Export Subsidies in a Heterogeneous Firms Framework: Evidence from Colombia

We evaluate the impact of firm-specific export subsidies on exports in Colombia. Using a twostage selection correction procedure, we obtain firm-specific predicted subsidy amounts that can be explained by the characteristics that determine the firms’ eligibility for government support and its amount. Drawing on the accounts of the discretionary allocation of subsidies in developing countries, we regard the discrepancy between the predicted and the observed subsidy amounts as a proxy for a firm’s ties to government officials. Controlling for observable and unobservable firm characteristics and persistence in exports, we find that although, in general, subsidies exhibit a positive impact on export volumes, this impact is diminishing in subsidy size and in the degree of a firm’s connectedness.Export promotion; export subsidies

Teaching Locals New Tricks: Foreign Experts as a Channel of Knowledge Transfers

Gains from productivity and knowledge transmission arising from the presence of foreign firms have received a good deal of empirical attention, but theoretical micro-foundations for this mechanism are limited. Here we develop a dynamic model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Gains from training can in turn be decomposed into two types: (a) obtaining knowledge and skills at a lower cost than if they were self-learnt at home, (b) producing domestic skilled workers earlier in time than if the domestic economy had to rediscover the relevant knowledge through "reinventing the wheel." We use fixed effects and nearest neighbour matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial, although not always immediate, positive effects on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker.

Orphanhood and Critical Periods in Children's Human Capital Formation: Long-Run Evidence from North-Western Tanzania

Losing a parent is a trauma that has consequences for human capital formation. Does it matter at what age this trauma occurs? Using longitudinal data from the Kagera region in Tanzania that span thirteen years from 1991-2004, we find considerable impact heterogeneity across age at bereavement, but less so for the death of opposite-sex parents. In terms of long-term health status as measured by body height, children who lose their same-sex parent before teenage years are hit hardest. Regarding years of formal education attained in young adulthood, boys whose fathers die before adolescence suffer the most. Maternal bereavement does not fit into this pattern as it affects educational attainment of boys and girls in a similar way. The generally strong interaction between age at parental death and sex of the late parent suggests that the preferences of the surviving parent partly protect same-sex children from orphanhoods detrimental effects on human capital accumulation. --orphans,health,education,timing of parental death,child development,HIV/AIDS

The use of biologically active additives of plant origin in sausage production

Food additives that allow regulating functional and technological properties, providing qualitative and quantitative characteristics of finished products are essential in meat technologies. Flax seed processing products, due to the high concentration of functionally valuable components and pronounced technological properties of protein and polysaccharides, are an ideal component for replacing meat raw materials in sausage products. The purpose of the work is to develop the technology of meat products enriched with biologically active additives of plant origin based on flax seeds. The theoretical part of the research was carried out on the basis of the Department of Food Technologies of DonGAU, the development of experimental batches of products was carried out in the production conditions of LLC “Meat Processing Plant”, Razvilnoye village, Peschanokopsky district, Rostov region. The purpose of the research is to study the possibility of using flax seeds as a protein additive in sausage production technology. It has been established that the introduction of flax seed additives into the formulations of meat products improves the organoleptic and physico-chemical characteristics of finished products. The prototypes were distinguished by a more delicate consistency and higher uniformity of minced meat on the cut, an increase in the mass fraction of protein and a decrease in the proportion of fat were also noted

Program-Technical Aspects of Encryption Protection of Users' Data

Loginova N. Program-Technical Aspects of Encryption Protection of Users' Data / Natalia Loginova, Elena Trofimenko, Olexander Zadereyko, Rashid Chanyshev // Modern Problems of Radio Engineering, Telecommunications, and Computer Science : XIIIth 2016 International Conference (Lviv-Slavsko, February 23 – 26, 2016). - Lviv, 2016. - p. 443 -445. = Сучасні проблеми радіоелектроніки, телекомунікацій, комп'ютерної інженерії : матеріали Міжнар. конф.TCSET’2016 ( Львів-Славсько, 23-26 лютого 2016 р.). - Львів, 2016. - с. 443-445.The effective protection of different storage devices is impossible without multifunctional encryption software. For this task solution it is suggested to use TrueCrypt, the crossplatform cryptographic software, allowing to carry out the on-the-fly encryption. There was conducted the analysis of TrueCrypt performance capabilities and efficiency. The algorithm of TrueCrypt practical application for storage device protection was worked out. It was shown that TrueCrypt implementation is the most effective measure which allows to prevent the losses of users' confidential information stored on PC as well as on removable storage devices

