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Can Globalisation Stop the Decline in Commodities' Terms of Trade? The Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis Revisited"

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  • Andre Varella Mollick
  • Joao Ricardo Faria
  • Pedro H. Albuquerque
  • Miguel A. Leon-Ledesma

Abstract

Several empirical studies report the existence of declining terms of trade between commodities and manufactures, supporting the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis. As globalisation leads to greater integration of markets, we ask if in a fully integrated economy the terms of trade will display the same negative trend. Assuming that globalisation would make the world economy behave as the US economy, this paper shows that the US internal real commodities' terms of trade over the 1947-1998 period experienced slowly declining but significant trends. We then test if common factors may be driving the US and international terms of trade in the long-run. The results suggest that both series, particularly those using crude materials in the numerator, share a positive long-run relationship. It follows that international integration plays no role in causing the decreasing trend of the terms of trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Andre Varella Mollick & Joao Ricardo Faria & Pedro H. Albuquerque & Miguel A. Leon-Ledesma, 2005. "Can Globalisation Stop the Decline in Commodities' Terms of Trade? The Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis Revisited"," Studies in Economics 0510, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0510
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    2. Thomas H.W. Ziesemer, 2014. "Country terms of trade: trends, unit roots, over-differencing, endogeneity, time dummies, and heterogeneity," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 767-796, September.
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    5. Byrne, Joseph P & Fazio, Giorgio & Fiess, Norbert, 2010. "Optimism and commitment: An elementary theory of bargaining and war," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-102, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    6. Ricardo Azevedo Araujo, 2016. "Assessing the dynamics of terms of trade inamodelof cumulative causation andstructural change," Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Center of Political Economy, vol. 36(1), pages 150-167.
    7. Byrne, Joseph P. & Fazio, Giorgio & Fiess, Norbert, 2013. "Primary commodity prices: Co-movements, common factors and fundamentals," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 16-26.
    8. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2018. "Income terms of trade and economic convergence: Evidence from Latin America," MPRA Paper 87598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Leon Podkaminer, 2014. "Does trade drive global output growth?," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 45(4), pages 311-330.
    10. Leon Podkaminer, 2016. "Has trade been driving global economic growth?," NBP Working Papers 251, Narodowy Bank Polski.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Integration; Globalisation; Prebisch-Singer;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics

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