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This study provides the strategies that can be implemented to promote the agricultural sector in KwaZulu-Natal and the theory behind economic development, as well as the importance of trade and export growth. There are restrictions in terms of trade and it is important that these are addressed before making a decision to choose a viable, potential and realistic country to export to. This study is aimed answer the research question if agriculture can be seen as a primary export sector in KwaZulu-Natal. Furthermore, this study includes background on the KwaZulu-Natal Province and mainly focus on the indicators such as GDP, employment, health issues and other indicators that will indicate that this province is of importance in South Africa in terms of the agricultural sector. This study uses SARS data to analyse and calculate the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) of all agricultural products of the province. This is done to identify if there is a comparative advantage in the products studied in this study. The products of KwaZulu-Natal also show that this province’s agriculture can be seen as a primary export sector and that this sector is a major contribution to South Africa’s GDP and development. This study uses the Decision Support Model (DSM) to compare the results from the Revealed Comparative Advantage to identify the products and sectors which have the most export potential in the international market. This study reveals that the agricultural products and industries in KwaZulu-Natal with the highest overall export potential are chocolate and cocoa preps, refined soybean oil, and leather products as the three top performers among agricultural products and have the most export potential in the province. Concluding remarks are based on the findings made throughout the study. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea dos Santos Silva.pdf: 886379 bytes, checksum: eb1411b8543d61e87e871005a8c0f225 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-16 / The main objective of this paper is to answer the question: in the period 1996-2006, the Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico export pattern was reprimarizated or diversified? The answer search is centralized in the index of revealed comparative advantage calculus and in the export classification according to its technological contents. Those four countries had adopted different strategies in order to face, in the last years, politicaleconomic crises, internals and externals, and the impact concerning, in a way, a growing international primary products demand, specially the Chinese, and, in the other way, a growing competition cheap-labor intensive, but with some technology incorporated Asian products export. Although, those Latin-Americans countries have their export pattern with varied characteristics, their economies have been showing record export volume. This paper let to conclude that the empirical evidences do not corroborate the reprimarization hypothesis. The countries, in 2006, were manufactures exporters. Argentina, Brazil and Chile had a specialized low and/or middle-low technology manufactures export pattern and Mexico, however, have been exported higher-level technology products / O objetivo principal deste trabalho é responder à questão: no período 1996-2006 houve uma reprimarização ou diversificação da pauta exportadora da Argentina, Brasil, Chile e México? A busca da resposta está centralizada no cálculo do índice das vantagens comparativas reveladas e na classificação das exportações segundo o conteúdo tecnológico. Esses quatro países adotaram estratégias diferentes para enfrentar, nos últimos anos, as crises político-econômicas, internas e externas e o impacto, por um lado, da crescente demanda internacional, em especial a chinesa, por produtos primários, e por outro, do aumento da concorrência das exportações de produtos asiáticos intensivos em mão-de-obra barata, mas com um certo nível de tecnologia incorporada. Ainda que esses países latino-americanos apresentem uma pauta exportadora com características diversas, suas economias têm presenciado volumes recordes de exportação. O trabalho permite concluir que a hipótese de reprimarização da pauta exportadora não é corroborada pelas evidências empíricas. Os países, em 2006, eram exportadores de manufaturas. Argentina, Brasil e Chile tinham uma pauta especializada em manufaturados com baixo e/ou médio-baixo nível tecnológico e o México, por sua vez, exportava produtos com maior conteúdo tecnológico

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-12-15T13:02:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Jaime Ivan Lang_.pdf: 1041459 bytes, checksum: d4f6acdd0fa136b94ec32ef2a93eea86 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-15T13:02:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jaime Ivan Lang_.pdf: 1041459 bytes, checksum: d4f6acdd0fa136b94ec32ef2a93eea86 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-13 / Nenhuma / A importância dos pescados no mundo justifica-se pela importância estratégica cada vez maior que os alimentos terão no estabelecimento de vantagens comparativas entre os países, a partir da projeção de que, em 2050, a população do planeta deverá alcançar 9,6 bilhões de pessoas. O presente trabalho tem, como objetivo, analisar dois segmentos do setor de pescado brasileiro e mundial - lagosta e camarão -, a partir da vantagem comparativa revelada entre os anos de 2000 e 2011. Qualquer setor produtivo de um país pode tornar-se competitivo quando comparado ao resto do mundo, a partir da abundância de um fator de produção ou de diferenças de produtividade. Embora, em tese, essa vantagem seja possível, para se chegar a ela tem-se que cotizar o setor produtivo em questão com outros países que, porventura, busquem as mesmas vantagens, o que foi feito nesta dissertação, através de certos índices do comércio internacional. Segundo o índice de vantagem comparada revelada (VCR), a lagosta brasileira tem pouca penetração no mercado externo. Pelo índice de intensidade de comércio, a França e os Estados Unidos aparecem como mercados ainda a serem explorados pela lagosta e pelo camarão brasileiro, respectivamente. Pelo índice intraindustrial, o camarão mostra intenso comércio com alguns mercados, conquista a ser mantida diante de novos players no segmento. / The significance of seafood in the world is justified by the increasing strategic importance in which food will play in the foundation of competitive advantages between countries, based on the projection that by 2050 the global population will reach 9.6 billion people. The present study sought to analyze two segments of the Brazilian and global seafood industry, both lobster and shrimp, considering the comparative advantage revealed between the years 2003 and 2013. Each and every productive sector of a country may become more competitive when compared to the rest of the world, basing on the abundance of certain factors of production or productivity differences. Although this advantage may be possible in theory, in order to achieve it, one must quote the productive sector in question with the other countries that perhaps pursue the same advantages, what has been done on this dissertation. According to the index of revealed comparative advantages, the Brazilian lobster has small penetration in the external market. Through the trade intensity index, France and the United States appear as markets yet to be explored by the commerce of Brazilian lobster and shrimp. Through the Intra-industry index, the shrimp shows intense commercial trade with some markets, an achievement to be sustained against the new players in the segment.

How does material production become socially recognised in capitalism? This is a fundamental question to be addressed in capitalist production, since material production takes place privately and independently in a global and atomistic system. This thesis shows that the question is tackled by Marx in the first three chapters of Capital. The process of social recognition of material production is that of the realisation of work carried out privately and independently as part of the social labour. For Marx this occurs through the private and independent work becoming objective social labour as the substance of the value of commodities, and through the latter finding its necessary developed mercantile expression in the price form of commodities. Therefore, private and independent work becomes social labour through the recognition of its product as equivalent to a certain amount of money. The thesis argues that Marx's answer is powerfully insightful but flawed because it did not succeed in fully characterising the historical specificity of commodity. Commodity is not merely the differentiated unity of use value and value but of use value and mercantile use value, and of labour value and mercantile value. The former dialectic is immediate and distinguishes between the utility of commodity as a direct means of consumption or production and that as a means of exchange, fully determining the behaviour of the private and independent commodity producer. The latter dialectic is objective and distinguishes between commodity as the embodiment of the social labour necessary to reproduce it and as the embodiment of command over social labour, enabling the adjustment of the productive structure. Both dialectics are mediated by the mercantile form of value, which allows the indirect expression of labour value as the gravitational force of the system. The theory of commodity offered in this thesis, unlike that of Marx, consistently hinges on the atomistic private and independent commodity producer. The thesis shows that commodity production is the organisation of society's labour for its material reproduction, just as in any previous mode of production. The discovery of the generic aspect of commodity production breaks the false immediate link between production and supply, and that between the labour theory of value and both the supply-side-determined theory of price and the single-factor theory of production. The thesis also shows that the mercantile form of value is what allows society's labour to become an objective and autonomous materially abstract substance regulating the adjustment of the productive system under the form of material signals. This is the specific aspect of a global mode of production comprised of free and independent individuals. The mercantile form of value is thus Adam Smith's invisible hand. Finally, the thesis analyses some implications of the framework with regard to the analysis of monetary phenomena, capital accumulation and sustainable development, and reviews the most popular Marxian topic in Economics: the transformation of values into prices of production.

