Cross-Border Political Donations and Pareto-Efficient Tariffs

This paper examines the effects of lobbying activities across international borders, on determining each country’s import tariff in a multi-principal, multi-agent, menu-auction model. Cross-border political donations could promote international policy cooperation because of two of their distinctive characteristics. First, special interest groups use cross-border donations as tools to wield their influence on ruling parties of other countries directly, which promotes efficiency of policy formation. Second, for ruling parties of countries, cross-border donations make them take into account the impact of their policy on other countries, which makes them more sensitive to other countries’ welfare and, therefore, more cooperative with others. When ruling parties estimate the worth of political contributions from national special interest groups and from foreign lobbying groups with the same weight, Pareto-efficient tariffs are attained at which world welfare is maximized.Cross-border Donations, Truthful Equilibrium, Pareto-Efficient Tariffs

Trade Effects on Job Changes through Job Creation and Destruction Responses

This study estimates the impact of both export and import shocks on the creation and destruction of jobs. Using Japanese jobs data from 1996 to 2016, I take a conservative approach to see the effects of trade on jobs according to industry. Results show that trade shocks change a greater number of jobs through establishments’ extensive margin than through their intensive margin. Additionally, trade shocks have the effect of creating jobs in smaller establishments and cutting jobs in larger establishments. The implied net job change accounts for 12–15 percent of total manufacturing job decreases, half of those based on liberal, widely-used estimates

Offshoring and Working Hours Adjustments in a Within-firm Labor Market

Although a growing body of literature identifies the within-firm redistribution effects of trade, research on the adjustment processes in within-firm labor markets is scarce. This study analyzes the within-firm adjustment of working hours and wages by considering workers’ educational background and gender in response to a change in offshoring. Matched worker–firm panel data in the Japanese manufacturing sector covering 1998 to 2013 are being used. The analysis leads to the following observations: First, offshoring does not significantly change monthly and annual incomes. Second, offshoring decreases working hours—that is, imported inputs are close substitutes for labor inputs. More than three-quarters of the decrease in scheduled working hours can be attributed to a decrease in working days. Third, hourly wages increase in all worker groups examined. Though the impacts of offshoring on hourly wages and incomes are contradictory, both share the same feature: offshoring expands neither skill premium nor gender gap

Can a Preferential Trade Agreement Benefit Neighbor Countries without Compensating Them?

PTAs are generally negotiated without any tariff concessions or transfers to non-member countries. Can such a PTA benefit the neighbors’ welfare? In a two-good competitive equilibrium model in the absence of an entrepot, a PTA without concessions to the outsider will hurt the outsider’s welfare when goods are normal. If one of the member countries is an entrepot, however, it definitely improves the neighbors’ welfare. In a multiple-good model, a PTA without concessions deteriorates the neighbors’ welfare, provided that all the goods are normal and substitutes, and that initial tariff levels are small.PTA, Neighbor’s Welfare, Kemp-Wan theorem, WTO, GATT Article 24, Entrepot

モンゴルコク カチクニュウ オヨビ ニュウセイヒンチュウ ノ サイキン ノ クローン ライブラリーホウ ニヨル カイセキ

Various animal milks and their dairy products like AIRAG (fermented horse milk) and yogurt are very popular among Mongolian people. The climate of Mongolia is very severe, and they preserve their health by the intake of above animal milks and dairy products. In this study, we explored the diversity of bacteria in Mongolian animal milks (Cow, Horse, Goat, and Camel), AIRAG, and Camel milk yogurt by the clone library method of their 16S rRNA genes. Firstly, we prepared the whole genomic DNA from four animal milks and two dairy products, and amplified each 16S rRNA genes by PCR. PCR products (about 1.4kbp) were cloned into pGEM-T vector, and analyzed DNA sequences of totally 79 clones from AIRAG, Camel milk yogurt, and four animal milks. It was revealed that homologous clones to Lactobacillus helveticus are dominant in the clone libraries of both dairy products, whereas the other clones to Lactococcus from AIRAG, and Acetobacter from camel milk yogurt. Furthermore, We found that homologous clones to Lactococcus are dominant in Mongolian cow and horse milks, whereas Leuconostoc in camel milk. Therefore, it might be useful information for screening the bioactive strains from milk products in Mongolia