Internationalization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In economics, internationalization or internationalisation is the process of increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, although there is no agreed definition of internationalization. Internationalization is a crucial strategy not only for companies that seek horizontal integration globally but also for countries that addresses the sustainability of its development in different manufacturing as well as service sectors especially in higher education which is a very important context that needs internationalization to bridge the gap between different cultures and countries. There are several internationalization theories which try to explain why there are international activities.

Entrepreneurs and enterprises

Those entrepreneurs who are interested in the field of internationalization of business need to possess the ability to think globally and have an understanding of international cultures. By appreciating and understanding different beliefs, values, behaviors and business strategies of a variety of companies within other countries, entrepreneurs will be able to internationalize successfully. Entrepreneurs must also have an ongoing concern for innovation, maintaining a high level of quality, be committed to corporate social responsibility, and continue to strive to provide the best business strategies and either goods or services possible while adapting to different countries and cultures.

Trade theories

Absolute cost advantage (Adam Smith, 1776)

Adam Smith claimed that a country should specialise in, and export, commodities in which it had an absolute advantage. An absolute advantage existed when the country could produce a commodity with less costs per unit produced than could its trading partner. By the same reasoning, it should import commodities in which it had an absolute disadvantage.

While there are possible gains from trade with absolute advantage, comparative advantage extends the range of possible mutually beneficial exchanges. In other words, it is not necessary to have an absolute advantage to gain from trade, only a comparative advantage.

Comparative cost advantage (David Ricardo, 1817)

David Ricardo argued that a country does not need to have an absolute advantage in the production of any commodity for international trade between it and another country to be mutually beneficial. Absolute advantage meant greater efficiency in production, or the use of less labor factor in production. Two countries could both benefit from trade if each had a relative advantage in production. Relative advantage simply meant that the ratio of the labor embodied in the two commodities differed between two countries, such that each country would have at least one commoditiy where the relative amount of labor embodied would be less than that of the other country.

Gravity model of trade (Walter Isard, 1954)

The gravity model of trade in international economics, similar to other gravity models in social science, predicts bilateral trade flows based on the economic sizes of (often using GDP measurements) and distance between two units. The basic theoretical model for trade between two countries takes the form of:

${\displaystyle F_{ij}=G{\frac {M_{i}M_{j}}{D_{ij}}}}$

with:

${\displaystyle F\,}$: Trade flow

${\displaystyle i,j\,}$: Country i and j

${\displaystyle M\,}$: Economic mass, for example GDP

${\displaystyle D\,}$: Distance

${\displaystyle G\,}$: Constant

The model has also been used in international relations to evaluate the impact of treaties and alliances on trade, and it has been used to test the effectiveness of trade agreements and organizations such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Heckscher-Ohlin model (Eli Heckscher, 1966 & Bertil Ohlin, 1952)

The Heckscher-Ohlin model (H-O model), also known as the factors proportions development, is a general equilibrium mathematical model of international trade, developed by Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin at the Stockholm School of Economics. It builds on David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage by predicting patterns of commerce and production based on the factor endowments of a trading region. The model essentially says that countries will export products that utilize their abundant and cheap factor(s) of production and import products that utilize the countries' scarce factor(s).

The results of this work has been the formulation of certain named conclusions arising from the assumptions inherent in the model. These are known as:

• Heckscher-Ohlin theorem
• Rybczynski theorem
• Stolper-Samuelson theorem
• Factor-Price Equalization theorem

Leontief paradox (Wassily Leontief, 1954)

Leontief's paradox in economics is that the country with the world's highest capital-per worker has a lower capital:labour ratio in exports than in imports. 

This econometric find was the result of Professor Wassily W. Leontief's attempt to test the Heckscher-Ohlin theory empirically. In 1954, Leontief found that the U.S. (the most capital-abundant country in the world by any criteria) exported labor-intensive commodities and imported capital-intensive commodities, in contradiction with Heckscher-Ohlin theory.

