productivity in swedish electricity retail distribution this paper examines productivity growth in electricity retail distribution in sweden in a multiple output multiple input framework the approach used is nonparametric data envelopment analysis dea productivity is measured by means of the malmquist index productivity comparisons are made between different types of ownership and between different service areas the study indicates a high rate of productivity growth due to economies of density when measured over a period of 17 years the results show no significant differences in productivity growth between different types of ownership or economic organization

scale economies and optimal size in the swiss gas distribution sector this paper studies the cost structure of swiss gas distribution utilities several econometric models are applied to a panel of 26 companies over 1996 2000 our main objective is to estimate the optimal size and scale economies of the industry and to study their possible variation with respect to network characteristics the results indicate the presence of unexploited scale economies however very large companies in the sample and companies with a disproportionate mixture of output and density present an exception furthermore the estimated optimal size for majority of companies in the sample has shown a value far greater than the actual size suggesting remarkable efficiency gains by reorganization of the industry the results also highlight the effect of customer density on optimal size networks with higher density or greater complexity have a lower optimal size

the impact of regulatory heterogeneity on agri food trade we estimate the impact of regulatory heterogeneity on agri food trade using a gravity analysis that relies on detailed data on non tariff measures ntms collected by the ntm impact project the data cover a broad range of import requirements for agricultural and food products for the eu and nine of its major trade partners we find that trade is significantly reduced when importing countries have stricter maximum residue limits mrls for plant products than exporting countries for most other measures due to their qualitative nature we were unable to infer whether the importer has stricter standards relative to the exporter and we do not find a robust relationship between these measures and trade our findings suggest that at least for some import standards harmonising regulations will increase trade we also conclude that tariff reductions remain an effective means to increase trade even when ntms abound

determinants of world demand for u s corn seeds the role of trade costs the united states is a large net exporter of corn seeds seed trade including corn has been expanding but its determinants are not well understood this paper econometrically investigates the determinants of world demand for u s corn seeds with a detailed analysis of trade costs impeding exports flows to various markets trade costs include costs associated with distance tariffs and sanitary phytosanitary sps regulations imposed by foreign countries on u s corn seed exports sps policy information comes from the excerpt data base of usda aphis the analysis relies on a gravity like model based on an explicit specification of derived demand for seed by foreign corn producers a sps count variable is incorporated as a shifter in the unit cost of seeds faced by foreign users we use data from 48 countries and for the years 1989 to 2004 we find that all trade costs matter and have had a negative impact on u s corn seed exports tariffs matter most followed by sps measures and distance an extensive econometric investigation reveals that qualitative results are robust to specification changes but that sample selection bias is present in log linear specifications based on seed export levels and approximating zero trade data with a small positive number

tariff equivalent and forgone trade effects of prohibitive technical barriers to trade we derive a method to econometrically estimate the tariff equivalent and forgone trade effects of a prohibitive technical barrier to trade tbt based on wales and woodland s kuhn tucker approach to corner solutions in consumer choice the method overcomes the lack of observed data on bilateral trade flows and accounts for differentiated goods by place of origin we apply the derived random utility model to international trade in apples to identify the tariff equivalent of prohibitive phytosanitary barriers imposed by australia on potential imports of new zealand apples we estimate the forgone apple trade between the two countries the implied trade injury imposed by australia on new zealand and the welfare loss to australia the removal of the australian policy would induce net welfare gains around us 50 million annually for australia copyright 2009 oxford university press

illegal immigration and resource allocation this paper studies the effects of illegal immigration and the associated expansion of the underground economy on the allocation of resources commodity prices and wages of workers both in the short run when occupational mobility is restricted and in the long run when the skill composition of the labor force is endogenous the paper goes on to consider some of the fiscal implications of illegal immigration and the related expansion of underground activity effects of sanctions against employers hiring illegal aliens and measures to legalize the status of clandestine foreign workers are also examined the geographical focus is on developed countries primarily the united states and europe excerpt

the simple analytics of optimal growth with illegal migrants this paper analyses the impact of illegal migration on the optimal path of domestic resident consumption the analysis draws two important conclusions first if illegal migrants and domestic labour are perfect substitutes illegal migration necessarily lowers the long run per capita consumption of domestic residents second if illegal migrants and domestic labour are imperfect substitutes the effect on the long run per capita domestic consumption is ambiguous however in the cobb douglas case the result is clear cut and per capita domestic consumption rises as a result of illegal migration

