International Trade and Growth

AbstractThe empirical evidence on the causal relationship between international trade and economic growth is inconclusive. While some studies show that trade leads to growth, others have pointed to a reverse causation. In this paper, we develop a model of international trade and productivity growth in the presence of a misallocation of resources. Misallocation in a country arises as a result of lobbying by firms to establish barriers to the competitive allocation of labor. Misallocation prevents the country from exploiting its technological comparative advantage and leads to a reduction in the volume of trade in the absence of any explicit trade barriers. In the model, whether barriers diminish or worsen with productivity growth depends on the extent of the initial resource misallocation. If the initial resource misallocation is not severe, then productivity growth leads to diminishing barriers and vice versa. In either case, productivity growth strengthens the comparative advantage over time and therefore increases the volume of trade.

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Capital Ownership And Its Impact On International Trade And Economic Growth: The Tunisian Experience

Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER) ◽

10.19030/jber.v4i9.2695 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (9) ◽

Author(s):

Khalifa H. Ghali ◽

Hedi Trabelsi

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

International Trade ◽

Public Capital ◽

Private Capital ◽

Real Output ◽

Aggregate Production ◽

Widespread Belief ◽

Capital Ownership ◽

Trade And Growth ◽

Better Than

Despite the widespread belief that a privatized economy performs better than a centrally planned one, there is no empirical evidence on whether changing the structure of capital ownership affects trade and growth in developing countries. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing and comparing the distinctive effects of privately and publicly owned capital on international trade and economic growth. Based on a modified version of the neo-classical one-sector aggregate production technology, we investigate the intertemporal interactions among the growth rate of real output, private capital, public capital, international trade and labor. The results of applying our methodology to data from Tunisia suggest that private capital performs better than public capital in promoting economic growth and international trade. Despite the widespread belief that a privatized economy performs better than a centrally planned one, there is no empirical evidence on whether changing the structure of capital ownership affects trade and growth in developing countries. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing and comparing the distinctive effects of privately and publicly owned capital on international trade and economic growth. Based on a modified version of the neo-classical one-sector aggregate production technology, we investigate the intertemporal interactions among the growth rate of real output, private capital, public capital, international trade and labor. The results of applying our methodology to data from Tunisia suggest that private capital performs better than public capital in promoting economic growth and international trade.

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