10,649 research outputs found
Effects of Tariffication: Tariffs, Quotas and VERs under Monopolistic Competition
Recent rounds of GATT and later WTO have advocated widespread tariffication, meaning that existing non-tariff barriers be converted into import equivalent tariffs. From an economic point of view, the effects of such tariffication are not entirely clear. The paper presents a general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition to examine the welfare effects of tariffication. The ranking of pre- and post-tariffication welfare depends crucially on the nature of the initial trade barrier and the tariff tool applied. Tariffication using a specific (an ad valorem) tariff results in the same (a reduced) welfare level compared to an initial quota, whereas welfare is increased (the same) compared to an initial VER.Trade policy, tariffication, specific tariff, ad valorem tariff, quota, VER
Tariffs and Firm-Level Heterogeneous Fixed Export Costs
Recent literature on the workhorse model of intra-industry trade has explored heterogeneous cost structures at the firm level. These approaches have proven to add realism and predictive power. This note shows, however, that this added realism also implies that there may exist a positive bilateral tariff that maximizes national and world welfare. Applying one of the simplest specifications possible, namely a symmetric two-country intra-industry trade model with fixed export costs that are heterogeneous across firms, we find that the reciprocal reduction of small tariffs reduces welfare.Optimal tariff; Welfare; Intra-industry trade; Monopolistic competition; Protectionism
Maximum likelihood trajectories from single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments
Ground states versus low-temperature equilibria in random field Ising chains
We discuss with the aid of random walk arguments and exact numerical
computations the magnetization properties of one-dimensional random field
chains. The ground state structure is explained in terms of absorbing and
non-absorbing random walk excursions. At low temperatures, the magnetization
profiles follow those of the ground states except at regions where a local
random field fluctuation makes thermal excitations feasible. This follows also
from the non-absorbing random walks, and implies that the magnetization length
scale is a product of these two scales. It is not simply given by the
Imry-Ma-like ground state domain size nor by the scale of the thermal
excitations.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX, 8 eps-figures include
Local effective dynamics of quantum systems: A generalized approach to work and heat
By computing the local energy expectation values with respect to some local
measurement basis we show that for any quantum system there are two
fundamentally different contributions: changes in energy that do not alter the
local von Neumann entropy and changes that do. We identify the former as work
and the latter as heat. Since our derivation makes no assumptions on the system
Hamiltonian or its state, the result is valid even for states arbitrarily far
from equilibrium. Examples are discussed ranging from the classical limit to
purely quantum mechanical scenarios, i.e. where the Hamiltonian and the density
operator do not commute.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, published versio
The Casimir Energy for a Hyperboloid Facing a Plate in the Optical Approximation
We study the Casimir energy of a massless scalar field that obeys Dirichlet
boundary conditions on a hyperboloid facing a plate. We use the optical
approximation including the first six reflections and compare the results with
the predictions of the proximity force approximation and the semi-classical
method. We also consider finite size effects by contrasting the infinite with a
finite plate. We find sizable and qualitative differences between the new
optical method and the more traditional approaches.Comment: v2: 14 pages, 11 eps figures; typo in eq. (21) removed, clarification
added, fig. 10 improved; version published in Phys. Rev.
New method for the time calibration of an interferometric radio antenna array
Digital radio antenna arrays, like LOPES (LOFAR PrototypE Station), detect
high-energy cosmic rays via the radio emission from atmospheric extensive air
showers. LOPES is an array of dipole antennas placed within and triggered by
the KASCADE-Grande experiment on site of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Germany. The antennas are digitally combined to build a radio interferometer by
forming a beam into the air shower arrival direction which allows measurements
even at low signal-to-noise ratios in individual antennas. This technique
requires a precise time calibration. A combination of several calibration steps
is used to achieve the necessary timing accuracy of about 1 ns. The group
delays of the setup are measured, the frequency dependence of these delays
(dispersion) is corrected in the subsequent data analysis, and variations of
the delays with time are monitored. We use a transmitting reference antenna, a
beacon, which continuously emits sine waves at known frequencies. Variations of
the relative delays between the antennas can be detected and corrected for at
each recorded event by measuring the phases at the beacon frequencies.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, pre-print of article published in
Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A, available at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TJM-4Y9CF4B-4/2/37bfcb899a0f387d9875a5a0729593a
The role of octadecanoids and functional mimics in soybean defense responses
Oxylipins of the jasmonate pathway and synthetic functional analogs have been analyzed for their elicitor like activities in an assay based on the induced accumulation of glyceollins, the phytoalexins of soybean (Glycine max L.), in cell suspension cultures of this plant. Jasmonic acid (JA) and its methyl ester showed weak phytoalexininducing activity when compared to an early jasmonate biosynthetic precursor, 12-oxophytodienoic acid (OPDA), as well as to the bacterial phytotoxin coronatine and certain 6-substituted indanoylLisoleucine methyl esters, which all were highly active. Interestingly, different octadecanoids and indanoyl conjugates induced the accumulation of transcripts of various defenserelated genes to different degrees, indicating distinct induction competencies. Therefore, these signaling compounds and mimics were further analyzed for their effects on signal transduction elements, such as the transient enhancement of the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and MAP kinase activation, which are known to be initiated by a soybean pathogenderived {[}beta]glucan elicitor. In contrast to the {[}beta]glucan elicitor, none of the other compounds tested triggered these early signaling elements. Moreover, endogenous levels of OPDA and JA in soybean cells were shown to be unaffected after treatment with {[}beta]glucans. Thus, OPDA and JA, which are functionally mimicked by coronatine and a variety of 6-substituted derivatives of indanoylLisoleucine methyl ester, represent highly efficient signaling compounds of a lipidbased pathway not deployed in the {[}beta]glucan elicitorinitiated signal transduction
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