Latin American trade elasticities

An important issue in applied international economics is the extent to which trade flows adjust to changes in income, relative prices, and exchange rates. While there have been numerous surveys regarding merchandise trade elasticities in industrial economies such as Japan and the United States, relatively little work has been completed with respect to developing regions of the world. Material in this article examines the literature on empirical estimates of import and export elasticities published for Latin America. (JEL F140) Partial funding for this research was provided by the Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade at the University of Texas at El Paso, the Public Policy Center at the University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso Electric Company, and the Fulbright Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Helpful comments were provided by an anonymous reference. Econometric research assistance was provided by Roberto Coronado.     

Cross-border restaurant price and exchange rate interactions

Purchasing power parity suggests that international price ratios for identical goods should approximate nominal exchange rates for the currencies in which the prices are denominated. Deviations of the price ratios from exchange rates can occur for a number of reasons and mixed evidence has been recorded for how long those deviations last. Empirical evidence for international restaurant prices in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico confirms that menu item price ratios are strongly correlated with the peso/dollar exchange rate. An earlier exploratory study of eight individual products also indicated that half-life deviations in this market are very short. This study utilizes additional data from a larger and more extensive sample to examine if the prior results are confirmed.     

North American Free Trade and Changes in the Nativity of the Garment Industry Workforce in the United States

In this article, we address the question of the extent to which US producers’ reliance on cheap immigrant labor can continue to retard the march of apparel manufacturing out of the country as garments produced by even cheaper labor overseas flood the US market in the post‐NAFTA period. The article is divided into five sections. In the first, we introduce concepts that are key to our discussion, including the new international division of labor thesis, dual labor market theory, the state’s role in boundary management and the implications of these with regard to industrial development and migration in Mexico and the United States. In the next section, we examine changes in the regulatory regime governing international trade in garments and the subsequent shifts that have occurred in Mexican apparel exports to the United States on the one hand, and in Mexican and US garment employment on the other. In the third section, we review the role immigrants play in the US garment industry and the debates about if and how immigrant workers and entrepreneurs contribute to its international competitiveness. We then turn our attention to a case study of garment production in El Paso, Texas, where thousands of Mexican‐immigrant and Mexican‐American women have lost their jobs as seamstresses since the implementation of NAFTA began in 1994. In the fourth section of the article, we analyze data from US County Business Patterns, the decennial US Census of Population and Housing, the annual March US Current Population Surveys and the US Department of Labor’s records of certified NAFTA‐related layoffs to ascertain the extent to which El Paso’s experience of heavy immigrant garment job losses is typical of the rest of the country. In the concluding section we discuss the implications of our analysis for the future of the US garment workforce. Dans quelle mesure le recours des producteurs américains à un personnel bon marché d’immigrants peut‐il continuer à freiner la confection d’habillement hors du pays, tandis que des v? tements fabriqués par une main‐d’uvre étrangère encore moins chère envahissent le marché américain depuis l’ALENA? Cet article se compose de cinq parties. La première présente les concepts‐clés de notre argument, notamment la nouvelle thèse sur la division internationale du travail, la théorie du double marché de la main‐d’uvre, le rôle de l’État dans la gestion des frontières, ainsi que l’incidence de ces aspects sur l’essor industriel et la migration au Mexique et aux États‐Unis. La deuxième partie étudie les évolutions du régime qui régule le marché international de l’habillement, ainsi que les mutations subséquentes qu’ont connues à la fois les exportations de v? tements mexicaines vers les États‐Unis, et l’emploi de ce secteur dans les deux pays. En examinant le rôle des immigrants dans la confection amééricaine, la troisième partie reprend le débat sur la possibilité que les travailleurs et entrepreneurs immigrants contribuent à la compétitivité internationale de ce secteur. L’article s’attache ensuiteà une étude de cas de fabrication de v? tements à El Paso, au Texas, où des milliers d’immigrantes mexicaines et de femmes américano‐mexicaines ont perdu leur emploi de couturière depuis la mise en place de l’ALENA en 1994. La quatrième partie analyse des données émanant de plusieurs sources statistiques américaines (profils locaux de l’emploi par secteur d’activité, recensement décennal de la population et de l’habitat, enqu? tes démographiques annuelles), ainsi que de dossiers du ministère du Travail américain attestant de licenciements liés à l’ALENA, afin de démontrer que l’ampleur considérable des pertes d’emploi d’immigrants à El Paso est caractéristique du reste du pays. La conclusion déduit les implications de notre analyse pour l’avenir de la main‐d’uvre dans la confection aux États‐Unis.     

