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This study examines the economic efficiency associated with firm location in a non-traded goods industry. This industry comprises of two segmented regions (markets) and a fixed number of potentiall...

This paper presents a North–South trade model with vertically linked industries and examines how declining costs of trade across stages of production encourage vertical specialization and affect wages and welfare. As trade costs fall below a threshold, the production of all final goods relocates to the South and vertical specialization emerges. In some industries, production of intermediate goods also relocates against comparative costs because of benefits of co‐location, and further declines in trade costs lead to reshoring. A country may temporarily lose from falling trade costs, but both countries can be better off after trade costs fall sufficiently.

We develop a simple model of policy coordination on domestic standards and examine whether domestic standards policy can lead to regional and multilateral harmonization of standards under the principle of national treatment. This paper focuses on mandatory product and process standards affecting the characteristics of a final good that control negative consumption externalities (e.g., vehicle emissions control and safety standards, restrictions on the use of pesticides for agricultural goods, and safety standards for electrical products). Only the products that meet a country's national standards are allowed to circulate in that country's market. Raising standards reduces negative externalities caused by consumption of a traded good but increases firms’ costs. We use the core as the solution concept. A standards regime is considered to be in the core if it is not blocked by any coalition within countries. The main finding is that a multilateral agreement on standards that maximizes world welfare is only in the core if externalities are local or slightly transboundary. Otherwise, only a regional agreement on standards is in the core. As extensions, we consider many and asymmetric number of firms, asymmetry in market size, fixed costs for different standards, and a multilateral agreement on different standards.

A seemingly unrelated regression model has been commonly used for describing a set of different regression models with correlations. This paper discusses the estimation of the covariance matrix in a seemingly unrelated regression model under Stein’s loss function. In particular, when the correlation matrix is assumed to be known, a best equivariant estimator of the covariance matrix is derived. Its properties are investigated and a connection to a best equivariant estimator of regression coefficients given in a previous study is shown. Results of numerical simulations and an illustrative example are also presented to compare the best equivariant estimator of the covariance matrix with several conventional covariance matrix estimators.

If A ∈ R m × m and B ∈ R n × n , we define the product A ⊘ B as A ⊘ B = A ⊗ J n + J m ⊗ B , where ⊗ denotes the Kronecker product and J n is the n × n matrix of all ones. We refer to this product as the Cartesian product of A and B since if D 1 and D 2 are the distance matrices of graphs G 1 and G 2 respectively, then D 1 ⊘ D 2 is the distance matrix of the Cartesian product G 1 □ G 2 . We study Cartesian products of Euclidean distance matrices (EDMs). We prove that if A and B are EDMs, then so is the product A ⊘ B . We show that if A is an EDM and U is symmetric, then A ⊗ U is an EDM if and only if U = c J n for some c. It is shown that for EDMs A and B, A ⊘ B is spherical if and only if both A and B are spherical. If A and B are EDMs, then we derive expressions for the rank and the Moore–Penrose inverse of A ⊘ B . In the final section we consider the product A ⊘ B for arbitrary matrices. For A ∈ R m × m , B ∈ R n × n , we show that all nonzero minors of A ⊘ B of order m + n − 1 are equal. An explicit formula for a nonzero minor of order m + n − 1 is proved. The result is shown to generalize the familiar fact that the determinant of the distance matrix of a tree on n vertices does not depend on the tree and is a function only of n.

This study examines the effects of policy changes and improvements in the agritourism sector in a developing country. We analyze the economy of a developing country, which consists of two regions: an urban area where the manufacturing sector is located and which has a certain level of unemployment a la Harris and Todaro (Am Econ Rev 60(1):126–142, 1970), and a rural area where both the agricultural and agritourism sectors are located. We demonstrate that encouraging labor outflow is reasonable, while the effects of a decrease in the minimum urban wage or the effects of additional foreign capital investment are not clear. We also assert that under certain conditions, an enhancement of the ratio of agricultural goods to touristic services in the agritourism sector will improve domestic welfare and reduce the urban unemployment rate. Furthermore, we conclude that agricultural-good-intensive tourism and environmentally friendly agritourism cause positive effects on welfare and employment.

