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This thesis comprises three essays on the international movement of merchandise and people. The first essay measures the effects of foreign aid flows on a donor's merchandise exports. On average, donor countries tie approximately 50% of their foreign aid to exports, but the export stimulation of aid may exceed the amount that is directly tied. This essay uses the gravity model of trade to statistically test the link between aid and export expansion. The results suggest that aid is associated with an increase in exports of goods amounting to 120% of the aid. The essay also makes comparisons among donors and finds that Japan, which has drawn harsh criticism for using aid to gain unfair trade advantages, derives less merchandise exports from aid than the average donor. The second essay investigates the effects of immigration on Canada's pattern of trade. I derive three alternative functional forms capturing the relationship between immigration and trade based on the proposition that immigrants use their superior "market intelligence" to exploit new trade opportunities. I then employ province-level trade data with over 150 trading partners to identify immigrant effects and obtain results suggesting that immigrants account for over 10% of Canada's exports. The third essay addresses the question of whether tax differences contribute toward the brain drain from Canada to the U.S. This essay tests whether the U.S.'s lower taxes draw Canadians south by examining a sample of Canadians living in Canada and a sample of Canadians living in the U.S. Using information from these samples I estimate how much these individuals would earn in the opposite country and estimate the taxes they would pay. I find that the people who have the most to gain in income and in tax-savings are the most likely to choose to live in the U.S., and thus corroborate the claim that tax differences contribute toward Canada's brain drain.

Pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais pastebimas nepaprastai spartus pasaulinės prekybos augimas, viršijantis gamybos augimą. Lygiagrečiai su minėtu prekybos augimu, didėja ir nelegalios prekybos, terorizmo, ginklų, pavojingų medžiagų įvežimo grėsmės, kurios įgauna vis intelektualesnes ir išradingesnes formas bei būdus. Šiai temai atskleisti buvo atlikta tarptautinio prekybos saugumo užtikrinimo teisinių dokumentų, programinių dokumentų, Lietuvos bei užsienio literatūros, analizė. Išnagrinėjus muitinės ir ūkio subjektų veiklos teisinį reglamentavimą tarptautinės prekybos saugumui užtikrinti, pateikti šios problemos spendimo būdai bei priemonės. Siekiant apsaugoti ne tik ekonomiką, bet ir visuomenės saugumą, reikia, jog dėmesio centre būtų visa tarptautinės prekybos grandinė, apimanti ištisą prekių, medžiagų judėjimo logistinę grandinę, kurioje tam tikras operacijas, procedūras ar funkcijas atliktų gamintojai, eksportuotojai, importuotojai, vežimo ir/ar sandėliavimo operatoriai, ekspedicinės įmonės, muitinės įstaigos, tarpininkai. Vienintelė muitinė, turėdama specifinius įgaliojimus ir žinias, kurių neturi jokia kita valstybės institucija, gali ir turi vaidinti pagrindinį vaidmenį saugant pasaulinės prekybos grandinę. Darbe apžvelgiami tarptautinės prekybos liberalizavimo privalumai, bei kylančios grėsmės tarptautinės prekybos grandinės saugumui, nagrinėjamos tarptautinės prekybos grandinės saugumo užtikrinimo teisinio-organizacinio reglamentavimo priemonės, analizuojami muitinės, kaip... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In recent decades extremely rapid growth in the world trade process is being observed. However the said trade growth is accompanied by the boost of illegal trade, terrorism, import of weapons and hazardous materials as well as other threats acquiring increasingly inventive intellectual forms and ways. In order to assure the security of the economics and society at large it is necessary to focus attention on the whole international trade chain covering all logistic chain of movement of the goods and materials including producers, exporters, importers, carriers and/or warehouse operators, expedition entities, customs enterprises, and agents performing special operations, procedures and functions. Each of these chains contains certain security risks. The customs exclusively with its specific authorizations that no other state institution is rendered can and must play the main role in the security assurance in the world trade chain. In order to determine and evaluate risks in the international trade chain and to develop measures necessary to evaluate risk factors and corresponding to the national and international criteria, the customs inspection must be founded on risk analysis. Effective cooperation of business and state institutions in submitting advance information on goods carried, electronic data exchange, interdepartmental and international cooperation – these are the key provisions as the security assurance in the international trade chain promotes economics growth and... [to full text]

