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Browsing by Author "Romano, Eduardo"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Coal taxation revenues and county finances in southwestern Virginia
    Romano, Eduardo; McDowell, George R. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 1995)
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    Linking Risk and Economic Assessments in the Analysis of Plant Pest Regulations: The Case of U.S. Imports of Argentine Lemons
    Thornsbury, Suzanne; Romano, Eduardo (Virginia Tech. Global Issues Initiative, 2007-12)
    This study evaluates consideration to allow shipments of Argentine fresh lemons into the United States. Besides providing analysis of an on-going and still disputed systems approach, this case was viewed as a relevant test for feasibility of a prototype analytical tool that links economic and risk assessment for SPS measures. Political economy and empirical assessment shows that despite some apparent similarities among systems approach policies, the idiosyncratic nature of SPS issues limits application of a common quantitative method for such policies. Assessment within context of the lemon case reveals important lessons with respect to economic analysis. Scientific debate is likely to be more contentious and sustained in cases where the political stakes are greater, thus a priori economic evaluation is likely to be the most limited in those cases where it could prove the most valuable. Results highlight transitions in the political reality of WTO SPS agreement applications. Movement away from specificity in risk assessment limits common understanding and further assessment of regulatory policies. The dynamics of the lemon case shifted attention to credibility of domestic, as well as foreign, institutions. Confidence between regulatory agencies is important, but does not compensate for public trust.
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    Selection indices for combining marker genetic data and animal model information
    Romano, Eduardo (Virginia Tech, 1993)
    It was suggested that marker and phenotypic information be combined in order to obtain more accurate or earlier genetic evaluations. An improvement in accuracy or time of evaluation due to utilization of marker assisted selection (MAS) increases genetic progress. Fernando and Grossman (1989) suggested including marker information directly into the Animal Model, Best Linear Unbiased Prediction system, but several problems need to be solved before their approach becomes feasible. Other selection indices were suggested but either do not use all the available information or are suitable only for evaluation of the offspring of the sire from which the marker information was established. A selection index combining marker and Animal Model information was developed to allow comparisons involving offspring, grandoffspring and great-grandoffspring of a sire. Marker information was assumed to be a least square estimate of the difference between the average effects of the two quantitative trait loci (QTL) alleles present in a sire (Dp) and the standard error of this estimate (SE(Dp)). Estimates may have been obtained from a daughter or granddaughter design. Comparisons among grandoffspring and great-grandoffspring also require an estimate of the recombination rate (r) between the marker and the QTL. The Animal Model information consists of predicted transmitting ability (PTA) and reliability of PTA. PTA was assumed not to include any marker information. The expected percentage of the gain in accuracy (PGA) due to the inclusion of marker information in the selection indices is affected by the degree of polymorphism at the marker locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of a marker locus was computed for the second and third generations and for mates genotyped or not. PGA increased with larger Dos lower SE(Dp), lower r, a smaller number of own and progeny records, and larger PIC. PGA and PIC reduce over generations. Marker information in dairy cattle is likely to be used in generations beyond offspring. Then, only the use of highly polymorphic markers with a large and accurately estimated effect may be economically justified.
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    Two essays on the sanitary and phytosanitary regulations affecting Mexico-U.S. agricultural trade
    Romano, Eduardo (Virginia Tech, 1998)
    Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations are designed to impede the unintentional movement of pests. In an attempt to reduce concerns about the use of SPS regulations as hidden barriers to trade, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) mandate their members to enact SPS regulations based exclusively on biological scientific merit, under an open regulatory process. However, there are some concerns among American officials about the possibility that Mexico may have enacted stricter-than-necessary SPS regulations to compensate for tariff reductions imposed by NAFTA. A political economy analysis of the enactment of SPS regulations in Mexico suggests that Mexico has not systematically enacted SPS regulations as compensation for tariff reductions. Institutional changes, new regulatory procedures, and political commitment, have reduced the possibility that Mexico enacts economically protectionist SPS regulations, forcing vulnerable domestic industries to seek for other primary sources of protection such as labeling requirements and anti-dumping investigations. In spite of such an improvement, Mexico has enacted some controversial SPS regulations. However, they were enacted not as a compensation for tariff reductions but mainly in retaliation for what Mexican officials perceived as American protectionist SPS regulations such as the former U.S. ban on Mexican avocados (denoted as the avocado case). Mexican avocados are currently allowed to enter the country under a systems approach. The systems approach consists in several steps which successively reduce the probability of pest infestation. The last of these steps restricts imports only to the northeastern states of the U.S. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is applied to investigate the adequacy of the former U.S. ban on Mexican avocados, as well as the limited trade regulation which has replaced it. The analysis departs from previous deterministic CBA of SPS regulations by taking into account the uncertain nature of pest infestations. The stochastic CBA suggests that the limited trade regulation currently in place is suboptimal. By applying a systems approach only inside Mexico ( allowing the free trade of pest-treated avocados), welfare gains with a marginal increase in risk would have been expected.