Don P. Clark

Country and industry-level determinants of vertical specialization-based trade

Abstract This paper investigates country and industry-level determinants of vertical specialization-based trade. Industries that engage in this pattern of trade are identified through their use of offshore assembly provisions in the US tariff code. Findings explain why industries engage in vertical specialization-based trade and shed light on factors that enter production location decisions. Identifying factors that encourage vertical specialization-based production and trade will enhance our understanding of industry strategy and how trade patterns will evolve as the process of globalization continues. Results suggest vertical specialization-based trade will continue to grow relative to total trade.

FDI, Technology Spillovers, Growth, and Income Inequality: A Selective Survey

The present paper, restricting its attention to the empirical economics literature, attempts to gauge current thinking on the question of whether FDI causes economic growth. Since technological spillovers are a key determinant of long run economic growth, the survey begins with the firm level evidence on technological spillovers of FDI on domestic firms. The macro FDI and growth literature is covered next. Finally, we examine the effect of FDI on income inequality and/or employment, skills, or jobs. In many contexts policies that exacerbate income inequality come under special scrutiny even if they are welfare enhancing. Our major finding is that FDI is generally associated with positive technological spillovers, economic growth, and increasing income inequality. For all three of these results, however, there are significant counter examples in the literature which must be respected.

Corporate tax rates and foreign direct investment in the United States

A significant research effort has been directed at establishing the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI), with taxation policy identified as an important factor. However, the empirical literature has been limited in several respects, with most work focused exclusively on host country tax regimes. This paper seeks to extend the boundaries of FDI empirical inquiry by using a panel of nine investing tax exemption and tax credit countries over the period 1982–2000, constituting more than 85% of total US FDI inflows, and incorporating home country tax rates to analyse two as yet unanswered questions. First, are corporate income tax rates an important determinant of FDI in the US? Secondly, do investors from tax credit countries differ significantly in their tax response relative to those from tax exemption countries?

Barriers to Trade and the Import Vulnerability of U.S. Manufacturing Industries

While it is widely recognized that imports can discipline markets, the strength of that disciplinary power surely varies across industries. The determinants and extent of this interindustry variation in the disciplinary force for foreign trade flows is, however, relatively unexplored. This article investigates the microeconomic determinants of changing import shares at the industry level for U.S. manufacturing industries. Based upon this investigation, the authors are able to create an index that measures the relative vulnerability of the various manufacturing industries to foreign competition and test a number of hypotheses concerning the underlying causes of observed variations in import vulnerability. Copyright 1990 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DETERMINANTS OF INTRAINDUSTRY TRADE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND INDUSTRIAL NATIONS

This paper investigates determinants of intraindustry trade between the United States and twenty-two industrial nations. Included here are country-level characteristics suggested by modern models of monopolistic competition and trade and industry-level variables relating to imperfect competition, scale economies, and product differentiation. Country-level determinants of intraindustry trade include relative factor endowment differences, relative country size differences, distance, trade orientation, and the trade balance. Measures of factor intensity, scale economies, market structure, and product differentiation are included as country-level variables. Findings generally support predictions of modern trade theories. [F1]

Distance, production, and trade

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between geographical distance and both the extent of trade and foreign production. Industries engaged in exporting and co-production activities across national boundaries are identified through their use of the Offshore Assembly Provisions in the US tariff code. Findings counter conventional wisdom. Trade and foreign production activities are found to drop off rapidly over the first third of the distance scale, rise over the middle portion, reach a peak in the final third, and decline thereafter. This pattern suggests frictions associated with distance can be offset by government policies and other country attributes. Management control, information and communications costs, and the ability to implement just-in-time delivery strategies may not be as distance sensitive as previously thought. Theorists should re-evaluate the role of distance in trade models and refrain from using distance as a proxy for transport costs.

INTRA-INDUSTRY SPECIALIZATION AND THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

This article provides a detailed examination of changes in indicators of intra-industry specialization in manufactured goods in trade between the United States and Mexico over the first five years of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The analysis is conducted at the three-digit SITC level of industry aggregation. Many industries experienced large increases in intraindustry trade (IIT). Only nine industries experience declines in IIT. Changes in various indicators of intra-industry specialization suggest few U.S. industries are candidates for significant adjustment problems. Industries facing potential adjustment pressures account for less than one-fourth of total U.S. imports from Mexico. These findings should lessen opposition to greater regional economic integration in the Western Hemisphere by easing fears that entire industries and jobs will disappear.

A diffusion model of industrial sector growth in developing countries

Abstract Logistic growth functions of the share of manufacturing value added in Gross Domestic Product over time are used to provide estimates of the rate at which the industrial sector diffuses into a developing economy. Key factors responsible for determining intercountry differences in the rate of industrial diffusion include export performance, expenditures for human capital development, the cost of external borrowing, and the rate of population growth. Results emphasize the importance of government policies in support of both human capital development and export promotion. Considerable support is provided for application of the Otani-Villanueva growth model to issues closely related to long-run growth of per capita real output, such as the diffusion of industrial activity.

Do Dirty Industries Conduct Offshore Assembly In Developing Countries

This paper investigates whether the cost of environmental regulation influences the international location of polluting industries. Industries that operate production facilities in developing countries are identified through their use of the offshore assembly provisions in the U.S. tariff Code. Pollutions Intensity of industry output is found to significantly reduce the probability of conducting offshore assembly in developing countries. This finding contradicts the arguments that developing countries are becoming pollution havens as a result of offshore assembly independent of their general disregard for the environment. Integrating production across national boundaries might actually enhance worldwide environmental quality. Relatively clean stages of the production process are being transferred to developing countries with lax environmental regulations, while polluting segments remain in the U.S. where strict environmental controls are enforced. [F1, Q2]

Separability of capital and labor in US manufacturing

Abstract This paper investigates the separability of capital and six labor skill groups in U.S. manufacturing. It is found that no pair of inputs is even weakly separable. This result suggests that ‘blackboard’ production functions with two inputs should be used primarily for exposition.