On comparing heterogeneous populations: Is there really a conflict between the Pareto criterion and inequality aversion?.

The incompatibility between the Pareto indifference criterion and a concern for greater equality in living standards of heterogenous populations (see, amongst others, Ebert, 1995, 1997, Ebert and Moyes, 2003 and Shorrocks, 1995) might come as a surprise, since both principles are reconcilable when people differ only in income (homogenous population). We present two families of welfare rankings --(i) single parameter extensions of the generalized Lorenz dominance rule and (ii) a subset of Weymark's (1981) generalized Ginis-- and show how and why these rules resolve the paradox.Heterogeneity; Welfare comparisons;

Universality for conditional measures of the sine point process

The sine process is a rigid point process on the real line, which means that for almost all configurations $X$, the number of points in an interval $I = [-R,R]$ is determined by the points of $X$ outside of $I$. In addition, the points in $I$ are an orthogonal polynomial ensemble on $I$ with a weight function that is determined by the points in $X \setminus I$. We prove a universality result that in particular implies that the correlation kernel of the orthogonal polynomial ensemble tends to the sine kernel as the length $|I|=2R$ tends to infinity, thereby answering a question posed by A.I. Bufetov.Comment: 26 pages, no figures, revised version with Appendix

Philippine agricultural and food policies: Implications for poverty and income distribution

The Philippines has undergone a series of trade reforms since the mid-1980s that have reduced protection on nonagricultural goods. However, protection on key food items is still in effect, and this has led to high domestic food prices. Such high prices have a considerable negative effect on poverty because more than 60 percent of the consumption of poor Filipino households is for food. The special product arguments of the World Trade Organization increase the pressure to maintain the existing high levels of food protection in the country. Special products treatment provides developing countries with the flexibility to implement tariff reduction programs over an extended period for certain self-designated products. These special product discussions are based on food security, livelihood, and rural development arguments. This research report assesses the poverty and income distribution implications of trade reform that is focused on agriculture and major food items (rice, corn, sugar, beef, chicken, pork, processed meat products, fruits and vegetables, and processed fruits) in the Philippines. A dynamic-recursive computable general equilibrium model calibrated to the social accounting matrix for the Philippine economy for the year 2000 and a microsimulation model that uses the 2000 Family Income and Expenditure Survey are used to analyze possible policy shifts. The simulation results indicate that trade reform in agriculture and major food items will have favorable effects on factor prices and bring about a significant reduction in consumer prices. Real household income will increase while poverty and income inequality decline. These findings therefore imply that maintaining existing trade protections on agricultureand major food items—which drive food prices up—will not solve the problem of poverty and income inequality in the Philippines. In the year 2000 the incidence of poverty in the Philippines was 34 percent. In 2003 it declined to 30.4 percent. The incidence of poverty in rural areas is higher than that in urban areas: 48.8 percent and 18.6 percent in 2000, respectively. Over the past two decades, significant structural changes have taken place in the Philippine economy. The share of agriculture in the total gross domestic product has declined. The country has switched from being a net exporter to a net importer of agricultural products and food items. The widening trade gap in agriculture and food has made the Philippines vulnerable to fluctuations in the world market. For example, the international rice crisis in 2008 has adversely affected the domestic market for rice in the Philippines. The deterioration in the net trade position of the country in food has largely been caused by the high growth in domestic food demand relative to production. Domestic food production lags behind demand because of declining productivity. There is increasing demand for food items with higher income elasticities, and there is also increasing pressure from high population growth. To address this growing trade gap in agriculture and food, the government has adopted a strategy to improve rice productivity. This is a step in the right direction: based on our rice productivity simulation results, higher rice productivity will increase domestic production and reduce imports of rice. Most importantly it will reduce consumer prices. Most of the benefits of improved rice productivity would go to the households in the first decile of the population, since rice has the largest share in their consumption basket relative to the rest of the household groups. There is a reduction in poverty incidence and income inequality. However, implementation of the Philippine government’s rice productivity program is costly, inefficient, and ineffective. In 2001 the government introduced a new technology, hybrid rice. Its adoption was aggressively pursued by the government through the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program (HRCP). Under the HRCP the production of hybrid rice seeds is supported by the government through (1) procurement of seeds at a guaranteed price, (2) distribution of the procured seeds to participating farmers at half the procurement price, and (3) payment of additional money to participating farmers to help defray their fertilizer input costs. The government has devoted significant resources, through a system of subsidies, to supporting the HRCP. However, the results are not encouraging. The adoption rate of hybrid rice is very low. There is a high dropout rate among participating farmers, because hybrid rice seeds are so expensive and farmers have to purchase them every planting season rather than reusing them (which would result in drastically decreased yields). The massive government subsidies have distorted the ability of farmers to make an informed choice between hybrid and inbred rice varieties. Thus instead of supporting the HRCP the government should spend its limited resources on research and development that focuses on improving the yield of inbred rice. Enhancing an inbred-based system that is adapted to farmers’ familiar practice of saving, reusing, and exchanging seeds would be a more responsive approach to improving productivity than promoting such costly technologies as hybrid rice, which has not yet achieved commercially viable levels.Food prices, Trade reform, Agricultural policies, Computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling, Social accounting matrix, Microsimulation model, food policies, Income distribution, Poverty reduction,

Agriculture-sector Policies and Poverty in the Philippines: a Computable General-Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis

The Philippines has undertaken substantial trade-policy reforms since the 1980s. However, the poverty impact is not very clear and has been the subject of intense debate, most crucial of which is the likely poverty effects of liberalizing the highly protected agricultural sector. A CGE micro-simulation model is employed to estimate and explain these impacts. Tariff reduction induces consumers to substitute cheaper imported agricultural products for domestic goods, thereby resulting in a contraction in agricultural output. In contrast, the prevalence of cheap, imported inputs reduces the domestic cost of production, benefiting the outward-oriented and import-dependent industrial sector as their output and export increases. The national poverty headcount decreases marginally as lower consumer prices outweigh the income reduction experienced by the majority of households. However, both the poverty gap and severity of poverty worsens, implying that the poorest of the poor become even poorer.Agriculture, International trade, Poverty, Computable general equilibrium, Micro-simulation, Philippines

Doha scenarios, trade reforms, and poverty in the Philippines : a computable general equilibrium analysis

Since the early 1980s the Philippines has undertaken substantial trade reform. The current Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations is now likely to bring further reform and shocks to world import prices and export demand. The impact of all these developments on the poor is not very clear and is the subject of intense debate. The authors use a detailed economywide computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to run a series of policy experiments. They find that poverty increases slightly with the implementation of the prospective Doha scenario. These effects are focused primarily among rural households in the wake of falling world prices and demand for the Philippines'agricultural exports. The authors find that the impacts of full liberalization-involving free world trade and complete domestic liberalization-depend strongly on the mechanism the government adopts to offset forgone tariff revenue. If an indirect tax is used, the incidence of poverty falls marginally, but the depth (poverty gap) and severity (squared poverty gap) increase substantially. If, instead, an income tax is used, all measures of poverty increase. In both cases, full liberalization favors urban households, as exports, which are primarily nonagricultural, expand. In separate simulations, the authors discover that free world trade is poverty reducing and favors rural households, whereas domestic liberalization is poverty increasing and favors urban households. Under free world trade, rural households benefit from increasing world agricultural demand. The anti-rural bias of domestic liberalization stems from the fact that import prices fall more for agricultural goods than for industrial goods, as initial import-weighted average tariff rates are higher for the former. In conclusion, the current Doha agreement appears likely to slightly increase poverty, especially in rural areas and among the unemployed, self-employed, and rural low-educated. The Philippines is found to have an interest in pushing for more ambitious world trade liberalization, as free world trade holds out promise for reducing poverty.

Doha Scenarios, Trade Reforms, and Poverty inthe Philippines: a CGE Analysis

Since the early 1980s, the Philippines have undertaken substantial trade reform. The current Doha round of WTO negotiations is now likely to bring further reform and shocks to world import and export prices and world export demand. The impact of all these developments on the poor is not very clear and is the subject of very intense debate. A detailed economy-wide CGE model is used to run a series of policy experiments. Poverty is found to increase slightly with the implementation of the Doha scenario. These effects are focused primarily among rural households in the wake of falling world prices and demand for Philippines agricultural exports. The impacts of full liberalization involving free world trade and complete domestic liberalization are found to depend strongly on the mechanism the government adopts to offset forgone tariff revenue. If an indirect tax is used, the incidence of poverty falls marginally, but the depth (poverty gap) and severity (squared poverty gap) increase substantially. If, instead, an income tax is used, all measures of poverty increase. In both cases, full liberalization favors urban households, as exports, which are primarily non-agricultural, expand. In separate simulations, we discover that free world trade is poverty reducing and favors rural households, whereas domestic liberalization is poverty-increasing and favors urban households. Under free world trade, rural households benefit from increasing world agricultural export prices and demand. The anti-rural bias of domestic liberalization stems from the fact that import prices fall more for agricultural goods than for industrial goods, as initial import-weighted average tariffs rates are higher for the former. In conclusion, the current Doha agreement appears likely to slightly increase poverty, especially in rural areas and among the unemployed, self-employed and rural low-educated. The Philippines is found to have an interest in pushing for more ambitious world trade liberalization, as free world trade holds out promise for reducing poverty.Computable General Equilibrium, Microsimulation, Poverty, International Trade, Philippines

A piezoelectrically actuated ball valve

Bimorph strip composed of two layers of poled piezoelectric ceramic material closes and opens valve. Strip performs like capacitator, allowing initial inrush of current when valve is energized and then only small leakage current flows as valve remains energized

Doha scenarios, trade reforms, and poverty in the Philippines

"The paper examines the possible impact of Doha agreement on Philippine poverty. Using a detailed CGE analysis, the agreement is observed to depress world demand for Philippine agricultural exports, and thus slightly increase poverty, especially among rural households. However, an ambitious full trade liberalization scenario, which involves free world trade and domestic liberalization, leads to increased industrial exports that favor urban households. These impacts are driven primarily by domestic trade liberalization, as free world trade favors the agricultural sector by increasing the cost of competing agricultural imports." Authors' AbstractDoha agreement ,Computable general equilibrium (CGE) ,Free trade ,

Analisis Faktor Faktor Yang Mempengaruhi Keinginan Mahasiswa Dalam Berinvestasi Di Pasar Modal Di Era Pandemi Covid-19

This study aims to identify and analyze the effect of investment risk, level of income (capital), investment motivation and basic knowledge of investment on investment interest in students of the Faculty of Economics, University of West Sulawesi. The research design is quantitative. The sample in this study were 93 students from the accounting study program and management study program, the Faculty of Economics, University of West Sulawesi, in 2017 and 2020. Data collection in this study used the questionnaire method. Instrument trials were analyzed using validity and reliability tests. The data analysis technique used in this study is the classical assumption, simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that t count with a value of x1 of 4,883, x2 of 5,703, x3 of 2,253 and x4 of 2,401 is greater than the value of t table with a value of 1.662. The significance value of variable x to variable y is below 0.05 so that H1, H2, H3 and H4 can be accepted and it can be concluded that all variables x, namely Investment Risk, Level of Income (Capital), Motivation and Basic Knowledge have an effect on variable y, namely Investment Interest. The ability of the independent variables to explain changes in the dependent variable is 57.40%