Linder hypothesis (Staffan Burenstam Linder, 1961)

The Linder hypothesis (demand-structure hypothesis) is a conjecture in economics about international trade patterns. The hypothesis is that the more similar are the demand structures of countries the more they will trade with one another. Further, international trade will still occur between two countries having identical preferences and factor endowments (relying on specialization to create a comparative advantage in the production of differentiated goods between the two nations).

Location theory

Location theory is concerned with the geographic location of economic activity; it has become an integral part of economic geography, regional science, and spatial economics. Location theory addresses the questions of what economic activities are located where and why. Location theory rests — like microeconomic theory generally — on the assumption that agents act in their own self-interest. Thus firms choose locations that maximize their profits and individuals choose locations, that maximize their utility.

Market imperfection theory (Stephen Hymer, 1976 & Charles P. Kindleberger, 1969 & Richard E. Caves, 1971)

In economics, a market failure is a situation wherein the allocation of production or use of goods and services by the free market is not efficient. Market failures can be viewed as scenarios where individuals' pursuit of pure self-interest leads to results that can be improved upon from the societal point of view. The first known use of the term by economists was in 1958, but the concept has been traced back to the Victorian philosopher Henry Sidgwick.

Market imperfection can be defined as anything that interferes with trade. This includes two dimensions of imperfections. First, imperfections cause a rational market participant to deviate from holding the market portfolio. Second, imperfections cause a rational market participant to deviate from his preferred risk level. Market imperfections generate costs which interfere with trades that rational individuals make (or would make in the absence of the imperfection).

The idea that multinational corporations (MNEs) owe their existence to market imperfections was first put forward by Stephen Hymer, Charles P. Kindleberger and Caves. The market imperfections they had in mind were, however, structural imperfections in markets for final products.

According to Hymer, market imperfections are structural, arising from structural deviations from perfect competition in the final product market due to exclusive and permanent control of proprietary technology, privileged access to inputs, scale economies, control of distribution systems, and product differentiation, but in their absence markets are perfectly efficient.

By contrast, the insight of transaction costs theories of the MNEs, simultaneously and independently developed in the 1970s by McManus (1972), Buckley and Casson (1976), Brown (1976) and Hennart (1977, 1982), is that market imperfections are inherent attributes of markets, and MNEs are institutions to bypass these imperfections. Markets experience natural imperfections, i.e. imperfections that are because the implicit neoclassical assumptions of perfect knowledge and perfect enforcement are not realized.

New Trade Theory

New Trade Theory (NTT) is the economic critique of international free trade from the perspective of increasing returns to scale and the network effect. Some economists have asked whether it might be effective for a nation to shelter infant industries until they had grown to a sufficient size large enough to compete internationally.

New Trade theorists challenge the assumption of diminishing returns to scale, and some argue that using protectionist measures to build up a huge industrial base in certain industries will then allow those sectors to dominate the world market (via a network effect).

Specific factors model

In this model, labour mobility between industries is possible while capital is immobile between industries in the short-run. Thus, this model can be interpreted as a 'short run' version of the Heckscher-Ohlin model.

Traditional approaches

The Porter diamond

Diamond model

The diamond model is an economical model developed by Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, where he published his theory of why particular industries become competitive in particular locations.

The diamond model consists of six factors:

• Factor conditions
• Demand conditions
• Related and supporting industries
• Firm strategy, structure and rivalry
• Government
• Chance

The Porter thesis is that these factors interact with each other to create conditions where innovation and improved competitiveness occurs.

Diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1962)

Diffusion of innovation is a theory of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers introduced it in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations, writing that "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system."

Eclectic paradigm (John H. Dunning)

The eclectic paradigm is a theory in economics and is also known as the OLI-Model. It is a further development of the theory of internalization and published by John H. Dunning in 1993. The theory of internalization itself is based on the transaction cost theory. This theory says that transactions are made within an institution if the transaction costs on the free market are higher than the internal costs. This process is called internalization.

