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5.4 Brief introduction to the theory of international trade

The modern world economy is a system of economic relations between different countries and regions of the world, based on international trade and the international division of labor. International trade develops because it brings benefits to the countries involved. In this regard, one of the main questions that the theory of international trade must answer is what underlies this gain from foreign trade, or, in other words, how the directions of foreign trade flows are determined.

The basic principles of the international division of labor and international trade were formulated two centuries ago by English economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo. A. Smith in his book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776) formulated a theory absolute advantage and showed that countries are interested in the free development of international trade, since they can benefit from it regardless of whether they are exporters or importers.

Let us recall that absolute advantage is the ability to produce more units of a given product with the same expenditure of resources, or (which is the same thing), to produce a unit of goods with less expenditure of resources.

D. Ricardo in his work “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” (1817) proved that the principle of absolute advantage is only a special case of the general rule, and substantiated the theory comparative advantage. Recall that comparative advantage is the ability to produce a good or service at a relatively lower opportunity cost. Let us recall that opportunity costs are lost production opportunities expressed in the refusal to produce another product while producing this one.

In the two centuries since Smith and Ricardo, international trade theory has evolved significantly, but the basic principles have remained largely unchanged (at least until 2008 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman proposed his theory of international trade). These principles can be summed up in one sentence: the international division of labor and trade are based on comparative advantage.

A country produces those goods in which it has a comparative advantage. A country that specializes in the production of a particular product becomes its exporter (that is, a seller in international trade). At the same time, the country buys goods from other countries, being their importer.

The ratio of exports and imports is reflected in the trade balance. The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports.

trade balance = Ex - Im

If import costs exceed export revenues (Im > Ex), then this corresponds to a trade deficit. The country buys more foreign goods than it sells domestic goods to foreigners.
In this case, the country needs more funds to pay foreign counterparties for imports than it receives from foreign counterparties for its exports. In other words, as economists say, the trade deficit must be financed.

Financing the trade deficit, i.e. The difference between import costs and export revenues can be made:

• or through foreign (external) loans from other countries or from international financial organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, etc.;
• or through the sale of financial assets (private and government securities) to foreigners and the receipt of funds into the country to pay for them.

In both cases, there is an influx of funds into the country (the financial market) from the foreign sector, which is called capital inflow, and this makes it possible to finance the trade balance deficit.
That is, the trade deficit corresponds to the influx of capital into the country.

If export revenues exceed import costs (Ex > Im), which means a surplus (surplus) of the trade balance, then capital outflow occurs from the country, since in this case foreigners sell their financial assets to the country and receive the necessary payment for exports in cash.
A trade surplus corresponds to an outflow of capital from the country.

Economic theory shows that international trade is a means by which countries, by developing specialization, can increase the productivity of existing resources and thus increase the volume of goods and services produced and increase the level of welfare. We have already looked at a simple model of trade, where in the course of trade two countries received an expansion of their consumer opportunities, which can be shown as the CPV movement of each of the economies to the right and upward.

Trade allows its participants to realize their comparative advantage. Stephen Landsburg's book The Economist on the Couch gives the example that the US has two ways of producing cars: in Detroit and in Iowa. One of them involves producing cars in factories in Detroit, the other involves growing wheat in fields in Iowa. The second method implies that the grown wheat will be exchanged for cars in the course of international trade (for example, Japanese Toyotas). Which of these methods is preferable? It all depends on the opportunity costs of each method. It may well be that, given its comparative advantage in growing wheat (i.e., lower opportunity costs), the American economy will find that it benefits from completely abandoning car production in Detroit in favor of car production in Iowa (i.e., in favor of growing wheat, its further export to Japan, and import of Japanese cars).

5.4.1. Foreign trade policy

The modern world economy operates in conditions of globalization, which represents a new level and type of internationalization of production. Countries and regions of the world are closely connected not only by large-scale commodity and financial flows, but also by international production and business, information technology, flows of scientific knowledge, close cultural and other contacts. The interdependence of individual countries and regions in the global economy has increased sharply. For example, American corporations are as dependent on cheap Chinese labor as Chinese consumers are on quality American technology products.

Despite the fact that free trade leads to an increase in the economic well-being of all countries - both exporters and importers, in practice, international trade has never developed truly freely without government intervention. The history of international trade is at the same time the history of the development and improvement of government regulation of international trade. In the course of the development of foreign trade relations, the economic interests of various social groups and segments of the population collide, and the state inevitably becomes involved in this conflict of interests. The state acts as an active participant in international trade relations, conducting foreign trade policy(regulation of international trade). Foreign trade policy is one of the areas of state regulation of the economy.

Main instruments of foreign trade policy:

1. Import duty is a state monetary fee on imported goods.
2. Export duty is a state monetary collection on exported (exported) goods.
3. Quotas (establishment of a quota) - a restriction in quantitative or monetary terms on the volume of products allowed to be imported into a country (import quota) or exported from the country (export quota) for a certain period.
4. Licensing is the regulation of foreign trade through permits issued by government agencies for the export or import of goods in specified quantities for a certain period of time.
5. Voluntary export restriction is a quantitative restriction on exports based on the commitment of one of the trading partners to limit the volume of exports.
6. An export subsidy is a financial benefit provided by the state to an exporter to expand the export of goods abroad.
7. Dumping is the sale of a product on the foreign market at a price below the normal level, that is, below the price of a similar product on the domestic market of the exporting country.
8. An international cartel is an agreement between exporters of any product from different countries, aimed at ensuring control over production volumes and establishing favorable prices.
9. Embargo is a state prohibition of the import into or export from any country of goods or financial assets.

Foreign trade policy measures aimed at protecting the domestic market from foreign competition through various trade policy instruments are called policies protectionism.

Despite the fact that modern economic theory associates protectionism (as well as any economic regulation) with welfare losses for society, protectionism is used everywhere. The logic of protectionism is to create favorable conditions for the development of domestic sectors of the economy, protecting them from competition with foreign goods.

Why is protectionism so bad? The obvious answer is that protectionism prevents the economy from realizing its comparative advantage. For example, if Russia has a comparative advantage in the production of energy resources, and France in the production of food products, then in international trade, according to the theory of comparative advantage, Russia should specialize in the production of energy resources, and France in the production of food products. With full specialization, Russia will focus only on oil production, and will import food from France for its own consumption. This state of affairs will not suit, first of all, Russian food producers, who over time will find increasingly greater competition from imported French products. Under these conditions, domestic producers of Russian products will take actions aimed at lobbying their interests. In other words, using political support, domestic producers will try to create conditions for themselves that will limit competition from imports. This is precisely what the policy of protectionism is all about.

Protectionism harms competition because it distorts companies' incentives. In order to win consumers in a competitive economy, a company must win the competition, that is, offer a product of better quality or at a lower price. In the case of protectionism, when domestic products are protected from foreign competition by import duties or other barriers, domestic producers have no incentive to improve product quality because they are protected from competition from foreign producers. Instead of developing new products and constantly improving quality, these companies are busy trying to lobby for more favorable protectionist conditions for themselves. Over time, the quality of these companies' products begins to lag significantly behind the quality of similar foreign products. As a result, consumers receive a product of worse quality than they would have received in the absence of protectionism.

A good example is Russia, with its strong oil industry and weak automobile industry. Having undoubted comparative advantages in oil production over many countries (the cost of oil production in Russia is lower than in the USA and European countries), Russia is realizing its comparative advantages. At the same time, it is also obvious that Russia has no comparative advantage in car production. If it weren’t for the numerous trade barriers on foreign cars and the numerous subsidies to the domestic auto industry, Russian consumers would long ago have been able to buy higher-quality foreign cars cheaper than the Russian Lada. Maybe it would be more profitable for Russia not to produce cars at all and focus only on oil production? The theory of comparative advantage argues that this is true. Why then does Russia produce cars and continue to subsidize and protect domestic producers with import duties? Most likely, the answer does not lie in the economic plane. Perhaps Russia does not want to depend on the import of foreign cars. Perhaps Russia does not want to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers employed in the domestic auto industry. Perhaps there are other motives. In any case, the current state of the domestic automobile industry is a clear example of the fact that the policy of protectionism, distorting the incentives of firms in protected industries, does not lead to the best consequences for consumers and society in the long term.

Arguments for protectionism

• Protection of young industries.
• Protection of politically sensitive industries
• Maintaining employment.

Arguments against protectionism

• Loss of economic efficiency (or, as economists say, net social loss)
• Distorting the incentives of companies in protected industries.
• Retaliatory protectionist measures of other economies.

Modern trade relations are the intersection of many opposing trade interests. Every country is involved in many trade and financial relationships with other economies. When pursuing a protectionist policy, each country should remember that the introduction of protective measures is accompanied by reciprocal restrictive measures from trading partners. For example, under pressure from the American steel lobby, the US government in March 2002 introduced restrictive tariffs ranging from 8 to 30% on imports of various types of steel and steel products produced in a number of countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Following this decision, a number of countries decided to impose retaliatory tariffs on a number of American products. It was heading towards a trade war. As a result, the Bush administration decided to eliminate import tariffs, fearing the loss of international markets for a number of American goods.

