Trade, Urban Systems, and Labor Markets

This paper investigates the impacts of free trade on the structure of urban systems, skill distribution, and income disparities. The paper proposes a model that integrates international trade theory and the theory of urban system. This is done in a two sector, spatial general equilibrium model of a North-South trade. Each country is populated with a continuum of unskilled workers with heterogeneous potential ability. Through differential training costs, workers with different potential ability can achieve the same productivity. Workers can acquire a skill by investing in training. Thus, skill distribution in both countries is determined endogenously in the model through self-selection. The economy produces a final good with the use of a high-tech intermediate input and unskilled workers. Horizontally differentiated skilled workers produce the high-tech intermediate input. Cities are formed in this model as a result of investment in setup cost, i.e., public infrastructures. I characterize two different types of spatial equilibria: a closed-economy equilibrium, in which each country consists of a system of cities without trade, and a free-trade equilibrium, in which we allow for trade between cities and countries

Skill distribution and income disparity in a north-south trade model;

What are the impacts of free trade agreement on the social welfare of different groups of labor force in a developed country? What is the impact of free trade on a developed country 19s income disparity? What is the effect of free trade on the skill distribution of a developed country? The objective of this paper is to address the above questions in a simple two-sector general-equilibrium North-South trade model in which both countries produce one final good and one high-tech intermediate input. Horizontally differentiated skilled workers produce the high-tech intermediate input. The final good is produced with the use of a high-tech intermediate input and unskilled labor. Each country is populated by a continuum of unskilled workers with differential potential ability. Workers in the North and South can acquire skill by investment in training or education. Thus, skill distribution in the North and South is determined endogenously in the model through a self-selection. I characterize two different types of equilibrium: a closed-economy equilibrium without trade and free trade equilibrium. Then, I investigate the impact of free trade, in the presence of training costs, on the skill distribution within each country, income disparity, and social welfare

The city network paradigm: new frontiers;

This chapter provides a survey of recent developments of positive as well as normative theories of city systems. Static theory of city system emphasizes the factors that result in the formation of cities through the interaction between two opposing forces: i) agglomeration economy; ii) agglomeration diseconomy. Furthermore, the theory examines the interaction between cities within the national economy through intercity trade and migration, which shape the internal population composition and industrial structure of cities within the system. New development of this theory has been influenced by industrial organization and economic growth together with the new urban economic paradigm. This chapter focuses on the following questions: What are the factors that lead to the formation of cities? When do cities specialize in production and when do they diversify? When do both specialized cities and diversified cities coexist? What determines the number and sizes of cities of different types in an economy? What are the factors that determine skill distribution and income disparities among different types of cities? What are the impacts of income inequalities on welfare? What are the tax and or subsidy scheme that would result in a Pareto-efficient allocation of resources in a system of cities? Do we need the intervention of federal government in order to achieve a Pareto-efficient allocation of resources in a system of cities? These questions are addressed in a spatial general equilibrium model of a closed economy consisting of a system of monocentric cities

The city network paradigm: new frontiers;

This chapter provides a survey of recent developments of positive as well as normative theories of city systems. Static theory of city system emphasizes the factors that result in the formation of cities through the interaction between two opposing forces: i) agglomeration economy; ii) agglomeration diseconomy. Furthermore, the theory examines the interaction between cities within the national economy through intercity trade and migration, which shape the internal population composition and industrial structure of cities within the system. New development of this theory has been influenced by industrial organization and economic growth together with the new urban economic paradigm. This chapter focuses on the following questions: What are the factors that lead to the formation of cities? When do cities specialize in production and when do they diversify? When do both specialized cities and diversified cities coexist? What determines the number and sizes of cities of different types in an economy? What are the factors that determine skill distribution and income disparities among different types of cities? What are the impacts of income inequalities on welfare? What are the tax and or subsidy scheme that would result in a Pareto-efficient allocation of resources in a system of cities? Do we need the intervention of federal government in order to achieve a Pareto-efficient allocation of resources in a system of cities? These questions are addressed in a spatial general equilibrium model of a closed economy consisting of a system of monocentric cities

Skill distribution and income disparity in a north-south trade model;

