This thesis analyses the impact of three different trade shocks on labour market outcomes and firms’ performance. The first chapter evaluates the impact of an increase in import competition on employment, gender employment gap and structural transformation in Ethiopia over the 1994-2013 period. In the second chapter, the objective is to investigate the changes in the Egyptian trade policies on wages and job stability, with a panel dataset covering a 20 years period (1998-2018); the last chapter examines the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on firms with different modes of internationalization, in terms of changes in sales and in business strategies. By exploiting three different very rich micro-level datasets, we study trade shocks under three different perspectives: a worker-level perspective, a firm-level perspective and a local labour market perspective. What emerges is that the impact of trade shocks is ultimately an empirical question, and that the direction of results greatly depends on the economic context under analysis. When trade liberalization is implemented in countries whose structural transformation process is still at an early stage, as in the Ethiopian case, this can harm rather than benefit their economies. On the other hand, the evidence in the third chapter suggests that being interconnected in the international market can help firms mitigating the shock, not only when the shock is domestic or idiosyncratic, but also, as in the case of Covid-19, when the it affects the whole global economy.

A presente tese analisa a configuração, a reestruturação e a dinâmica do setor de celulose e papel no Brasil (em especial o seu mercado de trabalho), mostrando que esses processos foram distintos para as indústrias desse setor, que são: a indústria de celulose, a indústria de papéis e a indústria de artefatos de papéis. A tese está organizada em quatro capítulos, incluindo a Introdução. O segundo capítulo, Análise do processo de configuração do setor de celulose e papel no Brasil, destaca como a conduta das empresas multinacionais, as políticas públicas e o dinamismo dos mercados doméstico e externo geram evoluções e dinâmicas distintas para as indústrias desse setor, desde sua origem até 2009, e implicaram em suas distintas inserções na Divisão Internacional do Trabalho - DIT ao longo do tempo. Demonstra-se que a configuração dessas indústrias foi diferenciada nos últimos cinquenta anos, sendo que a expansão da indústria de celulose foi para atender o mercado internacional e as indústrias de papéis e artefatos de papéis são mais centralizadas em atender o mercado doméstico em resposta à forma como os países se organizaram dentro da DIT. O terceiro capítulo, Impactos da reestruturação do setor de celulose e papel no Brasil sobre o desempenho de suas indústrias, usou dados em painel e estimou equações visando identificar se as variáveis de estrutura e de abertura comercial tiveram influência sobre o desempenho das indústrias do setor no período de 1986 a 2007 com base nos dados da PIA IBGE, da BRACELPA e do Sistema ALICE-Web. Pode-se concluir que a variável de concentração de mercado (HHI) teve impacto positivo sobre a medida de desempenho margem preço-custo; o aumento na taxa de importação tem relação negativa com a margem preço-custo; e a origem do capital tem relação positiva com a medida de desempenho considerada. O quarto artigo, Impactos da liberalização comercial e da reestruturação industrial sobre o mercado de trabalho do setor de celulose e papel no Brasil, analisa a dinâmica do mercado de trabalho desse setor entre 1996 e 2008 usando dados da RAIS. Verificou-se: 1) aumento no número de empregados no setor de celulose e papel nesse período, mas redução desse número para a indústria de celulose e para a indústria de papéis; 2) a indústria de celulose emprega proporcionalmente mais trabalhadores com maior escolaridade e idade do que a indústria de artefatos de papéis; 3) os salários pagos na indústria de celulose foram maiores que nas outras duas indústrias e no setor de celulose e papel como um todo; 4) predomínio do uso da mão de obra masculina e diferencial salarial entre homens e mulheres nas três indústrias, entretanto, esse diferencial foi menor na indústria de celulose em 2008; 5) a maioria das variáveis explicativas propostas para analisar o impacto sobre os salários apresentou o sinal esperado nas regressões. As variáveis abertura comercial, proporção de mulheres em relação aos homens e escolaridade média dos trabalhadores foram as que apresentaram melhor significância estatística. As duas primeiras atuam para reduzir o salário e a última para aumentá-lo. / The present thesis analyzes the configuration, the restructuring and the dynamics of the pulp and paper sector in Brazil (paying a special attention to its labor market), showing that these processes were different to the industries of this sector: the industry of pulp, industry of papers and industry of paper-made products. The thesis is organized in four chapters, including the Introduction. The second, Analysis of configuration process of pulp and paper sector in Brazil, highlights how the conduct of multinational companies, the public policies and the dynamism of domestic and external markets generate distinct evolutions and dynamics for the three industries inside the pulp and paper sector in Brazil since the origin of this sector until 2009 and implicated in distinct insertions of these industries in the International Work Division - DIT along time. It is demonstrated that the configuration of these industries was differentiated during the last fifty years, pointing out the expansion of pulp industry, from 1970 on, to attend the international market and the paper and paper artifacts industries are more focused in attending the domestic market in response to the way the countries organized themselves inside DIT. The third chapter, Impacts of pulp and paper sector´s restructuring in Brazil on the performance of its industries, organized data in panel and run equation to determine if the variables of structure and commercial openness that had influence the performance of industries under analysis. The period of time considered was from 1986 to 2007 and data utilized came from PIA IBGE, from BRACELPA and from Alice-Web System. It can be concluded that the variable of market concentration (HHI) had positive impact on the performance measure cost-price margin; the increase in the importation rate has negative relation with price-cost margin; and the capital´s origin has positive relation with the performance measure considered. The fourth chapter, Impacts of trade liberalization and industrial reorganization the market place of pulp and paper sector in Brazil, analyses the labor market dynamics of this sector between 1996 and 2008 using data from RAIS. The main findings are: 1) increase in the number of employees of the pulp and paper sector in this period, but reduction of this number to the pulp industry and to the paper industry; 2) the pulp industry employs proportionally more workers with higher scholarity and age than the paper-made products industry; 3) salaries paid in the pulp industry were higher than in the other two industries and in the pulp and paper sector as a whole; 4) predominance of masculine labor force and salary differential between men and women in the three industries, however, this differential was lower in the pulp industry in 2008; 5) the majority of the explicative variables proposed to analyze the impact on the salaries presented the expected signal in regressions. The variables commercial openness, proportion of women in relation to men and workers average scholarity were the ones that presented better statistic significance. The first two act to reduce salaries and the third one to increase salaries.

