Journal of International Commerce Economics and Policy

Das, Maitreyi Bordia

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500113pmid: N/A

Labor market discrimination is very difficult to pinpoint, even more difficult to measure and almost impossible to “prove”. This paper reviews the literature and makes two main contributions: first, it builds a four-fold typology to think about discrimination — overt or covert; conscious or unconscious; legal or illegal and real or perceived. Second, it identifies screens and filters — devices through which discrimination plays out in the labor market. Unless more empirical studies identify the play of discrimination and exclusion, subordinate groups may well be told that discrimination is actually in their heads — that they are imagining it.

Caldera Sánchez, Aida; Rasmussen, Morten; Röhn, Oliver

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500095pmid: N/A

The global financial crisis highlighted the importance of strengthening the resilience of our economies to adverse shocks. In this paper, we take stock of studies carried out primarily within, but also outside the OECD, to better understand the role of macroeconomic and structural policies in spurring or mitigating the vulnerabilities that can lead to costly shocks, as well as the role of policies in mitigating the shock impact and speeding the recovery. Then we offer tentative insights on how policies can be geared to address vulnerabilities early on, mitigate the impact of shocks and speed recoveries, as well as highlight possible trade-offs that exist across policy areas.

Correa, Carlos M.

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500125pmid: N/A

The early industrialization process in developed countries took place under flexible frameworks of intellectual property (IP) protection. Those countries, however, proposed and obtained in trade negotiations the adoption of an international IP regime that expanded and strengthened such protection. While the role of this regime, especially patents, in promoting innovation is controversial, it may effectively limit the ability of developing countries to implement industrial policies. These countries can preserve some room to implement such policies by using certain flexibilities, such as applying rigorous standards of patentability and granting compulsory licenses to broaden the space for local production.

Rieländer, Jan; Traoré, Bakary

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500071pmid: N/A

This paper adds new empirical evidence to the recent literature about the ways countries develop strong productive capacities by analyzing the patterns of export diversification across different levels of manufacturing content. In addition to the measures commonly used to study diversification, such as the number of active export lines and measures of “discoveries in exports”, we propose two new filters based on the concept of revealed comparative advantage (RCA). We use trade data at the 4-digit level for 176 countries from 1992 until 2011, and we classify all the products into three manufacturing categories (unprocessed, semi processed and finished goods). Data confirms that growing countries continue to add new commodities to their exports basket until they reach around US$ 25,000 of GDP per capita. More interestingly, we found that for many countries expanding the spectrum of commodities exported with comparative advantage (RCA) actually contribute to boosting new productive capacities in manufacturing sectors. This finding is robust to different econometric models and different country groups.

Irwin, Timothy C.

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500101pmid: N/A

Fiscal reporting is intended to warn of fiscal crises while there is still time to prevent them. The financial crisis thus seems to reveal a failure of fiscal reporting: Before the crisis, even government reports on fiscal risk typically did not mention banks as a possible source of fiscal problems. One reason for silence was that the risk arose partly from implicit guarantees, and governments may have feared that disclosure would increase moral hazard. The crisis cast doubt, however, on the effectiveness of silence in mitigating risks. This paper discusses how fiscal risks from the financial sector could be discussed in reports on fiscal risk, with a view to encouraging their mitigation.

Mao, Rui; Yao, Yang

doi: 10.1142/S1793993316500083pmid: N/A

Using data on sectoral value added and purchasing power parity converter, we are able to estimate the home country’s industrial-service (quasi-) relative-relative total factor productivity (TFP) against the United States. Applying those estimates, our econometric exercises provide robust results showing that the fixed exchange rate regime (FERR) dampens the Balassa–Samuelson effect, and the real undervaluation thus created promotes growth. We also explore the channels of undervaluation to promote growth. Lastly, we compare industrial countries and developing countries and find that the FERR has more significant effects in developing countries than in industrial countries.