Heckscher-Ohlin Theory when Countries have Different Technologies

Rethinking the foundations of Heckscher-Ohlin theory when countries have different technologies, this paper shows how to make the proper adjustments for international productivity differences. The central tool is a factor conversion matrix that computes the local factor content of foreign Rybczynski effects. Factor-specific productivities are a special case of these more general linear relationships.

Why are we losing manufacturing jobs?

In the last 50 years, the share of employment in manufacturing has declined in the United States. The main reason for this phenomenon is labor-saving technological progress. Variation among state tax polices and international economic conditions have played only minor roles. The source of future prosperity will be technological advances in a service-oriented economy.Manufactures ; Labor market

Purchasing Power Parity and Interest Parity in the Laboratory,

This paper analyzes purchasing power parity and uncovered interest parity in the laboratory. It finds strong evidence that purchasing power parity, covered interest parity, and uncovered interest parity hold. Subjects are endowed with an intrinsically useless (green) currency that can be used to purchase another useless (red) currency. Green goods can be bought only with green currency, and red goods can be bought only with red currency. The foreign exchange markets are organized as call markets. In the treatment analyzing purchasing power parity, the price of the red good varies. In a second treatment, the interest rate on red currency varies. In a third treatment, the interest rate on red currency varies, and the price of the red good is random.

Funded Pensions, Labor Market Participation, and Economic Growth.

This paper analyses a model of overlapping generations in which agents who do not participate in th elabor market are unable to borrow. Thus an increase in a fully funded pension raises aggregate savings even with a fixed participation rate since private savings are not crowded out one-for-one. When labor force participation is determined endogenously, a rise in the level of fully funded pensions increases the aggregate labor supply. This in turn increases aggregate savings and growth, directly by raising per capita savings and indirectly through tax and interest rate effects.

The anatomy of an oil price shock

Oil price shocks do not cause inflation, no matter how close the connection seems to be in our practical experience. But they can cause significant price increases throughout the economy. Tracing the way a sharp increase in the price of crude oil affects prices in various industrial sectors of the U.S. economy suggests how big these increases are. Fortunately, our economy seems better prepared now to weather such shocks than in the 1970s and 1980s.Petroleum products - Prices ; Inflation (Finance)

THE DYNAMIC EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDY PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES

This paper analyzes the dynamic effects of the acreage restrictions and land diversion requirements that are characteristic of the farm subsidy programs in the United States. The subsidy payments a farmer receives are based upon historical base acreage, and it 1s sometimes optimal for a farmer not to participate in a pr9gr~m in order to increase base acreage in anticipation of higher future subsidies. This paper determines the farmer's optimal policy as the solution to a deterministic dynamic program. It shows that farmers with low base acreage typically opt out of these programs, whereas those with high base acreage participate in them. The paper concludes with an examination of aggregate data from the programs involving barley, corn, cotton, oats, rice, sorghum, and wheat during 1987. It shows that these programs actually increase the aggregate output of each of these crops and that they represent an annual deadweight loss of more than $3 billion.Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use,

THE DYNAMIC EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES IN THE UNITED STATES

This article analyzes the dynamics effects of the farm subsidies in the United States. The subsidies a farmer receives are based upon historical plantings, also called based acreage. It is sometimes optimal for a farmer temporarily not to participate in a program in order to increase future subsidies. The farmerÂ’'s optimal policy is the solution to a deterministic dynamic program. Farmers with low base acreage opt out of these programs, whereas those with high base acreage participate in them. The article examines aggregate data involving corn, cotton, rice, and wheat during 1987. It shows that these programs increase the output of each of these crops and represent an annual deadweight loss of more than $2 billion.Agricultural and Food Policy,

The discourse of Jury trial advocacy: The potential for distortion of meaning in the age of a new social consciousness

This thesis argues that there is a need to reappraise the significance of a jury in the adversarial criminal trial. A jury can no longer meet a prime criterion of its worth, which is that it brings to its decision making the collective common sense of the community from which it is drawn. In a new culturally diverse society, it is not representative enough to do so. Today’s jury does not comprise individuals from a single culture. It represents diverse cultures and sub-cultures, people from each of which will extract their own social meaning from courtroom discourse. This means there is a need for law to embrace a cross-disciplinary approach to adapting the discourse of adversarial law to contemporary society. It should recognize the need for courtroom advocacy to move beyond appraising the formal language competence of contributors. Standard accounts of language are inadequate to reveal the potential for discursive distortion of meaning. In fact, the language of courtroom discourse only promotes an illusion of transparent portrayal of facts, blinding the search for substantive truth in justice with the pragmatic allure of legal truth. Jury trial advocacy has in common with literary invention the power to press language into use to serve the preferred ends of the author. Each applies meaning to words according to context. Each brings to the narrative their own pre-understanding, or prejudices. Each constructs its narrative in contemplation of the minds it seeks to persuade and convince. But, courtroom advocates should not consider witnesses as manipulable characters in the narrative of the case; rather, they are contributors to its development. In this new diverse society, courtroom advocates should draw on lessons from language and literature to interpret, and understand the meaning of the narrative of law that they build in adversarial trials before jury

Animal joy: Poems

Animal Joy is a collection of poems which explores environmental and anthrozoological issues such as animal cognition, extinction, and weighs the problem of finding joy during our ecologically and politically tumultuous time. In several poems, the idea of childhood as a romantic ideal is explored. I see my collection, as with all my work up to this point, as part of the American Transcendentalist vision. This vision diffuses hierarchical binaries of human and nonhuman beings, civilization and the natural world, and the sacred and profane into an affirmation of life and the universe. Overall, I wanted to create a romantic vision that confronts, not escapes, the Anthropocene during the internet age. My poems believe in the redeeming power of the infant’s faith, the power of the natural world to heal, and universal brotherhood of all life, and all objects in the universe. My poems stand against negation, cynicism and despair. I want to make joy relevant to the 21st century