One thousand nine hundred and sixty three samples of meat products, raw meat and meat product additives from different slaughterhouses, meat processing factories and retail meat shops in six prefectures of Japan, were examined for the presence and number of Bacillus cereus . Although B. cereus was found in meat products (18.3%) and raw meat (6.6%), the contamination levels were generally lower than 102 per gram. In contrast, meat product additives showed contamination levels ranging from 102 to 104/g with the highest values (104/g) in samples of spices and animal proteins. On the basis of these results, we suggest that the main source of B. cereus contamination in meat products is contaminated meat product additives.

k -Principal points of a random variable are k points that minimize the mean squared distance (MSD) between the random variable and the nearest of the k points. This paper focuses on finding optimal estimators of principal points in terms of the expected mean squared distance (EMSD) between the random variable and the nearest principal point estimator. These estimators are compared with nonparametric and maximum likelihood estimators. It turns out that a minimum EMSD estimator of k -principal points of univariate normal distributions is determined by the k -principal points of the t -distribution with n + 1 degrees of freedom, where n is the sample size. Extensions of the results to location-scale families, multivariate distributions, and principal surfaces are also discussed.

Cell matrix introduced by Jaklic and Modic [6] is a special Euclidean distance matrix (EDM) that has a quite attractive and simple structure. It is of interest to approximate an EDM by a cell matrix. In this paper, we consider the problem of finding the cell matrix that is closest to a given EDM with respect to the Frobenius norm. The majorization ordering of the eigenvalues of a cell matrix is also discussed.

This study examines the effects of service cost reduction on a “service-with-location” industry from a welfare perspective. We consider the situation where firms decide to locate in one of two regions with different region-specific marginal costs in industries with and without entry regulation. We demonstrate that in the entry-regulated industry, service cost reduction is favorable for producers and the overall economy, but it may be unfavorable for consumers. In contrast, in the entry-unregulated industry, service cost reduction is unambiguously favorable for all agents. This result implies that governments have an incentive to implement policies to reduce service costs, and they need formulate policies to protect consumers when service costs are reduced under entry-regulation.

We obtain expressions for the Moore–Penrose inverse of a Euclidean distance matrix (EDM) that are determined only by the positive semidefinite matrix associated with the EDM. The results complement formulas for the Moore–Penrose inverse of an EDM given in Balaji and Bapat (2007) [2] . A formula for the inverse of a principal submatrix of an EDM is also derived, whose expression uses the Schur complement of the Laplacian of the EDM. As an application, we obtain an expression for the terminal Wiener index of a tree.

This paper derives the best equivariant estimator (BEE) of the regression coefficients of a seemingly unrelated regression model with an elliptically symmetric error. Equivariance with respect to the group of location and scale transformations is considered. We assume that the correlation matrix of the error term is known. Since the correlation matrix is a maximal invariant parameter under the group action, the model treated in this paper is generated as exactly one orbit on the parameter space. It is also shown that the BEE can be viewed as a generalized least squares estimator.

We reconsider the effects of a policy that sets an artificially low interest rate. Such a policy involves a combination of an interest rate ceiling and a rationing rule that assigns a priority-lending status to export sectors over domestic service sectors. We demonstrate that the policy works as an export-promotion policy, and improves national income. Furthermore, under some conditions, the policy expands the domestic service sector, despite the reduced amount of funds owing to the rationing rule. Finally, the artificially low interest rate improves national welfare.

This paper presents some new characterizations of Euclidean distance matrices (EDMs) of special structures. More specifically, we discuss multispherical and block-structured EDMs, each of which can be viewed as a generalization of spherical EDM. We focus on a well-known inequality that characterizes spherical EDMs and extend it to the sets of multispherical and block-structured EDMs. Some related results are also presented.