Esta tese aborda o desenvolvimento da regulação internacional sobre o comércio de serviços educacionais, em especial nos acordos preferenciais de comércio de Austrália, Chile, China, Cingapura, Estados Unidos, Índia e União Europeia. O seu objetivo foi avaliar o atual nível de liberalização comercial da educação superior no plano global, de modo que sua compatibilidade com o direito à educação pudesse ser criticamente analisada, assim como os seus possíveis impactos sobre a regulação da educação superior no Brasil. Para tanto, a pesquisa começa pela realização de entrevistas com atores que acompanham o processo de comercialização da educação superior no Brasil. Os passos seguintes envolvem a compreensão do funcionamento das disciplinas internacionais sobre o comércio de serviços, da formulação das posições no processo negociador e, finalmente, dos compromissos em serviços de educação superior em acordos preferenciais de comércio. Uma primeira hipótese é de que, mesmo sem acordos de comércio, o mercado brasileiro já se encontra significativamente liberalizado no que diz respeito aos investimentos estrangeiros em educação superior, sem qualquer restrição ao ingresso de capital internacional. Ainda assim, a regulação internacional do comércio de serviços aprofundaria esse processo a partir da ideia de consolidação do marco regulatório liberal doméstico e de mecanismos que conduzem à aceleração do processo de liberalização comercial. / This thesis analyses the development of international regulation on trade in educational services, especially in preferential trade agreements signed by Australia, Chile, China, Singapore, United States, India and the European Union. The goal was to determine a parameter of the current global level of trade liberalization on higher education, so that the compatibility between trade agreements and the right to education could be critically examined, as well as their possible impacts on the regulation of higher education in Brazil. Therefore, the research began by conducting interviews with professionals that accompany the commercialization process in the Brazilian higher education sector. The following steps involved understanding the operation of international disciplines on trade in services, the formulation of positions in the negotiating process, and finally, the commitments on higher education services in preferential trade agreements. A first hypothesis is that, even without trade agreements, the Brazilian market is already significantly liberalized regarding foreign investment on higher education, without any restriction on the inflow of international capital. Even so, international regulation on trade in services would deepen this process from an idea of consolidation of a liberal domestic regulatory framework and mechanisms leading to accelerate trade liberalization process.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-09-21T14:14:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Ledesma Al-Alam_.pdf: 233544 bytes, checksum: 8e97e55b0255cce4f24caadc4e00aa6b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-21T14:14:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Ledesma Al-Alam_.pdf: 233544 bytes, checksum: 8e97e55b0255cce4f24caadc4e00aa6b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-29 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A pobreza, embora tenha declinado nas últimas décadas, continua sendo um dos maiores desafios a serem enfrentados no século XXI. Este estudo investiga os efeitos da liberalização comercial sobre a pobreza em diferentes regiões em desenvolvimento do mundo. A análise ocorre de forma indireta, observando os impactos sobre a renda real e o bem-estar destas regiões. É utilizado o modelo de equilíbrio geral computável Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), sendo realizadas três simulações de liberalização comercial, buscando comparar os benefícios da abertura dos países desenvolvidos em relação à liberalização plena, com contrapartida dos países em desenvolvimento. Os resultados revelam que os ganhos de renda real e bem-estar das regiões em desenvolvimento são maiores quando elas próprias participam do processo de abertura ao lado das regiões desenvolvidas. As simulações vão ao encontro dos resultados de Hertel et al. (2009), em que a liberalização comercial realizada em todas as regiões se mostrou mais benéfica aos países mais pobres do que a liberalização comercial com ênfase apenas em países desenvolvidos, como é o caso da Rodada Doha. / Poverty, although declining in recent decades, remains one of the greatest challenges to be faced in the twenty-first century. This study investigates the effects of trade liberalization on poverty in different developing regions of the world. The analysis occurs indirectly, examining the impacts on real income and welfare of these regions. It used the model of computable general equilibrium Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), and held three trade liberalization simulations, to compare the benefits of the opening of developed countries with regard to full liberalization, with consideration for developing countries. The results show that the real income gains and welfare of developing regions are larger when they participate in the liberalization process together with the developed regions. The simulations are in line with the results of Hertel et al. (2009), in which trade liberalization carried out in all regions was more beneficial to the poorest countries that trade liberalization with emphasis in developed countries, such as the Doha Round.

