Protection for sale or surge protection?

This paper asks whether the results obtained from using the standard approach to testing the influential Grossman and Helpman “protection for sale” model of political economy might arise from a simpler setting. A model of imports and quotas with protection occurring in response to import surges, but only for organized industries, is simulated and shown to provide parameter estimates consistent with the protection for sale framework. This suggests that the standard approach may be less of a test than previously thought.     

Simulation Analysis of a Dynamic Reallocation-based Routing Functionality for SAGE Application

A large amount of scientific data is generated through computation and analysis. Also, today’s scientific research necessitates an aggregation of diverse expertise from experts with different backgrounds. Therefore, visualizing and sharing these data among scientists in an intuitive and easy manner is of more importance in scientific collaborative research than ever. We have focused on SAGE, a middleware that realizes a large-scale remote visualization leveraging network streaming technique as a promising building block technology. However, no advanced network control function for efficient use of the network is equipped with SAGE although SAGE relies on a network streaming techniques. Our previous research integrated a functionality that detected network failures avoided such failure by rerouting network flows of SAGE into the functionality. Nonetheless, a network congestion avoidance functionality to adapt a collection of network flows generated by SAGE to the underlying network has not been developed yet. In this paper we explore the feasibility of a reallocation-based dynamic routing functionality for SAGE, with which all network flows on the network are rearranged. For feasibility research, we perform simulation experiments to observe the behavior of the functionality. The evaluation confirms that our proposed functionality works correctly and brings better throughput for each flow.     

REMARKS ON A PROCEDURAL CONDITION FOR THE VOTING PARADOX

Schwartz [A Procedural Condition Necessary and Sufficient for Cyclic Social Preference, J. Econ. Theory 137 (2007), 688–695] provides a generalization of the voting paradox by using the impotence‐partition condition. This paper aims to clarify his result by providing several remarks. We show that a main result of Schwartz can be strengthened by replacing strong Pareto by weak Pareto. We also discuss how the impotence partition is related to the standard concept of decisiveness, which is widely employed in the literature on social choice.     

Economic Liberalization and the Vintages of Machinery Imports in Developing Countries: An Empirical Test for India's Imports from the United Kingdom

Drawing upon new World Bank poverty data, the analysis examines the feasibility of attaining the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty (MDG1) when the interrelationships between finance, institutions, trade liberalization, growth and poverty are taken into account. The authors' econometric results suggest a slowing down of poverty reduction in the more recent years since 2000. They also confirm: the role of better institutions in income growth, poverty reduction, trade openness and financial development; the role of financial development in economic growth; and the positive effect of capital liberalization on financial development. Simulations for different regions show that MDG1 is attainable in most regions if the historical growth rate is maintained over 2006–15. However, improvements in institutional quality are crucial for halving extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Product Downsizing and Hidden Price Increases: Evidence from Japan's Deflationary Period

In this paper, we empirically examine the extent to which product downsizing occurred during the deflationary period in Japan, as well as the effects of product downsizing on prices and quantities sold. Using scanner data on prices and quantities for all products sold at about 200 supermarkets over the last 10 years, we find that about one third of product replacements were accompanied by a size/weight reduction. We also find that a 1‐percentage point larger size/weight reduction is associated with a 0.45‐percentage point larger price decline, resulting in an effective price increase. Finally, we show that the quantities sold decline with product downsizing, and that the responsiveness of the quantity sold to size/weight changes is almost the same as the price elasticity, indicating that consumers are as sensitive to size/weight changes as they are to price changes. Our results suggest that the Japanese consumer price index may be downwardly biased rather than upwardly biased.     

The top-dog and the lean and hungry look strategies in endogenous entry

This paper examines the strategic commitment behavior of heterogeneous leaders in an endogenous market structure. We demonstrate that each leader's investment level is independent of the other leaders' characters. Furthermore, we show that a leader over-invests (resp. under-invests) when an investment increases (resp. decreases) the leader's marginal profitability. Such an investment always makes leaders employ aggressive strategies in the competition relative to those in a no-commitment case. This result implies that aggressiveness of leaders is a robust observation in an endogenous market structure.     

Is Livestock Important for Risk Behaviour and Activity Choice of Rural Households? Evidence from Kenya

This paper presents an alternative view on causes of differentiationin rural Kenya, focusing on the role of livestock as liquidassets. We use cross-sectional household data in Central andWestern Kenya. We first examine the extent to which householdsare liquidity-constrained in relation with livestock holdings.It is suggested that many rural households are currently liquidity-constrainedand liquidity constraints are closely associated with cattleholdings. We also find that a differentiation process in whichthe households with high endowments and livestock can augmenttheir income by directing more inputs to high-return activities,while poor households who are more likely to be liquidity-constrainedcannot. Our results show that the difference in liquid assetsand associated credit constraints is one of the possible causesfor differentiation of households in rural Kenya.     

Mixing Family Business with Politics in Thailand*

This paper uses newly compiled data on Thai family businesses and their direct participation in politics to examine whether the political participation of family business yields private economic payoff. The paper finds that the political participa‐tion of family members is positively associated with the profitability of family businesses. Furthermore, this ‘political benefit’ is found to be particularly large when firms are connected to cabinet members. These results support the crony capitalism view that powerful business groups in Thailand have an incentive to directly hold influential public offices to influence economic policy in their favor.