NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals' Costs: A Comment

The purpose of this comment is toclarify and extend a recent paper entitled NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals Costs. The paper indicates that the complexity of complying with the rules of NAFTA may lead to a decrease in competition in the domestic market. The comment shows that thecomplexity of NAFTA is related to the rules of origin which are a part of virtually any free-tradeagreement. Since rules of origin are a necessary part of virtually any trade agreement, the conclusions of the paper are not restricted to NAFTA but can be generalized to a large part of international trade.     

IMPORT FORECASTS FOR INPUT-OUTPUT MODELS*

The paper presents forecasting models for (1) the share of competitive imports in the total demand for a commodity group and (2) the level of demand for competitive imports of a commodity group. The two forecasting models are used, respectively, with (1) input-output models which incorporate market share parameters as one vector of coefficients and (2) input-output models which assume imports have been determined autonomously. It is shown that these two types of input-output models can be made workable by prefixing one or other of the import forecasting models to the input-output model. Tests are made of the forecasting ability of the combined models.     

The effects of the second enlargement of the EC on U.S. exports to Europe

Zusammenfassung Die Auswirkungen der zweiten EG-Erweiterung auf die US-Exporte nach Europa. — Dieser Aufsatz enth?lt Sch?tzungen über die Auswirkungen der zweiten Erweiterung der EG auf die Industrieexporte der USA in die EG der Neun. Der verwendete Ansatz identifiziert die Produkte, die die Vereinigten Staaten in die EG-9 exportierten und die mit den Exporten Griechenlands, Portugals und Spaniens auf diesen M?rkten konkurrieren. Sowohl für eng begrenzte Produktgruppen als auch für die Produktion insgesamt werden die statischen Exportverluste der USA infolge der Handelsumlenkung gesch?tzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daΒ die Exportverluste der USA insgesamt recht gering sind, sich aber auf eine verh?ltnism?Βig kleine Anzahl von Produktgruppen konzentrieren.

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Résumé Les effets du deuxiéme élargissement de la CE sur les exportations des E.U. vers l’Europe. — Dans cet article l’auteur développe des estimations sur les effets du deuxiéme élargissement de la CE sur les exportations manufacturiéres des E.U. vers la CE-9. L’approche appliquée ici est d’identifier la série des produits exportés par les E.U. vers la CE-9 en concurrence avec les exportations de la Gréce, du Portugal et de l’Espagne vers ce marché. L’auteur fait des estimations statiques des pertes d’exportations américaines à cause de la diversion de commerce pour des catégories des biens étroitement définies aussi bien que pour les exportations totales. Les résultats indiquent que les pertes totales des E.U. sont assez modérées, mais que les pertes se concentrent sur un relativement petit nombre des catégories des biens.

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Resumen Los Efectos de una segunda ampliación de la C.E.E. sobre las exportaciones de los Estados Unidos a Europa. — El estudio estima el impacto de una segunda ampliación de la C.E.E. sobre las exportaciones norteamericanas de manufacturas a los nueve paises miembros de la C.E.E. El mètodo empleado consiste en identificar el grupo de productos que los Estados Unidos exportan a los nueve paises y que se ven confrontados por la competencia de Grecia, Portugal y Espana en el Mercado Común Europeo. Las estimaciones de las pèrdidas de exportaciones norteamericanas debidas a esta competencia se realizaron utilizando categorfas estrechamente definidas de productos y tambièn agregados totales. Los resultados indican que los pèrdidas totales de exportaciones norteamericanas son bastante modestas, estando sin embargo concentradas en un numèro pequeno de tipos de producto.

     

Pricing errors and estimates of risk premia in factor models

In this paper, we consider the effect of the theoretical pricing error in the arbitrage pricing model on estimates of risk premia implied by the model. Under arbitrage pricing, the pricing error satisfies a strong bounding condition where for an infinite set of assets, the sum of squared pricing errors is bounded. We characterize the pricing error in terms of orders of probability and estimate an expected returns model which allows for pricing errors less than order one in probability. The principal finding of the paper is that misspecification of the pricing error and misspecification of the factor structure has no effect on the bias or mean squared error of the dominant risk premium. This implies that an exact form of arbitrage pricing can be used to estimate risk premia.     

