Hasil untuk "Trade associations"

I. Contento, G. Balch, Y. Bronner et al.

Michael Coopman, Austin Jacobs, Henry Pascoe et al.

The structure bilateral trading costs is one of the key features of international trade. Drawing upon the freeness-of-trade matrix, which allows the modeling of N-state trade costs, we develop a ``geometry of inconvenience'' to better understand how they impact equilbrium outcomes. The freeness-of-trade matrix was introduced in a model by Mossay and Tabuchi, where they essentially proved that if a freeness-of-trade matrix is positive definite, then the corresponding model admits a unique equilibrium. Drawing upon the spectral theory of metrics, we prove the model admits nonunique, perverse, equilibria. We use this result to provide a family of policy relevant bipartite examples, with substantive applications to economic sanctions. More generally, we show how the network structure of the freeness of trade is central to understanding the impacts of policy interventions.

Martin Hoefer, Lars Huth, Lisa Wilhelmi

Exploring measures to improve financial networks and mitigate systemic risks is an ongoing challenge. We study claims trading, a notion defined in Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. For a bank $v$ in distress and a trading partner $w$, the latter is taking over some claims of $v$ and in return giving liquidity to $v$. The idea is to rescue $v$ (or mitigate contagion effects from $v$'s insolvency). We focus on the impact of trading claims fractionally, when $v$ and $w$ can agree to trade only part of a claim. In addition, we study donations, in which $w$ only provides liquidity to $v$. They can be seen as special claims trades. When trading a single claim or making a single donation in networks without default cost, we show that it is impossible to strictly improve the assets of both banks $v$ and $w$. Since the goal is to rescue $v$ in distress, we study creditor-positive trades, in which $v$ improves and $w$ remains indifferent. We show that an optimal creditor-positive trade that maximizes the assets of $v$ can be computed in polynomial time. It also yields a (weak) Pareto-improvement for all banks in the entire network. In networks with default cost, we obtain a trade in polynomial time that weakly Pareto-improves all assets over the ones resulting from the optimal creditor-positive trade. We generalize these results to trading multiple claims for which $v$ is the creditor. Instead, when trading claims with a common debtor $u$, we obtain NP-hardness results for computing trades in networks with default cost that maximize the assets of the creditors and Pareto-improve the assets in the network. Similar results apply when $w$ donates to multiple banks in networks with default costs. For networks without default cost, we give an efficient algorithm to compute optimal donations to multiple banks.

Evan Parshall, Junaid Ali, Michael Zimmerman

Fantasy football leagues involve strategic player trades to optimize team performance. However, identifying optimal trades is complex due to varying player projections, positional needs, and league-specific scoring. Existing approaches focus on team selection or lineup optimization, but automated trade generation remains underexplored. In this paper, an algorithm that generates optimal trades, biasing toward improved playoff performance while maintaining apparent fairness for negotiation is explored. We introduce a genetic algorithm for fantasy football trade optimization, building on existing frameworks for team selection and lineup generation. The algorithm initializes with single-player trades, evolves through custom mutations (add/remove players, combine trades, exchange players, add from other trades, and spawn new trades), and uses team-specific elitism to preserve diversity. The cost function incorporates a playoff-weighted gain for the user's team (while maintaining apparent fairness), opponent gain, and fairness penalty. Integration with ESPN data sources enables real-time projections for all positions, including kickers and defenses. On a 12-team ESPN league (Week 8, 2025), the algorithm generated trades that upgraded the projected point totals of both the trade initiator and trade partner by nearly 3 fantasy points per week ensuring positive gains for both teams. The algorithm demonstrates effective trade optimization, with potential extensions to other fantasy sports or combinatorial problems requiring temporal biasing. Open-source implementation enables practical use and further research.

Le Thi Thanh Mai, Hoang-Anh Le, Kim Taegi

This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and CO2 emissions in Vietnam using the data from 1986 to 2014. We examine the consistency of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC) and the pollution heaven hypothesis (PHH) in Vietnam case. In 1986 Vietnam government began to launch free-market economic reforms. Since then, Vietnam economy experienced the breakthrough innovation in trade openness. On the other hand, Vietnam witness a growing level of CO2 emission. The annual growth rate of CO2 emission during the period is 7.26%, and that of trade volume is 16.11%. The empirical results show that the relationship between CO2 emissions and income per capita is an inverted U-shaped, consistent with to EKC hypothesis. We also find that the pollution heaven hypothesis is supported in that energy use and international trade contribute to air pollution, but becoming a full member of WTO brings positive effect to Vietnamese environment.

Moshe Babaioff, Yiding Feng, Noam Manaker Morag

We consider the impact of fairness requirements on the social efficiency of truthful mechanisms for trade, focusing on Bayesian bilateral-trade settings. Unlike the full information case in which all gains-from-trade can be realized and equally split between the two parties, in the private information setting, equitability has devastating welfare implications (even if only required to hold ex-ante). We thus search for an alternative fairness notion and suggest requiring the mechanism to be KS-fair: it must ex-ante equalize the fraction of the ideal utilities of the two traders. We show that there is always a KS-fair (simple) truthful mechanism with expected gains-from-trade that are half the optimum, but always ensuring any better fraction is impossible (even when the seller value is zero). We then restrict our attention to trade settings with a zero-value seller and a buyer with value distribution that is Regular or MHR, proving that much better fractions can be obtained under these conditions.

Fernanda Barchet, Fernanda Barchet, Gabriel Ciappesoni et al.

IntroductionResilient animals are capable of coping with environmental perturbations or quickly returning to unperturbed performance trajectory after facing challenges. More resilient animals tend to have better welfare, health, and productivity under variable conditions. However, trade-offs between production and resilience traits have been reported, indicating the need for further research to enable genetic selection for increased productive efficiency while maintaining or improving general resilience.MethodsIn this study, data from 76 Texel lambs monitored during a 53-day feed efficiency trial were used to generate 24 indicators of resilience based on variability in daily feed intake (FI), feeding behavior and average daily gain (ADG) and assess their phenotypic relationship with ADG and residual FI (RFI). Some traits evaluated included adgVar (residual variance of ADG), adgLnVar (log-variance of deviation between observed absolute and expected ADG), QRfi (quantile regression of FI), and QRdurfi (quantile regression of duration with effective consumption).ResultsStrong associations were found between indicators, such as adgVar and adgLnVar (r = 0.81). Productive traits showed two clear patterns, ADG was favorably correlated with QRdur (r = -0.53), QRdurfi (r = -0.65), QRfi (r = -0.65), suggesting that more resilient animals tend to have higher ADG. Conversely, RFI presented unfavorable correlations with resilience, ranging from r = -0.46 for QRfi to r = -0.24 for QRtimesfi indicating that more feed-efficient animals may be less resilient.DiscussionThese contrasting results highlight two key findings: (1) productivity and resilience can be favorably associated, as shown by ADG-resilience correlations, however, (2) specific feed efficiency indicators (e.g., RFI) may have antagonistic relationships with resilience. Given the relatively small sample size (n = 76) in this exploratory study, findings should be interpretated with caution but can provide some insights into the relation between resilience and production and potential trade-offs warranting further investigation.

Juan Sosa, Andrés Felipe Arévalo-Arévalo, Juan Pablo Torres-Clavijo

Globalization has rapidly advanced but exposed countries to supply chain disruptions, highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study exhaustively analyzes bilateral export data for 186 countries from 2018, 2020, and 2022, using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), to identify determinants of trade relationships, as well as Stochastic Block Models (SBMs), to characterize countries' roles in the trade network. Our findings show persistent, significant nodal characteristics driving bilateral trade and reveal no major structural changes in the trade network due to the pandemic.

Yushuo Zhang, Xiao Lu, Boyu Liu et al.

Understanding the relationships between ecosystem services (ES) and their underlying socioecological drivers is essential for forming the efficient management decisions of ecosystems. We use a large watershed area as a case-study to analyze trade-offs/synergies and bundles of ESs and identify the associated socioecological variables (SEVs). This study assessed the supply of 7 ES indicators, namely, three provisioning services (crop production, livestock production, and industrial production), three regulating services (water conservation, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration), and one cultural service (recreation), across 65 municipalities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in China. We analyzed the paired trade-offs/synergies using Spearman's coefficient and identified the ES bundles (ESBs) by applying principal component analysis and K-means clustering. Subsequently, we detected the SEVs that affect the ES supply using the geo-detector model and characterized the associations between ESBs and socioecological clusters according to the spatial overlap. The results demonstrated that the synergies between ESs substantially exceeded the trade-offs, among which the strongest synergies were between the crop production and the livestock production, and both responded strongly to the cropland and the population density. Trade-offs were identified between provisioning services and soil conservation. Municipalities were grouped into three ESBs in the YRB. The ESB, which was dominated by provisioning ESs, was associated with areas where cropland, precipitation and socioeconomic conditions were all important, and the regulation of ESB was linked to regions with distinct ecological characteristics. We also identified an ESB that was dominated by carbon sequestration, as determined by extensive grassland and bare land. The land use/land cover strongly affected the characteristics of the ESBs. The findings can be used by land managers to identify areas in which ESs are dominant, to determine the associations of these compositions of the ESs with SEVs, and to support the formulation of optimal ES management in large-scale basins.

Anne Parmigiani, M. Rivera-Santos

Pharmacopoeial Texts

Wen-Jie Xie, Na Wei, Wei-Xing Zhou

Energy security and energy trade are the cornerstones of global economic and social development. The structural robustness of the international oil trade network (iOTN) plays an important role in the global economy. We integrate the machine learning optimization algorithm, game theory, and utility theory for learning an oil trade decision-making model which contains the benefit endowment and cost endowment of economies in international oil trades. We have reconstructed the network degree, clustering coefficient, and closeness of the iOTN well to verify the effectiveness of the model. In the end, policy simulations based on game theory and agent-based model are carried out in a more realistic environment. We find that the export-oriented economies are more vulnerable to be affected than import-oriented economies after receiving external shocks. Moreover, the impact of the increase and decrease of trade friction costs on the international oil trade is asymmetrical and there are significant differences between international organizations.

M L Nhleko, I Edoka, E Musenge

Background. There are variations in the numbers of pancreatic cancer deaths reported annually in South Africa (SA). Since pancreatic cancer deaths occurred in SA from 1997 to 2016, the number of cases has hugely increased, and reached 23 581 in both sexes. Sex differences are likely to contribute to the variations in the strength of associations between the risk factors and pancreatic cancer mortality. Objective. To identify factors associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality in SA. Methods. A matched case-control study with 1:1 matching was conducted using data collected by Statistics SA from 1997 to 2016. Controls were randomly selected to be as similar as possible to the cases, and matched by age, sex and year of death. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with pancreatic cancer mortality. Results. This case-control study comprised a final selection of 23 581 cases (12 171 males and 11 410 females) and 23 581 controls (12 171 males and 11 410 females). A significantly increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality was observed among males who were managers (odds ratio (OR) 2.99; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.36 - 6.60; p=0.006) and craft and related trade workers (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.14 - 3.14; p=0.013). Elevated risks of pancreatic cancer mortality were also found among females who were managers (OR 6.13; 95% CI 1.32 - 28.52; p=0.021), professionals (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.24 - 3.63; p=0.006), clerical support workers (OR 3.78; 95% CI 1.79 - 7.98; p=0.001) and elementary occupation workers (OR 1.41; 95% CI 0.99 - 2.00; p=0.059). Smoking was significantly associated with pancreatic cancer mortality in females (OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.02 - 1.82; p=0.039). Working in several occupations was associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality in males (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.01 - 1.71; p=0.045) and females (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.30 - 2.12; p<0.001). Conclusion. Smoking and certain occupations increased the risk of pancreatic cancer mortality. Further research is needed to evaluate the associations between other extrinsic and intrinsic factors and pancreatic cancer mortality.

D.V.

The support system for strategic planning of foreign economic activities of European Union (EU) enterprises is considered. It was determined that a pure strategy does not lead to excellent results and does not give results without support, programs, strategies that finance the activities of enterprises, which includes foreign economic activities. This study discussed the EU instruments constituting the support scheme in the Member States, most of which are implemented through national and regional trade promotion organizations and associations. Despite the large number of measures announced in the EU strategy and the horizontal nature of the SME FEA policy, and the coordination of the implementation of the strategy as a result, coordination between EU services has been very good in some areas (e.g. sections of the free trade agreement (FTA), dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises), but this does not apply to the various EU co-funded networks such as EEN, Startup Europe or the ELAN network. EU Member States with the highest overall growth in total trade (the sum of imports and exports) tend to have higher export growth rates (compared to import growth rates), while those Member States with relatively low overall growth rates in total trade tend to, indicate higher rates of import growth and require strategic planning of foreign economic activity.

Endris Assen Ebrahim, Ahmet Toy, Yissa Hassen Kassim

IntroductionThe growth or performance of Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises (MSSEs) is widely recognized for their important contributions to economic developments in developing countries. Small and Medium-sized businesses (MMEs) in most developing nations encounter obstacles throughout and after the start-up process. This research aims to explore the determinants of the growth of MSSEs with a special emphasis on five work sectors: manufacturing, trade, construction, service, and urban agriculture in Dessie Town, Ethiopia.MethodsThe primary data was collected using a self-questionnaire from a sample of 218 managers/owners of MSE operators. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive narrations were used to analyze qualitative data as a concurrent triangulation strategy. The sample respondents were selected using a stratified random sampling method based on the type of business sector. This practical study provoked nine major issues affecting the growth of MSSEs in town: political &amp; legal factors, including bureaucratic bottlenecks system, the COVID-19 pandemic, working premises, market-related issues, road infrastructures, management system, technology-related factors, and entrepreneurial-related factors. The results show that linear and positive substantial to strong significant relationships or associations exist between some independent variables and the growth of MSSEs. Among the expected nine determinants of MSSEs' growth and performance, only political &amp; legal-related, management-related, market-related, technology-related, infrastructure-related, entrepreneur-related factors, and COVID-19 pandemic were statistically significant. Besides, the nominated factors explained the total variations in the MSSEs' growth and performance at a 5% significance level. Realizing this conclusion, the government and non-government bodies and operators of MSSEs should give attention to management, marketing, technology infrastructure, and entrepreneur-related factors.

Pablo Sanz de Miguel, Juan Arasanz, António Brandão Moniz et al.

La irrupción de la economía de plataformas constituye el modelo más reciente de prácticas de externalización y flexibilización de la organización de la producción, apoyadas en el desarrollo de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación. La difusión de este modelo de negocio ha ahondado en la expansión de diferentes figuras laborales precarias, siendo la figura del falso autónomo la más característica.  El modelo de negocio basado en las plataformas digitales tiene también el efecto de limitar la capacidad sindical para representar y defender a los trabajadores, impidiendo o limitando, por ejemplo, el recurso a la negociación colectiva.  El presente artículo compara las estrategias de revitalización sindical desplegadas en España y Portugal en el sector del reparto digital de comida a domicilio (rider) por sindicatos tradicionales, y asociaciones de repartidores y trabajadores precarios.  El artículo muestra cómo en ambos países, los sindicatos han compatibilizado estrategias de organización y movilización con acciones encaminadas a influir en la esfera política y regulatoria. No obstante, se evidencia una mayor experimentación de prácticas en el caso español, así como un mayor impacto e influencia de sus estrategias en términos políticos. El artículo también revela importantes diferencias entre ambos países respecto a la relación entre los sindicatos tradicionales y las asociaciones de repartidores. The emergence of the platform economy is the most recent model of outsourcing practices and the flexibilization of the organisation of production supported by the development of information and communication technologies. The spread of this business model has led to the expansion of different precarious forms of employment, the most common being the bogus self-employed. The business model based on digital platforms also has the effect of limiting the capacity of trade unions to represent and defend workers, preventing or limiting, for example, resource to collective bargaining. This article compares the trade union revitalisation strategies deployed in Spain and Portugal in the rider sector by traditional trade unions and associations of delivery workers and precarious workers. The article shows how, in both countries, unions have combined organising and mobilisation strategies with actions aimed at influencing political and regulatory expectations. However, there is evidence of a greater experimentation of practices in the Spanish case, as well as a greater impact and influence of their strategies in political terms. The article also reveals important differences between the two countries regarding the relationship between traditional trade unions and delivery workers' associations.

