Noel Gaston

Measuring globalisation: Gauging its consequences

Towards an Understanding of the Concept of Globalisation.- The Measurement of Globalisation.- Consequences of Globalisation Reconsidered: Applying The KOF Index.- Conclusion.

Has Globalisation Increased Inequality

A panel system includes a first skin, a second skin, a web core constructed from sheet material for securing the skins together in a spaced, sandwich relationship, and a connecting means for affixing the web core within the skins. The web core includes a plurality of spaced apart longitudinal members having longitudinally spaced projections extending therefrom and further having transversely aligned, longitudinally spaced slots therein. The web core further includes a plurality of spaced-apart, transverse cross members each having spaced slots therein receiving the longitudinal members at corresponding transversely aligned slots thereof to provide an interlocked grid between the first and second skins. The grid is connected to the skins utilizing the projections, which extend through slits in the skins to facilitate welding or otherwise bonding the components.

Union wage sensitivity to trade and protection: Theory and evidence

Abstract We develop a model featuring union-firm bargaining, strategic rivalry between the unionized domestic firm and its foreign competitor, and endogenous protection. The model frames a micro-level empirical study of the role of trade and trade policy in union wage determination. The results indicate that (1) trade flows and trade policy influence wages as much as the domestic factors usually considered, (2) imports and tariffs are negatively correlated with wages, and (3) there is little evidence of the trade flows endogeneity suggested by strategic trade theory or the tariff endogeneity that could explain the negative tariff coefficient.

Ratification of the 1992 Climate Change Convention: What Determines Legislative Delay?

The authors use a proportional hazards framework toinvestigate the impact of various countrycharacteristics on the duration of time taken toratify the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change (FCCC). The most significant findingsare that the conditional probability of ratificationis positively related to total CO2 emissions andthe presence of civil liberties. The finding foremissions indicates that large, polluting countrieswere under great political pressure to ratify theFCCC. The latter finding is consistent with earlierresearch that found that democratic freedoms raisedthe probability of signing the Montreal Protocol.

Protection, Trade, and Wages: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing

This paper investigates the effects of international trade policy on wages in U.S. manufacturing industries in 1983. The data set combines micro labor market data with comprehensive data on tariffs and nontariff trade barriers such as quotas and antidumping duties. The authors find that workers in unprotected, export-oriented industries had higher wages than workers with similar observable characteristics in protected, import-competing industries; more specifically, exports had a positive wage effect and imports had a smaller negative wage effect. Other findings are that nontariff barriers had no significant effect on wages, and tariffs appear to have had a large negative wage effect, even after the authors control for the trade protection received by low-wage industries.

Has Globalisation Really Had No Effect on Unions

For a number of OECD countries, the deterioration of labour market outcomes for less-skilled workers since the early 1980s has coincided with a steady decline in union membership. Globalisation is commonly believed to have contributed to both developments. However, recent studies fail to find support for the presumption that globalisation adversely affects unions. Revisiting this issue by using a novel globalisation index we find that globalisation has indeed contributed to deunionisation. In delving further into the issue, we find that it is social integration, rather than economic or political integration, that has been the main contributor to the decline in union membership.

The Labour Market Consequences of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was expected to reallocate workers from high-cost firms to low-cost firms, thus promoting specialization and trade creation. Instead, employment contracted across all industries during 1989-93 and real exports and imports contracted over most of the period. This trade destruction provides some evidence that the massive 1989-93 Canadian job losses were not primarily caused by the FTA. Th authors further show that FTA tariff cuts account for no more than 15 percent of the Canadian job losses. Restated, other factors (including the fight against inflation) explain more than 85 percent of the job losses.

Using variation in schooling availability to estimate educational returns for Honduras

Abstract This paper presents IV estimates of the returns to schooling for Honduran males by exploiting the variation in the availability of schooling at the time individuals were eligible to commence their education. The IV estimates are significantly higher than OLS estimates. The higher rate of return estimates are driven by the greater schooling attainment and the higher marginal returns for individuals from more privileged family backgrounds. In line with studies for developed countries, we conclude that, when estimating rates of return to education for developing countries, it is important to account for the endogeneity of educational attainment. [ JEL J31, J24, O15]

Bridging trade theory and labour econometrics: The effects of international migration

This paper surveys current theoretical and empirical research on international migration with a particular emphasis on the links between trade theory and labour empirics.

The Impact of International Trade and Protection on Australian Manufacturing Employment

The labour market consequences of trade and protection have only recently come under the scrutiny of labour economists. This paper seeks to accomplish two things - to survey the recent research and to provide estimates of the effect that reductions in effective rates of assistance afforded to Australias manufacturing industries have had on employment. Recent labour market developments reveal a downward trend in manufacturing employment levels. The declines appear to have been associated with lower levels of assistance. However, the estimates of the effect of lower levels of protection are generally small - about a one per cent reduction in employment for each ten per cent reduction in the effective rate of industry assistance. In addition, the manufacturing employment developments appear to be only weakly linked to real wage resistance. Overall, an overriding impression from the find ings presented in this paper is the strength of the structural adjustments ongoing in Australia