Machinery in the United States, Sweden and Germany: An assessment of changes in comparative advantage

Since the early sixties traditional machinery suppliers, almost exclusively located in highly advanced economies, have been subject to considerable adjustment pressures. Among the most important causes, firstly, was the increasing international penetration of markets among traditional machinery suppliers % secondly, Japan emerged as a vigourous competitor; and thirdly, a number of semiindustrialized countries established mechanical engineering industries of their own which in certain activities even proved capable of successfully competing on the world market. As these events have affected and still affect the international division of labour in the machinery industry, the future role of machinery in highly advanced economies may become somewhat uncertain, particularly as the establishment of machinery industries in developing countries continues. In order to obtain an understanding of implications for the high-income countries, we shall focus on the recent development of machinery in the United States, Sweden, and the Federal Republic of Germany. These countries have been selected for investigation because they belong to the most advanced economies in the world but differ in the size of their domestic market and in their structure of production. Analyzing these countries, the purpose of this paper is firstly, to specify determinants of location for the machinery industry as a whole, and secondly to identify individual branches of machinery, if any, in which these highest-income countries are tending to lose their competitiveness. In part I a multi-country cross-section analysis is undertaken to determine a normal pattern of development for the machinery industry. For the United States, Sweden, and Germany deviations from this normal pattern are used to diagnosticize country-specific idiosyncracies. Besides this, the normal pattern itself has useful prognostic properties. Part II discusses some determinats of location. Changes in relative factor absorption,. as well as economies of scale and national idiosyncracies are examined for their implications on the high-income countries as advantageous locations for the machinery industry. Part III applies the concept of revealed comparative advantage to 36 sub-industries of machinery.

High Order Methods for a Class of Volterra Integral Equations with Weakly Singular Kernels

The solution of the Volterra integral equation, $$( * )\qquad x(t) = g_1 (t) + \sqrt {t}g_2 (t) + \int _0^t \frac {K(t,s,x(s))} {\sqrt {t - s} } ds, \quad 0 \leqq t \leqq T,$$ where $g_1 (t)$, $g_2 (t)$ and $K(t,s,x)$ are smooth functions, can be represented as $x(t) = u(t) + \sqrt {t}v(t)$,$0 \leqq t \leqq T$, where $u(t)$, $v(t)$ are, smooth and satisfy a system of Volterra integral equations. In this paper, numerical schemes for the solution of (*) are suggested which calculate $x(t)$ via $u(t)$, $v(t)$ in a neighborhood of the origin and use (*) on the rest of the interval $0 \leqq t \leqq T$. In this way, methods of arbitrarily high order can be derived. As an example, schemes based on the product integration analogue of Simpson's rule are treated in detail. The schemes are shown to be convergent of order $h^{{7 / 2}}$. Asymptotic error estimates are derived in order to examine the numerical stability of the methods

On the political economy of protection in Germany

At a time when protectionist tendencies are on the upswing world wide once again, it is important to gain evidence on the cause of such movements. Proper diagnosis of the determinants of protection may provide a more promising avenue to avoiding discriminatory economic policies than reiteration of the welfare losses of protection has been able to do. For this purpose Germany constitutes a potentially fruitful case study. First, historically, economic and political regimes have varied widely. Second, institutional conditions at the present are unique enough to warrant and require a closer look at the mechanisms which provide protection. Third, Germany constitutes a large and still relatively liberal market for the products of the less developed and newly industrialized countries. Hence, trade policy developments in Germany are likely to lead to serious repercussions in those countries. The general framework chosen for analysis of German protective mechanisms posits the existence of a political market for protection, and follows from the work of Downs (1957), Buchanan and Tullock (1962), and Ohlson (1965), as well as the application of this principle to international trade and protection issues by a number of authors. Very briefly, the demand for protection on the part of producing units is derived from firms' opportunity costs in eliciting protection; and the supply of protection is derived from governments' opportunity cost in granting protection. In applying this guiding hypothesis to Germany, explanatory variables are sought which messure or proxy those opportunity costs, both on average over time, and across industries at a point in time. The specific hypotheses tested must in part be derived from institutional features peculiar to Germany. In the next section of this paper, this framework is applied historically to the period 1880 - 1978, and in the section thereafter, it is applied to explain the structure of protection in manufacturing industries in 1974. Developments since then are briefly discussed.

Pancreatic cancer risk in hereditary pancreatitis

Inflammation is part of the body's immune response in order to remove harmful stimuli—like pathogens, irritants or damaged cells—and start the healing process. Recurrent or chronic inflammation on the other side seems a predisposing factor for carcinogenesis and has been found associated with cancer development. In chronic pancreatitis mutations of the cationic trypsinogen (PRSS1) gene have been identified as risk factors of the disease. Hereditary pancreatitis (HP) is a rare cause of chronic pancreatic inflammation with an early onset, mostly during childhood. HP often starts with recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis and the clinical phenotype is not very much different from other etiologies of the disease. The long-lasting inflammation however generates a tumor promoting environment and represents a major risk factor for tumor development This review will reflect our knowledge concerning the specific risk of HP patients to develop pancreatic cancer

Mennyi történelemre van szüksége a filozófiának?

Translation of Franks study

Strong coupling of a qubit to shot noise

We perform a nonperturbative analysis of a charge qubit in a double quantum dot structure coupled to its detector. We show that strong detector-dot interaction tends to slow down and halt coherent oscillations. The transitions to a classical and a low-temperature quantum overdamping (Zeno) regime are studied. In the latter, the physics of the dissipative phase transition competes with the effective shot noise.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Presynaptic GABAB receptors inhibit vomeronasal nerve transmission to accessory olfactory bulb mitral cells

Vomeronasal sensory neurons (VSNs) recognize pheromonal and kairomonal semiochemicals in the lumen of the vomeronasal organ. VSNs send their axons along the vomeronasal nerve (VN) into multiple glomeruli of the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) and form glutamatergic synapses with apical dendrites of mitral cells, the projection neurons of the AOB. Juxtaglomerular interneurons release the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Besides ionotropic GABA receptors, the metabotropic GABAB receptor has been shown to modulate synaptic transmission in the main olfactory system. Here we show that GABAB receptors are expressed in the AOB and are primarily located at VN terminals. Electrical stimulation of the VN provokes calcium elevations in VSN nerve terminals, and activation of GABAB receptors by the agonist baclofen abolishes calcium influx in AOB slice preparations. Patch clamp recordings reveal that synaptic transmission from the VN to mitral cells can be completely suppressed by activation of GABAB receptors. A potent GABAB receptor antagonist, CGP 52432, reversed the baclofen-induced effects. These results indicate that modulation of VSNs via activation of GABAB receptors affects calcium influx and glutamate release at presynaptic terminals and likely balances synaptic transmission at the first synapse of the accessory olfactory system