International trade distributions and their relation with random fragmentation processes

A study of the distribution of the value of traded goods under the Harmonized System is presented. The ramifications of this classification system are found to exhibit an approximate power law decay, indicating complexity and self-organization in the nomenclature of traded merchandises. For almost all countries with available data, log-values of annually imported and exported goods are well described by three-parameter Weibull distributions. This distribution commonly appears in particles size distributions, suggesting a connection between random fragmentation processes and the mechanisms behind the international trade of merchandises. Analysis of the resulting values for the fitting parameters from 1995 to 2018 shows a nearly constant linear relationship between the parameters of the Weibull distributions, so that, for each country, the distribution of log-values can be approximately characterized by a single shape parameter [Formula: see text]. The empirical findings of this paper suggest that specialization on trading a constant set of goods prevents the values of all traded merchandises from growing/decreasing simultaneously.

Implementation of Murabahah Contracts in Buying and Selling Housing

Indonesia's economic development related to the demand for housing is increasing. Many indicators can be seen in the community, such as the number of community housing developments. These developments create property business opportunities such as buying and selling housing, especially those that avoid the element of usury so that they look for a sharia buying and selling process, one of which is a murabahah contract. This study aims to determine the implementation of the murabahah contract in buying and selling housing. This research is a descriptive research research based on literature study. Data collection is done by taking from literature sources that are relevant to the research problem. Based on the analysis of various literatures, this study concludes that in the implementation of buying and selling murabahah contracts, it is required that both parties must know the benefits that have been agreed upon and the element of usury is prohibited. In its implementation, it must meet the pillars and conditions according to sharia principles. Traded goods are not included in the categories prohibited by Islamic law. But there are some in the implementation of the murabahah contract, there are some that have been modified related to the murabahah contract.

Developmental Historiography of the Ancient Silk Road

This study seeks to explain the history of the ancient Silk Road and also explain its strategic importance as a network of trade routes connecting China and the Far East with the Middle East and Europe. Using the library's documented instrument and historical descriptive methodology, findings show that the Silk Road is historically connected with the Eastern and Western civilizations and culture. Merchants on the Silk Road transported goods and traded at bazaars along the way. They traded goods such as silk, spices, tea, ivory, cotton, wool, precious metals, and ideas. The Silk Road also enabled cultural transfers, for instance when Genghis Khan and the Mongols invaded China, they came along with their own culture, e.g., buttons on clothes were introduced in China as a cultural import from Central Asia especially under the rule of Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty. The paper concludes that the Silk Road rose to prominence during the Han and Tang dynasties. The long-distance trade at this time did not just transport goods and luxuries, it was also a lifeline of ideas and innovations from Persia, India and countries of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Managing the Dollar Over Its Cycles

The United States has ceded to the rest of the world managing the dollar’s value. For a generation, the U.S. authorities have all but withdrawn from the foreign exchange market. Yet the dollar does not float freely as a result of this hands-off U.S. policy. Instead, other authorities manage the dollar exchange rates, albeit separately. These authorities make heavier purchases of dollars in its downswings than in the upswings, damping its decline. Thus, the Fed finds that accommodative monetary policy transmits less to U.S. manufacturing and traded services, and relies on still lower rates to stimulate interest-sensitive housing and auto demand. The current U.S. dollar policy of naming and shaming surplus-running countries accumulating foreign exchange reserves does not seem to work. Three alternatives warrant consideration. First, the U.S. could reinstate its withholding tax on interest income received by non-residents and even add policy criteria to bilateral tax treaties. Second, the U.S. authorities could retaliate by selling dollars against the currencies of dollar-buying jurisdictions running chronic surpluses. However, either the withholding tax or such retaliatory foreign exchange intervention pose huge practical challenges. Third, the U.S. authorities could re-enter the foreign exchange market, making large-scale asset purchases in foreign currency when the dollar rises sharply against its average value. Such a policy would encourage private investment in U.S. traded goods and service production. The challenge is to set ex ante foreign exchange intervention rules to guide market participants’ expectations, even positioning them to do the authorities’ work.