In a more negative scenario, events developed in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s. After an unprecedented drop in demand in almost all developed economies of the world, Western European countries decided to resort to strict protectionist policies to protect their domestic industries from foreign (primarily American) imports. As a result of the widespread use of trade restrictions, the volume of world trade decreased by 3 times from 1929 to 1933, and the recovery from depression for a number of countries lasted for ten years or more. Countries responded to restrictions from trading partners by introducing new trade restrictions. Countries, even realizing that total trade barriers lead to a deterioration in their well-being, could not refuse to use them. In conditions where trade barriers are used everywhere, if one of the trade participants wants to abandon them, and all others continue to use them, this will lead to the total impoverishment of this participant. In other words, if there is a risk that other participants will continue to use trade barriers, no one will want to be the first to abandon them. At that time, the trading partners lacked coordination. Under these conditions, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was formed in 1947, which in 1995 was transformed into the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is responsible for developing and implementing new trade agreements, and also ensures that members of the organization comply with all agreements signed by most countries in the world. That is, the WTO acts as the organizer of world trade relations that the world so lacked before 1947. The main function of the WTO is to monitor how trading participants comply with the agreements reached on trade liberalization.

The most popular model of trade relations is the model of trade of two goods between two countries. This model will be discussed in the Market Equilibrium chapter after we have become familiar with the economic concepts of supply and demand.

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1. Topic: Sales and purchase agreement: concept, subject, content

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	Introduction…………………………………………………………....
	Theories of international trade………………………………................................................. .........
	D. Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage………………......
	Heckscher-Ohlin theory……………………………………………...
	“Leontief’s Paradox”……………………………………………………………………
	Neo-technological theories…………………………………….......
	Technology gap theory………………………………….
	The theory of the “product life cycle”……………………………………
	M. Porter's theory: theory of competitive advantage…………
	The theory of production specialization………………………………
	The theory of foreign trade activities of firms………………………
	The role of Russia's foreign trade in the global economy.................................................... ...........................................
	Trends and factors in the development of Russian foreign trade………
	Structure of Russian foreign trade………………………………………………………
	Conclusion…………………………………………………………...
	Glossary…………………………………………………………….
	Bibliography……………………………….....
	Application……………………………………………………..........

INTRODUCTION

What constitutes the basis of trade between countries. In general terms, international trade is a means by which countries can develop specialization, increase the productivity of their resources, and thus increase overall output. Sovereign states, as well as individuals and regions of a country, can benefit by specializing in goods that they can produce with the greatest relative efficiency, and then bartering for goods that they cannot produce efficiently themselves.

The theories of international trade, originating from English classical political economy, went through a number of stages in their development along with the development of world economic thought. However, their central questions were and remain the following:

what underlies the international division of labor

which international specialization is most effective for individual countries and regions and brings them the greatest benefits

what factors determine a country’s competitiveness in world trade

The relevance of this topic lies in the fact that in modern conditions, the country’s active participation in world trade is associated with significant advantages: it allows for more efficient use of the resources available in the country, to join the world achievements of science and technology, to carry out structural restructuring of its economy in a shorter time, as well as more fully and diversifiedly satisfy the needs of the population.

The purpose of this work is to most fully consider international trade and trade policy, to identify the problem and prospects for the development of international trade.

Objectives of the study: to help understand the theoretical foundations, principles and features of international trade theories, to understand their most important mechanisms and methods, and to understand specific forms.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the research are the achievements of domestic and foreign science.

When working on this coursework, the author studied the works of such economists as O. Heckscher, B. Olin, D. Ricardo, R. Dornbusch, D. Keynes, P. Krugman, V. Leontiev, K. McConnell, A. Marshall, M. Obstfeld, S. Fischer, J. Schumpeter. The most useful were the works of L. Abalkin, A. Aganbegyan, N. Petrakov, J. Tobin, P. Fisher, and others.

1. Theories of international trade

International trade is a form of communication between producers of different countries, arising on the basis of the international division of labor, and expresses their mutual economic dependence. The following definition is often given in the literature: “International trade is the process of buying and selling between buyers, sellers and intermediaries in different countries.”

International trade is the paid total trade turnover between all countries of the world. However, the concept of “international trade” is also used in a narrower sense: for example, the total trade turnover of industrialized countries, the total trade turnover of developing countries, the total trade turnover of countries of a continent, region, for example, countries of Eastern Europe, etc.

Problems of international trade interested scientists and politicians even in those days when other areas of economic theory had not yet been developed.

The first attempt at a theoretical understanding of international trade and the development of recommendations in this area was the doctrine of mercantilism, which dominated during the manufacturing period, i.e. from the 16th century until the middle of the 18th century. when the international division of labor was primarily limited to bilateral and trilateral relations. Industry at that time had not yet broken away from the national soil, and goods were produced for export from national raw materials. Thus, England processed wool, Germany processed linen, France processed silk into linen, etc. Mercantilists adhered to the view that the state should sell as much as possible of any goods on the foreign market, and buy as little as possible. At the same time, gold, identified with wealth, will accumulate. It is clear that if all countries pursue such a policy of non-importation, then there will be no buyers and there will be no talk of any international trade.

1.1. D. Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage

The theory of international trade by D. Ricardo, and earlier by A. Smith, was called upon to prove, in contrast to the mercantilists, the need and expediency of free foreign trade. Smith explained the existence of international trade and its profitability by the difference in the absolute costs of producing goods in different countries. The international division of labor and specialization were considered appropriate because each country had special conditions and resources that provided it with advantages over other countries: the ability to produce certain goods at lower costs (or the ability to produce more goods per unit of time).

In A. Smith's theory of absolute advantage, the principles of reasonable behavior of an economic entity are transferred to the sphere of international trade: if you can buy a product abroad at a lower price than at home, then it is better to do this by specializing in the production of that product that is cheaper to produce at home. the presence of certain advantages in this industry.

The division of labor and the specialization of countries in goods in the production of which they have an absolute advantage, the export of these goods after covering domestic needs in exchange for other goods, the production costs of which are lower in other countries - all this makes it possible to ensure overall cost savings in trading countries, since each of them mainly produces those goods on which it spends fewer resources than other countries.

D. Ricardo took the next step in the theory of international trade, proving its feasibility in cases where a country does not have an absolute advantage in the production of any goods. He showed that whenever, in the absence of trade, differences between countries remain in the ratio of the costs of production of different goods, each country will have a comparative advantage: it will always have a product whose production will be more efficient than the production of others at the existing ratio of costs in different countries . It is in the production of such a product that a country should specialize and export it in exchange for other goods.

D. Ricardo's theory was based on differences in the costs of production of goods between countries, as well as on the assumption of constant replacement costs in each country. However, in practice, the assumption of constant replacement costs turned out to be untenable. In many industries, growth in production was accompanied by an increase in marginal costs, and therefore, the production of each additional unit of a good required the abandonment of the production of more and more other goods. In addition, the movement of production from one industry to another led to an increase in replacement costs for the reason that the production of different types of goods required a different combination of resources, different technology, etc. The assumption of constant substitution costs resulted in the fact that the maximum gain from foreign trade was achieved when countries fully specialized in goods in the production of which they had a comparative advantage. But the real structure of foreign trade did not confirm this conclusion. There were practically no examples of complete specialization in the world.

All this led to the replacement of this premise with a more acceptable one - about increasing replacement costs. This meant that when one industry expanded at the expense of others, the production of each additional unit of goods was accompanied by the refusal to produce more and more products in other industries.

Thus, the theory of comparative advantage shows that a country's consumption opportunities can be expanded not only through the improvement or expansion of domestic factors (which expands the boundaries of production possibilities), but also through international trade and specialization within the international division of labor.

1.2. Heckscher–Ohlin theory

The new model was created by Swedish economists Eli Heckscher and Bertel Ohlin. Up until the 60s. The Heckscher-Ohlin model dominated the economic literature.

The essence of the neoclassical approach to international trade and the specialization of individual countries is as follows: For reasons of historical and geographical nature, the distribution of material and human resources between countries is uneven, which, according to neoclassics, explains the differences in the relative prices of goods, on which, in turn, depend national comparative advantages. This implies the law of proportionality of factors: in an open economy, each country tends to specialize in the production of goods that require more factors with which the country is relatively better endowed. Ohlin formulated this law even more succinctly: “International exchange is the exchange of abundant factors for scarce ones: a country exports goods the production of which requires more factors that are available in abundance.”

According to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, countries will export those goods whose production requires significant costs relative to surplus factors and import goods whose production would require intensive use of relatively scarce factors. Thus, surplus factors are exported in a hidden form and scarce ones are imported. Intensive use of a factor, for example, labor in the production of a product means that the share of labor costs in its cost is higher than in the cost of other goods (usually such a product is called labor-intensive).

The relative endowment of a country with factors of production is determined as follows: if the ratio between the amount of a given factor and other factors in the country is higher than in the rest of the world, then this factor is considered relatively redundant for a given country, and vice versa, if the specified ratio is lower than in other countries, then the factor is considered scarce.

