Industrial policy and U.S.-Japanese trade

We find that while the depreciation subsidy and special treatment from the MITI has significantly promoted the Japanese trade advantage, legalized cartelization status in Japan has not had any apparent effect on bilateral trade with the U.S.     

U. S. energy production activity and innovation

Life-cycle studies provide a comprehensive insight into comparative innovation behavior and innovation constants. In this article a comparison of the life-cycle plots for the production and patent activity is made for US energy production categories. As has been shown previously for material production [TFSC, vol.78, 2011], the two activities may be correlated to such an extent that they may be superimposed to a large degree, for all growth stage except stage IV, simply by an origin-shift. Over ten energy production methods have been studied in this manner for the first time. An origin-shift ratio, OR, (positive or negative lag) describes the amount required to shift the two activity curves in order to superimpose them. The relative drive-force ratio, DR (defined as the ratio of the production and patent growth constants) is noted to scale with the origin-shift. The value of this drive-force ratio determines the amount of production that is influenced by patents. The slope of curve of the drive-force ratio plotted against the origin-shift ratio is noted to be constant across all energy categories in the high growth Stage III. The authors find for the first time that even early stage production displays an origin-shift. Energy materials (i.e., those materials that dominate a particular type of energy production) are also studied in the material category alone, where the total usage of the material is considered. The concept of Green materials is discussed in this context. The life-cycle approach collapses the energy categories/sources and related materials into two groups. The authors discuss these groups in the Schumpeterian framework of constructive and destructive innovation. Group 1, containing coal, natural gas, wind, renewable, fossil fuel, solar and total energies, is composed of energy categories/sources whose patent activity could be inferred as driving their production. On the other hand, energy production from biomass, biofuel, geothermal and nuclear energies is identified in Group 2, in which the patent activity is driven by production (high innovation group). An (OR) of slightly less than one and a (DR) less than one, lead to a placement where with time, a constructive to destructive innovation transition is encountered A very low (OR) and a low (DR) on the other hand leads to a transition from Stage III growth to a no-growth (Stage IV) with time. Innovation enhanced resources and production are also discussed.     

The impact of regulation on innovation: Some U.S. data

Data is presented on the impact of government regulation on the rate and direction of innovation in U.S. manufacturing and industry. Regulation has forced some innovation, be it compliance, but in most cases it has not stimulated radical technical change. Overall, evidence suggests that the impact of regulation on business innovation has been negative and that regulation has delayed and even prevented innovation in a number of areas.     

Immigration policy and the U.S. economy: an institutional perspective

The author examines some aspects of the current situation concerning immigration to the United States. He predicts that the 1990s will witness the largest flow of immigrants into the population and labor force of any decade in the country's history; furthermore, since there is no universally accepted right to immigrate, the adoption of migration policy is one area of economic policymaking that is not controlled by market forces. He also notes that while the country's need is for a highly skilled, motivated, and educated labor force, the majority of current immigrants have low skill levels and relatively little education. The need to develop and implement a migration policy that is in tune with the country's economic objectives is stressed. He concludes that "the resurrection of mass immigration from out of the nation's distant past was a political accident; its perpetuation in the 1990s is contrary to national interest. Immigration reform, therefore, needs to be [in] the forefront of the nation's economic policy agenda."     

International benefits policy: a U.S. multinationals perspective

An international benefits policy requires considerable planning both at the corporate level and in relation to the local environment. The creation of such a policy also calls for careful research into the company's basic benefits philosophy.     

Trade policy in majoritarian systems: the case of the U.S.

Abstract We provide a theory of trade policy determination that incorporates the protectionist bias inherent in majoritarian systems, suggested by Grossman and Helpman (2005) . The prediction that emerges is that in majoritarian systems, the majority party favours industries located disproportionately in majority districts. We test this prediction using U.S. data on tariffs, Congressional campaign contributions, and industry location in districts represented by the majority party over the period 1989–97. We find evidence of a significant majority bias in trade policy: the benefit to being represented by the majority party appears at least as large in magnitude as the benefit to lobbying.     

