Fearless Friday: Jasmine Matos

This week Surge is honored to highlight Jasmine Matos for Fearless Friday! Originally from the Bronx in NYC, Jasmine is here at Gettysburg majoring in Health Sciences and minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She now finds herself in her last semester at Gettysburg College and is trying to make the most of it. She’s the Captain of B.O.M.B. Squad, a member of the Black Student Union (BSU), a member of the Latin American Student Association (LASA), and she works in the Admissions Office. [excerpt

Tax-benefit systems, income distribution and work incentives in the European Union

In this paper we study the impact of tax-benefit systems on income inequality and work incentivesacross the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU). Using EUROMOD, the EU-wide taxbenefitmicrosimulation model, we disentangle the role of taxes, benefits and social insurancecontributions in influencing country specific Gini coefficients and Marginal Effective Tax Rates.The extent to which tax-benefit systems contribute to income redistribution and provide work incentives at the intensive margin is found to vary considerably across the 27 Member States of the EU. Our results further highlight the presence of a trade-off between income redistribution and work incentives across EU-27 countries

Vertical intra-industry trade and the EU accession: The case of Hungarian agri-food sector

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the factor endowment and the pattern of intra-industry trade. Our empirical analysis relates to Hungary’s intra-industry trade in agri-food products with 26 member states of the EU over the period 1999-2010. Estimations reject the comparative advantage explanation of vertical intra-industry trade and provide partial support the prediction of Flam and Helpman model. Findings highlight that nature of factor endowments play also important role in explanation of vertical intra-industry trade. Other variables like market size and distance confirm the theoretical expectations. In addition, trade with new member states positively, whilst the EU accession ambigouosly influence the share of vertical IIT

Romania's EU accession negotiations: the significance of the EU budget

Romania completed its negotiations for accession to the European Union, as scheduled, by the end of 2004. The experience of the negotiations over the 2004 enlargement confirmed that the EU budget is an absolutely key issue in such talks. The purpose of this paper is to consider the context of Romania's negotiations over the EU Budget. First, we look at the relationship the EU15 member states have with the EU budget.We show how rules governing the operation of the EU Budget have affected budgetary flows to the EU15 and highlight the stability over time of the shares of total budget flows to and from each member state. Second, we look at the experience of the new Member States in their accession negotiations and review the outcomes. This will allow us to see how the political economy of the EU Budget affected the talks and the deal the new member states were able to secure. We then apply the lessons learned to the case of Romania. Our analysis reveals inflexibilities in the negotiations that left Romania more or less facing a 'take-it-or leave- it' offer

Welfare effects of preferential trade agreements under optimal tariffs

In a three country model with endogenous tariffs, this paper evaluates and contrasts the welfare effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs) — the two most commonly occurring preferential trade agreements (PTAs). We show that if the external tariff of a PTA is not too high, it benefits both members and non-members. We also highlight the implications of a key (but commonly ignored) distinction between the two types of PTAs: while an FTA member can form an another (independent) FTA with an existing non-member, a CU member cannot. Under a pair of independent bilateral FTAs, the common member’s welfare is higher than that under free trade. Furthermore, if the common member is relatively efficient compared to the other two countries, such a ‘hub and spoke’ pattern of FTAs can yield higher global welfare than free trade. By contrast, such an outcome is never possible under a CU.Free Trade Agreements, Customs Unions, External Tariffs, Welfare, Intraindustry Trade, Oligopoly

A morphological and molecular description of a new Teleopsis species (Diptera: Diopsidae) from Thailand

A new species of Teleopsis (Diptera, Diopsidae) from Chiang Mai, Thailand is described and illustrated. Teleopsis thaii Földvári & Carr is shown to be a member of a species group, termed the dalmanni species group, along with three previously described species. Presented here are a morphological description of T. thaii and an allometric comparison of the species with other members of the Teleopsis genus. We also present multi-gene phylogenetic analyses to highlight the possible position of T. thaii within the dalmanni species group

Accession Rules and Trade Agreements: The Case of the WTO

This paper models the accession process to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a two stage game. In the first stage, member countries choose tariff rates to be applied on trade with each other. In the second stage a non-member country applies for membership in the agreement and negotiates with the member countries over the tariff rates to be applied. Based on the rules of the WTO accession process, we model this negotiation using the Nash bargaining solution. The analysis focuses on the question of how the pattern of trade between the acceding country and the member countries affects the distribution of gains from accession between the members and the acceding countries, given the rules of the WTO negotiation process. We consider two n good, n country trade models which highlight features of the WTO tariff negotiations. The first is a model in which each country imports one good from all of the other countries (competing supplier model). This model highlights the role of the MFN principle, since member countries are forced to extend the same tariff treatment to non-members when they join. We show that the non-member will free ride on tariff reductions among the member countries in this case, and that the non-member will gain a larger fraction of the gains from accession if transport costs are sufficiently low. The second model considers a case in which each country exports a single good to the other countries (principal supplier model). We show that in this case tariff reductions by the member countries reduce the welfare of the non-member country, and the member countries gain a larger share of the gains from accession.

The Monetary Union: The Decade Ahead. The Case of Non-Member States

What are the prospects for New Member States to join the euro-zone in the not too distant future? They seem to be in a catch-22 situation Because of the current financial crisis some Maastricht criteria would be more difficult to fulfil in the short and medium term, which would make it hard for them to join the eurozone. But there is also an argument, which highlight benefits of a faster accession due to dynamic effects for the countries involved and for the eurozone as a whole.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64421/1/wp947.pd

EU Member States’ Humanitarian Assistance and Issue Salience in Public Discourse: Preliminary Findings for the 2000 to 2008 Period

The establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) that took place with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty lays the basis for a potentially more coherent and better-structured approach of the European Union to the issue of the provision of humanitarian aid. Within such a context, this paper investigates the relationship between the provision of emergency financial assistance and the extent of the presence of the issue of humanitarian aid in public discourse in seven EU member states. The empirical findings highlight a strong correlation between increases in issue salience and increases in the provision of humanitarian assistance as well as a significant concomitant variation in the issue cycles of the investigated EU member states.discourse; Europeanization; Europeanization

Pay Transparency in Europe: First Experiences with Gender Pay Reports and Audits in Four Member States

In light of the limited action in many Member States to introduce or review gender pay transparency instruments as recommended, in November 2017 the European Commission announced the possible need for further targeted measures at EU level. This report reviews experiences in four Member States – Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland – based on their company-level gender pay reports and audits. Evaluations point to a ‘bumpy ride’ in terms of compliance – at least in the initial phase of rolling out the instruments in some countries – and highlight room for improvement in engaging employee representatives and in raising employees’ awareness. The need to tackle knowledge gaps around the instruments right from the start is a lesson to be learnt from the experiences of the first movers. Soft measures to accompany enforceable mandatory requirements seem to be in demand and to be working well. Ultimately, the success of the instrument depends on the attitudes of the actors, the extent to which they acknowledge the existence of unjustified gender pay gaps and their willingness to engage in a meaningful dialogue and follow-up