Productivity revolutions and science driven growth

This paper presents a simple model of growth over the very long run that distinguishes between scientific knowledge and technology. Making this distinction highlights the importance of the scientific revolution to the emergence of modern sustained economic growth.     

Knowledge Creation in Strategic Alliances: Another Look at Organizational Learning

This paper argues that a certain amount of partner conflict must exist for knowledge creation to occur in a strategic alliance. We argue that such tensions can generate opportunities for firms to challenges each other's assumptions and paradigms, leading to novel perspective and new solutions. This position is contrasted to existing theories that present conflict minimization as the route to alliance success. The paper exploits the generative or double-loop learning process (Liedtka et al. 1997; Argyris and Schon 1996) to build a model of inter-organizational knowledge creation and explicitly considers the implications for partner interactions. We suggest that knowledge creation often occurs in turbulent and discontinuous environments associated with the tension between alliance partners of different cultural origins. This paradox is critical to understanding the reasons why strategic alliances often fall short in their potential to create new knowledge.     

Economic openness and technical efficiency: A case study of Chinese manufacturing industries

This paper presents a study of the technical efficiency of industries in a transitional economy: China. Using data for 28 manufacturing industries across 29 provinces and the Data Envelopment Analysis approach, the technical efficiency of each industry is measured and compared across regions and provinces. The determinants of differential technical efficiency performance are analysed, with a particular focus on the impact of trade orientation and foreign investment. Trade openness is found generally to have a positive effect on technical efficiency.     

Underwriting Relationships and Analyst Independence in Europe

This paper examines the accuracy of security analysts’ earnings forecasts and stock recommendations for firms in 13 European countries. We document at least three key findings. First, we find strong evidence that lead and co‐lead underwriter analysts’ earnings estimates and stock recommendations are significantly more optimistic than those provided by unaffiliated analysts. Second, we find that lead and co‐lead underwriter analysts’ earnings forecast and stock recommendations are significantly more optimistic for underwriter stocks than for those they provide for other stocks. Third, we also find evidence that these biases found within earnings forecasts and stock recommendations are not driven by one particular country. In short, these findings suggest that affiliated analysts are more optimistic perhaps to maintain investment banking relations.     

The effects of shifts in monetary policy and reserve accounting regimes on bank reserve management behavior in the federal funds market

This paper looks at the effects on Fed fund rates and Fed fund purchasing behavior of large banks resulting from (i) the 1982 regime switch from non-borrowed to borrowed reserve targeting by the Fed and (ii) the 1984 switch from lagged to almost contemporaneous reserve accounting (CRA). Whether we analyse changes in the interest-rate or quantity dimensions, the shift in monetary policy targets appeared to have had a more profound effect on the market for bank reserves than the shift in reserve accounting regime. These results, therefore, tend to support the contention that a shift to CRA by itself will have little effect on bank reserve management behavior unless combined with its logical counterpart — a total reserves target.     

Food demand elasticities for Australia

There is renewed interest in robust estimates of food demand elasticities at a disaggregated level not only to analyse the impact of changing food preferences on the agricultural sector, but also to establish the likely impact of pricing incentives on households. Using data drawn from two national Household Expenditure Surveys covering the periods 1998/1999 and 2003/2004, and adopting an Almost Ideal Demand System approach that addresses the zero observations problem, this paper estimates a food demand system for 15 food categories for Australia. The categories cover the standard food items that Australian households demand routinely. Own‐price, cross‐price and expenditure elasticity estimates of the Marshallian and Hicksian types have been derived for all categories. The parameter estimates obtained in this study represent the first integrated set of food demand elasticities based on a highly disaggregated food demand system for Australia, and all accord with economic intuition.