Distance is of great influence when deciding whom to trade with. This thesis examines how the importance of distance in international trade has evolved. This is done using an extended generalized gravity model, which includes population, real exchange rate and a dummy variable for membership in the European Union. Using data for the EU27 and the four largest economies in the world outside of EU, this model estimates the effect of distance on trade from 1980 to 2005. This thesis shows that the impact of distance has evolved towards having a greater negative effect on trade during the observed years. The reason for this could be a development towards regional trade, at the expense of long-distance trade.

<p>According to the Globalizations Council the most important task Sweden has is to assess the opportunities and challenges presented by the global economy to a small, open country like Sweden. There has been dual competition, some has been able to sell the resource services of human and physical knowledge capital, and others offering to sell unskilled labor at wages way below Swedish standards. This thesis will examine the changes in market position in the manufacturing sector, and how comparative advantage and the role of technology have impacted the changes.</p><p>The empirical analysis is based on the relative international competitiveness index to examine how market position in different sectors has changed during the time-period 1985-2003. In the regression measures for human and physical capital has been included as well as R&D expenditure for both Sweden and the OECD countries.</p><p>The results show that the changes in market position for most products are relatively small. What can be concluded is that it is not the sector as a whole that experience improving market positions instead it is certain products such as pharmaceutical, sulphate and electronic components among others.</p><p>Sweden ranks very high in terms of resources dedicated to production of new technology and there are proofs on both side of the "Swedish Paradox"; which states that high technology exports are low given the high R&D investment.</p><p>The result also indicates that Sweden has a labor-intensive disadvantage, i.e. indications that the market position for industries with high total capital-intensity has increased.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

According to the Globalizations Council the most important task Sweden has is to assess the opportunities and challenges presented by the global economy to a small, open country like Sweden. There has been dual competition, some has been able to sell the resource services of human and physical knowledge capital, and others offering to sell unskilled labor at wages way below Swedish standards. This thesis will examine the changes in market position in the manufacturing sector, and how comparative advantage and the role of technology have impacted the changes. The empirical analysis is based on the relative international competitiveness index to examine how market position in different sectors has changed during the time-period 1985-2003. In the regression measures for human and physical capital has been included as well as R&amp;D expenditure for both Sweden and the OECD countries. The results show that the changes in market position for most products are relatively small. What can be concluded is that it is not the sector as a whole that experience improving market positions instead it is certain products such as pharmaceutical, sulphate and electronic components among others. Sweden ranks very high in terms of resources dedicated to production of new technology and there are proofs on both side of the "Swedish Paradox"; which states that high technology exports are low given the high R&amp;D investment. The result also indicates that Sweden has a labor-intensive disadvantage, i.e. indications that the market position for industries with high total capital-intensity has increased.

Tyrimo objektas – Lietuvos pieno sektoriaus atskleistasis santykinis pranašumas prekyboje su ES šalimis. Tyrimo tikslas – RCA indekso pagalba ištirti Lietuvos pieno produktų eksporto pozicijas kitų atžvilgiu prekyboje su kitomis Europos Sąjungos šalimis. / Research object –Revealed comparative advantage of Lithuanian dairy sectors in trade with Euro-pean Union countries. Research aim – RCA index help investigate the export of milk products in other positions in re-spect of trade with other European Union countries.

Applying the concept of comparative advantage in the allocation of production has been required but ignored in Canadian supply-managed agriculture. There seems to be a lack of consensus among economists on how comparative advantage is to be observed and applied in this context. It is also not clear whether the recent changes in the environmental pressures from agriculture across Canada might have contributed to changes in the patterns of comparative advantage in primary dairy production. Linking the concept of individual comparative advantage with the concept of the market as an information discovery process through comprehensive microeconomic general equilibrium modeling, deductive reasoning, and statistical analysis of recent industry data has shown (1) that changes in individual comparative advantage in supply-managed industries are expressed through quota exchange and revealed through quota prices, and (2) that environmental externalities may change the patterns of comparative advantage. The current provincial quota prices, as the appropriate indicators of comparative advantage, suggest that more quota should be allocated to British Columbia and Alberta. / Canadian Dairy Commission, Toronto Milk Producers, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

The central aim of this dissertation is to make an unambiguous international trade policy recommendation for developing countries grounded on rigorous economic theory. As is generally known, trade models featuring increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition have challenged the mainstream case for free trade which is built upon unrealistic assumptions like constant return to scale and perfect competition. In this context, the core contribution of this dissertation is the restatement of the original free-trade case made by the classical political economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo. This restatement is based on the accurate interpretation of Ricardo's famous numerical example in chapter 7 of the Principles. The classical case for free trade formulated by Smith and Ricardo neither relies on unrealistic assumptions nor the laissez-faire doctrine. On the contrary, it stipulates that free trade should always be accompanied by public policies that expand the provision of public education, job training, health care and infrastructure. Moreover, a widespread policy change towards free trade should always be implemented gradually, in order to take care of those groups who might be affected in the short run by the increased level of international competition and technological progress. The main conclusion of the dissertation is that free trade - as conceived by classical political economy - is the most suitable international trade policy for developed as well developing countries for achieving sustainable economic growth and development. (author's abstract)

The paper presents a formal analysis which incorporates returns to transportation into a Ricardian framework to predict trade patterns. The important point to be gained from this analysis is that increasing returns to transportation, coupled with appropriate distances between trading partners can be shown to reverse Ricardian predictions even when there are no international differences in tastes, technology, or factor endowments. Additional gains from trade may emerge from reductions in aggregate delivery costs owing to scale economies. (authors' abstract) / Series: Discussion Papers of the Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 15, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Vitor Trindade. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-143).