Topics in applied microeconomics : estimating the value of commercial land and testing the efficiency of the U.S. Motor Carrier industry

This thesis consists of two essays on applied microeconomics issues. The first essay presents a hedonic price econometric model of vacant commercial land. The second essay presents cost frontier analysis on the industry and firm's performance of the U.S. Motor Carrier industry. Our hedonic price econometric model includes two new developments in estimating land values in a multicentric urban area First, two composite indexes of market accessibility and highway accessibility are developed to account for the impacts of different characteristics of different regional nodes on land value at a particular site. Second, we use nonlinear least squares to estimate the decay parameters of the accessibility indexes within the model. We found that market accessibility is the dominant land value determinant. The estimated market accessibility decay parameter is different in value from the ones that are commonly assumed in hedonic models. The effect of access to highway interchanges is insignificant. Corner lots are of higher value. Finally, under Seattle's zoning policy, zoning classification of neighborhood commercial and community commercial land does not have significant effect on land value. The second essay uses the stochastic cost frontiers to analyze the performance of the U.S. motor carrier industry in the pre- and post-MCA periods. The average industry inefficiencies were between 14 and 27 percent during studied period. Our results indicate that the deregulation has no impact on industry efficiency. After a short adjustment period, the average industry inefficiency in the post-MCA years falls back to its pre-MCA level of around 14 to 16 percent. We analyzed the firm-specific inefficiencies by tobit regression. Our result shows that union firms are 1.5 and 4 percent less efficient than non-union firms in the pre- and post-MCA years, respectively. Firms located in the southern region are relatively efficient and the ones in the northern regions are relatively inefficient. Our result supports Stigler's Survivor Principle that survivor firms are relatively efficient

Macrolide resistance and genotypic characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Asian countries: a study of the Asian Network for Surveillance of Resistant Pathogens (ANSORP)

Objectives: To characterize mechanisms of macrolide resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae from 10 Asian countries during 1998-2001. Methods: Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the isolates and their resistance mechanisms. Results: Of 555 isolates studied, 216 (38.9%) were susceptible, 10 (1.8%) were intermediate and 329 (59.3%) were resistant to erythromycin. Vietnam had the highest prevalence of erythromycin resistance (88.3%), followed by Taiwan (87.2%), Korea (85.1%), Hong Kong (76.5%) and China (75.6%). Ribosomal methylation encoded by erm(B) was the most common mechanism of erythromycin resistance in China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Korea. In Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, efflux encoded by mef(A) was the more common in erythromycin-resistant isolates. In most Asian countries except Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, erm(B) was found in >50% of pneumococcal isolates either alone or in combination with mef(A). The level of erythromycin resistance among pneumococcal isolates in most Asian countries except Thailand and India was very high with MIC90s of >128 mg/L. Molecular epidemiological studies suggest the horizontal transfer of the erm(B) gene and clonal dissemination of resistant strains in the Asian region. Conclusion: Data confirm that macrolide resistance in pneumococci is a serious problem in many Asian countries

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Does Productivity Growth Lead to Appreciation of the Real Exchange Rate?

We revisit the time-honored link between productivity and the real exchange rate. Consistent with the traditional view, we find that higher labor productivity tends to lead to appreciation of the real exchange rate. Contrary to the traditional view, however, we find that the positive productivity effect is transmitted through the real exchange rate based on tradable prices, rather than through relative prices between tradables and nontradables. Moreover, higher total factor productivity is found, if anything, to lead to depreciation of the real exchange rate. These last two pieces of evidence provide support for the emerging view that limited tradability of goods and services provides scope for the strategic pricing decision, which has material consequences for the aggregate real exchange rate.Productivity;Real effective exchange rates;Prices;Labor;exchange rate, real exchange rate, exchange rates, total factor productivity, real exchange rates, fixed capital formation, gross fixed capital formation, capital formation, exchange rate movements, foreign exchange, nominal exchange rates, nominal exchange rate, bilateral exchange rates, exchange rate depreciation, home currency, equilibrium exchange rate, real exchange rate changes, real exchange rate depreciation, exchange rate fluctuations, exchange rate changes, exchange rate determination

Testing for market power in the U.S. motor carrier industry

Motor carrier, market power, regulation reform,