Purpose

This paper aims at assessing the impact of institutional and cultural distances and trade barriers on ASEAN's trade efficiency using a panel data set of 65 countries for the period 2006–2017.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors applied an improved version of the stochastic frontier model to estimate the trade efficiency scores. After that, we used the system generalized method of moment (GMM) estimator to investigate the impacts of institutional and cultural distances on ASEAN's trade efficiency.

Findings

The results show that the trade efficiency of ASEAN countries with the rest of the world (ROW) is moderate, ranging from 0.561 to 0.612, but shows a downward trend. This result indicates that considerable trade potential exists between ASEAN countries and ROW. Institutional and cultural distances, as well as the trade barriers, negatively affect ASEAN's trade efficiency. Efforts to reduce differences in institutions and cultures and to promote trade liberalization are vital remedies for ASEAN countries to turn potentials into actual trade performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the existing literature in three different ways. First, this is the first study on the impact of the differences between internal and external characteristics on trade efficiency, specifically, the impact of institutional and cultural distances on ASEAN's trade efficiency. Second, to obtain accurate efficiency scores, the authors use an improved version of the stochastic frontier model proposed by Karakaplan (2018), which can control the problem of endogeneity. Third, in quantifying the determinants of trade efficiency, the authors apply a system GMM estimator, which allows us to overcome the problems of endogeneity, measurement errors, and omitted variables.

中文翻译：

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制度和文化距离对东盟贸易效率的影响

目的

本文旨在使用 2006-2017 年期间 65 个国家的面板数据集评估制度和文化距离以及贸易壁垒对东盟贸易效率的影响。

设计/方法/方法

首先，作者应用了随机前沿模型的改进版本来估计贸易效率得分。之后，我们使用系统广义矩量法 (GMM) 估计量来调查制度和文化距离对东盟贸易效率的影响。

发现

结果表明，东盟国家与世界其他地区（ROW）的贸易效率适中，介于0.561至0.612之间，但呈下降趋势。这一结果表明东盟国家和世界其他地区之间存在相当大的贸易潜力。制度和文化距离以及贸易壁垒对东盟的贸易效率产生负面影响。努力减少制度和文化差异并促进贸易自由化是东盟国家将潜力转化为实际贸易绩效的重要补救措施。

原创性/价值

本研究以三种不同的方式对现有文献做出贡献。首先，这是首次研究内外特征差异对贸易效率的影响，特别是制度和文化距离对东盟贸易效率的影响。其次，为了获得准确的效率分数，作者使用了 Karakaplan (2018) 提出的随机前沿模型的改进版本，可以控制内生性问题。第三，在量化贸易效率的决定因素时，作者应用了系统 GMM 估计量，它使我们能够克服内生性、测量误差和遗漏变量的问题。