implications of immigration policies for the u s farm sector and workforce i background in 1942 the united states and mexico signed the bracero program a formal agreement to draw seasonal labor to work in u s agriculture which provided employment opportunities to poor rural mexicans 1 however this program was abolished in 1964 ending the legal seasonal labor supply to u s agriculture in the southwestern states concurrently the united states passed the immigration act of 1965 establishing a quota of 120 000 legal immigrants per year the abandonment of the bracero program the new legal immigrants quota limits and economic inequality between the united states and mexico paved the way for steady entry of illegal laborers and led to eventual insurmountable illegal immigration population in the united states because illegal immigration was not a serious problem in the 1960s and 1970s legislation addressed only the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the united states but in the 1980s illegal immigration began to emerge as a national problem and extensive debates entrenched around issues such as preventing the entry of unauthorized workers providing public services to illegal immigrants and even legalizing these workers consequently the u s congress attempted to address the immigration problems by enacting the 1986 immigration reform and control act irca the goals of irca were to eliminate the stock of undocumented workers through amnesty 2 and domestic enforcement of employer sanctions and curb the influx of illegal immigrants by increasing the border surveillance amnesty failed to eliminate the stock of illegal immigrants because only about half of the illegal immigrants filed for citizenship and it created future expectation of amnesty and more illegal unauthorized entry furthermore domestic sanctions on employers of undocumented workers and deportation of these workers were scantly enforced to stop the influx of immigrants irca focused heavily on tightening border control the irca also legislated the h 2a program which allowed agricultural employers to bring in guest workers during seasonal operations ers 2007 however farmers complained that the cumbersome paperwork of h 2a and bureaucratic delay were not conducive to procure seasonal laborers at the time of peak farm operations such as vegetable and fruit picking 3 in spite of irca s amnesty provision and strengthened control measures illegal immigration continued to rise about 12 million unauthorized immigrants resided in the united states in 2007 martin 2007 which is reaffirmed by many popular press reports leading to an extended congressional debate that began at the start of this decade to solve the illegal immigration problem several bills were proposed by the house of representatives the senate and the white house addressing issues related to increased domestic and border enforcements 4 paths to citizenship and guest worker programs montgomery 2006 these bills were not passed because of major disagreements among lawmakers over providing citizenship and guest worker programs as a result of the failed legislations and the september 11 attack the government primarily focused on border security accordingly funding for border enforcement has steadily increased 5 and resources were diverted from domestic to border enforcement however boucher and taylor 2007 documented that increased funding to secure the border did not deter undocumented workers from crossing the border because determined immigrants eventually find a way to enter the country by repeated attempts following september 11 2001 the u s immigration and customs enforcement ice further decreased the number of human hours devoted to worksite inspection because monitoring critical infrastructure took priority gao 2005 for example from 1999 to 2003 the number of human hours for domestic enforcement decreased from 480 000 to 18 000 6 7 but by late 2005 the u

technical change and efficiency measures the post privatisation in the gas distribution sector in argentina abstract in this paper we use a stochastic frontier approach to analyse the technical change in the post privatisation period in the gas distribution sector in argentina we found that there is both a catching up effect and a shift in the frontier which shows that the sector as a whole improved its efficiency in the reviewed period moreover this phenomenon holds not only for the average but also for every firm in the sample

how important are tariffs and nontariff barriers in international markets for fresh fruit international markets for agricultural products are often subject to a range of trade barriers and horticultural products are no exception this article examines the economic implications of tariffs and sanitary and phytosanitary sps regulations that are applied to global markets for fresh apples and fresh oranges we calculate regional level tariff rates and ad valorem equivalents for sps barriers following the price wedge approach a simulation model is developed and used to assess the price quantity and welfare implications of reducing tariffs removing sps barriers and removing sps barriers that have been identified as a specific trade concern stc by the world trade organization results suggest that a 36 reduction in global tariffs would lead to greater welfare gains than would the elimination of sps measures in apple markets however in orange markets we find that sps measures have much larger economic implications for producers and consumers here a 36 reduction in tariffs would lead to smaller overall welfare effects compared to removal of all sps measures and only slightly larger effects than those from removal of stcs alone

