IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/97055.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contractual Frictions and the Patterns of Trade: The Role of Generalized Trust

Author

Listed:
  • Ndubuisi, Gideon

Abstract

Extant studies on the relationship between “domestic institutions, comparative advantage and international specialization” have largely focused on formal institutions. This paper contributes to this literature by focusing on domestic informal contracting institution vis-á-vis generalized trust as a source of comparative advantage. Employing a bilateral industry trade data, the paper finds a robust evidence that countries with high generalized trust level export relatively more in industries that that are prone to contractual frictions. Results on export margins further suggest that countries with high generalized trust level enter more markets, ship more products to each destination, and have higher export per product and export intensities in those industries. On the one hand, the results reemphasizes the importance of trust for improved economic performance. On the other hand, it offers explanation as to why a country though poorly endowed with weak formal domestic institutions may still have a comparative cost advantage in industries that are more prone to contractual frictions due to having strong domestic informal institutions such as generalized trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2019. "Contractual Frictions and the Patterns of Trade: The Role of Generalized Trust," MPRA Paper 97055, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:97055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/97055/1/MPRA_paper_97055.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kalina Manova, 2013. "Credit Constraints, Heterogeneous Firms, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(2), pages 711-744.
    2. Zak, Paul J & Knack, Stephen, 2001. "Trust and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(470), pages 295-321, April.
    3. Fernando Broner & Paula Bustos & Vasco Carvalho, 2011. "Sources of comparative advantage in polluting industries," Economics Working Papers 1331, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2019.
    4. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    5. Nathan Nunn, 2007. "Relationship-Specificity, Incomplete Contracts, and the Pattern of Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 569-600.
    6. Lyons, Bruce R & Mehta, Judith, 1997. "Contracts, Opportunism and Trust: Self-Interest and Social Orientation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 21(2), pages 239-257, March.
    7. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    8. Richard Baldwin & Daria Taglioni, 2006. "Gravity for Dummies and Dummies for Gravity Equations," NBER Working Papers 12516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. John Romalis, 2004. "Factor Proportions and the Structure of Commodity Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 67-97, March.
    10. Dutt, Pushan & Mihov, Ilian & Van Zandt, Timothy, 2013. "The effect of WTO on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 204-219.
    11. Andrei A. Levchenko, 2007. "Institutional Quality and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(3), pages 791-819.
    12. Jacques Melitz & Farid Toubal, 2019. "Somatic distance, trust and trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 786-802, August.
    13. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    14. Yu, Shu & Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & de Haan, Jakob, 2015. "Trade, trust and the rule of law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 102-115.
    15. Rauch, James E., 1999. "Networks versus markets in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-35, June.
    16. Ndubuisi, Gideon & Foster-McGregor, Neil, 2018. "Domestic intellectual property rights protection and the margins of bilateral exports," MERIT Working Papers 2018-035, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Elhanan Helpman & Marc Melitz & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Estimating Trade Flows: Trading Partners and Trading Volumes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 441-487.
    18. Paul S. Adler, 2001. "Market, Hierarchy, and Trust: The Knowledge Economy and the Future of Capitalism," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 215-234, April.
    19. Eva Spring & Volker Grossmann, 2016. "Does bilateral trust across countries really affect international trade and factor mobility?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 103-136, February.
    20. Knack, Stephen, 2001. "Trust, assocational life, and economic performance," MPRA Paper 27247, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Bjornskov, Christian, 2006. "The multiple facets of social capital," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 22-40, March.
    22. Weibo Xing & Li‐An Zhou, 2018. "Bilateral trust and trade: Evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(8), pages 1918-1940, August.
    23. Castellacci, Fulvio & Natera, Jose Miguel, 2011. "A new panel dataset for cross-country analyses of national systems, growth and development (CANA)," MPRA Paper 28376, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    24. Arnott, Richard & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1991. "Moral Hazard and Nonmarket Institutions: Dysfunctional Crowding Out or Peer Monitoring?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 179-190, March.
    25. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    26. Ma, Yue & Qu, Baozhi & Zhang, Yifan, 2010. "Judicial quality, contract intensity and trade: Firm-level evidence from developing and transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 146-159, June.
    27. Devesh Roy & Abdul Munasib & Xing Chen, 2014. "Social trust and international trade: the interplay between social trust and formal finance," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(4), pages 693-714, November.
    28. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    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. Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2020. "Fettered cross-border capital flows, external finance dependence, and international trade," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 206-216.
    2. Ndubuisi, Gideon & Mensah, Emmanuel & Owusu, Solomon, 2020. "Export Variety and Imported Intermediate Inputs: Industry-Level Evidence from Africa," MPRA Paper 106008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Alexeev, Michael & Chernyavskiy, Andrey, 2021. "The impact of institutional quality on manufacturing sectors: A panel data analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(3).

    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. Ndubuisi, Gideon & Konte, Maty, 2019. "Credit constraints and trade performance: Does trust-based social capital matter?," MERIT Working Papers 2019-046, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    2. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    3. Gideon Ndubuisi & Solomon Owusu, 2022. "Trust, Efficient Contracting and Export Upgrading," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2708-2729, December.
    4. Chor, Davin, 2010. "Unpacking sources of comparative advantage: A quantitative approach," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 152-167, November.
    5. Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2020. "Trust and R&D investments: evidence from OECD countries," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(6), pages 809-830, December.
    6. Nicolas Sauter, 2012. "Talking trade: language barriers in intra-Canadian commerce," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 301-323, February.
    7. Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2020. "Fettered cross-border capital flows, external finance dependence, and international trade," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 206-216.
    8. Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2017. "Financial imperfections, product quality, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 63-84.
    9. Yu, Shu & Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & de Haan, Jakob, 2015. "Trade, trust and the rule of law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 102-115.
    10. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    11. Ma, Yue & Qu, Baozhi & Zhang, Yifan, 2010. "Judicial quality, contract intensity and trade: Firm-level evidence from developing and transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 146-159, June.
    12. Olivier BARGAIN & Jean-Marie CARDEBAT & Raphaël CHIAPPINI, 2020. "Trade Uncorked: Genetic Resistance and Quality Heterogeneity in Wine Exports," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-18, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    13. Martin Strieborny & Madina Kukenova, 2016. "Investment in Relationship-Specific Assets: Does Finance Matter?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1487-1515.
    14. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2009:i:023 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Jaimovich, Esteban, 2019. "Roadways, input sourcing, and patterns of specialization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    16. Richard Frensch & Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda, 2016. "Trade in Parts and Components across Europe," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 66(3), pages 236-262, June.
    17. Bailey, Michael & Gupta, Abhinav & Hillenbrand, Sebastian & Kuchler, Theresa & Richmond, Robert & Stroebel, Johannes, 2021. "International trade and social connectedness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. Devesh Roy & Abdul Munasib & Xing Chen, 2014. "Social trust and international trade: the interplay between social trust and formal finance," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(4), pages 693-714, November.
    19. Maria Bas & Juan Carluccio, 2009. "Wage Bargaining and the Boundaries of the Multinational Firm," CEP Discussion Papers dp0963, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Fan, Haichao & Li, Chang & Xue, Chang & Yu, Miaojie, 2023. "Clan culture and patterns of industrial specialization in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 457-478.
    21. Kohler, Wilhelm & Kukharskyy, Bohdan, 2019. "Offshoring under uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 158-180.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Generalized Trust; Contractual Frictions; Trade; Trade Margins;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • 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:pra:mprapa:97055. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.