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RESEARCH STATEMENTBedassa Tadesse
Department of EconomicsUniversity of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, MN-55812
I. Introduction
My research focuses on three areas of economics: Development Economics,
International Trade, and International Migration. The primary objective of my research is
to identify the root causes of economic growth and development problems of emerging
economies, and is rooted on my effort to understand why some economies exhibit vibrant
progress while others stagnate. I strive to inform the public and influence social and
economic policy makers by making empirically verifiable accounts of the economic and
institutional factors which enhance or impede growth and the standard of living of
nations. Thus, my research is grounded on modern economic theories and utilizes
rigorous econometric techniques. While, these features make both my methods and
results appealing to other researchers, they also enrich my classroom teaching efforts.
My research interest is largely shaped by my own upbringing, graduate training
background, travel experience, and a strong desire to find solutions to socio-economic
problems. I do research with the conviction that I can make a difference in how public
policy decisions affect people’s lives. Also, I do research as it keeps me current on
substantive issues in my profession. The remainder of this statement proceeds as follows.
In section II, I present the motivation behind my research programs. In section III and IV,
I provide a summary of my past and ongoing research programs, respectively. I discuss
the state of journals on which my publications have appeared in section V, and my
research goals in section VI. Section VII provides bibliography of my publications.
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II. Research Motivation
My interest to do research in development economics stemmed from my personal
challenges. I was born to a farming family located in a remote rural village (in Ethiopia).
The village had no electricity, transportation facilities, and other basic amenities. My
parents were poor even by the standard of the society where I grew up. To attend the only
school available in my area, I had to overcome a series of challenges: travelling more
than 10 miles every day, being penalized for arriving late to school, and being without
lunch each day. These problems have prompted me to ask several questions early on in
my life: Why are some people so poor while others have a lot? Why is my school located
far away from where I live? Why is there no electricity in my area? My quest to find
answers to these and related problems has led me, not only to study agricultural
economics and development economics in my undergraduate and graduate programs,
respectively, but has also inspired me to do research in development economics.
My research in international economics is a result of my desire to explore why
investment in some African countries is dominated by firms from a few other countries
such as Japan and China. I started doing research on international trade when I was a
first year graduate student. My research project ultimately culminated in my doctoral
dissertation. In my international economics research, I strive to understand how
international trade helps the poor, what determines how much a nation trades, how
exchange rate and foreign investment policies matter in determining the volume of trade,
and whether the ability of a country to serve as a destination for foreign firms depends on
its potential to be a platform from which investors can service other nations.
2
Finally, I am motivated to do research in international migration due to my strong
sense of desire to show that immigrants have more roles to play than is currently known.
This conviction has led me to devote a significant amount of time in identifying the
means and ways through which immigrants influence trade flows between their home and
host countries. My research in this area has a lot to do with my applied economics
training and my research findings from international trade and development economics.
My studies in international migration also use modern econometric methods. The list of
original research articles I published in top tiered journals in this area are testaments to
my achievements. Below I provide a summary of my past and ongoing research works,
while also establishing the links among the projects.
III. Research Summary
3.1) International Trade and Migration
I have completed 11 original research articles in this area. Seven of them have
already been accepted for publication and/or are forthcoming. Four are under review. For
my dissertation, I examined the extent to which a host nation's market characteristics
affect the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). I develop separate measures of
market maturity and export platform status of FDI host nations. Using these measures,
first I investigated the effects of market maturity and export platform status of host
countries on the FDI-trade relationship between the FDI host and source countries. My
findings from this research resulted in the publication of “Host market Characteristics,
FDI, and the FDI-trade Relationship” (with Michael Ryan) in the Journal of
International Trade and Economic Development Vol. 13(2) (2004):199-229. Further
3
extending this work, we also examined the link between FDI and exports at the industry
level. This resulted in our second article “Export Platforms and the Industry Specific
FDI-Trade Relationship” on the Journal of Economic Integration Vol. 20(4) (2005):
644-671. Our results from this study show that the observed relationship between
industry level exports and FDI changes from being complementary to substitution when
accounting for the host market’s export platform status, a result with important policy
implication for nations seeking to attract more FDI by developing their capacity to serve
as a platform for exports.
Both of our studies involved working with a number of variables and large data
set. One of the variables was bilateral trade flow. In the process of conducting the
studies, I learned that trade flow itself is an endogenous variable that can be affected by
several attributes of both the FDI host and source country. Thus, I started to investigate
what actually determines the volume of bilateral trade flows. My attempt to do so led me
to a cascade of my current research projects—investigation of the roles that immigrants
and fluctuations in real exchange rate components play in determining bilateral trade
flows. As each of these questions constituted extension of the literature in international
trade and migration, I turned my focus first on the role that immigrants could play in
enhancing trade flows between their host and home countries. A brief account of the
immigrant-trade link literature presented in the next paragraph serves as the basis for the
array of research projects I have completed in this area.
