Food for a growing world population

This report describes summarily the set-up and main conclusions of the project “Food for a doubling world population”. It has to be seen as a preview-rather than as a summary-of the final report, as the model is not discussed explicitly in the present paper. The final report on the study-containing a detailed presentation of aims, methods and results—will appear under the title “MOIRA—A Model of International Relations in Agriculture”, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, in the course of 1977. Besides the present authors, R. Brolsma, J. Bruinsma, P. Buringh, G.J. Staring, M. van der Vlis and C.T. de Wit had an active part in the multi-disciplinary project.     

On export performance and export elasticities: A macroeconomic approach

Summary In many studies far-reaching conclusions with regard to competitiveness are based upon an export price elasticity that results from only estimating an equation for the volume of exports. The aim of this article is to show with the aid of a macroeconomic model that the influence of competitiveness is overestimated in this way. This conclusion cannot be based on the necessity to introduce the export structure alongside world trade as a regressor in the export equation. The overestimation is a result offeedback mechanisms, greatly resulting from an endogenous exchange rate, which largely neutralize the initial export price effect. Financial support from the Netherlands organisation for the advancement of pure research (ZWO), no. 46–65, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Prof. S.K. Kuipers for helpful comments and Martin O. Nijkamp and Vincent C.A. Polanen Petel for computational assistance.     

Exploring Exploration Orientation and its Determinants: Some Empirical Evidence*

abstract Adopting an information‐process perspective, this article conceptualizes exploration orientation in terms of scope of information acquisition. In line with this conceptualization, a multidimensional operational measure of exploration orientation is developed and its internal consistency established. The measure appears to have nomological validity in that it behaves as predicted with measures of variables hypothesized to be related to exploration orientation. Consistent with the emerging co‐evolution framework, environmental pressures as well as managerial intentions are found to influence an organization's exploration behaviour. Specifically, empirical results indicate that more environmental dynamism, a stronger organization mission, a prospector orientation and larger slack resources are associated with a greater exploration orientation. Implications, shortcomings and future research directions are discussed.     

Dividends and share repurchases in the European Union

We examine cash dividends and share repurchases from 1989 to 2005 in the 15 nations that were members of the European Union before May 2004. As in the United States, the fraction of European firms paying dividends declines, while total real dividends paid increase and share repurchases surge. We also show that financial reporting frequency is associated with higher payout, and that privatized companies account for almost one-quarter of total cash dividends and share repurchases. Our regression analyses indicate that increasing fractions of retained earnings to equity do not increase the likelihood of cash payouts, whereas company age does.     

Noise trading and the price formation process

This study proposes the dispersion in daily net initiated order flow across brokers as a proxy for the level of noise trading in a stock, and applies this proxy to test some basic implications of market microstructure theory. We use data from the Australian Stock Exchange, a computerized limit order market where price, quantity, and broker identity for each incoming order are shown on broker screens. We find daily movements in our noise measure are positively associated with trading volume and market depth, and negatively related to the bid-ask spread. We find monthly movements in our noise measure are negatively associated with the probability of informed trading, and positively correlated with the arrival rate of uninformed traders. We also find the sensitivity of stock prices to net initiated order flow decreases in the level of noise trading. In addition we find that, after controlling for noise trading, the sensitivity of stock prices to net initiated order flow is significantly greater on Mondays. These empirical results consistently support the implications of various models of market microstructure, suggesting that our proxy provides useful information as a daily measure of noise trading.     

Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership

abstract    Organizations capable of pursuing exploration and exploitation simultaneously have been suggested to obtain superior performance. Combining both types of activities and achieving organizational ambidexterity, however, leads to the presence of multiple and often conflicting goals, and poses considerable challenges to senior teams in ambidextrous organizations. This study explores the role of senior team attributes and leadership behaviour in reconciling conflicting interests among senior team members and achieving organizational ambidexterity. Findings indicate that a senior team shared vision and contingency rewards are associated with a firm's ability to combine high levels of exploratory and exploitative innovations. In addition, our study shows that an executive director's transformational leadership increases the effectiveness of senior team attributes in ambidextrous organizations and moderates the effectiveness of senior team social integration and contingency rewards. Hence, our study clarifies how senior executives reconcile conflicting demands and facilitate the balancing of seemingly contradictory forces in ambidextrous organizations. Implications for literatures on senior team attributes, transformational leadership and organizational ambidexterity are discussed.     

