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The recognition rate of some face recognition methods that require a certain number of samples will be significantly reduced in case only one sample is available for training. Aim at this situation, a new feature extraction method, HOG–LDB (histogram of oriented gradients–local difference binary), is proposed. Then, we combined this method with SVDL (sparse variation dictionary learning) to recognize the probe images with different facial variations (e.g., illuminations, poses, expressions and disguises). The descriptor of HOG–LDB can extract the edge features and local pattern features of the image. After the feature extraction, SVDL is employed in the generic training set and the generic variation dictionary is obtained. Then, the dictionary is used for predicting the subjects of the probe images with different facial variations. Finally, experimental results on the AR dataset, the Yale dataset, the Extended Yale B dataset and the CMU-PIE dataset proved the validity of the proposed method.

Comprehensively considering the factors of environmental pollution, financial development and spillover effects, this paper analyzes the spatial dependence and clustering characteristics by selecting provincial panel data from 2005 to 2018. Meanwhile, considering geographic distance, economic distance and asymmetric factors, the optimal spatial econometric models are determined by constructing five different weight matrices and utilizing spatial panel models. The results show that (1) there existed significant positive correlation in the regional economic development and the spatial dependence played a significant role in promoting the economic development; (2) the direction and significance of spatial spillover effects were consistent under different spatial weights, and the spatial weight which considered geographical distance, economic distance and asymmetric factors proved to be the best; (3) the environmental pollution had a significant positive correlation with economic growth; (4) financial development had some positive effects on economic growth; (5) financial development was conducive to reducing the impact of environmental pollution on economic growth, and the promotion of environmental quality could strengthen the role of financial development in promoting economic growth; (6) from the perspective of regional heterogeneity, the cross terms of environmental pollution and financial development were not significant in the eastern region, but significantly negative in the central and western regions.

This paper highlights a prominent yet neglected feature of North–South trade, namely that the Northern currency is used as the medium of exchange. It investigates how this feature may affect the way real and monetary shocks are transmitted from the North to the South through trade. It shows that technological progress in the North benefits its Southern trading partner. However, if Southern consumers need to hold Northern money to pay for imports, a monetary expansion in the North hurts the South. In particular, it increases the demand for Northern money in the South, which has to be met by a transfer of real resources from the South to the North. This has an adverse effect on the terms of trade for the South and on the trade balance for the North. This last result is supported by our empirical analysis which shows a positive correlation between US money supply and US bilateral trade deficits with Mexico and with India.

Face Recognition plays a very important role in numerous occasions based on visual security in recent days. The current methods of face recognition are to extract the different features of different faces to distinguish from others, so feature extraction has become a vital step in face recognition. For this reason, this paper presents a new fusion of local difference binary (LDB) and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) for face recognition. We use LDB descriptor to extract the local pattern features of a face image. At the same time, the edge features of the original image are extracted by using HOG descriptor. The proposed new fusion of features improves the shortcomings of the low accuracy and avoids the problems that the dimension of the general fusion of features is too high. The experimental results on ORL and Yale face database verify the validity of the proposed fusion of features.

This paper develops two models to study the impact of outsourcing on wage inequality between skilled and unskilled labor in the developed country and the developing country. The first model assumes symmetric production technologies in both countries, and predicts that outsourcing will increase wage inequality in the developed country, but decrease wage inequality in the developing country. The second model assumes asymmetric technologies in the production of the intermediate good and predicts that outsourcing can lead to an increase in wage inequality in both the developed country and the developing country.

This paper develops a general equilibrium 3-good Ricardian model that extends Professor Samuelson's example on the impact of productivity progress published in JEP (summer 2004). Our model highlights Professor Samuelson's insight that productivity progress can change the pattern of trade which in turn can have dramatic welfare implications. It also shows that while Professor Samuelson is correct that productivity growth in one country can hurt another, the loss is not as permanent as his example appears to suggest. Continuing productivity growth in one country is likely to benefit all trading countries in the long run.

The Chinese government has been active in trying to cool the alleged bubbles in its housing markets, especially in urban areas. This paper argues that the high housing prices are partly caused by some real factors, including the policy of restricting land uses, in particular the maintenance of a minimum overall agricultural acreage. A simple model of three sectors (housing, agriculture, and others) is constructed to examine the effects of the artificial constraint. The role of increasing returns in the non-agricultural sectors in exacerbating the policy biases is also examined. The model is then calibrated to estimate the effects of land use control policy on housing prices in China.