Humiliation at Work and Union Interest: An Empirical Analysis of Community Union Satisfaction as Related to Status Enhancement

How noneconomic benefits claimed by labor unions relate to union interest is not well articulated. Based on Torres and Bergner’s (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 38, 195–204, 2010; Psychotherapy, 49, 492–501, 2012) analysis of severe public humiliation, in which status enhancement underlies recovery, we examined an augmented relationship between humiliation at work (the underside of dignity at work) and willingness to join a union. As hypothesized, nonunion employees who were less detached from work showed more willingness to join when presented with evidence that members of a union were satisfied with community aspects of membership related to status enhancement above and beyond their satisfaction with economic aspects. Implications for union interest research and applications are discussed.     

Human resource management in action. The paradox of participation: Lessons from the tennessee valley authority

The three year Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) quality of work life experiment was one of eight large scale projects developed by the American Center for Quality of Work Life and assessed by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The key themes of this research program involved union–management collaboration and employee participation in organizational change. This article presents major outcomes of the experiment, with particular emphasis on the participatory change process that was the central focus at TVA. The implications of participation are discussed in terms of the paradoxes of change, leadership, and process. Based on data from interviews and observation of events throughout the experiment, recommendations are provided for similar quality of work life programs.     

Economic integration and structural adjustments in North America,Central America and the Caribbean: A computable general equilibrium approach

The articles in this special issue are part of the results of an multinational research project entitled: “Regional Integration in Greater North America: A Research, Training and Policy Program.” It would have been impossible to undergo this multinational task without the economic support so kindly granted by the Ford Foundation and the continuous support of Dr. Norman Collins and Dr. Michael Conroy, both of whom worked for the Ford Foundation in Mexico City. The project also benefited from the institutional support of El Colegio de México (COLMEX), the Fundación Nacional de Desarrollo (FUNDE), from the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Davis, as well as from the Inter–American Development Bank and the governments of the countries included in this study. This volume is the result of intense and collective work, not only by the authors of the articles, but also from other researchers and from officials belonging to various institutions in Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico and the United States. We wish to give our special thanks to Alfonso Goitia, Ph.D., Executive Director of FUNDE, El Salvador, for his support as well as his researchers, Mario Lungo and Sonia Baires. We also wish to thank Mr. Óscar René Cardona for his help during the first stages of our research for Guatemala. We would like to thank Professor Victor Bulmer Thomas for his support as well as the authorities from the Banco Central de Guatemala for their help in building the database used in our investigation of this country’s economy.     

Food in War and Peace

Book reviewed in this article:
Food in War and Peace History of the United States Food Administration, 1917–1919 . By WILLIAM CLINTON MULLENDORE
Shortage of Victory. By Gabriel Javsicas.
A Camera Report on El Cerrito: A Typical Spanish American Community in New Mexico. By Irving Rusinow.
Conflict: The American Civil War. By George Fort Milton.
Pea for an Age Movement. By Ralph Barton Perry.
Municipal Progress Since 1909. The American City
Samuel Butler's Rise to Fame. By Lee Elbert Holt
Intellectual and Social Progress in the Ancient Near East. By E. A. Speiser.
From the Dreyfvs Affair to France Today. By Hannah Arendt
Otoe Landmarks in the History of the Department of Agriculture. By T. Swann Harding     

A longitudinal study of supply organizational change

This research examines the high level of change in supply organizations of large North American companies using data collected from 51 large North American supply organizations in 1987, 1995 and 2003. Analysis is supplemented by an additional 55 companies for which data were collected in 1995 and 2003. The availability of longitudinal data from individual companies over a 16-year period provided a unique opportunity to trace changes made to each company's supply organizational structure and their roles and responsibilities. Findings suggest that the respondents made major changes in supply organizational structure, supply chain responsibilities, use of purchasing teams, supply involvement in major corporate activities (MCA) and CPO reporting line, title and background.     

