High-value Goods Research Articles

The influence of oil price on maritime routing of containerized imports from China

US West Coast ports have long been the principal gateway for container imports originating in Northeast Asia and destined for the Eastern United States. However, West Coast ports are losing market share to US Gulf and East Coast ports (USG&ECP). This study investigates the role oil prices may have played in the observed cargo shift. Logistic regression is used to predict the proportion of containerized imports from China shipped on the all-water route directly to USG&ECP based on trade data published by the US Census Bureau. The model employs three predictor variables: oil price, US West Coast labor strife and railroad rates. The model suggests oil price is positively correlated with the proportion of containerized imports from China shipped to USG&ECP and that oil price has a greater influence on the proportion of low value goods than high value goods shipped on the all-water route. Sensitivity tests based on model parameters are preformed to evaluate how future volatility in oil markets might influence maritime routing of containerized imports from China to the United States.

Vicarious Belongingness

There is empirical evidence that mortality salience (MS) influences effects of advertisements. For instance, mere exposure to high-value goods can enhance cultural worldview and self-esteem and thus act as a buffer against existential anguish. Besides cultural worldview and self-esteem, close relationships can help to reduce existential anguish. Drawing upon terror management theory (TMT), the current study addressed the question of whether MS combined with emotional commercials influences perception of the ads as well as further behavior. We compared the effects of socioemotional versus informational ads after MS induction, measuring perceived emotionality of the ads, evaluation of ads and products, recall, and buying intention. Significant effects were found in all outcome variables, except for recall, supporting the hypothesis that under MS induction, commercials with a socioemotional content can enhance advertisement impact.

Reducing Poverty through Community Based Forest Management in Asia

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the role and potential of community based forest management (CBFM)1 as a vehicle for poverty reduction. Some analysts suggest that CBFM initiatives have limited potential for poverty reduction because they are prone to elite capture; focus on low value, degraded forests; emphasise forests rather than integrated NR based livelihood development; and because of the high transaction costs facing the poorest of the poor in harnessing high-value goods such as timber. This paper proposes that CBFM has the potential to help the poor cope with or even begin to move out of poverty, but this potential is as yet only partially realised. We examine the issues involved in promoting CBFM as a vehicle for poverty reduction and review selected pro-poor approaches to CBFM in the Asian region. We conclude that there are three key areas in which more work is needed by CBFM professionals in order to harness the poverty reduction potential of community forestry: governance, appropriate enterprise development and integrated approaches. Keywords: poverty reduction, pro-poor, community based forest management, livelihoods, enterprise, governance doi: 10.3126/jfl.v5i1.1983 Journal of Forest and Livelihood 5(1) February, 2006 pp.78-89

Protecting buying agents in e-marketplaces by direct experience trust modelling

In this paper, we describe a framework for modelling the trustworthiness of sellers in the context of an electronic marketplace where multiple selling agents may offer the same good with different qualities and selling agents may alter the quality of their goods. We consider that there may be dishonest sellers in the market (for example, agents who offer goods with high quality and later offer the same goods with very low quality). In our approach, buying agents use a combination of reinforcement learning and trust modelling to enhance their knowledge about selling agents and hence their opportunities to purchase high value goods in the marketplace. This paper focuses on presenting the theoretical results demonstrating how the modelling of trust can protect buying agents from dishonest selling agents. The results show that our proposed buying agents will not be harmed infinitely by dishonest selling agents and therefore will not incur infinite loss, if they are cautious in setting their penalty factor. We also discuss the value of our particular model for trust, in contrast with related work and conclude with directions for future research.

Grey Power: An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Parallel Imports on Market Prices

The persistence of price discrimination across international markets with falling costs of unofficial importing is both paradox and policy concern. E-commerce facilitates a “grey” market in parallel imports, particularly for high-value goods such as electronics. This paper explores the impact of unofficial imports on price using a panel of product markets mediated via an Internet shopbot. It finds the presence of an import model lowers prices across the market. However, unlike the refurbished model it is not simply an inferior substitute. The import price discount increases over the model life cycle, suggesting that model-specific preferences fall as each model ages.

