Query: International trade and Standard of living

title: Accounting for Unobserved Heterogeneity in The Relationship between External Trade Benefits and Standard of Living in Eswacs; 1980 2013
abstract: Cross boundary trade activities are characterized with feedback effect which is referred to as common factors in terms of global shocks, International spill over effects, dynamic feedback effects, recession, business cycle shocks, global financial crisis and imported inflation. These effects are often transmitted from one country to another within a particular trade region, and are most time unobserved hence unaccounted for. It is in the light of this worrythat this research is aimed at accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship between external trade benefits and standard of living in the five English Speaking West African Countries (ESWACs) from 1980 to 2013. These countries include The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) The study expressed external trade benefits as increase in export earnings (EXE) trade openness (TOP) total government expenditure (TGE) and reduction in foreign exchange rate (FER) and standard of living (SLR) Theoretically, the study relied on two trade theories, in practice the study constructs a balanced panel data structure (BPDS) and methodologically, it adopted 2nd generation panel data econometric methods in its analyses. The results of the study reveal that external trade benefits have not been able to improve the status of standard of livingand the unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship between external trade benefits and standard of living in ESWACs is accounted for about 0.8746 (approximately 87% with the period of study, indicating high level of unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship between external trade benefits and standard of living. Based on this result, the study therefore concluded that the inherent unobserved heterogeneity in the relationship between external trade benefits and standard of living has made the impact of external trade benefits on thestandard of living to be a trivial matter. Based on the findings and conclusion, the study recommended, among others, that the governments of ESWACs should encourage and support the real sector through subsidies and investment in social and physical infrastructure and agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and pay attention to investment in human capital as this will help to improve the standard of education and health status.

title: International trade and the improvement of the standard of living in the West

title: How Canada's International Trade is Changing with the Times
abstract: My theme today is international trade, which is the lifeblood of the Canadian economy. Throughout our history, we have successfully relied on our exports and imports, particularly during the vast expansion of global trade in the decades following the Second World War, to support our rising standard of living. Today, exports and imports represent about 65 per cent of our output, one of the highest ratios among the G7 countries.

title: International Trade and Income Differences
abstract: develop a novel view of the trade frictions between rich and poor countries by arguing that to reconcile bilateral trade volumes and price data within a standard gravity model, the trade frictions between rich and poor countries must be systematically asymmetric, with poor countries facing higher costs to export relative to rich countries, iprovide a method to model these asymmetries and demonstrate the merits of my approach relative to alternatives in the trade literature. I then argue that these trade frictions are quantitatively important to understanding the large differences in standards of living and total factor productivity across countries.  A large literature has evolved that attempts to explain this fact within the context of a standard (closed economy) neoclassical growth model. The consensus is that physical and human capital accounts for only 50 percent of the variation in income per worker; the rest is productivity differences. Given this finding, a growing literature has attempted to understand how various frictions result in large differences in measured productivity across countries. In this paper, I develop a novel view of the frictions to trade between rich and poor countries by arguing that to reconcile bilateral trade volumes and price data within a standard gravity model, the trade frictions between rich and poor countries must be systematically asymmetric, with poor countries facing higher costs to export relative to rich countries. I then argue that these frictions to trade are quantitatively important to understanding why standards of living and measured total factor productivity between the richest and poorest countries differ by so much. The starting point of my analysis is a multicountry model of trade combining a standard gravity model with elements from a neoclassical growth model. Each country has two sectors: a tradable goods sector and a final goods sector, both with constant returns technologies. Labor, capital, and tradable goods are used as factors of production. In the tradable goods sector there is a continuum of goods. As in Rudiger Dornbusch, Stanley Fischer, and Paul A. Samuelson (1977) production technologies differ across goods on the continuum only in their productivity levels. As in Jonathan Eaton and Samuel Kortum (2002) productivity levels are treated as random variables drawn from a parameterized distribution. Each country's distribution differs in its average productivity level. Trades occur only within intermediate goods, which are purchased from the country with the lowest price that includes "iceberg" costs to trade. The final goods sector produces a nontraded consumption good with a technology common to all countries. Within this framework, I first ask: What trade costs between rich and poor countries are necessary to reconcile bilateral trade volumes and aggregate price data? The building block to

title: Cultural and Genetic Influences on the "Biological Standard of Living"
abstract: This study suggests an improvement of a popular measure of living standards, namely the biological standard of living. One influence on it is a population's consumption pattern. Since there are different dietary patterns all over the world, researchers estimate the influences of national diets on final average male height. These habits are predominantly related to income, but also to genetics, cultural history, and decisions regarding whether to trade or consume high quality foodstuffs. Systematic differences are found when analyzing protein consumption habits among 51 countries between the 1960s and the 1980s. The author calculates metric correction values which can facilitate international comparisons of male average height. While the proposed correction values make a little difference on average, they can be valuable in a comparison of countries with markedly different dietary patterns.

