Technological innovation capabilities,product strategy,and firm performance: The electronics industry in China

This research was conducted with a sample of 215 Chinese companies from the electronics industry. It shows that the different technological innovation capabilities have a positive impact on product innovation, beginning with the linkage capability, and then moving to the production capability, and ending with the investment capability. The research also shows that product innovation has a mediating effect on the relationship between different technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A NOTE ON THE FORMAL TREATMENT OF EXPLOITATION IN A MODEL WITH HETEROGENOUS LABOR

The paper presents a formal generalization of Marx's analysis of exploitation and prices in economies in which categories of labor are distinguished according to their unequal ability to create exchange value. Measures of exploitation of categories of labor which are consistent with both the Price of Net Product‐Unallocated Purchasing Power (PNP‐UPP) (New Interpretation) and the traditional interpretation of Marx's theory of value are defined which aggregate consistently over labor categories and sectors. In order to measure rates of exploitation from real economic data some additional assumption about relative rates of exploitation (which Marx often explicitly assumes to be equal) is required.     

Effects of multilateral and preferential trade policy reform in Africa: The case of Uganda

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects on production, trade and economic welfare of current trade policy regimes throughout the world on Uganda relative to other economies. This will be a benchmark against which to examine various multilateral and preferential trade policy scenarios that might emerge over the next decade as part of the WTO's Doha Round and from the expected move later this decade towards Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union. The results suggest modest gains or worse for Uganda, in part because it already has low tariffs and ready preferential access to rich-country markets. Several important caveats to this type of analysis are stressed though, before drawing out some trade and policy implications for Uganda.     

Scopes of intervention and evolutionary paths for argentinian universities transfer offices*

ABSTRACT

The majority of researches on knowledge and technology transfer from universities focused on the topic of processes which can improve the efficiency of the commercialization of R&D results. Furthermore, the different channels of transfer have been studied mainly independent of each other. This article develops a more strategic approach and proposes an integrated view of 16 channels of transfer organized around four core competences and considering their main form of governance. The empirical analysis is based on data gathered through a survey and an interview on a sample of 29 Argentinian National Universities publicly funded. The findings highlight four types of strategies – integral, network, entrepreneurial and undetermined – and two main types of potential evolutionary paths. The ability to differentiate the scopes of the intervention of universities transfer activities has implications for universities as well as for policymakers.     

Banking crises,labor reforms,and unemployment

Using a sample of 97 countries spanning the period 1980–2008, we estimate that banking crises have, on average, a large negative impact on unemployment. This effect, however, largely depends on the flexibility of labor market institutions: while in countries with more flexible labor markets the impact of banking crises is sharper but short-lived, in countries with more rigid labor markets the effect is initially more subdued but highly persistent. These effects are even larger for youth unemployment in the short term, and long-term unemployment in the medium term. Conversely, large upfront, or gradual but significant, comprehensive market reforms have a positive impact on unemployment, albeit only in the medium term.     

Alternative modeling for long term risk

In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to estimate long-term risk. Instead of using the static square root of time method, we use a dynamic approach based on volatility forecasting by non-linear models. We explore the possibility of improving the estimations using different models and distributions. By comparing the estimations of two risk measures, value at risk and expected shortfall, with different models and innovations at short-, median- and long-term horizon, we find that the best model varies with the forecasting horizon and that the generalized Pareto distribution gives the most conservative estimations with all the models at all the horizons. The empirical results show that the square root method underestimates risk at long horizons and our approach is more competitive for risk estimation over a long term.     

Are Returns to Investment Lower for the Poor? Human and Physical Capital Interactions in Rural Vietnam

If the gains from investment depend on knowledge, but households cannot hire skills, then poorly educated households will achieve lower returns than educated ones. If the income‐poor are less well educated, then they will also have lower returns to investment. The paper tests this argument for the case of irrigation in Vietnam, a setting where existing irrigation can be treated as exogenous at the household level with appropriate controls for the determinants of facility placement. Strong complementarities between household education and irrigation expansion suggest that, unless disparities in education are redressed, reforms will generate an inequitable growth process in Vietnam.     

Option pricing with discrete time jump processes

In this paper we propose new option pricing models based on class of models with jumps contained in the Lévy-type based models (NIG-Lévy, Schoutens, 2003, Merton-jump, Merton, 1976 and Duan based model, Duan et al., 2007). By combining these different classes of models with several volatility dynamics of the GARCH type, we aim at taking into account the dynamics of financial returns in a realistic way. The associated risk neutral dynamics of the time series models is obtained through two different specifications for the pricing kernel: we provide a characterization of the change in the probability measure using the Esscher transform and the Minimal Entropy Martingale Measure. We finally assess empirically the performance of this modelling approach, using a dataset of European options based on the S&P 500 and on the CAC 40 indices. Our results show that models involving jumps and a time varying volatility provide realistic pricing and hedging results for options with different kinds of time to maturities and moneyness. These results are supportive of the idea that a realistic time series model can provide realistic option prices making the approach developed here interesting to price options when option markets are illiquid or when such markets simply do not exist.