Environmental Policies and Mergers’ Externalities

A Cournot oligopolistic setting model of trade is characterized by local and foreign firms competing in the presence of pollution quota and tax. Local firms are foreign-owned (FDI) and repatriate their profits. First, we analyze the impact on welfare given by the merger of the local firms, as a response to external firms’ competition and pollution abatement costs. Second, when merger is welfare decreasing, we study the best response of the government in order to compensate this negative externality. Finally, we compare the pollution quota and tax in order to determine their efficiency as a policy instrument.environmental policies, mergers, emission permits

Microprocessor-based on-load valve sequencing for a turbo-alternator

An analog on-load valve sequencing system that is used to test the performances of the valves on a turbo-alternator can be replaced by a microcomputer testing system. On the way to the full-scale computerising of turbo-generator control systems, this type of testing system may be used under the control of a full-size supervisory computer. This microprocessor-based testing system provides test sequencing of the valves of an Electro-Hydraulic Governor. The hardware for the interfacing and scaling, and the firmware for the microprocessor are developed for one valve. The extension of the technique to the task of testing multiple valves in sequence is also discussed

Extensible Automated Constraint Modelling

In constraint solving, a critical bottleneck is the formulationof an effective constraint model of a given problem. The CONJURE system described in this paper, a substantial step forward over prototype versions of CONJURE previously reported, makes a valuable contribution to the automation of constraint modelling by automatically producing constraint models from their specifications in the abstract constraint specification language ESSENCE. A set of rules is used to refine an abstract specification into a concrete constraint model. We demonstrate that this set of rules is readily extensible to increase the space of possible constraint models CONJURE can produce. Our empirical results confirm that CONJURE can reproduce successfully the kernels of the constraint models of 32 benchmark problems found in the literature

American growth and Napoleonic Wars

Four years after the French Revolution, in 1793 a series of wars among France and other major powers of Europe began and they lasted until 1815. There is disagreement among economic historians about the effects of these wars on the trend of US economic growth. This paper aims to answer the following question. Did America as a neutral nation take advantage of economic possibilities caused by Europe at war through trade? To put it differently, this paper questions whether there was an export-led growth due to the war. To answer this question, we re-examined the export-led growth hypothesis for the period 1790-1860 using the ARDL methodology. Based on this methodology, a cointegrated relationship is found among the variables of real GDP, labor, exports and exchange rates. The results suggest that the economic growth of the US was not export-driven. In addition, parallel to the results of unit root tests with structural breaks, the coefficient of the dummy variable was statistically significant in the long run, implying that the war did have a significant effect on the economic growth trend of the US