No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No

We observe that the location of non-primary production activities is concentrated among cities and regions. The pattern of domestic and international trade and the growth of a nation are intimately related to the country’s regional and urban structure. The theoretical and empirical essays in this dissertation analyze the consequences of these observations, seeking to determine the influence of cities on national growth and vice versa. Chapter 1 models locales which produce goods for trade outside the locale’s boundaries. I use a model that assumes monopolistic competition in both service and traded goods sectors to study the impact of both a localization externality and a nation-based externality. The localization externality is related to innovation that occurs because of agglomeration in a locale. The nation-based externality reflects the idea that some nations promote competitive industries more successfully than do others. The model highlights the “success breeds success” (or “failure breeds failure”) pattern associated with economies in various stages of economic development. Many current models in urban economics assume that cities are highly specialized in the production of goods and services, and that specialization leads to growth of output and employment; Chapter 1 yields such a result. Chapter 2 is an econometric study examining those assumptions. Using a set of 63 of the largest and potentially most specialized cities in the United States, I study data for some 40 industries and sectors in the years 1947, 1956, 1970, 1980, and 1990; I have divided the data into two periods, 1947 to 1970 and 1970 to 1990, for analyzing dynamic growth patterns. I find that static specialization is less evident in U.S. cities over time. I also find that what specialization does exist in a city is not necessarily associated with growth in an industry in a city. For some industries, increased specialization is associated with negative growth. Overall, growth in an industry in a city is more often associated with a growing labor force in that city, which I interpret as an indication of the importance of diversity. A change in the distribution of city sizes in an economy is a potential indicator of change in that economy’s structure. I consider several methods of measuring change in the city size distribution in the United States in this century, and conclude that the distribution is becoming more concentrated over that time period. I use both parametric and non-parametric distributional approaches to study the dynamics of the evolution of the U.S. city size distribution. I find that the balance between manufacturing and service sector employment, agricultural land values and the prime interest rate have statistically significant effects on the changing distribution. / Ph. D.

Farmers' decisions to adopt Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technologies depend on the profitability of IPM systems relative to the traditional production methods. Government policies may affect the profitability of the IPM technologies. A linear programming model was developed and used to evaluate the economic incentives for adoption of Integrated Pest Mangement (IPM) practices by Jamaican farmers in Ebony Park, Clarendon. Further analysis was completed to determine the affect of policy changes on the profitability of the IPM systems. The objective function of the model was to maximize net returns above variable costs for the farm and included: ten cropping systems, resource constraints, relative prices, and government policies facing the farm. Resource constraints included risk constraints limiting the maximum acreage planted for each crop. Potential crops grown by the farm included: IPM and conventional hot pepper, IPM and conventional sweet potato, IPM and conventional callaloo, corn, pumpkin, cassava, and sugar cane. The trade and domestic policies incorporated into the model were: preclearance (farm level inspections of exportable harvest), elimination of the concessionary water rates to farmers, lowering the duty concession rate to farmers, lowering the Common External Tariff, appreciation of the real exchange rate, elimination of the credit subsidy and a fall in the real interest rate. The results of the model showed four major conclusions. First, the IPM systems for hot pepper, sweet potato and callaloo were more profitable than the conventional systems. Second, within the framework of risk constraints and preclearance, the IPM systems continued to be more profitable than the conventional practices. Third, the elimination of either the water or credit subsidies currently available to the farmers did not greatly affect the profitability of the IPM systems compared with the profitability of conventional production. Fourth, with a lower real interest rate, the elimination of the duty concession, a lowering of the Common External Tariff (CET) or an appreciation of the real exchange rate, the IPM systems were more profitable than the conventional technologies. Four implications arose from the conclusions. First, extension efforts towards farmers should emphasize the increase in profits from the IPM technologies. Second, policy steps designed to liberalize the domestic economy will not require offsetting policies supporting the adoption of IPM by farmers in Clarendon. Further research is needed on the effects of water availability on IPM adoption and the potential barriers to IPM adoption by female-headed households. Finally, further research is on the economic returns of incorporating preclearance education with IPM. / Master of Science

This empirical study uses stochastic coefficients econometric modeling to forecast real exchange rate volatility and examine how expected and unexpected volatility affect bilateral trade flows of certain steel products between Canada, Mexico and the United States using monthly data for the seven-year period 1996-2002. The results of the model indicate that the effects of exchange rate volatility on bilateral trade flows for this sector are relatively minor, where sustained changes in the spot exchange rate, sectoral economic growth, and the price of goods being traded all exert more significant influence on trade levels than exchange rate volatility. However, the model results also tend to indicate that as exchange rate volatility increases, the well-developed U.S.-Canadian forward currency exchange market may present economic agents with profit opportunities through risk-portfolio diversification, resulting in a positive correlation between volatility and trade. For the less-developed U.S.-Mexican forward currency market, the model results indicate that the relationship between trade and volatility, both expected and unexpected, is weak and predominantly negative. / Master of Arts

China’s economy has been experiencing high growth since 1979. The growth of China’s economy is attributed to the growth in its international trade. China’s economic growth affects trade growth of other nations because of the combination of its huge size, rapid growth and openness. This study investigates the direct effect of China’s growth on its imports from South Africa. / Economics / M. Com.

Diss. Göteborg : Univ., 2002.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-111).