This thesis consists of four self-contained empirical essays. In the first essays "Markets for Risk and Openness to Trade: How are They Related?" (with Helena Svaleryd), we ask if there is an empirical relationship between financial development and openness to trade. Numerous theoretical papers have noted that trade policies can be used as an insurance against shocks from international markets. It follows that the development of markets for risk should reduce the incentives to rely on trade policy for insurance purposes. Feeney and Hillman (2001) explicitly demonstrate how asset-market incompleteness can affect trade policy in a model where trade policy is determined by the lobbying of interest groups. If risk can be fully diversified, special-interest groups have no incentive to lobby for protection, and free trade will prevail. Likewise, trade liberalization might increase the demand for financial services, thereby spurring the development of financial markets. Using several indicators of both openness to trade and financial development, we find an economically significant relation between the two. In particular, the relation holds when using the well known, although criticized (Rodriguez and Rodrik 1999), Sachs-Warner index, and structurally adjusted trade, as indicators of openness. For tariff levels and non-tariff barriers, the results hold only for relatively rich countries. Causality seems to be running both from openness to financial development and the other way around, depending on which indicator and methodology are used. Due to underlying technological differences, industries differ in their need for external financing (Rajan and Zingales, 1998). Since services provided by the financial sector are largely immobile across countries (Pagano et al., 2001), the pattern of specialization should be influenced by the degree of financial development. In the second essay, "Financial Markets, the Pattern of Specialization, and Comparative Advantage: Evidence from OECD Countries" (with Helena Svaleryd), we find this effect to be strong. In fact, the financial sector has an even greater impact on the pattern of specialization among OECD countries than differences in human- and physical capital. Further, the financial sector gives rise to comparative advantage in a way consistent with the Hecksher-Ohlin-Vanek model. Large and active stock markets, as well as the degree of concentration in the banking sector, produce the strongest and most consistent effects. The results also support the view that the quality accounting standards and the legal protection of creditors affect the pattern of industry specialization, while the depth of the financial system (measured by the amount of liquidity in an economy) is a source of comparative advantage. The third essay, "Who Wants Political Integration? Evidence from the Swedish EU-Membership Referendum" looks directly at the determinants of political attitudes towards regional integration and separation. More precisely, the regional voting pattern of the 1994 Swedish EU-membership referendum is analyzed. To explain this variation, an empirical investigation based on the extensive theoretical literature analyzing the determinants of regional economic and political integration is undertaken. Since enhanced possibilities of inter-regional risk sharing is one of the main gains from integration discussed in the literature (e.g Persson and Tabellini, 1996), special attention is given to this issue. The empirical results show that individuals living in labor markets exposed to a high degree of risk were more negative towards EU-membership than those living in safe ones. It is also shown that inhabitants of high-income labor markets, with a high level of schooling and small receipts of central government transfers were relatively positive towards the EU-membership. Given the restrictive regulations limiting discretionary policies within the EU, these results suggest that inhabitants of safe and rich regions voted in favor of secession from the Swedish transfer system, rather than in favor of European integration. In the final essay, "Does Labor Market Risk Increase the Size of the Public Sector? Evidence From Swedish Municipalities", I study if a high degree of private labor-market risk is related to a larger public sector in Swedish municipalities. The theoretical hypothesis is based on Rodrik (1998), who argues (and shows empirically) that countries exposed to a high degree of external risk also tend to have larger governments. The safe public sector is expanded at the expense of risky sectors and hence provides insurance against income volatility. Several problems related to data availability and comparability that apply to cross-country studies are circumvented by using data on Swedish municipalities. Further, there is no need to aggregate the public sector across different levels of governance: local risk is directly related to the size of the local public sector. The paper is not a complete parallel to Rodrik’s study, however. Several alternative insurance mechanisms that do not exist between countries are available between municipalities. For example, the central government provides insurance against individual-specific risk such as unemployment and illness, private capital markets are better integrated within than between countries, and the central government can hand out grants to municipalities. Despite these mitigating factors, local labor-market risk is found to have a substantial impact on municipal public employment. It is also found that shocks increasing the size of the public sector across all municipalities tend to generate a larger increase in risky locations. For municipal public spending and taxation the results are, however, much weaker. Hence, labor-market risk affects the labor intensity of the municipal public sector, rather than its size. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002</p>