For Dunning, not only the structure of organization is important. He added three additional factors to the theory:

• Ownership advantages (trademark, production technique, entrepreneurial skills, returns to scale)
• Locational advantages (existence of raw materials, low wages, special taxes or tariffs)
• Internalisation advantages (advantages by producing through a partnership arrangement such as licensing or a joint venture).

Foreign direct investment theory

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in its classic form is defined as a company from one country making a physical investment into building a factory in another country. It is the establishment of an enterprise by a foreigner. Its definition can be extended to include investments made to acquire lasting interest in enterprises operating outside of the economy of the investor. The FDI relationship consists of a parent enterprise and a foreign affiliate which together form a multinational corporation (MNC). In order to qualify as FDI the investment must afford the parent enterprise control over its foreign affiliate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines control in this case as owning 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power of an incorporated firm or its equivalent for an unincorporated firm; lower ownership shares are known as portfolio investment.

Monopolistic advantage theory

The monopolistic advantage theory is an approach in international business which explains why firms can compete in foreign settings against indigenous competitors and is frequently associated with the seminal contribution of Stephen Hymer.

Prior to Stephen Hymer’s doctoral thesis, The International Operations of National Firms: A Study of foreign direct Investment, theories did not adequately explain why firms engaged in foreign operations. Hymer started his research by analyzing the motivations behind foreign investment of US corporations in other countries. Neoclassical theories, dominant at the time, explained foreign direct investments as capital movements across borders based on perceived benefits from interest rates in other markets, there was no need to separate them from any other kind of investment (Ietto-Guilles, 2012).

He effectively differentiated Foreign Direct Investment and portfolio investments by including the notion of control of foreign firms to FDI Theory, which implies control of the operation; whilst portfolio foreign investment confers a share of ownership but not control. Stephen Hymer focused on and considered FDI and MNE as part of the theory of the firm. (Hymer, 1976: 21) 

He also dismissed the assumption that FDIs are motivated by the search of low costs in foreign countries, by emphasizing the fact that local firms are not able to compete effectively against foreign firms, even though they have to face foreign barriers (cultural, political, lingual etc.) to market entry. He suggested that firms invest in foreign countries in order to maximize their specific firm advantages in imperfect markets, that is, markets where the flow of information is uneven and allows companies to benefit from a competitive advantage over the local competition.

Stephen Hymer also suggested a second determinant for firms engaging in foreign operations, removal of conflicts. When a rival company is operating in a foreign market or is willing to enter one, a conflict situation arises. Through FDI, a multinational can share or take complete control of foreign production, effectively removing conflict. This will lead to the increase of market power for the specific firm, increasing imperfections in the market as a whole (Ietto-Guilles, 2012)

A final determinant for multinationals making direct investments is the distribution of risk through diversification. By choosing different markets and production locations, the risk inherent to foreign operations are spread and reduced.

All of these motivations for FDI are built on market imperfections and conflict. A firm engaging in direct investment could then reduce competition, eliminate the conflicts and exploit the firm specific advantages making them capable of succeeding in a foreign market.

Stephen Hymer can be considered the father of international business because he effectively studied multinationals from a different perspective than the existing literature, by approaching multinationals as national companies with international operations, regarded as expansions from home operations. He analyzed the activities of the MNEs and their impact on the economy, gave an explanation for the large flow of foreign investments by US corporations at a time where they were incomplete, and envisioned the ethical conflicts that could arise from the increase in power of MNEs.

Non-availability approach

The non-availability explains international trade by the fact that each country imports the goods that are not available at home. This unavailability may be due to lack of natural resources (oil, gold, etc.: this is absolute unavailability) or to the fact that the goods cannot be produced domestically, or could only be produced at prohibitive costs (for technological or other reasons): this is relative unavailability. On the other hand, each country exports the goods that are available at home.

