The Causality Between R&D And Investment

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between R&D expenditure and investment in machinery and equipment in order to test for causality. New growth theory emphasises the role of R&D in creating blueprints needed to produce new capital goods implicitly assuming causality running from R&D to investment. Other recent studies using firm level data have investigated the relationship between innovative activity and investment in fixed capital. In this paper we use aggregate data from the US economy on R&D expenditure in the industrial sector and aggregate investment in machinery and equipment. Standard Granger causality tests, together with the Hsiao version, are then performed, showing that causality runs from R&D to investment. In addition we perform a cointegration analysis allowing a test of possible long-run feedbacks. This dynamic representation shows that any feedback between investment and R&D is only significant in the long run.     

The dynamics of firms in a micro-to-macro model: The role of training, learning and innovation

We analyze the co-evolution of the performances of firms and of the economy in an evolutionary micro-to-macro model of the Swedish economy. The model emphasizes the interactions between human capital (or competences) and technological change at the firm level and their effects on aggregate growth, taking into account the micro-macro feedbacks. The model features learning-by-doing, incremental and radical innovations, user-producer learning at the firm level, and a change in the techno-economic paradigm. We find that there is an optimal sequence for the firm to allocate their resources: (1) build a general human capital stock before the change in the techno-economic paradigm, (2) spend on R&D, and (3) invest in specific human capital. Innovators fare better than imitators on average, not only because they innovate, but also because they build a competence base, which supports the learning from other firms.     

外部知识源连接、开放式创新与企业创新绩效关系研究

构建了“知识连接—知识交互—创新绩效”概念模型,采取问卷调查法研究外部知识源连接、开放式创新与企业创新绩效的关系。研究发现：①知识连接多样性与知识连接深度对渐进性创新绩效、突破性创新绩效具有显著正向影响,且知识连接多样性对两类创新绩效的影响均高于知识连接深度;②内向型创新、外向型创新对于企业获取渐进性创新绩效及突破性创新绩效具有促进作用;③企业通过内向型创新能够将知识连接多样性、知识连接深度的价值转化为渐进性创新绩效及突破性创新绩效,而通过外向型创新能够将知识连接多样性、知识连接深度的价值转化为突破性创新绩效。     

WHEN ARE VOLUNTARY EXPORT RESTRAINTS VOLUNTARY? A DIFFERENTIAL GAME APPROACH

We revisit voluntariness of voluntary export restraints (VERs) in a differential game model of duopoly with sticky prices. We show that a VER set at the free trade level has no effect on equilibrium under open‐loop strategies while the same policy results in a smaller profit for the exporting firm, i.e. it is involuntary under a non‐linear feedback strategy. Moreover, we prove an extended proposition of Dockner and Haug (1991 ) on voluntariness of VERs under a linear feedback strategy.     

公司治理与企业家精神

传统公司治理理论强调对于企业控制权的控制,而淡化了企业作为企业家精神租金创造的意义。本文通过对公司治理与企业家精神的内在逻辑分析,提出公司治理实质上包含着朝向企业家精神的保健机制与激励机制,其共同作用影响企业家精神的发挥从而决定了公司治理的绩效。在理论分析的基础上,本文利用上市家族、国有企业的数据对理论假设进行了实证检验。结果证明,就家族企业而言,激励机制对企业家精神具有显著的正向促进作用,保健机制则表现为不作为或失灵;就国有企业而言,激励机制对企业家精神无显著影响,保健机制则对企业家精神具有较为显著的“倒U型”作用。     

The economics of poverty in poor countries

This paper examines the links that have recently been studied between poverty, high fertility and undernourishment, on the one hand, and degradation of the local environmental-resource base and civic disconnection, on the other, in poor countries. An account is offered of a number of pathways involving positive feedbacks that create poverty traps, in which certain identifiable groups of people in an economy can get caught even when the economy in the aggregate experiences economic growth. The relevant policy implications are noted.     

全面风险管理:必然的选择

始于运用VaR方法度量金融市场风险的金融风险管理革命,目前已扩展至对企业的全面风险管理。一个理想的全面风险管理体系应站在企业全局的角度去识别、度量和管理风险。全面风险管理体系的优势在于:它有助于通过对冲风险以达到降低收益波动性的目的,从而增加企业价值;它有助于降低对冲的成本,因为它实际上是对净风险的对冲,而不是在单独的风险管理方法下的逐个对冲,这就使得风险的对冲成本下降了。     

