1、中文 4980 字，3000英文单词，16500英文字符 本科毕业论文外文 外文题目： Weathering the Storm Investing in Port Infrastructure to Lower Trade Costs in East Asia 出 &
2、nbsp; 处： Policy ReseaRch WoRking PaPeR 4911 作 者： Kazutomo Abe and John S. Wilson
3、;原 文： Weathering the Storm: Investing in Port Infrastructure to Lower Trade Costs in East Asia Kazutomo Abe John S. Wilson Abstract The world economic crisis of 2008 presents clear challenges to prospects for economic growth in developing countries. This is particularly tru
4、e for emerging economies in East Asia that have relied to a great extent over the past decade on export-led growth.What steps to facilitate trade promise a relatively strong return on investment for East Asia to help sustain trade and growth? The authors examine how port infrastructure affects trade
5、 and the role of transport costs in driving exports and imports for the region. They find that port congestion has significantly increased the transport costs to East Asia from both of the United States and Japan. The analysis suggests that cutting port congestion by 10 percent could cut transport c
6、osts in East Asia by up to 3 percent. This translates into a 0.3 to 0.5 percent across-the-board tariff cut. In addition,the estimates suggest that the trade cost reduction of investment in port infrastructure in East Asia that translates into higher consumer welfare would far outweigh the cost for
7、physical expansion of the ports in the region. 1.Introduction This paper examines how investment in port facilities affects trade costs and facilitation. We focus on developing countries in East Asia where international trade has played a major role over the past several decades in economic d
8、evelopment. Port infrastructure has played a key role in facilitating trade in the region. However,serious congestion in seaports is evident from data on maritime shipping and trade. The scope of the study includes the costs, as well as benefits, of the construction of port infrastructure to address
9、 traffic congestion in East Asia. The paper also discusses the important role of port investment to stimulate demand and productivity, especially in a time of economic crisis. International Trade in East Asia International trade in East Asia has grown more rapidly than other regions in the world ove
10、r the past two decades. At the same time, rapid economic growth fostered development in the region (Table 1). In particular, ASEAN countries in the early 1990s and China after the late 1990s recorded remarkable growth in trade even as the Asian economic crisis had a negative effect on the economic g
11、rowth and trade in the region for the late 1990s. A number of studies have attributed various factors to the growth in trade； including rapid industrialization of developing countries in the region and an active trade liberalization and facilitation agenda tied to development plans. In turn, many st
12、udies have pointed out that expansion in international trade stimulated the economic growth. This mechanism also functioned in the early 2000s when most of the ASEAN member economies took the path of recovery from the crisis, and China emerged as a dominant exporter in the region. Chinas accession t
13、o the World Trade Organization in 2001 contributed to extremely high rates of growth in trade and direct investment. The regional trade liberalization in ASEAN, such as a free trade agreement, is also suggested to have expanded intra-regional trade, contributing to economic recovery. While the trade
14、 and investment liberalization stimulated trade in the region, various bottlenecks to the movement of goods hindered trade expansion. In particular, in East Asia, port infrastructure has an important role in supporting increases in trade by removing such bottlenecks. Table 1: Growth of GDP and Trade
15、 in East Asia (Source) World Bank, World Development Indicators. (Note) Unit: percent. Nominal GDP is in the current $US. Trade means the sum of imports and exports. Regional Trade in East Asia Intra-regional trade has increased as a proportion of the total exports in East Asia over the past decade. Table 2 below illustrates the shares of exports in selected sub-regions and countries in East Asia. Table 2: Shares of Exports of the Selected Region and Countries in East Asia (Source) International Monetary fund, Direction of Trade Statistics. (Note) Unit: percent.
