Prospects for constitutionalization of the WTO

The WTO is regarded as one of the few successes of (proto-) constitutionalism in response to globalization. However, the rapid deepening of economic integration that has occurred in recent decades has meant that the relevant civil society is less obviously well-represented by nation-state representatives, while the expansion in WTO membership and its coverage implies a constitutional claim that neither the WTO process nor the resulting structure supports. This paper characterizes the challenges confronting the WTO through the lens of constitutionalization. It discusses the link between globalization and interest in the WTO; what constitutionalization might mean for the WTO; and considers two models of constitutionalization in the WTO: an “English” model of court made law without a discrete constitutional moment; and an “American” model of a constitutional convention

Migration and Trade

Theoretical and empirical research in economics suggests that bilateral migration triggers bilateral trade through a number of channels. This paper assesses the functional form of the impact of migration on trade flows in a quasi-experimental setting. We provide evidence that the relationship is not log-linear. In particular, at small levels of migration (stocks) the elasticity of trade to migration is quite high, and it declines to zero at about 4,000 immigrants. If migration stocks exceed such a level, the evidence suggests that trade will not increase anymore. This suggests that cross-country network and other effects flowing from migration materialize at relatively low levels of migration, but there appears to be satiation as immigrant numbers increase by much.migration, bilateral trade, quasi-randomized experiment, generalized propensity score estimation

Noneconomic Objectives, Global Value Chains and International Cooperation

Systemic conflicts increasingly affect the global value chains (GVCs) underpinning globalization by creating policy uncertainty and politicizing trade and investment decisions. Unilateral policies to attain competitiveness and noneconomic objectives (NEOs), including national security, create incentives for international cooperation to attenuate policy spillovers. Recent initiatives seeking to do so are organized around supply chain governance and need not be anchored in trade agreements. Whether such cooperation is feasible and can be designed to be effective in realizing NEOs is unclear. Plurilateral GVC-centered cooperation offers a potential path for states to pursue NEOs and reduce policy uncertainty for international business. Research offers little guidance to policymakers on the design of such cooperation. Akey open question is to determine whether explicit market access commitments are necessary to sustain cooperation. Creating mechanisms for the epistemic communities that are concerned with a specific NEO or policy area to interact with stakeholders and lead firms operating international production networks can help inform the design of cooperation to attain NEOs more efficiently

The Political-Economy of U.S. Automobile Protection

This paper examines the political process through which the U.S. auto industry pursued and ultimately received protection from Japanese competition. Following a brief review of research on the competitiveness of the industry (section II) and on the effects of protection on industry performance (section III), it is not at all obvious that trade protection was the most effective policy response to the industry's economic problems. The remainder of the paper argues that the industry's political strategy reflects a response to a crisis in the political-economic regime regulating relations among the major interests in the U.S. auto industry. To make this argument, section IV develops the notion of a sectoral regime and applies it to the auto industry. Section V develops the argument further suggesting that conditions in the industry constituted a regime crisis and reexamines the industry's pursuit of aggressive trade policy toward Japanese producers in this context. Section VI illustrates the usefulness of this perspective by examining the politics of North American integration from the perspective of the auto industry. Section VII concludes.

Linear matrix inequalities control driven for non-ideal power source energy harvesting

The dynamic model of a linear energy harvester excited by a non-ideal power source is coupled to a controller to maximum vibration adjustment. Numerical analysis is taken toevaluate the energy harvested keeping the vibration optimized for the maximum interaction to the energy source using linear matrix inequalities for control driven. The dimensionless power output, actuation power and net output power is determined. As a result, it is possible to verify that the total energy harvested via exogenous vibration using the proposed controller is increased up to 65 times when in comparison to the open loop system

Laboratory Studies of Chemical and Photochemical Processes Relevant to Stratospheric Ozone

The purpose of this project is to reduce the uncertainty in several key gas-phase kinetic processes which impact our understanding of stratospheric ozone. The main emphasis of this work is on measuring rate coefficients and product channels for reactions of HOx and NOx species in the temperature range 200 K to 240 K relevant to the lower stratosphere. Other areas of study have included infrared spectroscopic studies of the HO radical, measurements of OH radical reactions with alternative fluorocarbons, and determination of the vapor pressures of nitric acid hydrates under stratospheric conditions. The results of these studies will improve models of stratospheric ozone chemistry and predictions of perturbations due to human influences

Laboratory studies of chemical and photochemical processes relevant to stratospheric ozone

The purpose of this project is to reduce the uncertainty in several key gas-phase kinetic processes which impact our understanding of stratospheric ozone. The main emphasis of this work is on measuring rate coefficients and product channels for reactions of HO(sub x) and NO(sub x) species in the temperature range 200 K to 240 K relevant to the lower stratosphere. Other areas of study have included infrared spectroscopic studies of the HO2 radical, measurements of OH radical reactions with alternative fluorocarbons, and determination of the vapor pressures of nitric acid hydrates under stratospheric conditions. The results of these studies will improve models of stratospheric ozone chemistry and predictions of perturbations due to human influences. In this annual report, we focus on our recent accomplishments in the quantitative spectroscopy of the HO2 radical. This report details the measurements of the broadening coefficients for the v(sub 2) vibrational band. Further measurements of the vapor pressures of nitric acid hydrates relevant to the polar stratospheric cloud formation indicate the importance of metastable crystalline phases of H2SO4, HNO3, and H2O. Large particles produced from these metastable phases may provide a removal mechanism for HNO3 in the polar stratosphere