Essays in international trade

This dissertation contains three essays. The empirical analysis is based on a panel of Colombian manufacturing plants. The first essay deals with knowledge exchange through trade. It is argued that exporting increases plant-level productivity by exposing producers to new technologies or through product quality upgrading. However, if learning occurs through the acquisition of new knowledge, exporting to less developed markets should not generate as much productivity growth as exporting to advanced countries. I demonstrate that exporting to advanced countries generates the highest productivity premium and that the ability to benefit from exporting in general and exporting to advanced markets in particular increases monotonically as one moves along the conditional productivity distribution. The second essay (with Jim Markusen, University of Colorado) considers foreign experts as a channel of knowledge transmission. We develop a model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Hypotheses are generated under the assumptions that workers learn from experts (the effect of using an expert is not strictly temporary) and that this learning is embodied in the workers rather than in the firm. We use fixed effects and nearest neighbor matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial and persistent positive effects (though not always immediate) on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker. Having shown positive impact of exporting on the plant productivity in Chapter 1, in the third essay, I turn my attention to the instruments of trade promotion and study of the effectiveness of export subsidies in improving plants\u27 exporting performance. Controlling for persistence in exporting behavior, plant heterogeneity and potential dependence of export subsidies on the present and past export performance, I find subsidies to be ineffective in increasing export volumes. The impact is estimated at 0.076 in the GMM specification on the sub-sample of exporters but is not significant at the conventional significance levels

Teaching locals new tricks: Foreign experts as a channel of knowledge transfers

Gains from productivity and knowledge transmission arising from the presence of foreign firms have received a good deal of empirical attention, but theoretical micro-foundations for this mechanism are limited. Here we develop a dynamic model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Gains from training can in turn be decomposed into two types: (a) obtaining knowledge and skills at a lower cost than if they were self-learnt at home, (b) producing domestic skilled workers earlier in time than if the domestic economy had to rediscover the relevant knowledge through “reinventing the wheel. ” We use fixed effects and nearest neighbour matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial, although not always immediate, positive effects on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker. “I once asked a plumber who came to fix my water heater, and who did it in three minutes, how he dared to charge me eighty thousand lire for turning a little knob. He told me it had taken him twenty years to learn which knob to turn.” from “Wilful Behavior ” , a novel by Donna Leon “I wanted to work for a foreign company so I could learn from experts. My life would be much harder if I didn’t have this job. Now I can think about the future. If I can afford it, I want to send my son to study overseas- maybe Australia or the United States.” Inc. Dang Thi Hai Yen, production manager at a Vietnamese factory sub-contracted by Nike

Learning by Exporting: Does It Matter Where One Learns? Evidence from Colombian Manufacturing Firms

Learning-by-exporting proponents argue that exporting increases firm-level productivity by exposing producers to new technologies or through product quality upgrading. This study is based on the observation that the technological superiority and severity of product quality requirements are not the same in all export markets. If learning occurs through the acquisition of new knowledge, exporting to less developed markets should not generate as much productivity growth as exporting to advanced countries. Using firm-level data from Colombia, I demonstrate that exporting to advanced countries generates the highest productivity premium and that the ability to benefit from exporting in general and exporting to advanced markets in particular increases monotonically as one moves along the conditional productivity distribution.

Factors Affecting Location Decisions of the Economic Headliners – Exporters and Foreign-Owned Firms – in China

Foreign-owned firms are frequently viewed as an important source of new capital, access to world markets and employment generation and there exist numerous studies on the determinants of FDI flows and the role of incentives designed to attract FDI. Similarly important for economic growth are exporters, yet the factors that play a role in their location decisions have not been identified. Using a data set of 1,409 firms in China who report, among other things, why they have chosen a particular location, we find that the perceived importance of various site attributes differs considerably for those two types of firms: foreign-owned firms are attracted by the local market size, supply of skilled workers, and the quality of (telecommunications!) infrastructure; future exporters are driven by low rents, and fewer regulatory requirements and taxes; both types of firms care about the availability of government servicesforeign direct investment, exporters, determinants of location, Chinese cities