Open Market Conditions Research Articles

Trade with innovation benefits: A re-appraisal using micro data from China

In recent years, the impact of international trade on firm innovation has received increasing attention. Some scholars argue that knowledge spillovers from trade are beneficial to innovation, while others argue that the intense competition from trade leads to a reduction in innovative activity, based on the Schumpeterian effect. To address this issue, we creatively construct a dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2000 to 2014 and conduct empirical tests using propensity score matching to investigate the impact of firms' intermediate goods import behavior on innovation performance at the micro level. We construct models of firms' decisions under closed market conditions and of the impact of intermediate goods imports on firms' innovation activities under open market conditions. Our study shows that firms that import intermediate goods are more innovative, and we validate the robustness of this result. We further discuss the potential mechanisms of how exposure to international markets affects innovation, and we find that firms' import behavior affects innovation through scale effect, technology effect, and profit effect. In short, importing intermediate goods enhances firm-level innovation in developing countries. Our study provides significant evidence on the impact of imports on firm-level innovation performance, and our findings provide a rationale for promoting the co-development of trade and firm innovation. This paper also has important policy implications that governments should continue to reduce trade barriers, promote trade openness, and enhance technology transfer and cooperation in order to reap more innovation benefits from trade.

Open Trade, Price Supports, and Regional Price Behavior in Mexican Maize Markets

We analyze wholesale maize prices in 12 Mexican markets from 1998 to 2010, a period when markets became more open to inter- and intranational trade. We ask how the influence of global and local forces on Mexican maize prices changed during this period. We also explore how the strength of global and local forces varies across maize-producing regions. In general, we expect the influence of global forces to increase and local forces to decrease as markets become more open. We find that the influence of global forces does vary over the study period and, counter to expectation, is the highest at the beginning and middle of the period rather than at the end. This result suggests that even under less open market conditions, buyers and sellers were still following global price signals. In contrast, the influence of local forces follows expectation and decreases over time. However, the estimated pattern of response is not uniform across various maize-producing regions. Taken together, our results suggest that opening agricultural markets can result in regionally distinct outcomes and counterintuitive price behavior.

Saving National Airlines?

Air transport is considered a unique industry, one which easily connects different locations around the world yet also carries with it a lot of concern over safety, security, protection of national economies etc... In principle, this is why air transport has long been, and in fact still is, heavily regulated. At a certain point in time air carriage as a business was in principle carried out by governments or under governments' heavy influence. Although air transportation has been considerably liberalised over the last three decades, there are still certain relics of the past. This includes air carriers who are either government owned or controlled, which means that the government indirectly participates in the operation of air transport in a regular open market. This article describes where national airlines come from, why they tend to fail when operating in open market conditions, and what kind of measures the governments concerned have implemented to try and save them when they fail. The paper then reflects on the extent to which it makes sense to save national airlines, at what cost, and how doing so affects the open air transport market. The situation and developments over the last decade at Czech Airlines, the Czech flag carrier is described as a case study.

Impact of daily variation of solar radiation on photovoltaic plants economy at the open market: A case study "Bavaniste" (Serbia)

The main purpose of this paper is to propose a correlation index between average time diagram of Photovoltaic Power Plant production and a typical diagram of the price of electrical energy at the open market. The basic idea is to define correlation index, which is of key importance for assessing the economy of a Photovoltaic Power Plant under open market conditions. This index may be useful for investors during evaluation of economic parameters of a Photovoltaic Power Plant project which will one part of its lifetime operate at the open market. In this paper, a case study for the project Bavaniste - Serbia is been presented. The estimated value of correlation index shows that each of the produced MWh at prospective Photovoltaic Power Plant Bavaniste will realize a price at The Germain Electricity Market - EEX, which is on average 20.8% higher than the average annual price of an MWh. By taking example of the prospective Photovoltaic Power Plant located in Bavaniste in Serbia, the proposed methodology has been used to show that the average MWh of electrical energy produced by a Photovoltaic Power Plant at the open market, can be over 20% better valued compare to Wind Power Plant in the same region.