Using U.S. data, Gould (1994) studied the link between immigrants and trade.
The literature that followed Gould (1994) indicates that immigrants influence their host-
home country trade flows through three broadly related channels: preference,
4
information, and contract enforcement effects. (i) Preference Effect—if immigrants enter
their host countries with preferences for home country-produced goods and fail to find
the desired goods, or reasonable substitutes available, their collective demand leads to a
rise in their host country’s imports from their home countries. (ii) Information Effect—
immigrants have language skills and/or knowledge of home country customs, laws and
business practices, which if used effectively, can help in identifying trading opportunities,
establishing contacts, or facilitating communications, and thus enhancing bilateral trade
flows between their home and host countries. (iii) Contract Enforcement Effect—
immigrant communities are often close-knit and they form networks involving co-ethnic
peoples in the host and home countries. These networks may help in deterring
opportunistic behavior, reducing lax contract arrangements, and enforcing informal
contracting agreements.
Teaming up with Roger White of Franklin and Marshall College, PA, I have
worked in this area since the summer of 2005. First, we summarized what is known about
the role that immigrants play in international trade and then we outlined what we
potentially see as a contribution of immigrants. We first examined if changes in
immigration policy might affect the observed immigrant-trade link. Given the “White-
Only” history of the Australian immigration policy, we used Australian data as a test
case. We, thus, used the stock of Australian immigrants and its trade with 101 home
countries during the years 1989-2000 and evaluated whether cultural pluralism fostered
through the abandonment of the “White-only” Australian Immigration Policy (WAP)
generated variation in the immigrant-trade links observed in the literature. This resulted
in our first article “Immigration Policy, Cultural Pluralism, and Trade: Evidence from
5
the White-only Australian Policy”. Our work was published in the October 2007 issue of
Pacific Economic Review Vol. 12(4): 489-510. In addition to confirming the pro-trade
effects of immigrants already observed in the literature, our results showed that
immigrants from home nations that were afforded preference under the White-only
Australian policy exert greater proportional influence on Australian imports from their
home countries than immigrants from nations not privy to such preference. We also
showed that immigrants from the latter group of countries influence Australian exports to
their home countries proportionally more than do immigrants from the former group. Our
findings suggested the relevance of cultural diversity and immigration policy to a nation's
trade patterns.
These findings further led us to think of new venues through which immigrants
can affect trade flows between their host and home countries. Consequently, we
hypothesized that immigrants can have cultural difference-bridging effects —a new
channel through which immigrants might affect trade flows between their home and host
countries by fully or partially offsetting a potential trade-inhibiting influences of
differences in national cultures. This finding serves as an extension of the literature on
trade-immigrant link. In an effort to develop a reliable measure of cultural differences
between immigrant home and host countries, we constructed a composite index of the
Traditional authority vs. Secular-Rational authority (TSR) and the Survival values vs.
Self-Expression values (SSE) dimension of culture between the U.S. and 75 different
home countries. Our measure of cultural distance reflected the degree to which shared
norms and values in each of the countries differ from that of the U.S. Using U.S. state-
level aggregate exports and the stock of immigrants from 75 countries for which our
6
measure of cultural distance can be computed, we tested our hypothesis. This resulted in
our article “Cultural Distance as a Determinant of Bilateral Trade Flows: Do
Immigrants Counter the Effect of Cultural Differences?” forthcoming 2008 on Applied
Economics Letters. In the paper, we showed that (i) greater cultural differences between
the U.S. and its trading partners, indeed, negatively affects U.S. state-level exports to
immigrant home countries and (ii) immigrants have exert pro-export effects that counters
the trade-inhibiting effects of cultural distance.
Given the composite nature of our measure of cultural distance, we thought that
further investigation of whether each of the dimensions from which we constructed our
measure of cultural distance affects bilateral trade flow is warranted. Thus, employing
data that span the years 1997-2004 and decomposing our measure of cultural distance
into its component dimensions--“Traditional authority vs. Secular-Rational
authority” and “Survival values vs. Self-Expression values” , in another project, we
examined the effects of each of the dimensions of cultural distance on trade flows
between the U.S. and 54 home countries. Our findings were published in the August 2008
issue of The World Economy Vol. 31(8):1078-1096 with the title “Cultural Distance
and the U.S. Immigrant–Trade Link”. Extending the existing literature, our results from
the project indicated that differences in the dimension of culture inhibits trade
between the U.S. and immigrants’ home countries while differences in the
dimension reduce U.S. imports levels and increase U.S. exports. Confirming our prior
results, we also reported that immigrants ameliorate the trade-inhibiting influences of
both dimensions of cultural distance while also increasing U.S. imports from their
respective home countries. Further, we showed that the pro-trade effect of immigrants
7
more prominently counters the trade-inhibiting effects of the dimension of culture in
increasing U.S. exports to immigrant home countries.
