Is FTA/EPA effective for a developing country to attract FDI? : simulation analysis based on an extended knowledge-capital model

To prepare an answer to the question of how a developing country can attract FDI, this paper explored the factors and policies that may help bring FDI into a developing country by utilizing an extended version of the knowledge-capital model. With a special focus on the effects of FTAs/EPAs between market countries and developing countries, simulations with the model revealed the following: (1) Although FTA/EPA generally ends to increase FDI to a developing country, the possibility of improving welfare through increased demand for skilled and unskilled labor becomes higher as the size of the country declines; (2) Because the additional implementation of cost-saving policies to reduce firm-type/trade-link specific fixed costs ends to depreciate the price of skilled labor by saving its input, a developing country, which is extremely scarce in skilled labor, is better off avoiding the additional option; (3) If a country hopes to enjoy larger welfare gains with EPA, efforts to increase skilled labor in the country, such as investing in education, may be beneficial.

Heterogeneous firms and cost sharing in China's marketplaces

This study extends Melitz's model with heterogeneous firms by introducing shared fixed costs in a marketplace. It aims to explain heterogeneous firms' choice between traditional marketplaces and modern distribution channels on the basis of their productivities. The results reveal that the co-existence of a traditional marketplace and modern distribution channels improves social welfare. In addition, a deregulation policy for firm entry outside a marketplace and accumulation of human capital are factors that contribute to improve the social welfare.

Industry-specific effect of CSR initiatives: hotels and airlines

Purpose – This study aims to examine the relationships between a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and its performance and risk. The authors hypothesize that industry-level effects are highly determinant of the sign and magnitude of these relationships to establish a ranking of industries to identify the position of the most prominent tourism-related industries: hotels and airlines. Based on the cybernetic model of decision making and the heuristics thereof, shareholders base their investment decisions derived from CSR announcements on the idea that the industries behave differently; their fixed costs being a relevant factor. Design/methodology/approach – The authors estimate the industry-specific effects of CSR initiatives on firms' performance and risk using a sample of 583 announcements from the Spanish Stock Market. Findings – The results show that while CSR announcements have a positive effect on performance when the authors do not account for industry-specific factors, once the authors incorporate these factors into the analysis, the authors find that firm performance and risk vary quite substantially as a function of the industry to which the firm belongs. Interestingly, while the hotel industry presents an average behavior (standing at 9th position in returns, 15th in terms of risk, and 8th according to the ratio returns/volatility), the airline industry presents the worst situation of all industries: last in performance and last in risk. Practical implications – The results help managers assess their decisions and allocate CSR resources optimally. Originality/value – This article is the first attempt to empirically test and comprehensively detect the different relationships between CSR and firm performance across industries.

