Quantum phase transitions in attractive extended Bose-Hubbard Model with three-body constraint

The effect of nearest-neighbor repulsion on the ground-state phase diagrams of three-body constrained attractive Bose lattice gases is explored numerically. When the repulsion is turned on, in addition to the uniform Mott insulating state and two superfluid phases (the atomic and the dimer superfluids), a dimer checkerboard solid state appears at unit filling, where boson pairs form a solid with checkerboard structure. We find also that the first-order transitions between the uniform Mott insulating state and the atomic superfluid state can be turned into the continuous ones as the repulsion is increased. Moreover, the stability regions of the dimer superfluid phase can be extended to modest values of the hopping parameter by tuning the strength of the repulsion. Our conclusions hence shed light on the search of the dimer superfluid phase in real ultracold Bose gases in optical lattices.Comment: 4 + epsilon pages, 5 figures. Rewritten to emphasize the effect of nonzero nearest-neighbor repulsion. Conclusions unchanged. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

ON THE EQUIVALENCE OF IMPORT TARIFF AND QUOTA: THE CASE OF RICE IMPORT IN TAIWAN

This paper extends the existing theory on the equivalence of import tariff and quota. If the equivalence is defined on the domestic price level (weak equivalence), then either the zero conjectural variation for domestic country or a perfectly competitive market will be sufficient to support this equivalence. If the equivalence is defined both on the same domestic price level as well as tariff rate (strong equivalence), then the conditions are that either domestic country acts as a Cournot competitor and foreign country is a price taker, or both domestic and foreign country are price takers. An empirical spatial-equilibrium trade model is constructed to simulate the impacts of import tariff and quota. Using Taiwan¡¦s rice import as an example, the empirical results show that if Taiwan switches from the quota system to tariff system, the domestic rice price as well as total social welfare can be increased given the same import volume.International Relations/Trade,

Is Contract Farming More Profitable and Efficient Than Non-Contract Farming-A Survey Study of Rice Farms In Taiwan

Trade liberalization and globalization has modernized the food retail sector in Taiwan, affecting consumers, producers and trade patterns. These changes have placed significant pressures on farmers and processors including more stringent quality control and product varieties. The government has launched a rice production-marketing contract program in 2005 to assist rice farmers and the agro-business sector to work together as partners. The minimum scale for each contract is 50 hectares of adjacent rice paddies with 50 participants including rice farmers, seedling providers, millers and marketing agents. In order to evaluate the outcome of this program, a survey is conducted in the summer of 2005 after the first (spring) crop is harvested. Information of price and value of output and major variable and fixed inputs are collected along with characteristics of the farmers and farms. The survey results show that the average revenue of a contract farm is about 11 percent higher than an average non-contract farm. The per hectare cost of production in a contract farm is about 13 percent lower and as a result the average profit margin under contract is more than 50 percent above those without contract. A swtiching regression profit frontier model is adopted to further investigate their efficiency performance. The result indicates that an average contract farms is 20 percent more efficient than an average non-contract farm in a comparable operating environment. The result also suggests that although contract farming has potential to improve the profit of smallholders, it is not a sufficient condition for such improvement.Land Economics/Use,