“Fishing Na Everybody Business”: Women's Work and Gender Relations in Sierra Leone's Fisheries

While small-scale fisheries in many developing countries is “everybody's business,” a gendered labor division concentrates production in the hands of fishermen while women dominate postharvest processing and retailing. The production bias of fisheries management programs has not only largely overlooked the role of fisherwomen, but also marginalized “fish mammies” in terms of resources and training. This study draws on three in-country fisheries surveys, as well as interviews and focus groups, and employs a gender-aware sustainable livelihood framework to make visible the economic space occupied by women in Sierra Leone's small-scale fisheries. The study highlights how women's variegated access to capital and resources interacts with social norms and reproductive work and argues for more social and economic investment in women's fish processing and reproductive work enabling them to reconcile both roles more effectively.     

Business groups and competition in post-Soviet transition economies: The case of Russian “agroholdings”

The paper questions from an Austrian perspective the hypotheses that enjoy widespread support in mainstream economics that business groups are a symptom of imperfect competition and a threat to competition with negative impacts on social welfare. For this, an Austrian theoretical framework is developed and then applied to analyze the interaction of competition and business groups regarding the case of “agroholdings” in Russia. It is maintained that the orthodox literature does not adequately account for the characteristic features of competition in the real world, and therefore may lead to wrong normative conclusions on the relation between business groups and competition. It is argued that also in transition economies for competition to function as an entrepreneurial discovery process, no perfect markets are needed but only freedom to entry and property rights security. Then there is no pattern of action, which in and of itself is inconsistent with competition. Therefore, unless there is evidence for government support, business groups must principally be seen as the result of competitive entrepreneurial discoveries. It is further argued that the only real danger of business groups for competition does not come from their ability to raise non-legal barriers to entry, but from government protection. This may either result from successful lobbying of business groups or from the preference of government officials for this particular form of business organization. Case studies evidence from business groups in Russia’s agro-food sector illustrates these arguments.     

Mind the gap? Business cycles and subjective well-being

We examine the relationship between output fluctuations and within-country variation in subjective well-being using country panels. We show that the deviation of output from trend, unlike trend growth, is positively associated with well-being. The explanatory power of the business cycle is found to be better than that of the level of output.     

Moving markets? Government bond investors and microeconomic policy changes

Do sovereign bond markets react systematically to microeconomic policy reforms? Some observers suggest that investors are very attentive to supply‐side policies such as those related to labor markets, corporate taxation, and product standards. They argue that, along with macroeconomic outcomes and broad financial market conditions, such reforms affect sovereign bond premiums, for developed as well as emerging economies. In contrast, we predict few systematic effects of supply‐side policy reforms on sovereign bond market outcomes. Our theory draws on a standard three‐equation model of the economy, widely accepted among economic and finance professionals. That model makes few clear predictions regarding the anticipated effects of microeconomic policy changes; as a result, we expect that such reforms will not generate systematic market reactions. Our analyses, based on daily data from 37 countries from 2004 to 2012, indeed reveal little evidence of a systematic bond market reaction to the 47 most significant reforms to corporate taxation and labor market regulation. These results call into question the notion that “bond market vigilantes” play a central role in compelling governments to enact specific microeconomic policy changes.     

Political Connections,Government Regulations and Risk-Taking — Evidence From China

Sufficient evidence suggests that enterprises under strong government regulations suffer the economic effects of political connections, which not only leads to competitive disadvantages and loss of innovation, but also less willingness to take risks. This paper explores the relationship between political connections and corporate risk-taking behavior in corporate governance. Specifically, in 2008, the Chinese government announced new policies to regulate government officials concurrently holding the positions of independent directors in firms. We sample publicly listed firms in the Chinese A-share market over the period of 2005–2010 and investigate changes in risk-taking behavior due to the new policies. Our findings indicate that a reduction in politically connected independent directors may encourage risk-taking behavior subject to the factors of state ownership, industry regulations, local government control, and corporate characteristics.     

Realistic Meaning and Realization Path of SMEs＇ Business Model Innovation

商业模式创新是中小企业转型升级的有效途径。商业模式诠释了公司价值的来源,是企业的主动选择,具有系统性、逻辑性、具体性、形象性和创新性等特色。中小企业商业模式以完善型和改变型为主,通过可分收入式模式、专业化模式、协作式模式创新以及有机融合,实现重新定义客户、重新定义服务、重新定义沟通、重新定义供应链构架等模式创新。商业模式创新的成功取决于创新途径的正确选择。要坚持能使企业发挥自身优势的细分市场来进行专业化经营,促进企业持久发展;培育中小企业商业模式创新的动力机制,营造良好的外部环境;促进中小企业电子商务向国际化、专业化与纵深化方向发展。     

Study on Factors of Doing Business in UAE and Its Recommendations

Many countries often find it extremely hard to do business in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates （UAE）. The Middle East is a dramatically different environment to do business, The reason is that Arab culture is markedly different from those in other countries. From analyzing the culture, social institutions and informal trade barriers about UAE, some trouble spots and countermeasures can be found. To successfully do business in UAE, businessmen must understand Arab ways and culture, and also learn about sociotal structures including social classes, the religion, language, attitudes toward strangers and so on.     

Stochastic Cost Frontier and Inefficiency Estimates of Public and Private Universities: Does Government Matter?