Our work has, thus far, validated each of our hypotheses: (i) that cultural distance
inhibits trade flows between immigrants’ home and host countries, irrespective of
whether it is measured as a composite index, or along each of the two dimensions and (ii)
immigrants have pro-trade effect that fully or partially counters the trade-inhibiting effect
of cultural differences between their home and host countries. Having done so, we
wanted to investigate (a) the source of the pro-trade effects of immigrants and (b) the
extent of the pro-trade effects of immigrants by using a more disaggregated trade data. If
the results from disaggregated data do not support our earlier findings, then our
conclusion from the aggregate data could be called into question. Thus, in our article
titled “Do Immigrants Counter the Effect of Cultural Distance on Trade? Evidence
from U.S. State-Level Exports” forthcoming 2008 on the Journal of Socio-Economics,
we examined U.S. state-level exports to 75 countries during the year 2000. In addition to
confirming our earlier results that state level exports to immigrant home countries
diminish with increases in cultural distance, our results from this research showed that
immigrants are able to increase state level exports by initiating new exports and/or
intensifying existing level of exports, both of which help to offset the export-inhibiting
effects of cultural distance. Effectively, we were able to identify the mechanisms through
which immigrants residing in each of the U.S, states could exercise their cultural
difference bridging effects. We also quantified both the trade initiation and intensification
effects as well as the trade-inhibiting effects of national cultural differences.
8
After establishing the mechanisms (trade initiation and trade intensification)
through which immigrants exercise their cultural difference bridging effects both at
aggregate (country) and disaggregate (state level) U.S. trade data, we wanted to test if our
findings are valid in other host country settings as well. Thus, placing particular
emphasis on immigrants from the Former Soviet Republic and Post-Communist
countries living in Italy, we further examined the immigrant-trade link in
another project. Employing data for Italy and 68 trade partners spanning the years 1996-
2001, we examined these immigrants influenced Italian exports to and imports from their
respective country classification. We found that while Italian immigrants as well have
pro-trade influences, estimated per-immigrant effects of immigrants from Former Soviet
Republic and Post-Communist countries to be greater than the effects of
immigrants from non- and non- countries. The project culminated in our
article “East-West Migration and the Immigrant-Trade Link: Evidence from Italy,”
forthcoming in the 2008 issue of The Romanian Journal of European Studies.
In another research project that followed from our examination of the effect of
immigrants under different country setting, we also examined the cultural difference
bridging effects immigrants using products that embed the host country’s culture. Placing
a primary focus on exports of cultural products and a number of cultural product sub-
classifications and using aggregate U.S. and state-specific immigrant stocks and a
measure of cultural distance we have already contributed to the literature on the
immigrant-trade link, we examined the ability of immigrants to initiate and/or intensify
existing U.S. state-level exports of cultural products to their respective home countries.
Our findings will appear in the November 2008 issue of the North American Journal of
9
Economics and Finance under the title “Immigrants, Cultural Distance and U.S. State-
Level Exports of Cultural Products.” While also confirming the positive links we have
found for non-cultural products in earlier studies, our results from this study suggest that
immigrants have pro-trade effect on goods that also embed the host country’s culture.
Further, we report heterogeneity in immigrant effects across cultural product sub-
classifications, suggesting variation in the abilities of immigrants to influence trade by
overcoming information asymmetries arising from differences the culture-content of
products.
Our studies so far considered only one host country at a time. Given the
heterogeneity of immigration and trade policies of various countries, generalization of
our results observed from analyzing one host country at a time may be difficult. Thus,
we wanted to analyze the immigrant trade link using multiple host countries. Increasing
the number of immigrant host countries also resulted in an exponential expansion of the
data we worked with and, thus, the breadth and depth of our study. Using trade and
immigration data for Nine OECD member host nations and 67 other trading countries
spanning the years 1996–2001, we conducted a more in-depth examination of the effect
of cultural distance on bilateral trade flows. Results from our project will appear in the
November 2008 issue of Open Economic Reviews under the title “Does Cultural
Distance Hinder Trade in Goods-A Comparative Study of Nine OECD Member
Nations.” Our findings from this study show that cultural dissimilarity between nations
has an economically significant and consistently negative effect on aggregate and
disaggregated trade flows of most of the immigrant host countries’ bilateral trade flows
with the home countries. Their effects, however, varies in magnitude and economic
10
significance across measures of trade and our cohort of OECD reference countries. With
the consistent negative influence of cultural distance that we observed from this in depth
study, we indicated that policymakers who wish to enhance their nation’s trade flows
would need to work on the means and ways that enhance the build-up of trust and
commitment to initiate and complete international trade deals.
