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1 – 10 of 427This article examines if the national productions of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries can be substituted for the imports by testing MLRC in these…
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines if the national productions of West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries can be substituted for the imports by testing MLRC in these countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The Mundell–Fleming model (MMF) is the analytical framework adopted in this paper with import demand and export supply functions estimation borrowed to Thirlwall (1979). This study covers four countries in West Africa from 1990 to 2021. The estimation procedure used is an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration.
Findings
The findings reveal that there is a strong marginal propensity to import in the WAEMU countries. The hypothesis of a non-significant price effect on imports in the short-term is confirmed for several countries while only Togo satisfies the MLRC in the short and long run.
Originality/value
This study presents several originalities: (1) it evaluates MLRC with a clear analytical framework; (2) unlike other studies, this article quantifies the MLRC from a theoretical, econometric and empirical point of view; (3) this article presents the results country by country in order to reveal heterogeneity between countries; (4) this study adds to the Marshall–Lerner condition for the derivation of Robinson by considering a situation where initially the trade balance is not in equilibrium.
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This paper analyzes the impact of macroeconomic variables such as real exchange rate, exchange-rate volatility, and economic growth of the UK and Norway on Norway’s bilateral…
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of macroeconomic variables such as real exchange rate, exchange-rate volatility, and economic growth of the UK and Norway on Norway’s bilateral trade flow to the UK via maritime and other transport modes. The first two models considered trade volume (import and export) via only maritime transport, while the third and fourth models considered trade volume via modes other than maritime transport. The empirical validity of the Marshall-Lerner condition is tested to see whether a devaluation of the real exchange rate improves the trade balance in the long term. In addition to the long-term relationship among variables, short-term effects are also evaluated. The results show that the real income of Norway and its trading partner (the UK) is the main determinant of bilateral trade flow via maritime and other transport modes. Moreover, the results indicate that in the long run, the Marshall-Lerner condition is satisfied only for bilateral trade via modes other than maritime transport.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent evidence can be found for the presence of the Marshall–Lerner (ML) condition regarding the trade balances of Egypt. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent evidence can be found for the presence of the Marshall–Lerner (ML) condition regarding the trade balances of Egypt. The theoretical basis of the ML is presented and then tested using Egyptian trade data from 1965 to 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are analysed via standard ordinary least squares models subject to the constraints imposed by economic theory, specifically ML theory, in which the coefficients represent elasticities. A range of tests are undertaken to establish the validity of the models and the model results including multicollinearity, unit root and co-integration in order to avoid spurious regressions.
Findings
The export model strongly suggests that real exports of Egyptian goods and services are elastic with respect to changes in the real effective exchange rate (REER), with a coefficient weight of −1.64 and is significant at 1%. However, for the import model the coefficient weight of the REER −1.17 and is significant at 1%. This result contradicts ML theory, where an increase in the REER makes imports cheaper and thus causes them to increase.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the study are two in particular, the first is that the frequency of the data employed is annual, not monthly or even quarterly, which means that the sample size would have been larger, and the estimated parameters could have been more accurate in forecasting the future behaviour of exports and imports. There could be several other indicators that might have clear impacts on exports and imports. In other words, it is possible that a model with consumer spending and government spending as well as terms of trade, inflation, interest rate spread and taxes is going to capture more of the variation that occurs in Egypt's trade balance components.
Practical implications
The results suggest that the Egypt-International Monetary Fund plan (depreciation) is likely to have a positive effect on the economy. However, this does not mean that the deficit of the trade balance is going to change into a surplus once the policies of the plan are fully applied, but it does mean the deficit will reduce. Only in the long run is the trade balance likely to record a sustainable surplus. But the latter will heavily depend on the structure of exports and imports and maintaining price stability, both of which are key government policy areas.
Originality/value
The paper builds on previous theoretical and empirical work in this field and in particular is focussed on Egypt. There are extremely few analyses of the ML condition regarding Egypt. This paper provides new information on this and can also be utilized by researchers to further develop the analysis and method through identification of other potentially relevant variables within a single country ML study.
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This paper seeks to argue that any competitive advantage realized by a firm that produces domestically and exports to a foreign market due to a real depreciation (appreciation) of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to argue that any competitive advantage realized by a firm that produces domestically and exports to a foreign market due to a real depreciation (appreciation) of the domestic (foreign) currency is purely transitory and thus not sustainable. Diversification of manufacturing operations across a number of countries and appropriate production rescheduling in light of real exchange rate changes are required to transform the character of this competitive advantage from merely transitory to sustainable.
Design/methodology/approach
Analytic proof is provided of the dependence of an exporting firm's real profit margin on the real exchange rate. A simple contemporaneous and one‐period lagged model of the current account balance is then posited to argue that real exchange rates exhibit mean‐reversionary behavior.