Standards for transport of perishable goods are still adequate?: Connections between standards and technologies in perishable foodstuffs transport

The ATP – Agreement on the international carriage of perishable foodstuffs and on the special equipment to be used for such carriage has been signed by almost all Countries in Europe, by the USA and many other countries. It provides effective rules for the certification of the refrigerated vehicles used for land and rail transport of certain kinds of foodstuffs, with the purpose of ensuring their safety. This paper aims to put a question about the opportunity to extend the application of the ATP to other perishable foodstuffs or high value goods. For some of them it is a matter of safety, but also quality of perishable products is to be considered. Rejection of damaged or poor quality goods has a significant cost which could be reduced with a more stringent regulation of the transport conditions.

The knowledge society

In 2007, global investments in R&D have increased by 7% on the previous year and have reached an absolute historical peak, exceeding for the first time the threshold of 1,100 billion dollars (calculated in the hypothesis of a purchasing power parity between the currencies). The world invests in scientific research and technological development 2.1% of the wealth it produces. At the same time, there has been an increase in the exchange of high added-knowledge value goods and high tech represents now the most dynamic sector of the world economy.

The U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Passed?

This article presents a critique of the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) as a flawed method of collecting revenues and dispersing benefits. Looking at how it is applied on the Great Lakes of the U.S., a small container of high-value goods is taxed more heavily than an entire shipload of raw material for steel fabrication. It also details legal challenges in recent years, including a decision that exempted exports from the tax, though imports and domestic items are still subject to it. The result has made the HMT inherently unfair, the author argues, since exports put as much demand on harbor facilities as imports and domestic goods. Also, because it is based on a cargo's value, high-value items are steered away from water-borne transport, which is the most fuel efficient under some conditions. Additional objections and criticism are listed, including difficulty in enforcement, suppression of innovation in water-borne transportation, especially on the Great Lakes, forcing container cargo to Canadian ports and problems with how HMT revenues are distributed. Attempts to address many of these flaws are also detailed.

Exportações estaduais no Brasil: estimativas para as elasticidades preço e renda

State exports in Brazil: estimates of price and income elasticities. This paper analyses the recent performance of Brazilian exports, based on estimates of price and income elasticities of states external sellings. After presenting an overview of the national position, the aim is to check if, by exporting dynamic goods of high value, some of them were able to achieve an external position different from Brazilian’s. Nevertheless, the results, as the ones obtained by other empirical works, indicate that all but one states have inelastic exports with respect to both prices and income.

The use of the internet as a marketing channel for Irish speciality food

PurposeOnline shopping is one of the most rapidly growing forms of shopping and provides a global shop window for producers who wish to sell and market their products. This paper seeks to investigate the internet as an alternative distribution channel for Irish producers of speciality food products.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data collection involved consumer focus groups, a producer web audit, producer depth interviews and an e‐mailed online producer survey.FindingsConsumers of speciality food appear to trade off the convenience and variety potentially available with online shopping for the sales experience associated with more traditional outlets, particularly speciality food outlets and direct sales channels. Nonetheless, the internet can be a significant sales channel for some speciality food producers with products of specific attributes, e.g. high value goods, and products with elaborate and gift‐oriented packaging and for those targeting consumers with previous purchase experience. For the majority of producers, the internet can complement other marketing channels and its role in managing information and relationships may be more important than online sales. Significant challenges exist for speciality food producers to use the internet as a significant sales channel.Originality/valueThe paper considers food as a category comprising a number of different types of products based on their search, credence and experience characteristics. It applies this categorisation to speciality food and examines the influence of these characteristics on the role of the internet as both a sales and marketing channel in Ireland. It uses both consumer and producer perspectives in the analysis.

