Functional form for United States-México trade equations

The literature concerning bilateral trade flows between Mexico and the United States is comparatively small. With the growing importance of international commerce between these economies, potential trade flow responses to changes in relative prices and income performance deserves more attention. This paper attempts to partially fill this gap in the literature by estimating bilateral trade flow equations that decompose relative import and relative export prices into foreign prices, domestic prices, and the exchange rate.

Intra-industry trade in Latin America and the Caribbean

An increasingly important component of total world trade is intra-industry trade (IIT). The large volume of literature on IIT is reflective of this importance. However, this extensive literature has focused almost completely on explaining the causes of IIT. This focus has left a puzzling gap in the literature. Specifically, it is almost impossible to determine the level of IIT for a particular country or region. Further, there is almost no information on the level of IIT at the industry level either globally or for a region or country. In this paper we provide estimates of IIT for the world and for the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Further, we provide estimates of IIT for ten different SITC product categories on the same basis. The findings of the paper indicate that in most industries, IIT in Latin America is substantially lower overall than the world average. There are, however, substantial variations observed both by country and by industry. Because the results are the first available for the region as a whole, they should allow researchers to get a better picture of the extent of IIT in Latin America and the Caribbean by country and by industry.Intra-industry trade; Latin America

Paper Session II-B - U.S./ Russian EVA Interoperability Status

Guidance for the goals of U.S. and Russian cooperation in the International Space Station (ISS) was provided in an addendum to the Program Implementation Plan, dated November 1, 1993, which was jointly signed by the NASA Administrator and the RSA General Director. Subsequent working level agreements for Extravehicular Activity (EVA) have resulted in joint projects which are building confidence and capabilities for commonality of hardware and operations. Parallel EVA planning and implementation of the Shuttle missions to Mir and the assembly of ISS are proving beneficial to both programs. Experience in each program is being fed back into the other program. This paper describes the joint EVA efforts related to the Mir docking missions which are leading to the assembly of ISS. On-orbit EVA plans, external experiments, tools, suit components and training facilities which support specific missions as well as ISS preparations are discussed. Lessons learned to date show that a considerable similarity exists in the fundamentals of EVA physiology, hardware design, and task performance techniques between the systems of both countries. While technical differences do exist, they have not been significant obstacles and have more often led to joint opportunities. Recent successes illustrate the possibilities for mutual assistance and show that the opportunities and challenges of ISS EVA are achievable

Does Your Cohort Matter? Measuring Peer Effects in College Achievement

To estimate peer effects in college achievement we exploit a unique dataset in which individuals have been exogenously assigned to peer groups of about 30 students with whom they are required to spend the majority of their time interacting. This feature enables us to estimate peer effects that are more comparable to changing the entire cohort of peers. Using this broad peer group, we find academic peer effects of much larger magnitude than found in previous studies that have measured peer effects among roommates alone. We find the peer effects persist at a diminishing rate into the sophomore, junior, and senior years, indicating social network peer effects may have long lasting effects on academic achievement. Our findings also suggest that peer effects may be working through study partnerships versus operating through establishment of a social norm of effort.

Intra-industry trade in Latin America and the Caribbean

An increasingly important component of total world trade is intra-industry trade (IIT). The large volume of literature on IIT is reflective of this importance. However, this extensive literature has focused almost completely on explaining the causes of IIT. This focus has left a puzzling gap in the literature. Specifically, it is almost impossible to determine the level of IIT for a particular country or region. Further, there is almost no information on the level of IIT at the industry level either globally or for a region or country. In this paper we provide estimates of IIT for the world and for the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Further, we provide estimates of IIT for ten different SITC product categories on the same basis. The findings of the paper indicate that in most industries, IIT in Latin America is substantially lower overall than the world average. There are, however, substantial variations observed both by country and by industry. Because the results are the first available for the region as a whole, they should allow researchers to get a better picture of the extent of IIT in Latin America and the Caribbean by country and by industry

Intra-industry trade in Latin America and the Caribbean

An increasingly important component of total world trade is intra-industry trade (IIT). The large volume of literature on IIT is reflective of this importance. However, this extensive literature has focused almost completely on explaining the causes of IIT. This focus has left a puzzling gap in the literature. Specifically, it is almost impossible to determine the level of IIT for a particular country or region. Further, there is almost no information on the level of IIT at the industry level either globally or for a region or country. In this paper we provide estimates of IIT for the world and for the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Further, we provide estimates of IIT for ten different SITC product categories on the same basis. The findings of the paper indicate that in most industries, IIT in Latin America is substantially lower overall than the world average. There are, however, substantial variations observed both by country and by industry. Because the results are the first available for the region as a whole, they should allow researchers to get a better picture of the extent of IIT in Latin America and the Caribbean by country and by industry

Innovation Contests with Entry Auction

We consider procurement of an innovation from heterogeneous sellers. Innovations are random but depend on unobservable effort and private information. We compare two procurement mechanisms where potential sellers first bid in an auction for admission to an innovation contest. After the contest, an innovation is procured employing either a fixed prize or a first-price auction. We characterize Bayesian Nash equilibria such that both mechanisms are payoff-equivalent and induce the same efforts and innovations. In these equilibria, signaling in the entry auction does not occur since contestants play a simple strategy that does not depend on rivals' private information