Impact of postharvest processing on the fungal population contaminating African walnut shells (Tetracarpidium conophorum Mull. Arg) at different maturity stages and potential mycotoxigenic implications

African walnut (Tetracarpidium conophorum Mull. Arg) is commonly processed by boiling or toasting and consumed as a snack or used as a thickener in many West African soup preparations. The nuts are usually exposed to both high temperatures and high relative humidity in open markets which predisposes them to fungal growth. Hence, the dangers of spore inhalation and resultant mycosis cannot be over-emphasized as retailers and consumers are always in direct contact with these nuts during harvest, processing and consumption. So far, there is no reported research on potential mycotoxin contamination of African walnut and whether this risk might be accentuated by processing. African walnut, at early and late maturity stages, were processed by toasting, boiling or left unprocessed before being stored at 25°C and 37°C, respectively under controlled relative humidity for 7days. Nuts were cracked and shell pieces cultured in malt extract agar (MEA) and Dichloran Glycerol 18 (DG18) media and incubated at 25°C for 7days. Results revealed that potential mycotoxigenic species – Aspergillus section Nigri, Aspergillus flavus/parasiticus, Fusarium spp. and Penicillium spp. – were frequently isolated. When compared with unprocessed nuts, toasting completely prevented fungal contamination in shell pieces from nuts in the non-stored (NSN) group at the early maturity stage, while boiling significantly reduced the level of contamination to about 58% (p<0.05). In general, simulating open market conditions caused 100% fungal contamination in all boiled samples and toasted samples at early maturity. However, contamination in toasted samples at late maturity was increased to 90 and 70% at 25°C in DG18 and MEA, respectively, while at 37°C contamination was 40 and 60% in DG18 and MEA, respectively. Mycotoxin analysis using Yeast Extract Sucrose (YES) agar and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)–Fluorescence detection (FLD) showed that Aflatoxins — G1 (AFG1), B1 (AFB1), G2 (AFG2), and B2 (AFB2) were produced by 20 isolates with both AFG1 and AFB1 being predominant at concentration ranges 4.33–32,200 and 4.20–22,700ng/g plug weight, respectively. No ochratoxin A (OTA) was detected out of 23 isolates analysed. From these findings, it is suggested that toasting of nuts, preferably at early maturity is a safer processing option than boiling in terms of prevention of possible fungal growth on nut shells and risk of mycotoxin contamination.

Impact of wind speed variations on wind farm economy in the open market conditions

Stimulating measures for the production of electrical energy from renewable energy sources (RES) are guaranteed over certain period of operation. Their aim is that the wind power plants (WPP) and other RES are brought to a concurrent position with the conventional power plants at the open market of electrical energy. In perspective, power market conditions should be made equal for all electricity producers. In such conditions, the economy aspects of a WPP are affected not only by the amount of produced electricity but also by the daily and yearly production profiles. The paper defines correlation indices between the price profile of electricity at the open market and seasonal and daily profiles of WPP production. These indices could serve as a quantitative measure of the influence of the seasonal and daily profiles of wind speed on the economy of the project of a WPP.

Fortress America As Created By NAFTA And Its Impact On Foreign Direct Investments

The inauguration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1994 created an outstanding economic opportunity for all three members. It contains an ambitious schedule for elimination of all trade barriers in the NAFTA community. The free trade agreement encourages NAFTA members to share and complement each others resources, and to use comparative advantages and enhanced economies of scale to maximize efficiency and productivity. Accordingly, the insider MNCs can generate competitive advantage against outsider MNCs in their trading bloc and globally.If NAFTA could create such a positive economic impact for insider MNCs and negative economic impact for outsiders, how do foreign MNCs respond to this trading bloc? Particularly, how does the fortress America, as created by NAFTA, impact the foreign direct investment strategies of outsider MNCs?The analysis of investment patterns by foreign MNCs since implementation of the NAFTA indicates an increase in their foreign direct investments in the NAFTA community, particularly in Mexico. This increase in FDI by foreign MNCs could be explained in three ways: First, it is due to the fear of fortress America as MNCs invested in the NAFTA bloc to penetrate the regions open market. Second, investors are looking to capitalize on the tangible financial attractions of modern-day Mexico, namely its location as a Latin America gateway, affordable primary resources, and increasingly competitive open market conditions. Third, the MNCs who had capital and global plans for such intensive foreign investments had already permeated North America.

