19,386 research outputs found
Policies And International Integration: Influences On Trade And Foreign Direct Investment
This paper assesses the importance of border and non-border policies for global economic integration. The focus is on four widely-advocated policies: removing explicit restrictions to trade and FDI; promoting domestic competition; improving the adaptability of labour markets; and ensuring adequate levels of infrastructure capital. The analysis covers FDI and trade in both goods and services, thus aiming to account for the most important channels of globalisation and dealing with most modes of cross-border services supply. It first describes trends in trade, FDI and the four sets of policies using a large set of structural policy indicators recently constructed by the OECD, including the new summary indicators for FDI-specific regulations described in Golub (2003). It then estimates the impact of policies on bilateral trade and bilateral and multilateral FDI. The results highlight that, despite extensive liberalisation over the past two decades, there is scope for further reducing policy barriers to integration of OECD markets. Remaining barriers have a significant impact on trade and FDI, with anticompetitive domestic regulations and restrictive labour market arrangements estimated to curb integration as much as explicit trade and FDI restrictions. Simulating the removal of such barriers suggests that the quantitative effects of further liberalisation of trade, FDI and domestic product and labour markets on global integration could be substantial
The Unitary Executive During the Third Half-Century, 1889-1945
Recent Supreme Court decisions and the impeachment of President Clinton has reinvigorated the debate over Congress\u27s authority to employ devices such as special counsels and independent agencies to restrict the President\u27s control over the administration of the law. The initial debate focused on whether the Constitution rejected the executive by committee employed by the Articles of the Confederation in favor of a unitary executive, in which all administrative authority is centralized in the President. More recently, the debate has begun to turn towards historical practices. Some scholars have suggested that independent agencies and special counsels have become such established features of the constitutional landscape as to preempt arguments in favor of the unitary executive. Others, led by Bruce Ackerman, have suggested that the New Deal represented a constitutional moment that ratified major changes in the distribution of power within the federal government. To date, however, a complete assessment of the historical record has yet to appear.
This Article is part of a larger project that offers a comprehensive chronicle that places the battles between the President and Congress over control of the administration of federal law in historical perspective. It reviews the period between 1889 and 1945, beginning with the Administration of Benjamin Harrison, ending with the Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and paying particular attention to FDR\u27s failed attempt to reorganized the executive branch. The record reveals that these Presidents during this period consistently defended the unitariness of the executive branch to a degree sufficient to keep the issue from being foreclosed by history. In fact, the episodes discussed provide eloquent illustrations of the legal and normative arguments supporting the unitary executive
The Unitary Executive during the Third Half-Century, 1889-1945
Recent Supreme Court decisions and the impeachment of President Clinton has reinvigorated the debate over Congress\u27s authority to employ devices such as special counsels and independent agencies to restrict the President\u27s control over the administration of the law. The initial debate focused on whether the Constitution rejected the executive by committee employed by the Articles of the Confederation in favor of a unitary executive, in which all administrative authority is centralized in the President. More recently, the debate has begun to turn towards historical practices. Some scholars have suggested that independent agencies and special counsels have become such established features of the constitutional landscape as to preempt arguments in favor of the unitary executive. Others, led by Bruce Ackerman, have suggested that the New Deal represented a constitutional moment that ratified major changes in the distribution of power within the federal government. To date, however, a complete assessment of the historical record has yet to appear. This Article is part of a larger project that offers a comprehensive chronicle that places the battles between the President and Congress over control of the administration of federal law in historical perspective. It reviews the period between 1889 and 1945, beginning with the Administration of Benjamin Harrison, ending with the Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and paying particular attention to FDR\u27s failed attempt to reorganized the executive branch. The record reveals that these Presidents during this period consistently defended the unitariness of the executive branch to a degree sufficient to keep the issue from being foreclosed by history. In fact, the episodes discussed provide eloquent illustrations of the legal and normative arguments supporting the unitary executive
From Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing to Cosmological Parameters
Galaxy-galaxy lensing measures the mean excess surface density DS(r) around a
sample of lensing galaxies. We develop a method for combining DS(r) with the
galaxy correlation function xi_gg(r) to constrain Omega_m and sigma_8, going
beyond the linear bias model to reach the level of accuracy demanded by current
and future measurements. We adopt the halo occupation distribution (HOD)
framework, and we test its applicability to this problem by examining the