Technology gap theory of trade 

The technology gap theory describes an advantage enjoyed by the country that introduces new goods in a market. As a consequence of research activity and entrepreneurship, new goods are produced and the innovating country enjoys a monopoly until the other countries learn to produce these goods: in the meantime they have to import them. Thus, international trade is created for the time necessary to imitate the new goods (imitation lag).

Uppsala model

The Uppsala model is a theory that explains how firms gradually intensify their activities in foreign markets. It is similar to the POM model. The key features of both models are the following: firms first gain experience from the domestic market before they move to foreign markets; firms start their foreign operations from culturally and/or geographically close countries and move gradually to culturally and geographically more distant countries; firms start their foreign operations by using traditional exports and gradually move to using more intensive and demanding operation modes (sales subsidiaries etc.) both at the company and target country level.

Further theories

Contingency theory

Contingency theory refers to any of a number of management theories. Several contingency approaches were developed concurrently in the late 1960s. They suggested that previous theories such as Weber's bureaucracy and Frederick Winslow Taylor's scientific management had failed because they neglected that management style and organizational structure were influenced by various aspects of the environment: the contingency factors. There could not be "one best way" for leadership or organization.

Contract theory

In economics, contract theory studies how economic actors can and do construct contractual arrangements, generally in the presence of asymmetric information. Contract theory is closely connected to the field of law and economics. One prominent field of application is managerial compensation.

Economy of scale

Economies of scale, in microeconomics, are the cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion. They are factors that cause a producer’s average cost per unit to fall as output rises. Diseconomies of scale are the opposite. Economies of scale may be utilized by any size firm expanding its scale of operation.

Internalisation theory (Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 1976; Rugman, 1981)

Product life-cycle theory

As first articulated by Raymond Vernon in 1966, a product goes through a life cycle consisting of four stages: "new product", "growth product", "maturity product" and "obsolescence product". The conditions in which a product is sold change over time and must be managed as it moves through this succession of stages. This is called product life cycle management. 

Transaction cost theory

The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories which describe the nature of the firm, company, or corporation, including its existence, its behaviour, and its relationship with the market.

Ronald Coase set out his transaction cost theory of the firm in 1937, making it one of the first (neo-classical) attempts to define the firm theoretically in relation to the market. Coase sets out to define a firm in a manner which is both realistic and compatible with the idea of substitution at the margin, so instruments of conventional economic analysis apply. He notes that a firm’s interactions with the market may not be under its control (for instance because of sales taxes), but its internal allocation of resources are: “Within a firm, ... market transactions are eliminated and in place of the complicated market structure with exchange transactions is substituted the entrepreneur ... who directs production.” He asks why alternative methods of production (such as the price mechanism and economic planning), could not either achieve all production, so that either firms use internal prices for all their production, or one big firm runs the entire economy.

Theory of the growth of the firm

While at Johns Hopkins, Penrose participated in a research project on the growth of firms. She came to the conclusion that the existing theory of the firm was inadequate to explain how firms grow. Her insight was to realise that the 'Firm' in theory is not the same thing as 'flesh and blood' organizations that businessmen call firms. This insight eventually led to the publication of her second book, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm in 1959.

Gravity model of trade

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_model_of_trade 

 

The gravity model of international trade in international economics is a model that, in its traditional form, predicts bilateral trade flows based on the economic sizes and distance between two units. Research shows that there is "overwhelming evidence that trade tends to fall with distance."
The model was first introduced in economics world by Walter Isard in 1954. The basic model for trade between two countries (i and j) takes the form of

${\displaystyle F_{ij}=G*{\frac {M_{i}*M_{j}}{D_{ij}}}}$

In this formula G is a constant, F stands for trade flow, D stands for the distance and M stands for the economic dimensions of the countries that are being measured. The equation can be changed into a linear form for the purpose of econometric analyses by employing logarithms. The model has been used by economists to analyse the determinants of bilateral trade flows such as common borders, common languages, common legal systems, common currencies, common colonial legacies, and it has been used to test the effectiveness of trade agreements and organizations such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Head and Mayer 2014). The model has also been used in international relations to evaluate the impact of treaties and alliances on trade (Head and Mayer).

The model has also been applied to other bilateral flow data (also 'dyadic' data) such as migration, traffic, remittances and foreign direct investment.

Theoretical justifications and research

The model has been an empirical success in that it accurately predicts trade flows between countries for many goods and services, but for a long time some scholars believed that there was no theoretical justification for the gravity equation. However, a gravity relationship can arise in almost any trade model that includes trade costs that increase with distance.

The gravity model estimates the pattern of international trade. While the model’s basic form consists of factors that have more to do with geography and spatiality, the gravity model has been used to test hypotheses rooted in purer economic theories of trade as well. One such theory predicts that trade will be based on relative factor abundances. One of the common relative factor abundance models is the Heckscher–Ohlin model. Those countries with a relative abundance of one factor would be expected to produce goods that require a relatively large amount of that factor in their production. While a generally accepted theory of trade, many economists in the Chicago School believed that the Heckscher–Ohlin model alone was sufficient to describe all trade, while Bertil Ohlin himself argued that in fact the world is more complicated. Investigations into real-world trading patterns have produced a number of results that do not match the expectations of comparative advantage theories. Notably, a study by Wassily Leontief found that the United States, the most capital-endowed country in the world, actually exports more in labor-intensive industries. Comparative advantage in factor endowments would suggest the opposite would occur. Other theories of trade and explanations for this relationship were proposed in order to explain the discrepancy between Leontief’s empirical findings and economic theory. The problem has become known as the Leontief paradox.

An alternative theory, first proposed by Staffan Linder, predicts that patterns of trade will be determined by the aggregated preferences for goods within countries. Those countries with similar preferences would be expected to develop similar industries. With continued similar demand, these countries would continue to trade back and forth in differentiated but similar goods since both demand and produce similar products. For instance, both Germany and the United States are industrialized countries with a high preference for automobiles. Both countries have automobile industries, and both trade cars. The empirical validity of the Linder hypothesis is somewhat unclear. Several studies have found a significant impact of the Linder effect, but others have had weaker results. Studies that do not support Linder have only counted countries that actually trade; they do not input zero values for the dyads where trade could happen but does not. This has been cited as a possible explanation for their findings. Also, Linder never presented a formal model for his theory, so different studies have tested his hypothesis in different ways.

Elhanan Helpman and Paul Krugman asserted that the theory behind comparative advantage does not predict the relationships in the gravity model. Using the gravity model, countries with similar levels of income have been shown to trade more. Helpman and Krugman see this as evidence that these countries are trading in differentiated goods because of their similarities. This casts some doubt about the impact Heckscher–Ohlin has on the real world. Jeffrey Frankel sees the Helpman–Krugman setup here as distinct from Linder’s proposal. However, he does say Helpman–Krugman is different from the usual interpretation of Linder, but, since Linder made no clear model, the association between the two should not be completely discounted. Alan Deardorff adds the possibility, that, while not immediately apparent, the basic gravity model can be derived from Heckscher–Ohlin as well as the Linder and Helpman–Krugman hypotheses. Deardorff concludes that, considering how many models can be tied to the gravity model equation, it is not useful for evaluating the empirical validity of theories.

Bridging economic theory with empirical tests, James Anderson and Jeffrey Bergstrand develop econometric models, grounded in the theories of differentiated goods, which measure the gains from trade liberalizations and the magnitude of the border barriers on trade (see Home bias in trade puzzle). A recent synthesis of empirical research using the gravity equations, however, shows that the effect of border barriers on trade is relatively modest.

