Exchange rate volatility in high inflation economies: An econometric study of Poland and Brazil

This paper analyses exchange rate series for Poland and Brazil. The Polish series, related to the period soon after the first liberalizing measures, presents a high volatility which is not accounted for by some selected fundamentals. The Brazilian series, though also keeping evidence of excessive volatility, is cointegrated with fundamentals similar to those of the Polish case. This raises the issue of a learning process taking place during persistent inflations. Unsuccessful one-shot stabilization plans can reinforce this process, leaving a lasting imprint in the excessive volatility pattern. The message seems clear, though maybe not easy to implement: agents take some time to learn to live in non-stable environments; to avoid this by one-shot measures — if unsuccessful — can have a very high cost and pre-empt future corrections.     

Survey on technical efficiency in higher education: A meta-fractional regression analysis

There has been remarkable growth in the number of studies using data envelopment analysis (DEA) in research on higher education. Heterogeneous DEA models have been applied in assessing the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs), and the multi-faceted production process of higher education has further motivated the extension and improvement of the DEA approach. The present study conducts a meta-regression analysis of 109 published DEA applications in higher education at different levels of analysis to provide a better understanding of the relationship between the efficiency results and the attributes of the studies implemented in different nations.     

Coffee exports and industrialization in Brazil

We investigate the dynamic relationship between coffee exports and machinery imports in Brazil from 1869 to 1939. Our tests reveal cointegration and bidirectional causality in the temporal sense. This evidence suggests that foreign exchange real revenues from coffee exports were important for the onset of industrialization, as machinery imports proxy for real investment demand. Capital growth, in turn, also helped to boost the country’s exports.     

An Institutional Explanation for Economists’ Theoretical and Methodological Choices

Scientific research in general and economics research in particular is a social act. More specifically, schools of economic thought as well as associations, research groups and conferences are expressions of social organizations within the realm of economics. Historically, studies investigating the methodologies used in economics have focused on the strengths of these social organizations. This study aims to analyze the key roles played by individuals within social organizations in building and reinforcing economics and, in turn, their influence on these individuals. To achieve this goal, we use an institutionalist approach in a broad sense. We show how economics as an academic environment can be presented as an institutional entanglement and how an institutionalist approach can enhance an understanding of why economists adopt a particular theoretical and methodological perspective. It is argued that habits, observations and cognitive abilities should be seriously considered to understand the logic and decision making of economic researchers. We discuss also the importance of forming groups in the process of institutionalizing elements relevant to an economic researcher’s logic and decision making and present an interpretation of mainstream economics in terms of the analytical approach of our study.     

Input Rigidities and Performance of Vietnamese Universities

Universities in Vietnam are inclined to have an inefficient mix of input resources because of rigidities restricting the adoption of advanced teaching technology. There has been a deferral of the adoption of new teaching technologies to meet the rest of the world's higher education standards. Using an input‐orientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, technical, scale and mix efficiency indicators are estimated for 112 Vietnamese universities over the period 2011–2013 using the Färe–Primont index. The results indicate that the technical, scale and mix efficiency indicators are 0.784, 0.866 and 0.829, respectively. Using the fractional regression model, it is found that location, age, ownership and financial capacity have significant influences on the mix efficiency indicators of universities.     

Market potential dynamics in innovation diffusion: Modelling the synergy between two driving forces

The presence of a slowdown in new product life cycles has recently received notable attention from many innovation diffusion scholars, who have tried to explain and model it on a dual-market hypothesis (early market-main market). In this paper we propose an alternative explanation for the slowdown pattern, a dual-effect hypothesis, based on a recent co-evolutionary model, where diffusion results from the synergy between two driving forces: communication and adoption. An analysis of the synergistic interaction between communication and adoption, based on the likelihood ratio order or on a weak stochastic order, can inform us of which of the two had a driving role in early diffusion. We test the model on the sales data of two pharmaceutical drugs presenting a slowdown in their life cycle and observe that this is identified almost perfectly by the model in both cases. Contrary to the general expectation, according to which communication should precede adoption, our findings show that adoptions may be the main driver in early life cycle; this may be related to the drug's specific nature.     

IMP studies: A bridge between tradition and innovation

“Combining the Social and Technological Aspects of Innovation: Relationships and Networks” was the title of the 28th IMP Conference held in Rome, at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in 2012.     

Toward a theory of entrepreneurial behaviour; empirical evidence from Israel,Italy and Sweden

Translated versions of the Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form T and of the Differential Attribution Questionnaire were administered to entrepreneurs and to managers, in Israel, Northern and Southern Italy and Sweden. The results of this research yield strong support for a framework that integrates affective and cognitive motivational factors. In particular, it found: (1) that the way entrepreneurs deal with negative outcomes explains their perseverance and affects their self-achievement; (2) a risk-avoidance rather than a risk-taking preference distinguishes them; (3) Self-Achievement; Risk-Avoidance and Personal Innovation appear to be major components of Task Motivation. This research appears to move closer toward a more parsimonious and clearer understanding of the behaviour of the central figure in wealth formation, thus providing a framework for the designing of entrepreneurial development programmes.