許多策略性環境政策的相關文獻，大多在探討生產外部性的問題，較少著墨在消費的外部性，且在模型設定上，大多假設廠商生產同質性商品，因此本文將商品之差異性納入考量，在單邊貿易模型之下，建立一個兩階段賽局，來探討消費外部性的情況下，廠商與政府的策略性行為。而本文亦將貿易政策與環境政策做連結，探討當關稅因貿易自由化而調降時，對環境政策與環境品質的影響為何。 本研究發現：(1) 不論廠商的競爭型態為何，政府會將最適污染稅稅率訂在低於污染所造成的邊際環境損害之水準。(2) 不論廠商的競爭型態為何，貿易自由化會提升最適污染稅稅率。(3) 在廠商進行 Cournot 競爭時，貿易自由化將提升環境品質。(4) 在廠商進行 Bertrand 競爭時，關稅調降與否，須考量商品間的替代程度，在商品替代程度很低時，貿易自由化的結果將使環境品質向下沉淪。 / This thesis develops a two-stage game to investigate the strategies of government and firms concerning negative externalities associated with consumption. It also discusses the linkages between trade liberalization and environmental policy, namely, the effect of tariff reduction due to trade liberalization on environmental policy and environmental quality. Most of the literature on strategic environmental policy only considers negative externalities associated with production, but this thesis deals with negative externalities associated with consumption. Several conclusions emerge: First, the optimal pollution tax is less than the marginal pollution damage. Second, the environmental tax increases as a consequence of a tariff reduction. Third, if firms compete in terms of quantity, environmental quality could be improved by liberalizing trade. Finally, if firms compete in terms of price, when the degree of goods substitutability is low, trade liberalization may lead to a “race to the bottom” in environmental quality.

<p>How affected are the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania by EU sugar regime? What does the EU sugar reform constitute in these countries?</p><p>Using theories regarding free trade and anti-free trade, I am able to answer these questions. The aim of this paper is to study how the various sugar agreements with EU affect the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania. Therefore I am using a method called a most similar system design in this comparative case study. The conclusion is that the EU sugar regime is the main reason to how the sugar productions in developing countries are. This conclusion is drawn since the difference in their developed sugar production is based on the importance of an advantageous sugar agreement. This can be applied to the case in Tanzania, which had a higher sugar export when the country had an advantageous sugar agreement with EU. Now when the trade has been more liberalized with the sugar reform the country does not have the same advantageous agreements with EU and the sugar export has been smaller. Compared to Tanzania Mozambique has had a better development in their sugar production, since their trade agreements with EU is better today than before 2001.</p>