illegal immigration a supply side analysis abstract this paper analyzes the supply side determinants of illegal immigration using a three sector general equilibrium model of the source country agricultural liberalization raises illegal immigration while liberalization of the high tech sector reduces it in contrast capital mobility in the source country renders trade policy ineffective for controlling illegal immigration paradoxically increased enforcement by the host country may raise source country unskilled wages although illegal immigration falls finally under capital mobility a rise in the source country restrictions on capital inflow raises the level of illegal immigration and reduces the effectiveness of border enforcement efforts by the host country

the impact of regulations on agricultural trade evidence from the sps and tbt agreements according to world trade organization rules countries may adopt regulations under the agreements on sanitary and phyto sanitary sps and technical barriers to trade tbt we analyze the structure of these measures in agricultural trade the inventory approach suggests that european countries have among the lowest coverage ratios of all oecd countries using a gravity equation we also estimate their stringency our results suggest that they significantly reduce developing countries exports to oecd countries but do not affect trade between oecd members furthermore european imports are more negatively influenced by sps and tbts than imports of other oecd countries

the welfare effects of illegal immigration abstract this paper extends the work of ethier on illegal immigration by examining the optimal level of enforcement for the labor importing country in a two country model and by considering the effects of allowing capital mobility we derive a formula for the optimal level of enforcement against firms that hire illegal workers and show that the presence of enforcement costs makes the policy less efficient than a wage tax with capital mobility foreign workers gain from an increase in enforcement in the home country because capital is driven out of the home country

use of mip for planning temporary immigrant farm labor force abstract growers of many fruit and vegetable crops in the us are heavily reliant on hand labor to perform all of the necessary operations throughout the growing season when the current supply of domestic hand labor is insufficient growers can employ nonimmigrant foreign workers through the h 2a visa program to perform any additional agricultural tasks a common criticism of the program is that it is an onerous process that places the burden of proof on growers and requires them to demonstrate that there is a shortage of domestic workers this requires growers to start their employment decision making months before the growing season starts using limited knowledge about the upcoming season since no labor focused decision making tools exists for growers a mixed integer programming model is presented in this article which develops tactical level planting harvesting and labor acquisition schedules for use by growers to determine the appropriate number of h 2a workers needed this formulation is applied to an average farm in the yuma arizona region as a case study in addition the study is extended to show how the model can be employed as a regulatory tool to determine the economic impact from modifying the h 2a application policy this analysis in the yuma region demonstrated that increasing the h 2a program provides a positive economic incentive offset by moderate domestic job displacement

on the macroeconomic and welfare effects of illegal immigration abstract this paper uses a dynamic general equilibrium model with labor market frictions to explore the economic consequences of illegal immigration in the baseline model native workers and illegal foreign workers compete for jobs in the same market but serve as imperfect substitutes in production the calibrated model generates a u shaped relationship between long run domestic consumption and the population share of illegal immigrants after taking into account both consumption and leisure i found that an increase in illegal immigration can generate significant welfare gains for the natives the baseline model is then extended to include heterogeneous workers in the domestic population

malmquist indices of productivity change in the uk gas industry before and after privatization the uk government s privatization programme was justified in terms of potential efficiency gains this paper concentrates on measures of technical efficiency in the regions of the uk natural gas industry before and after privatization and the associated regulatory changes it uses non parametric frontier analysis and malmquist indices to show that the rate of productivity growth increased significantly after privatization however the differences in technical efficiency amongst regions remain suggesting that failure to break up the industry has sacrificed potential gains from direct competition or indirect competition through yardstick regulation

measuring protection mission impossible abstract there seems to be some confusion between openness and protection measures in the international trade literature the aim of this paper is to bring together the state of the art in quantifying trade policy measures and for this reason we focus on the extent of the protection granted by policies rather than on the degree of openness of the economy given the considerable amount of literature that deals with these issues we will limit our review as follows on the one hand we focus on trade policies implemented at the border and therefore do not consider all the other possible public interventions influencing trade flows on the other hand we only take into account indexes that explicitly adopt a metric expressed in a scalar aggregate tariff and quota equivalent measures or an index in a closed interval we distinguish between indexes that aggregate across products same barrier for more products and indexes that aggregate across instruments more barriers for the same product finally in order to classify the large number of indexes covered in our review we propose a typology based on three categories incidence outcome and equivalence

