University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

This paper aims at empirically estimating the demand effects of changes in functional income distribution for Austria. Based on a Post-Kaleckian macro model, this paper estimates the effects of a change in the wage share on the main demand aggregates. The results for the behavioral functions for consumption, investment, prices, exports and imports are compared with the specifications of the WIFO macro model and the IHS macro model. A reduction in the wage share has a restrictive effect on domestic demand as consumption decreases more strongly than investment increases. Because of the strong effects on net exports the overall effects of a decrease in the wage share are expansionary. However the latter effect operates only as far as the fall in the wage share increases competitiveness. As wage shares were also falling in Austria's main trading partners, the effect seems to have been neutralized. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Germany has experienced a period of extreme nominal and real wage moderation since the mid 1990s. Contrary to the expectations of liberal economists this has failed to improve Germany's mediocre economic performance. However, Germany is now running substantial current account surpluses. One possible explanation for Germany's disappointing performance is found in Kaleckian theory, which highlights that the domestic demand effect of a decline in the wage share will typically be contractionary, whereas net exports will increase (Blecker 1989). The size of the foreign demand effect will critically depend on the degree of openness of the economy. The paper aims at estimating the demand side of a Bhaduri-Marglin (1990) -type model empirically for Germany. The paper builds on the estimation strategy of Stockhammer, Onaran and Ederer (2007) and Hein and Vogel (2008a, 2008b). The main contribution lies in a careful analysis of the effects of globalization. Since Germany is a large open economy by now it is a particularly interesting case study. (author´s abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur Sveriges utrikeshandel har påverkat arbetskraftenssammansättning. Det är viktigt att utreda då den internationella handeln ständigt ökar. Enligthandelsteori leder utrikeshandel till att produktion av varor och tjänster specialiseras efter dekomparativa fördelar som förekommer. I Sveriges fall innebär det specialisering motkapitalintensiv produktion vilket bör leda till en ökad efterfråga på högskoleutbildadarbetskraft.Syftet besvaras med hjälp av en ekonometrisk studie där data från svensk tillverkningsindustriför åren 1995 – 2005 struktureras som paneldata. Andelen importerade insatsvaror användssom proxyvariabel för utrikeshandelns påverkan. Arbetskraftens sammansättning definierassom fördelningen mellan individer med och utan högskoleutbildning.Uppsatsens resultat är att utrikeshandel kan ha påverkat arbetskraftens sammansättning itillverkningsindustrin då efterfrågan på högskoleutbildad arbetskraft har ökat under studeradtidsperiod. Kapitalintensiva näringsgrenar påverkas i lägre grad jämfört medarbetskraftsintensiva näringsgrenar av en förändring i andelen importerade insatsvaror. / The purpose of this study is to analyse how Sweden’s foreign trade has affected thecomposition of the country’s workforce. International trade is growing constantly; thereforethere is a need to understand the importance and consequences of this. According to tradetheory, international trade will lead to specialisation of the production of goods and servicestowards areas where comparative advantages are prominent. In Sweden’s case, this meansspecialisation in capital-intensive production, which should increase the demand for skilledlabour.An econometric study of the Swedish manufacturing industry for the years 1995 – 2005 is thebasis for the study. Data is structured as panel data where the share of imported inputs is usedas a proxy for the impact of foreign trade on the composition of the workforce. Thecomposition consists of skilled and non-skilled labour.Results of this study demonstrate that foreign trade has affected the composition of theworkforce in the manufacturing industry, as the demand for skilled labour has increasedduring the time period.

