Immigrant Networks and the U.S. Bilateral Trade: the Role of Immigrant Income

This paper examines the role of immigrant networks on trade, particulalry through the demand effect. First, we examine the effect of immigration on trade when the immigrants consume more of the goods that are abundant in their home country than the natives in a standard Heckscher-Ohlin model and find that the effect of immigration on trade is a priori indeterminate. Our econometric gravity model consists of 63 major trading and immigrant sending countries for the U.S. over 1991 - 2000. We find that the immigrants income, mostly through demand effect, has a significant negative effect on the U.S. imports. However, if we include the effect of the immigrant income interacted with the size of the immigrant network, measured by the immigrant stock, we find that higher the immigrant income lower is the immigrant network effect for both U.S. exports and imports. This we find in addition to the immigrant stock elasticity of 0.27% for U.S. exports and 0.48% for U.S. imports. Capturing the immigrant assimilation with the level of immigrant income this paper finds that the immigrant network effect on trade flows is weakened by the increasing level of immigrant assimilation.immigrant networks, immigrant assimilation, demand effect, trade.

Immigrant Networks and U.S. Bilateral Trade: The Role of Immigrant Income

This paper examines the role of immigrant networks on trade, particularly through the demand effect. First, we examine the effect of immigration on trade when the immigrants consume more of the goods that are abundant in their home country than the natives in a standard Heckscher-Ohlin model and find that the effect of immigration on trade is a priori indeterminate. Our econometric gravity model consists of 63 major trading and immigrant sending countries for the U.S. over 1991-2000. We find that the immigrants' income, mostly through the demand effect, has a significant negative effect on U.S. imports. However, if we include the effect of the immigrant income interacted with the size of the immigrant network, measured by the immigrant stock, we find that the higher the immigrant income the lower is the immigrant network effect for both U.S. exports and imports. This we find in addition to the immigrant stock elasticity of 0.27% for U.S. exports and 0.48% for U.S. imports. Capturing the immigrant assimilation with the level of immigrant income, this paper finds that the immigrant network effect on trade flows is weakened by the increasing level of immigrant assimilation.immigrant networks, immigrant assimilation, demand effect, trade

Nonparametric Slope Estimators for Fixed-Effect Panel Data

In panel data the interest is often in slope estimation while taking account of the unobserved cross sectional heterogeneity. This paper proposes two nonparametric slope estimation where the unobserved effect is treated as fixed across cross section. The first estimator uses first-differencing transformation and the second estimator uses the mean deviation transformation. The asymptotic properties of the two estimators are established and the finite sample Monte Carlo properties of the two estimators are investigated allowing for systematic dependence between the cross-sectional effect and the independent variable. Simulation results suggest that the new nonparametric estimators perform better than the parametric counterparts. We also investigate the finite sample properties of the parametric within and first differencing estimators. A very common practice in estimating earning function is to assume earnings to be quadratic in age and tenure, but that might be misspecified. In this paper we estimate nonparametric slope of age and tenure on earnings using NLSY data and compare it to the parametric (quadratic) effect.Nonparametric, Fixed-effect, Kernel, Monte carlo

Legalization and Immigrant Homeownership: Evidence from Spain

A significant homeownership gap still remains between natives and immigrants in most countries. Because of the many advantages of homeownership for immigrants and for the communities where immigrants reside, a variety of countries have tried to implement policies that facilitate immigrant homeownership. Many of these policies hinge on immigrants’ legal status. Yet, owing to data limitations, we still know very little about its impact on immigrant homeownership. We address this gap in the literature and find that legalization raises immigrant homeownership by 20 percentage-points even after accounting for a wide range of individual and family characteristics known to impact housing ownership. This finding underscores the importance of legal status in immigrant assimilation –housing being an important indicator of immigrant adaptation, and the need for further explorations of the impact of amnesties on the housing markets of immigrant-receiving economies.Immigration, Housing, Legal Status, Spain

Social Networks and Their Impact on the Employment and Earnings of Mexican Immigrants

We examine the impact of different types of social networks on the employment and wages of unauthorized and legal Mexican immigrants using data from the Mexican Migration Project. We find that social networks, particularly strong ties, contribute to the economic assimilation of immigrants by raising their hourly wages. However, networks do not enhance immigrants’ employability. Instead, strong ties allow for a lower employment likelihood possibly through the shelter against temporary unemployment provided by close family members. Finally, social networks do not alter the relative employment and earnings performance of unauthorized and legal immigrants in the absence of networks.

