Shifts in U.S. Relative Wages: The Role of Trade, Technology, and Factor Endowments

This paper investigates three hypotheses to account for the observed shifts in U.S. relative wages of less educated workers compared to more educated workers during the period from 1967 to 1992: (1) increased import competition, (2) changes in the relative supplies of labor of different educational levels, and (3) changes in technology. Our analysis relies on a basic relationship of the standard general equilibrium trade model that relates changes in product prices to factor price changes and factor shares, together with information about changes in the composition of output and trade, within-industry factor use, and factor supplies. For the period from 1967 to 1973, we conclude that the relative increase in the supply of well-educated labor was the dominant economic force that narrowed the wage gap among workers of different educational levels. In the 1980s and early 1990s, however, the wage gap between more educated and less educated workers widened sharply, despite the continued relative increase in the supply of workers with more education. We conclude that increased import competition cannot account for the observed increase in inequality among the major education groups, although it could have been a contributory cause of the decrease in the relative wages of the least educated workers. Instead, we find support for technical progress that is saving of less educated labor and that is more rapid in some manufacturing sectors intensively using highly educated labor as the dominant force in widening the wage gaps among college-educated workers, workers with a completed high school education, and workers with 1–11 years of schooling. Finally, we use the Deardorff-Staiger model, which allows changes in the factor content of trade to reveal the effects of trade on relative factor prices. Our empirical tests reinforce the conclusion that increased import competition between 1977 and 1987 was not the dominant force in widening the wage

The Persistence of the U.S. Trade Deficit

macroeconomics, trade deficit, dollar

The Ohio Grain Marketing Legislation of 1982 and 1983

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Diffraction-limited CCD imaging with faint reference stars

By selecting short exposure images taken using a CCD with negligible readout noise we obtained essentially diffraction-limited 810 nm images of faint objects using nearby reference stars brighter than I=16 at a 2.56 m telescope. The FWHM of the isoplanatic patch for the technique is found to be 50 arcseconds, providing ~20% sky coverage around suitable reference stars.Comment: 4 page letter accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Measurements of some parameters of thermal sparks with respect to their ability to ignite aviation fuel/air mixtures

A method used to generate thermal sparks for experimental purposes and methods by which parameters of the sparks, such as speed, size, and temperature, were measured are described. Values are given of the range of such parameters within these spark showers. Titanium sparks were used almost exclusively, since it is particles of this metal which are found to be ejected during simulation tests to carbon fiber composite (CFC) joints. Tests were then carried out in which titanium sparks and spark showers were injected into JP4/(AVTAG F40) mixtures with air. Single large sparks and dense showers of small sparks were found to be capable of causing ignition. Tests were then repeated using ethylene/air mixtures, which were found to be more easily ignited by thermal sparks than the JP4/ air mixtures

Sensitivity of the Exporting Economy on the External Shocks: Evidence from Slovene Firms

In this paper we investigate the export participation of Slovene firms. We first show that sunk costs are an important factor for explaining the export behavior of Slovene firms. Next we show that when the absorption power of the exporting market declines, firms still trade with their established buyers (hysteresis) despite the fact that due to lower prices their exporting revenues decline. We show that this can be explained with high exit costs, which consist of switching costs (costs of replacing stable buyers with new ones) and cost of reducing the production (compensation money for excess workers) and high re-entry costs.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40020/3/wp634.pd

Functional design for operational earth resources ground data processing

The author has identified the following significant results. Study emphasis was on developing a unified concept for the required ground system, capable of handling data from all viable acquisition platforms and sensor groupings envisaged as supporting operational earth survey programs. The platforms considered include both manned and unmanned spacecraft in near earth orbit, and continued use of low and high altitude aircraft. The sensor systems include both imaging and nonimaging devices, operated both passively and actively, from the ultraviolet to the microwave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum

Independence in critical reading: An instructional strategy

Why can\u27t students read critically