Offshoring Quotas and Strategic Export Subsidies

We present an analysis of strategic export subsidization in the presence of exogenous limits on the extent of offshoring that is permissible for a domestic firm. Rather than offsetting a quota’s cost-raising effect, the government reduces its optimal strategic subsidy compounding the negative effects on the domestic firm’s market share. This double jeopardy of lower subsidies and greater offshoring restrictions must reduce domestic profits as well as domestic welfare. Finally, we show that there is no guarantee that such an offshoring quota will raise domestic employment in the oligopolistic sector, calling into question the efficacy of such a barrier.     

Multi-market trading in the Eurodollar futures market

On March 18, 2004, the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange launched trading in Eurodollar futures contracts in an attempt to compete with a U.S. rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange responded to the challenge by introducing several policy changes that aided the transfer of its trading volume in Eurodollar futures from open outcry to the electronic trading platform, Globex, thereby retaining its market share. We compare trading volume, effective spread, and price discovery in Eurodollar futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before and after the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange began trading the same contract. We find a general increase in trading volume on Globex beginning October 2003, way before the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange launched its contract. Globex provides greater price discovery than open outcry during the entire time period under study. Our research thus supports the global trend of conversion of traditional open outcry systems into electronic exchanges.     

Non‐parametric regression in clustered multistate current status data with informative cluster size

Datasets examining periodontal disease records current (disease) status information of tooth‐sites, whose stochastic behavior can be attributed to a multistate system with state occupation determined at a single inspection time. In addition, the tooth‐sites remain clustered within a subject, and the number of available tooth‐sites may be representative of the true periodontal disease status of that subject, leading to an ‘informative cluster size’ scenario. To provide insulation against incorrect model assumptions, we propose a non‐parametric regression framework to estimate state occupation probabilities at a given time and state exit/entry distributions, utilizing weighted monotonic regression and smoothing techniques. We demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed weighted estimators over the unweighted counterparts via a simulation study and illustrate the methodology using a dataset on periodontal disease.     

Poverty, political freedom, and the roots of terrorism in developing countries: An empirical assessment

We find that political freedom has a significant and non-linear effect on domestic terrorism, but has no statistically significant effect on transnational terrorism. Geography and fractionalization limit a country’s ability to curb terrorism, while strong legal institutions deter terrorism.     

Test of Bernoulli success probability in inverse sampling for nearer alternatives using adaptive allocation

This paper provides a test procedure for the problem of testing Bernoulli success probability in the case of costly trials when an inverse sampling is carried out. The proposed test is based on a two population adaptive sampling scheme used in clinical trials. Some exact and asymptotic results related to the test are studied. The proposed procedure is applicable where the alternatives are not too far from the null hypothetical value.     

Illegal Immigration and Second-best Import Tariffs

A version of the small‐union Meade model is presented to analyze the illegal immigration problem in the context of import tariffs. Two possible host nation objectives are considered: (i) to control the level of illegal immigration to a given target; or (ii) to choose an illegal immigration level that maximizes national welfare. Available policy instruments are import tariffs/subsidies, border, and internal enforcement levels. The second‐best tariff on imports from the source nation (for illegal immigration) can be of either sign. It depends on the effect of the tariff on the wage rate and the pattern of substitutability in consumption. In scenario (ii), greater enforcement may be justified if it reduces labor inflow and thereby contracts the protected sector. If enforcement is too costly, tariff policy may substitute for it to exploit monopsony power in the labor market and to counter the distortionary effects of labor flows.     

A theory of reciprocal gifts

Anthropologists and sociologists have long emphasized the concept of generalized reciprocity and symbolic value of gifts. When gifts are given in primitive or modern societies, symbolic meanings of gifts are taken into account and the gift recipients feel obliged to return the favor. In the field of economics, several papers in recent years have emphasized the value of gifts as signaling toools or as expressions of altruism. However, these papers do not address the issue of symbolic value of gifts. This paper discusses how symbolic value of a gift can be determined and how it is related to the concept of generalized reciprocity. A Nash game is used to show how symbolic values may be determined in a model of generalized reciprocal gifts.     

A covariate‐adjusted adaptive design for two‐stage clinical trials with survival data

A randomized two‐stage adaptive design is proposed and studied for allocation of patients to treatments and comparison in a phase III clinical trial with survival time as treatment responses. We consider the possibility of several covariates in the design and analysis. Several exact and limiting properties of the design and the follow‐up inference are studied, both numerically and theoretically. The applicability of the proposed methodology is illustrated by using some real data.     

Biofuel Subsidies and International Trade

This paper explores optimal biofuel subsidies in a general equilibrium trade model. The focus is on the production of biofuels such as corn‐based ethanol, which diverts corn from use as food. In the small‐country case, when the tax on crude is not available as a policy option, a second‐best biofuel subsidy may or may not be positive. In the large‐country case, the twin objectives of pollution reduction and terms‐of‐trade improvement justify a combination of crude tax and biofuel subsidy for the food exporter. Finally, we show that when both nations engage in biofuel policies, the terms‐of‐trade effects encourage the Nash equilibrium subsidy to be positive (negative) for the food exporting (importing) nation.