The Regulation Of Multinational Enterprises Under Asymmetric Information

This thesis investigates the effects of asymmetric information on the relationship between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and host countries. With incomplete information about a MNE\u27s technology, the threat of expropriation does not always deter foreign direct investment (FDI), so that expropriation may actually occur with nonzero probability. Improvements in a MNE\u27s investment alternatives, a rise in production costs or tax rates diminish the likelihood of expropriation. Low-cost countries are more likely than high-cost countries to expropriate MNEs. Low-cost industries simultaneously face higher tariffs and a higher expropriation rate.;Chapter three uses a principal-agent model to examine optimal host country taxation of a horizontally and vertically integrated MNE. The host government lacks relevant information about the MNE\u27s costs and transfer price. The optimal taxation mechanism consists of a lump-sum profit tax/quantity tax combination. The possibility of transfer pricing affects the government in two ways: First, the choice of tax mechanisms is reduced; second, the MNE has to be induced to reveal both costs and transfer price.;Chapter four uses data for the Jamaican bauxite industry in 1973 to simulate the optimal regulatory regime derived in chapter III. In 1974 Jamaica replaced its corporate income tax with a production levy on bauxite. We compare the effects on output and tax revenue of the actual pre-1974 and post-1974 taxes with those of the optimal policy. In fact, the optimal tax system closely resembles a combination of the two actual policies. We conclude that by using the optimal scheme Jamaica could have increased its tax revenue manyfold.;Chapter five uses a dynamic signaling game to investigate the effects of incomplete information about host country demand on the government\u27s tax and tariff policy, and MNE\u27s choice between FDI and exporting. When investment costs are low relative to exporting costs and/or the MNE anticipates large host country demand, tariff walls are sufficient to induce FDI. If the MNE is pessimistic about host country demand, tariff walls have to be supplemented with tax holidays to obtain investment. Tax holidays always appear in combinations with tariff walls

A theory of trade concessions

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We present a model of tariff disputes and concessions consisting of an infinitely repeated game under bilateral incomplete information. Given potential agreements to be reached through unilateral or reciprocal concessions, we find that an agreement involving reciprocal concessions is reached immediately if the discount factor is large and/or the volume of trade is small. Otherwise prior beliefs about country type matter: when both countries hold pessimistic priors, immediate reciprocal concessions still occur. Very different prior beliefs lead to an immediate unilateral concession of the pessimistic country, whereas optimistic priors coupled with low discount factors may generate delayed agreements. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V

South from Alaska: a pilot aDNA study of genetic history on the Alaska Peninsula and the Eastern Aleutians

Journal ArticleAbstract The Aleutian Islands were colonized, perhaps several times, from the Alaskan mainland. Earlier work documented transitions in the relative frequencies of mtDNA haplogroups over time, but little is known about potential source populations for prehistoric Aleut migrants. As part of a pilot investigation, we sequenced the mtDNA first hypervariable region (HVRI) in samples from two archaeological sites on the Alaska Peninsula (the Hot Springs site near Port Moller, Alaska; and samples from a cluster of sites in the Brooks River area near Katmai National Park and Preserve) and one site from Prince William Sound (Mink Island). The sequences revealed not only the mtDNA haplogroups typically found in both ancient and modern Aleut populations (A2 and D2) but also haplogroups B2 and D1 in the Brooks River samples and haplogroup D3 in one Mink Islander. These preliminary results suggest greater mtDNA diversity in prehistoric populations than previously observed and facilitate reconstruction of migration scenarios from the peninsula into the Aleutian archipelago in the past

South from Alaska: A Pilot aDNA Study of Genetic History on the Alaska Peninsula and the Eastern Aleutians

The Aleutian Islands were colonized, perhaps several times, from the Alaskan mainland. Earlier work documented transitions in the relative frequencies of mtDNA haplogroups over time, but little is known about potential source populations for prehistoric Aleut migrants. As part of a pilot investigation, we sequenced the mtDNA first hypervariable region (HVRI) in samples from two archaeological sites on the Alaska Peninsula (the Hot Springs site near Port Moller, Alaska; and samples from a cluster of sites in the Brooks River area near Katmai National Park and Preserve) and one site from Prince William Sound (Mink Island). The sequences revealed not only the mtDNA haplogroups typically found in both ancient and modern Aleut populations (A2 and D2) but also haplogroups B2 and D1 in the Brooks River samples and haplogroup D3 in one Mink Islander. These preliminary results suggest greater mtDNA diversity in prehistoric populations than previously observed and facilitate reconstruction of migration scenarios from the peninsula into the Aleutian archipelago in the past

Higher levels of CO2 during late incubation alter the hatch time of chicken embryos

status: publishe

Two contemporaneous mitogenomes from terminal Pleistocene burials in eastern Beringia

Pleistocene residential sites with multiple contemporaneous human burials are extremely rare in the Americas. We report mitochondrial genomic variation in the first multiple mitochondrial genomes from a single prehistoric population: two infant burials (USR1 and USR2) from a common interment at the Upward Sun River Site in central Alaska dating to ~11,500 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). Using a targeted capture method and next-generation sequencing we determined that the USR1 infant possessed variants that define mitochondrial lineage C1b, while the USR2 genome falls at the root of lineage B2, allowing us to refine younger coalescence age estimates for these two clades. C1b and B2 are rare to absent in modern populations of Northern North America. Documentation of these lineages at this location in the Late Pleistocene provides evidence for the extent of mitochondrial diversity in early Beringian populations, which supports the expectations of the Beringian Standstill Model