Global Economy Journal

This paper examines changes in intra-industry specialization indicators over the 1992-2004 period to assess potential for structural adjustment problems that may arise in U.S. textile and apparel products with growth in trade. Separate analyses are conducted for U.S. bilateral trade with China, Mexico, and DR-CAFTA members. Seven of the sixteen three-digit Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) product groups are expected to experience significant structural adjustment problems. With the exception of one group, all fall within the apparel and clothing (SITC 84) category. Results suggest substantial increases in U.S. imports from China are influencing these findings.

The economic development of emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia has serious implications for the multilateral trading system, and for government policies worldwide. This paper explores globalization and regionalization processes in order to assess the effects of trade liberalization on emerging countries. Today, major economic players tend to focus on bilateral and regional agreements. Attention must be paid to how these agreements affect the multilateral trading system and the trilateral world economy. One aspect that stands out from this study is that the role of countries such as China and India, which are reshaping trade patterns, remains to be defined within the Asian regional framework. Equity issues also have an important role to play, both at a regional and at a global level. Consideration of the intersections between the regional and/or bilateral trade agreements of member countries raises interesting questions about the role of trade blocs in the future trajectory of the global economy.

In recent years, there has been a lack of empirical work devoted to the explanation of migration patterns into the European Union with the exception of country specific studies. At the same time, migration theories have undergone a considerable renewal, which has led to the development of new variables for explaining migration decisions. Three of them are of particular interest in the EU case, namely welfare magnets, border effects and policy regulations. This paper aims at explaining recent migration trends into the EU. A first contribution is to provide an original eclectic theoretical model from the new developments in migration theories. Second, an empirical panel data model is developed in order to explain the emigration rate into 18 EU countries, from 67 source countries over the past 10 years. Finally, this model simultaneously tests the impact of the traditional and the new variables on migration flows into the EU. From both static and dynamic panel data estimators, the results show that the new variables are of particular significance, compared to traditional ones.

This paper presents a model that combines the key features of a Schumpeterian growth model without scale effects and a North-South model of trade. All open economies converge to parallel growth paths because of costly technological transfer. The effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes and trade policies on the growth rate is studied, as well as on a given country's economic performance. The requirement that trade be balanced neutralizes all potential effects of the tariff policy on the world's growth rate, and on the performance of a single country. By contrast, an improvement of a given country's IPR regime is growth neutral, but improves a country's position in the world's productivity rank. These findings are illustrated by simple empirical tests.

This paper challenges the frequently held position that price, volumes and cost-competitiveness will be enough for export success among apparel producers in supplier countries post-MFA. Based on a review of the growing literature on the changing organization of production and trade regimes in the global textiles and apparel industry, the paper argues that while cost-competitiveness is important, several additional, non-price and institutional factors are key to the competitiveness of textile and apparel producers going forward. In an environment of volatility and intensified competition where buyers increasingly demand variety, quality, and timely delivery in addition to price, competing on the basis of low wages and large volumes can lock producers at the lowest end of the value chain where price competition is the harshest and where opportunities to cultivate the skills needed to sustain competitiveness are limited. The paper illustrates this with examples from China, India and Latin America. Specifically, it makes the point that the attribution of China's remarkable export performance in textiles and apparel to its low labor costs and large production scales is, in part, a misreading of the China story. China's unit costs are low, and its production scales enormous, but they are embedded within crucial abilities, key investments by the state, and access to world class distribution networks organized by locally rooted Hong Kong, Taiwanese and South Korean companies that have helped lower the "costs" of large scales of operation (i.e., of rigidity) in the context of uncertain markets. The end of quotas, and the ongoing churning in the global division of labor can be an opportunity for apparel firms to chart an alternative growth path based on deeper skills, innovation, design and quality upgrading, in addition to low unit costs.