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1 – 10 of 402A review essay on Ronald Findlay, Lars Jonung and Mats Lundahl, eds. Bertil Ohlin: Centennial Celebration (1899–1999). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 546. $60.00.The…
Abstract
A review essay on Ronald Findlay, Lars Jonung and Mats Lundahl, eds. Bertil Ohlin: Centennial Celebration (1899–1999). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 546. $60.00. The Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin was born in 1899 and died in 1979. Less than half of his professional life he spent as a full time academic scholar in economics. He was a student at the University of Stockholm and was supervised by his teachers, Gustav Cassel and Eli Heckscher. In 1922, Ohlin presented his licentiat thesis where he set out the ideas later conceptualised as the Heckscher-Ohlin model. Two years later, in 1924, he took his doctoral degree under Cassel with a dissertation simply called Handelns teori (The Theory of Trade). A longer version of this dissertation was later published in English as Interregional and International Trade (1933). This work made him a famous trade theorist in a line of tradition going back to Ricardo and Torrens. Paul Samuelson in 1941 coined and immortalised the term “the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem” which he and Wolfgang Stolper developed further in a famous article in the Review of Economic Studies (1941) entitled “Protection and Real Wages.” Already at the age of 26 the bright young man Ohlin became a professor in economics at the University of Copenhagen and five years later he was appointed to a chair in the same subject at Handelshogskolan (The Stockholm School of Economics) in Stockholm.
Tanjina Akther, Liton Chandra Voumik and Md. Hasanur Rahman
Research based on Bangladesh–US trade data examines the Heckscher–Ohlin model and the Rybczynski hypothesis in this study.
Abstract
Purpose
Research based on Bangladesh–US trade data examines the Heckscher–Ohlin model and the Rybczynski hypothesis in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
Ordinary least square (OLS) techniques are used in this study, which relies on data from the NBER International Trade and Geography Data and the UN Comtrade Database for the years 2018 and 2008.
Findings
The research shows that trade between the United States and Bangladesh follows Heckscher–Ohlin and Rybcyzinski's trade predictions. According to the study, since labor is in plentiful supply in Bangladesh, Bangladesh's labor-based sectors have a higher US labor-to-capital import shares than US capital-based industries. As Bangladesh has not changed significantly from a labor-based country since 2008, it retains the same pattern even though the share of US unskilled labor-based sectors imported from Bangladesh decreased in 2018.
Originality/value
The findings of this study have a wide range of implications for both trade theory and policy debates between Bangladesh and the United States.
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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of country-level factors and aim to find out how the factors affect the export competitiveness of agricultural industries from…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of country-level factors and aim to find out how the factors affect the export competitiveness of agricultural industries from emerging markets. Agricultural industries have been traditionally one of the important contributors to the increased exports from emerging markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) approach is used to define the export competitiveness of agricultural industries in emerging markets. Regression and factor analysis are used to find out the relationship between export competitiveness and important country-level factors, such as wage cost, irrigated land area, food price index, export of agriculture products, domestic consumption demand and exchange rate, against US dollars of different countries from emerging markets.
Findings
Export of agriculture products, irrigated land area and exchange rate against US dollars were found to have positive relationship with export competitiveness of agriculture industry. On the other hand, labor cost and domestic consumption demand were found to have a negative relationship with the export competitiveness.
Practical implications
In transformation of emerging economies, a higher level of export, larger area of irrigated land and stable exchange rate of US dollars will benefit the agriculture export of emerging markets. The rising wage cost and domestic consumption need can restrain the export competitiveness of emerging markets.
Originality/value
The research offers important hints for emerging markets to find their own ways to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in export market by controlling the country-level factors. Also, it revealed the future problems that can appear in the transformation, with practical suggestions following. This research will be helpful to both policy-makers and global managers.
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A mainstay of conventional trade theory, the Heckscher‐Ohlin theorem, dates back to an article published in 1919 by the Swedish economist Eli Heckscher. Bertil Ohlin, a student of…
Abstract
A mainstay of conventional trade theory, the Heckscher‐Ohlin theorem, dates back to an article published in 1919 by the Swedish economist Eli Heckscher. Bertil Ohlin, a student of Heckscher's, developed the ideas in greater detail in 1933. A footnote in an article by Stolper and Samuelson specifically designated the “Heckscher‐Ohlin theorem” as such.
Bertil Ohlin was a most active commentator on current economic events in the interwar period, combining his academic work with a journalistic output of an impressive scale. He…
Abstract
Bertil Ohlin was a most active commentator on current economic events in the interwar period, combining his academic work with a journalistic output of an impressive scale. He published more than a thousand newspaper articles in the 1920s and 1930s, more than any other professor in economics in Sweden.
