CUCSH

This paper presents an ex-ante assessment of the FTA between Mexico and South Korea that has been under negotiation since 2007. It seeks to go beyond previous studies on this issue by including a more comprehensive analysis of trade and investment flows and a more rigorous appraisal of the trade potential between the two economies by means of a gravity model of trade fitted on a panel dataset for the 21 APEC member economies. The aim was to determine whether this agreement can be beneficial for both countries and, in passing, to contribute to the development of a more objective rationale for this purpose. Overall, the results point to the conclusion that an FTA can in fact be beneficial for both partners. On the other hand, the methodology adopted proves to be pertinent as a first step in the development of such rationale.

Ð Market liberalization has been carried out by many developing countries in the hopes of stimulating trade, investment and technology transfer. In order to analyze the impacts of liberalization on a speci®c industry sector, this paper compares the experiences of Brazil and Mexico in liberalizing the computer industry in the 1990s. The authors conclude that liberalization leads to lower prices and more rapid diusion of computer use throughout the economy, but at a cost to domestic computer ®rms who were harmed by foreign competition. Both countries saw an increase in computer production, but Mexico's production was mainly for export to the United States, while Brazil was producing for the domestic market. The dierences between outcomes in the two countries have been determined more by environmental factors than by the nature and pace of liberalization. Ó

Ð Market liberalization has been carried out by many developing countries in the hopes of stimulating trade, investment and technology transfer. In order to analyze the impacts of liberalization on a speci®c industry sector, this paper compares the experiences of Brazil and Mexico in liberalizing the computer industry in the 1990s. The authors conclude that liberalization leads to lower prices and more rapid diusion of computer use throughout the economy, but at a cost to domestic computer ®rms who were harmed by foreign competition. Both countries saw an increase in computer production, but Mexico's production was mainly for export to the United States, while Brazil was producing for the domestic market. The dierences between outcomes in the two countries have been determined more by environmental factors than by the nature and pace of liberalization. Ó

This paper examines the genesis of the three fundamental concepts that have proved to play an archetypical role in the literature on industrial agglomeration, namely, Isardian industrial complexes, neo-Marshallian industrial districts, and Porterian industrial clusters. This is done within the historical context in which each concept was formulated, pinpointing their differences and similarities. The purpose is to reassert their original meaning, discern their essential properties and, on these bases, identify the kind of policy prescriptions each inherently entails. Ultimately, the aim is to contribute to renew Ann Markusen’s call for conceptual rigor in the literature in this field, which she made a decade and a half ago.

This paper undertakes a forthright appraisal of the likelihood for the B&R initiative to reach its core objectives. It departs from the observation that the most central of these objectives has not been stated explicitly in official documents nor has been acknowledged in speeches and statements by Chinese leaders and yet articulates most of the official, explicitly stated ones, i.e., to drive the formation of an economically integrated region comprising the countries earmarked by Beijing as the objects of the initiative’s myriad programs, projects and campaigns.
It contends that it is unlikely that this overarching objective can be attained in the foreseeable future, so what the Chinese leadership is intending is to fulfill the several implicit goals that lie undeclared in the interstices and sidelines of official documents and speeches and statements of president Xi and his top collaborators; whatever progress is made toward the construction of such an integrated B&R region will be a most welcome by-product. This paper substantiates these claims.

AUTHORS: Jason Dedrick Kenneth L. Kraemer University of California, Irvine and Juan J. Palacios University of Guadalajara Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) Graduate School of Management Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697 http://www.crito.uci.edu Contact the authors at: jdedrick@uci.edu kkraemer@uci.edu jjplara@hotmail.com This research has been supported by grants from the Sloan Foundation; the Computation and Social Systems Program in the Computer, Intelligent Systems and Engineering (CISE) Division and the International Program of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBE) Division of the U.S. National Science Foundation; the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Mexico