This paper develops a general equilibrium monetary model to study China–US trade relations. The model captures two main features of China–US trade: China's fixed exchange rate regime and the use of the US dollar as the international medium of exchange. The main conclusions of this paper are threefold. First, an improvement in the productivity of China's tradable sector would benefit both China and the US. Second, a RMB appreciation would reduce consumption in the US and increase consumption in China, and would likely reduce China's trade surplus. It would also lead to a contraction in China's tradable sector and an expansion in US's tradable sector. Third, a monetary expansion in the US would hurt China because it would lead to a transfer of wealth from China to the US, a fall in China's relative wage rate and terms of trade, and an artificial expansion in China's tradable sector. A US monetary expansion would also increase China's trade surplus.

Monetary shocks and how they are transmitted internationally are investigated in this paper. The paper shows that where a national currency is used as an international medium of exchange, the international money is non-neutral. In particular, an increase in the supply of the international money leads to a transfer of real resources to the international money-issuing country from its trading partner. It also induces an expansion of the nontradable sector in the international money-issuing country, and an expansion of the tradable sector in its trading partner. The real impact of a monetary shock is greater under a fixed exchange rate system than under a flexible exchange rate system.

This paper investigates how the trade-off between organization costs, transaction costs and economies of specialization may affect the way public goods are provided. In doing so, it considers two ways of providing a public good. One is collective provision where users organize themselves to jointly finance the public good which is produced by a specialized firm. The other is market provision with bundling where a firm produces the public good and a private good and sells them as a bundle. Both methods of public goods provision deal with the problem of non-excludability. The first method involves organization costs, but can take advantage of specialization economies; the second method avoids organization costs, but may incur some transaction costs and forgoes the benefit of specialization economies. Which method is superior depends on the relative magnitudes of organization costs, transaction costs, specialization economies as well as other features of the economy such as population size.

This paper presents a simple model to investigate the effectiveness of foreign aid. It shows that foreign aid is most effective if it is given to a market economy with relatively high transaction efficiency. If transaction efficiency in a market economy is low due to, for instance, bad institutions or policies, then foreign aid will either be largely dissipated as transaction costs or can even lead to retrogression of market activities. In either case, it will be more effective to give foreign aid to poor primitive economies with no developed markets.

This paper develops a general equilibrium three-goods Ricardian model that extends Samuelson's example on the impact of productivity progress. Our model highlights Samuelson's insight that productivity progress can change the pattern of trade and in turn can have dramatic welfare implications. It also shows that while Samuelson is correct that productivity growth in one country can hurt another, the loss is not as permanent as his example appears to suggest. Continuing productivity growth in one country is likely to benefit all trading countries in the long run.

A model with both market production and home production is used to show that, ignoring administrative costs and indirect effects (such as rent-seeking), even if both the home and the market sectors have the condition of increasing returns and there are no pre-existing taxes, it is still efficient to tax the home sector to finance a subsidy on the market sector to offset the under-production of the latter. This under-production is due to the failure of price-taking consumers to take account of the effects of higher consumption in reducing the average costs and hence prices, through increasing returns or the publicness nature of fixed costs. Within market production, it is efficient to subsidize more the sector with a higher fixed cost, a lower elasticity of substitution between goods (higher value of diversity), and a lower degree of importance in preference which all increases the degree of increasing returns.

This is a note about Cheng et al's paper, in which we consider a dual structure of division of labor and trade in the model of Cheng et al that is missed by the authors. While the inclusion of the dual structure will not change major results in the paper of Cheng, et al., it explores an interesting way to use a general equilibrium model to describe a dual structure with underemployment in a transitional period of economic development.

We propose a Neo-Heckscher–Ohlin (HO) model of trade that combines comparative endowment advantage, comparative technological advantage, international capital mobility and trade costs. Using an inframarginal approach, we produce a partition of the exogenous parameter space in a host of parameter value subsets that demarcate the various equilibrium patterns of production and trade. The results are startling! They suggest that production within the diversification cone – a key assumption of the Heckscher–Ohlin theory that is required for its core propositions (such as factor price equalisation) to hold – may only prevail on the razor's edge, or under exceptional circumstances. In addition, our findings nominate a mechanism by which improvements in transaction efficiency facilitate international trade thereby stimulating cross-country division of labour. Contrary to other generalisations of the Heckscher–Ohlin (such as the various derivatives of the Kemp–Jones model of trade), our model does not assume a purely Ricardian character: comparative endowment advantage may determine the pattern of trade even in the presence of opposing technological differences, as long as total factor productivity coefficients adjusted for transaction efficiency and factor intensity do not confer unambiguous comparative (technological) advantage. Still, ‘intensity-efficiency’-adjusted comparative technological advantage supersedes factor endowments in determining the flow of trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Smith dilemma refers to the inconsistency ("strictly an error") between the Smith theory on the efficiency of the market based on the absence of increasing returns and the Smith theorem on the facilitation of the economies of specialization (which gives rise to increasing returns) by the extent of the market. This paper argues that, despite the prevalence of increasing returns, Adam Smith was largely right on the efficiency of the invisible hand and hence that the Smith dilemma does not really exist. Ignoring separate issues such as environmental disruption, the market is very efficient in coordinating the allocation of resources even in the presence of increasing returns. The efficiency due to the automatic and incentive-compatible adjustments, free trade and enterprise (entry/exit) largely prevails. The Dixit–Stiglitz model shows that the free-entry market equilibrium coincides with the (non-negative profit) constrained optimum when the elasticity of substitution between products is constant. For non-constant elasticities, the divergences between the market equilibrium and the constrained optimum in output levels, in the numbers of firms and in utility levels are shown to be small.

This paper applies the inframarginal analysis, which is a combination of marginal and total cost-benefit analysis, to investigate the relationship between division of labor, the extent of the market, productivity and inequality of income distribution. The model with transaction costs and exogenous and endogenous comparative advantages shows that as trading efficiency is improved the general equilibrium discontinuously jumps from autarky to partial division of labor with a dual structure, then to the complete division of labor where dual structure disappears. In this process different groups of individuals with different trading efficiency become involved in a certain level of division of labor at different stages of development. As the leading group becomes involved in a higher level of division of labor leaving others behind, a dual structure emerges and inequality increases. As latecomers catch up dual structure disappears and inequality declines. When the leader goes to an even higher level of specialization, dual structure occurs and inequality increases again. Inequality decreases again as the latecomers catch up. Hence, the equilibrium degree of inequality fluctuates in this development process. The relationship between inequality and productivity is neither monotonically positive nor monotonically negative. It might not be an inverted U-curve. The key driving force of economic development and trade is improvement in trading efficiency.

The paper introduces differences in production and transaction conditions between countries into a model of monopolistic competition. It applies inframarginal analysis to show that, as transaction conditions are improved, the general equilibrium may jump discontinuously across different patterns of trade and economic development. A country may export a good in which it has exogenous comparative disadvantage if its endogenous comparative advantage dominates this disadvantage. Countries will choose a trade and development pattern to utilize their net exogenous and endogenous comparative advantages in production as well as in transactions.

In this note, we introduce increasing returns to Bovenberg and Mooij's (1994) model as generalised in Fullerton (1997) and use an example to show that (1) even with a distortionary labor tax, the optimal environmental levy is greater than the Pigouvian rate; (2) the difference between tax on the "dirty" good and the "clean" good is also greater than the Pigouvian tax; (3) under certain circumstances, the government can optimally use the environmental levy to both meet its revenue requirement and subsidize the "clean" goods with increasing returns.

This paper develops a set of three models to study the optimal tax-subsidy regime in an economy characterised by two deviations from the perfect competition model – negative externality from pollution by the "dirty" industry, and increasing returns in the "clean" industry. Its main conclusions are: (1) the optimal single pollution tax is higher than the Pigouvian level; (2) a combination of pollution tax and quantity subsidy increases consumer welfare at a lower level of pollution tax; (3) the optimal pollution tax can be further lowered and consumer welfare further increased if the quantity subsidy is supplemented by a lump-sum subsidy.

This paper develops a general equilibrium model with transaction costs and endogenous and exogenous comparative advantages. The governments are allowed to choose between tariff war, tariff negotiation, and a {\it laissez faire} regime. It shows that the level of the division of labor and trade increases as transaction conditions improve. When a high level of the division of labor occurs in general equilibrium, all countries prefer Nash tariff bargaining game that would result in multilateral free trade. If a medium level of the division of labor occurs in general equilibrium, then unilateral protection tariff in a less developed country and unilateral {\it laissez faire} policies in a developed country would coexist. The results show that tariff negotiations are essential for achieving multilateral free trade. In addition, the model may explain the policy transition of some European governments from mercantilism to free-trade regime in the 18th and 19th century and policy changes in developing countries from protection tariff to tariff negotiation and trade liberalization.

This paper presents three simple models to study how prices, politics and persuasion may each play a role in environmental policymaking. Our conclusions are twofold. First, in the absence of increasing returns, requiring the polluting industry to purchase pollution permits can internalize the negative externality of pollution, and the optimal price of pollution permits should increase with the disutility of pollution. Second, with increasing returns in the industry using clean technologies, it is welfare enhancing to complement the pollution permits policy with a tax-funded subsidy to the clean industry, or with a tax-funded public campaign to persuade consumers to move away from the pollution generating goods.

The Chinese government has been active in trying to cool the alleged bubbles in its housing markets, especially in urban areas. This paper argues that the high housing prices are at least partly caused by some real factors, including the policy of restricting land uses, in particular the maintenance of a minimum overall agricultural acreage. A simple model of three sectors (housing, agriculture, and others) is constructed to examine the effects of the artificial constraint. The role of increasing returns in the non-agricultural sectors in exacerbating the policy biases is also examined. The model is then calibrated to estimate the effects of land use control policy on housing prices in China.

This paper develops a general equilibrium model to study how the "exorbitant advantage" works, whether it is sustainable, and what may be the consequences if it is removed. Its main findings are: (1) the center country that issues the reserve currency enjoys the "exorbitant advantage" in the sense that her current account deficit can be financed by the periphery country¡¯s reserve holdings. The "exorbitant privilege" is predicated on the overvaluation of the reserve currency caused by a higher rate of money growth in the center country; (2) the "exorbitant advantage" is not likely to be sustainable in the long run; (3) if the "exorbitant advantage" is removed, the value of the reserve currency will depreciate, the terms of trade will change against the periphery country and sector composition will change in favour of the tradable sector in the center country and in favour of the non-tradable sector in periphery country. These changes will be more pronounced if the center country repays her debt by printing money instead of raising taxes.

This paper investigates how monetary shocks are transmitted internationally. It shows that where a national currency is used as an international medium of exchange, the international money is non-neutral. In particular, an increase in the supply of international money leads to a transfer of real resources to the international money-issuing country from its trading partner. It also induces an expansion of the non-tradable sector in the international money-issuing country, and an expansion the tradable sector in its trading partner. The real impact of a monetary shock is greater under a fixed exchange rate system than under a flexible exchange rate system.

This paper investigates how monetary shocks are transmitted internationally. It shows that where a national currency is used as an international medium of exchange, the international money is non-neutral. In particular, an increase in the supply of international money leads to a transfer of real resources to the international money-issuing country from its trading partner. It induces an expansion of the non-tradable sector in the international money-issuing country, and an expansion the tradable sector in its trading partner. The real impact of a monetary shock is greater under a fixed exchange rate system than under a flexible exchange rate system.

This paper develops a Ricardian model with money to study North-South trade that is mediated by the currency of the North. The model shows that an increase in the supply of Northern money results in inflation being “exported†to the South. The increase in the supply of Northern money also has real effects: (1) it transfers real resources from the South to the North, lowers the wage rate in the South relative to that in the North, and worsens the terms of trade for the South; and (2) it leads to structural changes in both economies by encouraging the expansion of the tradable sector in the South and the expansion of the non-tradable sector in the North.

This paper studies a multinational firm’s transfer price decisions in imperfectly competitive market settings. It investigates whether the firm’s optimal transfer price coincides with the arm’s length price and examines how the firm might respond if it is compelled to follow the arm’s length principle. The main findings are: (1) in the absence of tax transfer incentives, the firm’s optimal transfer price does not coincide with the arm’s length price. If the firm is compelled to follow the arm’s length principle, it has an incentive to circumvent the arm’s length principle by keeping two sets of books, one for internal management, and another for tax reporting purposes; (2) the arm’s length principle can affect the MNF’s decision on whether or not to foreclose its competitor. Absent profit shifting incentives, the firm will foreclose its downstream competitor. Imposing the arm’s length principle induces the firm to supply its competitor, but the firm can revert to its foreclosure decision by keeping two sets of books. If the firm’s upstream and downstream divisions face different tax rates, the firm’s foreclosure decision will be reversed if the arm’s length principle is enforced.

This paper develops a model to study the effects of foreign aid on the creation and distribution of wealth in the recipient country. It considers three types of foreign aid: permanent grants to all individuals, temporary grants to uneducated workers, and foreign aid in the form of low interest rate loans to individuals who invest in education. The model shows that the economy may have two long-run equilibria, a rich equilibrium and a poor one. All types of foreign aid can increase the proportion of individuals investing in education, which means more people converging to the rich equilibrium and higher average wealth in the economy. In addition, if permanent or temporary grants are sufficient large, it is possible that the whole economy may converge to the rich equilibrium.

This paper develops a general equilibrium 2x2 Ricardian model that demonstrates the possibility of immiserizing growth as a result of a productivity improvement in a country's export industry. The model also shows that immiserizing growth can be avoided by improving the productivity of the country's comparative disadvantage industry. However this strategy may inflict harm on its trading partner. In comparison, a balanced growth strategy can improve welfare of the growing country without hurting its trading partner.

This paper applies the inframarginal analysis, which is a combination of marginal and total cost-benefit analysis, to investigate the relationship between division of labor, the extent of the market, productivity, and inequality of income distribution. The model with transaction costs and exogenous and endogenous comparative advantages shows that as transaction conditions are improved, the general equilibrium discontinuously jumps from autarky to partial division of labor with a dual structure, then to the complete division of labor where dual structure disappears. In this process different groups of individuals with different transaction conditions get involved in a certain level of division of labor at different stages of development. As the leading group gets involved in a higher level of division of level, leaving others behind dual structure emerges and inequality increases. As latecomers catch up dual structure disappears and inequality declines. When the leader goes to an even higher level of specialization, dual structure occurs and inequality increases again. Inequality decreases again as the latecomers catch up. Hence, the equilibrium degree of inequality fluctuates in this development process. The relationship between inequality and productivity is neither monotonically positive nor monotonically negative. It might not be of inverted U-curve. The key driving force of economic development and trade is improvement in transaction conditions.

This paper applies the infra-marginal analysis, which is a combination of marginal and total cost-benefit analysis, to a model with both constant returns and increasing returns in production and with exogenous and endogenous comparative advantages. It demonstrates that as transaction conditions are improved, the general equilibrium discontinuously jumps from autarky to partial division of labor with a dual structure, then to the complete division of labor where dual structure disappears. Two types of dual structure may occur in the transitional stage of economic development and globalization. One of them involves the division of labor in the developed economy and autarky in the less developed economy, generating increasing disparity of per capita real income between the two types of economies. The other involves a domestic dual structure in the less developed economy, where the population is divided between commercialized sector which trades with foreign country and self-sufficient sector which is not involved in trade. All gains from trade go to the developed economy. This paper shows that deterioration of a country’s terms of trade may concur with an increase of gains that this country receives from trade provided productivity progress from an expanded network of division of labor outpaces the deterioration of terms of trade. In the model with both endogenous and exogenous comparative advantages, a country may exports a good with exogenous comparative disadvantage if endogenous comparative advantage dominates this exogenous comparative disadvantage.

The paper introduces differences in production and transaction conditions between countries into the model of monopolistic competition to investigate the interplay between trade policies and development strategies. It applies inframarginal analysis, which is total benefit analysis between corner solutions in addition to marginal analysis of each corner solution, to show that as transaction conditions are improved, the general equilibrium may discontinuously jump across different patterns of trade and economic development. It compares the marginal and inframarginal comparative statics of equilibrium in the model of monopolistic competition with the core theorems in the neoclassical trade models and with conventional wisdom in development economics. It shows that as analytical framework is altered, the meanings of concepts and related empirical observations will be changed too.

This paper develops two models to study the impact of trade in intermediate goods on wage inequality between skilled and unskilled labor in a developed country and a developing country. The first model assumes symmetric production technologies in the intermediate good. It predicts that trade in the intermediate good will increase wage inequality in the developed country, but decrease wage inequality in the developing country. The second model assumes asymmetric technologies in the intermediate good. It predicts that trade in the intermediate good can lead to an increase in wage inequality in both the developed country and the developing country.

This paper develops a general equilibrium Ricardian model with transaction costs to investigate the determinants of the firm's sourcing decision. It derives conditions under which different sourcing choices and corresponding trade patterns occur in general equilibrium. These conditions suggest that, inter alia, the choice between vertical integration and specialisation depends on the relative internal transaction costs associated with vertical integration and external transaction costs associated with international outsourcing; and that the equilibrium sourcing structures and trade patterns are consistent with a refined theory of comparative advantage that incorporates the effects of transaction costs in international trade.