How do trader characteristics explain international pricing behaviour? Evidence from Taiwan and UK customs trade data.

2019年，英国是台湾在欧洲的第三大贸易伙伴，而台湾是英国在亚洲的第七大贸易伙伴（台湾外交部）。随着英国脱欧过渡期的结束，英国将能够制定自己独立的贸易政策，台湾和英国在最近几轮双边贸易谈判中寻求促进贸易并加强两国之间的经济伙伴关系。由于台湾和英国都是小型的开放经济体，与一个大型邻近经济体（分别是中国和欧盟）进行贸易，而中国和欧盟也是台湾和英国的主要贸易伙伴，因此台湾和英国将受益于建立一个联合学术网络，可以分享最佳实践，并促进两个贸易团队之间的知识交流，这些贸易团队已经获得了台湾和英国高度分类的交易级海关贸易数据和公司级财务数据。该项目旨在通过制定三个工作包建立密切的工作伙伴关系。第一个方案是通过在两个贸易团队之间建立密切的工作关系来建立更紧密的网络，以便(i)通过启动活动分享处理机密海关数据的经验，并讨论数据共享的范围，（ii）通过研讨会培训将处理大数据的早期职业研究人员，以及（iii）通过闭幕会议与更广泛的研究团体和政策受众接触，以传播我们的研究成果。我们的第二个工作包将启动联合研究活动，其中包括一个研究项目，研究不同的交易者如何在国际定价方面对汇率变动等外部冲击作出不同的反应。在解释企业的定价策略时，我们将特别关注两国贸易商特征的两个方面(1)企业的财务约束和(2)企业对最大贸易伙伴（台湾企业的中国和英国企业的欧盟）的依赖。我们将采用一种创新的方法，在台英双边贸易的背景下，确定两国的这些特征，我们的研究结果将对小型开放经济体在进行通胀预测或预测货币政策有效性时具有很强的政策意义。最后，我们的第三个前瞻性方案将制定一个三年计划，作为2023-2026年台英贸易的兴趣领域，并在指定的社交媒体账户上进行宣传。我们还将寻求发展政策影响，例如，通过促进潜在的双边贸易便利化政策，如台湾和英国之间相互信任的贸易商的相互承认协议。

In 2019, the UK ranks as Taiwan's 3rd largest trading partner in Europe, while Taiwan is the UK's 7th largest trading partner in Asia (Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs). As the Brexit transition period ends and the UK will be able to develop its own independent trade policies, Taiwan and the UK have sought to boost trade and strengthen the economic partnership between the two countries in recent rounds of bilateral trade talks.As both countries are small open economies trading next to a large neighbouring economy that is also their main trading partner, namely China and the EU, respectively, Taiwan and the UK stand to benefit from having a joint academic network that can share best practice and facilitate knowledge exchange between two trade teams that already have access to highly disaggregate transactional-level customs trade data and firm-level financial data for Taiwan and the UK.This project aims to establish a close working partnership through the development of three work packages. The first package is to initiate closer networking by establishing a close working relationship between the two trade teams for (i) sharing experience in working with confidential customs data and discussing scope for data sharing through a launch event, (ii) training early career researchers who will be working with big data through a workshop, and (iii) engaging with wider research communities and policy audience through a closing conference to disseminate our research output.Our second work package will initiate joint research activities with a research project on how different traders respond differently in terms of international pricing in response to external shocks such as exchange rate movements. In particular, we will focus on two aspects of trader characteristics in both countries (i) firms' financial constraints and (ii) firms' dependence on the largest trading partners (China for Taiwanese firms and the EU for UK firms), in explaining firms' pricing strategies. We will take an innovative approach to identify these characteristics for both countries in the context of Taiwan-UK bilateral trade, and our findings will have strong policy implications for small open economies when making inflation forecasts or predicting the effectiveness of monetary policy.Finally, our third forward-looking package will develop a 3-year plan as Areas of Interest for Taiwan-UK trade 2023-2026, to be advertised with a designated social media account. We will also seek to develop policy impact, for instance, by promoting potential bilateral trade facilitating policies such as a mutual recognition agreement for each other's trusted traders between Taiwan and the UK.