Stability of Climate Coalitions in a Cartel Formation Game

We empirically test stability of climate change coalitions with the STAbility of Coalitions model (STACO). The model comprises twelve world regions and captures important dynamic aspects of the climate change problem. We apply the stability concept of internal and external stability to a cartel formation game. It is shown that only if benefits from global abatement are sufficiently high, stable coalitions emerge, though they only marginally improve upon the Nash equilibrium. We explain this phenomenon by analyzing the individual incentive structure of all regions and relate our results to the predictions of theory.International environmental agreements, Kyoto-Protocol, Cartel formation game, Non-cooperative game theory

Protection facing exports from sub-Saharan Africa in the EC, Japan, and the United States

The authors address two questions in this report : 1) have exporters in sub - Saharan Africa (SSA) faced more or less protection in Japan, the EC, and the United States than other developing countries and 2) to what extent has protection in those markets constrained SSA's export growth. The authors find that on the whole SSA suffered relatively little from either tariff or nontariff protection in the major industrial markets. In part, this is because they often get a better preferential treatment, especially in the EC, and also, it is because their exports are heavy in primary goods which aregenerally subject to less protection. The authors finally point out that there is no compelling evidence that protection in the major industrial markets has constrained export growth in SSA.Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Export Competitiveness

Adjustment in the textile and clothing industry: The case of West Germany

Among the industries expected in future to be - according to several surveys - exposed to high pressure through adjustment: requirements due to accelerating export performance by developing countries, the textile and clothing industry occupies a predominant rank. The question whether developing countries are well advised to penetrate into the markets of developed countries as new suppliers of textile and clothing products has subsequently led to vehement controversies. The following contribution does not intend to examine more closely the questions raised in this connection, but, within the limits of this contribution, the following aspects shall be treated: - extent and direction of the structural change in the textile and clothing industry of the Federal Republic of Germany during the last decade, and their origin; - to show the protective measures granted to the West German producers of textile and clothing goods vis-a-vis their competitors from so - called low price countries and to analyse the quantitative, effects of these protective measures; - to examine the question which percentage of the imports from so-called low price countries is absorbed by the different industrial countries and whether it is possible to develop standards for a fair distribution of the import burden from low price countries; - finally to analyse more closely the development of textile and clothing exports from developing and so-called low price countries, in order to obtain possibly data about the future development.

Sector and size effects on effective corporate taxation

The current debate in corporate taxation is focussing on leveling the tax playing field within the European Union in order to allow companies incorporated in different countries to face the same competitive conditions. However, various elements of corporate tax rules may discriminate against companies registered in the same country but having different sizes or operating in different sectors. Using the micro backward-looking approach to compute effective tax rates for eleven European countries, the US, and Japan, this paper shows that there could be some concerns regarding domestic tax discrimination since some sectors and sizes enjoy significantly more favorable tax burdens.Taxation; corporate taxation; effective taxation

Residue analyses and exposure assessment of the Irish population to nitrofuran metabolites from different food commodities in 2009–2010

peer-reviewedAn exposure assessment to nitrofuran residues was performed for three human populations (adults, teenagers and children), based on residue analyses of foods of animal origin (liver, honey, eggs and aquaculture) covering the 2-year period 2009– 2010. The occurrence of nitrofuran metabolites in food on the Irish market was determined for the selected period using the data from Ireland’s National Food Residue Database (NFRD) and from results obtained from the analysis of retail samples (aquaculture and honey). Laboratory analyses of residues were performed by methods validated in accordance with Commission Decision 2002/657/EC regarding performance of the analytical method and interpretation of results. Semicarbazide (SEM) was the contaminant most frequently identified and its content ranged from 0.09 to 1.27 μg kg−1. SEM is currently used as a marker of nitrofuran abuse, but it may also occur from other sources. The presence of nitrofuran metabolite 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone (AOZ) was detected in two aquaculture samples (prawns) at 1.63 and 1.14 μg kg−1, but such a low number of positive cases did not present sufficient data for a full AOZ exposure assessment. Therefore, the evaluation of exposure was focused on SEM-containing food groups only. Exposure assessments were completed using a probabilistic approach that generated 10 iterations. The results of both the upper- and lower-bound exposure assessments demonstrate that SEM exposure for Irish adults, teenagers and children from selected food commodities are well below EFSA-estimated safe levels.This research was funded by the Food for Health Research Initiative (FHRI) administered by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Health Research Board (Contract 07FHRIAFRC5