The Effect of Economic Crises on Japan’s Bilateral Trade Distribution: Examination of the Tohoku Earthquake Impact on African Markets

This paper examines the Japanese International Bilateral Trade Flow (JIBTF) in relation to economic crises, such as the Tohoku earthquake, and focuses on changes in the Distribution Networks of JIBTF (DNoJ) concerning African countries and Japanese Major Trade Partners (JMTP). The Harmonized System 6-digit level (“total” and product level) panel data from 2001 to 2019 are analyzed by employing the (structural) gravity method. First, the results of the study find that the Tohoku earthquake, compared to the 2008 crisis, has a stronger negative impact on the JIBTF and affects the DNoJ among Japanese trade partners. Second, the results prove that Japanese trade intention with African markets decreases relatively. In other words, exporting to African countries has a negative interaction effect after 2015. On the contrary, this interaction effect on JMTP comparatively increases; thus, Japan relocates its export to other markets such as JMTP. The Tohoku earthquake shaped the JIBTF to be more integrated with the Asia-Pacific and the EU regions, instead of African markets.JEL Classification Codes: F10, F14, C23, C24

Assessing the Effect of Bilateral Trade on Health in the Asian Region: Does Digitization Matter?

A recurrent theme of the literature and wider public discourse is that trade and digitization are good for health as it promotes economic prosperity. The present study investigates the impact of trade and digitization on health in 12 selected Asian economies for the period 1991–2019. The study applied FMOLS and DOLS approaches for confirming the panel and economy-wise findings. The core findings of the panel FMOLS confirm the significant negative impact of trade and digitization on mortality rate, and trade and digitization have significantly positively contributed to life expectancy in selected Asian countries in the long run. The study deduces some imperative policy implications related to trade, digitization, and health, specifically for Asian economies.

The Effect of Economic Crises on Japan’s Bilateral Trade Distribution: Examination of the Tohoku Earthquake Impact on African Markets

This paper examines the Japanese International Bilateral Trade Flow (JIBTF) in relation to economic crises, such as the Tohoku earthquake, and focuses on changes in the Distribution Networks of JIBTF (DNoJ) concerning African countries and Japanese Major Trade Partners (JMTP). The Harmonized System 6-digit level (“total” and product level) panel data from 2001 to 2019 are analyzed by employing the (structural) gravity method. First, the results of the study find that the Tohoku earthquake, compared to the 2008 crisis, has a stronger negative impact on the JIBTF and affects the DNoJ among Japanese trade partners. Second, the results prove that Japanese trade intention with African markets decreases relatively. In other words, exporting to African countries has a negative interaction effect after 2015. On the contrary, this interaction effect on JMTP comparatively increases; thus, Japan relocates its export to other markets such as JMTP. The Tohoku earthquake shaped the JIBTF to be more integrated with the Asia-Pacific and the EU regions, instead of African markets.JEL Classification Codes: F10, F14, C23, C24

The Trade Effect of Trust: Evidence from Agricultural Trade between China and Its Partners

High trust is a booster of trade development, while low trust is a stumbling block. The trust between two countries (regions) will be beneficial to sustainable development for bilateral trade. To investigate the impact of trade partners’ trust on the scale of China’s agricultural export trade, we put trust into the analytical models of international trade, propose a research hypothesis based on the transaction cost economics theory, and construct an extended gravity model for empirical tests. The results show that the level of trust affects the scale of export trade by affecting the size of transaction costs. Higher trust produces trade creation effect, while lower trust produces trade barrier effect. The trade partner’s trust significantly affects the scale of China’s agricultural export trade, and the effect is heterogeneous at different percent quartiles. Even after controlling the endogeneity, the conclusion still holds. We suggest that, in the international trade of agricultural products, the government should constantly improve the quality of formal institution, attach importance to constructing of the informal institution of trust and enhance the social trust to facilitate the development of agricultural trade.

The Impact of Trade Agreement and War on Specific Indonesia-China Bilateral Trade

This research aims to evaluate the impact of trade agreements and trade war on specific Indonesia-China bilateral trade on four export-import commodities during 2014 - 2019. The methodology used are both descriptive analysis and RCA and EPD analysis. The entire analysis section tries to focus on important periods of economic relations between Indonesia and China, namely the implementation of the 2015 ACFTA and trade war. The results of the study indicate that Indonesia's selected export commodities have huge potential to be developed in bilateral trade with China, especially to maximize the benefits of ACFTA. The implementation of ACFTA 2015 has a positive impact on the growth of the four selected commodities as well as on its competitive analysis. The results of RCA analysis show the four commodities remain including highly competitive, even for palm oil tends to be specialized for Indonesia, however there are differences from EPD analysis results where the two Indonesian export commodities (Animal or Vegetable Fats/ HS15 and Mineral Fuels/ HS27) before the trade war was in the rising star position, it became a lost opportunity, but for the two imported Indonesian commodities, there was no change in staying in the rising star position.

Sustainability Analysis of Sino-Brazilian Bilateral Trade

The large-scale health crisis caused by COVID-19 that appeared in late 2019 has undoubtedly had a huge influence on the global economy. This chapter takes the interruption of international trade in the context of epidemics as the main research subject, using the change in Sino-Brazilian trade as a case study. From the international management perspective, this chapter will investigate how this epidemic affects Sino-Brazilian cross-border trade and business practices. The interlinked relationship between both countries' cross-border trade will be examined. Recommendations will be provided for further enhancing both countries' economic growth and trade practices.

Cross-Border Cooperation for Bilateral Trade, Travel, and Tourism

Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) is described as collaboration with neighbouring countries sharing land or sea borders to cooperate to reduce poverty and inequality among people, and improve living standards for sustainable development of the regions. European Union key objective has been CBC model where bordering countries in balanced partnership, have equal say in program decision-making process for sustainable development to meet common goals. The three factors essential for CBC clearly defined goals, promotion of political transparency, and promotion of connectivity and communication are correlated with the four levels of CBC implementation and public-private-partnerships. This chapter examines the challenge and significance of cross border cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan to disarm and have peace, for achieving 17 sustainable development goals in bordering conflict regions between the two countries for socio-economic progress and prosperity of the millions of people living in South Asia.