Sources and directions of technological accumulation in France: a statistical comparison with FR Germany and the UK

Technological activities are an important determinant of national economic performance. Data on R&D and on the national origins of patenting in the USA show that, compared to those of FR Germany and the UK, French technological activities have the following characteristics: (1) a relatively high rate of growth over the past 20 years in aggregate activity; (2) concentration of technological strength in sectors dominated by state procurement and related R&D funding, rather than in “core” technologies; (3) stronger performance in fast-growing technologies in defence, electrical products and fine chemicals, than in electronics and motor vehicles; (4) a relatively stable and speialized sectoral pattern of technological strengths and weaknesses; and (5) sectoral patterns of trading strengths and weaknesses that broadly reflect those in technology. These characteristics of France's technological activities cannot be explained by their greater or lesser concentration, which is very similar to that found in both FR Germany and the UK, both in aggregate and in specific sectors. As in the other two countries, a few large firms have a major influence on national technological activities, especially in R&D-intensive sectors and automobiles. These results are on the whole consistent with the recent assessment by INSEE and CEPII of France's competitive position in international markets. However, they do show a strong Franch “niche” in technologies linked to state markets, and they do suggest certain advantages in long-term stability, rather than rapaid change, in technological priorities.     

The Effects of Estimation Period, Industry, and Proxy on the Calculation of the Degree of Operating Leverage

Much diversity exists in the approaches used by finance researchers to estimate a firm's degree of operating leverage (DOL). This diversity is partially attributable to the lack of accessible accounting data suitable for the calculations. As a result, researchers have devised various proxies for the degree of operating leverage from whatever accounting data are externally available. This paper examines the effects of estimation period, industry, and proxy on the calculation of DOL. The analyses indicate that the various proxies for DOL exhibit both conceptual and empirical differences that are generally consistent across industries and over estimation periods.     

HOW RATIONAL INVESTORS DEAL WITH UNCERTAINTY (OR, REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF EFFICIENT MARKETS THEORY ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED)

Much academic research in finance in the past quarter century has been devoted to examining the proposition that corporate securities are priced by "rational" investors in an "efficient market." Stated most simply, the proposition says that the intensive pursuit of large returns by stock market investors ensures that, for the vast majority, only modest ones will be had. This argument, which has been refined and tested as the "efficient markets hypothesis" (EMH), could well be described as the foundation of modern financial theory.     

Environmental management costs using a best available control technology bact in the electrical generating industry

As pollution control programs become an increasingly important part of government regulatory activities there also arises the question of the economic impacts of these activites. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the use of a computable general equilibrium model for measuring the economic impacts of imposing a Best Available Control Technology (BACT) on the Electric Utilities industry. This application is intended only to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach—and is not designed for immediate policy purposes. The particular model used in this study is structured after a recently developed mathematical programming system which is designed to compute a general equilibrium solution. This system combines activity analysis with downward-sloping demand curves, and solutions are obtained with a ‘single-pass’ linear programming algorithm. The model's objective function plays the central role of driving the model to market-clearing values.