Findings
The Marshall‐Lerner condition, which is a mainstay of balance‐of‐payments models is shown to imply that real exchange rates exhibit mean‐reversionary behavior. Extensive empirical evidence is cited that accords with this theoretical conclusion. Thus, any gain in competitive advantage due to a change in real exchange rates that accrues to a firm with a single manufacturing operation is merely transitory and not sustainable.
Practical implications
To position itself to achieve sustainable competitive advantage from changes in real exchange rates, a firm must maintain a global supply chain diversified across many countries. With the flexibility provided by such disparate plant locations, production schedules can be adjusted in response to real exchange rate changes, to wit, increased (reduced) manufacturing should be programmed in countries whose currencies have experienced real depreciations (appreciations). Owing to oscillating real exchange rates, these requisite production schedule adjustments are expected to be perpetual.
Originality/value
The algebraic formulation of the firm's inflation‐adjusted profit margin's dependency on the real exchange rate and the analytical proof that the Marshall‐Lerner condition implies mean‐reversionary behavior in real exchange rates are both novel. The implications with regard to competitive advantage are likewise original.
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Mohsen Bahmani, Hanafiah Harvey and Scott W. Hegerty
The Marshall‐Lerner (M‐L) condition, which stipulates that a devaluation or depreciation of its currency will improve a country's trade balance only if the sum of the absolute…
Abstract
Purpose
The Marshall‐Lerner (M‐L) condition, which stipulates that a devaluation or depreciation of its currency will improve a country's trade balance only if the sum of the absolute values of a country's import and export price elasticities are greater than one, is a fundamental tenet of international economics. The purpose of this study is to survey the literature that has tested the M‐L condition, examining in particular whether previous studies' results are statistically significant. The authors then conduct their own estimation of 29 countries' trade elasticities, over the past few decades.
Design/methodology/approach
While mostly a review paper, the paper also applies statistical techniques in two ways. First, the authors use t‐tests on previously‐published statistical results to see if the sums of their elasticities are significantly greater than one. The authors also apply the recently developed ARDL cointegration method, which has a number of attractive statistical properties, to estimate 29 countries' long‐run import and export elasticities and test the M‐L condition using recent data.
Findings
The authors re‐estimation using previous studies' coefficients and standard errors shows that, although the point estimates in many studies suggest that the M‐L condition is met, it really is not met in half of the cases. This lack of evidence is confirmed with the authors' own empirical tests.
Research limitations/implications
Not only does this paper collect the relevant literature in a way that will assist future researchers on the topic, these findings suggest that support for the M‐L condition is much weaker that commonly thought. This therefore makes an important contribution to thinking regarding the potential benefits of devaluation, and to economic theory in general.
Practical implications
Policymakers who hope to improve their countries' competitive position could benefit from learning that this policy is indeed less effective than might be supposed. This could lead to the implementation of more effective economic policies.
Originality/value
As a literature review, the originality of this paper is that it collects relevant studies into one single paper. The statistical analyses allow the reader to re‐interpret these studies' findings in a new light.
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Tantatape Brahmasrene and Komain Jiranyakul
This study investigates the impact of real exchange rates on the trade balances between Thailand and its major trading partners. Previous empirical evidence gave mixed results of…
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of real exchange rates on the trade balances between Thailand and its major trading partners. Previous empirical evidence gave mixed results of the impact of real exchange rates on trade balances. In this study, Augmented Dicky‐Fuller and Phillips‐Perron tests for stationarity followed by the cointegration tests are implemented. All variables in the model are nonstationary but cointegrated. In cointegrating regressions, biases are introduced by simultaneity and serial correlation in the error. The specification that deals with these problems is the non‐linear specification of Stock and Watson (1989). By using this non‐linear model as modified by Reinhart (1995), the results show that the impact of real exchange rates (Thai baht/foreign currency) on trade balances is significant in most cases. Therefore, the generalized Marshall‐Lerner condition seems to hold. Furthermore, the results show that the real exchange rates play a more important role in the determination of the bilateral trade balances than other factors. Since the real exchange rate variable plays a major role in this study, the policy recommendation is to prevent exchange rate misalignment. A policy that can neutralize the changes in nominal exchange rates and relative prices should be introduced to prevent further deterioration of the trade balance.
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M. Adetunji Babatunde and Festus O. Egwaikhide
The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis of the aggregated import demand behavior for Nigeria using annual data between 1980 and 2006.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis of the aggregated import demand behavior for Nigeria using annual data between 1980 and 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
The bounds test analysis was used to estimate the long‐run relationship between imports and its determinants.