Practice partly confirms the conclusions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. But in recent decades, the structure of provision of developed countries (especially European ones) with the necessary production resources has been relatively leveled out, which should, according to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, reduce their incentives to trade with each other. However, this does not happen. On the contrary, the center of gravity in international trade is moving precisely to trade between industrialized countries, that is, countries with approximately the same endowment of factors of production. Moreover, the share of mutual supplies of similar industrial goods in world trade is growing. This does not fit into the Heckscher-Ohlin theory.

1.3. "Leontiev's Paradox"

Practical searches to confirm or refute the Heckscher-Ohlin theory were greatly facilitated by the emergence of the so-called “Leontief paradox” in the 50s. V. Leontiev showed that in 1947 the United States, considered a capital-surplus country, exported not capital-intensive, but labor-intensive products, although, according to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, the result should have been the opposite. Further research, on the one hand, confirmed the presence of this paradox in the United States in the post-war period, and on the other hand, showed that capital is not the most abundant factor in the country. Above it are cultivable land and scientific and technical personnel. And here the Heckscher-Ohlin theory was confirmed: the United States turned out to be a net exporter of goods in the production of which these factors are intensively used. Let's look at this in more detail.

Leontief, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, relied on the surest of instincts in science: to always check whether theoretical conclusions correspond to reality.

This time he decided to test the conclusion of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory that countries tend to export goods in the production of which they intensively use factors that are surplus to them, and import goods in the production of which these factors are used less intensively. More precisely, he wanted to simultaneously test two assumptions: 1) the Heckscher-Ohlin theory is correct, 2) in the US economy, as was widely believed, capital was more abundant than in its trading partners.

Leontief obtained the ratio of the size of fixed capital and the number of workers in the export and import-substituting industries of the United States in 1947. This required calculations of capital and employment not only in several dozen industries under consideration, but also accounting for the capital and labor that were contained in their goods as a result of using the products of others industries. Being one of the pioneers of the input-output balance, he successfully used its capabilities to obtain the necessary estimates of the capital-labor ratio, multiplying the coefficient matrices by the vectors of capital and labor costs, the cost of exports and imports by industry. The test conditions were as follows: if the conclusions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory are correct, and capital in the United States is relatively more abundant, then the rate of capital expenditure per worker in a standard set of goods exported from the United States should be higher than the same figure in import-substituting products, included in the standard set of goods imported into the United States.

The paradoxical results obtained by Leontiev puzzled not only himself, but also other economists: it turned out that in 1947 the United States was selling labor-intensive goods to other countries in exchange for relatively capital-intensive ones. The key parameter was only 0.77, whereas, according to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, it should have been much higher than unity.

Leontiev himself and other economists approached this problem in different ways. The method has been tested several times and has been found to be largely correct. There was no doubt about the excess capital in the United States compared to other countries. Theoretically, the paradox could be explained by the fact that in the structure of demand in the United States the share of capital-intensive products was even higher than in production, which turned the country into a net importer of capital-intensive goods; however, this explanation was also unsuitable, since it did not correspond to reality. Other economists tried to look for the reason in trade barriers or in the so-called “factor intensity reversibility” (when, at one ratio of factor prices, industry A is more capital-intensive than industry B, and at another, less capital-intensive), but this also contributed little to the solution. Problems.

The most fruitful was the decision to introduce other factors of production into the model. Perhaps, many economists (including Leontiev) argued, we should take into account the fact that there are different types of labor, natural resources, capital, etc. Numerous studies in this direction have led to two main results: 1) they confirmed the presence of the “paradox” throughout most of the post-war period; 2) significantly improved our understanding of the availability of factors and the intensity of their use. The first refuted the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, the second supported it.

Despite differences in calculation techniques, all studies have largely confirmed the presence of the Leontief paradox in the United States between the Second World War and the early 70s.

At the same time, in an attempt to unravel the Leontief paradox, scientists began to introduce factors of production other than capital and labor into the model. New calculations of “factor intensity” have enriched, as already mentioned, our ideas about

who gains and who loses as a result of foreign trade. In a sense, this by-product of the controversy surrounding the Leontief paradox compensated for the damage it caused to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. Of course, the United States had some excess capital and, for some reason, exported less of this factor's services than it imported. But research stimulated by Leontief's work has shown that capital is by no means the most abundant factor of production in the United States. The first place here belongs to cultivated land and scientific and technical personnel. Indeed, the United States is a net exporter of goods that intensively use these factors, in full accordance with the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. Thus, despite some damage caused to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory by the Leontief paradox, it was ultimately enriched by new results obtained during the study of this riddle.

Thus, the result of the discussion around the “Leontief paradox” was a tendency towards decoupling factors of production and taking into account each of the subtypes when explaining the directions of export and import flows. As individual factors that can provide relative advantages to industries or firms, they began to single out, for example, labor of various qualifications, the quality of management personnel, various categories of scientific personnel, various types of capital, etc.

On the other hand, attempts continue to find a replacement for the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. This is, for example, the theory according to which the benefits from foreign trade are received by countries specializing in industries. Which are characterized by economies of scale (or a reduction in costs per unit of output when increasing production volume). But we know from microeconomics that in industries with efficient mass production there is usually no free competition, which means that production will end up in the hands of large monopolies.

1.4. Neo-technological theories

The Heckscher-Ohlin theory explained the development of foreign trade by the different endowment of countries with factors of production, but in recent decades, trade between countries where the difference in endowment with factors is small has begun to increase, i.e. there is a contradiction - the reasons for trade have disappeared, but trade has increased. This is explained by the fact that the Heckscher-Ohlin theory developed in those years when interindustry trade was predominant. Back in the early 50s, the most characteristic was the exchange of raw materials from developing countries for manufactured products from developed countries. By the beginning of the 80s, already 2/3 of exports, for example, from Great Britain went to Western Europe and North America. In the foreign trade of industrialized countries, mutual exchange of manufacturing products has become predominant. Moreover, these countries simultaneously sell and buy not just manufactured products, but the same goods by name, differing only in qualitative characteristics. A feature of the production of export goods in industrialized countries is the relatively high costs of R&D. These countries today are increasingly specializing in the production of so-called science-intensive high-tech products.

High-tech industries include the production of medical drugs, electronic computers and equipment, radio-electronic components, laboratory equipment, and the aviation and rocket and space industries.

The development of knowledge-intensive industries and the rapid growth of international exchange of their products led to the formation of neo-technological theories. This direction is a collection of individual models, partially complementing each other, but sometimes contradicting one another.

1.5. Technology gap theory

According to this theory, trade between countries occurs even if the factors of production are equally endowed and can be caused by technical changes arising in any one industry in one of the trading countries, due to the fact that technical innovations initially appear in one country, the latter gains an advantage: new technology allows you to produce goods at lower costs. If the innovation consists in the production of a new product, then the entrepreneur in the innovating country for a certain time has a so-called “quasi-monopoly”, in other words, receives additional profit by exporting the new product. Hence the new optimal strategy: to release not what is relatively cheaper, but what no one else can produce yet, but is necessary for everyone or many. As soon as others can master this technology, they will produce something new and again something that is inaccessible to others.

As a result of the emergence of technical innovations, a “technological gap” is formed between countries that have and do not possess these innovations. This gap will gradually be overcome, because other countries begin to copy the innovation of the innovating country. However, until the gap is closed, trade in new goods produced using new technology will continue.

1.6. Product Life Cycle Theory

It is the most popular neo-technological theory. It has attracted almost all economists, since it more accurately reflects the real state of the international division of labor in the modern period. According to this theory, every new product goes through a cycle that includes the stages of introduction, expansion, maturity and aging. Each stage has a special nature of demand and technology.

At the first stage of the cycle, when the new product has just begun to be produced initially for the domestic market, there will be little demand for it. It is presented to people with high incomes, for whom price is not of great importance when deciding to purchase a product. The more people with high incomes, the more likely it is that new goods will appear on the market, the production of which requires high costs, because their technology has not yet been tested. This technology involves the use of a large number of highly qualified workers. Exports of new goods at the first stage will be insignificant.

In the second stage, the growth stage, demand in the domestic market expands rapidly and the product becomes generally accepted. Serial production of large quantities of new products begins. At this stage, demand for a new product appears abroad. Initially, it is fully satisfied through exports, and then foreign production of the new product begins due to technology transfer.

At the third stage (maturity), demand in the domestic market is saturated. Production technology is completely standardized, which makes it possible to use less skilled labor, reduce production costs, prices and achieve maximum production of goods by firms in the innovating country and foreign companies. The latter begin to penetrate the domestic market of the country where the product appeared.

At the last stage of the cycle, the product ages and its production begins to decline. Further price reductions no longer lead to an increase in demand, as was the case at the maturity stage.

This is the general scheme of how a new product goes through the “life cycle”. Theorists of this model are not limited to such general descriptions. They believe that it is possible to identify specific countries whose conditions are most suitable for the production of either new products or products at other stages of maturity.

