IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v30y2007i2p342-362.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Financial Trade: A Reappraisal

Author

Listed:
  • Wyn Morgan
  • Nicholas Snowden

Abstract

Emerging market crises have suggested that a national benefit‐cost assessment of external financial liberalisation could well prove unfavourable. This paper re‐examines the principle of comparative advantage in its application to financial trade to seek guidance on measures that might permit a fuller realisation of the potential benefits involved. Drawing a parallel with Balasubramanyam's work on the gains from FDI and international migration we distinguish between those arising in financial trade from the net transfer of capital, and those deriving from the contemporaneous exchange of financial claims or services of equivalent value. In the first interpretation a country's comparative advantage is manifested by its role in ‘intertemporal’ trade (as a borrower or lender). Our alternative emphasis is on the contractual risk‐return characteristics of the financial claims exchanged. This perspective is applied firstly to portfolio diversification gains arising from further international stock market integration. Secondly, price risk management for developing countries in international primary commodity trade is discussed. Both applications imply the need for significant institutional development but could realise approximately contemporaneous gains reminiscent both of those involved in merchandise trade and in the skills and product (or service) flows that Balasubramanyam has emphasised in relation to FDI and international migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Wyn Morgan & Nicholas Snowden, 2007. "Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Financial Trade: A Reappraisal," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 342-362, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:30:y:2007:i:2:p:342-362
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.00886.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.00886.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.00886.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Varangis, Panos & Larson, Don, 1996. "Dealing with commodity price uncertainty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1667, The World Bank.
    2. G. Benavides & P. N. Snowden, 2006. "Futures for farmers: Hedging participation and the Mexican corn scheme," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 698-712.
    3. Mario Draghi & Francesco Giavazzi & Robert C. Merton, 2003. "Transparency, Risk Management and International Financial Fragility," NBER Working Papers 9806, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Varangis, Panos & Larson, Donald & Anderson, Jack R., 2002. "Agricultural markets and risks - management of the latter, not the former," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2793, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claus, Edda & Lucey, Brian M., 2012. "Equity market integration in the Asia Pacific region: Evidence from discount factors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 137-163.
    2. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2020. "Aid for Trade and Services Export Diversification in Recipient-Countries," EconStor Preprints 210467, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Sèna K. Gnangnon, 2021. "Aid for Trade and services export diversification in recipient countries," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 189-225, June.
    4. Nyahoho Emmanuel, 2010. "Determinants of Comparative Advantage in the International Trade of Services: An Empirical Study of the Hecksher-Ohlin Approach," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Export diversification and financial openness," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 675-717, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian Tower & Gregorio Impavido, 2009. "How the Financial Crisis Affects Pensions and Insurance and Why the Impacts Matter," IMF Working Papers 2009/151, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Tangermann, Stefan, 2011. "Risk Management in Agriculture and the Future of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy," National Policies, Trade and Sustainable Development 320171, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
    3. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2004_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Dale F. Gray & Robert C. Merton & Zvi Bodie, 2006. "A New Framework for Analyzing and Managing Macrofinancial Risks of an Economy," NBER Working Papers 12637, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Baffes, John & Meerman, Jacob, 1998. "From Prices to Incomes: Agricultural Subsidization without Protection?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 13(2), pages 191-211, August.
    6. Pravakar Sahoo & Rajiv Kumar, 2011. "The Impact Of Commodity Transaction Tax On Futures Trading In India: An Ex-Ante Analysis," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 56(03), pages 423-440.
    7. Christophe Gouel, 2014. "Food Price Volatility and Domestic Stabilization Policies in Developing Countries," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Food Price Volatility, pages 261-306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Stuart Landon & Constance Smith, 2010. "Government Revenue Volatility: The Case of Alberta, an Energy Dependent Economy," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2010_23, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    9. C. W. Morgan, 2001. "Commodity futures markets in LDCs: a review and prospects," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 1(2), pages 139-150, April.
    10. Edward Kane, 2006. "Can the European Community Afford to Neglect the Need for More Accountable Safety-Net Management?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 34(2), pages 127-144, June.
    11. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 2010. "Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: A Survey," NBER Working Papers 16125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Dale F. Gray & Robert C. Merton & Zvi Bodie, 2007. "New Framework for Measuring and Managing Macrofinancial Risk and Financial Stability," NBER Working Papers 13607, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mr. Dale F Gray, 2013. "Modeling Banking, Sovereign, and Macro Risk in a CCA Global VAR," IMF Working Papers 2013/218, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Bäcker, Gabriele, 1998. "Möglichkeiten des Risikomanagements für Rohstoffexportierende Entwicklungsländer," IEE Working Papers 166, Ruhr University Bochum, Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE).
    15. Samuel Guérineau & Hélène Ehrhart, 2012. "The impact of high and volatile commodity prices on public finances: Evidence from developing countries," CERDI Working papers halshs-00659098, HAL.
    16. Niu, Baozhuang & Chu, Lap-Keung & Ni, Jian & Wang, Junwei, 2018. "Buy now and price later: Supply contracts with time-consistent mean–variance financial hedgingAuthor-Name: Li, Qiang," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(2), pages 582-595.
    17. M.M. Venter & D.B. Strydom & B. Grové, 2013. "Stochastic efficiency analysis of alternative basic grain marketing strategies," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(sup1), pages 46-63, March.
    18. Ricardo Caballero & Kevin Cowan, 2006. "Financial Integration Without the Volatility," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 387, Central Bank of Chile.
    19. Guillermo Benavides, 2021. "Asymmetric Volatility Relevance in Risk Management: An Empirical Analysis using Stock Index Futures," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 16(TNEA), pages 1-18, Septiembr.
    20. Bermpei, Theodora & Karadimitropoulou, Aikaterini & Triantafyllou, Athanasios & Alshalahi, Jebreel, 2023. "Does commodity price uncertainty matter for the cost of credit? Evidence from developing and advanced economies," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    21. Sushil Mohan & Bill Russell, 2008. "Modelling Thirty Five Years Of Coffee Prices In Brazil, Guatemala And India," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 221, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:30:y:2007:i:2:p:342-362. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.