This paper employs a conditional logit model to estimate the effects of state environmental regulations on foreign multinational corporations' new plant location decisions from 1986 to 1993. The relationship between site choice and state environmental regulations is explored, using four measures of regulatory stringency. We find evidence that heterogeneous environmental policies across states do matter.

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Much has been written on the connection between migration and international trade. Human history provides important examples of migrations leading to increased trade activity, with perhaps the most well-known example of the 'Overseas Chinese'. This study investigates the trade-related importance of Chinese and other immigrants into the USA. Previous studies may have underestimated (or overestimated) the relationship between trade and migration with nations treated as featureless plains rather than as varied landscapes. This study contends that an understanding of the immigration-trade relationship can be improved upon by examining the specific pattern and destination of immigration into specific US states. Using state level export data to 28 immigrant source countries in 1993, a strong immigration-trade link is found, reinforcing conclusions made by previous research using country level data. The compelling connection between immigration and trade found in this study and others suggests that future changes to US immigration policies necessitate that their trade effects also be taken into account.

This paper examines the evolution of patent activities across U.S. states from 1963 to 1997. Several patterns are uncovered. First, there is invention catch-up by some lagging states. Second, the evidence is consistent with knowledge diffusion. Third, leading states unable to reinvent themselves lose their leads. Fourth, catch-up can be across a diverse field of activities or focused on select activities. State patent growth is positively correlated to industry R&D and a variable capturing labor skill and infrastructure quality. These provide rationale for state policy makers to increase support to programs that enhance labor skill (e.g., education) and infrastructure quality. Copyright 2002 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

The paper asks whether exports are affected by importers' patent rights regimes using a gravity trade equation. US export data to 71 countries from 1970 to 1992 are used. A two-way random-effects panel indicates that patent rights regimes per se do not matter; they matter with importing countries' imitative abilities. For a country with an "average" imitative ability, US R&D-intensive exports increase by 4-9% for a unit increase in the patent rights index; a unit increase in the patent rights index leads to a drop in US non-R&D-intensive exports by about 8-11%. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.

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