Dynamic analysis of innovation and international transfer of technology through licensing

This paper develops a quality-ladder type dynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous innovation and technology licensing as a major source of international technology transfer in developing countries. Examining the dynamic characteristics of the model fully, we explore the short- and long-run effects of both an improvement in the probability of reaching a licensing agreement with a given effort and an increase in the license fee rate. The model shows that the former promotes innovation and technology transfers in both the long and short run, while the latter discourages them.     

An economic analysis of the duty-free zone

This paper presents a theoretical framework to analyze the economic implication of a duty-free zone, where duties are exempted in order to attract foreign investments. Using the standard two-factor, two-commodity trade model, it is shown that in the absence of foreign investment the establishment of a duty-free zone does not affect production if the protection is in the form of import tariff; also that the increase in foreign investments in the duty-free zones does not necessarily improve the consumption possibilities available to a developing country.     

Impossibility Theorems with Interpersonally Comparable Welfare Levels: The "Extended Sympathy Approach" Reconsidered

We re-examine a type of interpersonal welfare comparison, called the "extended sympathy" approach, which Arrow (1977), Hammond (1976) and Roberts (1980a) introduced in order to escape from Arrovian impossibility theorems. In particular, we extend the positional dictatorship theorem due to Roberts to the case where the domain of social choice rules satisfies the axiom of identity. We show that there is a positional dictator if the rule with the domain satisfies independence, Suppes unanimity and monotonicity
JEL Classification Numbers: 022, 025, 026     

The impact of foldable containers on container fleet management costs in hinterland transport

This paper analyzes the possibility to save container fleet management costs in repositioning empty containers through the use of foldable containers. We model this entire empty container flow as an integer programming problem with different strategies in empty container flow itinerary. The model is used to carry out numerical experiments that optimize the empty container repositioning in the hinterland, where there are serious empty container repositioning problems caused by extremely imbalanced trades. The study finds that foldable containers can substantially save on repositioning costs compared to the use of standard containers.     

Multi-port vs. Hub-and-Spoke port calls by containerships

This paper addresses the design of container liner shipping networks taking into consideration container management issues including empty container repositioning. We examine two typical service networks with different ship sizes: multi-port calling by conventional ship size and hub-and-spoke by mega-ship. The entire solution process is performed in two phases: the service network design and container distribution. A wide variety of numerical experiments are conducted for the Asia–Europe and Asia–North America trade lanes. In most scenarios the multi-port calling is superior in terms of total cost, while the hub-and-spoke is more advantageous in the European trade for a costly shipping company.     

Efficiency,equality, income taxation and the brain drain: A second-best argument

This note conducts a second-best examination of the effect of the brain drain. If the size distribution of income is a welfare objective, lump-sum taxation is unavailable, and an Atkinson-type optimal income tax is used, it is shown that the opportunity to emigrate will create special difficulties for the LDC policy-maker.     

The sampling distributions of the predictor for an autoregressive model under misspecifications

Approximations to the sampling distributions of the predictor are given misspecifying the autoregressive moving average model as an autoregressive model. We deal with both conditional and unconditional distributions for the dependent and independent cases according to whether the sample data used in estimation and in prediction are dependent or not. The bias and mean squared error are easily obtained from these approximations.     

Economic Consequences of Pegging to the Dollar in a Multicurrency World

The paper studies the monetary mechanism of a three-country world where two large countries are engaged in floating exchange rates with each other, and a small country is pegged to one of these large countries. Three countries possess an endogenous wage determination process, so that the choice of exchange-rate regimes has real consequences. This arrangement creates serious difficulties for the small country. The paper evaluates the relative effectiveness of options for the small country, taking account of endogeneity of wage determination. Complete float of the small country and the currency basket pegging both present promising alternatives, but the complete float is likely to be best.