Essays on Development Policy and the Political Economy of Conflict

Electoral Rules and Leader Selection: Experimental Evidence from Ugandan Community Groups. Despite a large body of work documenting how electoral systems affect policy outcomes, less is known about their impact on leader selection. We study this by comparing two types of participatory decision making in Ugandan community groups: (i) vote by secret ballot and (ii) open discussion with consensus. Random assignment allows us to estimate the causal impact of the rules on leader types and social service delivery. Vote groups are found to elect leaders more similar to the average member while discussion group leaders are positively selected on socio-economic characteristics. Further, dropout rates are significantly higher in discussion groups, particularly for poorer members. After 3.5 years, vote groups are larger in size and their members save less and get smaller loans. We conclude that the secret ballot vote creates more inclusive groups while open discussion groups favor the already economically successful. Preparing for Genocide: Community Meetings in Rwanda. How do political elites prepare the civilian population for participation in violent conflict? We empirically investigate this question using data from the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Every Saturday before 1994, Rwandan villagers had to meet to work on community infrastructure. The practice was highly politicized and, according to anecdotal evidence, regularly used by the political elites for spreading propaganda in the years before the genocide. This paper presents the first quantitative evidence of this abuse of the community meetings. To establish causality, we exploit cross-sectional variation in meeting intensity induced by exogenous weather fluctuations. We find that an additional rainy Saturday resulted in a five percent lower civilian participation rate in genocide violence. Selection into Borrowing: Survey Evidence from Uganda. In this paper, I study how changes to the standard credit contract affect loan demand and selection into borrowing, using a representative sample of urban micro enterprises, most with no borrowing experience. Hypothetical loan demand questions are used to test whether firm owners respond to changes in loans' contractual terms and whether take-up varies by firms' risk type and other firm owner characteristics. The results indicate that contracts with lower interest rates and less stringent collateral requirements attract less risky borrowers, suggesting that there is scope for improvement of standard financial contract terms. Credit Contract Structure and Firm Growth: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial. We study the effects of credit contract structure on firm outcomes among small and medium sized firms. A randomized control trial was carried out to distinguish between some of the key constraints to efficient credit use connected to the firms' business environment and production function, namely (i) backloaded returns (ii) uncertain returns and (iii) indivisible fixed costs. Each firm was followed for the 1-year loan cycle. We describe the experiment and present preliminary results from the first 754 out of 2,340 firms to have completed the loan cycle. Firms offered a grace period have higher profits and higher household income than firms receiving a rebate later on as well as the control group. They also increased the number of paid employees  and reduced the number of unpaid employees, an effect also found among firms that received a cash subsidy at the beginning of the loan cycle. We discuss potential mechanisms behind these effects.

Three essays on labor liberalization and its effects on world economy

This dissertation consists of three theoretical essays on immigration, international trade and political economy. The first two essays analyze the political economy of immigration in developed countries. The third essay explores new ground on the effects of labor liberalization in developing countries. Trade economists have witnessed remarkable methodological developments in mathematical and game theoretical models during the last seventy years. This dissertation benefits from these advances to analyze economic issues related to immigration. The first essay applies a long run general equilibrium trade model similar to Krugman (1980), and blends it with the median voter ala-Mayer (1984) framework. The second essay uses a short run general equilibrium specific factor trade model similar to Jones (1975) and incorporates it with the median voter model similar to Benhabib (1997). The third essay employs a five stage game theoretical approach similar to Vogel (2007) and solves it by the method of backward induction. The first essay shows that labor liberalization is more likely to come about in societies that have more taste for varieties, and that workers and capital owners could share the same positive stance toward labor liberalization. In a dynamic model, it demonstrates that the median voter is willing to accept fewer immigrants in the first period in order to preserve her domestic political influence in the second period threatened by the naturalization of these immigrants. The second essay shows that the liberalization of labor depends on the host country's stock and distribution of capital, and the number of groups of skilled workers within each country. I demonstrate that the more types of goods both countries produce, the more liberal the host country is toward immigration. The third essay proposes a theory of free movement of goods and labor between two economies with imperfect labor contracts. The heart of my analysis lies in the determinants of talent development where individuals' decisions to emigrate are related to the fixed costs of emigration. Finally, free trade and labor affect income via an indirect effect on individuals' incentives to invest in the skill levels and a direct effect on the prices of goods.

Algorithme de branch-and-price-and-cut pour le problème de conception de réseaux avec coûts fixes, capacités et un seul produit

De nombreux problèmes liés aux domaines du transport, des télécommunications et de la logistique peuvent être modélisés comme des problèmes de conception de réseaux. Le problème classique consiste à transporter un flot (données, personnes, produits, etc.) sur un réseau sous un certain nombre de contraintes dans le but de satisfaire la demande, tout en minimisant les coûts. Dans ce mémoire, on se propose d'étudier le problème de conception de réseaux avec coûts fixes, capacités et un seul produit, qu'on transforme en un problème équivalent à plusieurs produits de façon à améliorer la valeur de la borne inférieure provenant de la relaxation continue du modèle. La méthode que nous présentons pour la résolution de ce problème est une méthode exacte de branch-and-price-and-cut avec une condition d'arrêt, dans laquelle nous exploitons à la fois la méthode de génération de colonnes, la méthode de génération de coupes et l'algorithme de branch-and-bound. Ces méthodes figurent parmi les techniques les plus utilisées en programmation linéaire en nombres entiers. Nous testons notre méthode sur deux groupes d'instances de tailles différentes (gran-des et très grandes), et nous la comparons avec les résultats donnés par CPLEX, un des meilleurs logiciels permettant de résoudre des problèmes d'optimisation mathématique, ainsi qu’avec une méthode de branch-and-cut. Il s'est avéré que notre méthode est prometteuse et peut donner de bons résultats, en particulier pour les instances de très grandes tailles.

Les économies de taille en production laitière en Amérique du Nord

Après une période où la valeur des quotas laitiers a été en forte croissance au Québec, un plafond à cette valeur a été fixé à compter de 2007. Ce plafond a eu pour effet de limiter l’offre de quota sur le marché et la croissance de la taille des entreprises laitières québécoises. Cette situation soulève un questionnement sur l’efficience économique, le blocage de la croissance des entreprises les empêchant de bénéficier d’économies de taille, si bien entendu il en existe. En conséquence, cette étude s’intéresse aux économies de taille en production laitière en Amérique du Nord. Les économies de taille des entreprises ont été mesurées à l’aide d’une régression linéaire multiple à partir de certains indicateurs de coût monétaire et non monétaire. Cette analyse comprend quatre strates de taille formées à partir d’un échantillon non aléatoire de 847 entreprises du Québec, de l’État de New York et de la Californie, ainsi qu’à partir d’un groupe d’entreprises efficientes (groupe de tête). Les résultats démontrent l’existence d’économies de taille principalement au niveau des coûts fixes et plus particulièrement des coûts fixes non monétaires. Ils révèlent aussi que les deux indicateurs où l’effet des économies de taille est le plus important sont le coût du travail non rémunéré et l’amortissement. Par ailleurs, lorsque la taille d’une entreprise augmente, les économies de taille supplémentaires réalisées deviennent de moins en moins importantes. Enfin, les résultats indiquent qu’il existe des déséconomies de taille au niveau des coûts d’alimentation. Les résultats obtenus au niveau du groupe de tête vont dans le même sens. Ils confirment également qu’il est possible pour les grandes entreprises efficientes de réaliser des économies de taille pour la plupart des indicateurs de coût. Toutefois, les économies additionnelles que ces entreprises peuvent réaliser sont moins importantes que celles obtenues par les petites entreprises efficientes. Mots clés : Agriculture, production laitière, Amérique du Nord, économies de taille, efficience économique, régression linéaire.

Algorithme de branch-and-price-and-cut pour le problème de conception de réseaux avec coûts fixes, capacités et un seul produit

De nombreux problèmes liés aux domaines du transport, des télécommunications et de la logistique peuvent être modélisés comme des problèmes de conception de réseaux. Le problème classique consiste à transporter un flot (données, personnes, produits, etc.) sur un réseau sous un certain nombre de contraintes dans le but de satisfaire la demande, tout en minimisant les coûts. Dans ce mémoire, on se propose d'étudier le problème de conception de réseaux avec coûts fixes, capacités et un seul produit, qu'on transforme en un problème équivalent à plusieurs produits de façon à améliorer la valeur de la borne inférieure provenant de la relaxation continue du modèle. La méthode que nous présentons pour la résolution de ce problème est une méthode exacte de branch-and-price-and-cut avec une condition d'arrêt, dans laquelle nous exploitons à la fois la méthode de génération de colonnes, la méthode de génération de coupes et l'algorithme de branch-and-bound. Ces méthodes figurent parmi les techniques les plus utilisées en programmation linéaire en nombres entiers. Nous testons notre méthode sur deux groupes d'instances de tailles différentes (gran-des et très grandes), et nous la comparons avec les résultats donnés par CPLEX, un des meilleurs logiciels permettant de résoudre des problèmes d'optimisation mathématique, ainsi qu’avec une méthode de branch-and-cut. Il s'est avéré que notre méthode est prometteuse et peut donner de bons résultats, en particulier pour les instances de très grandes tailles.

Conflitos ambientais e progresso técnico na indústria mineira e metalúrgica em Portugal (1858-1938)

This chapter explores the relationship between environmental conflicts and technical progress, trying to understand, in the case of large mines of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, in Alentejo, how emerging environmental problems conditioned the performance or led to the search for alternative technical solutions, taking as chronological limit for this observation the beginning of World War II. In the absence of the archives of the companies, the research was based on existing administrative documents in the state archives (mining engineers reports, the licensing of mining activities), on reports and documents published in specialized mining press, in particular, the Bulletin of the Ministry of Public Works, Trade and Industry, the Journal of Public Works, Trade and Industry (both in Portuguese), and finally in the local press. Despite that limitation, the information available shows that in global competition markets, the success of the British enterprise in Santo Domingo had the active search for new technical solutions for the creation and adaptation of existing knowledge to local problems in order to maximize the mineral resources available. The early development of the hydrometallurgical processes for the treatment of poor ores, named ‘natural cementation’, can be explained as the way these companies tried to solve problems of competitiveness, boosting economies of scale. Thus, they transferred the environmental costs previously limited to agriculture to more fragile social groups, the poor fishermen of Guadiana River and of Vila Real de Santo António. Therefore, the hydrometallurgy of pyrites was developed locally, pioneered in Santo Domingo that allowed the survival and expansion of the British company from the late 1870s, that is, at a time when most small mines shut since they were not able to compete globally. Through different consented and regulated processes (judicial), through conflict or parliamentary mediation, the State imposed exceptionally additional costs to companies, either for compensation, the imposing the application of remediation measures to reduce the environmental damage in some cases, thus contributing to derail some projects. These cases suggest that the interaction between local conflicts, corporate behavior and technological progress proves to be complex. This article aims to contribute to the debate on economic and social history between the environment and technological progress, arguing that the fixed costs and economic imponderable social risks were factors that encouraged the companies to search for new solutions and to introduce innovations since that would allow the expansion of their activity. In this process the companies sometimes faced environmental dilemmas and unforeseen costs with consequences on the economy of firms. The nature of the knowledge needed to address the environmental problems they created, however, is of a very different nature from that knowledge needed to face the environmental burdens that were inherent to the development of its activity.

Determinación de los costos de operación del sistema de transporte urbano en buses para el año 2015

El presente trabajo tiene como propósito realizar un estudio de todos los costos de operación en que incurre el sector de transporte urbano en la ciudad de Cuenca para prestar su servicio, mediante la aplicación del sistema de costeo estándar, con el fin de determinar una tarifa que sirva como guía o base para la fijación del precio que los usuarios deberían pagar por la utilización del transporte. Se está generando la problemática de incrementar los pasajes de $0,25 centavos a $0,41 centavos debido a que los propietarios del transporte no están de acuerdo con la tarifa vigente. Por lo que es necesario efectuar un análisis apropiado para determinar el precio que debe pagar la población por el uso del transporte urbano; aplicando técnicas y conocimientos propios de la contabilidad de costos. Para llevar a cabo el estudio de los costos operativos se considera un muestreo estratificado de todas las compañías de transporte urbano con el fin de efectuar encuestas a los transportistas; además, obtener información proporcionada por la Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca, Consorcio SIR y las compañías de transporte, identificando costos variables, fijos, de capital, kilómetros recorridos, número de usuarios que utilizan este servicio y número de vueltas.

El efecto de la definición regulatoria de banda ancha sobre la difusión y la competencia del mercado de servicios de Internet fijo en Colombia

A partir de la dinámica evolutiva de la economía de las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones y el establecimiento de estándares mínimos de velocidad en distintos contextos regulatorios a nivel mundial, en particular en Colombia, en el presente artículo se presentan diversas aproximaciones empíricas para evaluar los efectos reales que conlleva el establecimiento de definiciones de servicios de banda ancha en el mercado de Internet fijo. Con base en los datos disponibles para Colombia sobre los planes de servicios de Internet fijo ofrecidos durante el periodo 2006-2012, se estima para los segmentos residencial y corporativo el proceso de difusión logístico modificado y el modelo de interacción estratégica para identificar los impactos generados sobre la masificación del servicio a nivel municipal y sobre las decisiones estratégicas que adoptan los operadores, respectivamente. Respecto a los resultados, se encuentra, por una parte, que las dos medidas regulatorias establecidas en Colombia en 2008 y 2010 presentan efectos significativos y positivos sobre el desplazamiento y el crecimiento de los procesos de difusión a nivel municipal. Por otra parte, se observa sustituibilidad estratégica en las decisiones de oferta de velocidad de descarga por parte de los operadores corporativos mientras que, a partir del análisis de distanciamiento de la velocidad ofrecida respecto al estándar mínimo de banda ancha, se demuestra que los proveedores de servicios residenciales tienden a agrupar sus decisiones de velocidad alrededor de los niveles establecidos por regulación.

Comparison of the pregnancy rates and costs per calf born after fixed-time artificial insemination or artificial insemination after estrus detection in Bos indicus heifers

This study compared pregnancy rates (PRs) and costs per calf born after fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) or AI after estrus detection (i.e., estrus detection and AI, EDAI), before and after a single PGF2α treatment in Bos indicus (Brahman-cross) heifers. On Day 0, the body weight, body condition score, and presence of a CL (46% of heifers) were determined. The heifers were then alternately allocated to one of two FTAI groups (FTAI-1, n = 139) and (FTAI-2, n = 141) and an EDAI group (n = 273). Heifers in the FTAI groups received an intravaginal progesterone-releasing device (IPRD; 0.78 g of progesterone) and 1 mg of estradiol benzoate intramuscularly (im) on Day 0. Eight days later, the IPRD was removed and heifers received 500 μg of PGF2α and 300 IU of eCG im; 24 hours later, they received 1 mg estradiol benzoate im and were submitted to FTAI 30 to 34 hours later (54 and 58 hours after IPRD removal). Heifers in the FTAI-2 group started treatment 8 days after those in the FTAI-1 group. Heifers in the EDAI group were inseminated approximately 12 hours after the detection of estrus between Days 4 and 9 at which time the heifers that had not been detected in estrus received 500 μg of PGF2α im and EDAI continued until Day 13. Heifers in the FTAI groups had a higher overall PR (proportion pregnant as per the entire group) than the EDAI group (34.6% vs. 23.2%; P = 0.003), however, conception rate (PR of heifers submitted for AI) tended to favor the estrus detection group (34.6% vs. 44.1%; P = 0.059). The cost per AI calf born was estimated to be $267.67 and $291.37 for the FTAI and EDAI groups, respectively. It was concluded that in Brahman heifers typical of those annually mated in northern Australia FTAI compared with EDAI increases the number of heifers pregnant and reduces the cost per calf born.

Quantifying the costs of drought : new evidence from life satisfaction data

We estimate the cost of droughts by matching rainfall data with individual life satisfaction. Our context is Australia over the period 2001 to 2004, which included a particularly severe drought. Using fixed-effect models, we find that a drought in spring has a detrimental effect on life satisfaction equivalent to an annual reduction in income of A$18,000. This effect, however, is only found for individuals living in rural areas. Using our estimates, we calculate that the predicted doubling of the frequency of spring droughts will lead to the equivalent loss in life satisfaction of just over 1% of GDP annually.

