The Trade and Labour Approaches to Wage Inequality

We compare the trade and labour approaches to wage inequality. We first look at the theoretical differences, stressing the different roles ascribed to sector and factor bias, labour supply and the theory of technical change in trade models with endogenous prices. We then briefly review some of the evidence on the sector bias of prices and technology.Wage inequality, Technical change, Stolper-Samuelson effects

Does the Sector Bias of Skill-Biased Technical Change Explain Changing Wage Inequality?

This paper examines whether the sector bias of skill-biased technical change (sbtc) explains changing skill premia within countries in recent decades. First, using a two-factor, two-sector, two-country model we demonstrate that in many cases it is the sector bias of sbtc that determines sbtc's effect on relative factor prices, not its factor bias. Thus, rising (falling) skill premia are caused by more extensive sbtc in skill-intensive (unskill-intensive) sectors. Second, we test the sector-bias hypothesis using industry data for many countries in recent decades. An initial consistency check strongly supports the hypothesis. Among ten countries we find a strong correlation between changes in skill premia and the sector bias of sbtc during the 1970s and 1980s. The hypothesis is also strongly supported by more structural estimation on U.S. and U.K. data of the economy-wide wage changes mandated' to maintain zero profits in all sectors in response to the sector bias of sbtc. The suggestive mandated-wage estimates match the direction of actual wage changes in both countries during both the 1970s and the 1980s. Thus, the empirical evidence strongly suggests that the sector bias of sbtc can help explain changing skill premia.

Global Engagement and the Innovation Activities of Firms

Firms that export or, even more so, are part of a multinational enterprise tend to exhibit higher productivity than their purely domestic counterparts. To better understand this correlation, we incorporate the perspective of industrial organization that one of the main drivers of differences in productivity is differences in knowledge. We examine a new data set of several thousand U.K. enterprises covering all industries from 1994 through 2000. For each enterprise we have multiple detailed measures of knowledge outputs, knowledge investments, and sources of existing knowledge. We find that globally engaged firms do innovate more. But this is not just because globally engaged firms use more researchers. It is also because they learn more from more sources such as suppliers and customers, universities, and their intra-firm worldwide pool of information. We also find that the relative importance of knowledge sources varies systematically with the type of innovation.

Does Inward Foreign Direct Investment Boost the Productivity of Domestic Firms?

Are there productivity spillovers from FDI to domestic firms, and, if so, how much should host countries be willing to pay to attract FDI? To examine these questions we use a plant-level panel covering U.K. manufacturing from 1973 through 1992. Across a wide range of specifications, we estimate a significantly positive correlation between a domestic plant's TFP and the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's industry. This is consistent with positive FDI spillovers. We do not generally find significant effects on plant TFP of the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's region. Typical estimates suggest that a 10 percentage-point increase in foreign presence in a U.K. industry raises the TFP of that industry's domestic plants by about 0.5 percent. We also use these estimates to calculate the per-job value of these spillovers. These calculated values appear to be less than per-job incentives governments have granted in recent high-profile cases, in some cases several times less.Multinational firms, Foreign direct investment, Productivity spillovers

Does Inward Foreign Direct Investment Boost the Productivity of Domestic Firms?

Are there productivity spillovers from FDI to domestic firms, and, if so, how much should host countries be willing to pay to attract FDI? To examine these questions we use a plant-level panel covering U.K. manufacturing from 1973 through 1992. Across a wide range of specifications, we estimate a significantly positive correlation between a domestic plant's TFP and the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's industry. This is consistent with positive FDI spillovers. We do not generally find significant effects on plant TFP of the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's region. Typical estimates suggest that a 10 percentage-point increase in foreign presence in a U.K. industry raises the TFP of that industry's domestic plants by about 0.5 percent. We also use these estimates to calculate the per-job value of these spillovers. These calculated values appear to be less than per-job incentives governments have granted in recent high-profile cases, in some cases several times less.

Synthesis and electronic properties of Ruddlesden-Popper strontium iridate epitaxial thin films stabilized by control of growth kinetics

We report on the selective fabrication of high-quality Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ and SrIrO$_3$ epitaxial thin films from a single polycrystalline Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ target by pulsed laser deposition. Using a combination of X-ray diffraction and photoemission spectroscopy characterizations, we discover that within a relatively narrow range of substrate temperature, the oxygen partial pressure plays a critical role in the cation stoichiometric ratio of the films, and triggers the stabilization of different Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) phases. Resonant X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements taken at the Ir $L$-edge and the O $K$-edge demonstrate the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling, and reveal the electronic and orbital structures of both compounds. These results suggest that in addition to the conventional thermodynamics consideration, higher members of the Sr$_{n+1}$Ir$_n$O$_{3n+1}$ series can possibly be achieved by kinetic control away from the thermodynamic limit. These findings offer a new approach to the synthesis of ultra-thin films of the RP series of iridates and can be extended to other complex oxides with layered structure.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Reentrant valence transition in EuO at high pressures: beyond the bond-valence model

The pressure-dependent relation between Eu valence and lattice structure in model compound EuO is studied with synchrotron-based x-ray spectroscopic and diffraction techniques. Contrary to expectation, a 7% volume collapse at $\approx$ 45 GPa is accompanied by a reentrant Eu valence transition into a \emph{lower} valence state. In addition to highlighting the need for probing both structure and electronic states directly when valence information is sought in mixed-valent systems, the results also show that widely used bond-valence methods fail to quantitatively describe the complex electronic valence behavior of EuO under pressure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Corral Monitoring System assessment results

This report describes the results of a functional and operational assessment of the Corral Monitoring Systems (CMS), which was designed to detect and document accountable items entering or leaving a monitored site. Its development was motivated by the possibility that multiple sites in the nuclear weapons states of the former Soviet Union might be opened to such monitoring under the provisions of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The assessment was performed at three levels. One level evaluated how well the planned approach addressed the target application, and which involved tracking sensitive items moving into and around a site being monitored as part of an international treaty or other agreement. The second level examined the overall design and development approach, while the third focused on individual subsystems within the total package. Unfortunately, the system was delivered as disassembled parts and pieces, with very poor documentation. Thus, the assessment was based on fragmentary operating data coupled with an analysis of what documents were provided with the system. The system design seemed to be a reasonable match to the requirements of the target application; however, important questions about site manning and top level administrative control were left unanswered. Four weaknesses in the overall design and development approach were detected: (1) poor configuration control and management, (2) inadequate adherence to a well defined architectural standard, (3) no apparent provision for improving top level error tolerance, and (4) weaknesses in the object oriented programming approach. The individual subsystems were found to offer few features or capabilities that were new or unique, even at the conceptual level. The CMS might possibly have offered a unique combination of features, but this level of integration was never realized, and it had no unique capabilities that could be readily extracted for use in another system