Here we have collected 10 articles by Ohlin, translated from Swedish and originally published in Stockholms-Tidningen, to trace the evolution of his thinking during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These articles, spanning roughly half a decade, bring out his response to the stock market crisis in New York in 1929, his views on monetary policy in 1931, on fiscal policy and public works in 1932, his reaction to Keynes’ ideas in 1932 and 1933 and to Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933, and, finally, his stand against state socialism in 1935.
At the beginning of the depression, Ohlin was quite optimistic in his outlook. But as the downturn in the world economy deepened, his optimism waned. He dealt with proposals for bringing the Swedish economy out of the depression, and reported positively on the policy views of Keynes. At an early stage, he recommended expansionary fiscal and monetary policies including public works. This approach permeated the contributions of the young generation of Swedish economists arising in the 1930s, eventually forming the Stockholm School of Economics. He was critical of passive Manchester liberalism, ‘folded-arms evangelism’ as well of socialism while promoting his own brand of ‘active social liberalism’.
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Exports help developing countries to expand their production, promote industrialization and accelerate their economic growth. They played an important part in the economic…
Abstract
Exports help developing countries to expand their production, promote industrialization and accelerate their economic growth. They played an important part in the economic transformation of Southeast Asian countries. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is one of the ways in which developing countries can increase their exports to the markets of developed nations. The GSP, a unilateral, non‐reciprocal program agreed under the United Nations provides preferential duty entry to numerous products imported into developed countries by eligible developing countries. The objective of this study is to examine the role of GSP in stimulating exports of developing countries. It also provides a comparative appraisal of the GSP schemes of the United States and Japan. The paper also makes certain recommendations to make GSP schemes more efficient and applicable to particular situations.
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Alisha Mahajan and Kakali Majumdar
Textile, listed as one of the highly environmentally sensitive goods, its trade is susceptible to be influenced by the implementation of stringent environmental policies. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Textile, listed as one of the highly environmentally sensitive goods, its trade is susceptible to be influenced by the implementation of stringent environmental policies. This paper aims to investigate the long-run relationship between revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and Environmental Policy Stringency Index (EPSI) for textile exports of G20 countries in panel data setup.
Design/methodology/approach
Apart from trend analysis, the authors have employed Pedroni and Westerlund panel cointegration method and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method to study the long-run relationship between RCA and EPSI in presence of cross-sectional dependence.
Findings
A strong link between trade and environmental stringency is observed for textile in the present study. For G20 countries, slight evidence of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis has also been witnessed in the study. Correspondingly, the results reveal the presence of long-run association between the variables under study, implying that stringent environmental policies reduce RCA for some countries, whereas some countries witness the Porter hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications
The results imply that policy formulation should not aim at limiting the efforts of connecting RCA to environmental stringency but to set trade policies in a wider framework, considering environmental concerns, as these are inseparable subjects. However, this study also provides relevant real-world implications that can support further research.
Practical implications
The present study has important implications for textile exporters such as green innovations. The Porter hypothesis can be a beneficial tool for G20 exporters in enhancing their export performance, especially for the ones dealing in environmentally sensitive goods. This study offers relevant policy implications and provides directions for future research on global trade and environment nexus.
Originality/value
This study deals in a debatable area of research that evaluates the interlinkages between environmental stringency and global trade flows in the G20 countries. An important observation of the study is the asymmetrical nature of policy stringency across different countries and its impact on trade. The unavailability of updated data is the limitation of the present study.
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Hazera-Tun- Nessa and Katsushi S. Imai
Existence of working poverty reduces the effectiveness of the strategy of “increasing employment to reduce poverty”. Developed countries are already concerned about it but…
Abstract
Purpose
Existence of working poverty reduces the effectiveness of the strategy of “increasing employment to reduce poverty”. Developed countries are already concerned about it but insufficient attention has been made by developing countries. Focusing on developing countries this study identifies (1) the effects of trade openness (TO) on working poverty and (2) whether the working poverty trap exists or not in developing countries. Both objectives are also analyzed for three subsamples of low income, lower-middle income and upper-middle income developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Panel data for 98 developing countries over the period of 2000–2016 have been collected for the study. Fixed effect and GMM methods are applied for static and dynamic analysis, respectively.
Findings
The study finds that TO significantly reduces working poverty rate (WPR) (mainly driven up by upper-middle income developing countries). The positive association between WPR with its previous year's rate proves the existence of working poverty trap.
Research limitations/implications
The study's outcome is subject to selected time, countries and methods. Future research should use more improve methods and should identify the channels through which TO could affect working poverty.
Practical implications
Middle income and upper-middle income developing countries should increase TO to reduce the working poverty. Low income developing countries that have the highest working poverty should search the way to derive beneficial effects of trade on working poverty.
Social implications
Working poverty is not only a developed country issue rather it is a global phenomenon. Hence, it is expected that the study will raise the social consciousness about this phenomenon in developing countries too.
Originality/value
The study fulfills the gaps of identifying the effects of TO on working poverty and existence of in-work poverty trap in developing countries.
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