looking beyond national boundaries regional harmonization of seed policies laws and regulations countries in west eastern and southern africa are pursuing the regional harmonization of their seed laws and regulations common regulatory frameworks are expected to reduce the costs of trading seed and encourage scale economies in seed production as a result commercial seed production is expected to expand providing farmers with improved access to new varieties and stimulating productivity growth the impact of these harmonization efforts will depend on the details of the regulatory agreements policy makers are being asked to consider a complicated series of trade offs between stricter measures for quality control and the need to encourage the multiplication and distribution of lower cost seed they are also being confronted with two possible views of sectoral development one view entails the pursuit of better linkages between distinct national seed markets the second involves the development of truly regionalized seed markets where seed can be readily produced in one country and sold in any other country this implies greater regional interdependence of seed supply the paper compares the harmonization agreements being pursued in each of the three african regions and progress in implementing the accords efforts to adapt international seed market standards to the contingencies of african markets are discussed and priorities for further policy analysis are identified

productivity growth and deregulation of japanese electricity distribution deregulation of japanese electric power industry began in 1995 after the amendment of electricity utility industry law in 1995 competition was partially introduced in a generation sector and retail competition started from 2000 eligibility to choose suppliers was gradually extended from larger to smaller customers as of 2008 almost all customers except households can choose their electricity suppliers based upon both previous implementation result of competition policy and review on their achievement japanese government will begin new policy debate in 2013 to assess further retail competition which includes household customers to prepare for policy suggestion on the future electric power industry this study examines the cost structure of japanese electricity distribution for the purpose we estimate a multi product translog cost function of japanese electricity distribution from 1983 to 2003 using the estimated cost function we calculate several economic measures such as productivity growth technical change and economies of scale and scope the empirical results of this study indicate the improvement in productivity growth after deregulation

illegal aliens unemployment and immigration policy abstract this paper develops a simple two country model of illegal immigration in an attempt to examine the interaction among variables such as the stock of migrant labor the unemployment rates of the two economies and the rate of spending by the host country on the enforcement of its immigration restrictions the focus of the analysis is on the dynamics of immigration policy and on its role in determining the nature of the mechanism by which disturbances to the labor market of one country are transmitted to that of the other in the short run and in the long run

the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary measures on market entry and trade flows in an attempt to disentangle the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary sps measures on trade patterns we estimate a heckman selection model on the hs4 disaggregated level of trade we find that aggregated sps measures constitute barriers to agricultural and food trade consistently to all exporters but conditional on market entry trade flows are positively affected by sps measures additionally we find that sps measures related to conformity assessment hamper market entry and trade flows while sps measures related to product characteristics pose an entry barrier but increase bilateral trade flows conditional on meeting the standard

evaluating the trade restrictiveness of phytosanitary measures on u s fresh fruit and vegetable imports empirically assessing sanitary and phytosanitary regulations has proven difficult because most data sources indicate whether a regulation exists but provide no information on the type or importance of the respective measure in this article we construct a novel database of u s phytosanitary measures and match these to 47 fresh fruit and vegetable product imports from 89 exporting countries over the period 1996 2008 a product line gravity equation that accounts for zero trade flows is developed to investigate the trade impact of different pest mitigation measures while the results suggest that phytosanitary treatments generally reduce trade the actual restrictiveness of these measures diminishes dramatically as exporters accumulate experience and it vanishes when exporters reach a certain threshold the results have important policy implications considering the number of empirical studies that find a negative impact of non tariff measures on trade copyright 2013 oxford university press

a translog cost function analysis of u s agriculture 1939 77 over the past four decades major changes have occurred in u s agriculture a new era in agricultural production in the united states began in 1939 world war ii gave a boost to agriculture still bogged in the depression productivity increases over the period 1939 77 have been quite impressive measured crudely by the ratio of the indices of output and input the productivity index 1967 100 increased from 59 in 1939 to 119 in 1977 to study this phenomenon a multi input translog cost function incorporating hicks neutral technical change hntc was specified annual timeseries data for the united states was used to estimate the model neoclassical duality theory provides an approach for computing the pairwise elasticities of substitution between inputs for each year as well as the annual own and cross price elasticities of demand for inputs

