Trade as an Engine of Creative Destruction Mexico experience with Chinese competition

This paper exploits the surge in Chinese exports from 1994 to 2004 as a natural experiment to evaluate the effects of a unilateral low wage trade and competition shock to producers in Mexico. We find that this shock causes selection at both firm and product levels as its impact is highly heterogeneous both on the intensive and extensive margins. Sales of smaller plants and more marginal products are compressed and are more likely to cease, while larger plants and products exhibit an opposite response. Similar results hold both for the domestic market and for competition facing Mexican exporters in a third market (i.e. the United States).China, Mexico, multi-product-firm, trade shock

Penerapan Value Engineering pada Proyek Pembangunan Gedung Serbaguna X di Kota Medan

Berkaca pada kondisi pandemi yang sedang terjadi, perekonomian dalam berbagai sektor termasuk sektor konstruksi akan turut terdampak. Oleh sebab itu, diperlukan usaha penghematan biaya dengan mengefisiensikan desain yang direncanakan untuk meminimalkan potensi terhambatnya pembangunan, salah satunya dengan menerapkan pendekatan value engineering. Gedung Serbaguna X merupakan salah satu proyek yang ingin menerapkannya karena keterbatasan dana yang dimiliki hasil penggalangan dana organisasi sosial dan para sukarelawan. Berdasarkan data sekunder terkait proyek tersebut, identifikasi jenis pekerjaan yang berpotensi untuk menghasilkan penghematan terbesar dilakukan dengan melihat persentase biaya terbesar, dan menghitung cost/worth ratio untuk masing subpekerjaan. Selanjutnya, subpekerjaan dengan nilai rasio terbesar akan dianalisis menggunakan FAST diagram sebelum pada akhirnya diolah untuk mendapatkan beberapa alternatif desain lainnya. Selain biaya, kriteria lain yaitu waktu, mutu, metode pelaksanaan, ketersediaan material, konduktivitas termal, dan redaman suara dipertimbangkan selanjutnya dalam pemilihan alternatif terbaik menggunakan decision matrix. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa penghematan biaya dapat dilakukan melalui subpekerjaan pelat lantai serta atap dan insulasi. Perubahan desain menggunakan pelat precast half-slab menghasilkan penghematan sebesar 5,2% terhadap biaya pekerjaan pelat konvensional, atau sebesar Rp159.600.043,00. Sementara itu, penggunaan atap galvalume dan FLAB dapat menghemat sebesar Rp168.192.560,00, atau sebesar 18,9% terhadap biaya pekerjaan atap dan insulasi menggunakan desain eksisting

Trade as an Engine of Creative Destruction: Mexican Experience with Chinese Competition

This paper exploits the surge in Chinese exports from 1994 to 2004 as a natural experiment to evaluate the effects of a unilateral low wage trade and competition shock to producers in Mexico. We find that this shock causes selection at both firm and product levels as its impact is highly heterogeneous both on the intensive and extensive margins. Sales of smaller plants and more marginal products are compressed and are more likely to cease, while larger plants and products exhibit an opposite response. Similar results hold both for the domestic market and for competition facing Mexican exporters in a third market (i.e. the United States).China, Mexico, multi-product-firm, trade shock

Anisotropic magnetoresistance and anisotropic tunneling magnetoresistance due to quantum interference in ferromagnetic metal break junctions

We measure the low-temperature resistance of permalloy break junctions as a function of contact size and the magnetic field angle, in applied fields large enough to saturate the magnetization. For both nanometer-scale metallic contacts and tunneling devices we observe large changes in resistance with angle, as large as 25% in the tunneling regime. The pattern of magnetoresistance is sensitive to changes in bias on a scale of a few mV. We interpret the effect as a consequence of conductance fluctuations due to quantum interference.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Changes in response to reviewer comments. New data provide information about the mechanism causing the AMR and TAM

The Relative Importance of Search versus Credence Product Attributes: Organic and Locally Grown

Organic foods and local foods have come to the forefront of consumer issues, due to concerns about nutrition, health, sustainability, and food safety. A conjoint analysis experiment quantified the relative importance of, and trade-offs between, apple search and experience attributes (quality/blemishes, size, flavor), credence attributes (conventional vs. organic production method, local origin vs. product of USA vs. imported), and purchase price when buying apples. Quality is the most important apple attribute. Production method—organic versus conventional—had no significant impact on preferences.conjoint analysis, organic, locally grown, credence attributes, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Cognitive Structuring of Personal Statements in Philippine English

That graduate application essay plays a vital role inany graduate admission process in most universities in thePhilippines and that little is known about its nature—bothstructure and function, this descriptive-exploratory study zeroedin on unearthing the underlying cognitive structure of personalstatements written in Philippine English by Filipino graduatestudents of a graduate school in the Philippines, its possiblerecognition as a legitimate genre of inquiry and instruction.Using the hand-tagged method in genre analysis under the movestepframework pioneered by Swales (1990), cognitive structuringmodel of Hopkins and Dudley-Evans (1998), and Bhatia’s (1993)model of genre analysis, the study identified five recurringmoves, namely stating purpose/s and explaining reason/s forpursuing graduate studies, indicating research interest,enumerating personal attributes, stating career expectations andexplaining social contribution. The study likewise revealed thatFilipino graduate students tend to discuss their reason forpursuing a graduate degree more than to enumerate theirqualities in establishing themselves as an ideal candidate for theprogram. These results proved to be valuable in consideringpersonal statement a legitimate academic genre worthy ofinclusion in any undergraduate academic writing course

All over the map: a worldwide comparison of risk preferences

We obtain rich measurements of risk preferences for 2939 subjects across 30 countries, and use the data to paint a picture of the distribution of risk preferences across the globe using structural equation models. Reference dependence and likelihood-dependence are found to be important everywhere. Model parameters in non-Western countries differ systematically from those in Western countries, with poorer countries substantially more risk tolerant than rich countries on average. We qualify previous findings on gender effects and cognitive ability by showing how they mainly impact likelihood-dependence. We further add novel evidence on the correlation between risk preferences and study major. Whereas we confirm previous results on observable characteristics of subjects explaining little of overall preference heterogeneity, a few macroeconomic indicators can explain a considerable part of the between-country heterogeneity

Options for Processing Shrimp Landed in South Carolina

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ising model on nonorientable surfaces: Exact solution for the Moebius strip and the Klein bottle

Closed-form expressions are obtained for the partition function of the Ising model on an M x N simple-quartic lattice embedded on a Moebius strip and a Klein bottle for finite M and N. The finite-size effects at criticality are analyzed and compared with those under cylindrical and toroidal boundary conditions. Our analysis confirms that the central charge is c=1/2.Comment: 8 pages, 3 eps figure