Trade deficits: causes and consequences

According to conventional wisdom, trade balances reflect a country's competitive strength-the lower the trade deficit, the stronger the country's industries and the higher its rate of economic growth. In this article, David Gould and Roy Ruffin review the history of the conventional wisdom and empirically examine whether large overall trade deficits or bilateral trade imbalances are associated with lower rates of economic growth. They find that, once the fundamental determinants of growth have been accounted for, trade imbalances have little effect on rates of economic growth.Deficit financing ; Free trade

A Typology for Book Arts Programs

There is great variety within and across American book arts programs, however, there have been very few attempts to systematically analyze programs. As the field of book arts education matures, a typology for classifying programs can contribute to the field’s critical dialogue and may aid teachers, administrators, and students in developing and sustaining book arts programs. A typology is a classification strategy typically used in the social sciences that is problem-oriented. Typologies are used to analyze variables and create useful categories for phenomena that are evolving and changing. This typology was developed to stimulate systematic thinking about the teaching of the book arts and may contribute to promoting the continued evolution of book art programs in a wide variety of institutional contexts

Income taxes as reciprocal tariffs

This article shows the equivalence between tariffs on international trade and income taxation. Traditionally, income taxes have been seen as lowering society's output through the household's labor-leisure trade-off. Income taxes also reduce the degree to which individuals specialize in market activity, which is similar to the way countries respond to tariffs in international trade. Income taxes discourage individuals from specializing in activities that reflect their comparative advantage. In so doing, income taxes may have their most distorting effects, not by encouraging individuals to work less but by causing them to spend more time working at endeavors for which their talent is limited. Using a general model of interpersonal exchange, the authors demonstrate parallels between income taxes and tariffs. Over a range of income taxes, raising taxes can benefit large groups of similarly skilled individuals and hurt small groups. As in tariff theory, the costs of income taxes are small only if they succeed in raising revenue. Thus, it is very costly for an economy to be on the downward portion of its tax revenue (Laffer) curve. The more heterogeneous the society, the higher the income tax rate that will maximize tax revenues. By overlooking the effects of heterogeneity in the workforce and the potential for workers to flee to home production, policymakers may under- or overestimate the effects of income taxes on various sectors of the economy and tax with unintended consequences.Income tax ; Tariff ; Taxation

Income taxes as reciprocal tariffs

Tariff ; Taxation

The theory and practice of free trade

David M. Gould, Roy J. Ruffin, and Graeme L. Woodbridge argue that free trade is supported both by economic principles and evidence from countries that have followed open market policies. The authors demonstrate that the countries whose markets are the most open have higher real output and economic growth. ; The authors show that many arguments for protection obscure the benefits countries derive from international trade. High-wage countries not only can compete with low-wage countries, they dominate the world economic stage. Trade deficits or surpluses are not inherently bad or good, but rather reflect a country's consumption and investment decisions over time. Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that imports cause systematic unemployment or that exports create systematic employment. The authors explain why industrial policies and protection designed to promote particular industries usually backfire; trade policies usually reflect the lobbying efforts of the most vocal and powerful self-interest groups.Free trade

Mathématique et Démocratie : une contribution de la Théorie du Choix Social à la pratique de la démocratie en RDC

The purpose of this paper is to have in a simple and detailed way the significant results in theory of social choice and to study the resource sharing (goods or responsibilities) between petitioning agents in a proof of election. While analyzing social choice functions more in sight, we present for each of them, with supporting examples, the difficulties and insufficiencies related to the aggregation of the individual preferences of each member of the community. We have then some theoretical results allowing the understanding of the nature and the magnitude of these difficulties. In addition, we study the situation of African societies in general, and that of the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular, and sort out the social choice function which is the most appropriate to them. Meanwhile, we take into account the fair distribution of goods and work for the common benefit of society members, which is the guarantee of welfare of individuals, stability and social peace. These are social values seldom found in Africa. We finally study the properties of the recommended social choice function and possibly present its strength and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages when used as a mode of poll

Choix social et partage équitable : Une analyse mathématique a posteriori des élections législatives et présidentielles de 2006 et 2011 en RDC

The purpose of this master thesis is to have in a simple and detailed way the significant results of social choice theory and to study the resource sharing (goods or responsibilities) between petitioning agents in a proof of election. While analyzing social choice functions more insight, we present for each of them, with supporting examples, the difficulties and insufficiencies related to the aggregation of the individual preferences of each community member. We then have some theoretical results allowing the understanding of the nature and the magnitude of these difficulties. In addition, we study the situation of African societies in general, and that of the Democratic Republic of Congo in particular, therefore sort out social choice function which is the most appropriate to them. Meanwhile, we take into account the fair distribution of goods and work for the common benefit of society members, which is the guarantee of welfare for individuals, stability and social peace. These are social values seldom found in Africa. We finally study the properties of the recommended social choice function and possibly present its strength and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages when used as a mode of poll

