows help ameliorate the two distortions. International flows of financial capital and foreign direct investment affect aggregate output in each country directly through affecting the size of aggregate investment. In addition, they affect aggregate output indirectly through affecting the composition of aggregate investment and the size of aggregate savings. Under certain conditions, the indirect effects may …


An Asian Response To International Financial Reforms, Hoe Ee Khor, Kim Song Tan Oct 2010

An Asian Response To International Financial Reforms, Hoe Ee Khor, Kim Song Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Asia has emerged as a much more important player in the global economy after the recent financial crisis. Together with other emerging market economies, Asia is expected to be a key driver for global economic growth in the near to medium term. Along with this, there is a rising chorus for an “Asian approach” to financial reforms in the region and internationally. There are also calls for Asia to play a bigger role in designing the new architecture for the global financial system.


Using Financial Econometrics To Measure Risk, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu, Eric Ghysels Oct 2010

Using Financial Econometrics To Measure Risk, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu, Eric Ghysels

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.


Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Kalina Manova Jul 2010

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Kalina Manova

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the collapse of international trade flows during the global financial crisis using detailed data on monthly US imports. We show that credit conditions were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes, by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial vulnerability across sectors. Countries with higher interbank rates and thus tighter credit markets exported less to the US during the peak of the crisis. This effect was especially pronounced in sectors that require extensive external financing, have limited access to trade credit, or …


Financial Development And The Patterns Of International Capital Flows, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Apr 2010

Financial Development And The Patterns Of International Capital Flows, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a tractable, two-country, overlapping-generations model and show that cross-country differences in financial development can explain three recent empirical patterns of international capital flows: Financial capital flows from relatively poor to relatively rich countries while foreign direct investment flows in the opposite direction; net capital flows go from poor to rich countries; despite its negative net international investment position, the US receives a positive net international investment income. We also explore the welfare and distributional effects of international capital flows and show that the direction of capital flows may change along the convergence process of a developing country. Matsuyama …


International Capital Flows And World Output Gains, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Mar 2010

International Capital Flows And World Output Gains, Jurgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a two-country overlapping-generations model with domestic financial frictions and show that cross-country differences in financial development explain three recent patterns of international capital flows. In our model, domestic financial frictions distort the interest rates and production efficiency in the less financially developed country. Capital flows not only lead to cross-country resource reallocation, but also trigger within-country resource reallocation among firms. From the efficiency perspective, full capital mobility raises the world output higher than under international financial autarky. If the mobility of either financial capital or foreign direct investment is restricted, the world output may be lower.


Risk, Learning, And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu Feb 2010

Risk, Learning, And The Technology Content Of Fdi: A Dynamic Model, Pao Li Chang, Chia-Hui Lu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper builds a dynamic model of catching up to examine the policy stance of developing countries in attracting inward FDI. We show that the observably evident risk of FDI failure sets a minimum threshold on the South's technology capacity and furthermore creates a limit on the technology content of inward FDI. We provide economic foundations for the determinants of the FDI risk and formalize how the risk factor evolves over time as the South moves up its technology ladder. The model offers an insightful and tractable framework for empirical studies with a dynamic content, and reconciles many relevant empirical …


Trade, Growth And Increasing Returns To Infrastructure: The Role Of The Sophisticated Monopolist, Ashok S. Guha, Brishti Guha Nov 2009

Trade, Growth And Increasing Returns To Infrastructure: The Role Of The Sophisticated Monopolist, Ashok S. Guha, Brishti Guha

Research Collection School Of Economics

Equilibrium in international trade with increasing returns in infrastructure depends on whether the infrastructure provider is “naïve” or sophisticated. A monopolist produces infrastructure under decreasing cost using fixed equipment. Unlike similar work, we derive a unique closed-economy equilibrium. In a small open economy, with “naïve” infrastructure provider(s), multiple equilibria obtain. The industrial export potential of the economy depends on unexhausted economies of scale, and equilibria are possible where manufactures are exported despite an autarky price higher than the world price. With a sophisticated infrastructure provider, even an open economy has a unique equilibrium, which, at least as long as economies …


Monetary Policy And Asset Prices In A Small Open Economy: A Factor-Augmented Var Analysis For Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow, Keen Meng Choy Oct 2009

Monetary Policy And Asset Prices In A Small Open Economy: A Factor-Augmented Var Analysis For Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow, Keen Meng Choy

Research Collection School Of Economics

The ongoing global financial turmoil has revived the question of whether central bankers ought to tighten monetary policy preemptively in order to head off asset price misalignments before a sudden crash triggers financial instability. This study explores the issue of the appropriate monetary policy response to asset price swings in the small open economy of Singapore. Empirical analysis of monetary policy based on standard VAR models, unfortunately, is often hindered by the use of sparse information sets. To better reflect the extensive information monitored by Singapore’s central bank, including global economic indicators, we augment a monetary VAR model with common …


Instability And The Incentives For Corruption, Filipe R. Campante, Davin Chor, Quoc-Anh Do Jan 2009

Instability And The Incentives For Corruption, Filipe R. Campante, Davin Chor, Quoc-Anh Do

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate the relationship between corruption and political stability, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. We propose a model of incumbent behavior that features the interplay of two effects: a horizon effect, whereby greater instability leads the incumbent to embezzle more during his short window of opportunity, and a demand effect, by which the private sector is more willing to bribe stable incumbents. The horizon effect dominates at low levels of stability, because firms are unwilling to pay high bribes and unstable incumbents have strong incentives to embezzle, whereas the demand effect gains salience in more stable regimes. Together, these …


Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor Oct 2008

Unpacking Sources Of Comparative Advantage: A Quantitative Approach, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops an approach for quantifying the relative importance of different sources of comparative advantage for country welfare in a global trade equilibrium. To explain the pattern of specialization, I present a multi-country, perfectly-competitive Ricardian model that extends Eaton and Kortum (2002) to predict industry trade flows. In this framework, comparative advantage is determined by the interaction of country and industry characteristics, with countries specializing in industries whose specific production needs they are best able to meet with their factor endowments, institutional environment, and technological strengths. I estimate the model parameters using a large dataset of bilateral trade flows, …


Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon Aug 2008

Financial Frictions And International Trade, Ruanjai Suwantaradon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the effects of financial market imperfections on a firm’s operating and exporting decisions. I introduce financial frictions into a trade model with heterogeneous firms along the line of Melitz (2003). With the presence of financial constraints, even among a group of firms with the same productivity level, firms that are more financially constrained operate on a less efficient scale, and as a result, may no longer find operating and/or exporting profitable. In addition, financial frictions may create a distortion compared to the Melitz (2003) world since operation and export participation may be undertaken by those with better …


A Welfare Analysis Of Capital Account Liberalization, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang Aug 2008

A Welfare Analysis Of Capital Account Liberalization, Jürgen Von Hagen, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a model of a small open economy with credit market frictions to analyze the consequences of capital account liberalization. We show that financial opening facilitates the inflows of cheap foreign funds and improves production efficiency. Reforms increasing labor market exibility can further improve such efficiency gains. However, capital account liberalization also has important distributional consequences. Specifically, it may be impossible to use public transfers to fully compensate the loss of those negatively affected by capital account liberalization. This explains why financial opening often meets fierce opposition even though it leads to efficiency gains for the economy as a …