International Economic Transactions: A Conference on Research and Measurement - Washington, DC, Fall l989

世界经济日益相互依存，包括商品、服务、生产要素和金融资产市场的国际化，对衡量和监测一国境外的经济影响产生了越来越多的需求。20世纪70年代外国石油冲击对美国经济的重大影响，以及80年代政策急剧转变和结构变化的国际影响，显然已经使任何挥之不去的封闭经济衡量和评估惯例变得过时。随着各国加强协商和协调政策，以应对不断变化的贸易模式、日益严重的外部不平衡和汇率波动，每个国家对国际交易的监测和监测有进一步的推动力，使其可与其他国家相媲美。这项提议是于1989年秋季在华盛顿特区召开一次为期两天的国际经济交易会议。该项目委托撰写文件，促进这一实质性领域的衡量、政策评估和知识。每篇论文都是经验性的，每篇论文都试图使用选定的子领域的数据来回答一个重要的研究问题。最后，每份文件都评估了以下一个分领域的数据质量：贸易商品和服务的价格和成本；贸易、产出和消费之间的关系；服务贸易；初级投入的直接投资和具体贸易；跨国存量和金融资本流动；以及政策的衡量。所讨论的研究问题的例证是：如何比较贸易商品的价格指数并根据质量变化进行修正，如何确定决定因素和服务贸易和直接投资的规模，以及如何衡量非税收、非关税政策举措及其影响。更广泛的科学界越来越担心，国际经济数据需要进行批判性评估和重大改革。现在是时候召集具有最高专业声誉的研究人员、政策分析师和统计人员，并对卓越质量的衡量和研究做出经证明的承诺。

The growing economic interdependence of the world economy, including the internationalization of markets for goods, services, factors of production, and financial assets is creating increasing demands for measuring and monitoring economic influences from beyond a country's borders. The substantial impact on the U.S. economy of the foreign oil shocks during the 1970s and the international repercussions of sharp policy shifts and structural change in the 1980s have clearly rendered obsolete any lingering conventions of closed-economy measurement and assessment. As efforts to consult on and coordinate policies across countries mount in response to changing patterns of trade, growing external imbalances, and fluctuating exchange rates, there is a further impetus for each country's mneasurement and monitoring of international transactions to be comparable to that of other countries. This proposal is to convene a two-day conference in Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 1989 on international economic transactions. The project commissions papers that advance measurement, policy assessment and knowledge in this substantive area. Each paper is empirical, and each attempts to answer an important research question using data from a choice of sub-areas. Finally, each paper assesses the quality of data in one of these sub-areas: prices and costs of traded goods and services; relations among trade, output and consumption; trade in services; direct investment and embodied trade in primary inputs; cross national stocks and flows of financial capital; and measurement of policy. Illustrative of research questions addressed are how to compare price indexes of traded goods and correct them for quality change, how to identify determinants and size of trade and direct investment in services, and how to measure non-tax, non-tariff policy initiatives and their effects. Concern is increasing within the broader scientific community that international economic data are in need of critical asssessment and significant overhaul. The time is ripe for drawing together researchers, policy analysts, and statistical staff of the highest professional reputation , with proven commitments to measurement and research of outstanding quality.