Neo-technological theories reflect the process of radical restructuring of the system of international division of labor based on the development of electronics, computer science, advanced communications, and new materials. In many areas of this process, the Asia-Pacific region sets the tone. Moreover, there is a fairly rapid erosion of the traditional “center-periphery” division here. This phenomenon is called the "flying geese" concept. Its essence is that there is a continuous process of sequential passage of certain phases of economic development by highly industrialized states, newly industrialized countries (NICs), and ASEAN countries.

1.7. Michael Porter's Theory: The Theory of Competitive Advantage

In a separate row stands the theory of M. Porter, who believes that the theories of D. Ricardo and Heckscher-Ohlin have already played a positive role in explaining the structure of foreign trade, but in recent decades they have actually lost their practical significance, since the conditions for the formation of competitive advantages have changed significantly, the dependence of the competitiveness of industries on the availability of basic production factors in the country is eliminated. M. Porter identifies the following determinants that form the environment in which the competitive advantages of industries and firms develop:

factors of production of a certain quantity and quality;

conditions of domestic demand for the products of this industry, its quantitative and qualitative parameters;

the presence of related and supporting industries that are competitive in the global market;

strategy and structure of firms, the nature of competition in the domestic market.

The named determinants of competitive advantage form a system, mutually reinforcing and conditioning each other’s development. To these are added two more factors that can seriously influence the situation in the country: government actions and random events. All of the listed characteristics of the economic environment in which competitive industries can be formed are considered in dynamics, as a flexible development system.

The state plays an important role in the process of forming specific advantages of sectors of the national economy, although this role is different at different stages of this process. These may include targeted investment, export promotion, direct regulation of capital flows, temporary protection of domestic production and stimulation of competition in the early stages; indirect regulation through the tax system, development of market infrastructure, information base for business in general, financing of scientific research, support of educational institutions, etc. Experience shows that in no country has the creation of competitive industries been possible without the participation of the state in one form or another. This is all the more relevant for transitional economic systems, since the relative weakness of the private sector does not allow it to independently form the necessary factors of competitive advantage and gain a place in the world market in a short time.

1.8. The theory of production specialization

In the early 80s of the XX century. American economists P. Krugman and K. Lancaster proposed an alternative explanation to the classical explanation of the causes of international trade. According to their approach, countries with similar factor endowments will be able to gain the maximum benefit from trade with each other if they specialize in different industries characterized by economies of scale. The essence of this effect, well known from microeconomic theory, is that with a certain technology and organization of production, long-term average costs are reduced as the volume of output increases, i.e. there are economies of scale due to mass production.

In order for the effect of mass production to be realized, a sufficiently capacious market is obviously necessary. International trade plays a decisive role in this, since it allows the formation of a single integrated market, more capacious than the market of any individual country. As a result, consumers are offered more products at lower prices.

How trade functions in conditions of economies of scale, and how countries benefit from it, is shown in Fig. 1, where the example given with American airplanes and Japanese ships is considered from the perspective of the theory of production specialization.

Aircraft

In E USA Vessels

Japan D C

Fig.1. Model of the theory of production specialization

In the absence of trade, if each country wanted to have both planes and ships, it would have to produce them in small quantities at inefficient points like B (for the USA) and E (for Japan). Both production possibility curves in this case are concave, reflecting economies of scale.

As follows from the graphical model, when moving along the US production possibilities curve from point B to point A (increasing production volumes in aircraft manufacturing and reducing ship production), the costs for each aircraft in terms of ships that have to be abandoned become less and less (curve becomes steeper). This can (presumably) occur as a result of the fact that in aircraft manufacturing, production is carried out on a cost-effective scale, and in shipbuilding, the opposite is true, and that with each unfinished ship, more and more resources are released. The same reasoning holds for Japan's production possibilities curve. Here, as in D. Ricardo’s model with non-increasing costs, countries have an incentive to complete specialization: for the USA this is point A, for Japan - D.

It should also be noted that the implementation of economies of scale, as a rule, leads to a violation of the principles of perfect competition, since it is associated with the concentration of production and the consolidation of firms that turn into monopolists. The structure of markets changes accordingly. They become either oligopolistic with a predominance of inter-industry trade in homogeneous products, or markets of monopolistic competition with developed intra-industry trade in differentiated products. In this case, international trade is increasingly concentrated in the hands of giant international firms, transnational corporations (TNCs), which inevitably leads to an increase in the volume of intra-company trade, the directions of which are often determined not by the principles of comparative advantage or differences in the availability of factors of production, but by the strategic goals of the firms themselves - TNK.

1.9. The theory of foreign trade activities of firms

In this theory, the object of analysis is not an individual country, but an international company. The objective basis of this approach is the fact generally recognized by economic science: a significant part of foreign trade transactions actually represents intra-company exchange: intra-company relations currently account for about 70% of all world trade in goods and services, 80-90% of sold licenses and patents, 40% of capital exports .

Intra-company trade is based on the exchange of semi-finished products and spare parts used in the assembly of a product intended for sale on the world market. At the same time, foreign trade statistics indicate that foreign trade is rapidly expanding between countries where the largest transnational corporations are located.

Statements by high-ranking Russian politicians that Russia is a full member of the G8, that Russia has been recognized as a country with a market economy, and that it is ready to join the WTO are pronounced with pride.

Meanwhile, there is nothing particularly to be proud of, because Russia has not become a full member of the international economic community with full voting rights on all the most important issues. Russia was forcibly “dragged” into the world economy, burdened with all its inherent problems and not provided with any tools to solve them. This fact, which manifested itself most clearly in the crisis year of 1998, when events in the currency and stock markets of distant Southeast Asia had a much greater impact on the country’s economy than the Russian government, now, after 4 years of economic growth, is still is perceived as a problem, as a potential threat to macroeconomic stability. And if then the main problem was the flow of capital, “hot money”, now it is increasingly the flow of goods, i.e. the country’s dependence on raw material exports, and, consequently, on the situation in world commodity markets.

Indeed, the Russian economy, as many experts note, has become quite open: in terms of the ratio of trade turnover to GDP (60%), Russia in 2003 surpassed countries such as France (47%), Germany (56%), Japan (18%). ) and the USA (21%). Foreign trade has a decisive impact on the economic development of the country. Thus, the contribution of exports to production growth was 87% in 1999, and 66% in 2003. 1 A number of strategically important industries rely in their development on export supplies. In 2003, revenue from exports amounted to 80% in the non-ferrous metallurgy industry, 62% in the oil and gas industry, and 56% in the ferrous metallurgy industry. 2 Export-oriented industries account for 70-75% of the economy’s profits and approximately the same amount of investments, 50-60% of tax revenues, 25-30% of household incomes, and all foreign exchange earnings necessary to pay off external debt and maintain the ruble exchange rate. At the same time, imports account for up to half of retail trade turnover and investment in machinery and equipment.

It seems advisable to pay closer attention to the general trends in the development of foreign trade as one of the types of international economic relations (IER), which in turn are part of a higher order integrity - the world economy. It is this systematic view of the problem that allows us to display development processes in their entirety, and not limit ourselves to describing quantitative shifts in the structure of foreign trade.

2. The role of Russian foreign trade in the global economy

Even the most general look at the processes taking place in the world economy and in Russian foreign trade allows us to see how complex and contradictory they are, and to understand the need for a dialectical approach to them, which represents every phenomenon as the unity of two opposing trends. In relation to foreign trade, these trends can be simplified as follows: unification, integration, unification, increasing openness and liberalization, on the one hand, and regionalization, specialization, socio-economic differentiation, diversification, separatism and protectionism on the other.

Indeed, on the one hand, the role of foreign trade in the development of Russia's global economy can hardly be overestimated: the exchange of goods and services allows some countries to satisfy the needs for scarce raw materials, cheap consumer goods and thereby reduce production costs and control inflation; other countries - to realize the natural surplus of natural resources, technological superiority and expand the final demand of their economy, going beyond the narrow national borders and receiving additional income and profit; This gives impetus to the further development of production. But the importance of Russia’s foreign trade has especially increased in recent decades, when, with the development of means of transport and communications, the world’s largest manufacturers were able to effectively locate and regulate production facilities scattered across the globe, and most developing countries chose as their basic strategy export-oriented growth, which brought success to the countries of Southeast Asia. At the same time, consumers have the opportunity to buy goods and services without intermediaries, from the Russian Federation, even in other countries of the world (via the Internet). 3

However, on the other hand, these undoubtedly positive changes are accompanied by a mass of negative consequences that call into question the very possibility and expediency of further development in the same direction. It turns out that the liberalization of foreign trade for Russia rather brings negative results in the form of withdrawal of free financial resources and degradation of production. Instead of increasing the efficiency of the economy, financial resources are actually being extracted. In addition, the disadvantages of an export-oriented development strategy are becoming increasingly clear: the more countries take this path, the less chance they have of achieving success due to overproduction of raw materials and food products. All this taken together poses a threat to the global economy as a whole, since it also has a rebound effect on developed countries, whose well-being is to a certain extent based on sources of cheap raw materials and labor and sales markets in third countries. The threat of a classic Keynesian crisis of overproduction due to limited demand on a global scale is becoming increasingly clear.

