[11月3日]国际经济学Workshop

发布日期：2014-11-03 02:45 来源：北京大学国家发展研究院

Seminar on International Economics (11.3)

时间：2014年11月3日（周一）14:00-15:30

地点：北京大学国家发展研究院/中国经济研究中心512会议室

主持：余淼杰

主讲：林发勤, 中央财经大学

主题：The Effect of Trade on Child Mortality in the LDCs: The Role of Institutions and the Environment

摘要：Child mortality is a persistent problem for the world's least developed countries (LDCs). In this paper, we investigate if trade has a causal effect on child mortality for the LDCs, and if so, what sign this effect might be and whether institutions matter in how trade and child mortality are related. To do so, we construct a new instrument for trade using information from the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which reflects the cost of transporting primary goods, which are the main exports of the LDCs. We find that trade may increase child mortality in LDCs with autocratic governments, but similar evidence is not observed for democratic LDCs. We explore whether environmental quality, in particular, pollution, is a possible channel through which trade and child mortality are linked. We find that an increase in trade may lead to higher levels of pollution, which in turn may cause the child mortality rates in autocratic LDCs to rise.

演讲者简介：林发勤，中央财经大学国际经济贸易学院助理教授，博士毕业于对外经济贸易大学、澳大利亚阿德莱德大学。研究领域为国际经济学和发展经济学（侧重实证：如何正确识别变量之间的因果关系）。目前已在 European Economic Review，Economics of Transition，Journal of Comparative Economics，Economics Letters，Economic Modelling，Review of Applied Economics，《经济研究》，《世界经济研究》，《国际贸易问题》等期刊上发表多篇文章。