The author acknowledges the contribution of Prof. Enrique Cuevas in the collection of data for a large part of Section II and various parts of Section III. Also appreciated is the assistance of Cesar Cobián in primary data processing. This report examines Mexico as one of the countries in Latin America where e-commerce operations have extended most, second only to Brazil, and where a digital economy has begun to emerge as a result of a complex set of factors. Factors are identified that can be considered critical, and then likely implications for the growth of e-commerce in the near future. Key environmental factors that exert an important influence include the performance of the economy, its sectoral and business structure, the size of the population, and the distribution of national income. However, it is hypothesized here, the ones that critically determine the pace, quality and orientation of the process are the work of private organizations devoted to promoting e-commerce practices, and the political will the Mexican government has demonstrated in the last few years to improve the country's telecommunications infrastructure. The former includes the systematic work and effective actions of specialized working groups in the discussion of vital issues like the passing of legislation to regulate and provide security to electronic transactions, the design of guidelines, and the spread of knowledge on the benefits and opportunities offered by e-commerce so that firms and other organizations can embrace ecommerce as a new way of doing business. The will of the Mexican government is materialized in programs, projects, and initiatives, epitomized by the mega project to build what is called the e-Mexico National System. Also of particular importance are the programs aimed at providing technical and financial support to businesses, especially small-and medium-sized, for the adoption of information technologies (IT) to use the Internet for conducting business-to-government dealings, such as the fulfillment of fiscal obligations or the supply of goods and services. Since both these programs and the telecommunications networks under construction also benefit private individuals, consumer-togovernment transactions are being equally facilitated. The two sets of inducing factors reinforce each other. Promoting organizations operate by means of specialized working groups whose membership includes representatives from the federal government, often at the ministerial level. Jointly, these factors are creating a favorable environment and the required physical conditions for the development of both business-tobusiness and business-to-consumer e-commerce transactions. The report is organized in two major sections. Environmental factors of a demographic, economic and social nature are discussed in the first section. Public and private policies and initiatives are examined in the second one. The paper concludes with general remarks on the results of the different analyses presented in the two sections, and a discussion of the prospects all those developments have for the near future. 2 NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT Population and Demographic Profile Mexico's population increased from 81.3 million in 1999 to 97.4 million in the year 2000, becoming the 11 th most populated country in the world (INEGI, 2000b; 2001a). These figures implied an annual average growth rate of 1.85% over the 1990s, which is slightly more than half that prevailing in the 1960s-3.4%-when the population used to double every 20 years; now it will require 46 years to do so (Ordorica Mellado, 2002). Gender structure, in turn, shows a typical 48.8% female and 51.2 male population (INEGI, 2001a). The National Population Council (CONAPO) estimates that by the end of 2002, the Mexican population will reach 103 million, on the basis of a mortality rate of 4.19 deaths and a birth rate of 20.5 children per 1000 inhabitants. On average, Mexican women give birth to 2.27 children in their lifetime. As a result of substantial improvement in health standards over the last three decades, child mortality dropped to 23.2 and life expectancy is now 73.7 years for women and 78 for men (Lloyd, 2002). With a surface area of 1,947,156 square kilometers, Mexico is a rather large country, at least by European and Central American standards. According to the 2000 census, Mexico's overall population density tops 50 inhabitants per square kilometer. This figure, though, is as high as 5,563 in the Federal District, seat of Mexico City, and the nation's capital, which concentrates as much as 18.5% of the total population (INEGI, 2001a).

This paper presents an ex-ante assessment of the FTA between Mexico and South Korea that has been under negotiation since 2007. It seeks to go beyond previous studies on this issue by including a more comprehensive analysis of trade and investment flows and a more rigorous appraisal of the trade potential between the two economies by means of a gravity model of trade fitted on a panel dataset for the 21 APEC member economies. The aim was to determine whether this agreement can be beneficial for both countries and, in passing, to contribute to the development of a more objective rationale for this purpose. Overall, the results point to the conclusion that an FTA can in fact be beneficial for both partners. On the other hand, the methodology adopted proves to be pertinent as a first step in the development of such rationale.

La expresion economia internacional implica que los terminos estado y nacion son equivalentes y que lo internacional y lo nacional son los elementos de una dicotomia que no se discute. Se asume asi que cada economia “nacional” esta enteramente contenida en el territorio del estado-nacion con el que se le identifica. Esta convencion ha venido perdiendo sustento a consecuencia de los cambios en la espacialidad de las economias “nacionales” y en la estructura y el funcionamiento de la “economia internacional” que se ha operado en las ultimas decadas. Por lo tanto, se avanza aqui el argumento de que las economias de los estados nacion se han venido desacoplando de su correlato territorial, con lo que su caracter “nacional” se ha venido diluyendo y con ello la condicion de “internacional” del conjunto de esas economias a medida que una nueva economia transregional se forma en el mundo. El proposito de este ensayo es desarrollar y sustentar ese argumento.