Nitrogen and phosphorus transformations in fixed-film biofilters subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles

Despite recent developments in fixed-film combined biological nutrients removal (BNR) technology; fixed-film systems (i.e., biofilters), are still at the early stages of development and their application has been limited to a few laboratory-scale experiments. Achieving enhanced biological phosphorus removal in fixed-film systems requires exposing the micro-organisms and the waste stream to alternating anaerobic/aerobic or anaerobic/anoxic conditions in cycles. The concept of cycle duration (CD) as a process control parameter is unique to fixed-film BNR systems, has not been previously investigated, and can be used to optimise the performance of such systems. The CD refers to the elapsed time before the biomass is re-exposed to the same environmental conditions in cycles. Fixed-film systems offer many advantages over suspended growth systems such as reduced operating costs, simplicity of operation, absence of sludge recycling problems, and compactness. The control of nutrient discharges to water bodies, improves water quality, fish production, and allow water reuse. The main objective of this study was to develop a fundamental understanding of the effect of CD on the transformations of nutrients in fixed-film biofilter systems subjected to alternating aeration I no-aeration cycles A fixed-film biofilter system consisting of three up-flow biofilters connected in series was developed and tested. The first and third biofilters were operated in a cyclic mode in which the biomass was subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles. The influent wastewater was simulated aquaculture whose composition was based on actual water quality parameters of aquacuture wastewater from a prawn grow-out facility. The influent contained 8.5 - 9:3 mg!L a111monia-N, 8.5- 8.7 mg/L phosphate-P, and 45- 50 mg!L acetate. Two independent studies were conducted at two biofiltration rates to evaluate and confirm the effect of CD on nutrient transformations in the biofilter system for application in aquaculture: A third study was conducted to enhance denitrification in the system using an external carbon- source at a rate varying from 0-24 ml/min. The CD was varied in the range of0.25- 120 hours for the first two studies and fixed at 12 hours for the third study. This study identified the CD as an important process control parameter that can be used to optimise the performance of full-scale fixed-film systems for BNR which represents a novel contribution in this field of research. The CD resulted in environmental conditions that inhibited or enhanced nutrient transformations. The effect of CD on BNR in fixed-film systems in terms of phosphorus biomass saturation and depletion has been established. Short CDs did not permit the establishment of anaerobic activity in the un-aerated biofilter and, thus, inhibited phosphorus release. Long CDs resulted in extended anaerobic activity and, thus, resulted in active phosphorus release. Long CDs, however, resulted in depleting the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the releasing biofilter and saturating the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the up-taking biofilter in the cycle. This phosphorus biomass saturation/depletion phenomenon imposes a practical limit on how short or long the CD can be. The length of the CD should be somewhere just before saturation or depletion occur and for the system tested, the optimal CD was 12 hours for the biofiltration rates tested. The system achieved limited net phosphorus removal due to the limited sludge wasting and lack of external carbon supply during phosphorus uptake. The phosphorus saturation and depletion reflected the need to extract phosphorus from the phosphorus-rich micro-organisms, for example, through back-washing. The major challenges of achieving phosphorus removal in the system included: (I) overcoming the deterioration in the performance of the system during the transition period following the start of each new cycle; and (2) wasting excess phosphorus-saturated biomass following the aeration cycle. Denitrification occurred in poorly aerated sections of the third biofilter and generally declined as the CD increased and as the time progressed in the individual cycle. Denitrification and phosphorus uptake were supplied by an internal organic carbon source, and the addition of an external carbon source (acetate) to the third biofilter resulted in improved denitrification efficiency in the system from 18.4 without supplemental carbon to 88.7% when the carbon dose reached 24 mL/min The removal of TOC and nitrification improved as the CD increased, as a result of the reduction in the frequency of transition periods between the cycles. A conceptual design of an effective fixed-film BNR biofilter system for the treatment of the influent simulated aquaculture wastewater was proposed based on the findings of the study.

UCPR rule 687 - exercise of discretion to fix costs - applicable principles

Although the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) (UCPR) have always included a power for the court to order a party to pay an amount for costs to be fixed by the court, until recently the power was rarely used in the higher courts. In light of recent practice directions, and the changes to the procedures for assessment of costs contained in the new Chapter 17A of the UCPR, this is no longer the case. The judgment of Mullins J in ASIC v Atlantic 3 Financial (Aust) Pty Ltd [2008] QSC 9 provides some helpful guidance for practitioners about the principles which might be applied.