The nature and extent of the market for soybeans and soybean products

Summary This paper addresses the question of whether soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil produced in the United States and exported were part of a single, world geographic market during the decade of the 1980s. An answer to this question is sought using an approach to defining a geographic market based on the notion of instantaneous causality. The empirical results, based on prices for soybeans, soybean meal, and soybean oil for three spatially diffuse locations, suggest that there was but a single identifiable world market for these commodities over the period of study.The authors are with the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the views of other U.S. Department of Agriculture staff members. Senior authorship is not assigned. The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions.     

A social clause against discrimination in the labor market

This paper considers the possibility of employing a social clause on international trade to reduce occupational discrimination and wage discrimination in the labor market. A country subject to such a clause is given the choice of reducing discrimination or having to face the imposition of a tariff or quota on its exports. The impact of these two changes on the remunerations of different groups in society is analyzed in a model allowing for a labor surplus. The analysis shows that neither in the case of occupational discrimination nor in the case of wage discrimination is the social clause necessarily an efficient means for reducing discrimination. Very much depends on how different groups are affected, on the relative political weight of these groups, and on the share of exports in total output.     

Analysts’ Perceptions of Intellectual Capital Information

This study is based on a survey of 324 financial analysts in Japan. The survey concerns analysts’ perceptions of intellectual capital (IC) information and its links to the evaluation of companies. The value relevance of and the access to IC‐related information reveals a large gap on many items. The analysis further shows that the lack of access to information hampers analysts’ use of IC in their evaluation of companies, particularly in their use of human capital measures. Attitudes towards more disclosure and standardisation are mainly driven by perceptions of what generates value in companies.     

Collective and individual benefits of trade unions: a multi‐level analysis of 21 European countries

In light of internationally declining union density, this article examines to what extent employees derive advantage from trade unions. Data collected in 21 countries through the European Social Survey 2010 are being used. Multilevel analyses show that it is not so much individual membership but unions' collective power that matters. Perceived union influence and a union‐friendly industrial relations regime (mainly the organized corporatism in the Nordic countries) are positively linked to the occurrence of regular workplace meetings and to the impact of these meetings on organizational decisions. Employees also appear to benefit from unions' collective power in terms of appropriate pay and job security, although the regime pattern is then less clear.     

Exports as an indicator on or promoter of successful swedish manufacturing firms in the 1990s

We study the link between exports and productivity at the firm level. Like in previous studies we get support for the hypothesis that more productive firms self-select into the export market. In addition, and contrary to many of the former studies, we also obtain evidence that exporting further increases firm productivity. Exporting firms appear to have significantly higher productivity than nonexporting. Moreover, exporters—mainly firms that increase their export intensities—have higher output growth than nonexporters. Reallocation of resources between firms may then have contributed to overall manufacturing productivity growth. Hence, we try to quantify the importance of reallocation. JEL no. F10, D24     

Inflation and relative-price variability — A model for an open economy applied to Sweden

The relationship between inflation and relative-price variability is analyzed empirically in a multi-market, partial information equilibrium model, which incorporates raw materials on the supply side, open economy characteristics and allows different supply responses across markets. The hypothesis that the expected, as well as the unexpected, rate of inflation affects relative-price variability is put forward and tested. The empirical results are consistent with the view that inflation is non-neutral, in the sense that it affects relative prices, and it is also shown that raw material prices as well as foreign demand are important determinants of relative-price variability in the Swedish economy.