Šiais, spartaus ekonomikos augimo laikais, vis svarbesnis tampa tarptautinės prekybos klausimas. Šiandien, nei viena valstybė negali pasiekti ekonominio augimo, jeigu aktyviai nesireiškia ir nedalyvauja tarptautinėje prekyboje. Siekdamos kuo geriau įsitvirtinti pasaulinėse rinkose, šalys vis labiau pasineria į užsienio prekybos politikos procesus, kas lemia spartų prekybos sąlygų keitimąsi. O šis prekybinių sąlygų pasikeitimas sąlygoja šalių būrimąsi į bendras sąjungas. Ne išimtis ir neseniai pradėjusi veikti Rusijos, Baltarusijos bei Kazachstano (toliau RBK) muitų sąjunga. Darbe daug dėmesio skiriama šios muitų sąjungos kūrimosi bei funkcionavimo procesų nagrinėjimui. Šio darbo tikslas ir yra išanalizuoti RBK muitų sąjungos kūrimąsi ir funkcionavimą bei poveikį tarptautinei prekybai ir muitinės priežiūrai. Magistriniame darbe buvo atlikta ES bei RBK muitų sąjungų lyginamoji analizė, aptarti jų panašumai ir skirtumai. Darbe taip pat vertinama RBK muitų sąjungos įtaka Lietuvos tarptautinei prekybai su Rusija ir Baltarusija, prekių srautams bei muitinės formalumams. Darbe panaudoti keturi metodai: teorinis, analizės, empirinis bei apibendrinimo metodai. Remiantis jais, pirmoje darbo dalyje yra pateikiama tarptautinės prekybos samprata ir jos reguliavimo priemonės, taip pat nagrinėjama muitų sąjungos samprata ir jos formavimo pagrindai. Antroje dalyje aptariamos RBK muitų sąjungos ištakos, funkcionavimas ir plėtra, nagrinėjami ES ir RBK muitų sąjungų panašumai ir skirtumai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The rapid growth of countries economy and politics, becomes an increasingly important issue for international trade. Nowadays, there are no countries that can achieve economic growth while not participating an being active in an international trade. In order to get better positions in global markets they become increasingly immersed in to the foreign trade policy processes. The rapid change in terms of trade causes the unionize of countries into different kinds of unions. RBK customs union it is not an exception. So, this work mostly focuses on the examination of this customs unions creation and functioning. The aim of this study is to analyze RBK customs unions functioning and influence on international trade and customs procedures. The comparative analyses of customs union was carried out in this work. It also evaluated the influence of RBK customs union to the Lithuanian international trade and customs procedures. Four methods were used, in order to examine and analyze this. That is: theoretical, analytical, empirical and concluding methods. According to these methods the first part of the work studies the theoretical aspect of modern international trade regulations, presents the formation of customs union and discusses Lithuania integration into the EU. The second part deals with the origin and establishment of RBK customs union, evaluates its functioning and development, analyses similarities and differences between EU and RBK customs unions. The third part discusses... [to full text]

Pasaulyje vyksta aktyvūs procesai dėl eksporto politikos skatinimo, investicijų, didesnio prekių ir paslaugų mainų balanso, inovacijų pritraukimo, t.y. veiksnių sąlygojančių ekonominio vystymosi tempus, vis svarbesnį vaidmenį priskiriant tarptautinei prekybai paslaugomis. Darbo aktualumas siejamas su neišnaudotu paslaugų augimo potencialu tarptautinėje prekyboje, kuris suteikia galimybes paslaugų sektoriui gauti didesnę pelno normą ir pritraukia kapitalą bei darbo jėgą iš tradicinių veiklų įmonių, todėl paslaugų plėtra turėtų išlikti pagrindiniu ekonominių ir socialinių permainų katalizatoriumi. Tyrimo tikslas– išryškinti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis teorinius aspektus ir pagrįsti plėtros tendencijas Lietuvoje. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti pagrindinius paslaugų klasifikavimo principus, atskleidžiant paslaugų plėtros tendencijas, barjerus ir ES Paslaugų direktyvos svarbą plėtros procesams; 2. Remiantis sudarytu tiriamuoju tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis modeliu, atlikti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis plėtros Lietuvos atžvilgiu, tyrimą ir pristatyti ekspertų nuomonių apklausos rezultatus; 3. Parengti tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis plėtros Lietuvoje prognozės, apibrėžiant galimybes, kliūtis ir pagrindžiant plėtros tendencijas. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė, statistinių duomenų analizė, lyginamoji analizė, anketinė apklausa, prognozavimas. Tyrimu atskleista, kad tarptautinės prekybos paslaugomis tendencijas tikslinga vertinti pagal suteikiamų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / International trade in services grown significantly, yet little research has been undertaken to understand international services. Major features of services have much in common with other services, being, however, more closely related to country’s economy. The actuality of the study is related to the potential of increase of services in domestic market in hand which gives possibilities to service sector get higher rate of profit and attracts capital and labour force from enterprises of traditional activity, therefore the development of services should remain the main catalyst of economical and social changes. The goal of the work – to highlight the theoretical aspects of international trade in services and foresee the main tendencies of Lithuanian international trade in services. Tasks are presented: 1. Analyze the main types of International services classification and exploring tendencies of development, to set barriers and instruments of regulation EU Services Directive. 2. According to holistic model of evaluation of development of international trade in services, to make research of Lithuanian International trade in services and set the results form experts’ survey. 3. Forecasts the development tendencies of Lithuanian International trade in services, barriers and propose possibilities. Methods of investigation: referring to the studies of foreign and Lithuanian scientists, analysis and synthesis of literature, survey of experts, forecasting methods. The study... [to full text]