Management of Multi-Operator Interconnection through Interconnection Exchange - A Case Study of Bangladesh

The liberalization/opening of telecom markets has brought significant value to customers and markets. The open market contributed to improve quality of service, price reduction and introduction of competition among service providers. An operator can no longer prosper simply by offering basic telephone services. Operators are growing very fast and expanding into all types of telephone services – fixed, mobile, Long Distance (National & International) and also into convergent networks. The geographical spread is also increasing at a fast pace. Operators worldwide are realizing need for fixed-mobile, voice-data and carrier-enterprise convergence. But, behind this bright scene, a complexity is also developing, which has not been addressed with a long term perspective at its inception. These developments could lead to a complex situation resulting in monopolistic behaviour by a market leader or incumbent operators, or an increase in cost of interconnecting networks in a multi-operator and multi-service scenario. is one of most important areas which may emerge as a problem with increase in number of operators with open market conditions. With increase of number of operators in different services, number of interconnecting links between operators increase in multiples and will be very soon unmanageable. Incumbents' networks generally in all developing countries do not have adequate interconnection facilities for new entrants. As a result investments made by new entrants are required to wait for availability of interconnect facilities. It leads to higher cost of service, inefficient handling of call, sub-optimal utilization of network and serious increase of CAPEX and OPEX. The research question in this paper is – how can regulators or operators overcome problem arising from bi-lateral interconnection regime in multi operator and multi service environment? The concept of Interconnection Exchange (ICX) can be a solution to above mentioned problem. ICX is a step towards creation of a modern and efficient telecommunications infrastructure. With introduction of ICX, operators can combine their services in most flexible way. This concept refers to an arrangement which provides interconnection among existing/future telecommunication network of operators and allows monitoring, lawful Interception (LI) facilities and roaming number portability. This paper on the case study of ICX based regime in addresses key issues related to Architecture. The paper explains a totally new approach which possibly may provide a solution to facilitate further competition and could be a mechanism as well as launching pad for ICT density growth in multi-operator multi-service scenario in developing countries. It could also provide a solution to a number of issues that are coming in way of getting best results from investments being made in telecom sector. It could further lead to many new value additions for consumers at competitive tariffs. The paper gives opportunity to discuss model, suggest for betterment and in best case, gives chance of framing/replicating ICX model in other developing countries. This paper on Bangladesh gives an overview of:- Objectives of ICX- Policy Background (that guided introduction of ICX in Bangladesh)- Details of existing ICX infrastructure in Bangladesh- Network Architecture- Revenue sharing model- Billing & payment settlement - Traffic distribution pattern- Implication on current interconnection regime

Heterogeneous information-based artificial stock market

In this paper, an information-based artificial stock market is considered. The market is populated by heterogeneous agents that are seen as nodes of a sparsely connected graph. Agents trade a risky asset in exchange for cash. Besides the amount of cash and assets owned, each agent is characterized by a sentiment. Moreover, agents share their sentiments by means of interactions that are identified by the graph. Interactions are unidirectional and are supplied with heterogeneous weights. The agent's trading decision is based on sentiment and, consequently, the stock price process depends on the propagation of information among the interacting agents, on budget constraints and on market feedback. A central market maker (clearing house mechanism) determines the price process at the intersection of the demand and supply curves. Both closed- and open-market conditions are considered. The results point out the validity of the proposed model of information exchange among agents and are helpful for understanding the role of information in real markets. Under closed market conditions, the interaction among agents' sentiments yields a price process that reproduces the main stylized facts of real markets, e.g. the fat tails of the returns distributions and the clustering of volatility. Within open-market conditions, i.e. with an external cash inflow that results in asset price inflation, also the unitary root stylized fact is reproduced by the artificial stock market. Finally, the effects of model parameters on the properties of the artificial stock market are also addressed.