Monetary fundamentals and rupee-U.S.$ behaviour: an Indian evidence - pre and Post liberalization

The paper examines different forms of money demand functions and derives reduced for equations relating exchange rate with monetary and real fundamentals of two economies t currencies of which are being related. The paper tries to determine Indian Rupee-U.S. doll exchange rate for the period spanning 1971 to 2004. The study also analyses the mode separately for pre liberalization and post liberalization periods using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) in simple linear and partial adjustment frameworks. The empirical findings suppc the partial adjustment model for both the periods. But after liberalization, the naive stai form of the models has been found to perform better so far as the sign and significance oft parameters is concerned. Structural break is indicated in the exchange rate movements t breaking point being the year of liberalization -1991. The adverse sign of relative real output is because of externalization and supports grow theory of exchange rate which states that, with rise in growth rate, the income has depreciating, effect on currency. As a policy this can be matched with a choice of competitive technology which makes export of high value goods competitive so as to compensate for importisation of real output. The relative money supply and interest rate differential are significant determinants corresponding models, therefore, the study indicates that there should be monetary policy coordination between India and U.S. to stabilize the rupee-% exchange rate. The significance of inflation rate differential implies that domestically inflation rate targeting may be adopt in conjunction with other policies. Recent rise in rupee value is because of intense capital flow to stock market which has put pressure on rupee.

Water Planning in the Progressive Era: The Inland Waterways Commission Reconsidered

In 1909, moving freight by rail cost seven to ten times more than by water. Yet despite crowded terminals and a severe shortage of rolling stock, railroads carried eight times more freight by weight than ships and barges, and canal tonnage had fallen by two-thirds since 1880. The railroads, according to President Theodore Roosevelt, were “no longer able to move crops and manufactures rapidly enough to secure the prompt transaction of the business of the Nation.…There appears to be but one complete remedy–the development of a complementary system of transportation by water.” Perishable foods and high-value factory goods would always travel by rail, Roosevelt acknowledged, but bulky cargo such as wheat, coal, timber, and iron could and should move by water. Improving the nation's waterways would increase the profits of railroads and manufacturers, provide capital for expansion, and reduce the cost of living. It would serve as a tonic to the entire economy.

Governance and Water Management: Progress and Tools in Mediterranean Countries

This paper reviews the progress with respect to Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in Mediterranean countries, as addressed within the activities of the Nostrum-Dss project, a Coordination Action funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the EC, with a particular emphasis on the current use of decision support tools (DSS). The IWRM paradigm is a comprehensive management framework, which integrates the different aspects of water resources - from the underlying ecological and physical aspects, to the socio-economic values and needs (horizontal integration); and calls for increasing decentralisation and privatisation of water services (vertical integration), and the devolution of planning authority, without however forgetting the need to ensure equitable access to water resources. Substantial progress has been made in the last decades in Nostrum-Dss Partner countries, although a disparity can still be seen between the Northern and Southern banks. New institutions have been established for implementing IWRM, existing institutions have been reformed, and decision making processes increasingly require public participation. Decentralisation of decision making, implementation and monitoring are also well underway, although improvements are still needed to ensure that the traditional power structures do not prevail. More efficient technologies and infrastructures are in place, especially for the production of high value goods or in agriculture. Finally, several DSS have been developed: yet, while operational/technical DSS instruments have been successfully employed, DSSs tools developed in a participatory way, or tackling more complex, political as well as environmental and economic problems are still de-linked from actual decision making processes. Laws and regulations for water management in most Mediterranean countries embrace and support the paradigms of IWRM - and EU framework directives have played an important role in fostering this shift from more traditional, vertical governance to new, horizontal governance based on soft laws. Yet, the implementation of such laws and regulations is often only partial - often because of the lack of a clear monitoring and enforcement strategy, but also because of governments' financial and human resources constraints. Strong overlaps of roles and competences among different government institutions remain, hampering effective implementation of water management. The tendency to centralisation of decision making persists, and actors' involvement is scanty. The shift towards the use of demand side policies as opposed to supply side policies is not yet completed: yet, supply side policies are very costly, as they are based on greater mobilisation of financial resources. Full cost recovery pricing is not practiced widely. This reluctance to introduce full cost recovery pricing in developing countries may be due to ethical and moral considerations, but in developed countries it is often associated with strong lobbying power of interest groups. This study was supported by funding under the Sixth Research Framework of the European Union within the project Network on Governance, Science and Technology for Sustainable Water Resource Management in the Mediterranean - The role of Dss tools (NOSTRUM-Dss, contract number INCO-CT-2004-509158).