Este trabajo presenta un enfoque alternativo para el estudio de los acuerdos multinacionales de libre comercio en el contexto actual. Busca aportar elementos para comprender mejor, tanto la naturaleza como las motivaciones que dan origen a dichos acuerdos. Para ello se argumenta que el regionalismo es gobernado por la lógica que trasciende la simple racionalidad económica para extenderse a otros órdenes en respuesta a, y como producto de, la complejidad y la naturaleza cambiante. Dicha lógica es discutida a la luz de los procesos de formación de bloques regionales en ambas márgenes de la Cuenca del Pacífico, a partir de la observación de que el regionalismo es, en última instancia, un producto de las ideas neoliberales dominantes, y de que los acuerdos de libre comercio son sus instrumentos por excelencia. El análisis se hace adoptando un enfoque alternativo que aborda el tema del regionalismo desde una perspectiva que trasciende las visiones convencionales fundadas en la doctrina neoliberal.

The eruption of e-commerce has generated widespread enthusiasm about the prospects for the eventual emergence of a digital economy in Mexico. • Given the limited extent of a digital Mexican economy so far, this country has a large potential for the growth of e-commerce activities, as companies of all sizes are attracted to the Internet and the possibilities it opens for their business. • Both the public and the private sectors are actively committed to fostering e-commerce, so that a favorable environment has ensued. This is further increasing Mexico's potential and readiness for the development of a digital economy. • Major promotion initiatives are being undertaken by both federal ministries and state governments, many of which are being organized into a comprehensive project called e-Mexico, which is aimed at managing all government transactions and services online. • Finance, retail and manufacturing are the most advanced sectors in the implementation of ecommerce strategies so far. In particular, most banks offer their basic services online, as a matter of course. • One of the main barriers to the diffusion of e-commerce in Mexico is the fact that the overwhelming majority of business establishments are micro, small, and medium enterprises that lack both the resources to invest in IT and the technological and business culture to go online. • The above point is compounded by the observed tendency that the larger the company the more likely it will set up a web site. • SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) both constitute a barrier to and at the same time offer a large potential for the spread of e-commerce. • Most dynamic and outward looking SMEs are being pulled into e-commerce by both the programs under implementation by the federal government to facilitate their adoption of digital technologies, and the requirements of larger customers and suppliers as to the exchange of orders, invoices, and payments over the net, in addition to ISO certification as a condition to being eligible as suppliers themselves. • B-to-B e-commerce is the most promising activity for the development of e-commerce in Mexico. B-to-C e-commerce is limited by the extent of access to PCs, which in turn, is limited by the low-income level of most households, resulting in the poor effectiveness of web-based marketing campaigns. The Internet is still not as effective as traditional mass media like TV, radio, and newspapers for that purpose. • B-to-B e-commerce is seen to go beyond e-commerce, in the sense that it can bring together all the players of an entire industry in a single e-market on the web, and horizontally integrate the value chain of that industry. • The larger the chain the greater the possibilities for reducing intermediation costs and for improving inventory control and relations with customers. In this way, e-commerce is contributing to the development of production and business networks and so to the gradual rise of a network economy in Mexico. • E-commerce is helping Mexican businesses to transform their corporate structures and management practices and methods, so as to make them more flexible and more able to conduct faster and more personalized transactions, to substantially reduce intermediation, or else to develop new and more efficient forms of intermediation, such as virtual communities of suppliers and customers.

In this issue the development of a portable system for measuring fluorescence and reflectance signals of biological tissue is presented. It includes a mini-spectrometer HR4000CG-UV-NIR, with a working range from 200 to 1100 nm and a resolution of 0.5 nm. A light emitting diode at 365 nm with maximum radiant power of 230 mW was used as an excitaton source. A bifurcated fiber optic with six 400 um diameter irradiation fibers and one 400 um collection fiber is used. The system is powered and controlled by a laptop, avoiding the use of an external power supply. A program to control the light source and to measure the spectra in real time was developed using LabVIEW. Preliminary results of ex vivo and in vivo fluorescence measurements of skin and brain tissues are presented and show that fluorescence and reflection could be used to diagnose and demarcat cancer boundaries.