A comparison of American and international prototypes of successful managers

In the present study, similarities and differences between prototypes of successful managers were examined across four cultural groups: Americans, Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans. Managers from the hospitality industry (N = 366) used an 84–item attribute inventory to rate a successful middle manager. In addition, Americans' stereotypes of ethnic managers were compared with prototypes held by managers from those ethnic cultures. Specifically, American managers' perceptions of Asian and Hispanic managers were compared against Asian and Hispanic/Latin American managers' prototypes. A high level of correspondence in prototype characteristics was found across the four cultural groups. In addition, American‐defined ethnic manager stereotypes also contained profiles similar to cultural prototypes. However, important differences were also detected on many managerial characteristics. Implications of the findings for cross‐cultural congruence and areas for future research are discussed.     

The “Good Cause Norm” in Employment Relations: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications

Critics of the American employment at-will doctrine have argued that it should be abandoned because it is at odds with a societal level norm that employees should only be discharged for good reasons (the good cause norm). This paper examines the extent to which there is conceptual and empirical support for the existence of such a norm. Theoretical perspectives supporting the norms existence are discussed and integrated, and an interdisciplinary review of relevant research is provided. In light of the support that is found for the existence of a good cause norm in the American workplace, it is proposed that the current employment at-will default rule be changed to a waivable employee right to be discharged for good cause only.     

Effect Sizes in Qualitative Research: A Prolegomenon

The American Psychological Association Task Force recommended that researchers always report and interpret effect sizes for quantitative data. However, no such recommendation was made for qualitative data. Thus, the first objective of the present paper is to provide a rationale for reporting and interpreting effect sizes in qualitative research. Arguments are presented that effect sizes enhance the process of verstehen/hermeneutics advocated by interpretive researchers. The second objective of this paper is to provide a typology of effect sizes in qualitative research. Examples are given illustrating various applications of effect sizes. For instance, when conducting typological analyses, qualitative analysts only identify emergent themes; yet, these themes can be quantitized to ascertain the hierarchical structure of emergent themes. The final objective is to illustrate how inferential statistics can be utilized in qualitative data analyses. This can be accomplished by treating words arising from individuals, or observations emerging from a particular setting, as sample units of data that represent the total number of words/observations existing from that sample member/context. Heuristic examples are provided to demonstrate how inferential statistics can be used to provide more complex levels of verstehen than is presently undertaken in qualitative research.     

Exit problems in regime-switching models

This paper provides a general framework for pricing of perpetual American and real options in regime-switching Lévy models. In each state of the Markov chain, which determines switches from one Lévy process to another, the payoff stream is a monotone function of the Lévy process labeled by the state. This allows for additional switching within each state of the Markov chain (payoffs can be different in different regions of the real line). The pricing procedure is efficient even if the number of states is large provided the transition rates are not very large w.r.t. the riskless rates. The payoffs and riskless rates may depend on a state. Special cases are stochastic volatility models and models with stochastic interest rate; both must be modeled as finite-state Markov chains. As an application, we solve exit problems for a price-taking firm, and study the dependence of the exit threshold on the interest rate uncertainty.     

Bridging the transatlantic publishing gap: How North American reviewers evaluate European idiographic research

To a large extent there exists a gap between European and American management research reflecting the differences between nomothetic and idiographic research approaches. The paper investigates the logic used by North American reviewers when evaluating European papers based on an idiographic case study approach. Our analysis enables us to uncover the criteria used by North American reviewers and to relate them to the criteria suggested for idiographic research. We also discuss the role of writing style and structure in the North American reviewers' assessment of idiographic papers. Based on our analysis we make suggestions to editors, reviewers, and authors of idiographic papers, in order to enhance the probability for publication of idiographic, qualitative and processual research and thus to bridge the transatlantic gap.     

