Economic Dependency and HIV/AIDS Prevalence in the Developing World: A Comparative,Longitudinal Analysis

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has plagued global society for over three decades. While breakthroughs in antiretroviral treatments (ART) have proven effective in suppressing the virus and HIV/AIDS intervention outreach have widened, epidemic control remains unevenly achieved among countries. At least 95 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers originate from developing countries. Dependency theory suggests that developing countries' reliance on debt, trade, and foreign investments pose negative effects on their populations' health. Guided by dependency theory's propositions, this cross‐national study assesses whether increasing dependence on trade, debt, and foreign direct investment potentially increases adult HIV prevalence in developing countries from 1989 to 2012. Using a sample of over 80 nations, we perform a two‐way fixed‐effects OLS regression to evaluate the impact of increasing debt, trade, and foreign investment on adult HIV prevalence. Total debt, short‐term debt, external debt, and GDP were found to increase HIV prevalence. The findings for debt support dependency theory's predictions concerning the ramifications of global economic inequality on HIV/AIDS prevalence.     

China’s flexible overseas food strategy: food trade and agricultural investment between Southeast Asia and China in 1990–2015

Using the UN Comtrade database and multiple sources of agricultural investment data, this paper outlines the emerging patterns of food trade and agricultural investment between Southeast Asian countries and China. The paper shows that China has adopted a flexible overseas food strategy. First, China has increased food export and shifted its food trade with Southeast Asia from a dependent relationship towards a complementary relationship at the regional level in recent years. Second, China tends to adapt to the existing conditions of food production and trade in Southeast Asian countries instead of fundamentally altering them. Finally, Chinese overseas agricultural investment is less driven by domestic food demand but more oriented for profit making, and this gives it flexibility in diversifying investment. An adequate understanding of China’s flexible food strategy in bilateral and multilateral relationships holds implications for global food security.     

从中美经贸“恐怖平衡”看我国外经贸模式的转型

在中美经贸金融关系中客观上存在所谓＂恐怖平衡＂,这不仅反映了美国过度消费模式和美元霸权地位所带来的全球经贸＂平衡＂,也反映出我国偏重出口导向型和外资依赖型的经济发展模式的某些特征,凸显了我国对外经济发展中的一些矛盾。这种畸形而充满风险的＂平衡＂状态目前虽有些＂积重难返＂,却是不能长久维持的。因此,从中国的实际出发,亟需大力调整自身的外经贸模式,逐步扭转在国际经贸、金融、产业及市场大格局中的不利地位。同时,应当抓住时机,采取一系列切实有效的措施,扩大对外投资,继续有效利用外资,大力发展服务贸易,促进加工贸易的转型升级,提高出口商品的竞争力,通过深化体制改革和完善政策法规,积极推进内外贸一体化,加快促进我国外经贸模式的调整与转型。     

“一带一路”战略与中国对阿拉伯国家出口潜力分析

欧美的贸易保护主义盛起之时转变外贸地理方向成为我国外贸的一项重要工作,恰逢中国率先提出的“一带一路”战略规划了东亚开放的地区主义,处于“一带一路”交汇处的阿拉伯国家便成为了我们天然的经贸合作伙伴,从而对阿拉伯国家的外贸出口呈现出愈来愈强的重要性。本文基于贸易引力模型,通过中国对阿拉伯国家联盟中的20个国家2001年～2010年间的货物贸易出口数据,测算了同各国间的贸易潜力,基于中国与阿拉伯国家间存在的较大贸易潜力提出了几点结论与启示。     

土耳其对非洲地区的经贸合作

土非经贸合作近年发展迅速,引起国际社会广泛关注。这在很大程度上源于土耳其自1998年以来的一系列政策改革和相应的机制平台建设。但需要指出的是,尽管土非贸易、投资和援助都增长迅速,但土耳其对非政策改革和机制平台建设的政策效果尚未完全显现,主要因为土非经贸合作起点较低,量的增长并未导致质的变化,特别是土非贸易在土耳其对外贸易中所占的比重变化不大。因此,未来的土非经贸合作还有很大的提升空间,尽管土耳其对非政策的内部逻辑尚有待完善。     

Wages,Skills, and Integration in Poland,Hungary and the Czech Republic: an Industry-level Analysis

This paper analyzes the manufacturing sector of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic between 1993 and 2001 and provides a set of stylized facts regarding the changes occurring in the skill composition of the workforce and in the earning structure by skills, on one hand, and in trade flows and foreign presence through direct investment, on the other hand. All three countries have experienced sharp increases in earning inequality which have concerned almost all manufacturing industries; relative skilled employment has, instead, decreased in almost all Hungarian and Czech industrial branches, while showing the opposite trend in the Polish counterparts. At the same time, the three countries have reoriented and expanded their trade flows and modified the merchandise composition of both exports and imports in favour of high-tech and capital-intensive sectors and against more traditional industries. Foreign direct investment has acquired progressively more importance in the three economies and the high-tech sector – as well as chemicals and machineries – has significantly gained relevance on total stocks. Correlation analysis comes in favour of a prevalently vertical nature of multinational enterprises; moreover, trade flows are in general negatively correlated with relative wages and employment, whereas the sign of the relation between foreign direct investments and earning inequality is clearly positive in Poland only.     

