Trading Arrangements and Industrial Development

This paper outlines a new approach for analysing the role of trade in promoting industrial development. It offers an explanation as to why firms are reluctant to move to economics with lower labour costs, and shows how trade liberalisation can change the incentives for firms to locate in developing countries. Unilaterally liberalising imports of manufcatures can promote industrialisation, but membership of a preferential trading arrangement is likley to create larger gains. South-South PTAs will be sensitive to the market size of member states, while North-South PTAs seem to offer better prospects- for participating Southern economies, if not for excluded countries.

Trading arrangements and industrial development

How do different trading arrangements influence the industrialization process of developing countries? Can preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) be superior to multilateral liberalization, or at least an alternative when multilateral liberalization proceeds slowly? If so, what form should the PTAs take? Are developing countries better advised to seek PTAs with industrial countries or among themselves? Traditional analysis of these issues has been based on the idea of trade creation and trade diversion. The problem with this analysis is that it starts from assuming a pattern of comparative advantage of newly industrialized countries. The experience of these countries suggests the need for an analysis in which the pattern of comparative advantage is not set in stone but is potentially flexible, and in which less developed countries can develop and converge in both income and economic structure to industrial economies. The authors outline an alternative approach for analyzing the role of trade in promoting industrial development. There are few fundamental differences between countries that generate immutable patterns of comparative advantage. Instead the pattern of trade and development in the world economy is determined mainly by history. Cumulative causation has created concentrations of industrial activity in particular locations (industrial countries) and left other areas more dependent on primary activities. Economic development can be thought of as the spread of these concentrations from country to country. Different trading arrangements may have a major impact on this development process. By changing the attractiveness of countries as a base for manufacturing production they can potentially trigger or postpone industrial development. This approach explains why firms are reluctant to move to economies that have lower wages and labor costs, and shows how trade liberalization can change the incentives to become established in developing countries. It provides a mechanism through which import liberalization can have a powerful effect in promoting industrialization. And it suggests that import liberalization may create or amplify differences between liberalizing countries with the possible political tensions this may create. While these features are consistent with the world economy, they fall short of providing convincing empirical support for the approach. Using the approach, the authors derive number of conclusions about the effects of trade liberalization. First, that unilaterally liberalizing imports of manufactures can promote development of the local manufacturing industry. The mechanism is forward linkages from imported intermediates, but this may be interpreted as part of a wider package of linkages coming from these imports. Second, the gains from liberalization through PTA membership are likely to exceed those obtained from unilateral action. South-South PTAs will be sensitive to the market size of member states, and North-South PTAs seem to offer better prospects for participating Southern economies, if not for North and excluded countries. Third, the effects of particular schemes (such as the division of benefits between Southern economies) will depend on the characteristics of the countries and cross-country differences in these characteristics.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Regional Integration,Water and Industry

Preferential Trading Arrangements and Industrial Location

This paper considers the location effects of geographically discriminatory trade policy. A preferential move towards a customs union pulls industry into the integrating countries. When internal barriers fall below some critical level, input-output links between imperfectly competitive firms lead some customs union countries to gain industry at the expense of others. A hub- and-spoke arrangement favours location in the hub, with better reciprocal access induces agglomeration in the hub and may trigger disparities between the spokes.

Defining Rules in Cost Spanning Tree Problems Through the Canonical Form

We define the canonical form of a cost spanning tree problem. The canonical form has the property that reducing the cost of any arc, the minimal cost of connecting agents to the source is also reduced. We argue that the canonical form is a relevant concept in this kind of problems and study a rule using it. This rule satisfies much more interesting properties than other rules in the literature. Furthermore we provide two characterizations. Finally, we present several approaches to this rule without using the canonical form.Cost spanning tree, Rules, Canonical form

More on unicoherence at subcontinua

Studies are continued of unicoherence of a continuum X at its subcontinuum Y. Relations are analyzed between unicoherence of X at Y, unicoherence of either X or Y, and structure of components of the complement X Y. The obtained results generalize certain teorems proved in cite [OP]. Further, it is shown that terminality of Y implies unicoherence of X at Y. Applications are shown of this result to compactifications of a ray