Monetary and fiscal policy interactions in the post-war U.S.

A New Keynesian model allowing for an active monetary and passive fiscal policy (AMPF) regime and a passive monetary and active fiscal policy (PMAF) regime is estimated to fit various U.S. samples from 1955 to 2007. The results show that data in the pre-Volcker periods strongly prefer an AMPF regime, even with a prior centered in the PMAF region. The estimation, however, is not very informative about whether the Federal Reserve's reaction to inflation is greater than one in the pre-Volcker period, because much lower values can still preserve determinacy under passive fiscal policy. In addition, whether a PMAF regime can generate consumption growth following a government spending increase depends on the degree of price stickiness. An income tax cut can yield an unusual negative labor response if monetary policy aggressively stabilizes output growth.     

Economic policy uncertainty and firm investment: evidence from the U.S. market

This paper examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on firm-level capital investment, by not only delving into the long-term investment-uncertainty relation like previous studies, but also analyzing the short-term investment-uncertainty relation for the U.S. market. The empirical investigations show that firms decrease short-term, long-term, and total firm investments when encountering higher economic policy uncertainties. The research also explores the non-linear investment-uncertainty relation based on various theories. Our findings present a U-shaped relationship between short-term, long-term, and total investments and uncertainties. Policy implications are provided from our empirical results.     

The U.S. Environmental policy experience: A critique with Suggestions for the European Community

This paper recites much of the history of U.S. environmental policy, covering air quality, water quality, hazardous wastes, monitoring and enforcement, integration of environmental considerations into general economic planning, and the issue of federal-state relations. Policies are criticized in terms of excessive cost and lack of effective enforcement, but successful and innovative practices also are identified, especially the use of tradable discharge permits and productive state-federal relationships. Suggestions for European Community policy formulation are made.     

Pricing policy of a U.S. telephone company

This paper analyses the pricing policy of a major U.S. telephone company in 1967. A mathematical programming model was used to calculate the prices per telephone call on each of three representative routes in each of four periods of the day which would be implied by a variety of alternative maximands (consumers' plus producers' surplus, profit, sales units, sales revenue), under a variety of alternative profit constraints and assuming capacity to be either fixed (at 1967 levels) or variable. Cost and demand data were supplied by several telephone company officials, and supplemented by published material. Sensitivity analysis was carried out on the demand elasticities. A total of one hundred versions of the model are reported on. Our major conclusions include: (i) Maximising consumers' plus producers' surplus subject to a pair of minimum profit constraints provided a good approximation to 1967 policy. (ii) There is perfect discrimination between large and small users for interstate toll calls. (iii) The effect of the state regulatory commission was to keep down the price of intrastate toll calls at the expense of interstate toll calls. (iv) As alternatives to regulation, perfect competition, if attainable, would increase benefits by about $100 million whereas perfect monopoly would reduce them by $300 million per annum, within the area of the company's operations.     

Sex and environmental policy in the U.S. House of Representatives

Using LCV score data, we find that female legislators favor stricter environmental policies than do their male counterparts. Moreover, gender-corrected estimates suggest that voters do not push environmental policy towards the middle, but rather select the ideologically closest candidate.     

Transmission effects of the U.S. and China monetary policy shocks on the world

This paper applies the Markov-switching model to analyse the transition probabilities and generalized method of moments (GMM) with Newey–West heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance estimators (HAC) to examine the continuity of monetary policies in different countries when the U.S. and China change their monetary policies. Our results indicate that the euro area’s monetary authority continues to increase/decrease their money supply to stimulate/depress the economy. In Japan, long-term economic recession motivated the Japanese government to maintain a loose money supply. The continuity of Korea’s monetary policy in expansionary states lasts up to 5.1 years. Besides, the outcomes show the implementation of U.S. quantitative easing (QE), overnight reverse repurchase agreement (RRP), and Chinese RRP policies have significant spillover effects on other nations. Particularly, the effects on the euro area are the largest. Furthermore, although the monetary policies of China and the euro area seem to move in opposite directions, they are interdependent.     

