734 research outputs found
Buyer-Seller Relationships in International Trade: Evidence from U.S. States' Exports and Business-Class Travel
International trade has become increasingly dependent on the transmission of complex information, often realized via face-to-face communication. This paper provides novel evidence for the importance of in-person business meetings in international trade. Interactions among trade partners entail a fixed cost of trade, but at the same time they generate relationship capital, which adds bilateral specific value to the traded products. Differences in the face-to-face communication intensity of traded goods, bilateral travel costs and foreign market size determine the optimal amount of interaction between trade partners. Using U.S. state level data on international business-class air travel as a measure of in-person business meetings, I find robust evidence that the demand for business-class air travel is directly related to volume and composition of exports in differentiated products. I also find that trade flows in R&D intensive manufactures and goods facing contractual frictions are most dependent on face-to-face meetings. The econometric identification exploits the cross-state variation in bilateral exports and business-class air travelers by foreign country and time period, circumventing any spurious correlation induced by cross-country differences driving aggregate travel and trade patterns.state exports; air travel; fixed export cost; face-to-face communication; relationship intensity; tacit knowledge
Reduction of spurious velocity in finite difference lattice Boltzmann models for liquid - vapor systems
The origin of the spurious interface velocity in finite difference lattice
Boltzmann models for liquid - vapor systems is related to the first order
upwind scheme used to compute the space derivatives in the evolution equations.
A correction force term is introduced to eliminate the spurious velocity. The
correction term helps to recover sharp interfaces and sets the phase diagram
close to the one derived using the Maxwell construction.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures (submitted to International Journal of Modern
Physics C- Physics and Computers
Reusing adaptation strategies in adaptive educational hypermedia systems
Due to the difficulty and thus effort and expenses involved in creating them, personalization strategies in learning environments have to demonstrate a higher return-on-investment (ROI), if they are to be a viable component of the learning setting of the future. One feature that can increase this ROI is the reusability of adaptation strategies in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems. This research looks into various ways of enhancing this reusability. Using multiple modular adaptation strategies (MAS) with a controlling meta-strategy is proposed as a more efficient way of authoring adaptation strategies. This renders the reuse of adaptation strategies faster and easier for course authors. A method for semi-automatically breaking down complex adaptation strategies into smaller modular adaptation strategies is described. Potential problems with using multiple strategies are described and ways to solve them are discussed. Finally, some evaluation points are illustrated, conclusions are drawn and further research areas are identified
Contribution of Education Funding to Economic Growth in Romania
The present paper tries to investigate the impact of education funding over the economic growth in Romania during the interval of time 1991-2009. It also attempts to answer the following question: does investment in education help the economic growth in Romania? If the answer is positive, then, how important are the allocations of investments in education matter? For a complete analysis, we have applied the regression method, and the statistical data have been provided by the National Institute of Statistics and the Romanian Ministry of Education.education expenditure, economic growth, statistical analysis, linear regression.
Social E-Learning in Topolor: a Case Study
Social e-learning is a process through which learners achieve their learning goals via social interactions with each other by sharing knowledge, skills, abilities and educational materials. Adaptive e-learning enables adaptation and personalization of the learning process, based on learner needs, knowledge, preferences and other characteristics. In this paper, we present a case study that analyzes the social interaction features of a social personalized adaptive e-learning system developed at the University of Warwick, called Topolor. We discuss the results of a quantitative case study that evaluates the perceived usefulness and usability. The results demonstrate a generally high level of learner satisfaction with their learning experience. We extend the discussion of the results to explore future research directions and suggest further improvements for the studied social personalized adaptive e-learning system
On the number of solutions of a transcendental equation arising in the theory of gravitational lensing
The equation in the title describes the number of bright images of a point
source under lensing by an elliptic object with isothermal density. We prove
that this equation has at most 6 solutions. Any number of solutions from 1 to 6
can actually occur.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figure
The Effect of Communication Costs on Trade in Headquarter Services
Communication is a real barrier to organizing international production as it hinders knowledge transmission. This paper provides evidence to suggest that a way in which multinational firms economize on costly information transfers is by using skilled foreign workers, since local talent can substitute for knowledge inputs from the headquarters. Combining U.S. data on headquarter service exports with information on communication costs and skill endowments by country, I find that while communication costs decrease the export of headquarter services to foreign affiliates, the effect becomes weaker in the average educational attainment of foreign workers. The sensitivity of headquarter service exports to communication barriers at low levels of skill endowment has important implications for the geography of multinational production, as well as for policies aimed at improving communication infrastructure
The Effect of Communication Costs on Trade in Headquarter Services
Communication is a real barrier to organizing international production as it hinders knowledge transmission. This paper provides evidence to suggest that a way in which multinational firms economize on costly information transfers is by using skilled foreign workers, since local talent can substitute for knowledge inputs from the headquarters. Combining U.S. data on headquarter service exports with information on communication costs and skill endowments by country, I find that while communication costs decrease the export of headquarter services to foreign affiliates, the effect becomes weaker in the average educational attainment of foreign workers. The sensitivity of headquarter service exports to communication barriers at low levels of skill endowment has important implications for the geography of multinational production, as well as for policies aimed at improving communication infrastructure
Buyer-Seller Relationships in International Trade: Evidence from U.S. States' Exports and Business-Class Travel
International trade has become increasingly dependent on the transmission of complex information, often realized via face-to-face communication. This paper provides novel evidence for the importance of in-person business meetings in international trade. Interactions among trade partners entail a fixed cost of trade, but at the same time they generate relationship capital, which adds bilateral specific value to the traded products. Differences in the face-to-face communication intensity of traded goods, bilateral travel costs and foreign market size determine the optimal amount of interaction between trade partners. Using U.S. state level data on international business-class air travel as a measure of in-person business meetings, I find robust evidence that the demand for business-class air travel is directly related to volume and composition of exports in differentiated products. I also find that trade flows in R&D intensive manufactures and goods facing contractual frictions are most dependent on face-to-face
meetings. The econometric identification exploits the cross-state variation in bilateral exports and business-class air travelers by foreign country and time period, circumventing any spurious
correlation induced by cross-country differences driving aggregate travel and trade patterns
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