ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the operationalizations of the variables and the functional forms of the models under investigation. It aims to define and study the variables in the functional forms include: import penetration, comparative advantage, macroeconomic condition, United States’ import policy, Newly Industrializing Countries export policy, and United States’ national security interest. The chapter presents the functional forms of the individual and integrative models of import penetration, that is, interdependence, dependence, mercantilist, and composite models. It discusses the expected results of these models in accordance which the suggestions of the respective theoretical perspectives. Comparative advantage offers a micro-economic rationale for import penetration. Essentially, it is based on a particular actor’s endowment with productive factors. Comparative advantages are computed as the total of labor costs divided by the total value of industrial outputs for particular commodities. The dependency perspective is based on the idea that trade relations are conditioned by the developed economies in particular, and by the international system in general.