title: The Biological Standard of Living in Early Nineteenth Century West Africa: New Anthropometric Evidence for Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso
abstract: West Africans are on average shorter than Europeans today. Whether this was already the case at the end of the Atlantic slave trade is an important question for the history of nutrition and physical welfare. We present the first study of changing heights for people born mostly in what are now northern Ghana and Burkina Faso during the early nineteenth century. The dataset, not used before for anthropometry, documents men born between 1800 and 1849. Mostly purchased from slave owners, they were recruited into the Dutch army to serve in the Dutch East Indies. We find that height development was stagnant between 1800 and 1830 and deteriorated strongly during the 1840s. In international comparison and after taking selectivity issues into account, these Ghanaian and Burkinabe recruits were notably shorter than north western Europeans but not shorter than southern Europeans during this period.

title: The Biological Standard of Living in Early 19 th Century West Africa New Anthropometric Evidence
abstract: Was the height difference between West Africans and Europeans that exists today already visible at the end of the Atlantic slave trade? We present the first study of changing heights for people born in West Africa during the early 19 th century. The data set, not used before for anthropometry, documents men, born between 1800 and 1849 in what are now Ghana and Burkina Faso. Mostly purchased from slave owners, they were recruited into the Dutch army to serve in the Netherlands Indies. We find that height development was stagnant between 1800 and 1830 and deteriorated strongly during the 1840s. In international comparison and after taking selectivity issues into account, these West Africans were notably shorter than northwestern Europeans but not much shorter than Southern Europeans during this period. Acknowledgements We thank Alexander Moradi and members of the Tuebingen and Utrecht economic history research groups for important comments. Toufika Darrazi helped to collect the data set on Dutch colonial troops in the National Archive in The Hague, and David Eltis was so nice as to provide his slave height data set and offer further important hints. Of course, all errors are ours. Excellent research assistance was also provided by Annika Kasparek and others. Deborah Rice improved the English style. We thank the ESF GlobalEuroNet program for financial support, which increased our mobility.

title: The Generalized Trend of Cost and the "Full Cost" View of International Trade
abstract: Cost is the price or sacrificed value of using or consuming all sorts of resource factors.The resource factors which form the cost have the characteristics of the usefulness in essence,the scarcity in quantity,the property of ownership and the value of measurement.The economic resources leading to cost occurrence not only include the traditional factors such as labor,capital,land,and management,but also include the new factors such as institution,ecological environment and "sustainability".The bearer of the cost can be enterprise,government,society and even future generations,which will be paid by monetary or non monetary mode,direct or indirect mode,self pay or others pay mode,etc.International trade is essentially the trans national or trans regional transfer of property rights,and it can influence each country's production,consumption,economic and social institution,the flow of resource factors,ecological environment and the living standard of present and future generations through various pathways and mechanisms.The cost here is "full cost" which includes production cost,transaction cost,environmental cost and inter generational cost.Comparative advantage is the basic motivation for the international division of labor and international trade,and its essence is the relative comparison of commodity costs.So "full cost" is the foundation of comparative advantages of a country which participates in the international division of labor and international trade.

title: A Research of the Green Barrier in Traditional Chinese Medicine International Trade
abstract: In post WTO era,many countries take less advantages of customs and non customs restrict the medical import.With the development of world economy and enhance of people's living standard,people's concern of health and live qualities,and the resistance of harmful products,the green barrier emerges as the times require.This article elaborates the basic concepts,classifications,form of expressions and its positive and negative influences of traditional Chinese medicine international trade,and makes an analysis of the coping strategies.

title: Currency wars international trade
abstract: This paper examines the contemporary international trade and currency system to determine whether the system is appropriate for the level of knowledge, development and maturity of countries today. International trade and currencies are a key mechanism by which governments manage the livelihoods, standard of living and well being of national economies including the relationship between countries and their peoples. Therefore, understanding how the international trade and currency system works and not just taking it at face value is important in determining whether a fair trade and currency system can be established between nations. The paper goes on to discuss what changes or reforms can be made which will enhance how countries perceive trade and one another in the currency process, currencies being the mechanism by which countries measure the value and accessibility of goods and services they exchange. It consequently, introduces the role of an Electronic Clearing House (ECH) in the international trade and currency system through which central banks would be able to enhance the trade and currency relationships between governments in order to make them more equal, more effective and relevant to the level of knowledge and development countries have attained.