Education-The Inclusive Growth Strategy for Women Empowerment in Indian Context

In Indian economy, the Five Year plans have generally been the fountainheads of policy for growth. Globally inclusive growth is necessary for sustainable development and equitable distribution of wealth and prosperity. This orientation is most visibly manifested in the theme of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. Inclusive growth adopts a long term perspective and is concerned with sustained growth. For growth to be sustained in the long run, it should be broad-based across sectors and different sections of the society. Keeping the theme Empowerment of Women of Tenth Five Year Plan, the inclusive growth approach takes a longer term perspective if it is viewed through women empowerment in terms of economic status of women and its relationship with education. Any analysis of Indian society without taking caste into consideration is not complete. The present paper examines interrelationship among women development in terms of economic status of women, caste and level of education and finally view the inclusive growth in India. The study highlights the relationship between education level and economic status of women only in high caste group and focuses if education is to have a central role in relation to achieving inclusive growth for the women in Indian society then there needs to be a fundamental rethinking on the provisioning of education in India. Keywords: Inclusive Growth, Women Empowerment, Economic Status of Women, Educatio

Immigrant networks and US bilateral trade: The role of immigrant income

This paper examines the role of immigrant networks on trade, particularly through the demand effect. First, we examine the effect of immigration on trade when the immigrants consume more of the goods that are abundant in their home country than the natives in a standard Heckscher-Ohlin model and find that the effect of immigration on trade is a priori indeterminate. Our econometric gravity model consists of 63 major trading and immigrant sending countries for the US over 1991-2000. We find that the immigrants' income, mostly through the demand effect, has a significant negative effect on US imports. However, if we include the effect of the immigrant income interacted with the size of the immigrant network, measured by the immigrant stock, we find that the higher the immigrant income the lower is the immigrant network effect for both US exports and imports. This we find in addition to the immigrant stock elasticity of 0.27% for US exports and 0.48% for US imports. Capturing the immigrant assimilation with the level of immigrant income, this paper finds that the immigrant network effect on trade flows is weakened by the increasing level of immigrant assimilation

Immigration and trade creation for the US: The role of immigrant occupation

This paper highlights that the immigrants' effect on trade is not identical across all types of immigrants but it varies with the immigrants' occupation. Using a sample of 63 U.S. trading partners which are also big immigrant sending countries over the years 1991-2000, this paper finds that the immigrant trade elasticity for the no occupation group is similar in magnitude to the immigrant effect on trade estimated in the literature. However, this does not capture the full extent of the effect of immigrant network on trade. The share of professional immigrants in comparison to immigrants with no occupation significantly increases the trade elasticity for Rauch's referenced price and differentiated commodities and this effect is strongest for the differentiated goods. This paper establishes that immigrants' occupation is an important indicator of the quality and effectiveness of immigrants' network in trade creation with the home country

Polymeric Nanocarriers for Treatment of Melanoma and Genetically Modified Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Improve Outcome of Islet Transplantation

