IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/adbiwp/0812.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Shifting Towards a Consumer-Centered Economy and the Implications for International Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Helble, Matthias

    (Asian Development Bank Institute)

Abstract

Globalization has radically changed the way goods and services are produced. The impact of globalization on production has been driven mainly by two determinants: In a first phase, a quick fall in transportation costs between countries and in a second, more recent phase, a drastic lowering of international communications costs. We argue that we are currently witnessing the start of another epochal change. Advances in communication and information technology enable companies to have more and more knowledge about the individual consumer. Consequently, products and services can be marketed more specifically or can be customized according to the customer’s preference. We call this new era the consumer-centered economy. The consumer-centered economy is challenging our standard trade and development theories in which consumers are typically assumed to be identical. We predict that the success of countries and firms will depend on how well they are able to integrate consumer information into the process of value addition. Producing standardized goods and services will offer little perspectives for economic development, even when integrated into regional value chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Helble, Matthias, 2018. "Shifting Towards a Consumer-Centered Economy and the Implications for International Trade," ADBI Working Papers 812, Asian Development Bank Institute.
  • Handle: RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0812
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/403181/adbi-wp812.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Theo Notteboom & Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2008. "Containerisation, Box Logistics and Global Supply Chains: The Integration of Ports and Liner Shipping Networks," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 10(1-2), pages 152-174, March.
    2. A. Auer, Raphael & Chaney, Thomas & Sauré, Philip, 2018. "Quality pricing-to-market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 87-102.
    3. Bernhofen, Daniel M. & El-Sahli, Zouheir & Kneller, Richard, 2016. "Estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 36-50.
    4. Ricardo, David, 1821. "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, edition 3, number ricardo1821.
    5. Kozo Kiyota & Keita Oikawa & Katsuhiro Yoshioka, 2017. "The Global Value Chain and the Competitiveness of Asian Countries," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 16(3), pages 257-281, Fall.
    6. João Amador & Rita Cappariello & Robert Stehrer, 2015. "Global Value Chains: A View from the Euro Area," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 99-120, June.
    7. Helble, Matthias & Ngiang, Boon-Loong, 2016. "From global factory to global mall? East Asia’s changing trade composition and orientation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 37-47.
    8. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    9. Pol Antràs, 2003. "Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1375-1418.
    10. Costas Arkolakis, 2010. "Market Penetration Costs and the New Consumers Margin in International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1151-1199.
    11. Baldwin, Richard, 2011. "21st century regionalism: Filling the gap between 21st century trade and 20th century trade rules," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2011-08, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    12. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Matthias Helble, 2018. "Toward a Consumer-Centered Economy and Its Implications for International Trade and Asia's Development," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 17(3), pages 56-74, Fall.
    2. Alfonso Irarrazabal & Andreas Moxnes & Luca David Opromolla, 2013. "The Margins of Multinational Production and the Role of Intrafirm Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(1), pages 74-126.
    3. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    4. Soo, Kwok Tong, 2018. "The gains from trade in intermediate goods: A Ricardo-Sraffa-Samuelson model," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 244-261.
    5. Charlotte Emlinger & Viola Lamani, 2020. "International trade, quality sorting and trade costs: the case of Cognac," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 579-609, August.
    6. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    7. Krolikowski, Pawel M. & McCallum, Andrew H., 2021. "Goods-market frictions and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Pierpaolo Andriani & Carsten Herrmann-Pillath, 2015. "Transactional innovation as performative action: transforming comparative advantage in the global coffee business," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 371-400, April.
    9. Elhanan Helpman, 2006. "Trade, FDI, and the Organization of Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 589-630, September.
    10. Salamat Ali & Richard Kneller & Chris Milner, 2017. "Market-specific trade costs and firm dynamics in Pakistan: Evaluating the US integrated cargo containers control programme," Discussion Papers 2017-02, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    11. Costinot, Arnaud & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2014. "Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 197-261, Elsevier.
    12. Do, Quy-Toan & Levchenko, Andrei A., 2009. "Trade, inequality, and the political economy of institutions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(4), pages 1489-1520, July.
    13. Joakim Gullstrand & Maria Persson, 2015. "How to combine high sunk costs of exporting and low export survival," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 151(1), pages 23-51, February.
    14. David Kohn & Fernando Leibovici & Michal Szkup, 2016. "Financial Frictions And New Exporter Dynamics," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(2), pages 453-486, May.
    15. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2012. "The Empirics of Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 283-313, July.
    16. Raphael A. Auer, 2013. "Product Heterogeneity, Cross-Country Taste Differences, and the Consumption Home Bias," Working Papers 13.01, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    17. Coşar, A. Kerem & Demir, Banu, 2018. "Shipping inside the box: Containerization and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 331-345.
    18. Conconi, Paola & Sapir, André & Zanardi, Maurizio, 2016. "The internationalization process of firms: From exports to FDI," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 16-30.
    19. Roc Armenter & Miklós Koren, 2015. "Economies Of Scale And The Size Of Exporters," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 482-511, June.
    20. Ramanarayanan, Ananth, 2020. "Imported inputs and the gains from trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    international trade; trade costs; production networks; consumer; customization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ris:adbiwp:0812. 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: ADB Institute (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/adbinjp.html .

    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.