One of the goals of chemical ecology is to assess costs of plant defenses. Intraspecific trade-offs between growth and defense are traditionally viewed in the context of the carbon-nutrient balance hypothesis (CNBH) and the growth-differentiation balance hypothesis (GDBH). Broadly, these hypotheses suggest that growth is limited by deficiencies in carbon or nitrogen while rates of photosynthesi...

Using fixed effects panel data approach, this paper empirically examines the effects of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth in 13 transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe, and the Baltic region (CEEB). Our analysis suggests that significant positive effect of trade on growth is a robust result for transition economies of this region. In addition, domestic investment ap...

Trade is the lifeblood of all commerce. The exchange of goods and services has played a defi ning role in human history, creating vast empires, encouraging mass migration, and sometimes tipping the balance between peace and confl ict. It is thus unsurprising that protecting and encouraging international trade has remained a top priority for governments, businesses and international organisation...

The paper reviews the evidence of the impact of trade liberalisation on the economic performance of poor developing countries with respect to trade and the balance of payments, economic growth, poverty reduction, the distribution of income within countries, and the distribution of income between countries, and finds that trade liberalisation has not delivered the benefits expected. Economic the...

This paper investigates the effects of fiscal policy on the trade balance using a structural factor model. A fiscal policy shock worsens the trade balance and produces an appreciation of the domestic currency but the effects are quantitatively small. The findings match the theoretical predictions of the standard Mundell-Fleming model, although fiscal policy should not be considered one of the m...

Using panel structural VAR analysis and quarterly data from four industrialized countries, we document that an increase in government purchases raises output and private consumption, deteriorates the trade balance, and depreciates the real exchange rate. This pattern of comovement poses a puzzle for both neoclassical and Keynesian models. An explanation based on the deep-habit mechanism is prop...

This paper investigates whether or not the J-curve hypothesis holds in Turkish agricultural sector. The analysis is conducted using the model the most commonly employed in j-curve literature. Based on the data covering the period from 1986: I to 1998: III, our results indicate that, following devaluation, agricultural trade balance initially improves, then worsens, and then improves again. This...

This paper investigates the causes of China’s output and trade balance fluctuations in the period of 1985–2000, with special attention to the role of the real exchange rate. The effects of four types of shock – the foreign supply shock, the domestic supply shock, the relative demand shock and the nominal shock – are examined, employing a near -VAR that embodies the long-run properties of a ‘dep...

Many developing countries including Pakistan face the problem of trade deficit. These countries use various measures to improve the trade balance. One of the components is devaluation of domestic currency. The purpose of this paper is to find whether the devaluation using REER is effective in improving the trade balance in Pakistan or not. The bound testing approach of ARDL is used to estimate ...