Quality and the Great Trade Collapse

Quality and the Great Trade Collapse

Author: Natalie Chen

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2016-02-18

Total Pages: 59

ISBN-13: 1498348343

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We explore whether the global financial crisis has had heterogeneous effects on traded goods differentiated by quality. Combining a dataset of Argentinean firm-level destination-specific wine exports with quality ratings, we show that higher quality exports grew faster before the crisis, but this trend reversed during the recession. Quantitatively, the effect is large: up to nine percentage points difference in trade performance can be explained by the quality composition of exports. This flight from quality was triggered by a fall in aggregate demand, was more acute when households could substitute imports by domestic alternatives, and was stronger for smaller firms' exports.


Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse

Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse

Author: Jean-Pierre Chauffour

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2011-06-22

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0821387480

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On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest U.S. investment bank filed for bankruptcy. Global credit markets tightened. Spreads skyrocketed. International trade plummeted by double digits. Banks were reportedly unable to meet the demand from their customers to finance their international trade operations, leaving a trade finance 'gap' estimated at around US$25 billion. Governments and international institutions felt compelled to intervene based on the information that some 80-90 percent of world trade relies on some form of trade finance. As the recovery unfolds, the time has come to provide policy makers and analysts with a comprehensive assessment of the role of trade finance in the 2008-09 great trade collapse and the subsequent role of governments and institutions to help restore trade finance markets. After reviewing the underpinning of trade finance and interfirm trade credit, 'Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse' aims to answer the following questions: - Was the availability and cost of trade finance a major constraint on trade during the 2008-09 global economic crisis? - What are the underpinnings and limits of national and international public interventions in support of trade finance markets in times of crisis? - How effective were the public and private sector mechanisms put in place during the crisis to support trade and trade finance? - To what extent have the new banking regulations under Basel II and Basel III exacerbated the trade finance shortfall during the crisis and in the post-crisis environment, respectively? 'Trade Finance during the Great Trade Collapse' is the product of a fruitful collaboration during the crisis among the World Bank Group, international financial partners, private banks, and academia. 'Trade is the lifeblood of the world economy, and the sharp collapse in trade volumes was one of the most dramatic consequences of the global financial crisis. It was the moment the financial crisis hit the real economy, and when parts of the world far from the epicenter of financial turbulence felt its full fury. This book is extremely timely and full of critical insights into the role of trade finance and the potential damaging impact from the unintended consequences of regulatory changes.' --Peter Sands, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank


The Great Trade Collapse

The Great Trade Collapse

Author: Rudolfs Bems

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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We survey recent literature on the causes of the collapse in international trade during the 2008-2009 global recession. We argue that the evidence points to the collapse in aggregate expenditure, concentrated on trade-intensive durable goods, as the main driver of the trade collapse. Inventory adjustment likely amplified the impact of these expenditure changes on trade. In addition, shocks to credit supply constrained export supply further exacerbating the decline in trade. Most evidence suggests that changes in trade policy did not play a large role. We conclude that one benefit of the trade collapse is that it has stimulated research in neglected areas at the intersection of trade and macroeconomics -- National Bureau of Economic Research web site.


The Collapse of Global Trade, Murky Protectionism, and the Crisis

The Collapse of Global Trade, Murky Protectionism, and the Crisis

Author: Richard E. Baldwin

Publisher:

Published: 2011-03

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9781907142239

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The global financial crisis of 2008/9 is the Great Depression of the 21st century. For many though, the similarities stop at the Wall Street Crash as the current generation of policymakers have acted quickly to avoid the mistakes of the past. Yet the global crisis has made room for mistakes all of its own. While governments have apparently kept to their word on refraining from protectionist measures in the style of 1930s tariffs, there has been a disturbing rise in "murky protectionism." Seemingly benign, these crisis-linked policies are twisted to favour domestic firms, workers and investors. This book, first published as an eBook on VoxEU.org in March 2009, brings together leading trade policy practitioners and experts - including Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. Initially its aim was to advise policymakers heading in to the G20 meeting in London, but since the threat of murky protectionism persists, so too do their warnings.


The Global Trade Slowdown

The Global Trade Slowdown

Author: Cristina Constantinescu

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2015-01-21

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 1498399134

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This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. The analysis uses an empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and income in the past four decades reveals that the long-term trade elasticity rose sharply in the 1990s, but declined significantly in the 2000s even before the global financial crisis. These results suggest that trade is growing slowly not only because of slow growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also because of a structural change in the trade-GDP relationship in recent years. The available evidence suggests that the explanation may lie in the slowing pace of international vertical specialization rather than increasing protection or the changing composition of trade and GDP.


Understanding the Great Trade Collapse of 2008-09 and the Subsequent Trade Recovery

Understanding the Great Trade Collapse of 2008-09 and the Subsequent Trade Recovery

Author: Meredith Crowley

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13:

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In April 2009, the world economy appeared to be in a free fall. Global trade in goods and services had fallen 15.8 percent over the final two quarters of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.1 This world trade collapse had been the largest three-quarter decline of the past 40 years. Five months earlier, in November 2008, leaders of the Group of Twenty (G-20) - 20 large economies that make up roughly 85 percent of the world's economic activity2 - had met in Washington, DC, and pledged to stabilize the world financial system and improve coordination of macroeconomic responses to the global financial crisis."--Introduction.


Estimating Trade Elasticities

Estimating Trade Elasticities

Author: Jaime Marquez

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1475735367

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One cannot exaggerate the importance of estimating how international trade responds to changes in income and prices. But there is a tension between whether one should use models that fit the data but that contradict certain aspects of the underlying theory or models that fit the theory but contradict certain aspects of the data. The essays in Estimating Trade Elasticities book offer one practical approach to deal with this tension. The analysis starts with the practical implications of optimising behaviour for estimation and it follows with a re-examination of the puzzling income elasticity for US imports that three decades of studies have not resolved. The analysis then turns to the study of the role of income and prices in determining the expansion in Asian trade, a study largely neglected in fifty years of research. With the new estimates of trade elasticities, the book examines how they assist in restoring the consistency between elasticity estimates and the world trade identity.