The Governance of Agricultural Trade: Perspectives from the 1940's

International Relations/Trade,

ECONOMICS OF TARIFF-RATE QUOTA ADMINISTRATION

The 1996 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture was a step toward free trade. The Agreement lifts bans and quotas on imports, but allows their conversion into tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), which function like quotas. At present, many of the 1,300 TRQs increased market access to imports, but some have preserved pre-Agreement levels of protection. The World Trade Organization's intent as to the administration of TRQs is open to interpretation. This report analyzes seven administrative methods in light of the principle of nondiscrimination. We conclude that auctions are the best way to administer a TRQ. First-come, first-served and license-on-demand methods present a moderate risk of biased trade. State trading organizations and producer groups that directly administer TRQs can also bias trade. Historical allocation is the method most likely to be discriminatory. Two case studies illustrate our conclusion.Tariff-rate quotas, quantitative restrictions, trade barriers, tariffs, International Relations/Trade,

U.S. TRQS FOR PEANUTS, SUGAR, AND TOBACCO: HISTORICAL ALLOCATION AND NONDISCRIMINATION

U.S. peanut, sugar, and tobacco tariff rate quotas (TRQs) are allocated to suppliers on an historical market share basis. Once allocated they become difficult to redistribute to accommodate changes in comparative advantage among suppliers. The distribution of trade departs increasingly from the tariff-equivalent distribution advocated by the WTO principle of nondiscrimination. Article XIII of the GATT regarding the rules for historical allocation is examined and applied to four cases of historical allocation: domestic tobacco quota and TRQs for peanuts, sugar and tobacco. The difference between the law enforcement objective of the WTO and the Pareto optimization objective assumed by economists is stressed throughout.International Relations/Trade,

Overview of contractual savings institutions

Contractual savings institutions include national provident funds, life insurance companies, private pension funds, and funded social pension insurance systems. They have long-term liabilities and stable cash flows and are therefore ideal providers of term finance, not only to government and industry, but also to municipal authorities and the housing sector. Except for Singapore, Malaysia, and a few other countries, most developing countries have small and insignificant contractual savings industries that have been undermined by high inflation and inhibited by oppressive regulations and pay-as-you-go social pension insurance systems. Contractual savings institutions play a much bigger role in the financial systems of developed countries. In some countries, such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, the resources mobilized by life insurance companies and pension funds correspond to well over 100 percent of annual GDP. The authors provide an overview of the structure and the state of development of contractual savings institutions in both high- and low-income countries. They also identify a number of operating characteristics that define the social, economic, financial and regulatory implications of different types of contractual savings institutions. The authors emphasize the fundamental objectives for reforming the contractual savings and pension systems.Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Contractual Savings,Banks&Banking Reform,Insurance Law,Environmental Economics&Policies

Oral Cbd Administration: Assessing Bioavailability And Behavioral Outcomes In A Rodent Model

There has been a recent surge in popularity for cannabidiol (CBD), a major non-psychotropic constituent of cannabis, due to numerous claims of potential therapeutic properties, which include, but are not limited to, anxiolytic, antinociceptive, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, as previous scientific literature on CBD\u27s effectiveness in providing such therapeutic effects is limited, this project was aimed to evaluate the potential beneficial properties of a hemp derived 99% pure CBD compound provided from Ellipse Analytics (Denver, CO) in a rodent model. We analyzed the pharmacokinetics of this CBD product as well as the behavioral outcomes after acute and chronic administration. Pharmacokinetics of CBD were assessed by administering CBD to adult male rats (n=10/group) using oral gavage at 0, 5, 10, 20 or 40 mg/kg in sesame oil for 10 days while drawing blood 1hr, 2hr, and 4hrs post administration on the 1st, 5th and 10th day to measure plasma CBD levels. In a second and third cohort of rats (n=6-16/group), CBD was administered by oral gavage at a 0, 20, or 40 mg/kg in sesame oil over 10 days, with behavioral assays being run on the 1st, 5th, and 10th day to assess outcomes associated with pain response, sleep behavior, anxiety response, and stress levels. Our results showed a dose dependent increase in CBD bioavailability with plasma levels peaking between the 1st and 2nd hour post-administration, and significantly decreasing by the 4th hour across all groups. There was a minimal effect of CBD on sleep, pain, and anxiety-like outcomes, however 40 mg/kg CBD significantly decreased corticosterone levels during restraint stress as compared to controls. These findings provide evidence for a potential therapeutic effect of CBD on hypothalamic pituitary axis function and thus stress regulation. Further analysis is necessary to assess the potential for dose dependent increases in overall therapeutic effectiveness with acute or prolonged exposures in males and females