A set of \(n\)-principal points of a \(p\)-dimensional distribution is an optimal \(n\)-point-approximation of the distribution in terms of a squared error loss. It is in general difficult to derive an explicit expression of principal points. Hence, we may have to search the whole space \(R^p\) for \(n\)-principal points. Many efforts have been devoted to establish results that specify a linear subspace in which principal points lie. However, the previous studies focused on elliptically symmetric distributions and location mixtures of spherically symmetric distributions, which may not be suitable to many practical situations. In this paper, we deal with a mixture of elliptically symmetric distributions that form an allometric extension model, which has been widely used in the context of principal component analysis. We give conditions under which principal points lie in the linear subspace spanned by the first several principal components.

In a general linear model, this paper derives a necessary and sufficient condition under which two general ridge estimators coincide with each other. The condition is given as a structure of the dispersion matrix of the error term. Since the class of estimators considered here contains linear unbiased estimators such as the ordinary least squares estimator and the best linear unbiased estimator, our result can be viewed as a generalization of the well-known theorems on the equality between these two estimators, which have been fully studied in the literature. Two related problems are also considered: equality between two residual sums of squares, and classification of dispersion matrices by a perturbation approach., Comment: 16 pages. This is a pre-print of an article published in Statistical Papers. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00362-017-0975-8

In this article, we introduce the notion of “m-dimensional n-principal points,” which is a generalization of the notion of n-principal points. A set of m-dimensional n-principal points of a distribution is defined as a set of n points that optimally represents the distribution in terms of mean squared distance subject to the condition that the dimension of the linear subspace spanned by the n points is at most m. Its properties and connections to principal components are investigated for elliptically symmetric distributions and a location mixture of spherically symmetric distributions.

This paper studies a prediction problem of factor scores with correlationpreserving linear predictors. We deal with three new risk functions that are obtained by modifying some typical risk functions in the literature, and derive optimal correlation-preserving linear predictors with respect to them. A necessary and sufficient condition for an identical equality among the predictors to hold is also derived.

By a hollow symmetric matrix we mean a symmetric matrix with zero diagonal elements. The notion contains those of predistance matrix and Euclidean distance matrix as its special cases. By a centered symmetric matrix we mean a symmetric matrix with zero row (and hence column) sums. There is a one-toone correspondence between the classes of hollow symmetric matrices and centered symmetric matrices, and thus with any hollow symmetric matrix D we may associate a centered symmetric matrix B, and vice versa. This correspondence extends a similar correspondence between Euclidean distance matrices and positive semidefinite matrices with zero row and column sums.We show that if B has rank r, then the corresponding D must have rank r, r + 1 or r + 2. We give a complete characterization of the three cases.We obtain formulas for the Moore-Penrose inverse D+ in terms of B+, extending formulas obtained in Kurata and Bapat (Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 2015). If D is the distance matrix of a weighted tree with the sum of the weights being zero, then B+ turns out to be the Laplacian of the tree, and the formula for D+ extends a well-known formula due to Graham and Lovász for the inverse of the distance matrix of a tree.

We examine the effects of free trade agreement (FTA) on tariffs and welfare in a three-country model with vertical trade, where an FTA is formed between a country exporting a final good whose production involves using an intermediate good, and a country exporting the intermediate good in exchange for the final good. We demonstrate that the FTA reduces its member country's external tariff, whereas it raises the non-member country's tariff. The non-member country unambiguously becomes better off. In contrast, the FTA may or may not make its member countries better off. This implies that the formation of an FTA may not always be Pareto-improving.

This paper investigates the relation between the eigenvalues of a Euclidean distance matrix (EDM) and those of the corresponding positive semidefinite matrix. More precisely, let D 1 and D 2 be two EDMs and let B 1 and B 2 be the corresponding positive semidefinite matrices such that D i = κ ( B i ) ( i = 1 , 2 ) . In this paper, when the eigenvalues of B 1 majorizes those of B 2 , a condition under which the eigenvalues of D 1 majorizes those of D 2 is derived.