In another multi-host and multi-home country immigrant-trade link investigation,
we used the same data set and examined the extent to which the bilateral trade flows of
the Nine OECD host countries with the home countries in our sample are affected by the
stock of immigrants. We specifically focused on the differences in the extent to which
immigrants in each of the Nine OECD host countries influence bilateral trade flows.
Accounting for the heterogeneity of both the host and home countries in our data, we
were able to show that the ability of immigrants to foster increased trade flows between
their home and host countries depends, in part, on the characteristics of their host country
relative to the home country. Our findings from this project titled “Immigration, Cultural
Distance and Trade: A Study of Nine OECD Host Countries” has been submitted to the
Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Given the results of our multiple host and home country project, we also worked
on another project in which we examined the effect of institutional dissimilarities
between host and home countries on the ability of immigrants to influence bilateral trade
flows. This project produced our article “Home Country Economic Development and
the Immigrants-Trade Link: Evidence from Australia” which is under review for
possible publication in Development Policy Review Journal. In this study, we showed
that, indeed, home country economic development has economically and statistically
11
significant impact on the extent with which immigrants increase trade flows between
their home and host countries. We specifically noted that the trade-influencing effect of
immigrants varies with home country heterogeneity in the existence and functionality of
institutions that monitor and/or enforce international trade deals.
In another line of our research on the role of immigrants, we also investigate
whether the pro-trade effect of immigrants observed in goods trade also extends to trade
in services. Hence, in our article titled “Do Immigrants Enhance International Trade in
Services: The Case of U.S. Tourism Exports” submitted to Tourism Economics, using
data on international tourist arrivals from 86 countries to the United States during the
years 1995-2004 and a series of zero-inflated negative binomial models, we provide the
first empirical evidence on the extent to which immigrants affect the number of tourist
arrivals in the US.
Lastly, after a series of our contributions to the literature on immigrant-trade link
which have appeared in journals with varying areas of emphasis, we hypothesized that
immigrants’ effect on trade to vary following the composition of immigrants themselves.
Thus in our latest line of research titled “Refugee and Non-Refugee Immigrants,
Cultural Distance and U.S. Trade with Immigrant Home Countries” submitted for
review to the Journal of International Trade and Development Economics (already
revised and re-submitted), we discern the relative influences of refugee and non-refugee
immigrant populations within the U.S. on trade, while accounting for cultural and
institutional differences between the U.S. and immigrants’ home countries.
Our hypothesis in this research was motivated by the fact that immigrants are
generally heterogeneous—that differ greatly in terms of their anthropogenic
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characteristics (demographic, educational, and occupational), the push and pull factors
behind their migration decisions and thus their entry classifications, their ability to
maintain and form social, cultural, and economic ties with others, and the pace and
propensity at which they assimilate with their newly found macro-economic
environment. These differences have potential implications on how and to what extent
different immigrant groups can affect trade flows between their home and host countries.
Our results show that while immigrants, in general, exert positive influences on U.S.
imports from and exports to their home countries, the influence of refugee immigrants is
quite minimal when compared to that of non-refugee immigrants. To conceptualize the
economic meaning of our results in this research, we also provide estimates of the extent
to which each type of immigrants offsets transport costs, extending the boundary of the
extant literature.
3.2) Research In Development Economics
While studying for my M.Sc., I conducted a field survey of poor rural households
in the world’s largest anti-poverty project known as the “Integrated Rural Development
Program-IRDP”. My findings from the survey were published under the title
“Determinants of the Household Probability to Cross the Poverty Line: An Application
of Tobit Analysis” in the 1996 issue of the Journal of Rural Development Vol.
15(4):453-465. In addition to measuring the determinants of the probability of a
beneficiary household to cross the poverty line, in this research I developed an index
which can be used to gauge the extent to which a household covered under the program
13
was able to move towards the targeted poverty line, even if it remained in poverty. The
article was my first empirical work in the area of development economics.
During my travel in Southern India, I learned that cultivation of Paddy (Rice) is
the major economic occupation for a significant number of rural households in the area. I
was thus interested in studying how Paddy farmers in the area would be able to improve
their production efficiency. Using input and output data that I collected from the Center
for the Study of Cost of Cultivation of Agricultural Products in the state, located at Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University, I wrote a research article “Technical efficiency in Paddy
Farms of Tamil Nadu: An Analysis based on Farm Size and Ecological Zone” with S.
Krishnamurthy. The article was published in the 1997 issue of Agricultural Economics
Vol. 16(3): 185-192, a publication of the international society of Agricultural Economics.
Our findings indicated that Paddy production in the state can be increased by an average
of 17% (varying from a minimum of 3 percent to a maximum of 41 percent) without the
use of any new technology provided that farmers in the state were encouraged to adopt
methods of production employed by other farmers in the area. Our work has garnered
significant interest among policy makers working for the state’s department of
agriculture.
