Impacts of Sugar Free Trade Agreements on the U.S. Sugar Industry

We use a multi-region GTAP model to study the implications of a global sugar free trade agreement on the U.S. sugar industry. In general, the sugar net importing countries such as the former Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States would reduce sugar production and increase their net imports from the world market. By contrast, the sugar net exporting countries such as Australia, Brazil, and Thailand would increase their sugar production and increase their net exports. Under a scenario where import tariffs and export subsidies are completely eliminated, U.S. sugar production would decrease by 2.8%. This is in contrast to some of the previous studies, which argued that the U.S. sugar production would increase slightly annually. U.S. import prices would decrease by 21.9% and U.S. domestic sugar prices would decrease slightly by 0.8%. U.S. net imports of sugar of sugar would increase 478.1 million US dollars.International Relations/Trade,

Active optical clock based on four-level quantum system

Active optical clock, a new conception of atomic clock, has been proposed recently. In this report, we propose a scheme of active optical clock based on four-level quantum system. The final accuracy and stability of two-level quantum system are limited by second-order Doppler shift of thermal atomic beam. To three-level quantum system, they are mainly limited by light shift of pumping laser field. These limitations can be avoided effectively by applying the scheme proposed here. Rubidium atom four-level quantum system, as a typical example, is discussed in this paper. The population inversion between $6S_{1/2}$ and $5P_{3/2}$ states can be built up at a time scale of $10^{-6}$s. With the mechanism of active optical clock, in which the cavity mode linewidth is much wider than that of the laser gain profile, it can output a laser with quantum-limited linewidth narrower than 1 Hz in theory. An experimental configuration is designed to realize this active optical clock.Comment: 5 page

Economic Growth under Globalization: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis

It has been controversial among economists about the impacts of globalization on growth, and the debate over the issue has intensified in recent years. In this study, we employ reliable panel data and an empirical growth model derived from production theory to investigate the effects of globalization on economic growth. The estimation results strongly suggest that economic globalization has a significant positive effect on economic growth for all countries. However, China and India would gain the most, followed by developed countries, and other developing countries would gain the least. Other important determinants of economic growth include capital, human capital, and technology.Globalization, Economic growth, Measure of Economic Globalization, International Development, F15, F43,

Growing U.S. Trade Deficit in Consumer-Oriented Agricultural Products

We investigate the factors behind the growing U.S. trade deficit in consumer-oriented agricultural products by using reliable panel data and an empirical trade model derived from international trade theory. The results indicate that per capita income in the United States appears to be the most important determinant for the growing U.S. trade deficit of consumer-oriented agricultural products. An increase in per capita income and trade liberalization in foreign countries would improve the U.S. trade balance. U.S. foreign direct investment abroad in food manufactures and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are found to have negative effects on the U.S. trade balance.consumer-oriented products, exchange rate, trade balance, trade deficit, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade, F14, Q17,

Implications of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement for Agriculture and other Sectors of the Economy

This paper examines the effects of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) on various sectors of the economy in the two countries using a general equilibrium model. Additional analysis focuses on the agricultural sector. Our analysis indicates that the increase in U.S.-Korea bilateral trade volume in recent years has been through intra-industry trade of high-technology products. Under the KORUS FTA, the bilateral trade volume would increase for virtually all the sectors, and GDP and social welfare would improve for both countries. However, producers of textile products in the United States and producers of agricultural and food products in South Korea would suffer from the FTA. This agreement could benefit U.S. agriculture, but the benefits could be greater in the long run as duties on beef and other meat products are eliminated.Korea, Free trade agreement, Trade creation, Trade diversion, International Relations/Trade,

Comment on ``Relativistic kinetic equations for electromagnetic, scalar and pseudoscalar interactions''

It is found that the extra quantum constraints to the spinor components of the equal-time Wigner function given in a recent paper by Zhuang and Heinz should vanish identically. We point out here the origin of the error and give an interpretation of the result. However, the principal idea of obtaining a complete equal-time transport theory by energy averaging the covariant theory remains valid. The classical transport equation for the spin density is also found to be incorrect. We give here the correct form of that equation and discuss briefly its structure.Comment: 5 pages LaTe

China’s Trade Surplus with the United States: The Role of Exchange Rates

International Relations/Trade,

Ring resonator-based Tunable Optical Delay Line in LPCVD Waveguide Technology

Optical circuits providing a time delay to signals modulated on optical carriers are considered important for optical communication systems and phased array antennas. A continuously tunable optical delay line is demonstrated in low-cost CMOS compatible LPCVD planar waveguide technology. The device consists of three cascaded ringresonator all-pass filters with fixed circumference of 2 cm (delay of 0.12 ns and FSR of 8.4 GHz). The measured group delay ranges from 0 ns up to 1.2 ns with a bandwidth of 500 MHz and delay ripple smaller than 1 ps, which is in accordance with the calculations

Hysteretic current-voltage characteristics and resistance switching at an epitaxial oxide Schottky junction SrRuO3_{3}/SrTi0.99_{0.99}Nb0.01_{0.01}O3_{3}

Transport properties have been studied for a perovskite heterojunction consisting of SrRuO$_{3}$ (SRO) film epitaxially grown on SrTi$_{0.99}$Nb$_{0.01}$O$_{3}$ (Nb:STO) substrate. The SRO/Nb:STO interface exhibits rectifying current-voltage ($I$-$V$) characteristics agreeing with those of a Schottky junction composed of a deep work-function metal (SRO) and an $n$-type semiconductor (Nb:STO). A hysteresis appears in the $I$-$V$ characteristics, where high resistance and low resistance states are induced by reverse and forward bias stresses, respectively. The resistance switching is also triggered by applying short voltage pulses of 1 $\mu$s - 10 ms duration.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, Appl. Phys. Lett., in pres

Determinants of the U.S. Trade Balance in Consumer-Oriented Agricultural Products

This study investigates the factors behind the growing U.S. trade deficit in consumer-oriented agricultural and food products by using reliable panel data and an empirical trade model derived from international trade theory. The results indicate that per capita income in the United States appears to be the most important determinant for the growing U.S. trade deficit. Increases in per capita income and trade liberalization in foreign countries improve the U.S. trade balance. U.S. foreign direct investment abroad in food processing, a strong U.S. dollar, and NAFTA are found to have negative effects on the U.S. trade balance.Consumer-oriented products, trade balance, trade deficit, exchange rate, International Relations/Trade,