Tariffs and the Adoption of Clean Technology Under Asymmetric Information

This paper examines the effect of import tariffs on the decision of a foreign monopolist to adopt “clean” technology – technology that reduces the flow of a negative cross-border externality per unit of exports. The clean technology is assumed to increase the marginal cost of production relative to the dirty technology, but only the firm knows the extent of the increase. Under complete information, we show that, despite its protectionist motivation, the importing country’s optimal tariff induces the firm to adopt the clean technology if and only if it is globally efficient to do so. Under incomplete information, this efficiency property is disrupted. If the optimal tariff is decreasing in the marginal cost, then it leads the firm to bias its choice in favor of dirty technology.

Economic Geography and the Fiscal Effects of Regional Integration,

In models of economic geography, plant-level scale economies and trade costs create incentives for spatial agglomeration of production into a manufacturing core and agricultural periphery, creating regional income differentials. We examine tax competition between national governments to influence the location of manufacturing activity. Labour is imperfectly mobile and governments impose redistributive taxes. Regional integration is modeled as either increased labour mobility or lower trade costs. We show that either type of integration may result in a decrease in the intensity of tax competition, and thus higher equilibrium taxes. Moreover, economic integration must increase taxes when the forces of agglomeration are the strongest.economic integration; economic geography; factor mobility; international trade; tax competition

Delegation versus Communication in the Organization of Government

When a government creates an agency to gather information relevant to policymaking, it faces two critical organizational questions: whether the agency should be given authority to decide on policy or merely supply advice, and what should the policy goals of the agency be. Existing literature on the first question is unable to address the second, because the question of authority becomes moot if the government can simply replicate its preferences within the agency. In contrast, this paper examines both questions within a model of policymaking under time inconsistency, a setting in which the government has a well-known incentive to create an agency with preferences that differ from its own. Thus, our framework permits a meaningful analysis of delegation versus communication with an endogenously chosen agent. The first main finding of the paper is that the government can do equally well with a strategic choice of agent, from which it solicits advice, instead of delegating authority, as long as the time inconsistency problem is not too severe. The second main finding is that the government may strictly prefer seeking advice to delegating authority if there is prior uncertainty with respect to what is the optimal policy.Political Economy, Delegation, Communication, Organizational Design, Time Inconsistency.

Do Terms-of-Trade Effects Matter for Trade Agreements? Evidence from WTO Countries

In the literature on the economics of international trade institutions, a key question is whether or not terms-of-trade effects drive international trade agreements. Recent empirical work addressing terms-of-trade effects has been restricted to non-WTO countries or accession countries, which differ markedly from existing WTO members and account for only a tiny fraction of world trade. This paper investigates whether MFN tariffs set by existing WTO members in the Uruguay round are consistent with the terms-of-trade hypothesis. We present a model of multilateral trade negotia-tions featuring free riding on MFN that leads the resulting tariff schedule to display terms-of-trade effects. Specifically, the model predicts that the level of the importer’s tariff resulting from negotia-tions should be negatively related to the product of exporter concentration, as measured by a Her-findahl-Hirschman index (sum of squared export shares), and the importer’s market power, as measured by the inverse elasticity of export supply, on a product-by-product basis. We test this hy-pothesis using data on tariffs, trade and production across more than 30 WTO countries and find strong support. We estimate that the internalization of terms of trade effects through WTO negotia-tions has lowered the average tariff of these countries by about 20% compared to its non-cooperative level.

Prebisch-Singer Redux

In light of ongoing concern about commodity specialization in Latin America, this paper revisits the argument of Prebisch (1950) that, over the long term, declining terms of trade would frustrate the development goals of the region. This paper has two main objectives. The first is to clarify the issues raised by Prebisch and Singer (1950), as they relate the commodity specialization of developing countries (and Latin America in particular). The second is to reconsider empirically the issue of trends in commodity prices, using recent data and techniques. We show that rather than a downward trend, real primary prices over the last century have experienced one or more abrupt shifts, or “structural breaks,” downwards. The preponderance evidence points to a single break in 1921, with no trend, positive or negative, before or since.

Classification of journal surfaces using surface topography parameters and software methods to compensate for stylus geometry

Measurements made with a stylus surface tracer which provides a digitized representation of a surface profile are discussed. Parameters are defined to characterize the height (e.g., RMS roughness, skewness, and kurtosis) and length (e.g., autocorrelation) of the surface topography. These are applied to the characterization of crank shaft journals which were manufactured by different grinding and lopping procedures known to give significant differences in crank shaft bearing life. It was found that three parameters (RMS roughness, skewness, and kurtosis) are necessary to adequately distinguish the character of these surfaces. Every surface specimen has a set of values for these three parameters. They can be regarded as a set coordinate in a space constituted by three characteristics axes. The various journal surfaces can be classified along with the determination of a proper wavelength cutoff (0.25 mm) by using a method of separated subspace. The finite radius of the stylus used for profile tracing gives an inherent measurement error as it passes over the fine structure of the surface. A mathematical model is derived to compensate for this error

Frictional Behavior and Surface Failure of Human Enamel

The frictional behavior and surface failure of human enamel under sliding in water was examined. A large plowing component of friction was observed. For normal loads of up to 1kg, ductile behavior of the wear scar was apparent. Intermittent cracks were obrerved that appeared to propagate around the enamel rods.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67266/2/10.1177_00220345730520063001.pd