International air traffic in the Baltic Sea Area: Hub-gateway status and prospects. Copenhagen in focus

This paper focuses on the internal and external accessibility of the Baltic Sea Area represented by air transport and discusses the challenges of hub and gateway development. Air transport is the most important medium for long distance transport of people and high value goods, and has strategic significance for global accessibility. The collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, market orientation of the economies that followed, and the coming enlargement of the European Union change the opportunities for creating economic dynamism in the region. The success of this development particularly depends on two parameters: the region must be interconnected through a tight transport infrastructure, and the countries in the region must have high accessibility to the rest of the world. For the Baltic Sea Area it is important that the major centre of air traffic is located in the region so that economic spin off is local. Copenhagen is the only large international gateway in the Baltic Sea Area. Potential development of this hub is discussed in the paper.

Wage and Industry Effects in U.S. Regional Incomes, 1840 to 1987: A CES Wage Index Method

The Solow growth and the Heckscher-Ohlin trade models describe two competing processes through which regional incomes converge over time. Solow's model attributes rising productivity of labor to additional regional capital investments. Heckscher-Ohlin's trade model ascribes the relocation of high value industries to regions with low wage rates. On the other hand Paul Krugman expects incomes to diverge over time as regions with an initial advantage maintain it through ever increasing external economies of scale. The Solow and Heckscher-Ohlin models imply that incomes converge through the movement of high quality labor and capital and high value goods and services into low income regions respectively.

Marine Technology Nuclear Propulsion in High-Performance Cargo Vessels

It has been about 40 years since nuclear-powered merchant ships were seriously discussed in the naval architecture community. But recent developments in commercial shipping include bigger, faster, and more powerful ships, where nuclear propulsion may be an option worth considering. The development of advanced ship designs opens an opportunity for high-speed maritime transportation that could create new markets and recover a fraction of the high value goods currently shipped only by air. One of the vessels being considered is FastShip, a large monohull ship that would require 250 MW in 5 gas turbine-waterjet units. An estimate of the operation cost of FastShip reveals that its success relies heavily, among other things, on the fuel price, a single factor that comprises more than one third of the total operating costs. The alternative, a nuclear FastShip, would save, per trip, almost 5000 tons of exposure to fuel price fluctuation, and about half of this savings would further be available for additional cargo and revenues. Nuclear power results in a more stable operation due to the relatively constant low price of nuclear fuel. The nuclear power option is suitable for high-power demand and long-haul applications and a reactor pack could be available within the decade. A candidate design would be the helium-cooled reactor, which has been revisited by several nuclear reactor design teams worldwide. For the FastShip a suggested plant would consist of two modular helium reactors, each one with two 50 MW helium turbines and compressors geared to waterjet pumps, plus a single 50 MW gas turbine. This vessel becomes more expensive to build but saves in fuel, and still provides margin for cost, weight and size optimization. This paper discusses general characteristics of a FastShip with such a nuclear power plant and also highlights the benefits, drawbacks, pending issues and further opportunities for nuclear-powered high-speed cargo ships.