Therefore, opposite trends arise and strengthen, ultimately aimed at limiting the influence of international relations and foreign trade of Russia on the economic development of countries, smoothing out the negative consequences, expressed primarily in the redistribution of added value in favor of developed countries with a technologically advanced export structure .

Let us dwell in more detail on the analysis of the above-mentioned trends and contradictions.

2.1. Trends and factors in the development of Russian foreign trade

One trend - the world economy is becoming more and more integral, unified, coherent, interdependent - slowly but surely the formation of a single legal, cultural, informational and economic space is taking place, where ideas are freely distributed and their carriers move, capital, goods and services are moved, and opportunities for operational management of huge financial and industrial empires, parts of which are scattered throughout the world. This, as many researchers note, is facilitated by the following factors: 4

- scale– growth in production volumes, concentration and centralization of capital and, as a consequence, the emergence of organizational forms whose activities go beyond national borders, acquiring an international character and contributing to the formation of a single world market;

- organizational and technological– a qualitatively new level of means of transport and communication, ensuring the rapid distribution of goods and services, resources and ideas with their application in the most favorable conditions, as well as a radical change in the means of business communication, accelerating the exchange of economic and financial information, creating opportunities for prompt, timely and effective solving production, scientific, technical, and commercial problems at the international level;

- scientific and technological– determined by the economic benefits of using advanced scientific, technical, technological and qualification levels of leading specialists for the accelerated implementation of new solutions at relatively low costs;

- sociological– manifested in overcoming national limitations, weakening the role of habits and traditions, social ties and customs, which increases the mobility of people in territorial, spiritual and psychological terms, promoting international migration;

- political– expressed in weakening the rigidity of state borders, facilitating the freedom of movement of citizens, goods and services, capital, as well as strengthening the “political unity” of the world after the collapse of the USSR. 5

All these trends are manifested in the development of Russian foreign trade.

Firstly, liberalization is taking place, expressed primarily in reducing obstacles to the free movement of goods and services.

Thus, from the late 40s to 2003, tariffs on Russian imports of industrial goods to developed countries decreased by 90% - to an average of 4%.

Secondly, The processes of international integration are growing, manifested in the creation and strengthening of interstate trade and economic blocs - the EEC, ASEAN, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, the Andean Group.

Third, internationalization and globalization of the world economy are intensifying, by which most experts understand the process of the emergence and development of transnational forms of economic management, within their framework a certain share of production, consumption, exports, imports and income of countries depends on the decisions of international centers located outside their borders.

Fourthly, There is a deepening of the international division of labor and intercountry specialization.

Fifthly, the ongoing processes of universalization, unification, standardization extend to the entire economic and political life, standards of production and consumption, value systems and legislative norms, scientific and technological progress, which will ultimately lead to the formation of a single zone, a single legal and cultural-information field.

Since the second half of the 20th century. The growth of Russia's foreign trade has become explosive. In the period 1950-2003. The volume of world exports, calculated at constant prices, increased 21.8 times (average annual growth rate - 6.4%). Over the same period, world production increased 7.1 times (average annual growth rate - 4.0%). 6

Thus, the share of exports in production increased 3 times. At current prices, by 2003 the share of exports in GDP reached 20.2%. 7 The highest growth rates of foreign trade were observed in the 50s (7.2%) and 60s (8.6%). In the 70s and 80s, these rates gradually slowed down (5.2 and 3.9%, respectively), only to rise rapidly again in the 90s (7.0%). At the same time, from 1950 to 2003, the export of industrial goods increased the most (42 times) and, to a much lesser extent, the export of raw materials (8.3 times) and food (5.9 times). In the 90s, exports of office and telecommunications equipment (12% per year), mechanical engineering and transport equipment (8%), and chemical products (7%) grew at the fastest rates. 8

2.2. Structure of Russian foreign trade

The structure of Russia's foreign trade has undergone significant changes over the past 50-70 years. If in the first half of the 20th century (1937) about 2/3 of world trade turnover accounted for food, raw materials and fuel, then in 2003 - only 22% of trade turnover, and the share of manufacturing industry accordingly increased to 78%, with the share of machinery and equipment – ​​from 11 to 42% (Table 1). 9

It should be noted that there is a tendency to increase the consumption of raw materials and energy resources. However, the growth rate of trade in raw materials noticeably lags behind the overall growth rate of Russian foreign trade, which is due to the development of substitutes for raw materials, their more economical use, and the intensification of their processing.

An important trend is the growth of trade in services: scientific and technical, industrial, commercial, financial and credit. Active trade in machinery and equipment has given rise to a number of new services - engineering, leasing, consulting, information and computing services - which in turn stimulates the intercountry exchange of services, especially of a scientific, technical, production, communication financial and credit nature. At the same time, trade in services, especially information and computing, consulting, leasing, and engineering services, stimulates global trade in capital goods.

As a result, by the end of the 20th century. foreign trade has become one of the main factors of economic development.

The largest share in Russia's foreign trade continues to be occupied by developed countries. In 2003, the countries of Western Europe accounted for 39.3% of world trade turnover, North America - 19.6%, Japan - 6.6%, and the rapidly developing countries of Southeast Asia (including China) - 17.7%. At the same time, the share of North America in exports in the period from 1948 to 1973 decreased from 27.3 to 16.9%, further stabilizing at this level. The share of Western Europe, which increased in 1948-1973. from 31.5 to 45.4%, then fluctuated in the range of 39-44%. 10

As a result, we can conclude that the current situation in the world, and in particular in Russia, is characterized by a typical Keynesian crisis of overproduction due to limited demand. On the one hand, the demand from developed countries for Russian raw materials and food is limited by the rate of their economic growth (2-3% per year), 11 it lags behind the growth in supply from developing countries, which are striving to catch up with developed countries, securing themselves higher rates production and GDP growth (5-10%). In addition, the demand for raw materials is limited by technological factors: increased energy saving, decreased material intensity, and the demand for food is limited by the policies of developed countries (especially the EU) to protect local producers for reasons of national security. On the other hand, demand from developing countries for foreign trade products is limited due to the low solvency of the population, business and government in these countries. Another sign of the crisis can be the increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions: in fact, consolidation, consolidation, integration and cooperation are an effective way to reduce costs in conditions of fierce competition and limited demand.

CONCLUSION

The development and complexity of international trade is reflected in the evolution of theories explaining the driving forces of this process. In modern conditions, differences in international specialization can only be analyzed on the basis of the totality of all key models of the international division of labor.

If we consider world trade in terms of its development trends, then there is, on the one hand, a clear strengthening of international integration, the gradual erasing of borders and the creation of various interstate trade blocs, on the other hand, a deepening of the international division of labor, the division of countries into industrialized and backward ones.

It is impossible not to notice the ever-increasing role of modern means of communication in the process of exchanging information and concluding transactions themselves. Trends towards depersonalization and standardization of goods make it possible to speed up the process of concluding transactions and the turnover of capital.

In historical terms, one cannot help but note the growing influence of Asian countries on world trade processes; it is likely that in the new millennium this region will take leading roles in the global process of production and sale of goods.

Using the example of Russia, it can be noted that the country is a huge market for goods, services and capital. However, the degree to which this potential is realized in the foreign economic sphere is very modest.

The state of Russian foreign trade is still painfully affected by the severance of economic ties as a result of the collapse of the USSR and the curtailment of trade with the former socialist countries - members of the CMEA, which until the early 90s. were the main consumers of domestic engineering products.

But if Russia’s role in world trade is small, then for Russia itself the importance of the foreign economic sphere is very significant. Foreign trade remains an important source of investment goods, and also plays a large role in supplying the Russian population with food and various goods.

To summarize, we note that international, or foreign, trade occupies a special place in the complex system of the world economy. Although in modern conditions the leading form of international economic relations is not the export of goods, but foreign investment, international trade in its scope and functions remains extremely important. It mediates almost all types of cooperation, including joint production activities of multinational entities, international technology transfer, etc. Both historically and logically, the internationalization of economic life always began with the sphere of commodity circulation.