The Effect of Source-Message-Variants on Racial Attitude Change Among College Freshmen

The objective of this study was to determine how the racial attitudes of freshman students were reinforced or altered by variant stereotypic messages received from differing classroom instructors. A theoretical model and an associated set of propositions and hypotheses were formulated based on symbolic interactionism, consistency and dissonance theory, and information relating processes. The following research hypothesis was generated: Groups receiving variant messages, both as to source and content, will differ in the extent of change in the attitudes of their members toward persons of the opposite race. Twenty-six null hypotheses were formulated, covering different sourse [sic]-message variation as applied to the experimental groups and the control group; namely, the attributed race of the speaker, the character of the message and the race of the students in the group. Freshman enrolled in English courses in Fall, 1979 at Shippensburg State College were assigned randomly to either the control group or experimental groups. The final sample size was 132, with 105 in the experimental groups and 27 in the control. The dependent variable was the group mean for the extent of racial attitudinal change as measured before arid after treatment by a pre-test and post-test instrument. The independent variable consisted of a taped message played to the respondent s in which two factors were altered: (1) the speaker was identified as either Black, White or not identified by a racial characteristic at all; (2) the message either favored or disfavored racial integration. Six experimental groups were each assigned one of the following independent treatments: (1) black source--pro-integration message, (2) black source--anti-integration message, (3) white source--pro-integration message, (4) white source--anti-integration message, (5) unknow source-- pro-integration message, and (6) unkown [sic] source--anti-integration message. The control group was the seventh group. It received no source-message variant but was given the cognitive-affective-behavioral pre and post-tests. The statistical techniques used were the t-test and analysis of variance. The objective of this study was to examine to what extent the attitudes of white and non-white freshmen changed toward each other during the fall semester at Shippensburg, and how these attitude changes were associated with the application or non-application of treatments that varied as to the known race of a speaker and the advocacy or opposition toward integration. Differences in observed racial attitude change were found between: 1. The group receiving an anti-integration message (regardless of attributed race of the speaker) and the control group. 2. Students receiving the pro-integration message from a white speaker and students who received a pro-integration message from an unknown source. 3. Students receiving the pro-integration message from a black speaker and the students who received anti-integration messages regardless of the attributed race of the speaker. 4. Students receiving the pro-integration message from a white speaker and the students who received an anti-integration message regardless of the attributed race of the speaker. 5. Students receiving the pro-integration message from an unknown [sic] speaker and ·the group receiving an anti-integration message from an unknown speaker. 6. Students receiving pro-integration messages and the students receiving anti-integration messages. 7. Students receiving messages from a white speaker and those ·who received messages from an unknown speaker. The study suggests: 1. There is a greater need for Blacks to be in positions of importance in the college community, in order for students to have positive racial referents. 2. Colleges should avoid presenting types of situations that promote negativisim [sic], due to the impact of negative messages. 3. There is a greater need for interracial information and experiences in order to enhance students [sic] evaluations of racial opposites

Factors Affecting Speech Discrimination in Children with Cochlear Implants: Evidence from Early-Implanted Infants

Background To learn words and acquire language, children must be able to discriminate and correctly perceive phonemes. Although there has been much research on the general language outcomes of children with cochlear implants (CIs), little is known about the development of speech perception with regard to specific speech processes, such as speech discrimination. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of speech discrimination in infants with CIs and identify factors that might correlate with speech discrimination skills. Research Design Using a Hybrid Visual Habituation procedure, we tested infants with CIs on their ability to discriminate the vowel contrast /i/-/u/. We also gathered demographic and audiological information about each infant. Study Sample Children who had received CIs before 2 yr of age served as participants. We tested the children at two post cochlear implantation intervals: 2–4 weeks post CI stimulation (N = 17) and 6–9 mo post CI stimulation (N = 10). Data Collection and Analysis The infants’ mean looking times during the novel versus old trials of the experiment were measured. A linear regression model was used to evaluate the relationship between the normalized looking time difference and the following variables: chronological age, age at CI stimulation, gender, communication mode, and best unaided pure-tone average. Results We found that the best unaided pure-tone average predicted speech discrimination at the early interval. In contrast to some previous speech perception studies that included children implanted before 3 yr of age, age at CI stimulation did not predict speech discrimination performance. Conclusions The results suggest that residual acoustic hearing before implantation might facilitate speech discrimination during the early period post cochlear implantation; with more hearing experience, communication mode might have a greater influence on the ability to discriminate speech. This and other studies on age at cochlear implantation suggest that earlier implantation might not have as large an effect on speech perception as it does on other language skills