Disaggregated trade and disaggregated currency unions: a ranking of common currency effects

Andrew Rose has long argued that a common currency has a large effect on increasing trade. Recently, Rose has called into question the reliability of this conclusion, as new techniques have emerged for estimating gravity equations. This article uses the sector-specific gravity model developed by Anderson and Yotov (2010a) to investigate if disaggregated trade can provide a reliable estimate of a common currency’s effect. Disaggregating trade alone is insufficient to obtain a reliable estimate of a currency union, regardless of econometric technique, when the effect of a common currency on trade is uniform across all unions. Disaggregating the universe of currency unions with individual effects provides a reliable ranking of currency unions, independent of estimation method, by the effect that each union’s currency has on increasing trade. These rankings differ across sectors

Applying Argumentation Analysis to Assess the Quality of University Oceanography Students' Scientific Writing

This article describes the methods and results of an assessment of students' scientific writing. The study was conducted in an introductory oceanography course in a large public university that used an interactive CD-ROM entitled, "Our Dynamic Planet." The CD provided students with geological data, which they used to build written arguments regarding plate tectonics. Twenty-four student papers from this course were analyzed for quality of written arguments by using both a grading rubric and an argumentation analysis model. Three implications were drawn from these initial studies. First, there is a clear need to help students understand how to use data representations as evidence for more theoretical arguments. Second, student writers need experiences receiving critiques of their own writing and analyzing others' scientific arguments. Third, the actual grading is dependent upon the socialization of the graders themselves (in this case, graduate students). Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Interactive access and management for four-dimensional environmental data sets using McIDAS

Significant accomplishments in the past year are presented and include the following: (1) enhancements to VIS-5D; (2) Implementation of the VIS AD System; and (3) numerical modeling applications. Focus of current research and plans for next year in the following areas are briefly discussed: (1) continued development and application of the VIS-AD system; (2) further enhancements to VIS-5D; and (3) plans for modeling applications

Migration and the Environment: The Case of Philippine Uplands

Modeling the relationship between population growth and migration, this paper shows that destinations with higher average household incomes attract many immigrants. While it is not different from previous studies, this paper utilizes more environmentally based measures of economic opportunity at the destination.natural resources and environment, forestry sector, environmental issues, migration

Executive compensation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Corporate governance-and executive-compensation arrangements in particular-should be an important component of the agenda to reform the housing GSEs. The GSEs' safety-and-soundness regulator-who is essentially the debtholders' and taxpayers' representative-must be admitted to the GSEs' boardroom in a way that is atypical of an ordinary publicly held company. This intrusion into the board's oversight of executive-compensation plans is justified given the GSEs' public purposes and their large potential cost to taxpayers. Prudent public policy requires greater supervisory control over executive compensation at the GSEs, which would follow a precedent set in banking.Government-sponsored enterprises ; Executives - Salaries