After returning to Ethiopia in 1996, using the rural household survey data that I
collected while I was in India, I wrote another paper which measures the level of
inequality among poor households. The main objective of the article was to show the
need for focusing on the ultra poor in India while developing similar anti-poverty
measures in Ethiopia. This resulted in the publication of an article titled “Measuring
14
Inequality: An Experience using Indian Data” on the 1998 issue of the Ethiopian
Journal of Economics Vol. 5(1): 27-38.
In the same year, I started working on a joint project to study the determinants of
success (graduation and achievement rates) among students’ in enrolled in middle-level
agricultural education. Applying a multivariate statistical tools involving Fisher’s linear
discriminant function and Logit qualitative response model, I identified that a student’s
gender, preference for agriculture, region of origin, parental occupation and high school
background discriminate between successful and unsuccessful students. More
importantly, we were able to find answer to one major question that the university
officials were grappling with at the time--whether being from a rural area of the country
gives students a better chance to succeed in middle-level agricultural education. Our
recommendations were implemented by the university authority that funded the research.
The results from this research were published in the 1999 issue of a highly reputed social
science research journal in the region, the Eastern Africa Social Science Research
Review Vol. 15(1):1-18 under the title “Anthropogenic Determinants of Success in
Agricultural Education: The Case of Jimma College of Agriculture, Ethiopia.”
In the fall 1999, I joined the graduate studies program of Western Michigan
University. While working on my graduate studies, I continued dong research projects
that I started earlier. Together with my development economics professor, I wrote another
article “Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Demand for Children in Jimma
City, Ethiopia.” The article appeared in the 2002 issue of the Eastern Africa Social
Science Research Review 18(2):43-67. In this research, we applied the economic theory
of consumer choice and examined how some household characteristics affect the demand
15
for children among households in Jimma City, Ethiopia. We simulated the average
number of children desired by a woman of median urban household characteristics and
assessed the extent to which an exogenously set population policy goal of lower fertility
level can be achieved in the area. Our findings indicate that the need for enhancing
paternal and maternal education, altering the economic value of children, increasing
household income, delaying the marriage age, and institutional approaches that involve
“faith-based initiatives” as important policy measures to pursue to achieve reduced
fertility in Ethiopia.
After I joined the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the fall of 2003, although I
devoted a significant proportion of my research on international trade and migration, I
continued doing research in the area of development economics. Teaming up with
Bichaka Fayssia of Middle Tennessee State University, TN and Christian Nsiah of Black
Hills State University, SD, I wrote an article titled “The Impact of Tourism on the
Economic Growth and Development in Africa” forthcoming in the December 2008 issue
of Tourism Economics Vol. 14(4)—Issue Forthcoming. In this project, using a panel
data of 42 African countries for the years that span from 1995 to 2004, we explored the
potential contribution of tourism to economic growth and development within the
conventional neoclassical framework. Our results show that receipts from the tourism
industry significantly contribute both to the current level of gross domestic product and
the economic growth of Sub-Saharan African countries as do investments in physical and
human capital. The implication of our findings is that African economies could enhance
their short-run economic growth by strategically strengthening their tourism industries.
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In two other research projects that I have recently completed with Bichaka
Fayissa of Middle Tennesse State University, we examined the effect of a unilateral trade
policy initiative known as the “African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)” granted
by the U.S. to some Sub-Saharan African (SSA) on U.S. imports from the eligible
African countries using aggregated and disaggregated data. In the first article “The
Impact of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and U.S. Imports from Sub-
Saharan Africa (SSA)” on the October 2008 issue of the Journal of International
Development Vol. 20(7):920-941, we examined if AGOA has increased aggregate
imports of the U.S. from the eligible countries. In the second article “Does a Unilateral
Policy Change Promote Export? The Case of African Growth and Opportunity Act”,
co-authored with Bichaka Fayissa, Middle Tennesse State University, TN, and Andrew
McColley, International Business Machines, Corp., Rochester, MN, and forthcoming in
the 2008 issue of Review of Development and Cooperation [ Vol. 2(1) - Issue
forthcoming], we examined if the implementation of AGOA has resulted in the initiation
of any new and/or the intensification of existing country specific exports at the lowest
possible level of product disaggregation.
3.3) Research in Other Areas of Economics:
My research interest to work on projects that involve substantial econometric
analysis has allowed me to team up with other faculty members, write proposals for
funding my research works of important social policy implications. In the fall of 2006,
together with Jennifer Shultz (a colleague whose research area focuses on health
economics), I wrote a proposal and obtained the University of Minnesota’s Graduate
17
School Grant-in-aid funding to study of the effect that individual social capital has on
individual health and tolerance.