Dynamic Control of Timber Production at a Sawmill with Log Sawing Optimization

Today most sawmills use optimization techniques to maximize yields from logs. If open market conditions are assumed when maximizing volume or value yields, overproduction of some products and underproduction of others may result. In this study, a system is described that links production with log sawing optimization while also addressing demands for timber products of differing qualities. The system is based on an optimization framework that is implemented in a log sawing simulator, AUTOSAW. Unlike other optimization systems that use static product ''values'' such as board volume or timber price, dynamic values are used that are updated regularly according to previous timber production. The efficiency of the system was tested with three orderbooks via comparisons with volume- and value-optimized solutions obtained from sawing pruned Pinus radiata D. Don logs. In each case, product optimization required fewer logs to satisfy all demands than did either volume or value optimization. Furthermore, underproduction was eliminated and overproduction reduced.

Desindustralización y regeneración económica del País Vasco. Acciones de reconversión del Gobierno Vasco y SPRI

During the eighties Basque industry went through a stage of adaptation and reconversion which fundamentally affected a series of traditional sectors with great importance within the Basque economy. Now, looking back on the two decades which have gone by, we have to accept that the processes of adaptation, restructurisation and reconversion which have been undertaken have helped to place Basque industry in a substantially more favourable competitive position. The complex process of reconversion and regeneration undertaken has not been free of problems, and its economic and social cost has been very high indeed. The Basque public administration and, more specifically, the SPRI have played a fundamental role in all this process, constantly aiming to contribute to making Basque companies more modern, equipped to compete in the current open market conditions, with significant presence in the world and specific influence in new sectors.

Renewables portfolio standard: a means for trade with electricity from renewable energy sources?

This paper discusses the main support mechanisms for enhancing the deployment of renewable energies (RE) implemented in different industrialised countries. The focus is on the electricity sector, where deregulation and liberalisation has led to market opening and introduction of competition in the formerly strongly regulated power market. Under open market conditions, price regulation mechanisms in favour of renewable energies, which were used by many governments to support renewables tend to be considered as being inappropriate, because they lead to distortions in competition and are difficult to abolish once market participants got used to them. Therefore, the idea of creating a demand for RE instead of supporting supply is gradually spreading. This paper concentrates on the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS), which is a considerably new instrument that is aimed on the demand side and has only recently entered discussion. It is based on legislatively mandating a percentage share of electricity generated from renewables and proved with certificates. Before this new means is discussed in more detail, a short overview of the existing supply side mechanism is given, to point out the different approach. In addition, examples of some countries already having some experience with the RPS are given, to show the present status of implementation. Derived from these theoretical considerations and practical experiences, the paper discusses possible impacts on market participants. They depend strongly on the outline of the RPS and the organisation of the electricity sector adopted. As a conclusion, the introduction of an RPS cannot alone solve the problem of enhancing the use of RE. However, the advantages are a higher degree of competition among generators or developers of RE technology, more freedom of choice concerning the options for meeting the requirement and perhaps less government expenditures. Also, experiences with national certificate trading within the RPS system could ease the way for international, or at least European, trading systems like the emissions trading as proposed in the Kyoto protocol.

The Great Child-Care Experiment

Child-care settings provide a national laboratory for testing questions related to parental choice in K-12 schooling. Operating in open-market conditions with little oversight by the government, the child-care field embodies many of the organizational characteristics advocated under certain school choice models. In fact, parents’ general satisfaction with child care suggests that they are unlikely to act as major catalysts of K-12 reform. Their definitions of excellence in child care are somewhat at odds with professional bench-marks, and their procedures for investigating child-care organizations are often cursory. The national child-care experiment also illustrates the tensions between crafting educational remedies at the local level and tightening the technology of teaching through bureaucratic oversight.