Subject: Call for Papers CRIW-NBER Joint Conference on "International Service Flows"
From: Carl Beck (cbeck@nber.org)
Date: Tue Apr 26 2005 - 12:57:51 EDT
Call for Papers
CRIW-NBER Joint Conference on "International Service Flows"
An increasingly important feature of the U.S. economy is international
trade in services rather than in goods. Rising cross-border activity in
services seems to be driven by many forces. One is the ongoing shift in
U.S. comparative advantage away from many traditional manufactured
goods. Another is a dramatic decline in cross-border communication costs
made possible by the Internet and innovations in fiber optic
telecommunications.
Anecdotal evidence now abounds on the growing importance of international
transactions in servicese.g., call centers, software programming, and
medical services such as radiology diagnostics. Yet the systematic
evidence on the nominal values and prices of these transactions is
sparse. Moreover, despite the frequent assertion that the globalization of
services is somehow different in its effects from traditional trade in
goods, there has been little systematic research on the effects of trade in
services on the broader economy, or on the variables that may explain
patterns of trade in services.
This CRIW-NBER conference aims to provide such evidence. It will draw
together researchers from academia, government agencies, and the private
sector to present new work on measuring the extent and impact of
international service flows. Possible topics of investigation include the
following.
Measurement of trends in international trade in services, or in foreign
direct investment (FDI) related to services. Examples of specific topics
are: trade in intermediate inputs rather than in final products (e.g.,
business-processing services rather than tourism), as intermediates seem to
be an increasingly important component of trade in services; whether
measurement problems differentially affect exports or imports, thereby
causing an over- or understatement of GDP and productivity growth; whether
measurement problems differentially affect income payments to the rest of
the world or income receipts from the rest of the world, thereby causing
over- or understatement of the difference between GDP and GNP; and
difficulties in drawing national boundaries around production and ownership
caused by the rising tradability of many service activities.
Cross-border flows of intellectual services as embodied in R&D activity,
patents, and royaltiesboth arms-length and within multinationals. Many
recent anecdotes highlight American-based companies establishing and/or
expanding R&D operations abroad. Intellectual property seems to be
increasingly produced outside the United States, which may carry very
different implications for companies, workers, and the overall economy.
Implications of international tax laws for actual and reported cross-border
activity in services. For example, a concern is that U.S. multinationals
may reduce their U.S. tax liability by manipulating intra-firm transfer
prices and thus profitability across parent and affiliate operations. It
is widely thought that services activities (e.g., royalty payments on
intellectual property) are particularly useful transfer-pricing vehicles.
Measurement and analysis of prices for internationally traded
services. The United States has a long-standing program for measuring
export and import prices, but its focus has been on goods rather than
services. What price data exist or can be developed on internationally
traded services? Do traded services present unique price measurement problems?
The effect of international flows of services on domestic factor marketsin
particular, on labor-market outcomes. There is now a large literature on
the impact of globalization (trade, FDI, and immigration) on the level and
distribution of wages, but much of this has focused on the global
engagement of manufacturing only. Rising cross-border transactions in
services may present new issues to consider for labor-market outcomes.
Studies of particular industries that raise important problems of
measurement of international service flows. For example, banks may be able
to shift the reporting of transactions between their foreign and domestic
offices with little regard for where the underlying activity actually
occurred. For insurance, the measurement problems posed by the volatility
of premiums and claims can be intensified by cross-border activity.
International flows of services and the overall U.S. balance-of-payments
position (current account and/or capital account). For example, for many
years the overall U.S. current-account deficit has masked a trade surplus
for international trade in services. Significant undercounting of services
exports or imports might carry implications for the true size of the
overall current-account deficit.
Data gaps and proposals for filling these gaps. For the topics listed
aboveand other related topicscrucial gaps may exist in the
data. Identifying such gaps is an important research goal, especially if
this leads to concrete proposals for how best to fill them.
As with previous CRIW-NBER conferences, proceedings from this conference
are to be published in an edited volume.
All interested researchers are invited to submit paper proposals and
abstracts to Marshall B. Reinsdorf (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) at
Marshall.Reinsdorf@BEA.gov and to Matthew J. Slaughter (Tuck School of
Business, Dartmouth) at Matthew.J.Slaughter@Dartmouth.EDU no later than
August 15, 2005. A pre-conference will be held on November 14, 2005, to be
followed by a full conference in April 2006. By the time of the
pre-conference, authors will need at a minimum a detailed outline of the
research plan, including data sources, estimation procedures and
anticipated results; preliminary paper drafts are preferred, if possible.