What are the impacts of free trade agreement on the social welfare of different groups of labor force in a developed country? What is the impact of free trade on a developed country 19s income disparity? What is the effect of free trade on the skill distribution of a developed country? The objective of this paper is to address the above questions in a simple two-sector general-equilibrium North-South trade model in which both countries produce one final good and one high-tech intermediate input. Horizontally differentiated skilled workers produce the high-tech intermediate input. The final good is produced with the use of a high-tech intermediate input and unskilled labor. Each country is populated by a continuum of unskilled workers with differential potential ability. Workers in the North and South can acquire skill by investment in training or education. Thus, skill distribution in the North and South is determined endogenously in the model through a self-selection. I characterize two different types of equilibrium: a closed-economy equilibrium without trade and free trade equilibrium. Then, I investigate the impact of free trade, in the presence of training costs, on the skill distribution within each country, income disparity, and social welfare

Skill Dierentiation and Income Disparity in a Decentralized Matching Model of North-South Trade

This paper develops a North-South trade model in which the South produces food and the North produces both food and a high-tech good. Food production is undertaken by unskilled workers while the high-tech product is made only by horizontally dierentiated skilled workers. Due to the possibility of a peer-group effect, we allow the unskilled workers in the North to be equally or more productive than in the South. Horizontal matching of skilled workers is generally imperfect and the skilled wages are determined by a symmetric Nash bargain. We characterize two dierent types of equilibrium: a closed-economy equilibrium without trade and a free trade equilibrium without labor mobility. We then extend the benchmark framework to consider the presence of transport costs. In all cases with trade, the equilibrium properties of goods pricing, the volume of trade and wage disparities are examined.skill heterogeneity and matching, north-south trade, wage inequality

Theories of system of cities;

Economic theories of systems of cities explain why production and consumption activities are concentrated in a number of urban areas of different sizes and industrial composition rather than uniformly distributed in space. These theories have been successively influenced by four paradigms: i) conventional urban economics emphasizing the tension between economies due to the spatial concentration of activity and diseconomies arising from that concentration; ii) the theory of industrial organization as it relates to inter-industry linkages and to product differentiation; iii) the New Economic Geography which ignores land markets but emphasizes trade among cities, fixed agricultural hinterlands and the endogenous emergence of geography; iv) the theory of endogenous economic growth. Among the issues examined are specialization versus diversification of cities in systems of cities, how city systems contribute to increasing returns in national and the global economies, the factors that determine skill distribution and income disparity between cities, the impacts of income disparity on welfare, whether population growth should cause economic activity to become more or less concentrated in urban areas, and how resources should be allocated efficiently in a system of cities. Related to the last issue we consider models where cities are organized by local planners or developers as well as cities that self organize by atomistic actions. A conclusion of the theoretical study of city systems is that markets fail in efficiently allocating resources across cities when certain intercity interactions are present and that a role for central planning may be necessary

A Hybrid NLMS/RLS Algorithm to Enhance the Beamforming Process of Smart Antenna Systems

Adaptive beamforming algorithm is a signal processing technique used by smart antenna system to steer the main beam toward the desired signal direction and cancel the interfering signals of other directions. This paper proposes a hybrid non-blind beamforming algorithm that combines the Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS) algorithm and the Recursive Least Square (RLS) algorithm to exploit the advantages of both algorithms and avoid their drawbacks. The hybrid NLMS/RLS algorithm solves many problems of the other non-blind algorithms. A comparative study between the proposed algorithm and other non-blind beamforming algorithms is introduced to illustrate the points of strength of the proposed algorithm. The hybrid NLMS/RLS algorithm is applied to different types of patch array antenna with resonance frequency 10GHz to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm to each array antenna type

Nano silica particles loaded with CYANEX-921 for removal of iron(III) from phosphoric acid

303-310A simple route for preparation of organically modified spherical silica (SiO2) nanoparticles with CYANEX 921 has been discussed. These modified particles has been used to remove Fe3+-SCN complex from 9M phosphoric acid. SEM, XRD, IR and EDS have been used to Characterized the powder in its several stages. The effect of SiO2 weight, thiocyanate concentration, initial Fe (III) concentration, H3PO4 concentration, stirring time, temperature and loaded SiO2 weight have been used to study the removal percent. The loaded silica succeeded in removal of 70% of Fe (III). Langmuir isotherm model well fit the experimental data with maximum sorption capacity 45.45 mg/g. The reaction kinetic is found to follow the pseudo second order kinetic model the adsorption reaction shows exothermic behavior