Does Trade Integration Contribute to Peace?

We investigate the effect of trade integration on interstate military conflict. Our empirical analysis, based on a large panel data set of 243,225 country-pair observations from 1950 to 2000, confirms that an increase in bilateral trade interdependence significantly promotes peace. It also suggests that the peace-promotion effect of bilateral trade integration is significantly higher for contiguous countries that are likely to experience more conflict. More importantly, we find that not only bilateral trade but global trade openness also significantly promotes peace. It shows, however, that an increase in global trade openness reduces the probability of interstate conflict more for countries far apart from each other than it does for countries sharing borders. The results also show that military conflict between countries significantly reduces not only bilateral trade interdependence but also global trade integration. The main finding of the peace-promotion effect of bilateral and global trade integration holds robust when controlling for the natural and geopolitical characteristics of dyads of states that may influence the probability of military conflict and for the simultaneous determination of trade and peace.Trade, Globalization, Military conflict, Peace, War

Does Trade Integration Contribute to Peace?

This paper investigates the effect of trade integration on military conflict. Our empirical analysis,based on a large panel data set of 290,040 country-pair observations from 1950 to 2000, confirms that an increase in bilateral trade interdependence and global trade openness significantly promotes peace. It also suggests that the effect of trade openness varies depending on the geographical proximity of countries. The peace-promotion effect of bilateral trade integration is significantly higher for contiguous countries that are likely to experience more conflicts. The analysis shows, however, that an increase in global trade openness reduces the probability of conflict more for countries far apart from each other than it does for countries sharing borders. The results also show that military conflict between countries significantly reduces not only bilateral trade interdependence but also multilateral trade integration. The main finding of the peace-promotion effect of bilateral and global trade integration holds robust when controlling for the natural and geopolitical characteristics of dyads of states that may influence the probability of military conflict and for the simultaneous determination of trade and peace.Trade; Globalization; Military conflict; Peace

THE CONSUMPTION AND SALES PATTERN OF UGLY APPLES IN SOUTH KOREA

Approximately half of all wasted food is fruits and vegetables. One major cause of food waste is abnormal aesthetics; even if it is just as delicious as its normal counterpart. Food with a non-standard appearance (hereafter called ugly food) can be expelled by the markets. To reduce such waste, ugly food campaigns, which were developed in Europe and spread throughout the world, advocate for the consumption of ugly food. To study the problem of ugly food waste, this thesis examines ugly apples, since apples are the most common, representative, and readily accessible fruit. The objective of this thesis is to suggest marketing strategies and actions to facilitate the consumption and sales of ugly apples that can be expanded to other ugly fruits and vegetables. The data used for analysis are obtained from the Rural Development Administration in Korea. The findings of the thesis indicate that younger people and lower-income households are more likely to purchase ugly apples from online markets, non-stores such as food trucks and traditional markets compared with mega-scale discount stores. When advertising ugly apples, food quality should be emphasized rather than price

Heating-compensated constant-temperature tunneling measurements on stacks of Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+x_{8+x} intrinsic junctions

In highly anisotropic layered cuprates such as Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$ tunneling measurements on a stack of intrinsic junctions in a high-bias range are often susceptible to self-heating. In this study we monitored the temperature variation of a stack ("sample stack") of intrinsic junctions by measuring the resistance change of a nearby stack ("thermometer stack") of intrinsic junctions, which was strongly thermal-coupled to the sample stack through a common Au electrode. We then adopted a proportional-integral-derivative scheme incorporated with a substrate-holder heater to compensate the temperature variation. This in-situ temperature monitoring and controlling technique allows one to get rid of spurious tunneling effects arising from the self-heating in a high bias range.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Collective Josephson vortex dynamics in a finite number of intrinsic Josephson junctions

We report the experimental confirmation of the collective transverse plasma modes excited by the Josephson vortex lattice in stacks of intrinsic Josephson junctions in Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+x}$ single crystals. The excitation was confirmed by analyzing the temperature ($T$) and magnetic field ($H$) dependencies of the multiple sub-branches in the Josephson-vortex-flow region of the current-voltage characteristics of the system. In the near-static Josephson vortex state for a low tunneling bias current, pronounced magnetoresistance oscillations were observed, which represented a triangular-lattice vortex configuration along the c axis. In the dynamic vortex state in a sufficiently high magnetic field and for a high bias current, splitting of a single Josephson vortex-flow branch into multiple sub-branches was observed. Detailed examination of the sub-branches for varying $H$ field reveals that sub-branches represent the different modes of the Josephson-vortex lattice along the c axis, with varied configuration from a triangular to a rectangular lattices. These multiple sub-branches merge to a single curve at a characteristic temperature, above which no dynamical structural transitions of the Josephson vortex lattice is expected

Progressive evolution of tunneling characteristics of in-situ fabricated intrinsic Josephson junctions in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+delta} single crystals

Stacks of a few intrinsic tunnel junctions were micro-fabricated on the surface of Bi-2212 single crystals. The number of junctions in a stack was tailored by progressively increasing the height of the stack by ion-beam etching, while its tunneling characteristics were measured in-situ in a vacuum chamber for temperatures down to ~13 K. Using this in-situ etching/measurements technique in a single piece of crystal, we systematically excluded any spurious effects arising from variations in the junction parameters and made clear analysis on the following properties of the surface and inner conducting planes. First, the tunneling resistance and the current-voltage curves are scaled by the surface junction resistance. Second, we confirm that the reduction in both the gap and the superconducting transition temperature of the surface conducting plane in contact with a normal metal is not caused by the variation in the doping level, but is caused by the proximity contact. Finally, the main feature of a junction is not affected by the presence of other junctions in a stack in a low bias region.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.