WTO UpholdsU.S.Tariffs on Tires from China

The World Trade Organization on September 5released the ruling of its Appellate Body,upholding President Obama's decision to impose three-year punitive tariffs on Chinese passenger and light truck tires.The Obama administration in September 2009placed a 35 percent safeguard duty on tires for cars and light trucks that Chinese manufacturers exported to the US,after the United Steelworkers (USW) complained that surging imports hurt home producers.Chinese tire imports were shown to have surged to record levels in the five years prior to the filing of the petition,causing significant market disruption.According to the USW,Chinese tire imports by volume grew 215％from 2004 until 2008,reaching a volume of 46 million tires.     

Chinese Leadership Voice Confidence in US Economy

U.S.Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up his four-day visit to China on August 21. At each step of the tour,Biden stressed the importance of cooperation amid global uncertainty,and offered assurances that the U.S.economy,despite its problems,remained strong.His message was echoed by Beijing's top leaders,who voiced confidence in the U.S.economy. Biden's visit was the first high-level meeting     

Empirical Analysis of Competition between Wal-Mart and Other Retail Channels

This paper quantifies the degree of competition between Wal-Mart and different retail channels by exploiting a unique dataset that describes a consumer's choice of store. Using a discrete choice model, I estimate a consumer's choice of retailer in the sales market for DVDs among online, mass merchant, electronics, video specialty, and music stores. Wal-Mart competes more intensely with other mass merchants, and conditional on price and distance, the average consumer still prefers Wal-Mart to most other stores. I also consider a counterfactual experiment regarding the entry of Wal-Mart into 15 proposed store sites into California.     

Personnel management in the public and private sectors

Little comparative work on personnel management in the public and private sectors in the UK has been attempted. From evidence obtained in a recent survey personnel management practice, the author identifies some differences and similarities between the two sectors.     

Reviews

“REDUNDANT SPACE?” Green, Howard and Foley, Paul, 1986: Redundant Space, A Productive Asset Harper & Row, London, on behalf of the Small Business Research Trust, £14.95.

“SMALL FACTORIES” Perry, M., 1986: Small Factories and Economic Development. Aldershot: Gower, £22.50.

“COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES” Willett, R. 1985: Village Ventures. Rural Communities in Action. Rural Voice/Bedford Square Press, £3.25

Alexander, T. 1986: Value for People, Adult Education and Popular Planning. Popular Planning Project, Clapham-Battersea Adult Education Institute, 116 Battersea Park Road, London, £2.50

Ashby, P. 1986: Trade Unions and the Community, Working for Jobs. Bedford Square Press/N.C.V.O.£2.50

“COMMUNITIES IN BUSINESS” Centre for Employment Initiatives/Community Initiatives Research Trust, 1986: Communities in Business. London: Centre for Employment Initiatives, £6.95 paper.

“LONDON TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY” London Strategic Policy Unit, 1987: Britain's Industrial Renaissance? The Development, Manufacture and Use of Information Technology. London: L.S.P.U.

“EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVES” Martinos, H., 1986: Employment Creation in Local Labour Markets — Four Case Studies (ILE Notebooks No 5). Paris: OECD, price FF 60.00

“CHALLENGING THE MSC” Benn, C. and Fairley, J. Editors: 1986: Challenging the MSC on jobs, training and education. London Pluto Press, £5.95 Paperback.

“SMALL FIRMS” Scott, M., Lewis, J., Gibb, A., Faulkner, T.; Editors: 1986: Small Firms Growth and Development Gower, £19.50     

Masking identification of discrete choice models under simulation methods

We present examples based on actual and synthetic datasets to illustrate how simulation methods can mask identification problems in the estimation of discrete choice models such as mixed logit. Simulation methods approximate an integral (without a closed form) by taking draws from the underlying distribution of the random variable of integration. Our examples reveal how a low number of draws can generate estimates that appear identified, but in fact, are either not theoretically identified by the model or not empirically identified by the data. For the particular case of maximum simulated likelihood estimation, we investigate the underlying source of the problem by focusing on the shape of the simulated log-likelihood function under different conditions.     

Reliability of Assessment of Reading Ability in Three Countries

Over the last few decades, there have been a number ofnational and international programmes to assessperformance in key subjects. For example theInternational Association for Evaluation ofEducational Attainment (IEA), International Assessmentof Educational Progress (IAEP), and the ThirdInternational Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS)programs have aimed to compare performance betweenparticipating countries.Such exercises have different requirements from thosetests, such as public examinations, which aim toassess the attainment of individuals. National andinternational assessments aim to cover a very widerange of materials, and often use the technique ofmultiple matrix sampling to do so.The investigation is based on generalizability-typeanalyses of three national data sets at two ages, andlooks not only at the variance components arising fromsampling of schools, and of pupils within them, butalso at the variation between different assessmentinstruments, and between items within assessmentinstruments. If interpreted with care, such resultscan be of value in the design of future studies. Thispaper concentrates largely on the precision ofestimates of overall means, but analyses of the typedescribed could also be used to compare theperformance of subpopulations.