International Trade, Foreign Investment, and the Formation of the Entrepreneurial Class

In this paper, I examine the argument that free trade may be harmful to less developed countries, because such international competition inhibits the formation of a local entrepreneurial class.I view the entrepreneur as the manager of the industrial enterprise, as well as the agent who bears the risks associated with industrial production. A two-sector model of a small open economy is developed in which the size of the entrepreneurial class is endogenous.It is shown that the entrepreneurial class is smaller under free trade than would be first-best optimal in the presence of efficient risk-sharing institutions such as stock markets. Nonetheless, there are potential gains from trade, and any protectionist policy that increases the number of entrepreneurs will have deleterious welfare consequences.

Imports as a Cause of Injury: The Case of the U.S. Steel Industry

Recently, the United States International Trade Commission conducted a Section 201 or "escape clause" hearing to determine whether imports have been the most significant cause of injury to the U.S. steel industry. This paper suggests a methodology for conducting the necessary analysis for such determinations, and applies it to the case of the steel industry. First, a reduced-form equation for steel industry employment is derived and estimated. The equation specifies industry employment as a function of the price of imported steel, the price of energy, the price of iron ore, a time trend, real income and (in one variant) the wage rate in the steel industry. The estimated coefficients are used to perform counter factual simulations, which allow us to attribute changes in industry employment to their proximate causes. The analysis reveals that for the period from 1976 to 1983, a secular shift away from employment in the steel industry has been the most important cause of injury. For the shorter period from 1979 to 1983, secular shift and import competition are roughly equal in importance, with the latter being entirely the result of the substantial appreciation of the U.S. dollar during this period.

International Competition and the Unionized Sector

This paper studies the wage and employment behavior of a unionized sector that is confronted by an intensification of international competition. After developing a formal model of a monopoly union subject to majority rule, I study the response of a unionized sector operating under a seniority rule for layoffs and rehires to a trend decrease in the international price of its output. Conditions are provided to validate the casual argument that majority voting in unions and the seniority system together provide an explanation for the lack of union wage adjustment. A modified version of the model allows the job queue to deviate from a strict seniority ranking. In this context I ask, what importance can be attached to the seniority system in determining the wage response to international competition?

Paving the Way for Success in High School and Beyond: The Importance of Preparing Middle School Students for the Transition to Ninth Grade

P/PV's GroundWork series summarizes available evidence on a variety of social policy topics, providing a firm foundation for future work.This second brief in the series presents an overview of issues surrounding the ninth grade transition: why it is so important; why many middle school students find it so difficult; traits related to a successful transition; and what schools can do to ease difficulties in the transition. Research indicates that students unprepared to handle the transition are more likely to disengage from school, which in turn may lead to dropping out -- and a host of related problems, thus perpetuating a cycle of poverty for disadvantaged, low-income youth

The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage with their Schools

P/PV's GroundWork series summarizes available evidence on a variety of social policy topics, providing a solid foundation for future work.This first issue reviews the current literature about the potential benefits of simultaneously providing three services in school -- healthcare, out-of-school-time learning and family supports -- to boost students' educational outcomes. For disadvantaged, low-income youth, research indicates that access to these supports can play a key role in helping them surmount common obstacles to educational attainment. In addition to highlighting how each affects key outcomes such as learning, school connectedness (i.e., positive feelings about school) and access to needed services, this brief summarizes the potential benefits of offering these resources through a highly integrated, school-based model

The CKM matrix and CP Violation

The status of CP violation and the CKM matrix is reviewed. Direct CP violation in B decay has been established and the measurement of sin(2beta) in \psi K modes reached 5% accuracy. I discuss the implications of these, and of the possible deviations of the CP asymmetries in b->s modes from that in \psi K. The first meaningful measurements of alpha and gamma are explained, together with their significance for constraining both the SM and new physics in B-Bbar mixing. I also discuss implications of recent developments in the theory of nonleptonic decays for B->pi K rates and CP asymmetries, and for the polarization in charmless B decays to two vector mesons.Comment: Plenary talk at 32nd International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP'04), August 16-22, 2004, Beijing, China. v2: Table 5 corrected, minor changes in some averages (updated to hfag, that include correlations between S and C). v3: Figure 8 fixed, minor final change

Despite Regulatory Changes, Hospitals Cautious in Helping Physicians Purchase Electronic Medical Records

Examines hospitals' strategies to aid physicians' adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) following regulatory changes facilitating hospital-subsidized EMRs. Looks at factors determining support for physicians' EMR adoption and their implications

Comparative Advantage and Long-Run Growth

We construct a dynamic, two-country model of trade and growth in which endogenous technological progress results from the profit-maximizing behavior of entrepreneurs. We study the role that the external trading environment and that trade and industrial policies play in the determination of long-run growth rates. We find that cross-country differences in efficiency at R&D versus manufacturing (i.e. comparative advantage) bear importantly on the growth effects of economic structure and commercial policies. Our analysis allows for both natural and acquired comparative advantage, and we discuss the primitive determinants of the latter.

Outsourcing in a Global Economy

We study the determinants of the location of sub-contracted activity in a general equilibrium model of outsourcing and trade. We model outsourcing as an activity that requires search for a partner and relationship-specific investments that are governed by incomplete contracts. The extent of international outsourcing depends inter alia on the thickness of the domestic and foreign market for input suppliers, the relative cost of searching in each market, the relative cost of customizing inputs, and the nature of the contracting environment in each country.outsourcing, imperfect contracting, trade in intermediate goods, intra-industry trade

A tunable line filter polychromator for gas temperature measurements using laser Raman scattering

A proprietary laser line filter spectrograph (LLFS) was modified to test for improved remote measurement of atmospheric temperature by Raman spectroscopy of the rotational bands of N2 and O2. Both grating scan measurements with fixed PMT and polychromator image plane PMT scans with fixed grating setting were made using HeNe and Ar(+) lasers. The LLFS was found to have a laser line rejection ratio at 6A from the laser line and provides resolved rotational Raman spectral display at the polychromator exit plane. Spectral resolution is adequate to measure and correct for background in the Stokes spectrum. It is anticipated that this system should allow measurement of gas or atmospheric temperature to + or - 1 C