Functional form for United States-México trade equations

The literature concerning bilateral trade flows between Mexico and the United States is comparatively small. With the growing importance of international commerce between these economies, potential trade flow responses to changes in relative prices and income performance deserves more attention. This paper attempts to partially fill this gap in the literature by estimating bilateral trade flow equations that decompose relative import and relative export prices into foreign prices, domestic prices, and the exchange rate.

Intra-industry trade in Latin America and the Caribbean

An increasingly important component of total world trade is intra-industry trade (IIT). The large volume of literature on IIT is reflective of this importance. However, this extensive literature has focused almost completely on explaining the causes of IIT. This focus has left a puzzling gap in the literature. Specifically, it is almost impossible to determine the level of IIT for a particular country or region. Further, there is almost no information on the level of IIT at the industry level either globally or for a region or country. In this paper we provide estimates of IIT for the world and for the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Further, we provide estimates of IIT for ten different SITC product categories on the same basis. The findings of the paper indicate that in most industries, IIT in Latin America is substantially lower overall than the world average. There are, however, substantial variations observed both by country and by industry. Because the results are the first available for the region as a whole, they should allow researchers to get a better picture of the extent of IIT in Latin America and the Caribbean by country and by industry.Intra-industry trade; Latin America

Borderplex Long-Term Economic Trends to 2026

Long-term prospects for the El Paso - Ciudad Juárez borderplex economy call for steady growth. On the north side of the border, the population of El Paso is projected to reach 965 thousand by 2026, the last year of the forecast period. Real gross metropolitan product, the broadest measure of local economic activity, is expected to increase by more than 85 percent over the course of the next two decades to more than $31.5 billion (1996 dollars). Better job market conditions combine with income growth to push total retail sales above$20.7 billion by the end of the simulation period. Given this projected state of affairs, the UTEP Borderplex Econometric Model forecasts housing starts to average more than 5 thousand units per year through 2026. Substantially higher single-family home prices result under these circumstances. Demographic expansion and business growth jointly lead to greater demand for water in El Paso. As shown in Table 1, total consumption will approximate 45.8 billion gallons per year by the end of the forecast period.Border Economies; Econometric Forecasting Analysis

Infrastructure Tolls in Texas: Evidence from the Borderplex

Do changes in toll rates affect pedestrian, car, and truck traffic across the bridges between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico? As more and more attention is paid to the use of tolls as funding mechanisms for new road and infrastructure construction in Texas, the answer to this question has policy implications not only for local and state lawmakers, but also for firms importing and exporting goods between Texas and Mexico. This article uses bridge traffic data from the Borderplex to examine the relative impact of tolls and concludes that local policymakers have more leeway than they thought in raising funds to make infrastructure improvements.Tolls; International Bridges; Border Economics

High-Flow Vascular Malformations in Children.

Children can have a variety of intracranial vascular anomalies ranging from small and incidental with no clinical consequences to complex lesions that can cause substantial neurologic deficits, heart failure, or profoundly affect development. In contrast to high-flow lesions with direct arterial-to-venous shunts, low-flow lesions such as cavernous malformations are associated with a lower likelihood of substantial hemorrhage, and a more benign course. Management of vascular anomalies in children has to incorporate an understanding of how treatment strategies may affect the normal development of the central nervous system. In this review, we discuss the etiologies, epidemiology, natural history, and genetic risk factors of three high-flow vascular malformations seen in children: brain arteriovenous malformations, intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas, and vein of Galen malformations