RCAs within Western Europe

This paper analyses the revealed comparative advantage for six European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. The results can be summarized as the follows: Italy always had a trade specialisation index which was well above average. Apart from Italy, whose trade performance index decreased substantially, changes in the trade performance index were fairly small. Austria, Germany and the Netherlands faced increasing average RCA-values (but they remain positive), while France, Italy and the United Kingdom faced decreasing average RCA-values. Italy's RCA-value correlated negatively with the other countries (except for the correlation between Italy and France), while the other countries (Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) faced a positive correlation with each other. The top ten sectors with the highest RCA-value, shared about 50 % of total exports in France, Germany and the Netherlands. In the other three countries, the share was less than 40%. Regarding the top five sectors, specialization can be found only in Germany (>40 %) and the Netherlands (>30 %) whereas in the other countries the share was less than 20%. Germany and the Netherlands were the countries, in which most of the top 10 export sectors in 2005 also had CCA. The other countries had several top 10 export sectors with RCA-indicators significantly below the CCA-benchmarks. --Revealed Comparative Advantage,Comparative Cost Advantage,Trade Specialisation

Jobs gained and lost through trade: The case of Germany

The nature of international trade has changed significantly. For centuries, trade concentrated on the exchange of finished goods. It now increasingly involves bits of value that are added at different locations to combine into one final product. Therefore, trade in functions or tasks are of growing importance and exports of final goods are no longer an appropriate indicator of the international competitiveness of countries. The process of globalisation has an impact on domestic labour markets. Due to the increasing integration of the world economy, some jobs are gained and others lost in any open economy. Concerns about German workers losing jobs to foreign competition dominate many political debates. Many people fear that being integrated in the world economy is disadvantageous for Germany. In this paper, we use input-output analysis to explore the relationship between trade and both job creation and job destruction in Germany over the period 1995-2006. We present two main findings. First, in an autarkic situation, around 7.0 per cent of total German jobs would not have existed at all in 2006. The job effect of trade was positive in every reporting year. Second, the manufacturing sector contributed most to this positive job effect, but also in the service sector, many jobs were retained through trade. --input-output analysis,international trade,employment

Sectoral job effects of trade: An input-output analysis for Germany

The current globalisation process is characterized by the emergence of global value chains. That is, production processes are becoming increasingly geographically fragmented. Not only are final goods traded internationally, but in particular, trade in intermediate goods and services has increased significantly over time. In the industrialised countries, the manufacturing sectors were the first that were compelled to face the challenges of globalisation. When services were still considered non-tradable, manufacturing firms had already decided to relocate their production sites to developing or emerging economies, due to lower wage levels abroad and increasing price competition domestically. In this paper, we use input-output analysis to explore the relationship between trade and both job creation and job destruction in the German manufacturing industry in 2005. The results show that being integrated into the world economy is advantageous for the German economy. In 2005, the net exports of the manufacturing industries led to trade-induced job gains of around 2,400,000. This figure is equivalent to 6.2 per cent of total German employment. Furthermore, the job effects of trade were positive for a large majority of countries. The greatest job gains resulted from trade with the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Interestingly, even trade with the new EU Member States is beneficial in terms of job creation. --input-output analysis,international trade,employment

The value of transactions in the new data economy

Along with tools for video-calls, cashless payment has been among one of the technologies that gained new momentum during the global pandemic. While paying with a credit or debit card has been an everyday practice for some time, mobile and contactless payments are increasingly welcome and used in many Western countries. However, most of these new payment technologies are not necessarily developed by banks, and more often stem from the so-called Big Tech companies (PayPal, Apple, Google, Amazon). The question of how money alters its meaning with the way that it is circulated lies at the heart of Lana Swartz’s book, New Money: How Payment Became Social Media

Ethical Issues for Lawyers on the Internet and World-Wide Web

The Internet is experiencing explosive growth. The global World Wide Web and Internet are being embraced by the legal community at a phenomenal pace. More and more lawyers are using the Web to promote their practices, disseminate information, communicate with clients and prospective clients, conduct legal research, and carry on the practice of law. This growing use of the Web by lawyers, both nationally and internationally, is raising numerous complex ethical questions

Secondary zoospores in the algal endoparasite Maullinia ectocarpii (Plasmodiophorea).

The present paper deals with the ultrastructure of zoospores produced by the plasmodiophorid Maullinia ectocarpii , living in the marine algal host Ectocarpus siliculosus. The zoospores described here are very similar to secondary zoospores of Polymyxa graminis and Phagomyxa sp. (the latter an algal endopara- site, also). Our results indicate that M. ectocarpii produces two types of plasmodia, and suggest that is a species with a complete life cycle, as it is known for all the Plasmodiophormycota that have been studied. Sporogenic and sporangial plasmodia produce, respectively, primary zoospores with parallel flagella within thick walled resting sporangia, and secondary zoospores with opposite flagella within thin walled sporangia.Fil: Parodi, Elisa Rosalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Caceres, Eduardo Jorge. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Laboratorio de Ficología y Micología; ArgentinaFil: Westermeier, Renato. Universidad Austral de Chile; ChileFil: Muller, Dieter G.. Universität Konstanz; Alemani