This doctoral thesis consists in three chapters investigating cross-country linkages in different samples of industrialized economies. The first chapter shows that the share of the investment cycle's variance due to common international factors has increased in the United States as well in large European countries. The second chapter estimates the impact of the liberalization and internationalization of the financial and banking sectors on real GDP growth comovements. Since the late 1970s, a common international factor has contribued to most economic growth in th EU countries, the United States, Canada and Japan. Among several financial, bank and monetary indicators, equity prices, followed by portofolio investment have been by far the main drivers of this factor. The removal of controls on domestic credit emerges as the only financial liberalization policy measure with a large and negative effect on common growth before 1995. The third chapter investigates the sources of real GDP's comovements between the founding member states of the euro area. Throughout EMU, real cyclical synchronization was robustly linked to disparities in term of fiscal policy and of total factor productivity gains. Cyclical synchronization was closely related to similarities in unit labour cost growth before 2007, but not after 2007 when long-term interest rate differentials became a major cause of cyclical divergence.

La présente étude offre un panorama sur les interactions et les liens qui existent entre la volatilité des taux de change et les échanges internationaux. L’objectif de ce travail est donc de présenter théoriquement cette relation, puis d’examiner empiriquement l’existence de cette relation de causalité entre le commerce international et la variabilité des taux de change. La littérature portant sur la question se considère dans l'ensemble comme contradictoire et supporte plusieurs controverses qui ne nous permettent pas de conclure clairement quant à la relation en question. Nous essayerons de pousser ces recherches un peu plus loin en réexaminant cette évidence pour le canada et en offrant une investigation empirique sur l’existence éventuelle d'un impact significatif de la volatilité sur les flux désagrégées des exportations sectoriels du canada vers son partenaire, les États-Unis. Nous y examinons la réponse empirique de 5 secteurs d’exportations canadiennes aux variations du taux de change réel effectif entre le canada et les États- Unis. Toutefois, nos résultats obtenus ne nous permettent pas de conclure quant à la significativité relative d’un impact de volatilité de taux de change sur les exportations sectoriels désagrégées destinées aux États-Unis. Dans l’ensemble, même si on admet que les signe des coefficients estimés de la variable de risque dans chaque secteur est négatif, nous arrivons à la conclusion que la volatilité ne semble pas avoir un impact statistiquement significatif sur le volume réelle des exportations du Canada vers les États-Unis. / This study provides an overview on the interactions and linkages between the volatility of exchange rates and international trade. The objective of this work is to present this relationship theoretically and examine, empirically the existence of this causal relationship between international trade and exchange rate variability. The literature on the subject considers himself across as contradictory and supports several controversies that do not allow the clear conclusion about the relationship in question. We try to push this research a step further by reviewing the evidence for Canada and providing an empirical investigation on the possible existence of a significant impact of volatility on sectoral disaggregated flows of Canadian exports to its trading partner, the United States. We empirically examine the response of five sectors of Canadian exports to changes in real effective exchange rate between Canada and the United States. However, our results do not allow us to conclude about the significance of an impact on volatility of exchange rates on disaggregated sectoral exports to United States. Overall, even if we admit that the sign of the estimated coefficients of the exchange risk variable in each sector is negative, we reach the conclusion that the volatility does not seem to have a statistically significant impact on the real volume of exports from Canada to the United States.

