Spatial price premium transmission for Meat Standards Australia‐graded cattle: the vulnerability of price premiums to outside shocks

Studies of market integration show that price changes are transmitted spatially through arbitrage. Transmission across differentiated agricultural products is important to investigate, but it has not been explored given its complexities for assessment. Using data from Australian cattle markets, we examine the dynamics of Meat Standards Australia price premium transmission between states. An impulse response function analysis using Bayesian vector autoregression with sign restriction identification shows that shocks to prices and price premiums are partially transmitted contemporaneously between markets and it takes several weeks to complete transmission. In addition, we find an asymmetry of price and price premium shocks originating in Southern Queensland that have an inverse immediate impact in New South Wales, and take months to transmit the usual price response. This outcome may be explained by differences in cattle availability in each state, which can be related to forage availability due to weather conditions. Based on these results, producers can forecast fluctuations on price premiums and adjust their cattle supply accordingly.     

Imperfect information and labor market bias against small and medium-sized enterprises: a Korean case

We examine the labor market’s bias against small and medium-sized enterprises focusing on the Seoul Digital Industrial Complex case. We adopt Heckman’s approach to control selection bias, and use primary data from questionnaire surveys conducted at both firm and employee levels. We find that conventional firm-specific factors, such as wages, fringe benefits, and weekly work hours, primarily explain the labor market bias, but imperfect information is also positively associated with the bias. For example, a firm’s inadequate ability to identify a pool of potential employee candidates or to provide them comprehensive firm- or job-specific information tends to worsen labor shortages, and an employee’s ex-ante incomplete knowledge of on-the-job training or education opportunities tends to increase ex-post turnover intentions. Our results suggest that reducing the market bias requires improving imperfect information as well as conventional firm-specific conditions.     

International Effects of Stock Market Dispersion

We study the extent to which stock market dispersion is related to unemployment and output growth for 16 countries over 20 years. Using panel vector-auto-regressions and panel dynamic regressions, we find increases in stock market dispersion across industries to induce future increases in unemployment and future decreases in industrial production (IP) growth. Moreover, the responses of unemployment and IP growth following a positive shock to stock market dispersion are persistent and are robust to various controls, sample periods, and estimation methods. Our article provides cross-country evidence in support of the hypothesis that shifts in demand across industries negatively affect employment.     

Lessons of the 1999 Abolition of Intra-EU Duty Free Sales for the New EU Member States

The abolition of intra-EU duty free was critically discussedand accompanied by a vigorous and well-financed lobbying campaignby the duty free industry. The opponents of this resolutionargued that such a tax-free sales sector created jobs and hardlyreduced the value added and excise tax revenue of individualcountries. In their opinion, the duty free trade not only contributedto the reduction of the travel fare but also could be characterisedas a supplement to the normal retail trade for some products.The challenges for some specific industries led by the abolitionof duty free shopping appear to be considerable in the short-term.However, theoretical and empirical examinations made in thisstudy suggest: (a) intra-EU duty free shopping disturbs theallocation neutrality guaranteed in the single market, (b) macroeconomicsignificance of duty free shopping is rather negligible, and(c) some background studies made for the lobbyists exaggeratethe negative impacts of eliminating intra-EU duty free shopping.These three important arguments, which can also be applied tothe new EU Member States, justify the abolition of intra-EUduty free shopping. (JEL F10; F15; F18; E62; P20)     

Air Pollution and Housing Values in Korea: A Hedonic Analysis with Long-range Transboundary Pollution as an Instrument

Environmental and Resource Economics - We estimate the degree and scope of PM2.5-induced negative price shock in Korea’s local housing markets, taking a two-stage hedonic approach. For the...     

Globalization of technology: Network analysis of global patents and trademarks

This study explored how the structure of globalization of technology via intellectual property networks has changed longitudinally, and compares the structures of global trademarks and patents. It suggests that network analysis provides useful tools for describing recent trends in the globalization of technology. Network analyses describe which countries have higher technological capabilities, and also how countries are mutually connected for technological collaboration or transfer. In addition, network analysis confirmed that both the trademark and patent networks have become decentralized over time.     

Dynamic responses and tail-dependence among commodities,the US real interest rate and the dollar

Theoretical models suggest monetary policy is transmitted to commodity prices. We quantify this channel using several empirical methods under daily data. In early 2009, the US real interest rate became negative, with sample mean varying from 1.75 % (in the mid-1997 to January 28, 2009, subsample) to \(-1.50\,\%\) (in January 29, 2009, to mid-September 2013 subsample). Gold displays higher risk-adjusted returns earlier, while copper and oil have higher risk-adjusted returns more recently. Shocks to the exchange rate and the real interest rate in VARs explain almost 30 % for oil and 32 % for copper more recently when impulse responses are more significant. The time-varying correlation of oil with the real interest rate in the more recent period is \(-0.462\), and its correlation with the exchange rate is \(-0.460\), compared to \(-0.089\) and \(-0.120\), respectively, in the earlier period. Vine copula methods identify a dependence pattern of C-vine copula with t-copula in almost every pair among commodity prices, the real value of the US dollar and the US real interest rate.     

Valuing cultural heritage in developing countries: comparing and pooling contingent valuation and choice modelling estimates

A substantial part of the United Nation’s World Heritage Sites (WHSs) can be found in developing countries, but many of them are in a bad state. Thus, there is a need to document the social benefits of these global goods in order to justify the costs of restoration and preservation programmes (RPPs). This study adds to the scarce literature on economic benefits of WHSs in developing countries, and reduces the need to perform very uncertain benefit transfers from European or US valuation studies. We apply Contingent Valuation (CV) and Choice Modelling (CM) to estimate the social benefits of RPPs for the My Son world cultural heritage site in Vietnam; both to foreign visitors and the local residents. We then compare the estimates from the CV and CM methods, and pool the results from the two methods. The results show that both CV and CM are suited to estimating the economic benefits of preserving cultural heritage of My Son. The two methods produce very similar results, which can be interpreted as a test of convergence validity. The pooling results give evidence to show that the CV and CM models have the same underlying preference structures. Thus, these valuation models can be successfully used in cost-benefit analyses to assess the benefits to cultural heritage of measures to reduce air pollution, soil erosion, climate change and other causes to deterioration of cultural heritage sites.

Do Corporate Tax Concessions Really Matter for the Success of Free Economic Zones?

Not only a large number of developing countries but also transition economies have established free economic zones (FEZs) with the aim of attracting foreign capital by providing tax incentives, creating employment opportunities, and promoting exports and regional development. Tax investment promotion schemes include profit tax exemption, free or accelerated depreciation, investment tax allowance, subsidy for investment costs, etc., the effects of which on firms investment decisions can be compared based on the net present value model. This study suggests that even a low corporate tax rate combined with generous depreciation rules does not provide incentives for investors when the inflation rate is high. A case study on Najin–Sonbong FEZ in North Korea delivers a wide range of more crucial economic and political reasons why such a development project can fail, although tax concessions offered there are more favourable than those in China and other Asian nations.     

Capital Accumulation And Trade Policy:The Case Of Korea

This paper investigates whether there are any systematic links between Domestic savings and export growth in light of the Korean experience, beginning with the early 1960s when trade policy shifted from an inward to outward orientation. The paper also examines how domestic investment might have been affected by the trade reforms. The study reveals that the impressive growth of Korea's domestic savings over the 1960-95 period owes in no small part to the Trade reforms and the subsequent rapid growth of exports. Evidence also Suggests that the long-lasting investment boom experienced by Korea over the 1960–95 period was initiated and maintained to a significant degree by the trade reform of the 1960s and thereafter. [F43, E21].