How sensitive is U.S. agricultural trade to the bilateral exchange rate? Evidence from bulk,intermediate, and consumer‐oriented products

This article examines the dynamic effects of changes in bilateral exchange rates on changes in bilateral trade of bulk, intermediate, and consumer‐oriented agricultural products between the United States and its 10 major trading partners. We find that, for consumer‐oriented products, U.S. exports are highly sensitive to bilateral exchange rates in both the short and long run, while U.S. imports are mostly responsive only in the short run. For bulk products, on the other hand, U.S. exports and imports are relatively insensitive to exchange rate changes in both the short and long run. For intermediate products, exports and imports are responsive to exchange rate changes in the short run, but not in the long run. It is also found that income of the United States and its trading partners has a significant effect on U.S. exports and imports of the three types of agricultural products in both the short and long run.     

An option perspective on generating and maintaining plant variety rights in China

Notwithstanding the ambiguous research and productivity promoting effects of plant variety protections (PVPs) even in developed countries, many developing countries have adopted PVPs in the past few years, in part to comply with their Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) obligations. Seeking and maintaining PVPs reserves options to an expected revenue stream from the future sale of protected varieties, the value of which varies for a host of reasons. In this article we empirically examine the pattern of PVP applications in China since its PVP laws were first introduced in 1997. We place those PVP rights in the context of China's present and likely future seed markets to identify the economic incentives and institutional influences on decisions to develop and apply for varietal rights.     

Structure of distortion equilibria and welfare in a multiregional economy

Summary We consider a convex economy with multiregions, each region facing different specific tax-subsidies. The model reduces to a model of a closed economy with an aggregate production set when there is a single region. It can also represent a model of an international economy through a reinterpretation of variables. We show that there is a unique path of allocations from a distortion equilibrium to the optimum that can be followed by proportionate changes of price distortions. Welfare monotonically increases as one follows the path towards optimum. The information on the structure of equilibria reduces multidimensional comparative statics into a one dimensional problem. The global Newton method of Smale can be used to follow the path in the direction of increasing welfare, allowing us to do comparative statics computationally. Global considerations directly show that, under a sign condition of the Jacobian of a tax function, piecemeal proportional reductions of price distortions improve welfare. A variation of the condition unifies other such conditions in the literature.I would like to thank William Brock, Takashi Fukushima, Tatsuo Hatta, Michael Jerison, Taesung Kim and referees of this Journal who provided me with many constructive comments and references. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Far Eastern Meeting of the Econometric Society, the Midwestern Mathematical Economics Conference, and the International Conference of Korean Economists. I wish to thank the participants of these conferences for many nice comments. I also wish to thank Bruce Dieffenbach, Thad Mirer and editors of this journal who helped to streamline exposition.     

Economic designs of single and double screening procedures

Summary Economic designs of single and double screening procedures for improving outgoing product quality based on two screening variables are presented for the case of one-sided specification limit. Two screening variables are observed simultaneously in single screening procedure and are observed sequentially in double screening procedure. It is assumed that the performance variable and the two screening variables are jointly normally distributed. Three quality cost functions — constant, linear, and quadratic — are considered. Cost models are constructed which involve screening inspection cost, and costs of accepted and rejected item. Methods of finding the optimal cutoff values are presented and a numerical example is given.     

Worship Associations in Taiwan

We analyse why Taiwanese families during the Ch'ing Dynasty still held communal assets vested in worship associations (chi ssu kung yeh) even after the division of family assets. Our analysis shows that worship associations benefitted the living as well as the dead. Although the high cost of managing common assets meant the associations were established infrequently, they arose often in a response to clan feuds and served as martial‐style corporations for the protection of family property before the twentieth century.     

Effects of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Outbreaks on U.S. Cattle and Beef Prices

U.S. trade of beef and live cattle declined substantially after the discoveries of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada and the United States in 2003. In this study, an econometric model is developed to estimate the effects of lifting trade restrictions on U.S. cattle and beef prices. Results show that increases in imports of Canadian cattle and beef would lower prices of slaughter steers, feeder steers, and retail beef, but these negative impacts would be more than negated by the positive effects on prices that would result if beef exports return to near pre-BSE levels.     

Influences of travel constraints on the people with disabilities’ intention to travel: An application of Seligman’s helplessness theory

Changes to legal and social environments have contributed to the expansion of the disabled tourism market. However, despite this growth, within tourism there is a distinct lack of research of this niche market, and in particular of the barriers which impede or prevent those with disabilities from participating in tourism. This study addresses this lacuna by exploring the relationships between three inter-related concepts, these being: (1) travel constraints including its three sub-dimensions, these being intrinsic, environmental, and interactive; (ii) learned helplessness; and, (iii) intention to travel. This is attempted through a structured survey targeted at a sample of disabled Korean travelers (N = 301). The results revealed that the three sub-dimensions of constraints exerted no significant influence (p < .05) on travel intentions, though two of the three dimensions (intrinsic and environmental) were found to be statistically significantly associated with learned helplessness. This latter variable, in turn provided a statistically significant negative influence (p < .05) on intention to travel. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, and some avenues for future research are highlighted.     

Do not change horses: specialist CEOs enhance innovation

This study examines the relation between specialist Chief Executive Officers(CEOs) and their firms’ future performance, particularly regarding innovation. While human capital theory predicts that firms should innovate better when their CEOs possess more human capital, this relationship has been hard to measure empirically. As a result, little is known about the role of individual CEOs on innovation performance. Using a unique dataset on CEO human capital characteristics for S&P 1500 firms between 1993 and 2010, we examine whether specialist CEOs with strong firm-specific human capital have a significant long-term influence on firm innovation. Our findings support the idea that specialist CEOs promote both a higher magnitude of innovation and higher quality innovation for their current firms. The evidence indicates that the specificity of CEO human capital matters in the context of innovation as a long-term firm outcome.     

Yield measure for the process with multiple streams

Process capability indices, such as C _pk , have been widely used in the manufacturing industry to provide common quantitative measures for process performance. The index C _pk only provides an approximate rather than an exact measure of the process yield. To obtain an exact measure of the process yield, Boyles proposed a yield index S _pk . Capability measures for processes with single stream have been investigated extensively; however, multiple streams processes often occur in practice. Bothe presented a capability index for multiple streams process. In the present paper, a new index that is able to provide an exact measure of yield for a multiple streams process is developed. Three examples are given for illustration. From the results of the yield measure in the three examples, the conventional approach, using the arithmetic average of the estimated yield indices of all streams, will certainly over-estimate the process yield.