Ultrasonic melt processing in the low pressure investment casting of Al alloys

"Available online 24 January 2017"AlSi7Mg investment cast test bars were produced using low-pressure die casting and ultrasonically refined during cooling. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the samples at different distances from the acoustic radiator were characterized for 650 degrees C pouring temperature. The combined technique lead to cast samples free from gas porosities and solidification defects, promoted the formation of small alpha-Al globular grains, modified the eutectic silicon, dispersed and decreased the size of intermetallic phases. The alloy mechanical properties were improved, increasing the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and strain.This work is supported by FCT with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941. Also this work has been supported by the Post-Doctoral grant SFRH/BPD/76680/2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Use of acoustic energy in sand casting of aluminium alloys

During the last years, some researchers have focused the development of ultrasonic microstructure refinement /modification techniques of die-casting aluminium alloys, to improve their properties. The developed techniques are highly efficient when applied to the die-casting process, but their capability with sand and ceramic moulding are unknown. Sand/ceramic aluminium castings are prone to coarse microstructure, porosities and inclusions due to low cooling rates and turbulent gravity pouring, and suitable processing techniques are required to eliminate those drawbacks. This article reports some results of a research work aiming the development of a reliable, low-cost and environmentally friend casting process, for geometrically complex and massive high strength sand/ceramic aluminium castings, to eliminate traditional soundness related defects and simultaneously promote the development of refined microstructures. The article presents the effect of applying ultrasound to AlSi9Cu3 alloy during solidification on a sand mould on the resultant microstructure. Results include microstructure characterization and its relationship with thermal analysis data collected from the center of the cast samples during cooling.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Factors affecting the metal recovery yield during induction melting of aluminium swarf

Machining operations of cast parts usually generate considerable amounts of waste in the form of chips (usually 3–5% of the casting weight). Traditionally, swarf is sold to scrapers and remelters, but this option is quite expensive because the selling price is roughly 30% of the acquisition price of the commercial 2nd melt raw material. For most aluminium foundries that incorporate machining operations in their products, reusing aluminium chips as raw material for the melting stocks is perhaps the best option as waste management policy in what concerns to economical and technical aspects. Nevertheless, aluminium swarf is a low density product (0.25 kg/dm3) and is usually covered by a thin film of aluminium oxide and machining fluid. Melting such a product without suitable previous preparation leads to very low metal recovery rates, high energy consumption, gases and smoke generation and very low quality of the final product. During the last years, the authors have developed a high efficient and environmentally friend aluminium swarf recycling technique, using direct incorporation in aluminium melts. The influence of processing parameters, namely melt temperature and holding time, melting atmosphere, swarf briquetting pressure and melting charge composition in the metal recovery yield and dross generation was studied and characterized, and the optimal processing parameters were established. The microstructure of the final product obtained in those conditions was evaluated and is also presented. It is shown that the recycling efficiency depends on the swarf conditioning, the melting technique and the melt treatment methodology. Swarf moisture reduction, induction melting under protective atmosphere and a specially developed degassing technique were found the most important factors influencing the recycling process. By using the developed technique, cast ingots with microstructure and sanity similar to commercially available AlSi12Cu1 2nd melt raw material were successfully obtained with minimal dross formation and metal recovery rates around 90%, without using traditional salts and fluxesFCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

A new approach to ultrasonic degassing to improve the mechanical properties of aluminum alloys

Ultrasonic degassing of liquid metals has been studied over the last years, but it has been limited to laboratorial scale experiments of low volumes of melt. In this work, the combined effect of acoustic cavitation with metal agitation induced by the mechanical vibration of the ultrasonic radiator itself was studied, using a specially designed low frequency mechanical vibrator coupled to the ultrasonic degassing unit. Liquid motion in water was characterized by high speed digital Photron-FastCam APX RS video camera and Laser Doppler Anemometry to select the most favorable US and mechanical vibrator frequencies to induce suitable water stirring. Selected parameters were used to degas 10 L of AlSi9Cu3(Fe) alloy. A suitable piezoelectric sensor was used to measure sound pressure at different distances from the sonotrode to identify the zone of higher acoustic activity. Results have shown that melt stirring significantly improves US degassing efficiency (since it is possible to achieve almost the aluminum alloy theoretical density after 3 min processing time) which contributed to increase the tensile properties of the alloy.This research was supported by FEDER/COMPETE funds and by national funds through FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and was developed on the aim of the research Project PTDC/EME-TME/119658/2010 and the Post-Doctoral Grant SFRH/BPD/76680/2011. Acknowledgements also to the University of Minho, for the provision of research facilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio