Some remarks on the undersized sample problem in econometrics

This paper discusses three approaches to the problem of undersized samples: the estimable function, the generalized inverse and the principal component method. It turns out that the k-class estimation methods amount to ordinary least squares if use is made of estimable function or generalized inverses. The generalized inverse approach is a special case of the estimable function approach and of the principal component solution.     

Empirical evidence on foreign exchange market intervention: Where do we stand?

Zusammenfassung Empirische Befunde zur Intervention auf den Devisenm?rkten. Wie ist der Stand der Dinge? — Die Autoren geben einen überblick über 15 empirische Studien, in denen die Ziele untersucht werden, die die Zentralbanken bei ihren Interventionen auf den Devisenm?rkten verfolgen. Die neueren Studien gehen über die übliche Verifikation des “leaning against the wind”-Verhaltens hinaus. Es zeigt sich, da\ die interventionistischen Reaktionen davon abh?ngen, ob sich eine W?hrung aufoder abwertet und ob sie im Vergleich zur Kaufkraftparit?t überoder unterbewertet ist. Au\erdem werden zehn empirische Studien, die die Wirksamkeit von Interventionen untersuchen, betrachtet. Anscheinend haben nur Interventionen mit einem ausreichenden Informationsgehalt eine Chance, den Wechselkurs zu beeinflussen.

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Résumé Des preuves empiriques sur l'intervention au marché des changes: où est-ce que nous nous trouvons? — Dans cette étude les auteurs font un aper?u de 15 études empiriques exécutées pour déterminer quels buts les banques centrales ont poursuivi avec leurs interventions au marché des changes. Les études les plus récentes ont réalisé plus que la vérification du comportement ?leaning against the wind?. On trouve que les réactions des banques centrales en fa?on d'une intervention dépendent de la direction que le cours du change va prendre (réévaluation ou déévaluation) et de la disparité entre le cours du change et la parité du pouvoir d'achat. En plus on a réexaminé 10 analyses empiriques concernant l'efficacité de l’intervention. Seulement les interventions qui contiennent beaucoup de nouvelles semblent avoir une chance d'influencer le taux de change.

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Resumen Evidencia empirica de la intervención en el mercado de cambios: ?dónde estamos parados? — Este trabajo pasa revista a quince estudios empiricos que han sido llevados a cabo con el fin de determinar qué objetivos persiguem los bancos centrales con sus intervenciones en el mercado de cambios. Los estudios mas recientes van más alla de la usual verificación de un actividad “en contra del viento”. La respuesta en forma de intervención resullta depender de si una moneda se encuentra en una revaluation o en una devaluación y de si esta subo sobrevaluada con respecto a la paridad del poder de compra. Además, se revisan diez investigaciones empiricas sobre la efectividad de la intervención. Sólo intervenciones que incorporan un contenido de informaciones suficiente parecen tener una oportunidad de afectar a la tasa de cambio.

     

Combining results of different models: the case of a levy on the Dutch nitrogen surplus

Economic instruments, such as levies are considered by the Dutch government for reducing the harmful effects of the production and application of manure. To analyse these levies a framework which makes it possible to combine and to choose among different types of research is developed. The results are integrated along the line of the marginal abatement cost curve. The problems related to integrating different types of research are taken into account. The method developed allows every farmer to react to a levy differently. A levy turns out to be more effective to reduce the nitrogen surplus on farm level in the pig fattening sector when compared to the pig breeding sector. But even a levy of 2 guilderd/kg of nitrogen does not remove the total manure surplus in the pig sector and results in large profit losses. Further research is needed to underpin the empirical input required by the model.     

External technology sourcing: The effect of uncertainty on governance mode choice

External knowledge sourcing is increasingly important for corporate entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine the effect of external and relational uncertainty on the governance choice for inter-organizational technology sourcing. We develop a number of hypotheses about the impact of environmental turbulence, technological newness, technological distance and prior cooperation on the choice between different governance modes. Data about external technology sourcing transactions in the pharmaceutical industry do not provide evidence for a continuum from less to more integrated sourcing modes. However, we find that the ranking depends on the type of uncertainty, indicating that firms tackle different types of uncertainty with different governance modes.     

Specification and testing of models estimated by quadrature

This paper proposes a test to check the specification of models with unobserved individual effects integrated out by quadrature and also a simple way of increasing the flexibility of this type of model. The results of a Monte Carlo study and an application using a well‐known dataset illustrate the finite sample properties of the proposed methods and their implementation in practice. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Universal Values and Virtues in Management Versus Cross-Cultural Moral Relativism: An Educational Strategy to Clear the Ground for Business Ethics

Journal of Business Ethics - Despite the fact that business people and business students often cast doubt on the relevance of universal moral principles in business, the rejection of relativism is...     

Determinants of Alliance Portfolio Complexity and Its Effect on Innovative Performance of Companies*

Alliance formation is often described as a mechanism used by firms to increase voluntary knowledge transfers. Access to external knowledge has been increasingly recognized as a main source of a firm's innovativeness. A phenomenon that has recently emerged is alliance portfolio complexity. In line with recent studies this article develops a measure of portfolio complexity in technology partnerships in terms of diversity of elements of the alliance portfolio with which a firm must interact. The analysis considers an alliance portfolio that includes different partnership types (competitor, customer, supplier, and university and research center). So far factors that determine portfolio complexity and its impact on technological performance of firms have remained largely unexplored. This article examines firms' decisions to form alliance portfolios of foreign and domestic partners by two groups of firms: innovators (firms that are successful in introducing new products to the market), and imitators (firms that are successful at introducing products which are not new to the market). This study also assesses a nonlinear impact of the portfolio complexity measure on firms' innovative performance. The empirical models are estimated using data on more than 1800 firms from two consecutive Community Innovation Surveys conducted in 1998 and 2000 in the Netherlands. The results suggest that alliance portfolios of innovators are broader in terms of the different types of alliance partners as compared to those of imitators. This finding underlines the importance of establishing a “radar function” of links to various different partners in accessing novel information. Specifically, the results indicate that foremost innovators have a strong propensity to form portfolios consisting of international alliances. This underlines the importance of this type of partnership in the face of the growing internationalization of R&D and global technology sourcing. Being an innovator or imitator also increases the propensity to form a portfolio of domestic alliances, relative to non‐innovators; but this propensity is not stronger for innovators. Innovators appear to derive benefit from both intensive (exploitative) and broad (explorative) use of external information sources. The former type of sourcing is more important for innovators, while the latter is more important for imitators. Finally, alliance complexity is found to have an inverse U‐shape relationship to innovative performance. On the one hand, complexity facilitates learning and innovativeness; on the other hand, each organization has a certain management capacity to deal with complexity which sets limits on the amount of alliance portfolio complexity that can be managed within the firm. This clearly suggests that firms face a certain cognitive limit in terms of the degree of complexity they can handle. Despite the noted advantages of an increasing level of alliance portfolio complexity firms will at a certain stage reach a specific inflection point after which marginal costs of managing complexity are higher than the expected benefits from this increased complexity.