deriving conditional and unconditional marginal effects in log earnings equations estimated by heckman s procedure although the heckman approach has often been used in empirical analysis the marginal effects necessary to interpret the effect of the regressors on the dependent variable appeared to be overlooked using the heckman approach general expressions are derived for calculating the conditional and unconditional marginal effects based on a sample of brazilian women the conditional and unconditional return to education are calculated for the logarithm of earnings equation estimated by heckman s procedure comparing them to the marginal effect of education obtained without correcting for selectivity bias the same analysis is carried out for a discrete variable black

cost efficiency in the swiss gas distribution sector this paper studies the cost structure of gas distribution utilities in switzerland three stochastic frontier models are applied to a panel of 26 companies operating from 1996 to 2000 efficiency is assumed to be constant over time the analysis highlights the importance of output characteristics such as customer density and network size the results suggest that the utilities could slightly reduce their operating costs by improving efficiency there is no evidence of significant unexploited scale economies however our analysis indicates that the estimates of scale economies could be sensitive to the assumptions regarding the variation of output with output characteristics

us immigration policies and dynamics of cross border workforce in agriculture given the contentious debate on immigration this study develops a dynamic model to analyse the effects of stricter border and domestic enforcement and streamlining the guest worker programme on cross border migration from mexico employment and production in us labour intensive and mexican agriculture and the us and mexican wage rates the model incorporates labour leisure decisions of mexican workers and labour market dynamics and linkages the findings show stricter border and domestic controls exacerbate the labour shortage problems and reduce the us agricultural production streamlining the guest worker programme provides a steady supply of farm workers and has negligible impact on the us wage

tariff equivalent of technical barriers to trade with imperfect substitution and trade costs the price wedge method yields a tariff equivalent estimate of technical barriers to trade tbt an extension of this method accounts for imperfect substitution between domestic and imported goods and incorporates recent findings on trade costs we explore the sensitivity of this revamped tbt estimate to its key determinants substitution elasticity preference for home good and trade cost we use the augmented approach to investigate the recent japan u s apple trade dispute and find that removing the japanese tbt would yield limited export gains to the united states we then draw policy implications of our findings

productivity growth technical change and economies of scale of korean fossil fuel generation companies 2001 2012 a dual approach abstract this paper examines total factor productivity tfp growth technical change and economies of scale measure of korean fossil fuel power generation companies gencos between 2001 and 2012 for the empirical investigation we estimated the cost function along with specification tests in order to find the most appropriate empirical model empirical results show tfp deterioration technical regress and economies of scale for the study period the optimal size of the korean gencos was also found which is employed in developing policies regarding tfp growth and technical advance

price regulation in the spanish energy sectors who benefits abstract this paper analyses the distribution of benefits between firms and consumers due to the price regulation of the spanish energy sectors electricity oil fuels and gas during the decade 1987 1997 to that effect we compare the actual evolution of energy prices with alternate benchmarks in order to assess the potential existence of a pro industry or a pro consumer bias in the pricing policies followed by the regulator our results show a pro industry biased regulatory context where consumers benefitted very little from price control the successive price adjustments over time allowed the companies to keep all the productivity gains and cost reductions and to increase their profitability rates relative to those achieved in the manufacturing sector

productivity growth and incentive regulation in austria s gas distribution abstract the projected rate of productivity growth is the critical determinant of the price cap in incentive regulation however the regulatory authorities generally lack sophisticated industry tfp studies to set an optimal cap we thus estimate productivity growth in the austrian gas distribution sector in a translog cost function framework a key feature is our unique panel database on costs and outputs of regulated utilities for the period 2002 2013 covering six years prior and during incentive regulation as introduced in 2008 we find a modest tfp growth rate in the early sample years followed by a decline to zero or even slightly negative rates in recent years we also find a significant potential for returns to scale which is left unexploited indicating that utilities could significantly save on costs by merging as essential investments have already been undertaken in the past opportunities for technological progress seem to be limited in recent years