Producer Services, Manufacturing Linkages, and Trade

Working with a mix of panel data on goods and services trade for the OECD for 1994–2004, combined with social accounts data (i.e. data on intermediate linkages) for 78 countries benchmarked to the panel midpoint, we examine the role of services as inputs in manufacturing, with a particular focus on indirect exports of services through merchandise exports, and also on the related interaction between service sector openness and the overall pattern of manufacturing exports. From the cross-section, we also develop a set of stylized facts linking services to the level of development and the density of intermediate linkages. We find significant and strong positive effects from increased business service openness (i.e. greater levels of imports) on industries like machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals and electric equipment, supporting the notion that off-shoring of business services may promote the competitiveness of the most skill and technology intensive industries in the OECD. Conversely, we find evidence of negative general equilibrium effects for sectors that are less service intensive.     

The perceived impact of tourism by residents a case study in Santa Marta,Colombia

Studies of the local population's perception of tourism impact are useful in setting up programs to minimize friction between tourists and residents, and in formulating plans to gain resident support of tourist ventures. This study identifies the positive and negative aspects of tourism as perceived by the Santa Marta residents, and the influence of selected variables on resident response. It is hypothesized that the perception of tourist impact varies with the distance a person lives from the tourist zone and with the resident's socio-economic status. It is found that despite the perception of some serious negative aspects, Santa Marta residents consider the overall impact of tourism to be beneficial. They want their government to offer more economic incentives and eliminate any restrictive measures in order to stimulate tourism in the area. The positive attitudes of the Santa Marta residents toward tourism may be a function of the incipient stage of tourism development in this area.     

Business Cycles, the Exchange Rate, and Demand for Antidumping Protection in Mexico

Antidumping actions in the US and EU are known to be linked to macroeconomic conditions. In part, this is because positive injury findings may be easier to make in a downturn, increasing the chance of success for complainants. We explore the evidence for Mexico, one of the main “new” antidumping regimes. Injury determination is also critical in Mexico’s antidumping policy, as a majority of unsuccessful complaints have been rejected because of negative injury findings rather than negative findings of dumping. Working with data from 1987 to 2000, we provide evidence for a relationship between macroeconomic factors and antidumping complaints, including current account and exchange rate movements, and both local and global general macroeconomic conditions.     

THE LEVEL OF WORLD INEQUALITY: HOW MUCH CAN ONE SAY?

This paper constructs estimates of income and consumption inequality for the world (124 countries), using various measures of inequality. It then goes on to examine the possible effects of various sources of error in the estimates, and attempts to set rough limits to the size of such effects. Among the sources of error examined are purchasing power parities used for currency conversion, systematic errors in estimates of per capita incomes, differences in age structure, government tax and expenditure policy, and lifetime income effects. The paper concludes that, although the level of uncertainty in the estimates is too great to permit conclusions about, for instance, trends over time, it is clear that the level of world inequality is extreme, and that it is primarily due to differences in average incomes across countries rather than to intra-country inequality.     

Poverty: Deprivations in terms of basic needs

Although income-based poverty focuses on an important dimension of poverty, it only gives a partial picture of the many ways in which human lives can be blighted. This study focuses on deprivations in terms of the most basic needs, such as access to safe water and sanitation. Policy makers and other people usually ask, 'With the new government in place, has poverty become worse or are we winning the fight against poverty?' The study seeks to investigate if there have been improvements in the situation in South Africa between 1995 and 1999. The October Household Surveys conducted in 1995 and 1999 are used in the study. The t-test is used to assess the statistical significance of the changes.     

The aftermath of France's last moral panic and its sociology

Stéphane Beaud and Michel Pialoux Violences urbaines, violence sociale. Genèse des nouvelles classes dangereuses Robert Castel L'insécurité sociale. Qu'est‐ce qu'être protégé? David Garland The culture of control. Crime and social order in contemporary society Hugues Lagrange Demandes de sécurité. France, Europe, Etats‐Unis     

Commercial policy variability, bindings, and market access

Protection unconstrained by rules often varies substantially over time. Rules-based disciplines, such as WTO tariff bindings and bindings on market access in services, constrain this variability. We examine the theoretical effects of such constraints on the expected cost of protection and offer a formalization of the concept of “market access”, emphasizing both the first and second moments of the distribution of protection. As an illustration, we provide a stylized examination of Uruguay Round bindings on wheat.     

Trade in International Transport Services: The Role of Competition

The paper is concerned with trade in transport services (not cabotage but rather international shipping, transport, and related logistical services) and the importance of competition and market structure in the sector. It examines implications of liberalization for profits, trade, and national gains from trade. Though past GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) maritime negotiations involved the maritime nations, this paper also flags interests of consuming nations (particularly poorer developing countries). Issues raised in the analytical section are illustrated through a computational example, to provide a rough sense of orders of magnitude and the importance of the issues raised for basic gains from improved market access.     

Fishing for excuses and performance evaluation

We study a principal–agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive effort and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifies the issues associated with the so-called “excuse culture” prevailing in some organizations.