Social economics and economics imperialism

Address delivered at a session on April 2, 1993 at the Midwest regional meetings of the Association for Social Economics, Indianapolis, IN.     

A longitudinal study of the cause and consequences of changes in diversification in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry 1977–1986

The paper hypothesizes that diversification by firms based in the pharmaceutical industry during the 1977-86 time period was primarily undertaken to reduce the risks associated with being dependent upon a technologically dynamic environment. Consistent with this non-efficiency motive for diversification, declining economic performance is predicted. A longitudinal empirical analysis provides support for these propositions.     

MNE competitiveness: A scenario-driven technology transfer construct

To compete effectively, multi-national enterprises (MNEs) must establish market presence in their global rivals' home courts and/or profit sanctuaries. Technology transfer is often used as a means toward that end. The technology adoption decisions of an aggressor MNE and a defender MNE are investigated in a model that features indirect moves and changes in strategy through technology transfer. Each firm may adopt a strategy that incorporates the transfer of high technology or appropriate technology. The strategic decision situation is modelled as a closed-loop sequential equilibrium in discrete time. In contrast to results in the technology adoption literature, the aggressor MNE may successfully transfer technology first, to be imitated later by the defender MNE. This and several other scenarios emerge from the model which, by incorporating the cost of social adjustment and risks involved in technology transfer, ties technology to the competitive interaction of MNEs and specifies conditions for creating competitive advantage through technology, both locally and worldwide.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE

An extensive set of self-reported survey data exists on illegal drug use. The survey data show that drug use is quite frequent among the younger adult population, relatively infrequent among those of high-school age, and rare among middle-aged and older adults. Drug use varies by occupational category in ways that are difficult to rationalize. This study utilizes a model in which an individual's time is allocated among labor, non-drug consumption, leisure, and drug use, where the individual is cognizant of the effect of drug use on his wages. The study analyzes comparative static results and then uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate a probit model of the individual decision to use drugs. The findings of the study are that non-economic factors dominate the decision for both harder drugs and drugs more broadly defined. One must consider this finding tentative, however, since usable drug price data were not available.     

Cointegration Vector Estimation by Panel DOLS and Long‐run Money Demand*

We study the panel dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) estimator of a homogeneous cointegration vector for a balanced panel of N individuals observed over T time periods. Allowable heterogeneity across individuals include individual‐specific time trends, individual‐specific fixed effects and time‐specific effects. The estimator is fully parametric, computationally convenient, and more precise than the single equation estimator. For fixed N as T→∞, the estimator converges to a function of Brownian motions and the Wald statistic for testing a set of s linear constraints has a limiting χ²(s) distribution. The estimator also has a Gaussian sequential limit distribution that is obtained first by letting T→∞ and then letting N→∞. In a series of Monte‐Carlo experiments, we find that the asymptotic distribution theory provides a reasonably close approximation to the exact finite sample distribution. We use panel DOLS to estimate coefficients of the long‐run money demand function from a panel of 19 countries with annual observations that span from 1957 to 1996. The estimated income elasticity is 1.08 (asymptotic s.e. = 0.26) and the estimated interest rate semi‐elasticity is ?0.02 (asymptotic s.e. = 0.01).     

关税、配额与补贴：效果分析与政策取向

关税、配额与补贴是一个国家用来保护国内市场、帮助国内厂商抵御国外对手竞争的常用措施.由于保护机制不同,关税、配额与补贴对不同利益主体的利益再分配会产生不同的影响.因此,一个国家可以根据其要保护的利益主体不同采取相应的保护措施.     

Regional integration: an empirical assessment of Russia

Using a statistical model of commodity trade, we quantify the evolution of regional economic integration within Russia during 1995–1999, and explore potential determinants of this evolution. Our integration measure exhibits rich regional variation that, when aggregated to the national level, fluctuates substantially over time. In accounting for this behavior, we draw in part on theoretical models that emphasize the potential role of openness to international trade and regional disparities in income in threatening economic integration. Controlling for a host of additional regional- and national-level variables, we find a strong negative correspondence between openness to international trade and internal economic integration.