In Memory of the Father: Laurence S. Moss

A personal reflection on the life and philosophy of the late Laurence S. Moss (former editor of the AJES) by his son, Joshua Louis Moss. Mixing personal anecdote with a general academic analysis, Moss informally examines his father's intellectual beginnings in the 1960s drawn from the lectures of Ludwig Von Mises, and traces this through his father's development of innovative teaching techniques like the incorporation of stage magic. Moss examines his father's intellectual contrarianism and canonical skepticism as key developmental foundations used to build his father's academic and pedagogical approach. Moss examines his father's interest in expanding economics through a cross‐disciplinary approach utilizing philosophy, history, sociology, and performance studies through his father's innovative examination of points of contact between the principles of stage magic and the principles of economic theory.     

EDI success in small and medium‐sized enterprises: A field study

This research aims to identify empirically the success factors that have allowed small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to obtain advantages from electronic data interchange (EDI). These advantages can be operational, managerial, and strategic in nature. Results of a field study done in 39 firms indicate that it is the quality of the organizational context of EDI (organizational support, implementation process, and control procedures) that is crucial to the attainment of benefits from this technology. In turn, the quality of the organizational context is higher when the small firm implements EDI voluntarily rather than having it imposed by a major client or supplier. These results are compared with those of a prior study done in a large business context.     

On relative and partial risk attitudes: theory and implications

This paper develops context-free interpretations for the relative and partial Nth degree risk attitude measures and show that various conditions on theses measures are utility characterizations of the effects of scaling general stochastic changes in different settings. It is then shown that these characterizations can be applied to generalize comparative statics results in a number of important problems, including precautionary savings, optimal portfolio choice, and competitive firms under price uncertainty.     

On the choice of an anchor for the GCC currency: does the symmetry of shocks extend to both the oil and the non-oil sectors?

This paper assesses the costs of forming a monetary union among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries by looking at economic linkages within the GCC, and between the GCC and the potential anchors (the US, and major European countries such as France, Germany and Italy) for their proposed new currency. We investigate the importance of the US dollar compared to the Euro by focusing on aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS) shock symmetry across these countries. We differentiated between oil and non-oil sector by estimating structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models with a combination of variables: oil output, non-oil output, total output, nominal/real price of oil and overall price level. One set of models was identified with the long-run restrictions of Blanchard and Quah (Am Econ Rev 79(4):655–673, 1989), whereas the set that assesses the robustness of the findings was estimated with the short-run restrictions of Sims (Eur Econ Rev 36(5):975–1000, 1992). We find overwhelming support for AD shock symmetry across the GCC countries and between the GCC and the US, but none for the major European countries with the GCC. Non-oil AS shocks are mostly asymmetric, but oil AS shocks are mostly symmetric when the real price of oil is included. This agrees with the view that GCC countries are subjected to common oil shocks. It also suggests that previous VAR models estimated to pass judgment on the feasibility of monetary union across GCC countries may have suffered from problems of mis-specification if the real price of oil was not considered. We surmise that the US dollar is a better anchor candidate for anchoring the new GCC currency than the Euro, since US monetary policy can at least help smooth demand shocks in these countries.     

Endogenous business cycle propagation and the persistence problem: The role of labor-market frictions

Contrasting sharply with a recent trend in DSGE modeling, we propose a business cycle model where frictions and shocks are chosen with parsimony. The model emphasizes a few labor-market frictions and shocks to monetary policy and technology. The model, estimated from U.S. quarterly postwar data, accounts well for important differences in the serial correlation of the growth rates of aggregate quantities, the size of aggregate fluctuations and key comovements, including the correlation between hours and labor productivity. Despite its simplicity, the model offers an answer to the persistence problem (Chari et al., 2000) that does not rely on multiple frictions and adjustment lags or ad hoc backward-looking components. We conclude modern DSGE models need not embed large batteries of frictions and shocks to account for the salient features of postwar business cycles.     

Ethics in Nanotechnology: What’s Being Done? What’s Missing?

Nanotechnology shows great promise in a variety of applications with attractive economic and societal benefits. However, societal issues associated with nanotechnology are still a concern to the general public. While numerous technological advancements in nanotechnology have been achieved over the past decade, research into the broader societal issues of nanotechnology is still in its early phases. Based on the data from the Web of Science database, we applied the main path analysis, cluster analysis and text mining tools to explore the main research fronts and hierarchical structure of these societal issues. We found that the research studies fell into four categories: “General Toxicity and EHS (Environment, Health and Safety),” “Medicine and Cytotoxicity,” “Assessment and Regulation,” and “Environment and Ecotoxicity.” These research studies have disclosed much information about the potential effect of nanotechnology on public health and the environment. Relatively speaking, the studies on the assessment, regulation, preventive solutions, and environmental protection are just emerging. This finding indicates that an abundance of effort should be conducted on these emerging themes to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology while minimizing its potential harm. The implications for various parties in this domain are also presented.     

Environmental regulation and trade openness in the presence of private mitigation

Acknowledging the differential ability of individuals to privately mitigate the consequences of domestic pollution for their health is essential for an understanding of their demands for regulation of the environment and of trade in dirty goods, and for analysis of the implications of these demands for equilibrium policy choices. In a small open economy with exogenous policy, we first explain how private mitigation at a cost results in an unequal distribution of the health consequences of pollution in a manner consistent with epidemiologic studies, and consequently how the benefits and costs of trade in dirty goods interact with choices concerning private mitigation to further polarize the interests of citizens concerning environmental stringency. The economy is then embedded in a broader political economy setting, and simulated to investigate the role of private mitigation in shaping political equilibria. We show that when citizens can choose between mitigating the health consequences of domestic pollution privately and reducing pollution through public policy, the same polarization of interests underlies equilibrium policy choices in both democratic and autocratic regimes.     

A consolidated model of trip distribution

This work analyzes and compares various trip distribution models with spatial aggregation within a common theoretical framework for formulating and solving multi-objective optimization problems. A new model is designed that incorporates the main characteristics of existing ones. These models are then calibrated with a single database at different spatial aggregation levels using maximum likelihood. The results show that with aggregated data the various models differ little, but with disaggregated data the differences are considerable. It is also demonstrated that changing the level of data aggregation can significantly alter the models’ parameter values.     

Delayed risks and risk premiums

In this paper, two possible premiums for delayed risks are presented and compared. It is shown that one of them possesses some properties usually considered desirable for ‘roulette gambles’ while the other definition does not meet the same requirements. Finally, the response of both premiums to increased wealth is discussed. The analysis of this problem sheds some light on the basic difference between delayed risks and roulette gambles.