After securing the funding, we teamed up with another faculty member of the
department, Maureen O’Brien, and completed the first part of the research focusing on
the social capital and Health. Results from the first part of our study were published as
“Social Capital and Self-Rated Health: Results from the US 2006 Social Capital
Survey of One Community” in the august 2008 issue of a top tiered social science and
health economics journal, Social Science & Medicine under the title Vol. 67(4): 606-
617. Together with Schultz and Obrien, currently I am working on the second part of the
project-Does Individual Social Capital affect Tolerance?
I am also involved in two other health economics research projects with Dr.
Schultz. In these projects, we assess the demand for voluntary health insurance among
Europeans age 50 and older, putting specific emphasis on the effects of age limitations,
employment status and premium regulations. We use extensive data on health
characteristics of individuals obtained from the 2004 SHARE survey. Titled “Demand
for Voluntary Health Insurance by Europeans Age 50 and above” this paper is
currently being revised for publication on “Applied Economics”.
IV. Summary of Future Research Programs
I have a very strong desire and plan to continue working on the trade-immigrant
link research, analyzing the effect of exchange rate volatility on bilateral trade flows, and
identifying the determinants of the allocation of aid. I am also committed to continuing
my work on health related research projects.
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To conduct a more refined and in-depth investigation of the immigrant-trade link,
in collaboration with my research partner in the area, Roger White, Marshall and Franklin
College, PA, I am currently writing a proposal for funding the purchase of a large data on
bilateral flows of all countries in the world. The goal of this project is to: (i) establish
whether the immigrant-trade link exists for all host and home countries, (ii) identify
country(-ies) for which the link is missing, and (iii) investigate what distinguishes the
host and home countries where the immigrant-trade link is missing from those countries
where the immigrant-trade link exist. We believe that the findings of this research will
have more profound policy implications.
In pursuit of an answer to the question I posed to myself while studying the FDI
flows and bilateral trade patterns, I am currently writing an article: “Volatility in
Exchange Rate Components and the Volume of International Trade”. In this project, I
decompose the changes in the real exchange rate series into fundamental and transitory
components (market microstructure and stochastic element), model the volatility in each
component via a GARCH process, and provide a better understanding of the effect of
fluctuations in exchange rate on the volume of aggregate and disaggregate U.S. trade
with Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong during the 1989-2002 period.
In another project “Determinants of US Aid for Trade (AFT) Budget Allocation”
with Bichaka Fayissa, Middle Tennessee State University, I am also investigating role of
altruistic and self-serving goals in the allocation of aid for trade by developed countries.
A continuation of our project on the demand for voluntary health insurance by
Europeans age 50 and above, together with Schultz, University of Minnesota-Duluth,
19
MN, I am also studying the role of supplementary insurance in the Utilization of Medical
Care among Europeans.
V. Ratings of the Journals in which My Research Works have appeared
I intend to maximize the exposure of my findings to potential readers. Thus, while
the content and areas of my research have determined where I chose to send my research
works in selecting the outlet for my research findings, I consider the readership of the
journals. I also consider whether the outlet is international or regional in appeal.
Consequently, my research articles have appeared on diverse journals ranging in their
coverage from international trade, to development and health economics, and from
medium to top tiered journals in their respective areas of specialty. While an accurate
measure of the impact of each of my research articles may be difficult to assess, Table-1
provides a brief summary of the list of the journals in which my articles have appeared
and information on abstracts indexation, acceptance rate (%), and the impact factor,
whenever the information is available.
VI. Research Goals:
My research goal is to establish myself as a reputed researcher in the area of
international trade and development economics. Thus, I strive to continue doing research
along the lines of investigation that I have already started. In the long run, I plan to put
the series of my articles on international trade and migration into a book (with emphasis
on policy and quantitative economics).
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I believe that achieving my research goals require cooperating with other
researchers. Thus, building upon my past experience in working with researchers of
diverse background, I endeavor to work on joint research projects with colleagues,
students and researchers from other institutions alike. I find joint research works as fun as
they are challenging. It is with this belief that I developed a strong sense of desire to
continue doing research with my students, professors, colleagues, and non-colleagues.
My research interest is motivated by the fact that it not only results in peer reviewed
journal publications, but that it also enriches and informs my classroom teaching. In order
to maximize the impact of my research results, I also have the goal of actively
participating in and/or organizing local, regional, and international conferences.
VII. Bibliography of My Publications
7.1). Published Journal Articles
White, R., and Tadesse, B., (2008). “Immigrants, Cultural Distance and U.S. State-Level Exports of Cultural Goods.” The North American Journal of Economics and Finance. (In Press)
Shultz, J., O’Brien, M. and Tadesse, B., (2008). “Social Capital and Self-Rated Health: Results from the US 2006 Social Capital Survey of One Community” Journal of Social Science & Medicine, 67(4): 606-617.
