An entire book on The Development and Testing of Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Models.
212 pages of Heckscher-Ohlin
July 2nd, 2009Princeton summer workshop papers
July 2nd, 2009The Princeton IES Summer Workshop in Trade finished yesterday. You can find all the workshop’s papers, which are largely preliminary drafts of works-in-progress with some marked “do not cite” or “do not circulate”, on their website.
“Does the internet defy the law of gravity?”
July 2nd, 2009Bernardo Blum & Avi Goldfarb, Does the internet defy the law of gravity?, Journal of International Economics, 2006:
We show that gravity holds in the case of digital goods consumed over the Internet that have no trading costs. Therefore trade costs cannot fully account for the effects of distance on trade. In particular, we show that Americans are more likely to visit websites from nearby countries, even controlling for language, income, immigrant stock, etc. Furthermore, we show that this effect only holds for taste-dependent digital products, such as music, games, and pornography. For these, a 1% increase in physical distance reduces website visits by 3.25%. For non-taste-dependent products, such as software, distance has no statistical effect.
NAFTA & US employment
June 29th, 2009The Wikipedia entry on NAFTA’s impact on US employment really ought to mention the “none at all” position.
Some history
June 26th, 2009Krugman, Paul 2009. “The Increasing Returns Revolution in Trade and Geography.” American Economic Review, 99(3): 561–71.
FT: “WTO signals backing for border taxes”
June 26th, 2009Fiona Harvey for the Financial Times:
Countries implementing cap-and-trade systems for greenhouse gases may be able to use border taxes to protect domestic industries, after the World Trade Organisation gave a cautious nod to such measures.
In a report to be published today, written jointly with the United Nations Environment Programme, the WTO said it was possible to implement border measures for environmental reasons under its rules.
“Rules permit, under certain conditions, the use of border tax adjustments on imported and exported products,” said the WTO. “The objective of a border tax adjustment is to level the playing field between taxed domestic industries and untaxed foreign competition by ensuring that internal taxes on products are trade neutral.”
Latest from America’s Finest News Source
June 25th, 2009Obama’s upcoming trade speech
June 24th, 2009Doug Palmer: “Obama is expected to deliver a speech in the coming weeks or months outlining his views on trade. White House officials provide no date for that speech, but analysts hope it will signal the start of a more aggressive administration effort to win approval of the pending trade deals and to reinvigorate the Doha round of world trade talks, now in its eighth year.”
Russia ends unilateral WTO bid
June 19th, 2009Russia keeps its never-ending WTO accession bid interesting:
A week after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus would pursue their World Trade Organization memberships jointly as a customs union and not singly, WTO members remain uncertain how the plan would work and what its motives are.
Negotiators from the three ex-Soviet republics briefed WTO members on the plan this week — and also asked them frankly how it could be made to work.
“Nobody knows — and they don’t know,” said one Latin American diplomat. “We were confused by the replies as well.”
Russia, the biggest country outside the body that umpires world trade, has been pursuing membership for 16 years.
Moscow is clearly frustrated at the lack of progress on the talks, which often turn cool when western powers are unhappy with Russia, as after last August’s war with Georgia. In fact, as an existing member, Georgia has an effective veto over Russia in the WTO, which operates by consensus.
Thanks for visiting. $10, please.
June 17th, 2009Oh, dear. Does the demand curve for visiting the US slope downwards? To fund tourism promotion, the US government will charge foreign travelers coming from more than 30 countries (including most of the OECD) a $10 fee to enter the US. Another petty annoyance for the inframarginal traveler.