This study analyses the international timber trade between Malaysia and Europe with respect to the importance of environmental issues on trade and the role of Malaysia as a major timber exporter to Europe. It also evaluates the comparative advantage of Malaysian wood products and the willingness of French consumers (to represent European communities) to pay for sustainable forest management. The first part gives an overview the clashes of perception between developed and developing countries on the environmental concerns over trade. It was observed that environmental standards may act as non-tariff barriers to exporting countries. In addition, the stringent requirements posed by importing countries on technical, marking and labelling to some extent provide unnecessary barriers to trade. The second part deals with the role of Malaysia as a key player in the tropical timber trade. This part evaluates the main export market for Malaysian wood products to the world. For the purpose of this thesis, the analysis focuses on the European market. From the observations, it was found that the export of wooden furniture surpassed major timber exports in 2004. However, to penetrate the European market, Malaysia has to compete with the Chinese with their lower cost tropical wood products, and Brazil with their advantage in certification and labelling of tropical wood products. In tandem with that, the commitment towards sustainable forest management at national level causes shortage of raw materials in Malaysia. To a certain extent, the internal and external factors create necessary challenges to enter the European market. In the third part, the Balassa approach was used to classify the comparative advantage of Malaysia's twenty one types of wood products in Europe. It was estimated that Malaysia had high comparative advantage only in five products which were mechanized and intermediary industrial products. The products identified were sawn wood, wooden mouldings, plywood, veneer and builders' joinery and carpentry. The remaining products had lower comparative advantage and disadvantage to export to the European market based on the Balassa index. In the last part, the estimation on the willingness to pay for sustainable forest management attributes was conducted. Besides that, additional attributes such as fair trade and wood origin were included. A questionnaire was set up using all the attributes reflected in the hypothetical wood flooring product in the market. Based on the result, consumers were willing to pay the highest for the presence of fair trade and wood origin (in this study referring to French origin); nevertheless they were still willing to pay for sustainable aspects of forest. However, the willingness to pay for all the attributes was altered depending on the respondents' knowledge of forest labelling, their attitudes towards environmental preservation, living area, education level, type of job and income level. In the overall finding of the thesis, all the results from each part were synthesized in a systemic approach simultaneously deliberating on the macro and microeconomic perspectives as well as the dimensions on demand and supply. Overall, the findings suggest that the challenges and constraints facing the Malaysian timber industry indirectly shaped the export of Malaysian wooden products. Malaysia has adapted by going into value-added products to lessen the impact of environment-related trade barriers and to circumvent the shortage of raw materials supply. Malaysia has successfully customized the wooden products to the sustainability and legality requirements of the European market by pursuing the national certification (Malaysian Timber Certification) and being committed to sustainable forest management objectives.

This study provides the strategies that can be implemented to promote the agricultural sector in KwaZulu-Natal and the theory behind economic development, as well as the importance of trade and export growth. There are restrictions in terms of trade and it is important that these are addressed before making a decision to choose a viable, potential and realistic country to export to. This study is aimed answer the research question if agriculture can be seen as a primary export sector in KwaZulu-Natal. Furthermore, this study includes background on the KwaZulu-Natal Province and mainly focus on the indicators such as GDP, employment, health issues and other indicators that will indicate that this province is of importance in South Africa in terms of the agricultural sector. This study uses SARS data to analyse and calculate the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) of all agricultural products of the province. This is done to identify if there is a comparative advantage in the products studied in this study. The products of KwaZulu-Natal also show that this province’s agriculture can be seen as a primary export sector and that this sector is a major contribution to South Africa’s GDP and development. This study uses the Decision Support Model (DSM) to compare the results from the Revealed Comparative Advantage to identify the products and sectors which have the most export potential in the international market. This study reveals that the agricultural products and industries in KwaZulu-Natal with the highest overall export potential are chocolate and cocoa preps, refined soybean oil, and leather products as the three top performers among agricultural products