		GLOSSARY
№ p/p	term	definition
	International trade	Trade of an individual country with other countries, consisting of paid exports/imports
	General license	Grants the right to any person to freely import or export goods for a certain time
	Globalization	Strengthening the interdependence of the influence of various spheres world economy, expressed in the gradual transformation of the world economy into a single market for goods/services/capital/labor and - the main thing is knowledge and information
	Individual license	Provided to a specific company; only she can import or export goods
	Internationalization of business activities	Formation and development of economic relations with other countries
	Commercial document	Invoice, delivery note, bill of lading
	License	Permission to use licensed items under certain conditions
	International trade	Paid total trade turnover between all countries of the world, based on the international division of labor
	Open economy	The economy of a country that opens its borders to the penetration of goods/capital from other countries and freely exports its goods/services to other countries
	Trademark	A designation registered in accordance with the established procedure that serves to distinguish the goods of one company from the products of another
	Financial document	Check, bill
		A financial document bearing the name “check” is naming the paying bank, instructing the bank to pay the amount specified in the check amount, date and place of receipt of the check, signature of the drawer

List of used literature

1. Avdokushin E.F., International economic relations. Tutorial. – M.: Marketing, 2005

2. Buglai V.B., Liventsev N.N., International economic relations. -M.: Finance and Statistics, 2003

3. Kireev A.P., International economics. - M.: Higher school, 2000

4. Kostyuk V.N., Macroeconomics. - M.: Center, 2004

5. Mikhailushkin A.I., Shimko P.D., Economics: Textbook for colleges. – M.: Higher School, 2005

6. Mikhailushkin A.I., Shimko P.D., International economics. - M.: Higher School, 2002

7. Mankiw N.G., Macroeconomics. Per. from English – M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2008

8. Ovchinnikov G.P., International Economics: Textbook. allowance. – St. Petersburg: V. A. Mikhailov Publishing House, 2004

9. Pindyke, Rubitfeld, Microeconomics. – M.: Deld, 2007

10. Salvatore D., International Economics: Trans. from English/Ed. G. N. Kotova. – M., 2002

Applications

Annex 1.

Dynamics of physical volumes of world production and exports in 1950-2000.

Appendix 2.

Structure of Russian foreign trade by product groups in 2003

1 Obolensky V.P. Prospects for expanding competitive advantages and changing the structure of Russian foreign trade // Problems of forecasting. 2004. No. 6. P. 24

2 Obolensky V.P. Prospects for expanding competitive advantages and changing the structure of Russian foreign trade // Problems of forecasting. 2004. No. 6. P. 48

3 International economic relations. Textbook for universities / Ed. prof. V.E. Rybalkina. Ed. 4th, revised and additional M.: UNITY-DANA, 2001. P. 129

4 Krasnov L.V. Problems of development of foreign trade in Russia at the present stage // Problems of forecasting. 2002. No. 6. P. 28-41

5 Dolgov S.I. Globalization of the economy. A new word or a new phenomenon. M.: Economics, 2002. P. 271

6 Obolensky V.P. Prospects for expanding competitive advantages and changing the structure of Russian foreign trade // Problems of forecasting. 2004. No. 6. P. 51

7 Krasnov L.V. Problems of development of foreign trade in Russia at the present stage // Problems of forecasting. 2002. No. 6. P. 43

Basic theories international trade (4)Abstract >> Economic theory

Analysis main theories international trade. Object of study - basic theories international trade: theory absolute advantages of A. Smith, theory comparative advantages D. Ricardo, theory ratios...

Theories international trade (3)

Abstract >> Economics

The basis for the development of the social division of labor. Basic theories international trade were founded at the end of the 18th century...

Based on the benefits it brings to the countries participating in it. The theory of international trade gives an idea of ​​what is the basis of this gain from foreign trade, or what determines the directions of foreign trade flows. International trade serves as a tool through which countries, by developing their specialization, can increase the productivity of existing resources and thus increase the volume of goods and services they produce and improve the level of well-being of the population.

Many famous economists have dealt with international trade issues. The main theories of international trade - Mercantilist theory, A. Smith's Theory of Absolute Advantage, D. Ricardo and D. S. Mill's Theory of Comparative Advantage, Heckscher-Ohlin Theory, Leontief Paradox, Product Life Cycle Theory, M. Porter's Theory, Rybchinsky Theorem, and Samuelson and Stolper Theory.

Mercantilist theory.

Mercantilism is a system of views of economists of the 15th-17th centuries, focused on the active intervention of the state in economic activity. Representatives of the direction: Thomas Maine, Antoine de Montchretien, William Stafford. The term was coined by Adam Smith, who criticized the writings of the mercantilists. The mercantilist theory of international trade arose during the period of initial accumulation of capital and great geographical discoveries, and was based on the idea that the presence of gold reserves was the basis for the prosperity of a nation. Foreign trade, the mercantilists believed, should be focused on obtaining gold, since in the case of simple commodity exchange, ordinary goods, once used, cease to exist, and gold accumulates in the country and can be used again for international exchange.

Trading was viewed as a zero-sum game, where the gain of one participant automatically means the loss of another, and vice versa. To obtain maximum benefits, it was proposed to strengthen government intervention and control over the state of foreign trade. The trade policy of the mercantilists, called protectionism, was to create barriers in international trade that protect domestic producers from foreign competition, stimulate exports and limit imports by introducing customs duties on foreign goods and receiving gold and silver in return for their goods.

The main provisions of the Mercantilist theory of international trade:

The need to maintain an active trade balance of the state (excess of exports over imports);

Recognition of the benefits of bringing gold and other precious metals into the country in order to improve its welfare;

Money is a stimulus for trade, since it is believed that an increase in the supply of money increases the volume of the commodity supply;

Protectionism aimed at importing raw materials and semi-finished products and exporting finished products is welcomed;

Restriction on the export of luxury goods, as it leads to the leakage of gold from the state.

Adam Smith's theory of absolute advantage.

In his work “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” in a polemic with mercantilists, Smith formulated the idea that countries are interested in the free development of international trade because they can benefit from it, regardless of whether they are exporters or importers. Each country must specialize in the production of that product where it has an absolute advantage - a benefit based on different amounts of production costs in individual countries participating in foreign trade. Refusal to produce goods for which countries do not have absolute advantages, and the concentration of resources on the production of other goods lead to an increase in overall production volumes and an increase in the exchange of products of their labor between countries.

Adam Smith's theory of absolute advantage suggests that a country's real wealth consists of the goods and services available to its citizens. If a country can produce a particular good more and cheaper than other countries, then it has an absolute advantage. Some countries can produce goods more efficiently than others. The country's resources flow into profitable industries because the country cannot compete in unprofitable industries. This leads to an increase in the country's productivity as well as the skill of the workforce; Long periods of producing homogeneous products provide incentives for the development of more efficient work methods.

Natural advantages for a particular country: climate; territory; resources. Acquired advantages for a particular country: production technology, that is, the ability to produce a variety of products.

The theory of comparative advantage by D. Ricardo and D.S. Millya.

In his work “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,” Ricardo showed that the principle of absolute advantage is only a special case of the general rule, and substantiated the theory of comparative advantage. When analyzing the directions of development of foreign trade, two circumstances should be taken into account: firstly, economic resources - natural, labor, etc. - are distributed unevenly between countries, and secondly, the effective production of various goods requires different technologies or combinations of resources.

The advantages that countries have are not given once and for all, D. Ricardo believed, therefore even countries with absolutely higher levels of production costs can benefit from trade exchanges. It is in the interests of each country to specialize in production in which it has the greatest advantage and the least weakness and for which not the absolute, but the relative benefit is the greatest - this is D. Ricardo’s law of comparative advantage.

According to Ricardo, the total volume of output will be greatest when each product is produced by the country in which the opportunity costs are lower. Thus, comparative advantage is a benefit based on lower opportunity costs in the exporting country. Hence, as a result of specialization and trade, both countries involved in the exchange will benefit. An example in this case would be the exchange of English cloth for Portuguese wine, which brings benefits to both countries, even if the absolute costs of production of both cloth and wine are lower in Portugal than in England.

Subsequently D.S. Mill, in his work “Principles of Political Economy,” explained the price at which exchange is carried out. According to Mill, the price of exchange is set by the laws of supply and demand at such a level that the totality of each country's exports allows it to pay for the totality of its imports - this is the law of international value.

Heckscher-Ohlin theory.

This theory of scientists from Sweden, which appeared in the 30s of the twentieth century, refers to the neoclassical concepts of international trade, since these economists did not adhere to the labor theory of value, considering capital and land productive, along with labor. Therefore, the reason for their trade is the different availability of factors of production in countries participating in international trade.

The main provisions of their theory boiled down to the following: firstly, countries have a tendency to export those goods for the production of which the factors of production available in abundance in the country are used, and, conversely, to import goods for the production of which relatively rare factors are needed; secondly, in international trade there is a tendency to equalize “factor prices”; third, the export of goods can be replaced by the movement of factors of production across national borders.

The neoclassical concept of Heckscher-Ohlin turned out to be convenient for explaining the reasons for the development of trade between developed and developing countries, when in exchange for raw materials coming to developed countries, machinery and equipment were imported into developing countries. However, not all phenomena of international trade fit into the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, since today the center of gravity of international trade is gradually shifting to mutual trade of “similar” goods between “similar” countries.

Leontief's paradox.

These are studies by an American economist who questioned the provisions of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory and showed that in the post-war period the US economy specialized in those types of production that required relatively more labor rather than capital. The essence of Leontiev's paradox was that the share of capital-intensive goods in exports could grow, while labor-intensive goods could decline. In fact, when analyzing the US trade balance, the share of labor-intensive goods did not decrease.