Sell on the news: Differences of opinion,short-sales constraints,and returns around earnings announcements

Miller [1977. Risk, uncertainty, and divergence of opinion. Journal of Finance 32, 1151–1168] hypothesizes that prices of stocks subject to high differences of opinion and short-sales constraints are biased upward. We expect earnings announcements to reduce differences of opinion among investors, and consequently, these announcements should reduce overvaluation. Using five distinct proxies for differences of opinion, we find that high differences of opinion stocks earn significantly lower returns around earnings announcements than low differences of opinion stocks. In addition, the returns on high differences of opinion stocks are more negative within the subsample of stocks that are most difficult for investors to sell short. These results are robust when we control for the size effect and the market-to-book effect and when we examine alternative explanations such as financial leverage, earnings announcement premium, post-earnings announcement drift, return momentum, and potential biases in analysts’ forecasts. Also consistent with Miller's theory, we find that stocks subject to high differences of opinion and more binding short-sales constraints have a price run-up just prior to earnings announcements that is followed by an even larger decline after the announcements.     

Bibliometric assessment of research performance in Flanders: policy background and implications

We illustrate the use of bibliometric tools in the evaluation of scientific research conducted at Flemish universities and publicly funded research organisations, and in the assessment of scientific-technological performance in Flanders in the field of information technology. We sketch the policy background of a number of studies conducted during the past 6 years in Flanders. These studies have provided useful information to evaluators and policy makers in Flanders, and have generated indirect effects on policy decisions, as their outcomes were used in the policy debate to raise relevant questions, clarify concepts or distinctions, question assumptions or to substantiate impressions.     

Farmers’ Preferences For Bluetongue Vaccination Scheme Attributes: An Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Approach

Re‐emergence of the bluetongue disease in Europe poses a continuous threat to European livestock production. Large‐scale vaccination is the most effective intervention to control virus spread. Compared to command‐and‐control approaches, voluntary vaccination approaches can be effective at lower costs, provided that farmers are willing to participate. We use a discrete choice experiment to estimate the preferences for vaccination scheme attributes, accounting for preference heterogeneity via an integrated choice and latent variable approach. In designing livestock disease control schemes, it is often argued that governments should use financial, incentive‐based policy instruments to compensate farmers for externalities, assuming they act in rational self‐interest. Our results suggest that in addition to economic motives, farmers can have intrinsic or social motives to invest in livestock disease control. Implications for the effectiveness of providing subsidy or information to motivate voluntary participation are discussed.     

The Autoimmunity of the EU’s Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper,Iron and Camp Borders

ABSTRACT

In this article we argue that the EU suffers from autoimmunity: a self-harming protection strategy. Drawing on Derrida’s political understanding of autoimmunity, we contend that the root of this malfunction lies in the EU’s own b/ordering and othering policies, which are intended to immunise the foundational ethos of the EU. For this purpose, we dissect the EU border regime into three linked b/ordering mechanisms: the pre-borders of paper documents that regulate from afar the mobility of the people from visa-obliged countries; the actual land borders often consisting of iron gates and fences regulating mobility on the spot; and the post-border in the form of waiting/detention camps that segregate and enclose the undocumented migrants after entry. We make clear how this discriminatory b/ordering and othering regime has led to a recurrent drawing of ever less porous, inhumane and deadlier borders. Such thanatopolitics finds itself at odds with the humanist values that the EU is supposed to uphold, particularly cross-border solidarity, openness, non-discrimination and human rights. We argue that the EU b/ordering regime has turned fear of the non-EUropean into an increasingly unquestioned – even ‘commonsensical’ – anxiety that has become politically profitable to exploit by extreme nationalistic and EUrosceptic parties. The core of the EU’s autoimmunity that we want to expose lies within this irony: in its attempt to protect what it considers meaningful, the EU has unleashed an autoimmune disorder that has turned the EU into its own most formidable threat.