Tariff and Quota Equivalence in Vertically Related Markets

This paper re‐examines the issue of tariff and quota equivalence by introducing an upstream market into the Hwang and Mai (1988 ) model, and then allowing the two downstream firms to cross‐haul within each other's market. We assume the upstream monopolist can select either a two‐part or a one‐part tariff pricing strategy. It is found that if the upstream firm adopts a two‐part (one‐part) tariff pricing strategy, then the market price of the final good under a tariff will be higher (lower) than that under an equivalent quota; that is, the quota is set at the import level under the tariff regime. This result stands in stark contrast to the prior findings of both Hwang and Mai (1988 ) and Fung (1989 ). Moreover, if the quota rent is set as being equal to the tariff revenue, the social welfare under a tariff will necessarily be lower than that under an equivalent quota.     

Nonlinearity between Trade Openness and Economic Development

This paper utilizes the instrumental variable threshold regressions approach to reassess the trade–development link. It finds evidence that trade openness contributes to uneven development. Greater trade openness tends to have beneficial effects on real development of high‐income countries. For low‐income ones, however, trade openness appears to influence real income in a significant and negative way. The data also reveal that greater trade openness has a positive effect on capital accumulation, productivity growth, and financial development in high‐income countries, but a negative impact in low‐income ones.     

Banking Sector Performance in Latin America: Market Power versus Efficiency

Since the mid‐1990s the banking sector in the Latin American emerging markets has experienced profound changes due to financial liberalization, a significant increase in foreign investments, and greater merger activities often occurring following financial crises. The wave of consolidation and the rapid increase in market concentration that took place in most countries has generated concerns about the rise in banks' market power and its potential effects on consumers. This paper advances the existing literature by testing the market power (Structure–Conduct–Performance and Relative Market Power) and efficient structure (X‐ and scale efficiency) hypotheses for a sample of over 2500 bank observations in nine Latin American countries over 1997–2005. We use the Data Envelopment Analysis technique to obtain reliable efficiency measures. We produce evidence supporting the efficient structure hypotheses. The findings are particularly robust for the largest banking markets in the region, namely Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Finally, capital ratios and bank size seem to be among the most important factors in explaining higher than normal profits for Latin American banks.     

Trade‐led growth hypothesis in Cuban commercial regimes since 19601,2

This study examines the impact of trade on Cuban growth during different commercial policy regimes spanning the period from 1960 up to 2004, encompassing two essential economic structural transformations: the Cuban revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For this purpose, the Granger causality is used by means of the modified Wald test for augmented‐level vector autoregressive model with integrated and cointegrated processes introduced by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Dolado and Lutekepohl (1996) . We show an import‐led growth hypothesis during the Soviet‐oriented pattern that is rejected after 1990, when exports are not only responsive to growth expansion but also to imports’ behaviour.     

Differential mortality and social security

Abstract This paper studies the normative problem of redistribution between individuals who differ in their lifespans. We discuss aspects related to the objective function and argue that aversion to multiperiod inequality should be taken into account. Then, we study the properties of the social optimum both with full information and with asymmetric information. We highlight the role of aversion to multiperiod inequality and show that it has substantial consequences on the design of Social Security schemes. In particular, we show that for a low (resp. high) aversion to multiperiod inequality, a negative (resp. positive) implicit tax rate on continued activity is desirable.     

污染密集产业转移承接地经济与环境协调的途径研究

伴随高速经济发展而来的环境恶化、资源耗竭等一系列环境问题,不但降低了当代人的生活水平,而且也削弱了后代人生存发展的能力。环境与经济协调发展的可持续理论,是过度使用环境,遭到环境报复以后,人们对自己的行为进行反思而得出的经验总结。近年来,国内掀起了一波污染密集产业由东部向中西部地区梯度转移的产业转移浪潮。一方面,污染密集产业转移的承接地需要通过承接产业以带动地区经济增长;另一方面,又不得不正视污染密集产业进入带来的环境等负面效应。文章从污染密集产业承接地的角度,基于环境与经济运行的物质平衡系统,结合环境容量约束来分析污染密集产业转移承接地的环境效应,并提出承接地经济与环境协调发展的三条基本路径。     

高校教务管理质量提升策略探析

教务管理工作,是高等教育管理的一个重要构成部分,直接关系到学校教学秩序的建立与稳定,很大程度上也直接影响了教学工作的效率与效果.有效的教务管理能够促进教学活动的顺利进行,也是教学质量的基本保障,其作为一个服务窗口和沟通桥梁,是促进学校发展的重要前提.在现实工作中,应努力做到强化高校教务管理工作,提升教务管理质量.     

Argentina: Macroeconomic Crisis and Household Vulnerability*

Using panel data from the Argentine Permanent Household Survey, this paper analyzes which households were more vulnerable to the Argentine macroeconomic crisis during 1999–2002. Results suggest that the impact of the crisis was not uniform across households, which differed in their ability to cope with shocks. In particular, households with more children, and whose head was male, less educated, and employed in the private sector were the most vulnerable, suffering larger than average declines in income. Shocks to labor income were significant, with both unemployment rates and unemployment spells increasing throughout the period, particularly during the peak of the crisis towards the end of 2001. Individuals with low levels of human capital (proxied by education and experience), males, and self‐employed were more likely to lose their jobs. Public sector employees, in contrast, were more protected from the impact of the crisis on employment.     

Estimation of Binary Response Models With Endogenous Regressors

This paper reviews six approaches to binary response (y₁) structural forms with an endogenous regressor y₂: (i) the two‐stage least squares estimator‐like substitution approach, (ii) the control function approach, (iii) the system reduced‐form approach, (iv) the artificial instrumental regressor approach, (v) the transformed‐response instrumental variable estimator approach and (vi) the classical maximum likelihood estimator approach. The applicability of the six methods differs greatly, depending on whether y₂ is a continuously distributed random variable or a discrete transformation of a latent . We conduct a real‐data‐based simulation study, and provide an empirical illustration. Our overall recommendation is using (i) and (ii), as the others have undesirable features such as analytic complexity in (iii), computational difficulty in (iv) and (vi), and poor finite‐sample performance in (v).     

SCALE EFFECT VERSUS INDUCED POLICY RESPONSE IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL KUZNETS CURVE: THE CASE OF U.S. WATER POLLUTION

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) could arise from the scale effect in abatement technology as emphasized by Andreoni and Levinson (2001) or from the induced policy response as suggested by Grossman and Krueger (1995). This paper incorporates these two contrary views into a model and quantitatively evaluates their relative importance in shaping the EKC of U.S. water pollution. Our main findings include: (a) some scale effect in abatement technology must exist, otherwise the turning point of the EKC will be unreasonably high; (b) the scale effect alone is not sufficient to explain the practical occurrence of the turning point of the EKC; and (c) the scale effect features critically in the induced policy response as well. (JEL H41, O40, Q20)