Customs Unions And Foreign Investment: Theory And Evidence From Mercosur’s Auto Industry

This paper demonstrates how regional trade agreements (RTAs) can lead to both foreign direct investment expansion and relocation effects. These two effects, in return, impact the endogenous formation of RTAs. The investment expansion effect results from foreign firms’ ability to serve a larger market from a single facility. The relocation effect occurs due to the firms’ desire to move their initial plants from high-cost member countries to low-cost ones. The relocation effect can overwhelm the expansion effect for the high-cost members and lead to the collapse of socially efficient RTAs. The auto industry in Mercosur is a great example to study these phenomena. Argentina was worried that low-cost Brazil would attract all of the foreign investment and dominate both markets. To convince Argentina to agree to free trade in automobiles (and to Mercosur), the auto sectoral agreement included the Compensated Trade Clause (CTC) which requires each firm to balance its trade between these countries. This mitigates the relocation problem by forcing firms to produce some models in Argentina and entices the governments to sign the RTA..

Dissecting Network Externalities in International Migration

Existing migrant networks play an important role in explaining the size and structure of immigration flows. They affect the net benefits of migration by reducing assimilation costs (’self-selection channel’) and by lowering legal entry barriers through family reunification programs (’immigration policy channel’). This paper presents an identification strategy allowing to disentangle the relative importance of these two channels. Then, it provides an empirical analysis based on US immigration data by metropolitan area and country of origin. First, we show that the overall network externality is strong: the elasticity of migration flows to network size is around one. Second, only a quarter of this elasticity is accounted for by the policy channel. Third, the policy channel was stronger in the 1990s than in the 1980s as the family reunification programs became more effective with growing diasporas. Fourth, the overall diaspora effect and the policy channel are more important for low-skilled migrants.Migration, network/diaspora externalities, Immigration policy

Diasporas

Migration flows are shaped by a complex combination of self-selection and out-selection mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze how existing diasporas (the stock of people born in a country and living in an another one) affect the size and human-capital structure of current migration flows. Our analysis exploits a bilateral data set on international migration by educational attainment from 195 countries to 30 OECD countries in 1990 and 2000. Based on simple micro-foundations and controlling for various determinants of migration, we find diasporas increase migration flows, lower their average educational level and lead to higher concentration of low-skill migrants. Interestingly, diasporas explain majority of the variability of migration flows and selection. This suggests that, without changing the generosity of family reunion programs, education-based selection rules are likely to have moderate impact. Our results are highly robust to the econometric techniques, accounting for the large proportion of zeros and endogeneity problems.migration, self-selection, network/diaspora externalities

Dissecting Network Externalities in International Migration

Existing migrant networks play an important role in explaining the size and structure of immigration flows. They affect the net benefits of migration for future migrants by lowering assimilation costs (‘self-selection’ channel) and increase the probability of potential migrants to obtain a visa through family reunification programs (‘immigration policy’ channel). This paper presents an identification strategy allowing to disentangle these two channels. Then, it provides an empirical illustration based on US immigration data by metropolitan area and country of origin. First, we show that the overall network externality is strong: the elasticity of migration flows to network size is around one. Second, only a quarter of this elasticity is accounted for by the policy channel. Third, the policy channel was stronger in the nineties than in the eighties due to more generous family reunion program. Fourth, the global elasticity and the policy contribution are much greater for low-skilled migrants.migration, network/diaspora externalities, immigration policy

A research about supply chain management in production industry and awareness level of scor (Supply Chain Operations Reference Model) model

