Traffic exposure near the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex: using GPS-enhanced tracking to assess the implications of unreported travel and locations

Traffic exposure assessments could misclassify the extent and locations of exposure if traditional recall surveys and self-reported travel diaries do not record all participant activities. The Harbor Communities Time Location Study (HCTLS) examines the nature, extent and implications of underreported locations/trips in a case study which used portable Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices to track the diurnal patterns and traffic exposure of 47 residents of communities near the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex. Participants were similar to adults nationwide in time spent indoors, in-vehicle, and outdoors, but spent more time indoors at home (78% vs. 66%). Overall, participants did not report nearly half (49%) of the locations and trips identified in GPS-enhanced data on their activity diaries, resulting in about 3 h/day in unreported locations and 0.6 h/day in unreported trips. The probability of a location/trip being underreported was systematically correlated with participant and location/trip characteristics. Self-reported data missed about 50 min of heightened air pollution exposures during the 5 h/day on average participants spent in high-traffic areas and about 30 min during the 4 h/day near truck routes. GPS-enhanced methods provide opportunities to more precisely characterize exposure periods and tools to identify facility, roadway, and land use types of the greatest concern for mitigation efforts.     

Assessing Supermarket Product-Line Decisions: The Impact of Slotting Fees

In this paper, I estimate a structural demand model for a product category in a supermarket chain. I use the model to infer manufacturers' side payments to obtain shelf access in the supermarket and I estimate the impact of these fees on product assortment. The results suggest that the supermarket carries some unprofitable products. Instead of eliminating them, it charges slotting fees to the manufacturers of those products. Since the absence of slotting fees would lead the retailer to discontinue some products, this paper argues that forbidding slotting fees would harm consumers. Welfare calculations reveal that product assortment in this market is close to socially optimal.     

China goes global: public policies' influence on small- and medium-sized enterprises' international expansion

Despite small- and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) significant contribution to China's social and economic development, very little has been written about the influence that public policies (i.e. public funding priorities and regulatory measures) may have on the first stage of international expansion of Chinese SMEs. To help fill this gap, the article analyses five main factors related to public policies and services affecting Chinese SMEs' internationalization: access to public financial resources; participation of the government in ownership; access to public procurement contracts; adverse regulatory and inconsistent legal frameworks; and public assistance on information and knowledge about markets. The main conclusion is that SMEs appear to base their international expansion on private capabilities, rather than on support from the government; in addition, the perceived barriers for the international expansion of these firms may be mainly internal, rather than institutional.     

Inflation inertia and credible disinflation

We develop a model of optimizing forward-looking staggered price setting where even fully credible disinflations display a delayed and gradual inflation response and significant output losses. There is a welfare trade-off between these output losses and the gains from smaller inflationary distortions. For reasonable parameter values disinflation improves welfare, and more so if it is phased in gradually. The pricing assumption of our model yields dynamics that are similar to models of sticky information, but its state space is much simpler, thereby allowing for the application of standard linearization methods.     

Financial structure and exchange rate experience: Mexico 1954–1977

This paper discusses the Mexican experience regarding exchange rate policy and the development of the financial market since the 1950's. The unique structure of Mexican financial institutions is described, with emphasis on how they have conditioned possibilities for monetary and exchange rate policy intervention.     

Reserves and the managed float: a search for the essentials

We examine the stability of rules that determine the rate of devaluation as a function of the level of reserves; the analysis is conducted in terms of an overlapping-generations and a Sidrauski-type model with rational expectations and without capital mobility. On the whole, the analysis confirms results by Rodriguez (1981) in a substantially different model, by which ‘high’ speeds of adjustment tend to provoke instability.     

Fiscal policy,welfare, and employment with perfect foresight

The long-run feasibility of expansionary fiscal policy is analyzed in a “fix price” economy under the assumption that individuals are altruistic and have rational expectations. It is found that exclusive reliance on interest bearing debt is a feasible policy only if money is an inferior good. However, feasibility is ensured if the bonds to money ratio is not higher than a certain critical level.     

On dollarization

The paper examines the case for dollarization in emerging market economies. It is claimed that dollarization becomes an attractive monetary regime when account is taken of recent financial turmoil in such economies. The case is further strengthened by the fact that these economies have a penchant for acquiring dollar debts (i.e., liability dollarization). However, exchange rate misalignment and deflation are potentially serious problems, unless appropriate fiscal and public sector prices policies are implemented, in addition to establishing a financial sector whose assets and liabilities face parallel relative price risks. JEL classification: F31, F41