Firm heterogeneity and comparative advantage: the response of French firms to Turkey's entry in the European Customs Union

I analyse the effects of a reduction in the tariffs of a trading partner on the exports of domestic firms. More precisely, I focus on how cross-industry differences in factor intensities and within-industry differences in firm productivities shape the response of the extensive (decision to export) and the intensive (exported volumes per firm) margins of exports. I examine the response of French firms to the reduction of Turkish import tariffs that followed the entry of Turkey into the European Customs Union in 1996. A reduction in tariffs increases the probability to export and, surprisingly, the effect is stronger in comparatively disadvantaged sectors. I provide a possible explanation using a partial equilibrium model which includes firm-level heterogeneity and sector-level comparative advantage. In this model, as trade partner tariffs fall, the productivity threshold separating exporters from non-exporters decreases more in comparatively disadvantaged sectors. This occurs because, even if the productivity threshold to enter the export market falls in the same proportion as tariffs in all sectors, its level was initially higher in comparatively disadvantaged ones.heterogeneous firms, Custom Union, intensive and extensive margins

A Dual Measure of Uncertainty: The Deng Extropy

The extropy has recently been introduced as the dual concept of entropy. Moreover, in the context of the Dempster–Shafer evidence theory, Deng studied a new measure of discrimination, named the Deng entropy. In this paper, we define the Deng extropy and study its relation with Deng entropy, and examples are proposed in order to compare them. The behaviour of Deng extropy is studied under changes of focal elements. A characterization result is given for the maximum Deng extropy and, finally, a numerical example in pattern recognition is discussed in order to highlight the relevance of the new measure

Backward recalculation of seasonal series affected by economic crisis: a Model-Based-Link method for the case of Turkish GDP

When attempting to deal with the recalculation process, it is hard to answer the question “Does the recalculated series include economic events and seasonal behaviours in the past?”. This paper discusses some alternative backward recalculation methods and presents the applications and their results relative to the Turkish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series. Using comparative analysis, it is shown that ordinary ARIMA forecasts and signal extraction methods are not successful at taking into account past events in the backward recalculated series. A new innovative method, named Modelbased-link, is then proposed and suggested by the authors in order to be able to take past economic events and seasonal patterns into account when the series is to be backward recalculated. A first application of this new method is run on the quarterly series of the Turkish GDP. In addition, it is shown that the Model-based-link method can be extended to data sets of different frequencies (i.e. annual data). Consequently, it can be claimed that a comparable recalculated quarterly and annual Turkish GDP series for forthcoming data is obtained. The paper is structured as following: section 1 introduces the reader to the state of the art in the current literature; section 2 defines the information set to be backward recalculated and presents some statistics on the data while section 3 presents the main methodological statistical aspects of classical methods compared to the methodological scheme of the Model-based-link that can be used for the recalculation process. Section 4 presents results of the methods mentioned in the previous section and section 5 discusses the extension of the Model-based-link method to monthly data and includes an application for annual data; section 6 concludes. Finally, section 7 presents topics for discussion and challenges for continuation of the analysis

The effect of the Uruguay Round on the intensive and extensive margins of trade

Do tariffs inhibit trade flows by limiting the entry of exporting firms (`extensive margin') or by restricting the average volume exported by each firm (`intensive margin')? Using a gravity equation approach, we analyze how the decrease in tariffs promoted during the 1990s by the Uruguay Round multilateral trade agreement affected the trade margins of French firms across 57 sectors and in 147 countries, from 1993 to 2002. Our main contribution is to estimate the elasticity of trade for both margins, controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity of trade flows thanks to a three-dimensional panel and to time-varying tariffs as a measure of variable trade costs. Our results show that the number of firms exporting in a given sector to a given destination is related to the level of tariffs. But they also show that the decrease in tariffs determined by the implementation of the Uruguay Round did not lead more firms to export and instead, only encouraged incumbent exporters to increase their shipments. We control for two problems that may affect our basic specification: tariff changes may be endogenous and zero flows are not included. Our results are confirmed - even when the extensive margin is significant, its contribution is very small.tariffs, trade margins, Uruguay Round

