scholarly journals Gravity Without Apology: the Science of Elasticities, Distance and Trade

2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (628) ◽  
pp. 880-910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Carrère ◽  
Monika Mrázová ◽  
J Peter Neary

Abstract Gravity as both fact and theory is one of the great success stories of recent research on international trade, and has featured prominently in the policy debate over Brexit. We first review the facts, noting the overwhelming evidence that trade tends to fall with distance. We then introduce some expository tools for understanding constant-elasticity-of-substitution theories of gravity as a simple general-equilibrium system. Next, we point out some anomalies with the theory: mounting evidence against constant trade elasticities, and implausible predictions for bilateral trade balances. Finally, we sketch an approach based on subconvex gravity as a promising direction to resolving them.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Wei ◽  
Gülcan Önel ◽  
Zhengfei Guan ◽  
Fritz Roka

AbstractThe policy debate surrounding the employment of immigrant workers in U.S. agriculture centers around the extent to which immigrant farmworkers adversely affect the economic opportunities of native farmworkers. To help answer this question, we propose a three-layer nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) framework to investigate the substitutability among heterogeneous farmworker groups based on age, skill, and legal status utilizing National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) data from 1989 through 2012. We use farmwork experience and type of task performed as alternative proxies for skill to disentangle the substitution effect between U.S. citizens, authorized immigrants, and unauthorized immigrant farmworkers. Results show that substitutability between the three legal status groups is small; neither authorized nor unauthorized immigrant farmworkers have a significant impact on the employment of native farmworkers.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Young

We provide industry-level estimates of the elasticity of substitution (σ) between capital and labor in the United States. We also estimate rates of factor augmentation. Aggregate estimates are produced. Our empirical model comes from the first-order conditions associated with a constant–elasticity of substitution production function. Our data represent 35 industries at roughly the 2-digit SIC level, 1960–2005. We find that aggregate U.S. σ is likely less than 0.620. σ is likely less than unity for a large majority of individual industries. Evidence also suggests that aggregate σ is less than the value-added share-weighted average of industry σ's. Aggregate technical change appears to be net labor–augmenting. This also appears to be true for the large majority of individual industries, but several industries may be characterized by net capital augmentation. When industry-level elasticity estimates are mapped to model sectors, the manufacturing sector σ is lower than that of services; the investment sector σ is lower than that of consumption.


Author(s):  
Erinna F. Lee ◽  
W. Douglas Fairlie

The discovery of a new class of small molecule compounds that target the BCL-2 family of anti-apoptotic proteins is one of the great success stories of basic science leading to translational outcomes in the last 30 years. The eponymous BCL-2 protein was identified over 30 years ago due to its association with cancer. However, it was the unveiling of the biochemistry and structural biology behind it and its close relatives’ mechanism(s)-of-action that provided the inspiration for what are now known as ‘BH3-mimetics’, the first clinically approved drugs designed to specifically inhibit protein–protein interactions. Herein, we chart the history of how these drugs were discovered, their evolution and application in cancer treatment.


Competitio ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Levente Nádasi

Jelen írásban röviden bemutatom az egyes növekedéselméletek fejlődését, számba véve az egyes fejlődési szakaszokban a növekedés legfontosabb forrásainak tekintett tényezőket. Mivel a termelési függvény egyik fontos paramétere, a helyettesítési rugalmasság értéke nem egységnyi, ahogyan azt a nemzetközi vizsgálatokban alkalmazott Cobb–Douglas-termelési függvény feltételezi, és a helyettesítési rugalmasság értéke 1-től eltérő is lehet, szükséges egy általánosabb, CES típusú (Constant Elasticity of Substitution – állandó helyettesítési rugalmasságú) „termelési függvény”-család alkalmazása is. Technikai kérdésként felmerül a termelési tényezők csoportosítása is. A helyettesítési rugalmasság egyben hatékonysági tényező is, ezért a termelési függvény ezen jellemzője kiemelt szerepet kap az elemzésben. Végül összefoglalom azokat a legjelentősebb irodalmakat, amelyek főként a növekedés összetételével (growth accounting) foglalkoznak, és megpróbálnak választ találni arra a kérdésre, hogy mely faktorok játszanak jelentős vagy kevésbé jelentős szerepet a gazdasági növekedésben. A growth accounting erősen összekapcsolódik a növekedéselméletekkel, így a megfelelő pontokon visszautalok az egyes növekedéselméletekre is. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: E13, O47


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-359
Author(s):  
Saketh Aleti ◽  
Gal Hochman

In this article, we present a model of the electricity sector where generation technologies are intermittent. The economic value of an electricity generation technology is given by integrating its production profile with the market price of electricity. We use estimates of the consumer's intertemporal elasticity of substitution for electricity consumption while parameterizing the model empirically to numerically calculate the elasticity between renewables and fossil energy. We find that there is a non-constant elasticity of substitution between renewable and fossil energy that depends on prices and intermittency. This suggests that the efficacy and welfare effects of carbon taxes and renewable subsidies vary geographically. Subsidizing research into battery technology and tailoring policy for local energy markets can mitigate these distributional side effects while complementing traditional policies used to promote renewable energy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Obara ◽  
Shuichi Tsugawa

Abstract We examine optimal taxation and public good provision by a government that considers reduction of envy as a constraint. We adopt the extended envy-freeness proposed by Diamantaras and Thomson (1990. “A Refinement and Extension of the No-Envy Concept.” Economics Letters 33: 217–22), called λ-equitability. We derive the modified Samuelson rule under an optimal nonlinear income tax and show, using a constant elasticity of substitution utility function, that the direction of distorting the original Samuelson rule to relax the λ envy-free constraint is crucially determined by the elasticity of substitution. Furthermore, we numerically show that the optimal level of provision increases (decreases) in the degree of envy-freeness when the original Samuelson rule is upwardly (downwardly) distorted.


Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Thach

The Vietnamese economy has increased at high speed over the transformation decades; however, most recent studies on the economic growth of this country used the Cobb-Douglas or CES (Constant Elasticity of Substitution) production functions, which are unable to explore the relationship between the elasticity of capital-labour substitution and development process, and hence, are not relevant to accessing a dynamic economic system. For that reason, this study is conducted to specify an unrestricted VES (Variable Elasticity of Substitution) production function in a one-sector growth model of Vietnam, highlighted by two characteristics: successful transition from plan to market and rapid progress. The VES is given preference over the CES and the Cobb-Douglas having the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour varying with economic development. By employing a Bayesian nonlinear regression through MCMC methods, the study reported the following findings: (1) the above-unity variable elasticity of capital-labour substitution in an aggregate unrestricted VES function specified for Vietnam shows that the model generates the possibility of endogenous economic growth; (2) the capital share tends to increase, while the labour share faces a downward trend along with the development of Vietnam; (3) the VES is empirically proven through a Bayes factor test to be superior to the CES and Cobb-Douglas for analysis of the growth process of Vietnam, an emerging transition economy.


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