Tadesse, B. and White, R., (2008). “Does Cultural Distance Hinder Trade in Goods? A Comparative Study of Nine OECD Member Nations” Open Economies Review (In Press)
White, R. and Tadesse, B., (2008). “Cultural Distance and the US Immigrant-Trade Link.” The World Economy (In Press)
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Tadesse, B. and White, R., (2008). “Do Immigrants Counter the Effect of Cultural Distance on Trade? Evidence from U.S. State Level Exports” The Journal of Socio-Economics (In Press)
Tadesse, B. and Fayissa, B. (2008) “Assessing the Impact of Development Cooperation: the Case of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and U.S. Imports from Sub-Saharan Africa” Journal of International Development, 20(7)-Forthcoming, Oct. Issue.
Tadesse, B. and White, R., (2008). “Cultural Distance as a Determinant of Bilateral Trade Flows: Do Immigrants Counter the Effect of Cultural Differences?” Applied Economics Letters (In Press).
Fayissa, B. Nsiah, C. and Tadesse, B., (2008). “The Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth and Development in Africa” Tourism Economics, 14(4) Forthcoming Dec. Issue.
Tadesse, B., Fayissa, B. and McColley, A., (2008) “Does a Unilateral Trade Policy Change Promote Export? The Case of African Growth and Opportunity Act.” Review of Development and Cooperation, forthcoming
White, R. and Tadesse, B., (2008). “East-West Migration and The Immigrant-Trade Link: Evidence from Italy” The Romanian Journal of European Studies (Special Issue on Migration), forthcoming
White, R. and Tadesse, B., (2007). “Immigration Policy, Cultural Pluralism and Trade: Evidence from the White Australia Policy.” Pacific Economic Review, 12(4): 485-509.
Tadesse, B. and Ryan, M., (2005). “Export platforms and industry-specific FDI-trade relationship.” Journal of Economic Integration, 20(4): 644-671.
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Tadesse, B. and Ryan, M., (2004). “Host Market Characteristics, FDI and the FDI-Trade Relationship.” Journal of International Trade and Development Economics, 13(2): 119-229.
Tadesse, B. and Assefa, S., (2002). “Empirical analysis of the determinants of demand for children in Jimma city, Ethiopia: An Application of Count Data Model.” Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, 18(2): 44-67.
Tadesse, B., (2002). “What should be done to Enhance Improved Maize Technology Adoption in Ormoia? Some Strategy Options” The Journal of Oromo Studies, 9(1& 2): 155-174.
Tadesse, B. and G/Sellasie, K., (1999). “Anthropogenic Determinants of Success in Agricultural Education: The Case of Jimma College of Agriculture, Ethiopia.” Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, 15(1):1-18.
Tadesse, B. and Krishnamoorthy, S., (1997). “Technical Efficiency in Paddy farms of Tamil Nadu: an analysis based on farm size and ecological zone.” Agricultural Economics, 16(3):185-192.
Tadesse, B., (1996). “Determinants of the Household Probability to Cross the Poverty Line: An Application of Tobit Analysis.” Journal of Rural Development, 15(4):453-465.
Tadesse, B., (1998). “Measuring Inequality: An Experience using Indian Data.” Ethiopian Journal of Economics, 5(1): 27-38.
7.2) Articles under Review
White, R. and Tadesse, B., “Refugee and Non-Refugee Immigrants, Cultural Distance and US Trade with Immigrant Home Countries.” Journal of International Trade and Development Economics.
Schulz, J. and Tadesse, B., “Demand for Voluntary Health Insurance by Europeans Age 50 and above.” Applied Economics.
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White, R. and Tadesse, B., “Immigration, Cultural Distance and Trade: A Study of Nine OECD Host Countries.” The Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Tadesse, B. and White, R., “Immigrants and International Trade in Services: The Case of Demand for US Tourism Exports.” Tourism Economics.
Tadesse, B., and White, R., “Home Country Economic Development and the Immigrants-Trade Link: Evidence from Australia.” Development Policy Review.