Tedarik zinciri yönetimi müşteriye, doğru ürünün, doğru zamanda, doğru yerde ve doğru fiyata bütün tedarik zinciri halkasındaki süreçler için uygun olan en az maliyetle ulaşmasına imkan veren malzeme, bilgi ve para akışının entegre yönetim şeklidir. Başka bir deyişle bu zincir içinde yer alan iş süreçlerinin birbirleriyle bütünleşmesi sağlanarak müşteri memnuniyetini arttıracak ve rekabet avantajı sağlayacak işletme stratejisidir. Teknolojik gelişmeler, küreselleşme ve rekabet işletmeleri müşteri odaklı olmaya yöneltmektedir. Her işletmenin yeni pazarlara girebilmek, karlarını artırabilmek, rekabet üstünlüğü sağlamak, müşteri memnuniyetini artırmak ve maliyetleri azaltabilmek için etkin tedarik zinciri yönetimine sahip olmaları gerekmektedir. İşletmeler, mal ve hizmetlerin tedarik aşamasından, üretimine ve son tüketiciye kadar birbirini izleyen tüm süreçlerde en son teknolojiyi ve sistemleri sürekli takip etmek durumundadırlar. Bugüne kadar geliştirilen modeller tedarik zincirini bir bütün olarak ele almakta yetersiz kalmıştır.SCOR modeli (tedarik zinciri operasyonları referans modeli) Tedarik Zinciri Konseyi tarafından ilk kez 1996 yılında geliştirilmiş, tedarik zinciri profesyonelleri tarafından uygulanabilen ve tedarik zinciri yönetimde oluşacak belirsizlikleri azaltabilecek endüstri standardı olmaya aday bir modeldir. Tedarik zincirinde yer alan tüm süreçlerin adlandırılması, ölçülmesi ve sürekli olarak iyileştirilmesine esasına dayanan model, tedarik zincirini bir bütün olarak inceleyen işletmecilere tüm süreç boyunca çıkabilecek problemlerin üstesinden gelebilme ve çözümleyici yöntemlerin oluşturulabilmesine imkan vermektedir. Bu çalışmada, üretim sektöründe faaliyet gösteren 20 firma üzerinde anket çalışması yapılarak etkin tedarik zinciri yönetiminin kullanılması ile müşteri memnuniyetini arttırma ve rekabet avantajı sağlama metodu olan SCOR modelin farkındalık düzeyi araştırılmıştır. Supply chain management is an integrated management method of material, information and money flow to provide minimum cost within all steps of supply chain process for customers to receive accurate product on accurate time in accurate place with the accurate price. In other words, it is a business strategy for increasing customer satisfaction and enabling competitive advantage by integrating processes which occur in this chain. Technological developments, globalization and competition refer enterprises to be customer oriented. Every enterprise must have an effective supply chain management in order to enter new markets, increase profit, provide competitive advantage, increase customer satisfaction and decrease costs. Enterprises should follow the latest technology and systems in all consecutive processes from supply of goods and services to production and the last customer. Models developed to that date, has been inadequate in addressing the supply chain as a whole. SCOR model (reference model of supply chain operations) is developed by Supply Chain Council in 1996 for the first time and it is volunteer to be industry standard which can be applicable by supply chain professionals and minimize the uncertainties that can occur in the supply chain management. The model which is based on naming, measuring and continuously improving all processes within the supply chain, provide enterprises which analyse supply chain as a whole to overcome and generate solving methods to problems that can occur in the process. In this study, the awareness level of SCOR model which is a method for increasing customer satisfaction and enabling competitive advantage by the effective use of supply chain management was investigated by performing a questionnaire to 20 firms that are active in production industry

Violence among the Youth in Turkey: An Assessment of General Strain Theory

Most tests of criminological theories have been carried out in the western world, especially the United States. Agnew developed a General Strain Theory and claimed that it could account for deviance/crime in the developing countries. However, the support for the theory was generally mixed at best. The goal of this study is to examine the major theses of general strain theory in relation to youth violence in Nigde, a small city in central part of Turkey. The data came from a random sample of 974 students drawn from the lists of the university students at Nigde University (N= 12,514). Data were analyzed by using logistic regression analysis. The present study focused on three important research questions: Is the influence of strain on violence positive, Is the impact of strain on violence is mediated by anger, and Is the effect of strain on violence moderated by some criminal and non-criminal copings? The results indicated that few strain variables had direct positive impacts on violence. Anger had positive effect on the dependent variable. Few interactions between the strain and coping variables were observed. In short, the overall results gave a limited support for the three major arguments of general strain theory

The Status of Criminological Theories in Turkey: A Brief Account

The aim of this study is to evaluate the status of criminological theories in Turkey and to present some recommendations to follow in the future. Unfortunately, some sub-disciplines in social sciences in Turkey have been relatively less developed. This is especially valid for criminology or sociological studies of crime. More relavant to this paper, there have been a limited number of tests of western-originated criminological theories in Turkey. It is suggested that Turkish scholars test all the existing criminological theories in the context of Turkey and, more importantly, tend to develop criminological theories that reflect Turkish realities