On the links between globalization and poverty

This article surveys the evidence on the linkages between globalization and poverty, drawing on a new NBER study that has been completed under the direction of one of the authors. We focus on two measures of globalization: trade and international capital flows. Past researchers have argued that global economic integration should help the poor since poor countries have a comparative advantage in producing goods that use unskilled labor. Our first conclusion is that such a simple interpretation of general equilibrium trade models is misleading. Second, the evidence suggests that the poor are more likely to share in the gains from globalization when there are complementary policies in place.Third, trade and foreign investment reforms have produced benefits for the poor in exporting sectors and sectors that receive foreign investment. Fourth, financial crises are very costly to the poor. Finally, the collected evidence suggests that globalization produces both winners and losers among the poor. The fact that some poor individuals are made worse off by trade or financial integration underscores the need for carefully targeted safety nets. We conclude the article by identifying a number of unanswered research questions regarding the impact of globalization on poverty.     

How culture influences foreign trade: evidence from the U.S. and China

Using a gravity model of trade and the U.S. and Chinese panel data, I present evidence that supports the views that linguistic links have become more important in foreign trade than geographical proximity and that linguistic influence on trade is more significant in China than in the U.S. The estimated result based on a broad panel of economies shows little overall relation between religious similarity and foreign trade in both the U.S. and China. But there is an indication that the religious dissimilarity tends to retard foreign trade with poor countries and regions and to encourage foreign trade with richer places. I also found that, although religious retardation on foreign trade is more significant in China than in the U.S., religious dissimilarity tends to retard the US export more than that of China; by contrast, it tends to retard the Chinese import more than that of the U.S. At last, the socio-economic implications of the estimated results are discussed.     

EXPORT INSTABILITY AND LONG-TERM CAPITAL FLOWS: RESPONSE TO ASSET RISK IN A SMALL ECONOMY

An open capital account allows long-term capital flows to automatically mitigate adverse effects of export instability on domestic saving and investment. An application of portfolio management theory shows that risks that are systematic to the domestic market are diversified internationally. This may help explain why foreign investment finances many high-risk investments in export sectors of LDCs and why results of studies of the effects of export instability show inconsistent results. This theory is presented and tested empirically.     

Transnationalism and American Exports in an English‐Speaking World1

Investigating the relationship between immigration, middleman minority status, transnationalism, and U.S. foreign trade, the authors assembled a census‐based data file that contains aggregate‐level variables for 88 foreign‐born groups by national origin between 1980 and 1990. They regressed immigrant characteristics and immigration volume upon time‐lagged import/export statistics from the same 88 nations between 1985 and 1995. Results show the independent influence on exports of immigrant entrepreneurship, transnationalism, and middleman minority status. But these variables, exhaustively derived from the existing literature, had no effect on U.S. imports; they only affected exports. The authors propose that the discrepancy between imports and exports arises because of the dominance of English as a world business language. In this situation, foreigners need no help from immigrants when they export to the United States; but native‐born, monolingual Americans need the help of bicultural immigrants when they export. The empirical results suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs enhance the United States' exports and thus reduce the United States' balance of payments deficit.     

World Economy,World Society,and Environmental Harms in Less‐Developed Countries*

World economy and world society theories are engaged to assess the extent to which environmental harms in less‐developed countries are tied to particular kinds of economic and social integration. Results of panel models indicate that world economy integration in the context of sector‐level foreign investment contributes to a variety of environmental harms. With the exception of deforestation, world society integration in the mode of environmental international non‐governmental organization presence has no direct effect. However, a stronger presence of such organizations in less‐developed countries mitigates the effect of foreign investment on all tested outcomes. The authors contend that comparative sociologists should adopt theoretically integrative approaches and pay closer attention to how and under what circumstances world economy and world society factors interact to partially shape social and environmental conditions.     

