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Trade in factor income and the US-China trade balance

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  • Meng, Bo
  • Gao, Yuning
  • Ye, Jiabai
  • Zhang, Meichen
  • Xing, Yuqing

Abstract

US multindoational enterprises sell considerable amounts of products to China's domestic consumers that are “made” in either China or other countries. However, these sales are not counted as US exports to China. To account for this, we propose a beyond-borders approach to measuring trade flows that explicitly considers firm ownership, termed “trade in factor income (TiFI),” that defines the US-owned factor income induced by China's final demand as US exports to China. Applying this approach to OECD data, we find that on average from 2005 to 2016 in TiFI terms, US exports to China were 20.34% and 8.21% greater, China's exports to the US were 1.64% and 16.04% less, and the US trade deficits with China were 17.4% and 32.0% less than the trade figures reported in value added and gross terms, respectively. The concept of TiFI transforms trade measures from a territory-based “made in” label to a factor income-based “created by” label.

Suggested Citation

  • Meng, Bo & Gao, Yuning & Ye, Jiabai & Zhang, Meichen & Xing, Yuqing, 2022. "Trade in factor income and the US-China trade balance," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:73:y:2022:i:c:s1043951x22000505
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101792
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade in factor income; Trade in value added; Trade balance; Global value chain; US–China trade; Multinational enterprises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

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