Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade

This paper studies the growth of Chinese imports into the United States from autarky during 1950–1970 to about 15 percent of overall imports in 2008, taking advantage of the rich heterogeneity in trade policy and trade growth across products during...

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Main Authors: Alessandria, George, Khan, Shafaat Yar, Khederlarian, Armen, Ruhl, KimJ., Steinberg, Joseph B.
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/421231627562264647/Trade-Policy-Dynamics-Evidence-from-60-Years-of-U-S-China-Trade
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36052
id okr-10986-36052
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-360522021-08-06T05:10:27Z Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade Alessandria, George Khan, Shafaat Yar Khederlarian, Armen Ruhl, KimJ. Steinberg, Joseph B. TRADE POLICY TRADE ELASTICITY TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE POLICY UNCERTAINTY TRADE DYNAMICS PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS WTO ACCESSION This paper studies the growth of Chinese imports into the United States from autarky during 1950–1970 to about 15 percent of overall imports in 2008, taking advantage of the rich heterogeneity in trade policy and trade growth across products during this period. Central to the analysis is an accounting for the dynamics of trade, trade policy, and trade-policy expectations. The analysis isolates the lagged effects of past reforms and the current effects of uncertainty about future reforms. It builds a multi-industry, heterogeneous-firm model with a dynamic export participation decision to estimate a path of trade-policy expectations. The findings show that being granted Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status in 1980 was largely a surprise and that, in the early stages, this reform had a high probability of being reversed. The likelihood of reversal dropped considerably during the mid-1980s, and, despite China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, changed little throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thus, although uncertainty depressed trade substantially following the 1980 liberalization, much of the trade growth that followed China’s WTO accession was a delayed response to previous reforms rather than a response to declining uncertainty. 2021-08-05T12:33:53Z 2021-08-05T12:33:53Z 2021-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/421231627562264647/Trade-Policy-Dynamics-Evidence-from-60-Years-of-U-S-China-Trade http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36052 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9741 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper East Asia and Pacific China United States
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TRADE POLICY
TRADE ELASTICITY
TRADE LIBERALIZATION
TRADE POLICY UNCERTAINTY
TRADE DYNAMICS
PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
WTO ACCESSION
spellingShingle TRADE POLICY
TRADE ELASTICITY
TRADE LIBERALIZATION
TRADE POLICY UNCERTAINTY
TRADE DYNAMICS
PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
WTO ACCESSION
Alessandria, George
Khan, Shafaat Yar
Khederlarian, Armen
Ruhl, KimJ.
Steinberg, Joseph B.
Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
China
United States
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9741
description This paper studies the growth of Chinese imports into the United States from autarky during 1950–1970 to about 15 percent of overall imports in 2008, taking advantage of the rich heterogeneity in trade policy and trade growth across products during this period. Central to the analysis is an accounting for the dynamics of trade, trade policy, and trade-policy expectations. The analysis isolates the lagged effects of past reforms and the current effects of uncertainty about future reforms. It builds a multi-industry, heterogeneous-firm model with a dynamic export participation decision to estimate a path of trade-policy expectations. The findings show that being granted Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status in 1980 was largely a surprise and that, in the early stages, this reform had a high probability of being reversed. The likelihood of reversal dropped considerably during the mid-1980s, and, despite China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, changed little throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thus, although uncertainty depressed trade substantially following the 1980 liberalization, much of the trade growth that followed China’s WTO accession was a delayed response to previous reforms rather than a response to declining uncertainty.
format Working Paper
author Alessandria, George
Khan, Shafaat Yar
Khederlarian, Armen
Ruhl, KimJ.
Steinberg, Joseph B.
author_facet Alessandria, George
Khan, Shafaat Yar
Khederlarian, Armen
Ruhl, KimJ.
Steinberg, Joseph B.
author_sort Alessandria, George
title Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
title_short Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
title_full Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
title_fullStr Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
title_full_unstemmed Trade-Policy Dynamics : Evidence from 60 Years of U.S.-China Trade
title_sort trade-policy dynamics : evidence from 60 years of u.s.-china trade
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/421231627562264647/Trade-Policy-Dynamics-Evidence-from-60-Years-of-U-S-China-Trade
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36052
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