The Effect of the Uruguay round on the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade

Do tariffs inhibit trade flows by limiting the entry of exporting firms (extensive margin') or by restricting the average volume exported by each firm (intensive margin')? Using a gravity equation approach, we analyze how the decrease in tariffs promoted during the 1990s by the Uruguay Round multilateral trade agreement affected the trade margins of French firms across 57 sectors and in 147 countries, from 1993 to 2002. Our main contribution is to estimate the elasticity of trade for both margins, controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity of trade flows thanks to a three-dimensional panel and to time-varying tariffs as a measure of variable trade costs. Our results show that the number of firms exporting in a given sector to a given destination is related to the level of tariffs. But they also show that the decrease in tariffs determined by the implementation of the Uruguay Round did not lead more firms to export and instead, only encouraged incumbent exporters to increase their shipments. We control for two problems that may affect our basic specification: tariffs changes may be endogenous and zero flows are not included. Our results are confirmed - even when the extensive margin is significant, its contribution is very small.Tariffs, Trade margins, Uruguay Round

Codimension-two bifurcations in animal aggregation models with symmetry

Pattern formation in self-organized biological aggregation is a phenomenon that has been studied intensively over the past 20 years. In general, the studies on pattern formation focus mainly on identifying the biological mechanisms that generate these patterns. However, identifying the mathematical mechanisms behind these patterns is equally important, since it can offer information on the biological parameters that could contribute to the persistence of some patterns and the disappearance of other patterns. Also, it can offer information on the mechanisms that trigger transitions between different patterns (associated with different group behaviors). In this article, we focus on a class of nonlocal hyperbolic models for self-organized aggregations and show that these models are ${{\bf O(2)}}$-equivariant. We then use group-theoretic methods, linear analysis, weakly nonlinear analysis, and numerical simulations to investigate the large variety of patterns that arise through ${{\bf O(2)}}$-symmetric codimension-two bifurcations (i.e., Hopf/Hopf, steady-state/Hopf, and steady-state/steady-state mode interactions). We classify the bifurcating solutions according to their isotropy types (subgroups), and we determine the criticality and stability of primary branches of solutions. We numerically show the existence of these solutions and determine scenarios of secondary bifurcations. Also, we discuss the secondary bifurcating solutions from the biological perspective of transitions between different group behaviors.© 2014, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematic

AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION Flash Estimate 2004 and Forecast 2005

forecast, flash estimates

Experimental analysis of decoherence of quantumness in a continuous variables bi-partite entangled system

Quantum properties are soon subject to decoherence once the quantum system interacts with the classical environment. In this paper we experimentally test how propagation losses, in a Gaussian channel, affect the bi-partite Gaussian entangled state generated by a sub-threshold type-II optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Experimental results are discussed in terms of different quantum markers, as teleportation fidelity, quantum discord and mutual information, and continuous variables (CV) entanglement criteria. To analyse state properties we have retrieved the composite system covariance matrix by a single homodyne detector. We experimentally found that, even in presence of a strong decoherence, the generated state never disentangles and keeps breaking the quantum limit for the discord. This result proves that the class of CV entangled states discussed in this paper would allow, in principle, to realize quantum teleportation over an infinitely long Gaussian channel.Comment: 17 pages, one column, revtex, 8 figures to appear on Phys. Rev.

Quantification Method for In-Vitro Tissue Culture Plants Morphology using Object Tracking and Digital Image Analysis

Manual measurement of morphology variables on in-vitro stored plants usually cause either physical damage or microorganism infection such that further monitoring of their in-vitro performance is precluded. This study adapted computer vision technology by which it is possible to conduct such measurement without physical contact or destructive test. Moreover, by applying object tracking and pattern recognition technique in the algorithm, the system could provide automatic and real time analysis. It was shown that this quantification method reach 80.2% and 87.9% in the measurement of leaf area and chlorophyll intensity. Intensity histogram and Fourier spectrum found to be the best feature for leaf recognition and interpolation usage to adjust pixel amount over the camera distance provide better estimation on leaf area