This thesis consists of three independent papers, ordered chronologically with respect to when they were initiated. Empirical research has established that there are large and persistent productivity differences among firms in narrowly defined industries (Bartelsman and Doms, 2000). Other studies, in particular Bernard and Jensen (1999), have shown the existence of a causal link running from ex-ante firm productivity to export decisions. Furthermore, exposure to trade has been found to enhance growth opportunities only for some firms, reallocating market shares and resources toward the more productive ones and contributing thus to aggregate productivity growth (Clerides, Lach and Tybout, 1998; Bernard and Jensen, 2004). These findings have led to the development of new theoretical models emphasizing the interaction between firm heterogeneity and fixed market entry costs in generating international trade and inducing aggregate productivity growth. The first and third chapters of this thesis extend the framework developed by Melitz (2003) to analyze the implications of  firm heterogeneity for old and new issues in international trade. The first paper studies the effect of trade liberalization between countries that differ in their relative endowment of skilled workers when growth-promoting R&amp;D activities are skill intensive with respect to goods production. In particular, the analysis focuses on the changes that falling trade costs induce on consumer welfare and on the number of firms active in the different markets. The third paper uses the heterogeneous firm framework to study the interaction between financial constraints and the market entry behavior of firms. It also analyzes whether the impact of trade liberalization on average firm productivity and on individual welfare is affected by the presence of credit frictions. The second chapter presents an empirical work that contributes to the recent but fast growing literature that studies how different institutions and their level of development affect countries comparative advantage. The analysis presented in this paper focuses on the role of legal and financial institution in driving the specialization in contract-intensive goods and on how the degree of institutional development interacts with the propensity of firms to vertical integrate with their suppliers. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2011

<p>The impact of trade policies on the pursuit of gender equality is often ignored. Recognising the link between trade and gender, this dissertation aims to enhance the capacity of policy-makers to mainstream gender in trade policy and to help identify ways for using trade to respond to women&rsquo / s needs in South Africa. In order to meet this objective, it analyses the impacts that trade liberalisation has had on the economy and on gender in general and in South Africa in particular. In addition, it evaluates the impacts on men and women in order to see if trade has contributed to reducing, accentuating or perpetuating gender inequality in South Africa. Findings have confirmed that Trade liberalisation has had both positive and negative impacts on women and men. But, they have also demonstrated that trade liberalisation has affected women and men differently having negative influences on the pursuit of gender equality. The research has, however, concluded that the impact of trade liberalisation on the pursuit of gender equality is influenced by other key factors. As strategy to mainstream gender in trade policies, the research suggests that policy-makers should analyse the implications for women and men of any trade policy before adopting such policy. This analysis would help him/her to see the possible imbalances of the new policy and implement policies and programmes to eradicate them. Also, it will help him/her to identify possible ways for using trade to empower women. The research is based on the idea that the elimination of the existing inequalities will put women at the same stage with men and will, therefore, contribute to women&rsquo / s empowerment in South Africa.</p>

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have a long history of trading with each other. They are economic partners as well as competitors for many years. In order to push their economic relationship to a higher level, in November 2002, ASEAN and China signed the initial framework agreement, determined on establishing the ASEAN - China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) among the eleven countries by 2010 for the ASEAN-6 (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) and by 2015 for the transitional economies of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (the CLMV). There are fears that China’s rapid development recently will encourage ASEAN’s exports to flow into its giant domestic market instead of among the members countries. Also the benefits of the Free Trade Agreement are still unclear. The Thesis uses three gravity models and the panel data of 11 countries from 1992 to 2009 to test two hypotheses: trade diversion (that expanded trade with China will reduce intra-trade within ASEAN) and trade creation (that ACFTA will boost up bilateral trade between ASEAN and China).

<p>The impact of trade policies on the pursuit of gender equality is often ignored. Recognising the link between trade and gender, this dissertation aims to enhance the capacity of policy-makers to mainstream gender in trade policy and to help identify ways for using trade to respond to women&rsquo / s needs in South Africa. In order to meet this objective, it analyses the impacts that trade liberalisation has had on the economy and on gender in general and in South Africa in particular. In addition, it evaluates the impacts on men and women in order to see if trade has contributed to reducing, accentuating or perpetuating gender inequality in South Africa. Findings have confirmed that Trade liberalisation has had both positive and negative impacts on women and men. But, they have also demonstrated that trade liberalisation has affected women and men differently having negative influences on the pursuit of gender equality. The research has, however, concluded that the impact of trade liberalisation on the pursuit of gender equality is influenced by other key factors. As strategy to mainstream gender in trade policies, the research suggests that policy-makers should analyse the implications for women and men of any trade policy before adopting such policy. This analysis would help him/her to see the possible imbalances of the new policy and implement policies and programmes to eradicate them. Also, it will help him/her to identify possible ways for using trade to empower women. The research is based on the idea that the elimination of the existing inequalities will put women at the same stage with men and will, therefore, contribute to women&rsquo / s empowerment in South Africa.</p>