NAFTA¡¯S IMPACT ON THE MEXICAN AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR

The findings discussed here are the outcome of continuing research on the Mexican automotive industry and include data for several years during which the NAFTA was in effect. Key results include strong evidence of constant returns to scale in both the automotive industry as a whole as well as the vehicle assembly industry and a finding that the period after NAFTA was implemented has been associated with lower production costs. In addition, these data support the conclusion that capital, labor, and foreign intermediate goods are all substitutes for one another, as are capital and domestic intermediate goods, but that labor and domestic intermediate goods are complements. While evidence was found to suggest some increased responsiveness in domestic markets to both foreign and domestic input prices, other results give reason for concern about continuing market impediments in Mexico.Mexico, Automotive Industry, NAFTA

An Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Regional Land Use and Transportation Plans, Research Report 11-25

Travel and emissions models are commonly applied to evaluate the change in passenger and commercial travel and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use and transportation plans. Analyses conducted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments predict a decline in such travel and emissions from their land use and transportation plan (the “Preferred Blueprint” or PRB scenario) relative to a “Business-As-Usual” scenario (BAU). However, the lifecycle GHG effects due to changes in production and consumption associated with transportation and land use plans are rarely, if ever, conducted. An earlier study conducted by the authors, applied a spatial economic model (Sacramento PECAS) to the PRB plan and found that lower labor, transport, and rental costs increased producer and consumer surplus and production and consumption relative to the BAU. As a result, lifecycle GHG emissions from these upstream economic activities may increase. At the same time, lifecycle GHG emissions associated with the manufacture of construction materials for housing may decline due to a shift in the plan from larger luxury homes to smaller multi-family homes in the plan. To explore the net impact of these opposing GHG impacts, the current study used the economic production and consumption data from the PRB and BAU scenarios as simulated with the Sacramento PECAS model as inputs to estimate the change in lifecycle GHG emissions. The economic input-output lifecycle assessment model is applied to evaluate effects related to changes in economic production and consumption as well as housing construction. This study also builds on the findings from two previous studies, which suggest potential economic incentives for jurisdictional non-compliance with Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCSs) under Senate Bill 375 (also known as the “anti-sprawl” bill). SB 375 does not require local governments to adopt general plans that are consistent with the land use plans included in SCSs, and thus such incentives could jeopardize implementation of SCSs and achievement of GHG goals. In this study, a set of scenarios is simulated with the Sacramento PECAS model, in which multiple jurisdictions partially pursue the BAU at differing rates. The PRB is treated as a straw or example SCS. The scenarios are evaluated to understand how non-conformity may influence the supply of housing by type, and holding other factors constant, the geographic and income distribution of rents, wages, commute costs, and consumer surplus

Road traffic pollution monitoring and modelling tools and the UK national air quality strategy.

This paper provides an assessment of the tools required to fulfil the air quality management role now expected of local authorities within the UK. The use of a range of pollution monitoring tools in assessing air quality is discussed and illustrated with evidence from a number of previous studies of urban background and roadside pollution monitoring in Leicester. A number of approaches to pollution modelling currently available for deployment are examined. Subsequently, the modelling and monitoring tools are assessed against the requirements of Local Authorities establishing Air Quality Management Areas. Whilst the paper examines UK based policy, the study is of wider international interest

Industrial Relations and Productivity in the U.S. Automobile Industry

macroeconomics, Automobile, industrial relations, productivity

Managing Well Integrity using Reliability Based Models

Imperial Users onl

Extending systems-on-chip to the third dimension : performance, cost and technological tradeoffs.

Because of the today's market demand for high-performance, high-density portable hand-held applications, electronic system design technology has shifted the focus from 2-D planar SoC single-chip solutions to different alternative options as tiled silicon and single-level embedded modules as well as 3-D integration. Among the various choices, finding an optimal solution for system implementation dealt usually with cost, performance and other technological trade-off analysis at the system conceptual level. It has been identified that the decisions made within the first 20% of the total design cycle time will ultimately result up to 80% of the final product cost. In this paper, we discuss appropriate and realistic metric for performance and cost trade-off analysis both at system conceptual level (up-front in the design phase) and at implementation phase for verification in the three-dimensional integration. In order to validate the methodology, two ubiquitous electronic systems are analyzed under various implementation schemes and discuss the pros and cons of each of them