effects of replacing satellite galaxies in the halos of an SPH simulation with
randomly selected dark matter particles from the same halos. The difference
between dark matter and satellite galaxy radial profiles has a ~10% effect on
DS(r) at r<1 Mpc/h. However, if radial profiles are matched, the remaining
impact of individual subhalos around satellite galaxies and environmental
dependence of the HOD at fixed halo mass is <5% in DS(r) for 0.1<r<15 Mpc/h. We
develop an analytic approximation for DS(r) that incorporates halo exclusion
and scale-dependent halo bias, and we demonstrate its accuracy with tests
against a suite of populated N-body simulations. We use the analytic model to
investigate the dependence of DS(r) and the galaxy-matter correlation function
xi_gm(r) on Omega_m and sigma_8, once HOD parameters for a given cosmological
model are pinned down by matching xi_gg(r). The linear bias prediction is
accurate for r>2 Mpc/h, but it fails at the 30-50% level on smaller scales. The
scaling of DS(r) ~ Omega_m^a(r) sigma_8^b(r) approaches the linear bias
expectation a=b=1 at r>10 Mpc/h, but a(r) and b(r) vary from 0.8 to 1.6 at
smaller r. We calculate a fiducial DS(r) and scaling indices a(r) and b(r) for
two SDSS galaxy samples; galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements for these samples
can be combined with our predictions to constrain Omega_m and sigma_8.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Quantum phase interference (Berry phase) in single-molecule magnets of Mn12
Magnetization measurements of a molecular clusters Mn12 with a spin ground
state of S = 10 show resonance tunneling at avoided energy level crossings. The
observed oscillations of the tunnel probability as a function of the magnetic
field applied along the hard anisotropy axis are due to topological quantum
phase interference of two tunnel paths of opposite windings. Mn12 is therefore
the second molecular clusters presenting quantum phase interference.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, MMM'01 conference (12-16 Nov.
Social media use and impact during the holiday travel planning process
Through an empirical study among holiday travellers, residing in the Former Soviet Union Republics, this paper presents a comprehensive view of role and impact of social media on the whole holiday travel planning process: Before, during and after the trip, providing insights on usage levels, scope of use, level of influence and trust. Findings suggest that social media are predominantly used after holidays for experience sharing. It is also shown that there is a strong correlation between perceived level of influence from social media and changes made in holiday plans prior to final decisions. Moreover, it is revealed that user-generated content is perceived as more trustworthy when compared to official tourism websites, travel agents and mass media advertising
Penetration depth of low-coherence enhanced backscattered light in sub-diffusion regime
The mechanisms of photon propagation in random media in the diffusive
multiple scattering regime have been previously studied using diffusion
approximation. However, similar understanding in the low-order (sub-diffusion)
scattering regime is not complete due to difficulties in tracking photons that
undergo very few scatterings events. Recent developments in low-coherence
enhanced backscattering (LEBS) overcome these difficulties and enable probing
photons that travel very short distances and undergo only a few scattering
events. In LEBS, enhanced backscattering is observed under illumination with
spatial coherence length L_sc less than the scattering mean free path l_s. In
order to understand the mechanisms of photon propagation in LEBS in the
subdiffusion regime, it is imperative to develop analytical and numerical
models that describe the statistical properties of photon trajectories. Here we
derive the probability distribution of penetration depth of LEBS photons and
report Monte Carlo numerical simulations to support our analytical results. Our
results demonstrate that, surprisingly, the transport of photons that undergo
low-order scattering events has only weak dependence on the optical properties
of the medium (l_s and anisotropy factor g) and strong dependence on the
spatial coherence length of illumination, L_sc, relative to those in the
diffusion regime. More importantly, these low order scattering photons
typically penetrate less than l_s into the medium due to low spatial coherence
length of illumination and their penetration depth is proportional to the
one-third power of the coherence volume (i.e. [l_s \pi L_sc^2 ]^1/3).Comment: 32 pages(including 7 figures), modified version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
An Experimental Platform for Pulsed-Power Driven Magnetic Reconnection
We describe a versatile pulsed-power driven platform for magnetic
reconnection experiments, based on exploding wire arrays driven in parallel
[Suttle, L. G. et al. PRL, 116, 225001]. This platform produces inherently
magnetised plasma flows for the duration of the generator current pulse (250
ns), resulting in a long-lasting reconnection layer. The layer exists for long
enough to allow evolution of complex processes such as plasmoid formation and
movement to be diagnosed by a suite of high spatial and temporal resolution
laser-based diagnostics. We can access a wide range of magnetic reconnection
regimes by changing the wire material or moving the electrodes inside the wire
arrays. We present results with aluminium and carbon wires, in which the
parameters of the inflows and the layer which forms are significantly
different. By moving the electrodes inside the wire arrays, we change how
strongly the inflows are driven. This enables us to study both symmetric
reconnection in a range of different regimes, and asymmetric reconnection.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Version revised to include referee's comments.
Submitted to Physics of Plasma
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