Rationing Rules and Outcomes: The Experience of Singapore's Vehicle Quota System

Since 1990, Singapore has sought to control motor vehicle ownership by means of an auction quota system, whereby prospective vehicle buyers need to obtain a quota license before they can make their purchase. This paper assesses the success of the vehicle quota system in meeting its objectives of stability in motor vehicle growth, flexibility in the motor vehicle mix, and equity among motor vehicle buyers. Two important implementation issues - quota subcategorization and license transferability - are highlighted, and policy lessons are drawn for the design of auction quotas in general. Copyright 2003, International Monetary Fund

Rent-sharing in the multi-fibre arrangement : evidence from U.S. - Hong Kong trade in apparel

The Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) restricts the access of developing country exporters to developed country markets. It is usually assumed that the exporting countries receive all of the economic rents that result from these import restrictions - making it unclear whether the developing countries gain or lose as a result of the MFA. Recent theoretical work on trade policy under imperfect competition casts doubt on whether exporting countries receive all of the quota rents arising from voluntary export restraints such as those applied by the MFA. Drawing on this theoretical literature, Erzan, Krishna, and Tan (1991) tested and rejected the hypothesis that MFA quota rents on exports from Hong Kong to the United States accrued in full to the Hong Kong exporters. The results in this paper build on that hypothesis-testing analysis and assess its implications for the returns to Hong Kong producers. Their results suggest that rent sharing is an extremely important feature of the market for apparel exports from Hong Kong. U.S. importers were estimated to receive rents that were about 62 percent of the landed price of the imports. The authors conclude that the total potential rents arising from the MFA were split unevenly between the U.S. and Hong Kong - with the U.S. share ranging from 47 percent for skirts to 94 percent for playsuits. If the results of this study are corroborated for other developing countries, the implications of the MFA for developing countries are considerably worse than has typically been assumed.Economic Theory&Research,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access,Health Economics&Finance,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

License Price Paths: I. Theory II. Evidence from Hong Kong

In the first of the two companion papers, we show that the dynamic aspects of the license utilization decision in an uncertain environment, together with the usual policy of rewarding high license utilization with future license allocations. creates four components of the license price. These are the scarcity, asset, option, and renewal value components. Each of these components are identified and explored in the context of the existing literature. The effect of imperfections in the license market on license price paths is also explored. In the second paper, we use monthly data on license prices and utilization to test for the presence of imperfect competition in the market for apparel quota licenses in Hong Kong. A competitive structural model which respects the dynamic aspects of the problem is developed and estimated. We argue that concentration could affect the supply side as well as the demand side by affecting the cost associated with the search. The regressions indicate that concentration of license holdings affect the supply of licenses as predicted by models of imperfect competition. Since the implementation scheme encourages full utilization, imperfect competition affects the supply path of licenses rather than total supply. Concentration does not affect the demand side. which means that search costs are not an important consideration.

The dynamic behavior of quota license prices : theory and evidence from the Hong Kong apparel quotas

Empirical studies of the welfare consequences of quotas often assume perfect competition everywhere. If this assumption is not valid, welfare estimate and policy recommendations may err dramatically. The popular press often argues that market power is being exercised in markets constrained by import quotas. The authors develop a framework for testing the hypothesis of perfect competition in the market for apparel quota licenses. Drawing on simple models, they predict the behavior of license prices, taking into account four influences on prices: scarcity value, option value, renewal value, and asset value. They explore the effect of imperfections in the license market on license price paths. They test allegations that there is price fixing in the market for Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) apparel quota licenses in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong often serves as a benchmark case for the welfare consequences of the MFA.) They use monthly data on license prices and use rates to test for the presence of imperfect competition. They argue that a concentration of license holding could affect both the supply side and the demand side, by affecting the costs of search. These results accord well with the authors theoretical discussion, in which they point out that license use and price paths with imperfect competition in the license market may be quite different from the corresponding paths in the case of perfect competition - even though the total use of licenses is the same. The authors estimate the structural demand and supply equations of the model, which provide further evidence of imperfect competition in the license market. In particular, the intra-year path of quota license prices and of quota use are found to be affected by concentration in license holdings. The results, in short, suggest that market power exists in Hong Kong's quota license market. Hong Kong is often considered the prime example of perfect competition, so this has major implications for other developing countries.Environmental Economics&Policies,Industrial Management,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Economic Theory&Research

Trade Policy with Heterogeneous Traders: Do Quotas Get a Bum Rap?

This paper considers the effects of trade policy--tariffs and quotas--when importing is done by competitive traders who are identical ex ante but differ ex post. We show that the standard equivalence results no longer hold and the conventional ranking of tariffs and quotas is turned on its head: quotas are not as bad for welfare as previously believed, while tariffs may restrict trade by more than originally intended. Furthermore, the allocation of property rights (quota licenses) has real effects beyond the distribution of rents; this, in turn, has implications for the effects of corruption on welfare.

Silicon avalanche photodiode operation and lifetime analysis for small satellites

Silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are sensitive to operating temperature fluctuations and are also susceptible to radiation flux expected in satellite-based quantum experiments. We introduce a low power voltage adjusting mechanism to overcome the effects of in-orbit temperature fluctuations. We also present data on the performance of Si APDs after irradiation (gamma-ray and proton beam). Combined with an analysis of expected orbital irradiation, we propose that a Si APD in a 400 km equatorial orbit may operate beyond the lifetime of the satellite.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Optics Expres

Experimental investigation on cold-formed steel beams under pure bending

This paper presents the flexural behaviour of cold-formed double lipped channels beams under pure bending action. Two channel sections are bolted back-to-back to form an I-shape structural beam member. A series of six experiment tests were carried out on beam specimens DC200 and DC250, each with 200 mm depth and 250 mm depth respectively. The thickness of beam section is 2 mm and the design yield strength is 350 N/mm2. All beams failed at local buckling at top-flange due to lateral instability of the cold-formed steel structural members. The moment resistance for DC200 is 17.87 kNm and DC250 is 31.53 kNm. The experimental results are compared to theoretical resistance prediction based on British Standard and Eurocode. The comparison showed that the experimental moment capacity is lower than the theoretical bending moment resistance but higher than theoretical buckling moment resistance from Eurocode. This showed that a better agreement is achieved between experimental data and Eurocode buckling moment resistance for cold-formed steel beam under pure bending