From exports to value added to income: Accounting for bilateral income transfers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bohn, Timon; Brakman, Steven; Dietzenbacher, Erik
• 署名单位: University of Groningen
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2021.103496
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: International trade; multinational firms; Gross national income; Value-added trade; Trade balance

摘要

The existence of multinational firms and the rise of global value chains raise the question how international trade contributes to a country's income. Ownership relations between, for example, headquarters and subsidiaries result in international income transfers. These transfers are ignored in standard trade data. Taking them into account in a global input-output analysis allows us to assess how much income is generated in one country due to the consumption of final products in another country. This provides a new perspective compared to the concept of value-added exports introduced by Johnson and Noguera (2012). For the US, we find that the income generated by foreign consumption is 51% higher than the value added in the US that is generated by foreign consumption. Similar findings hold for other countries as well, but to a lesser extent. The implication is that the current account deficit of the US almost disappears from the income perspective. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.