For each positive integer k, a set of k-principal points of a distribution is the set of k points that optimally represent the distribution in terms of mean squared distance. However, explicit form of k-principal points is often difficult to obtain. Hence a theorem established by Tarpey et al. (1995) has been influential in the literature, which states that when the distribution is elliptically symmetric, any set of k-principal points is in the linear subspace spanned by some principal eigenvectors of the covariance matrix. This theorem is called a “principal subspace theorem”. Recently, Yamamoto and Shinozaki (2000b) derived a principal subspace theorem for 2-principal points of a location mixture of spherically symmetric distributions. In their article, the ratio of mixture was set to be equal. This article derives a further result by considering a location mixture with unequal mixture ratio.

This paper investigates the welfare effects of firm location in a service industry. We consider the situation where firms determine their locations in either of two regions with a difference in market size. From the viewpoint of the consumers' welfare, there are too few firms in the large market and too many in the small market. However, from the viewpoint of the producers' and social welfare, the opposite is true. Further, an increase in the difference in market size is unambiguously unfavorable for the producers. On the other hand, such an increase is favorable for the consumers and the economy as a whole.

We investigate the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on tariffs and welfare in vertical trade. We consider a three-country model, where an FTA is formed between a country exporting a final good and a country exporting an intermediate good. The FTA unambiguously leads to a reduction in the member country’s tariff, but may cause the non-member country’s tariff level to increase. In the case, where FTA raises the non-member country’s tariff level, the FTA increases that country’s welfare. In contrast, the FTA may render its member countries better off. This result implies that the formation of an FTA may not always be Pareto-improving.

In this paper, we study 2-principal points of general location mixtures, including finite and infinite mixtures, of spherically symmetric distributions. A theorem is established that clarifies a linear subspace in which any set of 2-principal points exists.

In this paper we introduce new necessary and sufficient conditions for an Euclidean distance matrix to be multispherical. The class of multispherical distance matrices studied in this paper contains not only most of the matrices studied by Hayden et al. (1996) 2 , but also many other multispherical structures that do not satisfy the conditions in Hayden et al. (1996) 2 . We also study the information provided by the origin of coordinates when it is placed at the center of the spheres and the origin representation property is satisfied. These vectors associated with the origin of coordinates generate a number of supporting hyperplanes for a family of multispherical matrices and also describe part of the null space of the corresponding distance matrices.

We investigate the behaviors of subjects who either do or do not adhere to the expected utility theory using the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) method. We directly examine the validity of the expected utility theory in order to distinguish subjects into two groups: those who adhere to the expected utility theory (expected utility maximizers) and those who do not adhere to it (non-expected utility maximizers), and then execute the BDM experiment in the both groups. We find that the differences in the stated prices between the expected and non-expected utility maximizers are not significant. This result implies practical usefulness for the BDM method.

In a general linear regression model, a generalized least squares estimator (GLSE) is widely employed as an estimator of regression coefficient. The efficiency of the GLSE is usually measured by its covariance (or risk) matrix. In this paper, it is shown that the covariance matrix remains the same as long as the distribution of the error term is elliptically symmetric. This implies that every efficiency result obtained under normal distribution assumption is still valid under elliptical symmetry. An application to a heteroscedastic linear model is also illustrated.

We investigate whether non-tradable service FDI is efficient from a welfare point of view. A fixed number of firms strategically decide which markets to locate in and then compete in quasi-Cournot fashion. Considering firm location in two symmetric markets, non-tradable service FDI may or may not be efficient for the source country, depending on the total number of firms, competition in markets and the curvature of the demand function. In contrast, non-tradable service FDI is always efficient for the host country and the overall economy. This implies that any policy that affects firm location between two symmetric markets will not be beneficial from a welfare viewpoint.

