Limits To Certainty in QoS Pricing and Bandwidth

Advanced services require more reliable bandwidth than currently provided by the Internet Protocol, even with the reliability enhancements provided by TCP. More reliable bandwidth will be provided through QoS (quality of service), as currently discussed widely. Yet QoS has some implications beyond providing ubiquitous access to advance Internet service, which are of interest from a policy perspective. In particular, what are the implications for price of Internet services? Further, how will these changes impact demand and universal service for the Internet. This paper explores the relationship between certainty of bandwidth and certainty of price for Internet services over a statistically shared network and finds that these are mutually exclusive goals.Comment: 29th TPRC Conference, 200

Distributed Lagrangian Methods for Network Resource Allocation

Motivated by a variety of applications in control engineering and information sciences, we study network resource allocation problems where the goal is to optimally allocate a fixed amount of resource over a network of nodes. In these problems, due to the large scale of the network and complicated inter-connections between nodes, any solution must be implemented in parallel and based only on local data resulting in a need for distributed algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed Lagrangian method, which requires only local computation and communication. Our focus is to understand the performance of this algorithm on the underlying network topology. Specifically, we obtain an upper bound on the rate of convergence of the algorithm as a function of the size and the topology of the underlying network. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated by its use in solving the important economic dispatch problem in power systems, specifically on the benchmark IEEE-14 and IEEE-118 bus systems

Tight Clothing: How the MFA Affects Asian Apparel Exports

International trade in apparel and textiles is regulated by a system of bilateral tariffs and quotas known as the Multifiber Arrangement or MFA. Using a time series of detailed product-level data from the United States on the quotas and tariffs that comprise the MFA, we analyze how the MFA affects the sources and prices of US apparel imports, with a particular focus on the effects on East Asian exporters during the 1990s. We show that while a large fraction of US apparel is imported under binding quotas, there are many quotas that remain unfilled. We also show that binding quotas substantially raise import prices, suggesting both quality upgrading and rent capture by exporters. In contrast, tariffs reduce import prices. Lastly, we argue that the substantial shift of US apparel imports away from Asia in favor of Mexico and the Caribbean during the 1990s is only partly due to discriminatory trade policy: the other reason is an increasing demand for timely delivery that gives a competitive advantage to nearby exporters.

Criteria For Expanding The Sales Tax Base: Services and Exemptions

This brief focuses on issues associated with the sales tax base and discusses the criteria and factors that should be considered in deciding which services to add to the sales tax base and which sales tax exemptions to eliminate or add

Distance, Time, and Specialization

Time is money, and distance matters. We model the interaction of these truisms, and show the implications for global specialization and trade: products where timely delivery is important will be produced near the source of final demand, where wages will be higher as a result. In the model, timely delivery is important because it allows retailers to respond to fluctuating final demand without holding costly inventories, and timely delivery is only possible from nearby locations. Using a unique dataset that allows us to measure the retail demand for timely delivery, we show that the sources of US apparel imports have shifted in the way predicted by the model, with products where timeliness matters increasingly imported from nearby countries.

The Consequences of Caregiving: Does Employment Make a Difference?

While a number of studies have examined the consequences of caregiving among employed women, surprisingly little research has explicitly compared how consequences differ between employed and not employed women. Moreover, very little research in this area has distinguished between part-time and full- time employment. This paper examines these issues drawing on the 1996 General Social Survey of Canada. The sample for this study consists of women aged 25 to 64 who reported providing care to one or more people aged 65+ because of a long-term physical disability (n=426). Three employment status groups (full-time, part-time and not employed) are compared on positive consequences, burden, guilt, job adjustment, postponed opportunities, and social and economic consequences. Results reveal significant differences between the three employment categories indicating that employment, both full and part-time, is associated with higher burden, guilt and social and economic consequences.caregiving; employment status; GSS

Reducing Obesity: Policy Strategies From the Tobacco War

Outlines the impact of obesity on health, healthcare costs, and productivity. Reviews successful policy interventions to reduce tobacco use and considers whether excise or sales tax, labeling requirements, and advertising bans could lower obesity rates

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's Tropical Disease Research Program: A 25-Year Retrospective Review 1976-1999

Documents and details the foundation's commitment to the program from its inception, and provides an analysis of its successes until the completion of the program in 1999