Faculty & Research

Research Highlights

The China Challenge: Visiting Scholar Ralph Watkins Studies Border Trade Issues

Ralph Watkins Ralph Watkins after presenting “Current Challenges to Mexico’s Maquiladora Industry”, Downtown Lions' Club of El Paso on January 30
As a child growing up on his parent’s farm in Oregon, Ralph Watkins spent his summers working side-by-side with the Mexican Braceros picking fruit. From this experience, he developed an early interest in Mexico and its economic issues. Later, as a graduate student at the University of Oregon in the 1970’s, he further explored his fascination while he conducted field work in Baja, Mexico.

Today, he’s a Senior International Trade Analyst with the U.S. International Trade Commision, an expert on the Maquiladora industry and border trade issues, and a Visiting Scholar at the UTEP College of Business.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is an independent federal agency that provides advice and technical assistance to the U.S. Congress and the President. International Trade Analysts monitor developments in assigned industries and provide assessments regarding factors affecting the global competitiveness of U.S. and foreign industries.

In residence at the UTEP College of Business for Spring 2009, Ralph is working with students and faculty in the International Business PHD program, collaborating on research in international trade projects, and developing a conference on international trade. The First Annual Symposium on Hemispheric Integration will bring together students, faculty and members of the profession in May of 2009. The conference will explore the Obama Administration's Trade Agenda and what it means for the future of the Paso del Norte.

Watkins is taking advantage of his time on the border to update his research on China’s challenge to Mexico’s manufacturing industry. Watkins has studied the impact of China on Mexican exports and believes Mexico has certain advantages over China. Many are due to its proximity and integration with the U.S. economy.

Measuring the Economic Impact of Security Failures in Information Systems

Dr. M. Adam Mahmood Dr. M. Adam Mahmood,
Professor of Information Systems

Some of the most basic questions surrounding information systems security are as much economic as technical. Who pays the price when a system is compromised? What are the financial impacts of employee non-compliance with information systems security policies?

These are some of the questions that Dr. M. Adam Mahmood and Visiting Research Scholar Dr. Seppo Pahnila from the University of Oulu, Finland are investigating. Dr. Pahnila is collaborating with Dr. Mahmood of the UTEP Business Information and Decision Sciences department on research projects involving the economics of information security. Assisting them is Adolfo Coronado, an International Business PHD candidate who is specializing in Information Systems.

Security often fails not for technical reasons, but because the incentives are wrong. Often the people who should protect a system are not the ones who suffer most from the failure of the system. In other words, systems are particularly prone to compromise when the people who gain the most from a system do not pay the most when the system is compromised.

The objective of Dr. Pahnila’s research is to measure the economic impacts of employees’ non-compliance with information and information systems policies. This research will also set the stage for conducting a series of future research studies on the economics of: a) disclosing software vulnerabilities instantly on vendors developing security patches more frequently; b) budgetary constraints on digital forensics; and c) gathering information on a participant in a social network on third parties connected to the participant in the network.

Dr. Seppo Pahnila Dr. Seppo Pahnila

Dr. Pahnila received his Ph.D. in Information Processing Science from the University of Oulu in Finland, where he is presently serving as a lecturer. He teaches in the areas of Web Information Systems Engineering, E-commerce and Information Systems Theory. He has published in the International Journal of Bank Marketing, Internet Research Journal, in the proceedings of the 11th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) and in the proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS40).