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Manufacturing and the Trade Balance
Author(s) -
Batra Ravi,
Beladi Hamid
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
pacific economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1468-0106
pISSN - 1361-374X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0106.00046
Subject(s) - economics , liberian dollar , balance of trade , productivity , international economics , exchange rate , balance (ability) , us dollar , monetary economics , international trade , current account , macroeconomics , finance , medicine , physical medicine and rehabilitation
When the world shifted to the regime of flexible exchange rates after 1970, economists expected that large trade imbalances would soon disappear. Instead, such imbalances not only persisted but soared in the 1980s and 1990s, in spite of significant changes in important currencies such as the yen, the mark and the dollar. This paper reports that manufacturing importers tend to suffer trade deficits whereas exporters of manufacturing products tend to enjoy trade surpluses. The reason lies in the higher rates of productivity growth experienced by exporters of manufactures.