Is Aid for Trade Effective? A Panel Quantile Regression Approach

This paper investigates whether Aid for Trade (AfT) leads to greater exports in recipient countries. Using panel data and panel quantile regression techniques, our results suggest that total AfT disbursements promote the export of goods and services, but is limited primarily to exporters above the .35 quantile of the conditional distribution of exports. When disaggregating by type of AfT, we find that aid to improve trade policy and regulation is not associated with higher exports. Aid to build productive capacity is effective for almost all quantiles of the export distribution but the 10th, with the effect being stronger at the higher tails of the conditional distribution. Aid used to build infrastructure is found to affect exports only at the 0.10 quantile. In contrast, aid disbursed for general budget support (an untargeted type of aid) is not associated with greater export levels irrespective of the quantile

Is Aid for Trade Effective? A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper investigates whether Aid for Trade (AfT) improves export performance, i.e. does AfT lead to greater exports? Using panel data and panel quantile regression, our results suggest that overall AfT disbursements promote the export of goods and services mainly for the .50 and .75 quantiles. Our results also show that for some types of AfT this effect essentially vanishes at the lower tail of the conditional distribution of exports. Hence, countries that export more in volume are those benefiting most from AfT. We also investigate which types of AfT are effective. In particular, we find that aid used to build production capacity is effective. This type of aid is associated with higher exports for almost all quantiles, with the effect increasing at the upper tail of the conditional distribution. Aid used to build infrastructure is also found to affect exports at the upper tail of the distribution. In contrast, aid for trade policy and aid disbursed for general budget support (an untargeted type of aid) are not associated with greater export levels. This finding holds true irrespective of the quantile

Los Alamos National Laboratory and technology transfer

From its beginning in 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) has traditionally used science and technology to fine creative, but practical solutions to complex problems. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California, under contact to the Department of Energy. We are a Government Owned-contractor Operated (GOCO) facility, and a Federally-funded research and Development Center (FFRDC). At Los Alamos, our mission is to apply science and engineering capabilities to problems of national security. Recently our mission has been broadened to include technology transfer to ensure the scientific and technical solutions are available to the marketplace. We are, in staff and technical capabilities, one of the worlds largest multidisciplinary, multiprogram laboratories. We conduct extensive research in energy, nuclear safeguards and security, biomedical science, conventional defense technologies, space science, computational science, environmental protection and cleanup, materials science, and other basic sciences. Since 1980, by a series of laws and executive orders, the resources of the federal laboratories have been made increasingly available to private industry via technology transfer efforts. Los Alamos National Laboratory uses a variety of technology transfer methods including laboratory visits, cooperative research, licensing, contract research, user facility access, personnel exchanges, consulting, publications, and workshops, seminars and briefings. We also use unique approaches, such as our negotiating teams, to ensure that transfer of our developed technology takes place in an open and competitive manner. During my presentation, I will discuss the overall process and some of the mechanism that we use at Los Alamos to transfer laboratory developed technology