Savings Promotion, Investment Promotion, and International Competitiveness

In an open economy, savings- and investment-promoting policies may have very different effects on the capital account and on the viability of export-oriented and import-competing industries. The nature of the effects is often ambiguous in analytical models. This paper employs a simulation model that combines a detailed treatment of industry interactions, attention to adjustment dynamics, and an integrated treatment of current and capital account transactions to investigate these effects in both the short and long run. We focus on the different effects of savings- and investment-promoting U.S. tax policies on the viability of U.S. export industries. We compare results under the assumption of no international capital mobility (and no international asset transactions) with those under the assumption of full international mobility (which assumes no barriers to or costs of such transactions). Within the case of capital mobility, we consider the importance of the degree of international asset substitutability -- the extent to which individuals respond to differences in anticipated rates of return by altering their portfolios. Simulation results show that the impacts on export industries differ fundamentally depending on the degree of international capital mobility. In the absence of such mobility, savings- and investment- promoting policies have similar effects on U.S. export industries, with insubstantial effects in the short run and larger. beneficial long-run effects that reflect increases in the productiveness of the U.S. economy. Once international capital mobility is accounted for, however, the effects of the two policies differ from one another in both the short and long run. Subsidizing saving helps U.S. export industries initially but hurts them over the longer term. The reverse is true for a policy that subsidizes investment. These differences, which are robust across a range of model specifications and parameter assumptions, stem from the very different implications of the two types of policies for the capital account of the balance of payments.

Spatial analysis of volatile organic compounds in South Philadelphia using passive samplers

<p>Select volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured in the vicinity of a petroleum refinery and related operations in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, using passive air sampling and laboratory analysis methods. Two-week, time-integrated samplers were deployed at 17 sites, which were aggregated into five site groups of varying distances from the refinery. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers (BTEX) and styrene concentrations were higher near the refinery’s fenceline than for groups at the refinery’s south edge, mid-distance, and farther removed locations. The near fenceline group was significantly higher than the refinery’s north edge group for benzene and toluene but not for ethylbenzene or xylene isomers; styrene was lower at the near fenceline group versus the north edge group. For BTEX and styrene, the magnitude of estimated differences generally increased when proceeding through groups ever farther away from the petroleum refining. Perchloroethylene results were not suggestive of an influence from refining. These results suggest that emissions from the refinery complex contribute to higher concentrations of BTEX species and styrene in the vicinity of the plant, with this influence declining as distance from the petroleum refining increases.</p> <p><i>Implications</i>: Passive sampling methodology for VOCs as discussed here is employed in recently enacted U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Methods 325A/B for determination of benzene concentrations at refinery fenceline locations. Spatial gradients of VOC concentration near the refinery fenceline were discerned in an area containing traffic and other VOC-related sources. Though limited, these findings can be useful in application of the method at such facilities to ascertain source influence.</p