Rules of origin and the web of East Asian free trade agreements

The authors provide an overview of the preferential rules of origin in East Asia, highlighting the aspects that might possibly generate some trade-chilling effects. They review characteristics of existing preferential trade agreements with special emphasis on lessons from the European experience, and analyze some important features of the existing rules of origin in East and South-East Asian regional integration agreements. The empirical analysis of the effectiveness of preferentialism on intra-regional trade flows focuses on the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), with the aim of providing a rough estimate of the costs of requesting preferences. The results suggest that preferential tariffs favorably affect intra-regional imports only at very high margins (around 25 percentage points). This points to the likelihood of high administrative costs attached to the exploitation of preferences, particularly with regard to the compliance with AFTA's rules of origin.Free Trade,Trade Law,Rules of Origin,Trade Policy,Economic Theory&Research

Endogenous Protection in General Equilibrium: estimating political weights in the EU

We examine the political economy underpinnings of import protection in general equilibrium. Starting from a dual theoretical representation of production, trade, and consumption, we map a general representation of the real economy to underlying political processes aka the political support function to derive a general representation of the determinants of import protection. This includes the relatively standard approach of examining the pattern of tariffs in a Grossman-Helpman framework, as well as recent extensions linked to upstream and downstream linkages between sectors. Because we start from a relatively generic general equilibrium model of production, we have an immediate bridge between the theory and general equilibrium-based estimates of the welfare effects and rents generated by tariffs. We therefore follow the development of our generalized theoretical framework by introducing the use of general equilibrium estimates of the direct and indirect marginal impacts of protection at the sector level for econometric estimation of the revealed pattern of policy weights. This GE approach yields direct estimates of political weights based on economic effects, including cross-industry effects. The resulting weights lend insight into relative protection of agriculture and manufacturing. Working with data on the European union, we find that the strength of downstream linkages matters for policy weights and rates of protection, as does the national posture of industry. We also find support for a general political support function in the determination of tariffs, though results are mixed for the more narrow Grossman-Helpman specification. In the EU, nationality of industry seems to play a role in the setting of Community-wide import protection.political weights, political economy of import protection, Grossman-Helpman model

Clothes without an emperor: analysis of the preferential tariffs in ASEAN

This paper examines the current state of intra-ASEAN trade under the preferential regime of the AFTA. It partly addresses some data problems and employs a gravity model to arrive at alternative ways of gauging the importance of preferences in the absence of data on the actual utilisation of AFTA preferential tariffs. Our results confirm the wide-spread notion that the AFTA preferential scheme is of very little consequence to intra-regional trade. However, in that limited range of products where AFTA might have an influence, preferences seem to matter only when the differential margin between the MFN and preferential tariff rates reaches a critical amount, allowing regional exporters to cover the costs of requesting preferences

Clothes without an Emperor: Analysis of the Preferential Tariffs in ASEAN

ASEAN trade policy, free trade areas, empirical estimates of preference utilisation

Firm Export Survival: Micro-Evidence from the Philippines

This paper explores firms’ export dynamics in emerging economies where local firms face stiff foreign competition, both at home and abroad, and thus compelled to choose the level of quality in which to export. We develop and test a model of vertical product differentiation where the link between export performance and product quality is central. The impact of other governmental decisions related to multiple uncertainties faced by exporters such as exchange rate, freight and trade policies, are investigated as well. A rich and new firm-level data base is employed, which matches the firm-coded trade transactions data (7-digit) of Philippine manufacturing firms, with their corresponding firm survey data from 1996-2007. Using discrete survival analysis, we show that export spells have a short duration, 20 months on average. Particularly 72.2% of trade relationships in year one do not survive to year two. Market uncertainties, particularly those linked to exchange rates and transport costs increase the probability of firm exit as expected. Export survival rates are highest among firms that select an export price contained in the interval between the median and mean of the international distribution of product prices. In contrast, those choosing a price located at both ends of this distribution have the least chance of survival

Endogenous Protection in General Equilibrium: estimating political weights in the EU