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Table-1: Ranking, Acceptance Rate and Impact Factor of the Journals on Which my Research Articles Have Appeared
Item Journal Indexing/Abstracting Ranking Acceptance Rate
Impact Factor
Article Citation
Frequency
1 Social Science and MedicineAbstract in Hygiene and Communicable Diseases, BIOSIS, CINAHL, Current Contents/Health Services Administration, Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, EMBASE, Elsevier BIOBASE, Geographical Abstracts, Hyg Abstr, MEDLINE®, PASCAL/CNRS, Psychology Abstracts, Research Alert, Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index, Sociological Abstracts, Tropical Diseases Bulletin
Number #1 of the top 20 of 629 journals in the category social science/health policy (Thomson ISI Rating)
18%a 2.749
2 North American Journal of Economics and Finance RePEc, SSCI, Current Contents/Social & Behavioural Sciences, IBZ, IBSS, Econlit,
EBSCO
30-40% b 1.542
3 Open Economies ReviewABI/INFORM, ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide, Current Contents / Social & Behavioral Sciences, E-JEL, EBSCO, EconLit, Expanded Academic, Geobase, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), JEL on CD, Journal of Economic Literature, Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), SCOPUS, Social Science Citation Index, Zentralblatt Math
10% b 1.306
4 Applied Economics Letters
ISI (Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences, Research Alerts), IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature), IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences), Current Index to Statistics, ABI Inform, EBSCO (Business Source Corporate, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, Corporate Resource Net, TOC Premier), Economic Literature Database, Journal of Economic Literature (Econlit), Gale Responsive Databases Inc (Business and Management Practices, Business and Industry), OCLC ArticleFirst Database, OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online, CAB Abstracts and Scopus.
50% b0.531
5 Journal of International Trade and Economic Development
SSCI, Current Contents/Social & Behavioural Sciences, IBZ, IBSS, Econlit, EBSCO (Business Source Corporate, Business Source Premier, TOC Premier) and Scopus
11-20% b 0.807
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Table-1: Continued…
Item Journal Indexing/Abstracting Ranking Acceptance Rate
Impact Factor
Article Citation
Frequency
6 Journal of Socio-Economics Economic Literature Index, Index of Economic Articles, Journals and Collective Volumes, Management Contents, PsycINFO Psychological Abstracts, RePEC
20-25% b 0.383
7 The World Economy
A B I - INFORM (American Business Information) (Mar.1982-); Asian - Pacific Economic Literature; Bibliography of Asian Studies (Online Edition) (1988); British Humanities Index; Business Periodicals Index (Jul.1995-); C A B Abstracts; C S A Political Science & Government (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts); C S A Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts); Current Contents; Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management; GEOBASE; International Bibliography of the Social Sciences; International Political Science Abstracts; Journal of Economic Literature (Mar.1969, 7(1)-)(Mar.1984, 7(1)-); P A I S International in Print (Annual) (Public Affairs Information Service); Risk Abstracts (Online Edition); Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies; SCOPUS; Social Sciences Citation Index; Social Services Abstracts (2001-); Sociological Abstracts; Sugar Industry Abstracts; World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts; World Banking Abstracts (Jul.1993-); World Magazine Bank
1.723
8 Journal of International Development
ABI/Inform Database (ProQuest), AURSI: African Urban & Regional Science Index (AURSI),,CAB Abstracts® (CABI), Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, (CSA/CIG), Environment Abstracts (LexisNexis), Environmental Issues & Policy Index (EBSCO), GeoArchive (Geosystems) , GEOBASE/Geographical & Geological Abstracts (Elsevier), Geotitles (Geosystems), IBR & IBZ: International Bibliographies of Periodical Literature (KG Saur), IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (LSE), International Development Abstracts (Elsevier), Journal of Economic Literature/EconLit (AEA), NATCHA: Natural and Cultural Heritage Africa (NISC), PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service (CSA/CIG), SCOPUS (Elsevier), SocINDEX (EBSCO), Sociological Abstracts (CSA/CIG), Studies on Women & Gender Abstracts (T&F), Worldwide Political Sciences Abstracts (CSA/CIG)
11-20% b
9 Tourism Economics Thomson Reuters ISI, Thomson Reuter’s products Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
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Table-1: Continued…
Item Journal Indexing/Abstracting Ranking Acceptance Rate
Impact Factor
Article Citation
Frequency
10 Pacific Economic ReviewAmerica: History and Life, Bibliography of Asian Studies (Online Edition) (1971-1991), Current Contents, Current Index to Statistics (Online Edition) , Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, GEOBASE, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (coverage dropped), Journal of Economic Literature (Mar.1969, 7(1)-)(Jun.1996, 1(1)-), P A I S International in Print (Annual) (Public Affairs Information Service), Risk Abstracts (Online Edition), SCOPUS, Social Sciences Citation Index.
15% a 0.470
11 Agricultural Economics ISI, AGRICOLA, GEOBASE, GeoAbstracts and International Development Abstracts, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, Research Alert, SCISEARCH, Current Contents, EconLit
102/191 Agricultural Economics & Policy
20-25% b 0.603
12 Journal of Economic Integration NA 21-30% b
13 Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, The African Journals Online, The OSSREA website.
The major African social science journal with a region-wide coverage.
25-30% a
14 Ethiopian Journal of Economics NA15 Romanian Journal of European Studies NA16 Journal of Rural Development NANote: a= Information on the acceptance rate is as provided by the editors. b= Information on acceptance rate is obtained from Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Economics and Finance, 2006. The impact factor of the journals is obtained from: http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.journals.simple.html.
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