After many years as a professor of economics, I have had the opportunity to apply my trade, development and econometric research and teaching skills at the US International Trade Commission for a few years. As a senior international economist in the Office of Economics, Research Division, I participate in research and technical assistance for the trade policy-making committees of the Congress and for the Office of the US Trade Representative, and engage in academic research. I've found many spillovers between these two types of research. My recent work has focused largely on trade and environment issues in developing countries. In a series of empirical studies using Chinese data, I’ve been exploring the possibility that trade growth may be beneficial for the environment, that foreign investors may create pollution havens in poor countries, and, most recently, that foreign investment and production fragmentation may have beneficial effects on the environment. In other work on fragmentation, I’ve been studying the variation in vertical specialization in Chinese trade. I also continue my work on trade restrictions and economic development, with a new focus on NTBs and on trade preference erosion.
Recent Publications
Trade Growth, Production Fragmentation and China's Environment (with Mary E. Lovely), China's Growing Role in World Trade (2009)
In recent years, China has experienced both rapidly growing trade and serious environmental degradation. The...
Decomposing China–Japan–U.S. trade: Vertical specialization, ownership, and organizational form (with Mary E. Lovely and Jesse Mora), Journal of Asian Economics (2009)
We use the US International Trade Commission's uniquely detailed 1995–2007 Chinese Customs data to better...
Are Foreign Investors Attracted to Weak Environmental Regulations? Evaluating the Evidence from China (with Mary E. Lovely and Hua Wang), Journal of Development Economics (2009)
At the center of the pollution haven debate is the claim that foreign investors from...
Quantifying the Value of US Tariff Preferences for Developing Countries (with John Wainio), Trade Preference Erosion: Measurement and Response (2009)
In recent debates, trade preference erosion has been viewed by some as damaging to developing...
Estimating the Price Effects of Non-Tariff Barriers (with Robert Feinberg, Jose Signoret, Rodney D. Ludema, and Michael Ferrantino), B. E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy (2009)
As multilateral negotiations focus more on reductions and removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), the importance...
Recent Working Papers
How Vertically Specialized is Chinese Trade? (with K C. Fung and Zhi Wang), US ITC Office of Economics Working Papers (2008)
Two recent phenomena have transformed the nature of world trade: the explosive growth of Chinese...
Is Trade Preference Erosion Bad for Development?, USITC Office of Economics Working Papers (2006)
In much of the recent debate about trade preference erosion, opponents have stressed the impact...