HOPE VI Housing Program: Was it Effective?

A bstract .   This article is a case study of the Park DuValle Revitalization Project in Louisville, Kentucky, to evaluate whether the Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOPE VI program enhances quality of life. Park DuValle has gotten national attention and has received awards from HUD, the American Institute of Architects, and the Congress on New Urbanism. The research finds that HOPE VI, which tends to serve the needs of non–public housing tenants (80 percent of whom are now residents of the Park DuValle development), does not help the vast majority of residents who are displaced. Furthermore, HOPE VI builds housing that is two to three times more costly per unit than housing provided by competing nonprofit community development groups.     

The geographical efficiency of education and research: The ranking of U.S. universities

This paper proposes to study the American efficiency of educational diffusion and research productivity following two distinctions: urban vs. rural areas and public vs. private universities. Following this geographical consideration, knowledge diffusion seems to be homogeneous over the American territory, whereas research productivity is more heterogeneous: American research efficiency decreased of 7% points, due to some rural university localizations. Universities in urban areas favor educational quality through high student selection criteria, contrary to those located in more rural areas. Third, public universities present higher educational efficiency, in favoring educational quality over research productivity: the lesser research efficiency of public institutions comes from difficulties in the management of several campuses, by comparison with the private institutions which are all single-campus.     

人民币汇率的均衡、错位及其矫正

基于考虑中国和美国基本经济要素的人民币对美元实际汇率、人民币实际有效汇率、美元实际有效汇率的多维度模型,研究了人民币对美元实际汇率、人民币实际有效汇率、美元实际有效汇率的均衡、错位及其矫正。实证研究表明：中国和美国基本经济要素对人民币对美元实际汇率有重要的长期和短期影响,美国基本经济要素对人民币实际有效汇率存在长期和短期溢出效应,中国基本经济要素对美元实际有效汇率存在长期和短期溢出效应。2008～2010年,人民币对美元实际汇率高估5-8%,人民币实际有效汇率高估2-6%,2009～2010年,美元实际有效汇率接近均衡水平。     

The failure of effective technological transfer in Polish industry

Central planners in Poland have continuously emphasized the importance of increasing factor productivity as a major goal of Polish development policy and have included this goal as an integral part of every economic reform proposal of the last two decades. In the decade of the 1970s a new development strategy was initiated which counted heavily on the import of more technologically advanced machinery and equipment and the purchase of licenses and production processes from the West. This paper documents the tremendous increase in Western imports and the purchase of licenses which took place in the 1970s, and which would then be expected to generate an increase in joint factor productivity due to technological change. Empirical analysis, however, indicates that there was no effective transfer of the technology. Joint factor productivity for total industry calculated as a residual in estimated production functions, which include imported inputs, has a zero rate of growth from 1970 to 1978 (using quarterly data). Disaggregating and using annual data over a longer sample period yields estimates of the rate of growth of joint factor productivity which increase slightly for total industry in the 1973–1977 period. For the electrical and mechanical branch which received large numbers of license and joint production agreements the rate of growth of joint factor productivity remained unchanged. The results indicate that systemic factors such as central planning, managerial inhibitions and supply bottlenecks out-weighed any potential increase in factor productivity as a result of technology transfer.Wichita State University. I would like to thank Keith Crane, John Neufeld and two anonymous referees for useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Financial support for this research provided by the American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council (financed in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foudation), the International Research and Exchanges Board and the UNCG Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. Responsibility for all errors remains with the author.     

关于经理人股票期权会计处理的探讨

我国最近几年才引入经理人股票期权制度,关于经理人股票期权的会计处理研究更是一片空白。本文在借鉴美国经验的基础上,对经理人股票期权的会计处理实务作了探讨,介绍了美国的经理人股票期权会计处理准则,给出了经理人股票期权价值计量模型及会计处理实例。