The solution to Leontief's paradox was that the labor intensity of goods imported by the United States is quite high, but the price of labor in the value of the product is much lower than in US exports. The capital intensity of labor in the United States is significant, together with high labor productivity this leads to a significant impact on the price of labor in export supplies. The share of labor-intensive supplies in US exports is growing, confirming the Leontief paradox. This is due to the growth in the share of services, labor prices and the structure of the US economy. This leads to an increase in labor intensity throughout the American economy, not excluding exports.

Product life cycle theory.

It was put forward and substantiated by R. Vernoy, C. Kindelberger and L. Wels. In their opinion, a product, from the moment it appears on the market until it leaves it, goes through a cycle consisting of five stages:

Product development. The company finds and implements a new product idea. At this time, sales volume is zero, costs rise.

Bringing the product to market. There is no profit due to high costs for marketing activities, sales volume is growing slowly;

Rapid market penetration, increased profits;

Maturity. Sales growth is slowing down, since the bulk of consumers have already been attracted. The level of profit remains unchanged or decreases due to increased costs of marketing activities to protect the product from competition;

Decline. Decline in sales and reduction in profits.

M. Porter's theory.

This theory introduces the concept of country competitiveness. It is national competitiveness, from Porter’s point of view, that determines the success or failure in specific industries and the place that a country occupies in the world economic system. National competitiveness is determined by the capacity of industry. At the heart of the explanation of a country's competitive advantage is the role of the home country in stimulating renewal and improvement (that is, in stimulating the production of innovation).

Government measures to maintain competitiveness:

Government influence on factor conditions;

Government influence on demand conditions;

Government impact on related and supporting industries;

The impact of government on firm strategy, structure, and rivalry.

A serious incentive to success in the global market is sufficient competition in the domestic market. Artificial dominance of enterprises through government support, from Porter’s point of view, is a negative solution that leads to waste and inefficient use of resources. The theoretical premises of M. Porter served as the basis for developing recommendations at the state level to increase the competitiveness of foreign trade goods in Australia, New Zealand and the USA in the 90s of the twentieth century.

Rybczynski's theorem. The theorem states that if the value of one of the two factors of production increases, then in order to maintain constant prices for goods and factors it is necessary to increase the production of those products that intensively use this increased factor, and reduce the production of other products that intensively use the fixed factor. In order for the prices of goods to remain constant, the prices of factors of production must remain constant.

Factor prices can remain constant only if the ratio of factors used in two industries remains constant. In the case of growth of one factor, this can only occur if production in the industry in which that factor is intensively used is increased and production in another industry is reduced, which will lead to the release of the fixed factor, which will become available for use along with the growing factor in the expanding industry .

Samuelson and Stolper theory.

In the middle of the 20th century. (1948), American economists P. Samuelson and V. Stolper improved the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, imagining that in the case of homogeneity of production factors, identical technology, perfect competition and complete mobility of goods, international exchange equalizes the price of production factors between countries. The authors base their concept on the Ricardian model with additions from Heckscher and Ohlin and view trade not just as a mutually beneficial exchange, but also as a means to reduce the development gap between countries.

The rule of international specialization, depending on absolute advantages, excluded countries from international trade that did not have them. D. Ricardo, in his work “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” (1817), developed the theory of absolute advantage and showed that the presence of an absolute advantage in the national production of a particular product is not a necessary condition for the development of international trade - international exchange is possible and desirable if presence of comparative advantages.

The theory of international trade by D. Ricardo is based on the following premises:

Free trade;

Fixed production costs;

Lack of international labor mobility;

No transportation costs;

Lack of technical progress;

Full employment;

There is one factor of production (labor).

The theory of comparative advantage states that if countries specialize in the production of those goods that they produce at a relatively lower cost compared to other countries, then trade will be mutually beneficial for both countries, regardless of whether production in one of them is absolutely more efficient than the other. In other words: the basis for the emergence and development of international trade can only be the difference in the relative costs of production of goods, regardless of the absolute value of these costs.

In D. Ricardo's model, domestic prices are determined only by cost, that is, by supply conditions. But world prices can also be set by the conditions of world demand, as proved by the English economist J. Stuart Miles. In his work “Principles of Political Economy,” he showed at what price the exchange of goods between countries takes place.

In free trade, goods will be exchanged at a price ratio that is established somewhere between the relative prices existing within each country for the goods they trade. The exact final price level, that is, world prices of mutual trade, will depend on the volume of world demand and supply for each of these goods.

According to the theory of mutual demand developed by J. S. Mile, the price of an imported product is determined through the price of the product that must be exported in order to pay for the import. Therefore, the final price ratio in trade is determined by the domestic demand for goods in each of the trading countries. The world price is set on the basis of supply and demand, and its level must be such that the income from a country's total exports enables it to pay for imports. However, when analyzing comparative advantage, it is not the market for a single product that is being examined, but the relationship between the markets for two products that are produced simultaneously in two countries. Therefore, we should consider not absolute, but relative volumes of demand and supply of goods.

Thus, this theory is the basis for determining the price of a product based on comparative advantage. However, its disadvantage is that it can only be applied to countries of approximately equal size, when domestic demand in one of them can affect the price level in another.

in conditions of specialization of countries in trade in goods in the production of which they have a comparative advantage, countries can benefit from trade (economic effect). The country benefits from trade because it can buy more of the foreign goods it needs from abroad for its goods than in its domestic market. Gains from trade come both from savings in labor costs and from increased consumption.

The significance of the theory of comparative advantage is as follows:

The balance of aggregate demand and aggregate supply is described for the first time. The cost of a product is determined by the ratio of aggregate demand and supply for it, presented both within the country and from abroad;

The theory is valid for any quantity of goods and any number of countries, as well as for the analysis of trade between its various subjects. In this case, the specialization of countries in certain goods depends on the ratio of wage levels in each country;

The theory justified the existence of gains from trade for all countries participating in it;

An opportunity has emerged to build foreign economic policy on a scientific foundation.

The limitations of the theory of comparative advantage lie in the underlying premises on which it is built. It does not take into account the influence of foreign trade on the distribution of income within the country, fluctuations in prices and wages, international capital movements, does not explain trade between almost identical countries, none of which has a relative advantage over the other, and takes into account only one factor of production - labor .

Issues of the efficiency of foreign trade are among the fundamental problems of economic theory, on which economic thought has been working over the past three centuries. The development of foreign trade is reflected in the evolution of theories, models, and concepts that explain the driving forces of this process.

The first attempt to create a theory of international trade, combining trade relations with internal economic development, was made by the mercantilists. Mercantilism theory was based on the idea that the wealth of a country depended on the amount of gold and silver. In this regard, mercantilists believed that in the field of foreign trade it was necessary to maintain an active trade balance and carry out state regulation of foreign trade activities in order to increase exports and reduce imports.

Mercantilist theories of international trade gave rise to a direction of economic policy that has long outlived it and remains relevant today - protectionism. The policy of protectionism consists in the active protection by the state of the interests of the domestic economy, as they are understood by one or another government.

As a result of mercantilist policies using the tools of protectionism, complex systems of customs duties, taxes, and barriers were created that ran counter to the needs of the emerging capitalist economy. Moreover, the static theory of mercantilism was built on the principle of enriching one country by reducing the well-being of other nations.

The next stage in the development of the theory of international trade is associated with the name of A. Smith, the creator absolute advantage theories. A. Smith believed that the government’s task is not to regulate the sphere of circulation, but to implement measures to develop production on the basis of cooperation and division of labor, taking into account the support of a free trade regime. The essence of the theory of absolute advantage is that international trade is beneficial if two countries trade goods that each produces at lower costs.

The theory of absolute advantage is only part of the general economic teachings of A. Smith, the ideologist of economic liberalism. From this doctrine flows the policy of free trade, opposed to protectionism.

Modern economists see the strength of the theory of absolute advantage in the fact that it shows the clear advantages of the division of labor not only at the national level, but also at the international level. The weakness of this theory is that it does not explain why countries trade even in the absence of absolute advantages.

The answer to this question was found by another English economist D. Ricardo, who discovered law of comparative advantage, which states: the basis for the emergence and development of international trade can be an exceptional difference in the costs of production of goods, regardless of absolute values.

The role and significance of the law of comparative advantage is evidenced by the fact that for many decades it remained predominant in explaining the efficiency of foreign trade turnover and had a strong impact on the entire economic science.

However, D. Ricardo left unanswered the question of the origin of comparative advantages, which form the necessary prerequisites for the development of international trade. In addition, the limitations of this law include those assumptions that were introduced by its creator: one factor of production was taken into account - labor, production costs were considered constant, the production factor was mobile within the country and immobile outside its borders, there were no transport costs.

During the 19th century. the labor theory of value (created by D. Ricardo and developed by K. Marx) gradually lost its popularity, faced with competition from other teachings; At the same time, major changes took place in the system of international division of labor and international trade, caused by a decrease in the role of natural differences and the increasing importance of industrial production. As a response to the challenge of the time, neoclassical economists E. Heckscher and B. Ohlin created theory of factors of production: mathematical calculations for it are given by P. Samuelson. This theory can be represented by two interrelated theorems.

