New aspects of intra-industry trade in EU countries

Using the HS eight-digit product level trade data of EU countries for the period 1988 – 2010, we analyse Intra-industry trade within EU countries as well as with Eastern European countries and with China. We find the Eastern European countries’ rise up the quality ladder, and by contrast the substantially lower prices of China’s exports to EU countries vis-à-vis China’s imports from them. The contrast between EU trade with the Eastern European countries and with China is present even in very recent years

Product quality and intra-industry trade

In this study, we argue that the conventional intra-industry trade (IIT) index does not address the quality issue directly and propose a methodology to make full use of unit-price gap information to deduce quality differences between simultaneously exported and imported products. By applying this measure to German trade data at the eight-digit level, we study the quality improvement of Chinese export goods in its IIT with Germany. We compare the case of China with those of Eastern European countries, which are also major trading partners of Germany. Our results show that the unit-value difference in IIT between Germany and Eastern European countries is clearly narrowing. However, China\u27s export prices to Germany are much lower than Germany\u27s export prices to China, and this gap has not narrowed over the last 23 years. This is at odds with the common perception that China\u27s product quality has improved, as documented by Rodrik (2006) and Schott (2008). Our results support Xu (2010), which argued that incorporating the quality aspect of the exported goods weakens or even eliminates the evidence of the sophistication of Chinese export goods in Rodrik (2006)

New Aspects of Intra-Industry trade: Evidence from EU-15 countries

This paper argues about some missing aspects of intra-industry trade (IIT) and proposes some alternative measures to better capture the nature of IIT. We show the over-time evolution of the number of IIT products, and propose an index which captures the share of the number of IIT products over the number of all traded goods. We also show how arbitrary the conventional classification into Horizontal and Vertical IIT indices are, and then propose a new measure using the unit value difference of IIT products. To discuss these issues we use trade data at HS 8 digit product level of EU 15 countries for the period 1988-2007, mainly within EU countries as well as with Eastern European countries, and with China as major EU trading partners. Our findings include the Eastern European countries' rise up the quality ladder, and the substantially lower prices of China's exports to EU 15 countries vis-à-vis China's imports from them, whose gap is not narrowing even in very recent years.Intra-industry trade, Horizontal and Vertical Product Differentiation, Quality, Unit price gap

On the stability of intra-industry trade

This paper presents the novel finding that two-way intra-industry trade (IIT) in product–country pairs is very unstable over time by using disaggregated trade data of OECD countries. Many products frequently switch among two-way, one-way and zero trade over time. To measure the stability of two-way trade, we propose a measure that we refer to as the "IIT stability index". Our estimation results using the proposed measure show that two-way trade involving markets of different sizes and long distance are likely to be unstable. In addition, primary products are more unstable than manufactured products

Unveiling the roles of the glutathione redox system in vivo by analyzing genetically modified mice

Redox status affects various cellular activities, such as proliferation, differentiation, and death. Recent studies suggest pivotal roles of reactive oxygen species not only in pathogenesis under oxidative insult but also in intracellular signal transduction. Glutathione is present in several millimolar concentrations in the cytoplasm and has multiple roles in the regulation of cellular homeostasis. Two enzymes, γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase and glutathione synthetase, constitute the de novo synthesis machinery, while glutathione reductase is involved in the recycling of oxidized glutathione. Multidrug resistant proteins and some other transporters are responsible for exporting oxidized glutathione, glutathione conjugates, and S-nitrosoglutathione. In addition to antioxidation, glutathione is more positively involved in cellular activity via its sulfhydryl moiety of a molecule. Animals in which genes responsible for glutathione metabolism are genetically modified can be used as beneficial and reliable models to elucidate roles of glutathione in vivo. This review article overviews recent progress in works related to genetically modified rodents and advances in the elucidation of glutathione-mediated reactions

Segregation of Cu-In-S Elements in the Spray-Pyrolysis-Deposited Layer of CIS Solar Cells

We report the fabrication of superstrate-structured solar cells by the deposition of Cu-In-S (CIS) films on 〈glass/FTO/TiO2/In2S3〉 under air by spray pyrolysis. The cells had an open-circuit voltage of 0.551 V, a photocurrent density of 9.5 mA/cm2, a fill factor of 0.45, and a conversion efficiency of 2.14%. However, transmission electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray (TEM-EDX) analysis revealed significant differences between the atomic ratio of the setting material in the spray-deposition solution and the elements in the layer. Moreover, TEM-EDX measurements suggested strong segregation of the Cu-In-S elements in the spray-pyrolysis-deposited layer. The degree of segregation depended on the substrate (〈glass〉, 〈glass/TiO2〉, or 〈glass/TiO2/In2S3〉), although Cu3In5S9 nanoparticles were segregated in the sulfur layer

Effects of heat treatment on human hair keratin film

5ArticleJOURNAL OF JAPANESE COSMETIC SCIENCE SOCIETY. 37(3):165-170 (2013)journal articl

Notch system in the linkage of innate and adaptive immunity

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142014/1/jlb0059.pd