Melanoma is a lethal malignancy with limited treatment options for advanced metastatic stages. New targeted therapeutic options with discovery of BRAF and MEK inhibitors have shown significant survival benefit. Despite the recent progress, inefficient tumor accumulation and dose limiting systemic toxicity remains pressing challenges for treating metastatic melanoma and there is a need for drug delivery approach to improve therapeutic index of chemotherapeutics. Nanoparticle based drug delivery represents promising approach to enhance efficacy and reduce the dose limiting systemic toxicity. Nanoparticles can be formulated either by physical encapsulation of drugs or by covalent conjugation of drugs to the polymeric backbone. Nanoparticles based strategies for encapsulation and conjugation of drugs to the polymer was reviewed in Chapter 2 where we summarized non-covalent interactions between polymer backbone and drug for physical encapsulation, various polymeric backbones for drug conjugation and application of photodynamic therapy in melanoma. Phototherapy, a light activated treatment modality is a potential therapeutic option for treatment of melanoma. Excitation of photosensitizer by light of specific wavelength can be clinically utilized for fluorescence assisted tumor surgery, photoacoustic imaging, photochemical internalization and phototherapy. Indocyanine green, water soluble FDA approved anionic tricarbocyanine with excellent safety profile and absorption in the near infrared (NIR) range is an excellent photosensitizer. However, short half-life (2-4 minutes) and limited extravascular distribution restricts PT application of ICG. In chapter 3, we have described ICG based phototherapy wherein plasma circulation and tumor accumulation of ICG was improved by designing its micelles formulation. ICG micelles were formulated by covalently conjugating ICG-NH2 to the pendant carboxyl groups of poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly(2- methyl-2-carboxyl-propylene carbonate) (PEG-PCC) copolymer using carbodiimide coupling. ICG conjugated amphiphillic polymer self-assembled into micelles with particle size of 30-50 nm and high drug loading. These ICG conjugated micelles exhibited significant in vitro photodynamic cytotoxicity. Use of sodium azide and NIR radiation at 4° C revealed photodynamic and photothermal as primary mechanism of cytotoxicity of ICG solution and ICG conjugated micelles respectively. In vivo NIR imaging demonstrated ICG conjugated micelles prolonged ICG circulation and increased its tumor accumulation through enhanced permeability and retention effect Increase in tumor accumulation improved therapeutic efficacy with complete tumor regression in NIR irradiated ICG conjugated micelles compared to free ICG and control in A375 human melanoma tumor model in athymic nude mice. These results suggest that ICG conjugated micelles can be potentially utilized for phototherapy. Clinical translation of tubulin inhibitors for treating melanoma is limited by multidrug efflux transporters, poor aqueous solubility, and dose-limiting peripheral toxicities. Tubulin inhibitors with efficacy in taxane-resistant cancers are promising drug candidates and can be used as single agent or in conjunction with other chemotherapy. In chapter 4, we describe synthesis of tubulin inhibitors with activity in taxane resistant cell lines with IC50 in nanomolar range for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. LY293, a 5 indole derivative analog, binds to colchicine binding site and does not exhibit clinically prevalent drug resistance mechanism such as multidrug resistance (MDR) protein, breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Since LY293 is poorly soluble in water, LY293 was formulated as polymeric nanoparticles for systemic therapy of melanoma. Methoxy polyethylene glycol-b-poly (carbonate-co-lactide) (mPEG-b-P (CB-co-LA)) random copolymer was synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Polymeric nanoparticles were formulated using o/w emulsification method with a mean particle size of 150 nm and loading efficiency of 7.40%. Treatment with LY293 loaded nanoparticles effectively inhibited the proliferation of melanoma cells in vitro and exhibited concentration dependent cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase. In vivo, LY293 loaded nanoparticles significantly inhibited the proliferation of highly aggressive metastasized melanoma in a syngeneic lung metastasis melanoma mouse model without toxicity to vital organs. Islet transplantation has been performed in many patients especially undergoing kidney transplantation to treat Type I diabetes. Proportion of recipients who achieved insulin independence is low and is limited by long-term graft rejection and by primary non-function of islets. Primary non-function is characterized as the loss of islet viability and function caused by non-immune reasons, such as the disruption of islet microvasculature and apoptosis of islets due to production of inflammatory cytokines at the transplantation sites. In chapter 5, we studied the potential of human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) as gene carriers for improving the outcome of human islet transplantation. hBMSCs were transduced with Adv-hVEGF-hIL-1Ra to overexpress human vascular endothelial growth factor (hVEGF) and human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (hIL-1Ra). Viability of human islets co-cultured with hBMSCs was determined by membrane fluorescent method and glucose stimulation test. Transduced hBMSCs and human islets were co-transplanted under the kidney capsule of NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ diabetic mice and blood glucose levels were measured over time to evaluate the efficacy of genetically modified hBMSCs. Our in vitro and in vivo results showed hBMSCs can be used as gene delivery vehicles to improve the outcome of islet transplantation without affecting their stemness and differentiation potential