International Economics Commons^™

Assessing The Impact Of Cluster Policies: The Case Of The Arranjos, Lucas Figal Garone, Alessandro Maffioli, Cesar M. Rodriguez, Gonzalo Vazquez Bare, Joao Alberto Denegri

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper assesses the impact of a cluster development policy in Latin America. A Local Productive Arrangement (APL) is a cluster of firms within the same territory, operating around the same activity and maintaining ties of cooperation and learning among themselves and with other stakeholders. Using firm-level data comprising information on SMEs from Brazil for the years 2002 to 2009 we apply fixed effects, matching and reweighting methods to estimate both the direct and the indirect – i.e. spillovers – causal effect of participating in APLs on a series of SMEs’ performance indicators, including level of employment, value of exports …

Designing International Institutions For Global Security, Rupayan Gupta

Fall 2012 Faculty Showcase

This talk focuses on the challenges inherent in designing international institutions for global security. The area of inquiry is interdisciplinary in nature, incorporating insights from economics, international relations, and mathematics (game theory). It is argued that this line of research would benefit from greater incorporation of techniques from bargaining theory and mechanism design. An agenda is proposed for interdisciplinary collaboration and some interesting results are presented from author’s published and ongoing research.

Trade, Firm Selection, And Industrial Agglomeration, Wen-Tai Hsu, Ping Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a model of trade and agglomeration that incorporates trade in both intermediate goods and final goods and allows all firms to choose their locations. There are two types of labor: skilled labor, which is mobile, and unskilled labor, which is immobile. Upon choosing its factory site, a final goods firm that is managed by skilled labor can produce these goods using local unskilled labor and a variety of intermediate goods produced by productivity-heterogeneous producers. We characterize world equilibrium and establish the conditions under which industrial agglomeration arises as a stable equilibrium outcome. We show that when the unskilled …

The Continuing Saga Of Globalism: Comparing Ethiopia’S Developmental State Strategies To Those Of Malaysia, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Using the conceptual framework of a developmental state, forwarded by the Economic Commission for Africa, it was found that Ethiopia’s democratic developmental state is unique and operates differently from the Malaysian developmental state model. Economically, Ethiopia has recorded staggering economic growth since it adopted the developmental state. The Malaysian developmental state was developed to be market-oriented and as a result Malaysia’s GDP grew at 5.23 percent from 2005-2011. Malaysia’s incidence of poverty declined from 49% in 1970 to less than 5% in 2000. Ethiopia has focused on a planned developmental state, without speeding the direction of industrialization, and has achieved …

Reserve Currency And A Lender Of Next-To-Last Resort: A Literature Review, Alida S. Skold

Alida S. Skold

The role of the US dollar as the global dominant reserve currency is eroding. Debate is ongoing regarding next steps. Moving the international monetary system to a single global currency is part of the debate. Literature reviews the eroding role of the US dollar and implications the erosion carries for the US. The Special Drawing Rights developed by the IMF could fill the role of Keynes’ recommended global currency known as the “bancor.” Regardless of the nature of the global reserve currency, access to liquidity is required to have an effective international monetary system. Literature defines a missing layer of …

Government Documents On Rare Earth Minerals, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Rare earth minerals contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as Blackberries, and satellites. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from from Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant economic, military, and political implications. This presentation will highlight government information resources on rare earth minerals from agencies such as the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), …

Could Us-Syrian Strategies Lead To Genocide?, David J. Keeling

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Catching Up Or Pulling Away: Intra-Industry Trade, Productivity Gaps And Heterogeneous Firms, Rod Falvey, David Greenaway, Zhihong Yu

Rodney Falvey

In this paper we develop a heterogeneous firm, intra-industry trade model in which countries are asymmetric in both technology and size. In the trading equilibrium, the industry productivity levels countries are jointly determined by the technology gap and trade barriers. We find that the (exogenous) technological gap is a key determinant of the size and direction of the intra-industry resource reallocation introduced by trade. Most importantly, the effect of trade on the (endogenous) productivity gap could be non monotonic over time. In the short-run, where the number of incumbents cannot adjust to trade, the effect of import competition dominates and …

Paths To Success: Benchmarking Cross-Country Sustainable Tourism, Lucian Cernat, Julien Gourdon

Julien Gourdon

Given the complexity of the issues surrounding the concept of sustainable tourism, the current paper tries to provide a unified methodology to assess tourism sustainability, based on a number of quantitative indicators. The proposed methodological framework (Sustainable Tourism Benchmarking Tool – STBT) will provide a number of benchmarks against which the sustainability of tourism activities in various countries can be assessed. A model development procedure is proposed: identification of the dimensions (economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure) and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation on three Asian countries. This application to three countries shows us that a similar level of tourism …