and have the most export potential in the province. Concluding remarks are based on the findings made throughout the study. / Thesis (MCom (International Trade))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This thesis deals with the integration of firms into export markets when trade barriers decrease. It consists in three chapters.The first chapter focuses on how cross-industry differences in factor intensities and within-industry differences in firm productivity shape the response of the extensive (the decision to export) and the intensive (the exported volumes) margin of export. The context of the analysis is the entry of Turkey into the European Customs Union in 1996. Results suggest that the extensive margin reacted more in labor-intensive sectors.In the second chapter we use a gravity approach to analyze how the decrease in tariffs promoted during the '90s by the Uruguay Round multilateral agreement affected trade margins for French firms. We find that the tariffs significantly affect trade only through the extensive margin. The third chapter describes the dynamic of firms' export to different countries and uncovers eleven new stylized facts on firm-level trade. / Esta tesis trata de la integración de las impresas en los mercados internacionales cuando las barreras al comercio bajan. El primer capitulo analiza como las diferencias de la intensidad de los factores entre las industrias y de la productividad de las impresas en cada industria determinan la respuesta del margen extenso (la decisión de exportar) y intensivo (los volúmenes exportados) de cada impresa. El contexto de este análisis es la entrada de la Turquía en la Unión Aduanera Europea en el 1996. Los resultados indican que el margen extenso reacciona más en los sectores más intensivos en mano de obra.En el segundo capitulo utilizamos una ecuación gravitacional para analizar como el decrecimiento de las tarifas obtenida en los '90s gracias al "Uruguay Round" ha afectado los márgenes del comercio de las impresas Francesas. Descubrimos que las tarifas afectan de una manera significativa solo el margen extenso.El tercero capitulo describe la dinámica del exporte de las impresas en distintos Piases y revela once nuevos hechos estilizados sobre el comercio de las empresas.

The 1990s was marked by deep structural reforms of the Brazilian economy. Trade liberalization can be identified as the launching pad for other structural changes in the economic model which went into effect in the country from there. On one hand, the trade liberalization has created the conditions for the equation of relative prices, acting as an instrument of adjustment between supply and domestic demand, on the other, began to demand a greater effort to attract foreign savings to compensate for the mismatch between demand and supply external, in other words, the internal adjustment generated a strong external imbalance, with the current account deficit. The defense of the argument of comparative advantage was crucial for the purpose of adoption of liberalizing measures in the face of the defense of the country s largest insertion in international trade through competitiveness of productive structures. However, the participation of the regions in foreign trade seems to have reinforced the prevailing pattern before the opening of the economy, which can be attributed to the strong inter-regional economic differentiation. The main objective of the study was to examine the forms of external insertion of the Northeastern economy, highlighting the regional differences and the pattern of trade conducted by the state of Sergipe. For this, we used the index of Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA). The study showed that the state has VCR into six groups of products, especially food, tobacco and beverages; footwear and leather; and machinery and equipment. In general, the performance of the state revealed the diverse character of the industrial structure, despite the importance of the food sector in total exports. / A década de 1990 foi marcada por profundas reformas estruturais da economia brasileira. A liberalização comercial pode ser apontada como a base de lançamento de outras mudanças estruturais no modelo econômico que passou a vigorar no país a partir daí. Se por um lado, a abertura comercial criou as condições para o equacionamento dos preços relativos, atuando como instrumento de ajuste entre oferta e demanda doméstica, por outro, passou a exigir um esforço maior de captação de poupança externa para compensar o desajuste entre demanda e oferta externas; isto é, o ajuste interno gerou um forte desajuste externo, com déficit em conta corrente. A defesa do argumento das vantagens comparativas foi fundamental para efeito da adoção de medidas liberalizantes, em face da defesa de maior inserção do país no comércio internacional, através da competitividade das estruturas produtivas. Contudo, a participação relativa das regiões no comércio externo parece ter reforçado o padrão prevalecente antes da abertura da economia, o que se pode atribuir à forte diferenciação econômica inter-regional. O objetivo principal do estudo foi examinar as formas de inserção externa da economia nordestina, ressaltando as desigualdades regionais e o padrão de comércio realizado pelo estado de Sergipe. Para isso, utilizou-se o Índice das Vantagens Comparativas Reveladas (VCR). O estudo mostrou que o Estado apresenta VCR em seis grupos de produtos, com destaque para Alimentos, fumo e bebidas; Calçados e couro; e Máquinas e Equipamentos. De forma geral, o desempenho do Estado revelou o caráter diversificado da estrutura industrial, a despeito da importância do setor de alimentos na pauta de exportações.