Contracts payments for ecosystem services: the case of bio-pospecting

We examine the economics of royalties in bioprospecting contracts between a pharmaceutical and genetic resource supplier (local), with an eye to understanding the relative advantages of indexing royalty payments to gross revenue or net revenue. We show a risk-averse firm facing only production or only cost risks will index royalties to net revenue. When facing both types of risk, the choice of royalty type depends on the relative magnitudes of the production and cost risk. In each case, the risk-averse firm chooses the royalty type that shifts as much risk as possible to the local. When the local is risk neutral, the pharmaceutical's and local's preferences are compatible. If the local is risk averse and there is only one type of risk, it will prefer a gross revenue royalty, and shift as much risk as possible to the firm: here the local and firm preferences are compatible only if the firm is risk-neutral, Lastly, we show if the firm sets the terms of the contract, and both agents are risk averse, the firm will not likely volunteer to implement the socially optimal royalty arrangement as it prefers to shift as much risk to the local, who now also prefers a more certain return. This last outcome is at the heart of the benefit sharing discussion and suggests if risk sharing and equity are a concern in benefit sharing, then the choice of royalty type can be an important part of negotiations between pharmaceuticals and locals for the phytochemical from nature for new drug discovery.     

企业:一种人力资本使用权交易的粘性组织

本文沿着科斯的思路 ,把企业理解为一种人力资本使用权交易的粘性组织。企业用权威关系替代价格机制 ,而权威关系能够减少交易费用的原因在于“组织粘性”的存在。企业是一种有粘性的契约 ,而市场是一种无粘性的契约。企业的组织粘性把关键员工和企业联在一起 ,并使企业在引入企业家才能时有更低的临界交易效率。企业的边界由交易费用和组织粘性共同决定。     

Reciprocity in the workplace

Using combined experimental and survey data, this paper provides empirical evidence that firm productivity is related to worker’s pro-social behavior in the workplace. At the firm level, we find a strong positive relationship between firm productivity and reciprocating behavior among workers. Investigating workers’ individual behavior we find a similar, strong relationship when regressing earnings, a proxy for productivity, on reciprocity. To address simultaneity we use an instrumental variable approach and find that the initial estimate was upwards biased, presumably because it did not take into account the positive feedback from earnings to reciprocity. The new coefficient remains substantially above zero, but it is statistically insignificant.      

Opportunities and challenges created by terrorism

Besides being pushed by technical development and pulled by the demand for hi-tech products, technology is also often influenced greatly by the sudden impacts from other external environments. As shown by the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks (2001), Bali bombings (2002, 2005), Madrid bombings (2004), and London bombings (2005), some technologies have been fundamentally affected by terrorism, especially those concerning globalization, infrastructure, corporations, education, and individuals. Using system dynamics (SD) methodology, our paper first examines the causes of terrorism and why the United States was chosen as the target for the 9/11 terror attacks. The concept of SD helps analysts realize the variation of a complicated system and perceive how an internal feedback loop within a system impacts the whole system's behavior. After suffering the 9/11 attacks, the American-led coalition carefully considered how to study and develop effective methods for anti-terrorism strategies. These anti-terrorism efforts will have a major impact on technology development, and many opportunities and challenges are likely to arise from such development. Based on the qualitative analytic approach of causal loops, this article explores in detail the opportunities and challenges for technology development prompted by terrorism. The contribution of our study lies in appropriately analyzing links between terrorism and technology development in order to explain the present relevant technology situation and to initiate a discussion of future technology development trends.     

Technology,Exports And Firm Efficiency In Taiwanese Manufacturing

Using firm-level data from the 1986 Census of Manufactures of Taiwan, we examine the links between technical efficiency and firm investments in technology and exports. Stochastic production frontier techniques are used to estimate the technical efficiency of firms by investments in technology as well as by export orientation. Our results indicate that accounting for firm investments in technology is critical in explaining the strong export-productivity link in the extant literature. For the group of large, high technology firms, the differences in the mean efficiencies between exporters and non-exporters are not significantly different than zero in all nine industries under study. However, for the large number of small firms that make no formal investments in technology. exporters are significantly closer to the production frontier than their counterparts that sell in the domestic market.     

The effect of regulating political connections: Evidence from China's board of directors ban

There is a great deal of variation in how countries regulate the relationships between politicians and public-traded firms, but little evidence about how such policies affect firm performance. In 2013, China passed a new regulation that banned politicians from serving on the boards of directors of companies. Using a novel data set that links board members, government officials, and forced resignations, I estimate the effect of the policy on firm performance and stock returns. I find that the loss of a high-level politician significantly reduces a firm’s cumulative stock return and future profits. The effect is driven by officials from government-controlled public sectors and is larger when the firm is in low-marketized areas. The analysis provides important evidence about the efficacy of a commonly used policy tool for reducing political influence in the private sector.     