India China Services Trade: Promise Or Predicament?, Suparna Karmakar, Nipika Walia Sharma

Suparna Karmakar

India-China bilateral trade has witnessed a huge spurt over the years, and China is now one of India’s largest trading partners. Amid growing trade relations between the two nations, however, increasing trade deficit with China has become a major concern for India. In order to reverse this trend, Indian government is looking at possible solutions, one of which is exploring the bilateral trade prospects in tradable services, a sector in which the country has demonstrated competitive advantage. This paper explores the prospects and challenges for India in garnering a higher market access into the large and nascent domestic services market …

A Necessary Effort: The Construction Of A Binational Immigration Policy For Nicaraguan Immigrants In Costa Rica, Irma Castañeda

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although the experiences of Nicaraguan immigrants to Costa Rica have been well-studied, the investigation of this topic through the lens of the construction of public policies is missing. Through the testimonies of Nicaraguans that emigrated or still live and work in Costa Rica, I learned that immigrants, especially those that are undocumented, are vulnerable to the violation of their rights, for example, through the lack of access to public services or mistreatment by their bosses. Because of these violations, it is necessary to examine the topic of the immigration policies of both countries because they influence the treatment and integration …

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing, Angela Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular to the public since the mid-20th century and has become more controversial in the last decade. The United States economy has been under the microscope for the last 4 years due to an economic recession. Outsourcing has been a subject of interest that has been brought up numerous times by economists. Offshore outsourcing is the main type of outsourcing that is of concern in relation to the United States economy. This topic is highly debated because of the unemployment rate in America.

Foreign Direct Investment: Clearing The Infrastructure Bottlenecks, Kim Song Tan, Sim Yee Lau

Research Collection School Of Economics

No abstract provided.

Import Decisions And Firm Performance - An Empirical Analysis For The Netherlands, Henk Lm Kox

Henk LM Kox

This paper investigates the relation between import decisions and productivity performance for Dutch firms. Importer productivity premiums appear to be larger than those for exporting firms. In the perspective of recent trade theory this indicates that trade costs for importers are at least as important as they are for exporting firms. For import starters I find evidence that ex ante productivity-based self selection is important. This also points in the direction of considerable sunk trade costs for firms that engage in direct imports.

Unleashing Competition In Eu Business Services, Henk Lm Kox

Henk LM Kox

Vertical Trade, Exchange Rate Pass-Through, And Exchange Rate Regime, Yao Tang, Ke Pang

Economics Department Working Paper Series

We compare the welfare of different combinations of monetary and currency policies in an open-economy macroeconomic model that incorporates two important features of many small economies: a high level of vertical international trade and a prevalent use of a large trade partner's currency as the invoicing currency for both imports and exports. In this environment, a small economy prefers a fixed exchange rate regime over a flexible regime, while the larger economy prefers a flexible exchange rate regime. There are two main causes underlying our results. First, in the presence of sticky prices, relative prices adjust through changes in the …

The Educated Middle Class, Their Economics Prospects, And The Arab Spring, Davin Chor, Filipe R. Campante

Research Collection School Of Economics

The recent uprisings in the Arab World carry a broader lesson, highlighting the importance of sustaining an economy that provides sufficient job opportunities for an increasingly educated and skilled middle class.

Ma Thesis - Migration And Development: The Development Impacts Of Short-Term Labour Migration Of Ni-Vanuatu Workers To New Zealand, Ronald R. Kumar

Dr Ronald R Kumar

The New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme is a New Zealand Government initiative that officially commenced in 2007. In this programme, five developing Pacific Island countries (PICs), namely Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu – referred to as the kick start countries, participated in short-term labour migration. The objectives of this Scheme are at least two fold. Firstly, the scheme was initiated to address seasonal labour shortage in New Zealand and second, to give employment opportunity to selected PICs. Since 2007, the RSE Scheme has undergone significant changes primarily addressing issues and concerns that emerged along the way. …

Does Small And Medium Enterprises’ (Smes) Understand The Concept Of Intellectual Property Rights (Ip) On Their Business?:, Johansein L. Rutaihwa Mr.

Johansein Rutaihwa

No abstract provided.

Cartels In An "Nth-Best" World: The Wholesale Foodstuff Trade In Ibadan, Nigeria, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Margaret E. Luttrell

Harlan M. Smith

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the economic functions and associated welfare implications of the cooperative associations that dominate the wholesale trade in two staple foods. Questionnaire responses lead to several conclusions. Individual traders face incomplete markets, imperfect information, and little government-provided institutional and physical infrastructure. The associations are sophisticated "Coase-like" responses to this market environment: they focus on reducing their members' transaction costs, and hence the marginal private costs of trading. Thus it is likely that these associations enhance efficiency. We conclude with a critique of current government policy with respect to this trade.