Exchange Rate Management and the External Debt Burden: The Case of the Philippines

The paper develops a simple macroeconomic model which is then estimated for the Philippines. Econometric evidence shows that Philippines monetary authorities have been reluctant to allow a real devaluation, because of a large public external debt and for the fear of fueling inflation. Simulations show that, while an overvalued exchange rate may bring some benefits in the form of lower inflation and improved budgetary performance, its current account costs may be significant. Brady-like deals can reduce fiscal imbalances, limit the sensitivity of fiscal aggregates to the exchange rate, and increase the benefits of a more aggressive exchange rate policy.     

Resource determinants of strategy and performance: The case of British exporters

This study adopts the RBV of the firm in order to identify critical advantage-generating resources and capabilities with strong positive export strategy and performance implications. The proposed export performance model is tested using a structural equation modelling approach on a sample of 356 British exporters. We examine the individual as well as the concurrent (simultaneous) direct and indirect effects of five resource bundles on export performance. We find that four resources/capabilities: managerial, knowledge, planning, and technology, have a significant positive direct effect on export performance, while relational and physical resources exhibited no unique positive effect. We also find that the firm's export strategy mediates the resource–performance nexus in the case of managerial and knowledge-based resources. The theoretical and methodological grounding of this study contributes to the advancement of export related research by providing better specification of the nature of the effects – direct or indirect – of particular resource factors on export performance.     

Managerial practices driving knowledge creation,learning and transfer in translational research: an exploratory case study

Despite its growing popularity in the biomedical literature, the particular phenomenon of translational research management has not been addressed from an organizational and strategic perspective yet. Our study aims to fill this gap by identifying a set of managerial practices that could influence how knowledge is created, amplified and transferred from biomedical research both to clinical practice and the productive sector. As a result of the theoretical review, we have proposed a preliminary model to guide our empirical work. We have developed an exploratory case study to gather organisational information from an outstanding translational research center. The results obtained from the analysis have allowed us to build an induced model of managerial practices that both affect the creation, integration and transfer of knowledge in the translational research organization studied, as well as derives a set of research propositions. Finally, we present the main academic and managerial implications of the work, together with its limitations and related future research lines.     

Non‐Homothetic Multisector Growth Models

Multisector growth (MSG) models are dynamic versions of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Non‐homothetic preference (utility) functions are required for the evolution of factor allocations and industrial structures in accordance with consumption expenditure patterns implied by the non‐unitary income elasticities observed in all budget data since Engel in the 1850s. But comparative static general equilibrium solutions and particularly solving the dynamics of MSG models require explicit specifications of all demand and cost (price) functions. On the demand side, the constant differences of elasticity of substitution (CDES) non‐homothetic indirect utility functions and Roy's identity provide the explicit Marshallian demand functions and budget shares. Sectorial constant elasticity of substitution (CES) cost functions and Shephard's lemma provide the explicit relative commodity price functions and the sectorial cost shares and capital–labor ratios. Walrasian equilibria are given by one equation and the multisector dynamics by three differential equations. Benchmark solutions are given for three cost regimes of a 10‐sector MSG model. History patterns of industrial/allocational evolutions are recognized.     

Gender-Based Pricing in the Hairdressing Industry

This paper reviews the evidence and evaluates the claim that the hairdressing industry systematically discriminates on the basis of gender and compares the way in which courts in the UK and US have dealt with such allegations. We argue that "transaction costs" can be used to provide an alternative (perhaps more satisfactory) explanation for the pricing patterns observed than does price discrimination. Any decision to ban gender-based pricing will imply a difficult trade-off between economic efficiency and concerns for gender equality.     

Rethinking the import-productivity nexus for Italian manufacturing

We provide evidence on the firm level productivity effects of imports of intermediates. By exploiting a large panel of Italian manufacturing firms, we are able to separately explore the role of importing from high and low income countries. Importing does not permanently affect the firm productivity growth. This finding holds both when we test for the import entry by means of Propensity Score Matching techniques and when we analyse the import intensity within a dynamic panel data model framework. On the contrary, we confirm the existence of self-selection into importing. Also, our evidence supports the learning-by-exporting effects in Italian manufacturing and we prove that this result is robust to the control of firm import activity.     

Imports,Exports and the Firm Product Scope: Evidence From Turkey

By exploiting an original firm‐product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, ‐way trading on firm product scope and innovation in a multiple treatment setting. Our evidence points at the prominent role of exporting, while no effect is found for importing only. Nonetheless, we corroborate existing evidence on the virtuous nexus between the two international activities and add to the literature by showing that joint firm involvement in exporting and importing fosters product innovation and quality upgrading.     

A framework to measure integrated risk

A framework underlying various models that measure the credit risk of a portfolio is extended in this paper to allow the integration of credit risk with a range of market risks using Monte Carlo simulation. A structural model is proposed that allows interest rates to be stochastic and provides closed-form expressions for the market value of a firm's equity and its probability of default. This model is embedded within the integrated framework and the general approach illustrated by measuring the risk of a foreign exchange forward when there is a significant probability of default by the counterparty. For this example moving from a market risk calculation to an integrated risk calculation reduces the expected future value of the instrument by an amount that could not be calculated using the common pre-settlement exposure technique for estimating the credit risk of a derivative.