Comparing benefit estimates from travel cost and contingent valuation using confidence intervals for Hicksian welfare measures

An approach to determining whether benefit estimates derived from the travel cost method and contingent valuation method are statistically different is presented. Unlike past comparisons compensating variation is estimated for both methods. Benefit comparisons are made more rigorous by use of confidence intervals which are developed using the same Krinsky and Robb simulation technique for both valution mothods. The techniques are applied to deer hunting in California. While point estimates of benefits from both truncated and untruncated adjusted travel cost methods are lower than the contingent valuation method, the confidence intervals on the untruncated travel cost method do overlap the contingent valution method benefit estimates.     

Intra‐alliance politics in Northeast Asia: The Japanese ‘defensive intervention’ towards South Korea under American pressure

Analytical interpretations of South Korea and Japan's relationship during the Cold War era and studies on the political interaction between them as an alliance game facing a common communist threat have been nearly non‐existent. This paper attempts to remedy this impoverishment of theoretical and analytical explanations by emphasizing the significant role of the Japanese Ohira cabinet on the United States‐South Korea relations from January to October 1979, the period when there was political pressure from the United States to the South Korean Park Chung‐hee regime.     

The Effects of Foreign Capital Inflow on Economic Growth in Korea: The Reevaluation of Griffin and Enos's Hypotheses

This study evaluates Griffin and Enos's hypotheses and tests alternative hypotheses concerning the effects of foreign capital inflow into Korea. Griffin and Enos argue that foreign capital inflow may supplant domestic savings and distort the comp0osition of investment, ultimately leading to a reduction in the rate of growth in the GNP. These arguments fall to specify a precise mechanism by which foreign capital inflow affects economic growth in Korea. Rather, the alternative hypotheses that all types of foreign capital inflow into Korea are positively related to economic growth are largely supported. [120]     

Economic effects of trade patterns on productivity: Evidence from the Korean automobile industry

Among inter-firm trade patterns, the cooperative trade system has proved to be superior to arms-length or market-oriented trade in the long run. Within the cooperative trade system, the transition from dedicated (single supplier) trade to network trade is proving a remarkable phenomenon. In our theoretical model, we compare the relative economic efficiencies between dedicated and network trade systems. Then in empirical analysis, we examine the relationship between alternative trade patterns and the productivity of the automobile industry. The main results of the theoretical model show that network trade results in a higher profit level than dedicated trade as a rule, although network trade is less stable than dedicated trade. Empirical study reveals that increasing network trade leads to higher productivity.     

Evaluating inflation persistence considering model uncertainty and structural break

There is little consensus about the historical change in inflation persistence. One of the reasons is that researchers cannot choose a uniform model structure due to model uncertainty. In this study, a model to investigate inflation persistence is proposed. Unlike previous studies, I try to overcome model uncertainty by being agnostic about the structure of the model. Estimation results indicate that inflation has become less persistent over time, implying that inflation persistence is related to the way how monetary policy is conducted.     

Seeking a Better Portfolio with Industry Recommendations*

This paper provides novel evidence that investors can build a better performing portfolio by exploiting industry level consensus recommendations. A minimum variance portfolio, combined with consensus recommendations, yields a higher Sharpe ratio and certainty equivalent returns. A minimum variance portfolio with no short-selling constraint consistently outperforms an equally weighted portfolio when exploiting consensus recommendations, which is an innovation compared to the existing literature. Our results suggest that sell-side analysts and brokers provide valuable information in the financial market and we benefit from incorporating the information in the portfolio optimisation.     

Proliferating Regional Trade Arrangements: Why and Whither?

This paper investigates why regional trade arrangements (RTAs) are proliferating extensively and how the effects of multiple RTAs, by interacting with each other, evolve over time. Our empirical analysis, based on an extended gravity model utilising a large panel dataset of 175 countries from 1948 to 1999, shows that RTAs on average increase global trade by raising intra‐bloc trade without damaging extra‐bloc trade. The net trade effects, however, heavily depend on the types of RTA strategic evolution over time, which we categorise as ‘expansionary’ RTAs, ‘duplicate’ RTAs or ‘overlapping’ RTAs. We find that countries excluded from an RTA can benefit more from duplicating a separate RTA than from joining an existing RTA. This result explains why the number of bilateral trade blocs, rather than the membership size of existing RTAs, is currently exploding. We also find that the net trade‐creating effects of RTAs are substantially lower for countries participating in overlapping RTAs. This result suggests that it is less likely that the currently proliferating RTAs will completely merge and lead the world economy to global free trade. Our empirical results are robust to controlling for the characteristics of countries that may influence the impact of RTAs.     

Purchasing Power Parity in Developing Countries: Multi-Period Evidence Under the Current Float

Using panel unit root tests, we examine purchasing power parity (PPP) for US dollar real exchange rates of developing countries during the current floating rate period. Since evidence of PPP may vary from period to period, we examine the data for moving 10-year periods from 1976–85 up to 1990–99. We organize panels based on country characteristics influencing the validity of PPP. Those characteristics include openness, inflation, and the level and growth rate of per capita GDP. Although we find stronger evidence of PPP after 1980, our examination of panel data over 15 10-year periods yields only limited support for PPP.     

Web-based service of a visualization package “Amira” for the geosciences

Amira is a powerful three-dimensional visualization package that has been employed recently by the science and engineering communities to gain insight into their data. We discuss a new paradigm for the use of Amira in the Earth sciences that relies on the client-server paradigm. We have developed a module called WEB-IS2, which provides web-based access to Amira. This tool allows Earth scientists to manipulate Amira controls remotely and to analyze, render and view large datasets through the Internet without regard for time or location. This could have important ramifications for GRID computing.