Not for Sale, but for Own Need”: Trade of the Volhynian Gentry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Second Half of the 16th — First Half of the 17th Century

The article analyzes socioeconomic processes in the early modern Europe, in particular trade in its separate regions. It considers the classical economic model focused on the industry and agriculture, which Eastern and Western Europe followed in their multifaceted development. It studies legislation, namely the Second Lithuanian Statute and the Sejm Constitutions for assessing the involvement of gentry representatives in commerce. It indicates that the activity of the Volhynian gentry in the internal trade of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was due to both external changes in the market, primarily the demand for products from Eastern Europe, and the tendency observed on the continent when running a household became a business that made incomes grow. It analyzes general criticism in the intellectual circles of the trade activity of the gentry as such, which could lead to a certain deterioration of traditions. Man-knight and man-merchant intersections in the society of that time were acceptable if a nobleman traded goods from his own estates and could prove it with an oath.The article also investigates key areas of trade of the Volhynian gentry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the basis of documentary material of court books of the 16th–17th-century Volhynia and previously published sources of economic nature. It studies main range of goods sold and bought by the representatives of the elite, observes the participation of the Volhynian gentry in trade operations with the core centers of the Polish-Lithuanian economy, and their involvement in local fairs and tradings. It shows the role of intermediaries, first of all representatives of the Jewish community and peasants from the gentry fоlwarks, in the trade enterprise of the gentry.

Trade, growth, and convergence in a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model

In models in which convergence in income levels across closed countries is driven by faster accumulation of a productive factor in the poorer countries, opening these countries to trade can stop convergence and even cause divergence. We make this point using a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model — a combination of a static two-good, two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin trade model and a two-sector growth model — with infinitely lived consumers where international borrowing and lending are not permitted. We obtain two main results: First, countries that differ only in their initial endowments of capital per worker may converge or diverge in income levels over time, depending on the elasticity of substitution between traded goods. Divergence can occur for parameter values that would imply convergence in a world of closed economies and vice versa. Second, factor price equalization in a given period does not imply factor price equalization in future periods.

Trade, growth, and convergence in a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model

In models in which convergence in income levels across closed countries is driven by faster accumulation of a productive factor in the poorer countries, opening these countries to trade can stop convergence and even cause divergence. We make this point using a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model — a combination of a static two-good, two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin trade model and a two-sector growth model — with infinitely lived consumers where international borrowing and lending are not permitted. We obtain two main results: First, countries that differ only in their initial endowments of capital per worker may converge or diverge in income levels over time, depending on the elasticity of substitution between traded goods. Divergence can occur for parameter values that would imply convergence in a world of closed economies and vice versa. Second, factor price equalization in a given period does not imply factor price equalization in future periods.

CO2 embodied in trade: trends and fossil fuel drivers

The amount of CO2 embodied in trade has substantially increased over the last decades. We contribute to understanding the reasons for this evolution by studying the trends and some drivers of the carbon intensity of trade over the period 1995–2009 in 41 countries and 35 sectors. Our empirical analysis relies on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) to compute embodied carbon emissions. Our main findings are the following. First, average emission intensity of traded goods is higher than average emission intensity of final demand. Second, relatively “dirty” countries tend to specialize in emission-intensive sectors. Third, the share of goods produced in emission-intensive countries is rising. Finally, we find that coal abundance (measured as fuel rent and controlling for reverse causality) leads both to a specialization in “dirty” sectors and to an increase in emissions per output when controlling for sector structure, which amounts to a fossil fuel endowment effect. These findings suggest trade liberalization may increase global emissions and therefore highlight the importance of considering trade when designing CO2 reduction strategies.

Trade in Ancient Nubia

While traded goods are routinely identified in Nubian archaeology, there have been no comprehensive discussions of economic exchange (“trade”) in ancient and medieval Nubian societies. This chapter introduces some broader perspectives on ancient economies, including Polanyi’s modes of distribution (reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange), to highlight research questions that Nubian archaeology might begin to ask. The chapter summarizes evidence for routes and modes of transportation, makes some preliminary observations on the history of economic structures in Nubia, and presents more detailed evidence for trade between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea in the Meroitic Period