Adding to the problem of bridging economic theory with empirical results, some economists have pointed to the possibility of intra-industry trade not as the result of differentiated goods, but because of “reciprocal dumping.” In these models, the countries involved are said to have imperfect competition and segmented markets in homogeneous goods, which leads to intra-industry trade as firms in imperfect competition seek to expand their markets to other countries and trade goods that are not differentiated yet for which they do not have a comparative advantage, since there is no specialization. This model of trade is consistent with the gravity model as it would predict that trade depends on country size.

The reciprocal dumping model has held up to some empirical testing, suggesting that the specialization and differentiated goods models for the gravity equation might not fully explain the gravity equation. Feenstra, Markusen, and Rose (2001) provided evidence for reciprocal dumping by assessing the home market effect in separate gravity equations for differentiated and homogeneous goods. The home market effect showed a relationship in the gravity estimation for differentiated goods, but showed the inverse relationship for homogeneous goods. The authors show that this result matches the theoretical predictions of reciprocal dumping playing a role in homogeneous markets.

Past research using the gravity model has also sought to evaluate the impact of various variables in addition to the basic gravity equation. Among these, price level and exchange rate variables have been shown to have a relationship in the gravity model that accounts for a significant amount of the variance not explained by the basic gravity equation. According to empirical results on price level, the effect of price level varies according to the relationship being examined. For instance, if exports are being examined, a relatively high price level on the part of the importer would be expected to increase trade with that country. A non-linear system of equations are used by Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) to account for the endogenous change in these price terms from trade liberalization. A more simple method is to use a first order log-linearization of this system of equations (Baier and Bergstrand (2009)), or exporter-country-year and importer-country-year dummy variables. For counterfactual analysis, however, one would still need to account for the change in world prices.

Econometric estimation of gravity equations

Since the gravity model for trade does not hold exactly, in econometric applications it is customary to specify

${\displaystyle F_{ij}=G{\frac {M_{i}^{\beta _{1}}M_{j}^{\beta _{2}}}{D_{ij}^{\beta _{3}}}}\eta _{ij}}$

where ${\displaystyle F_{ij}}$ represents volume of trade from country ${\displaystyle i}$ to country ${\displaystyle j}$, ${\displaystyle M_{i}}$ and ${\displaystyle M_{j}}$ typically represent the GDPs for countries ${\displaystyle i}$ and ${\displaystyle j}$, ${\displaystyle D_{ij}}$ denotes the distance between the two countries, and ${\displaystyle \eta }$ represents an error term with expectation equal to 1.

The traditional approach to estimating this equation consists in taking logs of both sides, leading to a log-log model of the form (note: constant G becomes part of ${\displaystyle \beta _{0}}$):

${\displaystyle \ln(F_{ij})=\beta _{0}+\beta _{1}\ln(M_{i})+\beta _{2}\ln(M_{j})-\beta _{3}\ln(D_{ij})+\varepsilon _{ij}.}$

However, this approach has two major problems. First, it obviously cannot be used when there are observations for which ${\displaystyle F_{ij}}$ is equal to zero. Second, Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006) argued that estimating the log-linearized equation by least squares (OLS) can lead to significant biases. As an alternative, these authors have suggested that the model should be estimated in its multiplicative form, i.e.,

${\displaystyle F_{ij}=\exp[\beta _{0}+\beta _{1}\ln(M_{i})+\beta _{2}\ln(M_{j})-\beta _{3}\ln(D_{ij})]\eta _{ij},}$

using a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimator usually used for count data. This is despite the fact that simpler methods, such as taking simple averages of trade shares of countries with and without former colonial ties suggest that countries with former colonial ties continue to trade more. Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006) did not explain where their result came from and even failed to realize their results were highly anomalous. Martin and Pham (2008) argued that using PPML on gravity severely biases estimates when zero trade flows are frequent. However, their results were challenged by Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2011), who argued that the simulation results of Martin and Pham (2008) are based on misspecified models and showed that the PPML estimator performs well even when the proportions of zeros is very large.

In applied work, the model is often extended by including variables to account for language relationships, tariffs, contiguity, access to sea, colonial history, and exchange rate regimes. Yet the estimation of structural gravity, based on Anderson and van Wincoop (2003), requires the inclusion of importer and exporter fixed effects, thus limiting the gravity analysis to bilateral trade costs (Baldwin and Taglioni 2007).

International trade

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services.

In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product (GDP). While international trade has existed throughout history (for example Uttarapatha, Silk Road, Amber Road, scramble for Africa, Atlantic slave trade, salt roads), its economic, social, and political importance has been on the rise in recent centuries.

Carrying out trade at an international level is a complex process when compared to domestic trade. When trade takes place between two or more nations factors like currency, government policies, economy, judicial system, laws, and markets influence trade.

To smoothen and justify the process of trade between countries of different economic standing, some international economic organisations were formed, such as the World Trade Organization. These organisations work towards the facilitation and growth of international trade. Statistical services of intergovernmental and supranational organisations and national statistical agencies publish official statistics on international trade.

Characteristics of global trade

A product that is transferred or sold from a party in one country to a party in another country is an export from the originating country, and an import to the country receiving that product. Imports and exports are accounted for in a country's current account in the balance of payments.

Trading globally may give consumers and countries the opportunity to be exposed to new markets and products. Almost every kind of product can be found in the international market, for example: food, clothes, spare parts, oil, jewellery, wine, stocks, currencies, and water. Services are also traded, such as in tourism, banking, consulting, and transportation.

Ancient Silk Road trade routes across Eurasia

Advanced technology (including transportation), globalisation, industrialisation, outsourcing and multinational corporations have major impacts on the international trade system.

Increasing international trade is crucial to the continuance of globalisation. Countries would be limited to the goods and services produced within their own borders without international trade. International trade benefits many countries in various aspects. In the case of Vizio’s flat-panel TVs, the manufacturing leadership has been shifting from one country to another due to global economic growth. At first, Japan could assemble the components of this TV and sell it out to the other countries such as US. However, recession affected Japan and South Korea took the lead in assembling the parts of this TV. Samsung played a critical role in the selling and manufacturing of the flat TV. Taiwan also took advantage of the recession that affected South Korea and the investors assembled electronic components of Vizio’s flat-panel TVs. At first the US suffered from this cycle because despite inventing this business idea, other countries implemented it in the international market. Chinese eventually started manufacturing flat TVs at a lower cost compared to the previous investors. It is important to note that US benefited from the cycle because many investors could manufacture the TV at lower cost (Kandel, Kosenko, Morck & Yafeh, 2013). China is also another country that benefited from this business because it started manufacturing the product late at a lower price. South Korea and Japan suffered from the global recession because it was expensive to manufacture Vizio’s flat-panel TVs at the beginning.

Despite the benefits that many countries enjoyed from selling Vizio’s flat-panel TVs, many nations suffered due to changes in international economy. Some countries experienced recessions that could not favor the manufacture of this product. For example, Japan became the first country to sell the flat-panel screens in 1990s but decade-long recession affected the business operations and surrendered to South Korea. It is also important to note that South Korea suffered the same fate from the Asian crisis in 1997 (Lazarev, 2007). Mexico is one lucky country that never suffered the consequences of crisis. The country could assemble flat-panel TVs after sourcing the electronic parts from other countries (Hill & Hult, 2019). In this regard, it is clear that countries that took part in the manufacture of these TVs were affected in different ways.

The US played a critical role in the invention and manufacture of the flat-panel TVs. In this regard, the decision made by the US may affect the entrepreneurs at the local and international level. If the US government demands that flat-panel displays be sold in the country only, the investors will have to sell the products at lower prices. It is clear that the prices of these flat-panel displays are cheap in the US compared to the countries. In addition, the local investors will not have the opportunity to compete at international level (Kandel, Kosenko, Morck & Yafeh, 2013). The quality of the screens can be compromised because the local manufacturers do not encounter foreign competitors.

The future production of these TVs will change. Technology is changing the mode of production from one year to another. For instance, the manufacture of these TVs began from assembling electronic parts from different countries. However, things have changed and currently, every country is aiming at using the local resources to manufacture the screens.

Differences from domestic trade

Ports play an important role in facilitating international trade. The Port of New York and New Jersey grew from the original harbor at the convergence of the Hudson River and the East River at the Upper New York Bay.

International trade is, in principle, not different from domestic trade as the motivation and the behavior of parties involved in a trade do not change fundamentally regardless of whether trade is across a border or not.

However, in practical terms, carrying out trade at an international level is typically a more complex process than domestic trade. The main difference is that international trade is typically more costly than domestic trade. This is due to the fact that a border typically imposes additional costs such as tariffs, time costs due to border delays, and costs associated with country differences such as language, the legal system, or culture (non-tariff barriers).

Another difference between domestic and international trade is that factors of production such as capital and labor are often more mobile within a country than across countries. Thus, international trade is mostly restricted to trade in goods and services, and only to a lesser extent to trade in capital, labour, or other factors of production. Trade in goods and services can serve as a substitute for trade in factors of production. Instead of importing a factor of production, a country can import goods that make intensive use of that factor of production and thus embody it. An example of this is the import of labor-intensive goods by the United States from China. Instead of importing Chinese labor, the United States imports goods that were produced with Chinese labor. One report in 2010 suggested that international trade was increased when a country hosted a network of immigrants, but the trade effect was weakened when the immigrants became assimilated into their new country.

History

The history of international trade chronicles notable events that have affected trading among various economies.

Theories and models

There are several models which seek to explain the factors behind international trade, the welfare consequences of trade and the pattern of trade.

Most traded export products

Largest countries by total international trade

Volume of world merchandise exports

 

The following table is a list of the 21 largest trading nations according to the World Trade Organization.

Rank	Country	International trade of goods (billions of USD)	International trade of services (billions of USD)	Total international trade of goods and services (billions of USD)
–	World	32,430	9,635	42,065
–	European Union	3,821	1,604	5,425
1	United States	3,706	1,215	4,921
2	China	3,686	656	4,342
3	Germany	2,626	740	3,366
4	United Kingdom	1,066	571	1,637
5	Japan	1,250	350	1,600
6	France	1,074	470	1,544
7	Netherlands	1,073	339	1,412
8	Hong Kong	1,064	172	1,236
9	South Korea	902	201	1,103
10	Italy	866	200	1,066
11	Canada	807	177	984
12	Belgium	763	212	975
13	India	623	294	917
13	Singapore	613	304	917
15	Mexico	771	53	824
16	Spain	596	198	794
17	Switzerland	572	207	779
18	Taiwan	511	93	604
19	Russia	473	122	595
20	Ireland	248	338	586
21	United Arab Emirates	491	92	583

Top traded commodities by value (exports)

Rank	Commodity	Value in US$('000)	Date of information
1	Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, etc.	$2,183,079,941	2015
2	Electrical, electronic equipment	$1,833,534,414	2015
3	Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, etc.	$1,763,371,813	2015
4	Vehicles other than railway	$1,076,830,856	2015
5	Plastics and articles thereof	$470,226,676	2015
6	Optical, photo, technical, medical, etc. apparatus	$465,101,524	2015
7	Pharmaceutical products	$443,596,577	2015
8	Iron and steel	$379,113,147	2015
9	Organic chemicals	$377,462,088	2015
10	Pearls, precious stones, metals, coins, etc.	$348,155,369	2015

Source: International Trade Centre

Observances

President George W. Bush observed World Trade Week on May 18, 2001, and May 17, 2002. On May 13, 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed May 15 through May 21, 2016, World Trade Week, 2016. On May 19, 2017, President Donald Trump proclaimed May 21 through May 27, 2017, World Trade Week, 2017. World Trade Week is the third week of May. Every year the President declares that week to be World Trade Week.