我国进出口许可证管理亟需创新提升

进出口许可证制度具有国际合法性,是各国对外贸易政策的重要组成部分。加强许可证管理有利于我国转变外贸发展方式,加快实现贸易大国向贸易强国转变。因此,我国应主动加强创新,加快推进部门行政规章与国家法律的统一,填补许可证管理真空,健全许可证制度及管理体系,推进贸易标准化、便利化,加快我国贸易的结构调整和转型升级。     

上海发挥国家对外文化贸易基地作用对策研究

我国对外文化贸易具有明显的顺差,但是,从文化产品与服务的进出口结构来看,情况并不乐观。出口的文化产品大部分为依赖我国廉价劳动力资源成本优势的"硬件产品",而属于内容创意产业的"软件产品"则比例不高。即便是实现贸易顺差的动画产业,其出口的大部分产品也仅集中于欧美以外的非主流市场。为强化上海国家对外文化贸易基地的功能,促进我国"文化走出去",增加内容创意产品在出口中的比例,应从组织保障和促进重点建设两个方面来推动上海对外文化贸易事业的发展。     

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION AND THE TREES: An Analysis of Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries, 1990–2005

This study tests a hypothesis derived from an expanded theory of foreign investment dependence. The tested hypothesis states that less-developed countries with higher levels of primary sector foreign investment exhibit greater rates of deforestation. Findings for cross-national analyses of deforestation from 1990 to 2005 for 40 less-developed countries confirm the hypothesis, providing support for the proposed theorization. Additional results indicate that the presence of environmental international nongovernmental organizations is beneficial for natural forest areas, while population growth is a key driver of deforestation in less-developed countries. Besides confirming the hypothesis, this research underscores the importance for sociologists to consider both political–economic forms of integration and human-ecological factors when investigating how humans impact the environment.     

少数民族商务英语专业学生商务单证处理能力的培养方法

国际商务单证是指国际贸易结算和进出口业务中所应用的单据、证书和文件。国际商务单证处理能力是外贸从业人员所应掌握的基本技能,其实用性强、适用面广,适用于外销、报关、报检、货代等各种与外贸相关的工作。根据外贸业务各个环节的需要,在分析湖南民族职业学院少数民族学生商务单证处理能力培养中存在的若干问题的基础上,提出了相应的培养方法。     

STATE TRADING AND THE QUESTION OF DISCRIMINATION: THE YUGOSLAV CASE

This paper determines the terms of trade between Yugoslavia and members of COMECON between 1966–1968 and Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union between 1957–1969. The results, based on prices prevailing in Yugoslavia's trade with Western Europe, show that Yugoslavia consistently paid lower prices and received higher prices in Bloc trade. The measured price deviations are then used to test two hypotheses, both related to the effect of dependence on measures of discrimination. The results indicated that as Yugoslavia became more integrated into Western markets (less dependent on COMECON trade), her discriminatory power increased.     

Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Options in Canada

This article examines the role of public opinion in Canada'sattempt to lessen its dependence on the United States and seekcloser ties with European and Asian countries. Employing nationalsurvey data collected over a three-year period, the authorsargue that widespread public support for new directions in foreignpolicy has not developed in Canada in spite of the climate ofincreasing nationalism and the shift in government policy. Attitudestoward the problem of foreign investment, domestic economicissues, trade agreements, and Canadian participation in internationalpeacekeeping forces are also reported.     

International trade, foreign direct investment, and transaction costs in languages

We examine the roles of major trade languages in international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Empirical results confirm that speaking a common language increases trade and FDI flows, yet the effect of major languages is more substantial in FDI than in international trade. In addition, we find evidence of a hierarchy in transaction costs of major languages in both trade and FDI.     

THE DYNAMIC EFFECTS OF U.S. FOOD AID

Although food aid may have important medium- to long-term effects, there is a glaring absence of empirical research on food aid dynamics. This paper applies vector autoregression methods to data from 18 countries over the period 1961–95. We find evidence that food aid has a pronounced J-curve effect on recipient country per capita commercial food imports but only negligible negative effects on recipient country per capita food production. The commercial export gains are primarily enjoyed, however, by the donors' competitors, revealing heretofore unrecognized positive pecuniary trade externalities associated with foreign assistance. ( JEL F14, O13, Q17, Q18)     

Relationship Between Government Size and Trade Openness: Evidence from Pakistan

In this paper the effect of trade openness on government’s role in the economy is investigated in Pakistan using data for the period 1947–2009. The results demonstrate that there is a significant positive association between trade openness and government size. The explanation appears that as openness increases the size of government will inflate. This association is robust to the inclusion of a wide range of control variables and model specifications. The results support the compensation hypothesis and imply that government consumption plays a risk-reducing role in Pakistan. The empirical findings also highlight the role of other variables in determining the government size. Government size increases with income, democracy, foreign debt and investment, while it decreases with the increase in inflation and urbanization.