Capacities,innovation and feedbacks in production networks in Argentina

This paper is based on an application of the complex systems approach to economics with the objective of exploring the micro- and meso-mechanisms of development. Under this approach, innovation can be seen as an emergent property that depends on micro interaction and on specificities of macro structure. This study emphasizes that the micro interactions can be described by the feedback mechanisms between the absorption and connectivity capacities of firms, and the macro structure by processes of creative destruction, knowledge appropriation and structural change. The paper presents empirical evidence on the feedback loops between absorption and connectivity capacities in production networks in Argentina and their impact on innovation results. This paper concludes that the restrictions on absorption capacity and mainly on connectivity capacity in several production networks in Argentina condition the development of positive feedbacks between the two capacities, and hence the scope of the innovation path.     

Cross-Hedging of Exchange-Rate Risk

For currencies with highly developed forward markets a well-known separation theorem holds which implies that international firms fully hedge the exchange rate risk if the forward markets are unbiased. In this paper we present a model of a risk-averse firm when perfect hedging instruments are not available. Instead the firm can cross-hedge the exchange-rate risk by using the forward markets of a third country's currency. We demonstrate that the unbiasedness of all forward markets does not imply full hedge, although the firm has the option to hedge all the risks.     

Niche products, generic products, and consumer search

We endogenize product design in a model of sequential search with random firm-consumer match value à la Wolinsky (Quart J Econ 96:493–511, 1986) and Anderson and Renault (RAND J Econ 30:719–735, 1999). We focus on a product design choice by which a firm can control the dispersion of consumer valuations for its product; we interpret low-dispersion products as “generic” and high-dispersion products as “nichy.” Equilibrium product design depends on a feedback loop: when reservation utility is high (low), the marginal customer’s match improves (worsens) with more nichy products, encouraging high (low) differentiation by firms. In turn, when firms offer more nichy products, this induces more intense search; depending on search costs, this could raise or lower consumers’ reservation utility. Remarkably, when the match distribution satisfies a hazard rate condition, firm and consumer interests align: equilibrium product design always adjusts to the level that maximizes utility. When this condition is not met, either multiple equilibria (one nichy, the other generic) or one asymmetric equilibrium (generic and nichy firms coexist) can arise; we argue that the former is more likely for common specifications of consumer preferences.     

总经理继任对创新可持续性的影响

创新活动具有较高调整成本,因而保证创新可持续性对中国企业发展意义重大。以2006-2014年A股制造业上市公司为样本,分析了总经理继任对创新可持续性的影响,并考虑了产品市场竞争和期望绩效反馈的情境效应。实证结果显示：总经理继任对创新可持续性具有负向影响;产品市场竞争越激烈,总经理继任对创新可持续性的负向作用越强;当企业实际绩效低于期望绩效时,产品市场竞争的负向调节作用更为显著;然而,在实际绩效高于期望绩效的情况下,产品市场竞争的负向调节作用被减弱。     

Autocatalytic Growth and Development and the South-North Convergence

Abstract:

This article engages with the issue of income convergence between North and South by using the autocatalytic hypothesis of growth and development. Two system models describe positive and negative feedback loops which govern economic flows between North and South. The analysis of endogenous and exogenous negative feedbacks points to the process that would slowly push the world economy towards vanishing growth rates and, eventually, halt its material growth. The present work rejects convergence in per capita GDP between North and South from the theoretical perspective. Such an outcome would stand against one of the fundamental properties of autocatalytic dynamics—centripetality— that has its causal roots in the competitive process and capitalist institutions. In that sense, the autocatalytic hypothesis provides a theoretical explanation for those empirical analyses that dismisses convergence.     

Families and firms: Agency costs and labor market imperfections in Sialkot's surgical industry

The family firm is generally viewed as an organizational solution to agency costs in the labor market for managers and institutional underdevelopment. Consistent with this view, this paper links the preponderance of family firms in the surgical instrument industry of Sialkot to the prevailing agency and institutional problems. However, strong dependence on family management coupled with restrictions on family size constrains the firms from optimally choosing management size. The resulting labor market distortion is manifested by a significant positive correlation between the founder's family size and the firm size such that the founders who have more brothers (a larger pool of potential managers) end up with bigger firms.     

Staffing excellence: moving from retrospective to prospective management of risk

Our complex health care system will not be error free for the foreseeable future. Certain interventions must be put into place to manage that risk, and staffing effectiveness is a critical part of clinical risk management. Application of research and practice can create a basis for a proactive risk management plan, and will build in an essential feedback loop to leadership. Pay for performance initiatives by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other payers are creating further incentive to get to zero errors faster. By implementing what we know about staffing and avoidable errors, we are in a very good position to meet the challenges to create a safe health care system.