Regimes of Temporality: China, Tibet and the Politics of Time in the Post-2008 Era

While the politics of time are an important dimension of Chinese state discourse about Tibet, it remains insufficiently explored in theoretical and practical terms. This article examines the written and visual discourses of Tibetan temporality across Chinese state media in the post-2008 era. It analyses how these media discourses attempt to construct a ‘regime of temporality’ in order to manage public opinion about Tibet and consolidate Chinese rule over the region. While the expansion of online technologies has allowed the state to consolidate its discourses about Tibet’s place within the People’s Republic of China (PRC), they have also provided Tibetans a limited but valuable space to challenge these official representations through counter readings of Tibet’s past, present and future. In doing so, this article contributes new insights on the production of state power over Tibet, online media practices in China, and the disruptive potential of social media as sites of Tibetan counter discourses

A primer on static applied general equilibrium models

In this paper, we describe and analyze the basic structure of the applied general equilibrium (AGE) models used to assess the effects of government trade policies. Once we have constructed the basic model, we extend it to cover features such as increasing returns to scale, imperfect competition, and differentiated products, following the AGE modeling trend of the past 10 years. We then compare a static AGE model's predictions with the actual data on how Spain was affected by entering the European Community and find that, when exogenous effects are included, a static AGE model's predictions are fairly accurate.Econometric models

Capturing NAFTA's impact with applied general equilibrium models

We examine the results of four static applied general equilibrium (AGE) modeling teams' analyses of the effects of NAFTA. What they show is that Mexico's economy, because it's the smallest, will see the biggest NAFTA-produced increase in economic welfare: from 2 to 5 percent of GDP. The U.S. welfare increase will be small, around 0.1 percent of GDP; Canada will notice no welfare increase due to NAFTA. We then discuss two examples of dynamic phenomena—labor force adjustment and capital flows—which are likely to influence NAFTA's welfare impact, but that aren't easy to incorporate into static AGE models. Early results indicate that this is an important direction for future study.North American Free Trade Agreement

Policy-Driven Productivity in Chile and Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s

Both Chile and Mexico experienced severe economic crises in the early 1980s, but Chile recovered much faster than did Mexico. Using growth accounting and a calibrated dynamic general equilibrium model, we conclude that the crucial determinant of this difference between the two countries was the faster productivity growth in Chile, rather than higher investment or employment. Our hypothesis is that this difference in productivity was driven by earlier policy reforms in Chile, the most crucial of which were in banking and bankruptcy procedures. We propose a theoretical framework in which government policy affects both the allocation of resources and the composition of firms.

A decade lost and found: Mexico and Chile in the 1980s

Chile and Mexico experienced severe economic crises in the early 1980s. This paper analyzes four possible explanations for why Chile recovered much faster than did Mexico. Comparing data from the two countries allows us to rule out a monetarist explanation, an explanation based on falls in real wages and real exchange rates, and a debt overhang explanation. Using growth accounting, a calibrated growth model, and economic theory, we conclude that the crucial difference between the two countries was the earlier policy reforms in Chile that generated faster productivity growth. The most crucial of these reforms were in banking and bankruptcy procedures.Depressions ; Productivity

How to Advance Theory with Structural VARs: Use the Sims-Cogley-Nason Approach

The common approach to evaluating a model in the structural VAR literature is to compare the impulse responses from structural VARs run on the data to the theoretical impulse responses from the model. The Sims-Cogley-Nason approach instead compares the structural VARs run on the data to identical structural VARs run on data from the model of the same length as the actual data. Chari, Kehoe, and McGrattan (2006) argue that the inappropriate comparison made by the common approach is the root of the problems in the SVAR literature. In practice, the problems can be solved simply. Switching from the common approach to the Sims-Cogley-Nason approach basically involves changing a few lines of computer code and a few lines of text. This switch will vastly increase the value of the structural VAR literature for economic theory.

Aircraft flight flutter testing at the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility

Many parameter identification techniques have been used at the NASA Ames Research Center, Dryden Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base to determine the aeroelastic stability of new and modified research vehicles in flight. This paper presents a summary of each technique used with emphasis on fast Fourier transform methods. Experiences gained from application of these techniques to various flight test programs are discussed. Also presented are data-smoothing techniques used for test data distorted by noise. Data are presented for various aircraft to demonstrate the accuracy of each parameter identification technique discussed

Patrick Kehoe's comment on "Determinants of business cycle comovement: a robust analysis" by Marianne Baxter and Michael Kouparitsas

This paper by Baxter and Kouparitsas is an ambitious attempt to explore which variables are robust in explaining the correlations of bilateral GDP between countries at business cycle frequencies. Most of the variables turned out to be fragile. The main contribution is to show that countries with large amounts of bilateral trade tend to have robustly higher business cycle correlations. Another interesting finding is that neither currency unions nor industrial structure are robustly related to business cycle correlations.Business cycles - Econometric models