The impact of comprehensive tariff reductions in multilateral trade: further results from computable general equilibrium simulations

Despite their welfare-improving properties, negotiations on tariff reductions remain a highly contentious issue. Using the GTAP general equilibrium approach, this paper identifies potential winners and losers from partial removal of remaining tariffs in disaggregated sectors. By considering alternative approaches to further liberalising trade in three broadly defined sectors (agriculture, textiles and manufacturing), the paper establishes empirically the clear superiority of a comprehensive trade reform package which encompasses all sectors and geographic regions. Trade negotiators at the currently deadlocked Doha Round should take note of this result as a possible means of breaking the impasse.tariffs, CGE model, Doha Round

Regional differences in willingness to pay for organic vegetables

The concern about vegetable safety, together with a booming population and the rise of the middle class has made Vietnam become a potential market for organic vegetables. This paper investigates the determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for organic vegetables in Hanoi, Vietnam with a particular attention to regional differences and the effect of risk perception. Using Contingent Valuation Method to analyze the data from a sample of 498 consumers in Hanoi, the paper shows that the perceived use values of organic vegetables, trust in organic labels, and disposable family income increased WTP for organic vegetables in both urban and rural regions.Though risk perception of conventional vegetables was high in both regions, such heightened risk perception just translated into the WTP in the rural region. In addition, the percentage of home-grown vegetables in the total vegetable consumption of the family influenced the WTP in the rural region only. Moreover, being an organic purchaser was positively related to the WTP in the urban region but not in the rural region. The paper also discusses three policy implications for Vietnam to boost the demand for organic food.fals

An application of the natural trading partner hypothesis to New Zealand- ASEAN trade

The agreement establishing the ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) entered into force in 2010. Full economic impacts of the agreement will not be known until 2020 when 99% of existing tariffs will be phased out in major markets among signatory nations. Using pre-agreement data, this research applies the natural trading partner hypothesis to make an ex-ante assessment of the agreement from New Zealand's perspective. Estimates of key indices show that the results are mixed and the overall welfare gains to New Zealand, if any, are likely to be small.Natural trading partner, ASEAN, New Zealand, Free trade agreement

Importance-performance analysis of retail website service quality

This study intends to empirically explore the customer’s perceived ranking of the importance of a range of on-line services, and their perceptions of the retailers’ performance in delivering these services. An online questionnaire survey has been conducted to gather the data from respondents. The data was analysed using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The findings suggest areas of e-service quality where retailers could improve, based on the customers’ perceptions of the retailers’ performance against the importance of some e-service quality features and/or services on offer. Consequently, this study highlights that retailers should take active steps to understand their customers’ requirements, before developing an online customer services strategy. From a practical perspective, retailers could also apply the questionnaire developed for this study to canvas the opinions of customers, to help identify areas in which their performance needs to be improved

An Analysis of Barriers to and Strategies for Improving Parent Engagement

Research shows that parent engagement can be a useful tool for improving student achievement. But, in many low-income urban schools, encouraging schools and parents to invest in parent engagement is a struggle. This paper explores some of the barriers that exist in low-income urban communities that work to limit parent engagement; it also identifies some of the strategies available to increase the frequency and quality of parent engagement in low-income urban communities

A ROAD AHEAD FROM CANCUN? WEIGHING UP SOME GIVE-AND-TAKE SCENARIOS IN A DDA SPIRIT

Given that around 20 percent of the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are identified as least developed countries (LDC's), global trade negotiations, resumed after the Cancun fiasco of September 2003, must address some major development issues in the spirit of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), if they are to make any headway. This will, predictably, involve some sensible give-and-take not only between the developed countries and the LDC's, but also amongst the LDC's themselves, and between them and other developing countries. Issues of restrictions affecting agricultural trade - a major factor in the failure at Cancun - need re-addressing; but non-agricultural trade issues must also feature in the negotiations as that could make some acceptable policy compromises possible. This paper investigates, in a computable-general-equilibrium (CGE) framework, the welfare impacts on selected developed and developing country groupings of several scenarios of trade liberalisation that are likely to enhance agricultural and non-agricultural trade flows within the LDC's, and between them and other developing countries. The scenarios will involve experimentation with selected commodities that are of special export interest to LDC's to identify some modalities of trade liberalisation and policy reciprocity, that are more likely to be acceptable to all parties.International Relations/Trade,

Saratchandra’s Devdas: A Comparison Between the Original Bengali Text and its Two Hindi Film Adaptations

Saratchandra Chatterjee’s Devdas is one of the most famous novels in Bangla literature, which has become the symbol of a tragic love story in the whole of South Asia. There have been many film versions of the story in various languages. Saratchandra’s storytelling, characterization, and dialogues in the original text made it a popular story for film adaptations. This paper uses theories of narratives in fictions and films in order to compare between the narrative styles of the original Bangla text and its two famous Hindi film adaptations by Bimol Roy (1955), and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2002). It also analyses how Sarat’s characterization was influenced by Victorian novels, and compares the dialogues of the original text with those in its two Hindi film adaptations

Using a business model approach and marketing techniques for recruitment to clinical trials

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