The first of them, explaining the structure of international trade turnover, not only recognizes that trade is based on comparative advantage, but also derives the cause of comparative advantage from differences in the endowment of factors of production.

Second - factor price equalization theorem Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson - affects the effect of international trade on factor prices. The essence of this theorem is that an economy will be relatively more efficient by producing goods that make more intensive use of factors that are abundantly available in a given country.

The limitations of the theory are due to many assumptions. It was assumed that returns to scale are constant, factors are mobile within the country and immobile outside it, competition is perfect, there are no transport costs, tariffs or other obstacles.

It can be noted that in the field of analysis of foreign trade until the middle of the 20th century. Economic thought concentrated more on the study of the supply of goods and factors of production and did not pay due attention to demand due to the emphasis on considering the reduction of production costs.

The theory of comparative advantage became the starting point not only for the development of the theory of factors of production, but also for two other directions, the specificity of which is determined by the fact that they pay attention not only to supply, but also to demand.

In this context, the first direction is associated with the theory of mutual demand, created by the follower of D. Ricardo J.St. Mill, who derived the law of international value, showing at what price the exchange of goods between countries takes place: the more external support for the goods of a given country and the less capital is used for the production of export goods, the more favorable the terms of trade will be for the country. This theory was further developed in general equilibrium models, created by A. Marshall and F. Edgeworth.

D. Ricardo's law also led to the development opportunity cost theory. The prerequisite for its creation was that the facts of economic life came into conflict with the labor theory of value.

In addition, replacement costs are not constant, as in the theory of comparative advantage, but growing according to a pattern known from general economic theory and in accordance with economic realities.

The foundations of the theory of opportunity costs were laid by G. Haeberler and F. Edgeworth.

This theory was based on the fact that:

• production possibility curves (or transformation curves) have a negative slope and show that the actual ratio of output of different goods is different for each country, which encourages them to trade with each other;
• if the curves coincide, then trade is based on differences in tastes and preferences;
• supply is determined by the curve of the maximum level of transformation, and demand is determined by the curve of the maximum level of substitution;
• the equilibrium price at which trade is conducted is determined by the relationship between relative world supply and demand.

Thus, comparative advantage has been proven based not only on the labor theory of value, but also on the theory of opportunity costs. The latter showed that there is no complete specialization of the country in the field of foreign trade, since after achieving an equilibrium price in mutual trade, further specialization of each country loses its economic meaning.

Despite the fundamental nature and evidence presented, the theories considered were constantly subjected to testing, carried out on the basis of various empirical data. The first study of the theory of comparative advantage was carried out in the early 1950s by McDougall, who confirmed the law of comparative advantage and showed the existence of a positive relationship between the labor productivity equation in individual industries and the share of their products in total exports. In the context of globalization and internationalization of world economic relations, basic theories cannot always explain the existing diversity of international commodity exchange. In this regard, an active search continues for new theories that provide answers to various questions of international trade practice. These studies can be divided into two large groups. The first, using a neofactor approach, is based on the assertion that traditional theories require clarification in particular regarding the quantity of factors of production and their quality.

Within the framework of this direction, the following models, hypotheses and concepts have been developed and proposed.

1. A study carried out by V. Leontiev in 1956 served as the basis for the emergence of a model of skilled labor developed by D. Keesing, who proved that not two, but three factors are used in production: skilled, unskilled labor and capital. In this regard, the unit costs of production of export goods are calculated for each group separately.
2. P. Samuelson's theory of specific factors of production showed that international trade is based on differences in the relative prices of goods, which in turn arise due to different degrees of endowment of factors of production, with factors specific to the export sector developing, and factors specific to import-competing sectors are shrinking.
3. An important place in this direction is given to the issue of distribution of income from international trade. This question was developed in the theorems of Stolper-Samuelson, Rybchinsky, Samuelson-Jones.
4. Swedish economist S. Linder, who created the theory of overlapping demand, suggests that similarity of tastes and preferences enhances foreign trade, since countries export goods for which there is a large domestic market. The limitation of this theory is due to the fact that it manifests itself with an even distribution of income between individual groups of countries.

The second group of studies, emerging on the basis of the neo-technological approach, analyzes situations not covered by the presented theories, rejects the position on the decisive importance of differences in factors or technologies and requires new alternative models and concepts.

Within this direction, the advantages of a country or firm are determined not by the targeting of factors and not by the intensity of the factors spent, but by the monopoly position of the innovator in technological terms. A number of new models have been created here that develop and enrich the theory of international trade from both the supply and demand sides.

1. Theory of economies of scale justified in the works of P. Krugman: the effect of scale allows us to explain trade between countries that are equally endowed with factors of production, similar goods, under the condition of imperfect competition. In this case, the external effect of scale involves an increase in the number of firms producing the same product, while the size of each of them remains unchanged, which leads to perfect competition. Internal economies of scale contribute to the emergence of imperfect competition, where producers can influence the price of their goods and achieve increased sales by lowering prices. In addition, special attention is paid to the analysis of large firms - transnational companies (TNCs), due to the fact that the company that produces products on the most cost-effective scale occupies a dominant position in the world market, and world trade tends to gravitate towards giant international monopolies.

The neo-technological school associates the main advantages with the monopoly positions of the company (country) - an innovator and proposes a new strategy: to produce not what is relatively cheaper, but what is needed by everyone or many and that no one else can produce yet. At the same time, many economists who are supporters of this direction, in contrast to supporters of the model of comparative advantage, believe that the state can and should support the production of high-tech export goods and not interfere with the curtailment of production of other, outdated ones.

2. Intra-industry trade model is based on the postulates of the theory of economies of scale. Intra-industry exchange provides additional benefits from foreign trade relations due to market expansion. In this case, a country can simultaneously reduce the number of goods it produces but increase the number it consumes. By producing a smaller set of goods, a country realizes economies of scale, increasing productivity and reducing costs. P. Krutman and B. Balassa made a significant contribution to the development of the theory.

Intra-industry exchange is related to the theory of similarity, which explains the cross-trade of comparable goods belonging to the same industry. In this regard, the role of acquired advantages associated with the development and implementation of new technologies is increasing. According to the theory of similarity of countries, in this situation, a developed country has a greater opportunity to adapt its products to the markets of similar countries.

3. Supporters dynamic models Ricardian explanation of the international exchange of technological differences and J. Schum-Peter's theses on the determining role of innovation are used as initial theoretical justifications. They believe that countries differ from each other not only in the availability of production resources, but also in the level of technical development.

One of the first among dynamic models is the theory of the technological gap of M. Posner, who believed that as a result of the emergence of technological innovations, a “technological gap” is formed between countries that have them and those that do not.

4. Life cycle theory R. Vernon explains the specialization of countries in the production and export of the same product at different stages of maturity. In the Asia-Pacific region, where there is a continuous process of sequential passage of certain phases of economic development, the concept of “flying geese” by K. Akamatsu has taken shape and has been confirmed in practice, according to which a hierarchy of international exchanges is formed, corresponding to different levels of development of groups of countries.

It examines the connections between two groups of characteristics;

• evolution of imports - domestic production - exports;
• the transition from consumer goods to capital-intensive ones from simple industrial products to more complex ones.

At the present stage, special attention is paid to the problem of combining the interests of the national economy and large firms participating in international trade. This direction solves the problems of competitiveness at the level of the state and the company. Thus, M. Porter calls the main criteria of competitiveness factor conditions, demand conditions, the state of service industries, and the company’s strategy in a certain competitive situation. At the same time, M. Porter notes that the theory of comparative advantage is applicable only to basic factors such as undeveloped physical resources and unskilled labor. In the presence of developed factors (modern infrastructure, exchange of information on a digital basis, highly educated personnel, research at individual universities), this theory cannot fully explain the specifics of foreign trade practice.

M. Porter also puts forward a rather radical position, according to which in the era of transnationalization one should not talk about trade between countries at all, since it is not countries that trade, but firms. Apparently, in relation to our time, when different countries apply protectionist mechanisms to varying degrees, when brands like “made in USA”, “Italian furniture”, “white assembly”, etc. still remain attractive, this situation is still premature, although it clearly reflects a real trend.

5. Complements the neo-technological analysis of the factors of the international division of labor concept by I. B. Kreivis, which uses the concepts of price elasticity of demand and supply to measure the sensitivity of demand to price changes. According to Kravis, every country imports goods that it either cannot produce itself or can produce in limited quantities and whose supply is elastic, while at the same time exporting goods with highly elastic and superior production to local needs. As a result, a country's foreign trade is determined by the comparative level of elasticity of national and external supply of goods, as well as by higher rates of technological progress in export industries.

In conclusion, we note that at the present stage, theories of international trade pay equal attention to both demand and supply, strive to explain practical issues that arise in the course of foreign trade between countries, modifying the international trade system, and are formed on the basis of the criterion of clarifying factors and their quantities, as well as the monopoly position of the innovator in technological terms.

The deepening of globalization processes in world economic relations confirms the viability of all theories, and practice confirms the need for their constant modification.