A new approach to estimate concentrations of alcohol ethoxylate in rivers in Japan for screening-level risk assessment

Alcohol ethoxylate (AE) is a widely used household detergent that is ubiquitous in aquatic environments. To assess and manage the risk of AE, its environmental exposure concentrations must be evaluated in rivers nationwide; however, very few AE monitoring data are currently available. Furthermore, developing a rigorous exposure model that would cover rivers nationwide would require a great deal of time, human resources, and money. We developed a new approach to estimate AE concentrations in rivers throughout Japan for screening-level risk assessment. In this approach, five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) data were used as a surrogate indicator of the AE concentration in river water. The Tama and Nikko Rivers were ranked according to their BOD₅ data, and the AE concentrations of the Nikko River were then estimated using the Standardized Hydrology-based Assessment tool for chemical Exposure Load (AIST-SHANEL) model. For each river, the concentrations of AE in its waters were projected based on that river’s reported BOD₅ values, its ranking, the approximation formula for AE and BOD₅, and estimated AE concentrations in water of the Nikko River from the model. The accuracy of the projected values was validated by comparing the projected AE concentrations in water from the Tama River with its monitoring data. There are various technical uncertainties associated with this approach; however, our results suggest that this new approach can be applied in screening-level exposure assessment of other chemical substances that have properties similar to AE.     

Commercial Policy and Foreign Ownership

Foreign multinationals often not only export but also control local firms through FDI. This paper examines the various effects of trade and industrial policies when exports and FDI coexist. We focus on the case in which a foreign firm has full control of a local firm through partial ownership. Cross‐border ownership on the basis of both financial interests and corporate control leads to horizontal market linkages through which tariffs and production subsidies may harm locally owned firms but benefit the foreign firm. Foreign ownership regulation benefits locally owned firms. These results could have strong policy implications for developing countries that attract an increasing share of world FDI.     

Change in the transition of the fertility rate

This paper presents an investigation of the effects of child care service on the fertility rate. Results of our analyses show that the price of child care service plays important roles on the fertility and that a positive relation is not robust between fertility and income.     

Trade costs, wage rates, technologies, and reverse imports

Abstract .  This paper explores the effects of transport costs, tariffs, and foreign wage rates on the domestic economy in the presence of reverse imports, with special emphasis on inter-firm cost asymmetry in an international oligopoly model. To serve the domestic market, a foreign firm produces in the foreign country, while two domestic firms produce either at home or abroad. Surprisingly, an increase in the foreign wage rate may increase the profits of a firm producing in the foreign country. Even if all firms produce in the foreign country, an increase in the foreign wage rate may improve domestic welfare.     

Boom and Bust Cycle of the Stock Market, and Economic Growth in a Vintage Capital Model

We construct a growth model of overlapping generations with vintage capital. There exists an equilibrium that converges to the balanced growth path through endogenous fluctuations of investment, consumption, and output in terms of the growth rate. When the technological change arrives and a rise in productivity is embodied only in newly invested capital, the economy converges to a new balanced growth path with a higher growth rate of output, but when we interpret the price of existing old capital as the stock market capitalization, the rise in productivity is accompanied by an initial decline in the stock market. Oscillatory equilibria are supported as perfect-foresight equilibria in the present framework with finitely lived agents and capital. Any oscillatory equilibrium is associated with the regime switch from an economy with both young and old capital in use into one with only old capital in use.     

HOW LONG SHOULD WE STAY IN EDUCATION IF ABILITY IS SCREENED?

We examine how ability‐screening affects demand for education and the shape of an optimal education system. Explicitly incorporating gradual screening by education into the model, we illustrate how individuals of different abilities decide to stay in education or drop out. Gradual screening induces low‐ability individuals to receive over‐education, reducing the net benefit obtained from education by society as a whole, as well as such individuals. A mixed education system, in which public education is provided before private education, is superior to a wholly private system, in terms of both efficiency and equity, because it reduces the over‐education of low‐ability individuals.     

GREENHOUSE‐GAS EMISSION CONTROLS IN AN OPEN ECONOMY*

To examine how greenhouse‐gas emission controls affect a country's industrial and trade structures, this article presents an open economy model that has both Ricardian and Heckscher–Ohlin features. We specifically compare emission quotas, emission taxes, and emission standards. The patterns of production and trade critically hinge on those policy tools. It is shown that a domestic emission control may lead to carbon leakage and may not reduce the world emissions, and that emission standards may work as a “hidden” production subsidy toward an emission‐intensive industry.     

Effects of Multilateral Trade Liberalization on Prices*

To analyze the effects of simultaneous tariff reductions by multiple importing countries on prices, we construct a simple three‐country model where a good is produced by a monopolist with nonconstant marginal cost and imported by two countries. We compare two representative tariff‐reduction formulas: the “fixed‐amount” and the “uniform percentage” reductions. The uniform percentage reductions may increase the consumer price in the importing country, whose initial tariff is lower. Thus, importing countries with relatively low tariffs may prefer a bilateral trade agreement to a multilateral one to ensure consumer gains.