Privatization in the presence of foreign competition and strategic policies

Recent evidence shows that developing and transition economies are increasingly privatizing their public firms and also experiencing rapid growth of inward foreign direct investment (FDI). In an international mixed oligopoly with strategic tax/subsidy policies, we analyze the interaction between privatization and FDI. We find that the incentive for FDI increases with privatization. However, the possibility of FDI reduces the degree of privatization. Our paper shows that FDI policies reducing the fixed-cost of undertaking FDI may need to complement the privatization policies to attract FDI and to improve domestic welfare

Dietary sodium and nocturnal blood pressure dipping in normotensive men and women

Impaired nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping (i.e., <10% decline in nocturnal BP) is associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. Excess sodium has been shown to impair BP regulation and increase cardiovascular disease risk, yet few studies have assessed the influence of dietary sodium on nocturnal dipping in normotensive adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of dietary sodium on BP dipping in normotensive men and women. Eighty healthy normotensive adults participated in a controlled feeding study (men: n=39, 34±2 yrs; women: n=41, 41±2 yrs). Participants consumed a standardized run-in 100 mmol sodium·day(−1) diet for 7 days, followed by 7 days of low sodium (LS; 20 mmol·day(−1)) and high sodium (HS; 300 mmol·day(−1)) diets in random order. On the final day of each diet, subjects wore a 24h ambulatory BP monitor, collected a 24h urine sample, and provided a blood sample. During the run-in diet, 24h urinary sodium excretion was 79.4±5.1 mmol·24h(−1) in men and 85.3±5.5 mmol·24h(−1) in women (p>0.05). Systolic BP dipping was not different between men (11.4±1.0%) and women (11.2±0.9%) (p>0.05). During the HS diet, 24h urinary sodium excretion increased compared to the LS diet in men (LS=31.7±4.6 mmol·24h(−1) vs. HS=235.0±13.9 mmol·24h(−1), p<0.01) and women (LS=25.8±2.2 mmol·24h(−1) vs. HS=234.7±13.8 mmol·24h(−1), p<0.01). Despite this large increase in sodium intake and excretion, systolic BP dipping was not blunted in men (LS=8.9±1.0% vs. HS=9.4±1.2%, p>0.05) or women (LS=10.3±0.8% vs. HS=10.5±0.8%, p>0.05). Among normotensive men and women, HS does not blunt nocturnal BP dipping