We examine the political economy underpinnings of import protection in general equilibrium. Starting from a dual theoretical representation of production, trade, and consumption, we map a general representation of the real economy to underlying political processes aka the political support function to derive a general representation of the determinants of import protection. This includes the relatively standard approach of examining the pattern of tariffs in a Grossman-Helpman framework, as well as recent extensions linked to upstream and downstream linkages between sectors. Because we start from a relatively generic general equilibrium model of production, we have an immediate bridge between the theory and general equilibrium-based estimates of the welfare effects and rents generated by tariffs. We therefore follow the development of our generalized theoretical framework by introducing the use of general equilibrium estimates of the direct and indirect marginal impacts of protection at the sector level for econometric estimation of the revealed pattern of policy weights. This GE approach yields direct estimates of political weights based on economic effects, including cross-industry effects. The resulting weights lend insight into relative protection of agriculture and manufacturing. Working with data on the European union, we find that the strength of downstream linkages matters for policy weights and rates of protection, as does the national posture of industry. We also find support for a general political support function in the determination of tariffs, though results are mixed for the more narrow Grossman-Helpman specification. In the EU, nationality of industry seems to play a role in the setting of Community-wide import protection

Identifying Behavioral Phenotypes and Heterogeneity in Heart Valve Surface Endothelium

Heart valvular endothelial cells (VECs) are distinct from vascular endothelial cells (ECs), but have an uncertain context within the spectrum of known endothelial phenotypes, including lymphatic ECs (LECs). Profiling the phenotypes of the heart valve surface VECs would facilitate identification of a proper seeding population for tissue-engineered valves, as well as elucidate mechanisms of valvular disease. Porcine VECs and porcine aortic ECs (AECs) were isolated from pig hearts and characterized to assess known EC and LEC markers. A transwell migration assay determined their propensity to migrate toward vascular endothelial growth factor, an angiogenic stimulus, over 24 h. Compared to AECs, Flt-1 was expressed on almost double the percentage of VECs, measured as 74 versus 38%. The expression of angiogenic EC markers CXCR4 and DLL4 was >90% on AECs, whereas VECs showed only 35% CXCR4+ and 47% DLL4+. AECs demonstrated greater migration (71.5 ± 11.0 cells per image field) than the VECs with 30.0 ± 15.3 cells per image field (p = 0.032). In total, 30% of VECs were positive for LYVE1+/Prox1+, while these markers were absent in AECs. In conclusion, the population of cells on the surface of heart valves is heterogeneous, consisting largely of nonangiogenic VECs and a subset of LECs. Previous studies have indicated the presence of LECs within the interior of the valves; however, this is the first study to demonstrate their presence on the surface. Identification of this unique endothelial mixture is a step forward in the development of engineered valve replacements as a uniform EC seeding population may not be the best option to maximize transplant success

Nursing Burnout and Preventative Measures

Nursing burnout is a crucial problem that needs to be addressed due to the effect it’s having on nurses, such as causing many nurses to leave their jobs. Some of the major causes of nursing burnout include the effects of the work environment, emotional strain, and lack of sleep. Several nurses have stated that some environmental factors related to work that is causing nursing burnout include a high nurse-to-patient ratio, long shifts, and stressful specialties. Lack of support and emotional stress from patient care have contributed to burnout. Lastly, poor health habits, such as lack of sleep, also influence burnout progression. There are three types of interventions that focus on targeting these causes. Changes to the workplace environment can help prevent compassion fatigue for nurses. Yoga that incorporates mindfulness is vital in decreasing stress, which would ultimately also decrease burnout. Lastly, burnout can be fought by increasing resilience through various self-care strategies and healthy habits, such as sleep and guided imagery. This thesis, including a literature review and a proposal for further research, will investigate the main sources of burnout in nursing hospitals and incorporate a few ways that could be done to avoid getting it. It’s an important topic to be addressed because it could lead to a shortage of nurses and lower the quality of patient care

Macroeconomic Adjustments in Transition to a European Monetary Union

Having surpassed the difficult test of completing the process leading to a Single Market, the European Community felt able and ready to face the real acid test of integration: the establishment of a Monetary Union. The Maastricht Treaty of February 1992 has outlined the stages and provisions to which the EC would have a single European currency and attain full economic and monetary union by the end of the decade

Regional Integration and Endogenous Protection

The principal driving force behind regionalism in the 1990s and onwards is the increased globalization of production process and the aim of countries to pool together regional markets in order to enhance their attractiveness as production hub for global production. Understanding the political economy underpinnings of this new regionalism needs a theoretical framework that takes increasing returns to scale into account. In part one of this dissertation some initial attempts towards this direction are undertaken. The second part takes a more applied approach in the analysis of regionalism. Specifically, the political economy determinants of EU Trade policy is studied, as well as the effectiveness of ASEAN preferentialism