Effects of technical innovation on market value of the U.S. semiconductor industry

This article discusses the effects of technical innovation on the market value (MV) of the American semiconductor industry from the perspective of investors in the securities market. The study quantifies the technical innovations of the semiconductor industry and uses the proportional change of Average Process Technology (APT) as a proxy variable to measure the industrial capability of technical innovations and to act as one of the explanatory variables of a regression model for discussing the connection between technical innovation and MV. The results indicate that: 1) the degree of technical innovation and the proportional change in productivity of the semiconductor industry are the major factors that affect proportional change in the MV of the U.S. semiconductor industry; 2) regardless of the size of a company's MV or the companies' classification in terms of products and services (the Equipment & Material Sector, the Board Line Sector, the IC & Chip Sector and the Fabless & Specialist Sector), the degree of technical innovation shows a significant positive effect on MV.     

Unconventional monetary policy announcements and information shocks in the U.S.

We study unconventional policy shocks and information shocks associated with central bank announcements in the U.S. While unconventional policy shocks capture the direct influence of announced monetary policy actions, information shocks are associated with central bank information conveyed with the announcement. To disentangle these two types of shocks, we impose sign restrictions on high frequency changes in interest rates and stock prices around announcements. We find that information shocks lead to persistent declines in the 10-year government bond yield, whereas the actual unconventional policy shock induces only small interest rate responses. We also find that expansionary output effects of unconventional monetary policy are to some extent counteracted by the information shock.     

An empirical analysis of air pollution emissions policy for the U.K. residential sector

In this paper an analysis of the U.K. government's air pollution emissions policy for the residential sector is undertaken. The analysis covers emissions arising from water and space heating, electric appliances and cooking appliances. Using an integrated economic-engineering model, the effects of the Energy Savings Trust and the imposition of Value Added Tax on residential fuel will be evaluated in terms of energy consumption and pollution emissions. It is found that the initial proposed policy was not sufficiently stringent to meet the government's environmental objectives, and that subsequent events have undermined the government's programme even further. Unless alternative policies are introduced, emissions from the residential sector will play an important role in jeopardizing the ability of the U.K. government to meet its international obligations.     

The evolution of the monetary policy regimes in the U.S.

The existing literature on U.S. monetary policy provides no sense of a consensus regarding the existence of a monetary policy regime. This article explores the evolution of U.S. monetary policy regimes via the development of a Markov-switching model predicated on narrative and statistical evidence of a monetary policy regime. We identified five regimes for the period spanning 1956:I?C2005:IV and they roughly corresponded to the Chairman term of the Federal Reserve, except for the Greenspan era. More importantly, we demonstrate that the conflicting results regarding the response to inflation for the pre-Volcker period in the existing literature is not attributable to the different data but due to different samples, and also provided an insight regarding the Great Inflation??namely, that the near non-response to inflation in the early 1960s appears to have constituted the initial seed of the Great Inflation. We also find via analysis of the Markov-switching model for the U.S. real interest rate, that the regime changes in the real interest rate follow the regime changes in monetary policy within 2?years and that the evolution of real interest rate regimes provides a good explanation for the conflicting results regarding the dynamics of real interest rate.     

Macroeconomic conditions in the U.S. and congressional voting on environmental policy: 1970-2008

Using the Environmental Scorecard ratings of Congressmen and Senators published annually by the League of Conservation Voters, we explore empirically whether political support for pro-environment legislation, aggregated across each legislative body, is sensitive over time to changing economic conditions — that is, whether there is a political trade-off between economic conditions and the environment. Using LCV scorecard ratings from 1970 to 2008, we find evidence, consistent across both the House and Senate, that political support for the environment is related to per capita income, but this general tendency can be decomposed into sharp differences by party.