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Information | Objectives | Staff The NAID Center Engages in Transnational Research The research mission of the NAID Center focuses on the dynamics and impacts of economic, social, and environmental interdependence between the United States and Mexico. The NAID Center's interdisciplinary staff conducts both macro research, including the development of large scale databases and modeling capacity, as well as micro level research on sectoral and regional dynamics needed for the reliable tracking of broader economic, social, and environmental trends in North America. Researchers at the NAID Center are developing a unique capacity to monitor and model the impacts of North American integration and the adjustment process. Among the trends that are monitored are trade, capital flows, and migration effects on employment and income throughout the U.S. and Mexico. The NAID Center utilizes a multi-country, sectoral-regional approach which includes CGE (Computable General Equilibrium) modeling and the creation and maintenance of on-line relational databases that include information on trade, investment, migration, agricultural and industrial production, employment, income demographics, and environmental resources. Current sectoral and regional cases studies include: the frozen vegetable industry in Watsonville, California and in the Mexican Bajio; glass and garment industries in Los Angeles; sustainable agriculture along the Sonora and Arizona border; and forestry in Southern Mexico, and along the U.S.-Canadian border. The NAID Center Provides Technical Assistance to Local Communities in the United States, Mexico and Central America. Center staff works directly with local communities that have been experiencing adverse economic effects due to NAFTA and helps them to identify solutions at the regional and sectoral level. The staff also assists local partnerships to prepare requests for funding these measures. In communities and sectors where integration leads to industrial restructuring and job loss, such as assembly production on the Texas border, corn farming in Southern Mexico, and light manufacturing in the Southeastern U.S., Center staff assists in planning, implementing and evaluating economic and social development projects. In Watsonville, California, for example, NAID Center staff are working with community members to develop an economic development strategy in response to the movement of the frozen food industry to Mexico. These efforts can receive support from the NADBank Consortium, which has created a technical assistance fund to provide seed grants to aid the communities in the planning and proposal writing process. The NAID Center supplies Internet Connectivity/Telecommunications capacities The research and technical assistance missions of the NAID Center are further enhanced by an ambitious program to provide Internet connectivity to a wide range of Consortium partners and to develop advanced tools for wide-area database management and interactive communication. Geographic Information System (GIS) capacities are being added to the database, as are an advanced set of applications to query other governmental and non-governmental databases throughout North America. The entire database, modeling capacity, and sectoral/regional research and technical assistance operations are being made available to the NADBank, BECC (Border Environmental Cooperation Commission), NACEC (North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation), NACLC (North American Commission on Labor Cooperation), and the North American public in general through custom- designed Internet "home pages" and other telecommunications systems such as CD-ROM and on-line interactive services. As the Consortium continues to expand and incorporate North American institutions and organizations into our on-line network, we expect to train communities to utilize the Internet and other available technologies for their empowerment. |
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