International Economics Studies
Year:2010 | Volume:36 | Issue:1|Papers Count:8

China and ASEAN have been maintaining a relationship both cooperative and competitive in the textile trade. Due to its labor intensive feature and high dependence on foreign trade, the textile trade has received much attention after the 2008 financial crisis. The customs data (classified by the HS code) from year 2006- 2009 is employed to research the impact of the crisis on the trade pattern of textile industry as a whole and each of the 4 subfields (raw materials, textiles, clothing and textile machinery). G-L index and the export-import unit value ratio are analyzed with Brown-Mood median test, and the results show that the China-ASEAN trade pattern has not changed fundamentally. However, the trade-pattern indicators of the textile industry and the subfields, except for the machinery subfield, have been experiencing some quantitative variation in the crisis.

Up to now, the impact of real exchange rate on the non-oil exports of Iran has been mainly on focus. However, the more important aspect of the fluctuations in exchange rate is its degree of volatility which can have profound effect on the nonoil exports. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the linkage between non-oil exports and the real exchange rate volatility for Iran over the period of 1971-2007. For this purpose, a proxy for the real exchange rate volatility has been estimated by using GARCH model. Then, a conventional exports function has been estimated by Johansen’s multivariate co-integration approach. The empirical findings reveal that among the explanatory variables, the real exchange rate and its volatility have positive and negative impact on the non-oil exports of Iran respectively.

As a result of recent developments, global economic centre of gravity has slide to Asia- Pacific region. It is predicted that Asia-Pacific countries will take place at the first row in global trade and nearly a half of the total trade will intensify in this region at the year 2030. On the other hand, the region covers countries from different levels of development. These features of the region promise umpteen trade opportunities for countries from other parts of world. Particularly after import-substitution policies were abandoned in favor of trade integration measures since 1980s the share of foreign trade in GDP raised. Recent years have witnessed a more remarkable increase in exports. In this regard, the government started to execute the “Strategy for Developing Commercial and Economic Relations with Asia-Pacific Countries” in 2005. By this plan it was aimed to raise the market shares of Turkish firms in Asia-Pacific countries, to enhance the potential of Turkish defense industry, and to attract more investments from region’s countries which have rich capital accumulation. Thus, the issue of trade potential of Turkey with Asia-Pacific countries gains importance. In this paper we attempt to estimate trade potential for Turkey using the gravity model approach. To this end we use gravity model to first analyze the effective gravitational factors on trade flows and the coefficients thus obtained are then used to estimate the trade potential for Turkey. The results of the fixed effect model reveal that the trade volume between Turkey and Asia-Pacific countries is positively affected from economic size of the countries, while distance plays negative role on trade. The size of the countries with respect to population seems no meaningful effect. On the other hand, depending on the gravity model, our estimates of Turkey’s trade potential for Asia-Pacific countries reveal that the P. N. Guinea, Peru, Myanmar, Mexico, Laos, Brunei promise potential for expansion of trade. Our estimates indicate that Turkey’s actual trade level with rest of the countries in the sample has exceeded her trade potential.

As the number of independent countries increases and their economies become more integrated, we would expect to observe more multi-country currency unions. This paper explores the pros and cons for different countries to adopt as an anchor the US Dollar, the Euro or the Yen. In addition, it addresses the question of how comovement of outputs and prices would respond to the formation of currency union and investigates the prospect of a Dollar, Euro or Yen currency union in the East and West Asia regions. For this purpose, we use data of 27 selected countries in East and West Asia during the period 1980-2006.Results show that the effective anchor for most of countries based on volatilities (volatility of price and volatility of output) criteria is the US Dollar.

As the chances of a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of trade liberalization under the WTO become increasingly problematic, so the pace of negotiating local free trade agreements (FTAs) is increasing. According to the WTO report, countries in the Asia-Pacific region are “consolidating their drive towards regionalism at an accelerated pace”. After the trade agreements between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations-so-called ASEAN+1 took effect at the beginning of 2010, both Mainland of China and Taiwan speeded the negotiation on signing the Economic Cooperation Framework agreement (ECFA). Taiwan's exports to China face tariffs ranging from 5% to 15% and its government fears that, unless they are lowered, the island will be left at a competitive disadvantage in the giant Chinese market. This disadvantage would greatly worsen if a planned ASEAN+3 were one day signed, embracing South Korea and Japan.On June 29 at a ceremony in Chongqing, both sides signed ECFA which went into effect later from September 12, 2010. This agreement will remove trade and investment barriers between two economies. So far ECFA has become a hot topic catching the eyes of researchers and government officials. It has been reported that this agreement may result in a GDP growth of 1.65-1.72% at Taiwan side. Besides GDP growth, which specific sectors will benefit from this ECFA on both sides? How will it affect its neighbor economies? Based on GTAP model (Global Trade Analysis Program) which is derived from the CGE model, this paper will update the data after 2004 which is set in GTAPAgg7 and simulate the economic changes on both sides, such as GDP growth, welfare changes, all the sectors production changes. The economic influences on some East Asian economies will also be discussed.

There is a significant relationship between economic growth and the degree of urban concentration, as measured by primacy or the share of the largest city in an urban system. In accordance to urban economic theories, there is an inverse-U shape relationship between urban concentration –urban primacy- and economic growth. That is, as economy grows, urban concentration increases, approaches an optimal level and then declines. If distortion from the optimal level is happened, it can lead economic growth to reduce. Some countries have significantly excessive primacy and some have too little. Additionally, trade is one of the key factors that can affect urban concentration. In this study, urban primacy of some selected Asia- Pacific countries is computed and its effect on economic growth is tested using Solow-Swan growth model. It also looks at the determinants of primacy and policy instruments that might be effective in reducing excessive primacy. Results show that primacy has significant effect on economic growth. Moreover, as trade influences primacy, it can be thus considered as an effective policy instrument in controlling urban overconcentration.

Beijing’s industrial structure is service-oriented with a high degree of economic openness, and GDP has maintained rapid growth. This paper analyzes the international financial crisis and the impact of China’s anti-crisis policies on Beijing’s economic development as well as its transmission mechanism. Impact Index (excluding seasonal factors) and ARMA Model are employed in the empirical study which involves the crisis affection on output and stability of Beijing’s top ten industries. Such conclusions are revealed: Beijing’s GDP losses more than 10% compared with its potential value; the growth rates of over 70% industries are decreasing in Beijing; shocks in financial and real estate are intensified. In the anti-crisis process, manufacturing, real estate, scientific research, technical services, geological prospecting, transportation, storage and postal industry have gained significant growing opportunities.

Measuring development, growth and welfare is an important issue in normative and positive economics. The issue is more critical in developing economies where a good statistical indicator of income, living standard or poverty is crucial for decision-makers in corporate, government, non-government and international organizations in their for-profit or non-profit plans to promote business and trade, enhance growth and welfare, and reduce poverty in needy countries. In the current literature on development economics, trade liberalization for example has been encouraged through official negotiations and agreements and supported by the extensive technical programs of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank or the World Trade Organisation and with substantial human and financial resources, to increase growth and raise income or reduce poverty in open but low-income economies.