News from Now/here: Ed Dorn, Lawrence, Kansas, & the Poetics of Migration - 1965-1970

The stylistic variety of Edward Dorn's poetic career, from the 1950s through the 1990s, has been criticized as lacking cohesion, and deemed his work's fundamental shortcoming. The earlier poetry's somber lyricism has been pitted against the caustic epigrams of the later writing, and these modes are set on either side of Gunslinger, Dorn's mock-epic of the "sicksties," which has received disproportionate scholarly attention, to the detriment of Dorn's manifold, contemporaneous work. While formal experimentation and the development of a multi-voiced perspective might provide a context for approaching Dorn's stylistic diversity, instead those objectives have been critically cemented to an embittered tendentiousness, a resistance, insufficient to address either the biography or the writing. Due to the fragmentary displacements of these assumptions, this thesis seeks an integrated reading that celebrates, rather than condemns, discrepancies in Dorn's unmoored political/poetic identity. Through unpublished archival materials, it reexamines the Gunslinger era--part of which Dorn spent among the countercultural tumult in Lawrence, Kansas--when Dorn's interest in geography expanded to address both "the landscape of the imagination," and the inevitable constraints of an ideologically-infused language

The Determinants of Bank Capital Ratios in a Developing Economy

This paper reports new findings on the determinants of bank capital ratios. The results are from an unbalanced panel data set spanning eight years around the period of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Test results suggest a strong positive link between regulatory capital and bank management?s risk-taking behaviour. The risk-based capital standards of the regulators did not have an influence on how regulatory capital is adjusted by low-capitalized banks, perhaps due to the well-documented banking fragility during the test period. Finally, bank capital decisions seem not to be driven by bank profitability, which finding is inconsistent with developed country literature that has for long stressed the importance of banks? earnings as driving capital ratios. Although the study focuses only on one developing economy, these findings may help to identify the correlates of bank capital ratios in both developed and developing economies since this topic has received scant attention of researchers. These findings are somewhat consistent with how banks engaging in risky lending across the world could have brought on the 2007-2008 banking liquidity and capital erosion crisis.

THE ECONOMICS OF TRQ ADMINISTRATION

International Relations/Trade,

Central bank independence and governance in the South Asia

This paper constructs the central bank independence and governance (CBIG) index for eight South Asian countries and examines their relationship with inflation. This CBIG index is constructed following the unique model developed by Ahsan, Skully and Wickramanayake (2006). This index consists of total 26 variables; all variables together form the overall index and different sub-sets of these variables construct sub-indices (eg. legal; political; price stability objectives; exchange rate policy; monetary policy and deficit financing; and accountability and transparency).Several countries have improved their CBIG in last fifteen years. The war torn Afghanistan have established a new central bank act in 2003 which has improved the standard of CBIG in the region. In recent time Nepal has made remarkable improvement in its ranking by allowing improved independence to its central bank. Bangladesh has taken lead in term of gradual CBIG improvement in last fifteen years. Sri Lanka, Indian and Pakistan are three countries always maintained a standard level of CBIG. Bhutan and Maldives showed less improvement among the countries. This paper also examines the statistical relationship between CBIG indices and inflation. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between CBIG and inflation in the region which in contrary to normal expectation that inflation is one of the robust proxy of actual CBIG.<br /

A critical analysis of central bank independence and governance in Australia and Bangladesh

This study examines central bank independence and governance (CBIG) in Bangladesh and Australia. It applies a unique index model of Ahsan, Skully and Wickramanayake (2008) to assess their respective legal, political, price stability objectives, exchange rate policies, monetary policy and deficit financing practices, transparency and accountability positions from 1991 to 2008. While the model shows CBIG is much weaker in Bangladesh than in Australia, the Bangladesh Bank&rsquo;s CBIG shown considerable improvement over the period. These findings suggest that the Government of Bangladesh might learn from Australia&rsquo;s experience with Reserve Bank of Australia and delegate further power and authority to Bangladesh Bank as well as lessen its political interference.<br /