IMF Working Papers

China's Foreign Trade Behavior in the 1980's: An Empirical Analysis

By Adi Brender

January 1, 1992

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Format: Chicago

Adi Brender. China's Foreign Trade Behavior in the 1980's: An Empirical Analysis, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 1992) accessed November 23, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper studies the behavior of China’s foreign trade in the 1980s. Chinese customs data are used to construct, for the first time, quarterly unit value and volume series that are then used to estimate foreign trade income and price elasticities. The estimated export supply price elasticities are negative and became even more negative after the reforms in 1985. The import price elasticity is very close to minus one. These results suggest that administrative controls still have a dominant effect on China’s trade and may also suggest that reforms in the management system of Chinese enterprises were not sufficient to create profit maximizing behavior by managers.

Subject: Commodities, Export prices, Exports, Imports, International trade, Price elasticity, Prices

Keywords: Demand price, Exchange rate, Export prices, Exports, Import data, Import elasticity, Import price elasticity, Imports, Price elasticity, Price variable, Supply price, Terms of trade, Unit value, Value indices, Value target, Volume indices, World imports, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    64

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 1992/005

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA0051992

  • ISBN:

    9781451842098

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941