Findings
Test results show that imports, income and relative prices are cointegrated. The estimated long‐run elasticities of import demand with respect to income and relative prices are 2.48 and −0.133, respectively.
Originality/value
These results suggest that the Marshall‐Lerner condition are not satisfied for Nigeria.
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Rafael Saulo Marques Ribeiro, John S.L. McCombie and Gilberto Tadeu Lima
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on demand-driven Keynesian growth in open economies by developing a formal model that combines Dixon and Thirlwall’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on demand-driven Keynesian growth in open economies by developing a formal model that combines Dixon and Thirlwall’s (1975) export-led growth model and Thirlwall’s (1979) balance-of-payments constrained growth model into a more general specification. Then, based on the model developed in this paper, the authors analyse more broadly some important issues concerning the net impact of currency depreciation on the short-run growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors build upon Dixon and Thirlwall’s (1975) export-led growth model and Thirlwall’s (1979) balance-of-payments constrained growth model in order to develop the theoretical framework. The authors also run numerical simulations to illustrate the net impact of devaluation on the short-run growth rate in different scenarios.
Findings
The authors demonstrate that the net impact of currency devaluation on growth can go either way, depending on some structural conditions such as the average share of imported intermediate inputs in prime costs of domestic firms and the institutional capacity of trade unions to set nominal wages through the bargaining process. The model also shows that the effectiveness of a competitive real exchange rate to promote growth is higher in countries where the share of labour in domestic income is also higher.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides a coherent formal starting-point for further theoretical developments on the interrelatedness between currency devaluation, income distribution and growth. These findings provide empirically testable hypothesis for future research.
Originality/value
The present study proposes an alternative formal solution for the theoretical problem of imposing a balance-of-payments constraint on the process of cumulative causation often incorporated in Kaldorian growth models. In terms of policy, the framework sheds further light on the relevance of income distribution and the labour market institutional framework for the dynamics of the exchange rate pass-through mechanism and allows us to map out related conditions under which currency devaluation can promote growth.
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In this paper we examine the validity of the J-curve hypothesis in four Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) over the 1980–2017 period.
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper we examine the validity of the J-curve hypothesis in four Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) over the 1980–2017 period.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ the linear autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) model that captures the dynamic relationships between the variables and additionally use the nonlinear ARDL model that considers the asymmetric effects of the real exchange rate changes.
Findings
The estimated models were diagnostically sound, and the variables were found to be cointegrated. However, with the exception of Malaysia, the short- and long-run relationships did not attest to the presence of the J-curve effect. The trade flows were affected asymmetrically in Malaysia and the Philippines, suggesting the appropriateness of nonlinear ARDL in these countries.
Originality/value
The previous research tended to examine the effects of the real exchange rate changes on the agricultural trade balance and specifically the J-curve effect (deterioration of the trade balance followed by its improvement) in the developed economies and rarely in the developing ones. In this paper, we address this omission.
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Adamu Braimah Abille and Oytun Meçik
Motivated by recent rapid exchange rate depreciations, shrank economic growth, high inflation, and persistent trade deficits, this study examines the trade balance (TB) in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by recent rapid exchange rate depreciations, shrank economic growth, high inflation, and persistent trade deficits, this study examines the trade balance (TB) in the face of the recent dynamics of the stated macroeconomic factors, which are also important determinants of the TB. The symmetric test of the J-curve phenomenon for the selected Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries is revisited in this regard. The study uses panel data from 1970 to 2020 for ten of these countries for the longitudinal panel analysis with the TB as the dependent variable and the real exchange rate, foreign and domestic national incomes, and trade openness as the set of independent variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Because the underlying data set involves a heterogeneous panel of relatively short N and long T, the pooled mean group (PMG) and mean group (MG) heterogeneous panel models are employed based on the Hausman test for parameter consistency in heterogeneous panels.
Findings
The findings largely support the domestic income growth– TB worsening and the foreign income growth– TB improvement hypotheses. Trade openness is found to mostly augment the TB performance of the countries. The results also validated the J-curve effect for only 3/10 and 2/10 countries in the PMG and MG models, respectively. The divergence for most of the countries is attributed to possible import compression and institutional structure of SSA countries.
Practical implications
Given the favorable effects of trade openness on the TB performance of SSA countries, it is recommended that SSA countries place much emphasis on import-substitution industrialization and value addition to their natural resources as well as investment-driven growth policies to improve the competitiveness of their exports and reverse the chronic deficits in their TBs.
Originality/value
This paper is unique for invoking heterogeneous panel models to analyze the TB in light of recent dynamics of its determinants, as well as providing an update on the symmetric test of the J-curve phenomenon for the selected SSA countries.
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