This dissertation consists of three essays pertaining to the causes of the levels and composition of the international trade flows of nations, and the consequential implications for the levels of per capita income and welfare of their populations. The first of these documents a pattern of comparative advantage in product level, bilateral trade data that conventional quantitative trade models have difficulty explaining. It goes on to develop a theory of product level productivity differences based on endogenous differences in the allocation of research and development into product and process innovation across countries over time, and it shows that, when fitted to cross-country manufacturing wage data, the predicted product level technology distribution is consistent with the observed trade pattern. The second essay shows that the distribution of technology levels inferred in the first essay can help explain the inability of both ad-hoc and theoretically based gravity models of trade to account for the observed positive correlation between the percentage of manufacturing output that is traded and countries' per capita income. It derives a modified gravity equation based on a Ricardian model of trade with deterministic product level technology differences across countries. It then uses estimates from a product level gravity estimation to compute the component of this equation that differs from a conventional gravity equation in order to determine the extent to which the observed concentration of comparative advantage in a common set of products for low-income countries explains the small percentage of their output that is exported. The final essay shows that a simple model of firm profit maximization in the presence of sunk costs of entering the export market is broadly consistent with the observed persistence of exporting behavior in firm level data. It uses this simple model and moments from data on US manufacturing firms to estimate the value of the sunk export entry costs faced by these firms using an indirect inference strategy. These costs are shown to be substantial relative the revenue stream of a typical firm. / text

Europos Sąjungos sudaryti preferenciniai susitarimai su trečiosiomis šalimis importuojant atitinkamos kilmės šalies prekes, leidžia joms taikyti sumažintą, ar net 0 proc. importo muito tarifą. Taip skatinamas Susitariančių šalių ekonomikos augimas. Preferencijos taikomos prekėms, kurios numatytos atitinkamuose susitarimuose ir atitinka preferencinės prekybos prekių kilmės taisykles. Kadangi Lietuva yra Europos Sąjungos narė, mūsų šaliai yra aktualūs preferencinių susitarimų taikymo ypatumai, sąlygos ir perspektyvos. Magistro baigiamojo darbo tikslas yra kompleksiškai išanalizuoti teisinius ir organizacinius prekių kilmės kontrolės reglamentavimo principus, teorinius bei praktinius aspektus ir atskleisti praktines jų įgyvendinimo spragas bei problemas. Darbe keliami uždaviniai: išnagrinėti ES preferencinių prekybos susitarimų teisinio reglamentavimo sistemą, jų įtaką prekių importui ir eksportui, atskleisti prekių kilmės esmę ir jos nustatymo metodus bei kontrolės formas, atlikti prekių kilmės tikrinimo ir kontrolės analizę Lietuvos muitinėje ir nustatyti trūkumus taikant prekių kilmės kontrolę bei apibendrinti taikomus prekių kilmės kontrolės teisinius ir organizacinius aspektus ir numatyti jų tobulinimo kryptis. Darbe naudojami teorinės medžiagos analizės ir sintezės, grafinio vaizdavimo, statistikos duomenų analizės ir sintezės metodai. Remiamasi tiek oficialiais, tiek antriniais informacijos šaltiniais. Teiginiai iliustruojami statistiniais duomenimis, sudaromos diagramos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The work was produced in Vilnius, in 2007. Scope of this conclusive work is 80 pages. The work consists of introduction, tree parts and is concluded by giving conclusions and proposals. The report of work are 17 pictures, 3 tables in this work, as well as list of literature, summary and 9 annexes. Preferential arrangements of EU with the third countries importing some products with origin, allow to use reduced tariff or 0 ℅ rate of duty of import. So it is the prime to pump the developing of economy of contracting parties. The preferences are applied to products which are covered by respective agreements and adequate the rules of origin in preferential trade. Lithuania is the member of EU so it is actual for our country the use of general peculiarity of preferential origin, conditions and perspectives. Goal of this conclusive work is the integrated analyse of juriducal and organizational control of proof of origin, theoretical and practical aspects and the point is to show the practical breaches and problems of their realization. Tasks are raised in this work is to study the preferential agreements of trade of EU, the systems of regulation, their influence for import and export, to show the substantiality of origin, methods, forms of control and evolution of control in Lithuanian customs and to establish directions of their perfection. The aim of this work was reached by the analysis and synthesis on theoretical, repository and statistical material. In conclusion work were... [to full text]