This study investigated whether an improvement in periodontal health resulted in changes in the prevalence of periodontopathogenic bacteria in saliva and tongue coatings and a reduction in volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs: H2S and CH3SH) linked to oral malodour. The subjects were 35 patients who visited the breath odour clinic of Kyushu Dental College, Japan. Their mean age was 51.2±18.3 years (mean±sd). A clinical examination performed at baseline and 2 months after periodontal treatment assessed VSCs in mouth air using gas chromatography, periodontal probing depth and bleeding on probing (BOP) in all subjects; saliva and tongue coatings were also collected. Genomic DNA was isolated from the samples, and the proportions of five periodontopathogenic bacteria (Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythensis, Treponema denticola, Prevotella intermedia and Prevotella nigrescens) were investigated using quantitative real-time PCR. The subjects were classified into four groups based on the presence of a periodontal pocket of more than 4 mm (PD) and VSCs above the organoleptic threshold level (VSCT) as follows: –PD/–VSCT group, subjects without PD or VSCT; –PD/+VSCT group, those without PD but with VSCT; +PD/–VSCT group, those with PD but without VSCT; and +PD/+VSCT group, those with PD and VSCT. Although the mean PD values in the +PD/–VSCT and +PD/+VSCT groups, BOP in the +PD/+VSCT group, and H2S and CH3SH concentrations in the –PD/+VSCT and +PD/+VSCT groups were greater than in the other groups at baseline, we found no significant difference among the four groups after periodontal treatment. The proportion of periodontopathogenic bacteria in saliva was higher in the +PD/–VSCT and +PD/+VSCT groups than in the –PD/–VSCT and –PD/+VSCT groups at baseline and after treatment, but the proportions of bacteria in saliva after treatment were reduced compared to the baseline. Furthermore, the differences in the proportions of the five target bacteria in the tongue coating were not as apparent as those in saliva at baseline or after treatment. The prevalence of periodontopathogenic bacteria in saliva may reflect periodontal health status and influence VSC levels in mouth air.

A low-concentration hydrogen peroxide solution containing titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst has attracted attention as a safe office bleaching agent. In this study, the influence of different kinds of light on the bleaching effect of this agent was examined. The bleaching agent was applied to hematoporphyrin-stained paper strips that were then irradiated with a 405-nm diode laser (800 mW/cm2), a halogen lamp (720 mW/cm2), or an LED (835 mW/cm2) for 5 minutes. The color was measured spectrophotometrically before treatment and every 30 seconds thereafter, and the effects of bleaching on the strip were assessed using the CIE 1976 L * a* b* color coordinate system. Of the three different irradiation conditions, 405-nm laser irradiation gave the strongest bleaching effect with 3.5% hydrogen peroxide containing titanium dioxide. The laser provides strong irradiance at 405 nm, which corresponds to the absorption range of the bleaching agent, and consequently the largest effect was obtained.

We analyze the impact of globalization on the incentive to strengthen regional integration. In a simple three-country oligopolistic trade model, we demonstrate that increased external competitive pressure may induce governments, inauenced by producer interests, to lower intra-regional trade costs in order to mitigate the effects of external competition on local businesses.

A new bleaching agent consisting of a titanium dioxide photocatalyst and 3.5% hydrogen peroxide has recently been developed for in-office bleaching and has proven to react well with irradiated light around a wavelength of 400 nm. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of dental bleaching with a 405-nm diode laser irradiation on titanium dioxide and 3.5% hydrogen peroxide by measuring the generation of hydroxyl radicals. The amount of hydroxyl radicals generated from a titanium dioxide and 3.5% hydrogen peroxide irradiated by a 405-nm diode laser were measured using electron spin resonance spin-trapping techniques. The irradiation conditions of the laser were a spot size of 1 mm, output powers of 100, 200, 400 mW, and 600 mW, and irradiation times of 10, 20, 30, and 60 s. Nonirradiated samples were used as controls. DMPO-OH adduct spectra and DMPO-O 2 − adduct spectra were observed when the bleaching agent was irradiated by laser light. The amount of hydroxyl radicals generated changed in accordance with adjustments in the irradiation power and irradiation time. In the nonirradiated controls, hydroxyl radicals were generated in far smaller amounts. The 405-nm diode laser is effective in inducing the generation of hydroxyl radicals and shows promise as a bleaching light source for use in combination with bleaching agents composed of titanium dioxide and low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide.

This paper explores foreign equity caps for international joint ventures under different types of competition, i.e., Bertrand and Cournot competition, with product differentiation. We demonstrate that government sets the foreign equity cap at a laxer level under Cournot competition than under Bertrand competition. This result illustrates that the possibility of international joint ventures weakens government's ability to affect firm behavior through the implementation of foreign equity caps.

