比较优势：理论、实证分析及案例分析【外文翻译】.doc

外文翻译原文Comparative Advantage: Theory, Empirical Measures And Case StudiesMaterial Source: Review of Economic and Business StudiesAuthor: Tri WIDODOAbstract: This paper consists of three main parts i.e. theory, analytical tool and case studies of comparative advantage. Firstly, we review the theory and various empirical measures of comparative advantage. We would argue that for the catching-up economies, like ASEAN countries, the meaning of "leading exported products59 could be examined from the two points of view i.e. international competitiveness and country' trade balance・ Secondly, we combine two indexes of comparative advantage, i.e. Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) index by Dalum et al. (1998) and Laursen(1998), and Trade Balance Index (TBI) by Lafay (1992), which represent well the two points of view, to propose an analytical tool, namely "products mapping”. Thirdly, this analytical tool is applied to analyze exported products (defined as 3-digit SITC Revision 2) of the ASEAN countries. This paper concludes that in the cases of ASEAN countries, the higher the comparative advantage for a specific product, the higher the possibility of the country as a net-exporter becomes- This finding strongly supports the theory of comparative advantage.1. INTRODUCTIONIn the theories of international trade, comparative advantage is an important concept for explaining pattern of trade. David Ricardo (1817) firstly introduces the concept of comparative advantage with very strict assumptions. It is then well recognized as the Ricardian model. In the modern theories of international trade, such strict assumptions are replaced with the more realistic ones- Heckscher (1919) and Ohlin (1933) examine the effect of different factor endowments on international trade. Their model, which is well known as the Heckscher-Ohlin (HO) model, concludes that a country will export commodity uses the abundant factor of production, while it will import commodity uses the scarce factor of production.Some other new models also relaxing the several assumptions have emerged such as the imitation lag hypothesis (Posner, 1961), the Linder model (Lindei; 1961), the flying geese model (Akamatsu, 1961, 1962), the gravity model (Tinbergen, 1962), the product cycle theory (Vernon, 1966), the Krugman model (Krugman, 1979), and the reciprocal dumping model (Brander, 1981; Brander and Krugman, 1983).The appearances of such new models have not reduced the popularity of comparative advantage concept, which recently becomes dynamic one. Some economists argue that a country，s comparative advantage is dynamic, instead of static. So far, the dynamic theory of comparative advantage has put greater attention on the changes in supply (production) side. This is related to how specific determinants affect the output (economic) growth and, in turn, comparative advantage. Redding (2004) finds that comparative advantage is endogenously determined by the past technological changes and innovation. The dynamics of comparative advantage might be also caused by the role of input trade (Jones, 2000), the friction in international trade and investment flows due to geography, institutions, transport, and information cost (Venables, 2001), the transmission of knowledge across borders (Grossman and Helpman, 1991), the technological differences across border (Trefler, 1995), and the monopolistic competition in differentiated products with increasing return to scale (Krugman, 1979). Indeed, many applied economists, e.g. Liesner (1958), Kanamori (1964), Balassa (1965),Donges and Riedel (1977), Bowen (1983), Vollrath (1991), Dalum et al. (1998) and Laursen (1998), among others, have tried to make various empirical measures to “reveal^ countries5 comparative advantage.This paper aims to review the concept and empirical measures of comparative advantage and to derive an analytical tool, namely "products mapping： which is suitable for analyzing comparative advantage of the catching-up economies, like the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. The remainder of this paper consists of five parts. Part 2 describes briefly literature review on the theory of comparative advantage, starting from the Ricardian model to the dynamic comparative advantage. Part 3 presents various empirical measures of comparative advantage .In Part 4, we propose an analytical tool, namely "products mapping： We would argue that, for the catching-up economies, the meaning of "leading exported products99 could be examined from two points of view i.e. international competitiveness and country's trade balance. We combine two indexes, i.e. Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) by Dalum et al. (1998) and Laursen (1998); and Trade Balance Index (TBI) by Lafay (1992), which represent well the two points of view, to create an analytical tool, namely "products mapping”. The analytical tool is then applied to analyze exports of the (ASEAN) countries, as the c。