An increase in the wage share has contradictory effects on the subaggregates of aggregate demand. Private consumption expenditures ought to increase because wage incomes typically are associated with higher consumption propensities than capital incomes. Investment expenditures ought to be negatively affected because investment will positively depend on profits. Net exports will be negatively affected because an increase in the wage share corresponds to an increase in unit labor costs and thus a loss in competitiveness. Theoretically aggregate demand can therefore be either wage led or profit led depending on how these effects add up. The results will crucially depend on how open the economy is internationally. The paper estimates a Post-Kaleckian macro model incorporating these effects for the Euro area and finds that the Euro area is presently in a wage-led demand regime. Implications for wage policies are discussed. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The increasing frequency and economic losses from natural disasters within the framework of decreasing agricultural prices and trade liberalization is becoming crucial in increasing poverty in the Mexican rural economy. During the past two decades, the governmental withdrawal from supporting the agricultural sector with investments in physical, financial and logistic instruments continues to stress agricultural livelihoods, as current private mechanisms have not replaced them effectively. It has contributed to making the agricultural sector particularly vulnerable to a number of hazards as it has weakened economic agents' response and impeded assets accumulation. This dissertation identifies economic vulnerability to natural and economic hazards in order to assess public and private coping capacity, and provides a conceptual framework and economic theory that supports the overall approach and employed methodologies. It is based on quantitative and qualitative research methods, and makes use of econometric analysis and stakeholders' views aimed at finding feasible solutions. Further, this dissertation offers a spatial model that can support policy-decision-making for the creation of differential investments in productive infrastructure, as well as financial instruments to reduce current vulnerability and poverty throughout the national territory. During the past two decades, over 80% of total economic losses from weather-related disasters occurred in the agricultural sector. In the same period, mean weighted agricultural prices have decreased over 50% in real terms, and since 1996 a trade deficit has persisted in this sector. Currently, the insufficient credit access, low coverage of crop insurance, as well as the near lack of investments to expand irrigation and further productive infrastructure is sharpening the vulnerability of rural livelihoods. These facts explain why this sector produces only 4% of the GDP despite employing over 20% of the national workforce. These facts undermine farmers' expectations of future incomes within the community, stimulating rural-urban out migration, which usually cannot be absorbed by the urban economy in sight of the modest industrial dynamism of the recent years. This leads to the enlargement of the informal sector in large cities and migratory flows to abroad, among others. (author's abstract)

The present thesis deals with the international legal consequences of the Biosafety Protocol. If this Protocol answers the problem of GMOs, by enforcing the application of the precautionary principle to the international trade of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), it does not solve the conflict between the interests of trade and those of the environment. On the contrary, the Biosafety Protocol conflicts with the rules of the GATT and the national norms inspired by it would risk being contested before the dispute-settlement institutions of the World Trade Organisation. The Protocol therefore constitutes a new element in the conflict, pre-existing and unsolved, which sets the implicit supremacy of the GATT against the international environmental norms. It confirms the necessity to find a solution enabling the equal authority and mutual respect of the international environmental and trade rules. / All information is correct as at 14 November 2000.

International film co-productions are sometimes thought of by the Americans as a form of financing providing the U.S. with the ability to sell works to its most important export market, Europe. Europe prefers thinking of it as way to provide its market with works that reflect European culture and ideals. This thesis questions the reality of such a statement, using the examples of the EU, the U.S. and Canada. / The author first explains the mechanism of co-production within the framework of a presentation of the methods of film financing. Follows a twofold discussion on the current nature of international co-productions, on both the international and national levels. / A considerable portion of this work examines the terms of the debate about the interplay between culture and trade. As an instrument used in the audiovisual industry, therefore strongly connected to cultural industries, international co-production is indeed an ideal model to represent the tensions existing between culture and global trade. This thesis sets international co-production up as a symbol of the interface between culture and trade. / Follows a debate on the congruity of the existing global and regional trade agreements for the protection of a culture always weaker in its diversity and propagation. With the prospect of the imminent phasing out of the sectoral exemptions allowed by the GATS, the inadequacy of the NAFTA cultural exemption and current quota policy systems, what would be best to calm down the tensions between culture and trade? Three solutions are discussed here: the New International Instrument on Cultural Diversity; a powerful competitor to the American majors such as Vivendi-Universal, and the technique of co-ventures.