In the behavioral and social sciences, quasi-experimental and observational studies are used due to the difficulty achieving a random assignment. However, the estimation of differences between groups in observational studies frequently suffers from bias due to differences in the distributions of covariates. To estimate average treatment effects when the treatment variable is binary, Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983a) proposed adjustment methods for pretreatment variables using the propensity score. However, these studies were interested only in estimating the average causal effect and/or marginal means. In the behavioral and social sciences, a general estimation method is required to estimate parameters in multiple group structural equation modeling where the differences of covariates are adjusted. We show that a Horvitz-Thompson-type estimator, propensity score weighted M estimator (PWME) is consistent, even when we use estimated propensity scores, and the asymptotic variance of the PWME is shown to be less than that with true propensity scores. Furthermore, we show that the asymptotic distribution of the propensity score weighted statistic under a null hypothesis is a weighted sum of independent χ 1 2 variables. We show the method can compare latent variable means with covariates adjusted using propensity scores, which was not feasible by previous methods. We also apply the proposed method for correlated longitudinal binary responses with informative dropout using data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA). The results of a simulation study indicate that the proposed estimation method is more robust than the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method, in that PWME does not require the knowledge of the relationships among dependent variables and covariates.

The purpose of this study was to use a newly developed computerised scorebook for tennis in order to clarify the characteristics of tennis tactics used on specific court surfaces. The authors developed a computerised scorebook for tennis that calculates the time duration of shots, points, and the time between points. Data were collected from matches played by male Japanese intercollegiate players. A total of 97 points were observed. Two observers (A, B) were recruited for recording matches using the scorebook. The mean error of observer A was 0.003±0.05 s, while the mean error of observer B was 0.02±0.10 s.The computerised scorebook for tennis was used to collect data for clarifying the characteristics of tennis tactics used on specific court surfaces. Forty-one matches from the Grand Slam tournaments held in 2003 and 2004 were analyzed. The scorebook recorded the final shot of each point, the result of each point, and the time duration of each shot. The final shots were categorised into the following 5 g...

Tennis has a peculiar scoring system. The purpose of this study was clarify the importance of counting one game in tennis matches by studying data from actual games, comprising 42 men's singles matches (907 games) during the Kyushu collegiate tennis championships held in 1997 and 1998. The main criterion for the analysis was the relationship between point-winning at each score and game-winning. It was found that (1) the rate of point-winning by game-winning players was 67.0%, and that the rate of point-winning by opponents was 33.0%. The game-winning players obtained 2/3 of all points. Furthermore (2), the rate of point-winning by players with a leading score was comparatively high at the time of either leading, such as in an up count or a down count, as well as when there was a difference in points at game-point. In particular, the rate of point-winning by game-winning players was significantly high on 0-15 and 15-30. (3) At scores of 30-30 and deuce (i.e. even count), the rate of point-winning by game-winning players was significantly high. These scores led an even count to game-point. These scores also showed a high frequency, and were the key to winning the game. These results suggest that scores of 30-30 and deuce are keys to game-winning, when gaining one point can lead to victory.

In a seemingly unrelated regression model with p(⩾2) equations, this paper considers the problem of testing independence of equations against a one-sided alternative hypothesis. The power functions of invariant tests are evaluated and the locally most mean powerful invariant test is obtained.

We analyze foreign equity caps for international joint ventures. We develop a partial equilibrium model in which foreign equity caps are determined endogenously and find an interesting property, named a welfare indifference property i.e., maximization of domestic welfare and that of world welfare are indifferent for the host government. This property also implies that the government is indifferent to the distribution of a JV's profit.

In this paper, first we make a maximal extension of the well-known Gauss–Markov Theorem (GMT) in its linear framework. In particular, the maximal class of distributions of error term for which the GMT holds is derived. Second, we establish a nonlinear version of the maximal GMT and describe some interesting families of distributions of error term for which the nonlinear GMT holds.