Stochastic frontier analysis is used to estimate operating cost inefficiencies of public and private non-profit universities in the U.S. while also accounting for the possible effects arising from differences in the degree of government ownership. Using panel data for four academic years, 2005?C2009, inefficiencies are estimated under two model specifications. Results indicate that public universities are more cost efficient when environmental factors influence cost frontiers but private universities are the cost efficient institutions when those factors are determinants of inefficiency. Increased government funding does matter and increases private sector inefficiency but offers some efficiency improvements among public universities. Following the global financial crisis, there is evidence indicating a considerable slowdown in the inefficiency growth among both public and private universities.     

Institutionalism and the “Common Man” Through the Lens of Philip Klein: Business Cycles,the Public Sector,and Keynes’s Economics

This article reviews and assesses Philip Klein’s work on business cycles and macroeconomics, the public sector, and the economics of John Maynard Keynes. The article makes several findings. First, Klein built on the pioneering efforts of Wesley Mitchell to advance the development of cycle indicators and to outline an eclectic theory of cycles that remains useful for synthesizing a broad literature. Second, Klein’s essays on macroeconomics contain enduring discussions of the malleability of the “natural” rate of unemployment and the value of a behavioral approach to expectations. Third, he refocused the institutionalist attention on the public sector by introducing “higher efficiency” and other concepts to help explain how government policy plays a role in economic life. Fourth, Klein emphasized the role of fiscal policy in moderating business cycles. Fifth, his work points in the direction of today’s post-Keynesian institutionalism, both by stressing that Keynes was “profoundly institutionalist” in his approach and by arguing that conjoining Keynes and institutionalism would provide a stronger foundation for macroeconomic theory and policy.     

Business regulation and business investment: evidence from US manufacturing 1970–2009

Regulation is often portrayed as placing a substantial burden on US businesses and the overall US economy. Moreover, policy options of “cutting red tape” and “reducing federal bureaucracy” are often asserted to be a way to stimulate investment and, through this channel, a way to promote economic growth. This paper examines the relationship between growth in regulatory restrictions in the Code of Federal Regulations and manufacturing investment in the United States over the 1970–2009 period. An industry-level dataset is constructed by mapping the novel industry-specific RegData dataset from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to the comprehensive industry-specific manufacturing data in the NBER-CES Manufacturing Industry Database. In total, the constructed dataset includes 337 manufacturing industries. This approach yields substantial evidence that increased business regulation is associated with decreased business investment.     

Is Business Performance Related to the Adoption of Quality and Environmental-Related Standards?

We investigate the relationship between French firms’ business performance and registration of quality (QS) and environmental-related standards (ES). Using a propensity score matching method, we found that QS/ES registered firms report higher sales. However, registration is not significantly related to firms’ profits and EBITDA. Our findings also point out the possible synergy between ES and QS, that is, when implemented together, quality and environmental-related standards are more likely to be related to higher sales, profits and EBITDA than when only one of these standards is implemented.     

Government incentive strategies and private capital participation in China’s Shale gas development

Shale gas development investments are uncertain and irreversible in the initial stage in China. Flexible incentive strategy is needed for governments to guide private capital participation at different development stages. This study aims to provide analysis governments can use to encourage private investment in shale gas projects according to its plans in an extended real options framework. A social benefits variable is introduced to determine the threshold of social benefits that determine whether the government will choose a deferred or instant incentives strategy. By considering the efficiency factor, we show the optimal arrangements of two kinds of incentives: tax cuts and production subsidies, to implement incentive targets. The results indicate that current market demand and social benefits are the key factors that affect the government’s choice of incentive strategy. We also find that the optimal level of incentives, either tax cuts or production subsidies, are independent of current market demand and future market uncertainty under the delayed incentive strategy, but which affect the optimal level of incentives under the instant motivation strategy, and ignoring the negative influence of unpredictable random events on future market demand might lead to insufficient government incentives in this case.     

Reforms on China＇s Fiscal System and Its Impact on Local Government Behavior

The fiscal system is an important part of national economic management and deals with the division of financial responsibility and power, regulates and defines the fiscal activities among different levels of governments. The changes in economic system and economic structure decide the changes of fiscal function and fiscal structure, which results in the changes in intergovernmental distribution form and local government behavior. This paper takes a look at the stages of China＇s fiscal reform process and the impacts on local government behavior, and tries to find measures for perfecting the fiscal system reform to optimize local government behavior and guarantee a healthy national economy.     

Government spending and revenues in Sweden 1722–2011: evidence from hidden cointegration

This study examines the long-run causal relationship between government revenues and spending of the Swedish economy over the period 1722–2011. The results based on hidden cointegration technique and a modified version of the Granger non-causality test, show that there exists a long-run and asymmetric relationship between government spending and government revenues. Our estimation results can be summarized into three main empirical findings. First, the government follows a hard budget constraint and soft budget constraint strategies in the case of negative and positive shocks, respectively. Second, negative shocks to the fiscal budget are removed fairly quickly compared to positive shocks. Third, bi-directional causality between revenues and expenditures offers support in favor of the fiscal synchronization hypothesis. The policy implication is that budget deficit’s reduction could be achieved through government spending cut, accompanied by contemporaneous tax controls.