Victor Ushahemba Ijirshar

This study examined the relationship between trade facilitation and economic growth among the middle-income countries from 2010 to 2020 using 94 countries made up of 48 lower-middle-income countries and 46 upper-middle-income countries. The study utilized both difference and system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) since the cross-sections (N) were greater than the periods (T). The study found that container port traffic, quality of trade and transport-related infrastructure have a strong influence on imports and exports of goods and national income while trade tariff hurts the growth of the countries. The study also found that most of the trade facilitation indicators indicated a weak positive influence on trade flows and economic growth. Based on these findings, the study recommends that reforms aimed at significantly lowering the costs of trading across borders among middle-income countries should be highly prioritized in policy formulations, with a focus on the export side by reducing at-the-border documentation, time, and real costs of trading across borders while the international organizations should continue to report the set of Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) that identify areas for action and enable the potential impact of reforms to be assessed.

Doru PLEȘEA

The overall economic situation considers a scenario that is not exactly optimistic in the context of the current health crisis. The need for cheap resources will probably lead to the seizing of the opportunities provided by the trade companies, without patrimonial transfers of goods and labour force. Taking this context into account, we believe that the mixed ventures might become relevant again nowadays. The challenge posed by the indirect taxation of these associations without legal personality points out a series of practical aspects which we consider that should be rigorously and thoroughly addressed, especially that the tax payers’ option is not always in accordance with that of the fiscal authorities causing contentious issues, which are time and money consuming and at the same time lead to forced executions endangering the company’s existence itself. The article hereby is based on the material tax law rules as regards the common law provisions, with the aim of setting up the tax deductions regime regarding the contributions and purchases related to joint ventures, given that the Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax does not include specific provisions for joint ventures, which is why the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union is applicable in this matter.

Marina L. Butovskaya, Victoria V. Rostovtseva, Anna A. Mezentseva

Abstract Background In this paper, we investigate facial sexual dimorphism and its’ association with body dimorphism in Maasai, the traditional seminomadic population of Tanzania. We discuss findings on other human populations and possible factors affecting the developmental processes in Maasai. Methods Full-face anthropological photographs were obtained from 305 Maasai (185 men, 120 women) aged 17–90 years. Facial shape was assessed combining geometric morphometrics and classical facial indices. Body parameters were measured directly using precise anthropological instruments. Results Sexual dimorphism in Maasai faces was low, sex explained 1.8% of the total shape variance. However, male faces were relatively narrower and vertically prolonged, with slightly wider noses, narrower-set and lower eyebrows, wider mouths, and higher forehead hairline. The most sexually dimorphic regions of the face were the lower jaw and the nose. Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), measured in six known variants, revealed no significant sexual dimorphism. The allometric effects on facial traits were mostly related to the face growth, rather than the growth of the whole body (body height). Significant body dimorphism was demonstrated, men being significantly higher, with larger wrist diameter and hand grip strength, and women having higher BMI, hips circumferences, upper arm circumferences, triceps skinfolds. Facial and body sexual dimorphisms were not associated. Conclusions Facial sex differences in Maasai are very low, while on the contrary, the body sexual dimorphism is high. There were practically no associations between facial and body measures. These findings are interpreted in the light of trade-offs between environmental, cultural, and sexual selection pressures.

Moshe Babaioff, Shahar Dobzinski, Ron Kupfer

We study the classic bilateral trade setting. Myerson and Satterthwaite show that there is no Bayesian incentive compatible and budget-balanced mechanism that obtains the gains from trade of the first-best mechanism. Consider the random-offerer mechanism: with probability $\frac{1}{2}$ run the \emph{seller-offering} mechanism, in which the seller offers the buyer a take-it-or-leave-it price that maximizes the expected profit of the seller, and with probability $\frac{1}{2}$ run the \emph{buyer-offering} mechanism. Very recently, Deng, Mao, Sivan, and Wang showed that the gains from trade of the random-offerer mechanism is at least a constant factor of $\frac 1 {8.23}\approx 0.121$ of the gains from trade of the first best mechanism. Perhaps a natural conjecture is that the gains-from-trade of the random-offerer mechanism, which is known to be at least half of the gains-from-trade of the second-best mechanism, is also at least half of the gains-from-trade of the first-best mechanism. However, in this note we exhibit distributions such as the gains-from trade of the random-offerer mechanism is smaller than a $0.495$-fraction of the gains-from-trade of the first-best mechanism.