|
Product Variety and the Magnitude
and Geographical Scope of Firms’ Exports:
An Empirical Analysis
-- Martin Andersson
Preference for variety on behalf of consumers suggests that variety in supply is a pertinent characteristic of individual firms. This paper studies the relationship between export variety and exports on a cross-section of exporting firms in Sweden. Multi-product firms, i.e., firms which export a set of products, are motivated by economies of scope. It is maintained that such firms have advantages in export markets through the materialization of economies of scope. Extensive and intensive margins are computed by firm as well as by firm and market such that the respective contribution of each margin to estimated relationships is revealed. In a regression of the size of export sales on the number of export products, controlling for productivity, size and industry heterogeneity, the coefficient estimate is found to be significant and positive. Firms with larger export variety export more, of which 67% can be ascribed to a larger set of export markets (the extensive margin). It is also shown that the variety of firms’ market-specific export flows varies positively with market size and negatively with distance.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Does Developing Asia Save More?
Evidence from a Panel of High Saving Nations in Asia
--Sibabrata Das and Partha Ray
The high saving of developing Asian economies has attracted attention of the researchers and policy makers alike. While various country-specific papers have investigated this issue, the present paper looks into this subject in a panel setting discerning the common variables influencing the saving behaviour in developing Asian economies. In particular, the saving behavior of six high saving countries in developing Asia, viz., China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, have been probed in a panel-data framework over the period 1990 through 2007. Specifically, two questions are examined: (a) Does developing Asia save more? and (b) What are the determinants of Asian savings? In the present study, answer to the first question emerges as affirmative from the stylized facts. Furthermore, factors such as high growth, low age-dependency, increasing degree of financial deepening, presence of liquidity constraint, remittances, terms of trade shock and human capital formation emerge as key determinants of savings from the econometric analysis of this panel of six countries. Thus, it seems that the high savings of developing Asian nations can be explained in terms of these standard variables. This has important implications for the way ahead and policy options for resolving global imbalances.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Natural Resource Depletion, Productivity
and Optimal Fiscal Strategy:
Lessons from a Small Oil-Exporting Economy
--Abdullahi D Ahmed and Said Al-Saqri
Dependency on oil income in many resource-exporting open economies threatens the ability of their economies to sustain GDP growth when oil income runs low or when oil resources are depleted. This paper attempts to appraise the efficiency of the Omani economy and its fiscal sustainability in relation to oil income. Firstly, the paper uses a neoclassical growth model to estimate the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) (technical progress and other dynamics) and the evolving relationships in factor inputs and their contribution to GDP growth in Oman. Secondly, it applies a permanent income model to elaborate on how policy makers can set path for the optimal level of government expenditure available from created wealth. It is observed that technology and improvement in efficiency induced GDP growth in Oman during the 1988-2007 period. For a higher productivity and sustainable fiscal policy, policy options include an expenditure path for the government to consume current wealth and future income from oil so that oil-based spending reduces gradually to zero by 2050. Alternatively, the government could reduce expenditure from oil revenues so that oil wealth fund is equal to the net present value of the flow of spending in 2027, where then the level of 2027 consumption is extended to 2050.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
|