New challenges for research in a changing energy market

The conversion of primary energy from nature and the subsequent utilization of the secondary forms of energy are basically related to the development of mankind: the production of heat—and light—used to be the main product of fuel utilization in the early days. However, the requirements of our society have changed due to an increase in population, prosperity, and widening of the essentials of life. In particular, the needs for high-value goods and products in our modern world are strongly associated with a growing demand in energy for stationary and mobile applications. Therefore, the major task of scientists and engineers over the previous almost two centuries was to develop essentially combustion technologies to convert available fossil fuels into heat, power, and electricity. In fact, in our modern society, electricity has become the major form of applicable energy with an increasing tendency over recent decades. While by the turn of the last century only 1% of all fossil primary energy was converted to electricity, this has grown worldwide to close to 40% and is expected to rise further in relation to the advances of the gross national product. The technology of fossil fuel conversion for heat and electricity production experienced major, distinct development periods based upon external driving forces as a consequence of changing requirements of our industrialized surroundings. Therefore, a strongly expanding economy with a corresponding demand for increasing capacities and plant availabilities was observed during the beginning of the second half of the last century. More recently, awareness of the negative effects of pollution has resulted in the development and application of emission control measures which were successfully implemented during previous decades. More recently, the discussion of energy utilization in connection with the global climate resulted in a reconsideration of the use of fossil fuels, and in particular in a diversification of the primary energy sources which opened a new field for research and development. Furtl ermore, the present tendencies of liberalization of the energy markets in Europe and beyond and its consequences toward stronger cross-boundary competition lead again to new strategies and technological conwequences in order to fulfill requirements such as a sustainable security of supply under environmentally acceptable conditions and at cost-competitive levels. After a review of the historical achievements in research and in technology development as a consequence of the changing needs of society, the presentation will concentrate on the present status of energy conversion followed by a detailed discussion of options and strategies in order to atisfy future market demands.

The business of a secret war: Operation ‘Remorse’ and SOE salesmanship in Wartime China

The prime British objective in China during the Pacific War was the re-establishment of pre-war trade and influence and the recovery of Hong Kong. Through Operation ‘Remorse’ (1944–45) the Special Operations Executive covertly established a wide network of distributors and buyers throughout occupied and unoccupied China for high-value low-bulk goods and currencies, using the returns acccruing to buy influence, information, safety and food for Allied prisoners, subsidise politically problematic operations, and smooth the British path back into Hong Kong. ‘Remorse’ epitomised the concerns and demonstrated the methods of the British presence in China generally: a readiness to innovate and adapt, market sensitivity and a capacity for making unlikely local alliances, all held together through a strong focus on a fixed target – a secure China base for Sino-British trade.

Capacity analysis of multi-product plants integrating energy consumption

The use of multi-product plants for the production of high value goods in the process industry has already reached an impressive level and is still growing. It will be shown that capacity analysis is an often needed task within medium-range planning activities for multi-product plants. Restrictions due to limited supply of energy can have a considerable impact on the result of a capacity analysis and therefore need to be considered in the model. For the generation of maximum capacity schedules the combination of genetic algorithms (GA) with a commercial discrete-event simulation system is proposed. It will be shown that the production in a multi-product plant including resource restrictions can be modeled within the system. A way of coding the variables in a GA will be shown as well. A case study shows that this approach is very promising when strongly limited resources have to be considered.

A survey of the perceived value of quality assurance in the UK-based freight industry

The aim of this study is to evaluate the level of satisfaction with Quality Assurance systems in the freight transport industry of the UK. The study focuses on road, air, and sea modes, terminals and warehouses but excludes passenger transport. It is found that organisational attraction to having Quality Assurance is high but powerful influences outside the range of variables studied affect the decision by management to have a quality assurance system in place. With the exception of air transport. all sectors studied subjectively rated their operations more capital than labour intensive. The impact of mimetic forces, i.e. the competition having quality assurance, is seen to be not significant. The assumption that companies handling high-value goods are attracted to quality assurance is equally rejected. The selection of the carrier depends upon the totality of service, not only upon being quality assured.