Short sea and deep sea shipping markets in France

This paper examines the physical and organizational characteristics of maritime consignments sent from France by comparing those sent by deep sea shipping (DSS) with those sent by short sea shipping (SSS). It employs a very detailed survey that identifies individual shipments, and contains information on routing, mode and organization. The results confirm that the majority of deep sea consignments pass through the major ports, but the SSS market is shown to be more diverse. A link between the size of the hinterland and the type of trade is identified. Finally, the paper shows the importance of logistic service providers in SSS chains.     

What are the macroeconomic effects of high‐frequency uncertainty shocks?

This paper evaluates the effects of high‐frequency uncertainty shocks on a set of low‐frequency macroeconomic variables representative of the US economy. Rather than estimating models at the same common low frequency, we use recently developed econometric models, which allow us to deal with data of different sampling frequencies. We find that credit and labor market variables react the most to uncertainty shocks in that they exhibit a prolonged negative response to such shocks. When looking at detailed investment subcategories, our estimates suggest that the most irreversible investment projects are the most affected by uncertainty shocks. We also find that the responses of macroeconomic variables to uncertainty shocks are relatively similar across single‐frequency and mixed‐frequency data models, suggesting that the temporal aggregation bias is not acute in this context.     

Effectiveness of R&;D tax incentives in small and large enterprises in Québec

In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives in Quebec, using manufacturing firm data from 1997 to 2003 originating from R&D surveys, annual surveys of manufactures and administrative data. The estimated price elasticity of R&D is –0.10 in the short run and –0.14 in the long run, with slightly higher elasticities for small firms than for large firms. We show that there is a deadweight loss associated with level-based R&D tax incentives that is particularly acute for large firms. For small firms it is not sizeable enough to suppress the R&D additionality, at least not for quite a number of years after the initial tax change. Incremental R&D tax credits do not suffer from this deadweight loss and are from that perspective preferable to level-based tax incentives.

Public policy and the establishment of large stores in Belgium

Belgian public policy towards retailing has been viewed as being politically motivated and frustrating the ambitions of large retailers by being biased towards independent retailers. This paper analyses the impact of the Business Premises Act on the development of supermarkets and hypermarkets. It concludes that the Act has had an impact although this may have been an unintended one in that retailers have changed behaviour to surmount the Act.     

Selecting A Forecasting Method For Investory Control: A Safety Stock Based Criterion

The paper presents results related to the application of several forecasting methods to problems of inventory control. In particular it is shown that an accuracy measure based on an inventory control criterion is more useful in ranking the forecasting methods than currently used measures based on forecast errors. Résumé Cette étude présente des résultats reliés à l'application de plusieurs méthodes de prévision dans un contexte de gestion des stocks. Il est démontré en particulier qu'une mesure de précision basée sur un critère de gestion des stocks est plus utile pour évaluer les méthodes de prévision que les mesure usuelles qui fondées sur les erreurs de prévisions.     

The measurement of the creation and distribution of wealth in a firm by the method of surplus accounts

Within a firm the task of creating wealth through the expansion of the volume of activity and the improvement of productivity is inseparable from the problem of its distribution among all the social partners contributing to the production of that wealth. Therefore, it is useful to analyse both of those aspects within the same conceptual framework. To this end an accounting model is developed in the present study from the basic principles of the “surplus accounts” method. This method has been developed in France over the last few years and it has been tested in several large state-owned companies and in some large and small business firms. The results are generally considered as very encouraging in spite of some conceptual and practical difficulties.     

Micro-economic applications of marginal changes in risk

Extending a recent definition, we propose a theorem on the impact of marginal changes in risk on the optimal decision of a risk averse individual. Several micro-economic applications are then provided.