Multinational firms, market integration, and trade structure: What remains of the standard-goods hypothesis?

Multinational Firms, Market Integration, and Trade Structure: What Remains of the Standard-Goods Hypothesis? — In extending traditional empirical trade models to multinational firms, this paper shows the effect of the transfer of firm-specific technology and intangible assets by these firms on the structure of host countries. For Belgium, a small open economy with a large presence of foreign multinationals, this effect is of crucial importance and previous studies appeared to have produced biased results by neglecting it. The econometric results show how the large multinational presence induced by the European integration has shifted Belgium’s trade structure towards differentiated products, thereby challenging the standard-goods hypothesis which states that small countries tend to specialize in nondifferentiated products. Spain and Ireland have witnessed an increase in foreign direct investment and a shift in trade structure similar to Belgium after joining the EC.     

Planning and Uncovering Industrial Symbiosis: Comparing the Rotterdam and Östergötland regions

Industrial ecology is defined as the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems and as such may focus on a geographic area, resource and/or industry sector. In these types of setting, industrial ecology is also often known as industrial symbiosis (IS). The proximity of companies in industrial estates facilitates the linking of utilities and the exchange of wastes and by‐products, which may eventually be useful inputs for adjacent industrial processes. The typical model that has been applied in several regions of the world is one where an anchor‐tenant organization with energy and by‐product linkages is connected to companies physically located nearby. In the case of biomass symbiosis, however, the resource chains are not explicitly arranged by their industrial setting and the supply of waste and by‐products is able to be organized in a more scattered way. In this article, the role of industrial symbiosis is analyzed in respect of the planned industrial symbiosis activities in the Rotterdam Harbour and Industry Complex in the Netherlands and in the application of renewable energy in the Östergötland region in Sweden. The objective of this article is to discuss the similarities and differences between the planned industrial symbiosis activities in Rotterdam and the unplanned biomass and industrial symbiosis activities in the Östergötland region. By presenting this knowledge in this article, it is anticipated that further development of industrial symbiosis application processes may be achieved. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Optimal taxation with joint production of agriculture and rural amenities

We show that, when there is joint production of an agricultural good and rural amenities, the first-best allocation of resources can be implemented with a tax on the agricultural good and some subsidies on the production factors (land and labor). The use of a subsidy on the agricultural good can only be explained by the desire of the policymaker to redistribute income from the consumers to the farmers.     

Bank-Specific Daily Interest Rate Adjustment in the Dutch Mortgage Market

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the interest rate setting behavior of the four largest banks in the Dutch mortgage market, using advertised interest rates at a daily frequency. The evidence for the long run pricing behaviour suggests that the banks operate in a competitive environment as they base their interest rates on funding cost. However, two banks appear to be less cost sensitive than the others. In the short run, most of the banks adjust their rates less strongly to funding cost increases than to decreases, which suggests competitive pressures. For one bank significant evidence is found for a quicker response to negative than to positive deviations of actual from desired interest rates.     

Equal-treatment policy in a random search model with taste discrimination

We consider a search model of the labor market with two types of equally productive workers and two types of firms, discriminators and non-discriminators. Without policy intervention, there is wage dispersion between and within the two worker groups, but all wage differences become negligible when the taste for discrimination is small. We analyze the effect of an equal-pay policy, both in combination with affirmative action and without. When equal opportunity of hiring cannot be enforced, wage dispersion increases and wages for minority workers fall substantially relative to laissez faire. Sometimes also the wage gap between worker groups widens in response to the policy.     

LIQUIDITY CONSTRAINTS IN A MONETARY ECONOMY*

This article presents a microfounded model of money with a consumption and an investment market. We consider an economy in which only part of the investment returns can be pledged. A liquidity constraint arises when the pledgeable part of the returns are not enough to pay for investment costs. We show that when the liquidity constraint is binding, agents may make a cash downpayment and money can perform two roles—as a provider of liquidity services and exchange services. The liquidity constraint constitutes a channel though which underinvestment occurs even at low inflation rates.     

“全业务竞争”成就电信霸主

电信重组了,随之而来的是其全业务运营.国外运营商在全业务运营方面已经走在了前面,其成失败对国内运营商来说都有很多宝贵经验值得借鉴. 如果把电信市场比喻成一个立方体,横向是固网(长途、市话、IP电话等)、宽带(互联网接入等)、无线(移动通信、卫星通信等);纵向足网络接入、基础业务、增值业务、内容提供等.从重组前的市场结构来看,中国电信、中国网通等同网运营商在接入业务方面缺少蜂窝移动业务经营权,中同移动则缺少固定接入业务经营权.     

A microcomputer‐aided support environment for Xerox quality improvement teams: A case study

Although successful total quality management (TQM) emphasizes the role of teams, the quality literature does not provide a clear picture of the conditions that enable high‐performance teamwork. This case study describes the impacts of a microcomputer‐aided support environment implemented to support quality improvement teams (QITs) at Xerox. The support environment, called the Quality Support Center or QSC, was proposed and implemented explicitly to aid Xerox QITs in intensifying quality practice. The QSC features a comprehensive software tool kit, which, in conjunction with human facilitation, is designed to support correct use of Xerox structured meeting and quality processes and tools and facilitate team coordination over time. Impacts—realized from implementing solutions proposed by QITs using the QSC, as well as impacts on the work of QITs—have been substantial and far‐reaching, indicating that use of the QSC has contributed significantly to the business bottom line and quality intensification. The contribution of contextual enablers to these impacts is assessed using Hackman's [1] influential model; QSC software is described as reinforcing and augmenting these contextual enablers. Practical implications of this study stem from its documentation of the impacts of use of the QSC in the award‐winning TQM environment of Xerox. This study contributes to theory development as well by mapping features of the Xerox TQM environment on to the Hackman model. The mapping suggests the relevance of frameworks drawn from group research for modeling contextual enablers of high‐performance teamwork in TQM settings, especially as the need for theory in assessing QIT performance enablers has been emphasized [2].     

Multinational Production, Absorptive Capacity, and Endogenous R&D Spillovers

Do R&D spillovers have an impact on whether firms choose to go multinational or not? We present a three‐stage Cournot duopoly model, which identifies under what conditions firms choose to service a foreign market through exports or localized production. The establishment of a foreign subsidiary improves the ability to learn from foreign R&D since spillovers are strongly moderated by geographical distance. We explicitly model the concept of absorptive capacity, where gains from spillovers are determined by own R&D investments. With exogenous R&D investments, the absorptive capacity effect contributes to increase the gains from going multinational when the firm is R&D‐intensive. However, if R&D investments are endogenous, only medium‐sized absorptive capacity effects will result in firms going multinational. Furthermore, higher spillover rates do not necessarily drive down R&D and profits for the multinational firm. This stands in contrast to models that ignore absorptive capacity effects.