Firms in international trade: importers’ and exporters’ heterogeneity in Italian manufacturing industry

Combining data on structural characteristics and economic performance for a large sample of Italian firms with data on exporting and importing activity, we uncover evidence supporting recent theories on firm heterogeneity and international trade, together with some new facts. In particular, we find that importing is associated with substantial firm heterogeneity. First, we document that trade is more concentrated than employment and sales, and show that importing is even more concentrated than exporting both within sectors and along the sector- and country-extensive margins. Second, while supporting the fact that firms involved in both are the best performers, we also find that firms involved only in importing activities perform better than those involved only in exporting. Our evidence suggests there is a strong self-selection effect in the case of importers and the performance premia of internationalised firms correlate relatively more with the degree of geographical and sectoral diversification of imports.

Balkanisation of banking damages international trade and UK GDP

Balkanisation is a way to describe the breakdown of cross-border banking, as nervous lenders retreat in particular from the more troubled parts of the Eurozone or at least try to isolate operations within national boundaries. It is increasing at the Bank level, however the senior policy makers consider this a negative trend – Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, has talked of the need to “repair this financial fragmentation” and Mark Carney, head of global regulatory body the Financial Stability Board, [and now Governor of the Bank of England] has warned that deglobalising finance will hurt growth and jobs by “reducing financial capacity and systemic resilience”. In this article I would like to examine the impact of banking balkanisation on international trade and provide some initial thoughts about remedies for excessive risk in a banking non-balkanising world.

Agribusiness Opportunity Costs and Environmental Legal Protection: Investigating Trade-Off on Hotspot Preservation in the State of So Paulo, Brazil

Prior to deforestation, So Paulo State had 79,000 km(2) covered by Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies, but today less than 8.5% of this biodiversity hotspot remains, mostly in private lands. The global demand for agricultural goods has imposed strong pressure on natural areas, and the economic decisions of agribusiness managers are crucial to the fate of Cerrado domain remaining areas (CDRA) in Brazil. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Brazilian private protected areas policy, and to propose a feasible alternative to promote CDRA protection. This article assessed the main agribusiness opportunity costs for natural areas preservation: the land use profitability and the arable land price. The CDRA percentage and the opportunity costs were estimated for 349 municipal districts of So Paulo State through secondary spatial data and profitability values of 38 main agricultural products. We found that Brazilian private protected areas policy fails to preserve CDRA, although the values of non-compliance fines were higher than average opportunity costs. The scenario with very restrictive laws on private protected areas and historical high interest rates allowed us to conceive a feasible cross compliance proposal to improve environmental and agricultural policies.

Preferential location of lidocaine and etidocaine in lecithin bilayers as determined by EPR, fluorescence and H-2 NMR

We have examined the effect of the uncharged species of lidocaine (LDC) and etidocaine (EDC) on the acyl chain moiety of egg phosphatidylcholine liposomes. Changes in membrane organization caused by both anesthetics were detected through the use of EPR spin labels (5, 7 and 12 doxyl stearic acid methyl ester) or fluorescence probes (4, 6, 10, 16 pyrene-fatty acids). The disturbance caused by the LA was greater when the probes were inserted in more external positions of the acyl chain and decreased towards the hydrophobic core of the membrane. The results indicate a preferential insertion of LDC at the polar interface of the bilayer and in the first half of the acyl chain, for EDC. Additionally, 2 H NMR spectra of multilamellar liposomes composed by acyl chain-perdeutero DMPC and EPC (1:4 mol%) allowed the determination of the segmental order (S-mol) and dynamics (T-1) of the acyl chain region. In accordance to the fluorescence and EPR results, changes in molecular orientation and dynamics are more prominent if the LA preferential location is more superficial, as for LDC while EDC seems to organize the acyl chain region between carbons 2-8, which is indicative of its positioning. We propose that the preferential location of LDC and EDC inside the bilayers creates a ""transient site"", which is related to the anesthetic potency since it could modulate the access of these molecules to their binding site(s) in the voltage-gated sodium channel. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On the apparent lack of preferential site occupancy and electrooxidation of CO adsorbed at low coverage onto stepped platinum surfaces

We report time evolution studies of low coverage CO adsorption (surface hydrogen site blocking < 40%) and oxidative stripping on stepped Pt(776) and Pt(554) surfaces. It was observed that there is no preferential site occupancy for CO adsorption on step or terrace. It is proposed that CO adsorption onto these surfaces is a random process, and after CO adsorption there is no appreciable shift from CO-(111) to CO-(110) sites. This implies that after adsorption, CO molecules either have a very long residence time, or that the diffusion coefficient is much lower than previously thought. After CO electrooxidation the sites released included both terrace (111) and step (110) orientations. For surface hydrogen site blocking > 40%, the lateral interactions might play a role in the preferential CO site occupancy. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CO preferential oxidation (CO-PROx) on La(1-x)Ce(x)NiO(3) perovskites

La(1-x)Ce(x)NiO(3) perovskites have been prepared, characterized by XRD. TPR and surface area and tested as catalysts for CO-PROx, with a feed of 2.5% CO, 5% O(2), 33% H(2) and N(2) to 100%. The samples exhibited an XRD pattern typical of the perovskite, with traces of NiO in the LaNiO(3) and La(0.95)Ce(0.05)NiO(3) samples, with some La(2)NiO(4) in the La(0.90)Ce(0.10)NiO(3) sample. All samples were active, but the perovskites with cerium showed good catalytic activity, demonstrating the promoter effect of cerium. The highest conversion of CO and H(2) was obtained with La(0.95)Ce(0.05)NiO(3), probably due to a synergy between Ni and Ce that enhanced O(2) mobility. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Students Working on Telephone Poles at the New York Trade School

A group of twelve students are learning how to work on telephone poles at the New York Trade School. Black and white photograph with some minor damage to the image in the bottom left hand corner.

New York Trade School Administration [1]

A group of administrators from the New York Trade School posing in front of a building. Black and white photograph.

New York Trade School Administration [2]

A group of administrators from the New York Trade School pose in front of the school's building on East 67th Street. The photograph is black and white.

New York Trade School Administration [3]

This black and white photograph features two administrators positioned at desk.

New York Trade School Administration [4]

A New York Trade School administrator is posed for a formal photo. Black and white photograph.

New York Trade School Administration [5]

This New York Trade School administrator is posed in front of a wall plaque dedicated to the founder of the school. Photograph is black and white.

Students working in a class at the New York Trade School

A group of four students are working in a classroom at the New York Trade School while a professor looks on.