This thesis consists of four essays on applied production analysis, with a focus on technology, productivity and fixed costs. The aim of this thesis is to identify some limitations of recent contributions to production behavior modeling, and to propose improvements. In this dissertation, I compared different empirical specifications and statistical methods which have often been used in production analysis, and pointed out their implications for estimating technology parameters. I studied the causes and cures of endogeneity problems in the context of production analysis. This thesis also addressed the important but neglected issue of fixed costs. This work defined and characterized the fixed cost, and developed empirical strategies to estimate the fixed cost using the standard production database. Empirical evidence suggests that the fixed cost is significant and has profound impacts on producer's behavior in terms of price setting, returns to scale and exports.

This dissertation attempts to determine to what extent sections 88 and 90 of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 comply with the constitutional right to just administrative action, read with the provisions of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000. As international trade increases, it is increasingly important that the provisions of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 which regulate the industry are regarded as constitutional as potential trade between South Africa and other countries may be lost if the said provisions are not seen as promoting administrative justice. As wide and far-reaching powers are conveyed upon an administrator acting in accordance with the provisions of sections 88 and 90 of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964, it is important that the said provisions are regarded as constitutional. As not only goods, but also vessels, vehicles and other property used in connection with the suspected goods may be seized in terms of the aforementioned sections, the danger of potential large-scale pecuniary losses to the trader immediately becomes evident. As the current provisions do not allow an affected party to state his or her case before the action in terms of sections 88 and 90 is taken by an administrator, nor require the administrator to provide reasons for his or her action, the legality of the said provisions are tested against the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, as effected by the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000. The remedies available to an affected party of an action in terms of the relevant sections of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 are discussed in depth, together with the issue of the determination of the procedural fairness of such action. Certain practical guidelines in the exercising of powers in terms of the aforementioned sections are also given, providing an administrator with a minimum framework of responsibilities and guidelines in order to ensure that the legality of his or her action cannot be brought into dispute. As is evident from the content of this paper, the constitutionality of any action in terms of the relevant sections of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 will almost always depend on the circumstances of the individual case. It is therefore of the utmost importance that an administrator applies his or her mind in a reasonably acceptable manner in order to ensure compliance with the administrative justice provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The dissertation consists of a literary study, focusing on the latest developments regarding the promotion of justice in the international trade industry in South Africa, taking into account statutory provisions, case law, text books, journal articles as well as internet sources. / Thesis (LL.M. (Import and Export Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

In der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit wird untersucht welche Wirkungen der Industriegüterhandel auf die Beschäftigung im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe Indiens hat. Dazu werden die Implikationen der handelstheoretischen Modelle der Neoklassik, der Neuen sowie der Neu-Neuen Handelstheorie abgeleitet und erörtert. Es schließt sich eine empirische Analyse an, die sich an Jenkins und Sen (2006) orientiert. Dabei werden zunächst der Faktorgehalt sowie die Handelsstruktur analysiert. Um die Beschäftigungseffekte zu quantifizieren, erfolgt eine Zerlegung des Beschäftigungswachstums. Es wird auch untersucht, inwiefern die handelsinduzierte Wettbewerbsintensivierung zu einem effizienteren Arbeitseinsatz geführt hat. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die handelsinduzierten Beschäftigungseffekte im Beobachtungszeitraum zwar positiv, aber vergleichsweise gering ausgefallen sind. Gleichzeitig wirkt sich die Entwicklung der Handelsstruktur zunehmend negativ auf das potentielle Beschäftigungswachstum aus, sodass auf Basis der hier gewonnenen Erkenntnisse nicht davon auszugehen ist, dass zukünftige Handelsflüsse einen signifikanten Beitrag zur Schaffung neuer Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten leisten können. / This paper investigates the employment effects of trade in the manufacturing sector in India. In a first step the theoretical implications of different trade theories, including the Neoclassical, the New and the New-New trade theory, are discussed. The employment effects are then analyzed from an empirical perspective, where the approach is taken from Jenkins and Sen (2006). The analysis comprises a factor content analysis of trade flows and a decomposition of employment growth. It is also examined whether the trade induced increase in competition has led to a more efficient use of labor. The results show, that the employment effects have been positive over the whole observation period. However, they are comparatively small. Additionally, the development of the trade structure lowers the potential of trade induced employment growth. Based on these results, it can be concluded that future trade flows will not significantly help to create new jobs in the manufacturing sector in India.