Factors Influencing Partial and Complete Adoption of Organic Farming Practices in Saskatchewan, Canada

Using a sample of organic producers in Saskatchewan, Canada, this study uses a Tobit model to identify the factors that discourage or encourage the complete adoption of organic farming and to assess why farmers differ in the share of total cultivated crop area they allocate to organic practices. In particular, the study evaluates the effect of transaction costs on the decision to convert partially or completely from conventional to organic practices. The results highlight the importance of lowering certain transaction costs to encourage the adoption of organic management practices. Significant transaction costs were found to include infrastructure and services, satisfaction with marketer performance, marketing problems, and Internet use. Results suggest that farmers with smaller land holdings are more inclined to undertake complete adoption. While the education levels of organic farmers show no significant effect on the probability of adoption, younger organic farmers allocate significantly less of their cultivated area to organic practices. À partir d'un échantillon de producteurs de cultures biologiques de la Saskatchewan, au Canada, nous avons utilisé un modèle Tobit pour déterminer les facteurs qui encouragent ou découragent l'adoption totale des pratiques agricoles biologiques et les raisons pour lesquelles le pourcentage des superficies consacrées aux cultures biologiques varie d'un producteur à l'autre. Nous avons également examiné les répercussions des coûts de transaction sur la décision de passer, en totalité ou en partie, des pratiques conventionnelles aux pratiques biologiques. Les résultats ont fait ressortir l'importance de réduire certains coûts de transaction afin d'encourager l'adoption des méthodes agronomiques biologiques. Les coûts de transaction les plus importants incluaient les infrastructures et les services, l'efficacité des intermédiaires, les problèmes liés à la mise en marché et l'utilisation d'Internet. Les résultats autorisent à penser que les producteurs agricoles qui possèdent de petites superficies sont plus enclins à adopter en totalité l'agriculture biologique. Alors que le niveau de scolarité des producteurs ne semble pas avoir de répercussions sur la probabilité d'adopter l'agriculture biologique, les jeunes producteurs de cultures biologiques consacrent beaucoup moins de leurs superficies cultivées à la culture biologique.     

Trigger warning: the causal impact of gun ownership on suicide

With a growing debate over tighter firearm regulations, we consider an important social consequence of increased firearm access: increased firearm suicides. Using data from the federal criminal background check system, we consider the impact of firearm ownership on firearm suicide rates. To deal with concerns of identification, we instrument for firearm background checks with state-year-level Google search intensity for phrases that reflect fear of future gun shortages and learning about the constitutional rights of firearm owners. We find that an increase in firearm ownership has a sizable and statistically significant impact on firearm suicide rates. A 10% increase in firearm ownership increases firearm suicide rates by approximately 3%, which is five times larger than non-instrumented estimates. Furthermore, we find no effect of gun ownership on non-firearm suicide rates, suggesting our findings are not simply capturing a suicide method substitution effect. The results are consistent with a variety of validity and robustness tests. Our results make clear the link between firearm ownership and firearm suicide rates, which have increased dramatically over the last decade.     

The NAIRU,Aggregate Demand and Investment

The nature of the non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is analysed. The focus of our analysis is the role of aggregate demand and capacity in the context of the NAIRU. Two aspects of the relationship between the level of aggregate demand and the NAIRU are of particular significance. First, it is argued that the real wage–employment relationship based on enterprise decisions cannot be fully articulated without reference to the level of aggregate demand. Second, a model which allows for variable returns to labour and the notion of full capacity is used to explore the effects of shifts in the capital stock on the real wage–employment relationship. The model is specifically used to explore whether a sufficiently expansionary environment can generate sufficient investment to shift that relationship until the NAIRU is compatible with full employment. A number of limitations on the conclusions reached are considered, and the policy implications are briefly considered.