Job protection legislation and productivity growth in OECD countries

We examine the effect of dismissal regulation on productivity in the OECD, using annual cross-country aggregate data on the stringency of employment protection legislation and industry-level data on productivity from 1982 to 2003. Our empirical results suggest that mandatory dismissal regulations have a depressing impact on productivity growth in industries where layoff restrictions are more likely to be binding. By contrast, we find no evidence of a productivity effect of regulations concerning temporary contracts, which suggests that partial reforms, facilitating the use of fixed-term and atypical contracts, are unlikely to have an important impact on efficiency and technological change and cannot therefore be a substitute for comprehensive reforms whereby dismissal restrictions for open-ended contracts are also weakened.
--- Andrea Bassanini, Luca Nunziata and Danielle Venn     

Issues which Impact upon Marketing in the Small Firm

Defining the small firm is somewhat arbitrary as criteria used to classify entities as such include size, number of employees, sales volume, asset size, type of customer, capital requirements and market share. There is, however, general agreement that smallness and newness create specific difficulties for business. Furthermore, there is widespread acceptance of the notion that small firms typically possess certain characteristics, which serve to differentiate them from larger organisations. These characteristics include inherent weaknesses with respect to capitalisation and marketing awareness and practice. Small firms are perceived as vulnerable yet valuable entities, important both economically and socially. High failure rates of small firms are largely attributed to weaknesses in financial management and marketing. Many classical management concepts are unsuitable for application in a small firm context, with research suggesting non-implementation of theoretically based marketing practice is the rule rather than the exception in the small firm. This paper reviews issues pertaining to marketing practice in the small firm. It examines the absence of agreed definitions of "the small firm" and "success" or "failure" of such entities, offers definitions for these terms, acknowledges the importance of small firms to the economy, reviews small firm characteristics, acknowledges inherent weaknesses with regard to finance and marketing in small firms, reviews marketing practice in the context of small firm characteristics, and considers the roles of marketing educators and owner/managers in improving small firm's marketing practice.     

Who produces for whom in the world economy?

Abstract For two decades, the share of trade in inputs, also called vertical trade, has been dramatically increasing. In reallocating trade flows to their original input‐producing industries and countries, this paper suggests a new measure of international trade: ‘value‐added trade’ and makes it possible to answer the question ‘who produces for whom?’ In 2004, 27% of international trade was vertical trade. The industrial and geographic patterns of value‐added trade are very different from those of standard trade. Value‐added trade is relatively less important in regional trade but the difference is not more important for Asia than for America.     

Public Sector Organizational Failure: A Study of Collective Denial in the UK National Health Service

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper argues that public sector organizational failure may be best understood from a perspective of collective denial. The rise of this phenomenon is examined...     

The Cost Efficiency of Real Estate Investment Trusts: An Analysis with a Bayesian Stochastic Frontier Model

Using a stochastic frontier methodology that incorporates Bayesian statistics, this paper analyzes the cost efficiency of real estate investment trusts (REITs) by observing the deviations of the measured costs of individual REITs from a defined efficient cost frontier. Using 1995–1997 data, we extend the previous research in this area and measure REIT efficiency more precisely by isolating random measurement error from the overall deviations from the efficient cost frontier. We calculate the magnitude of each REIT's managerial inefficiency, the industry inefficiency, and returns to scale. In addition, we assess specific characteristics of REITs for their contribution to inefficiency by calculating the odds ratio that a REIT with a specific characteristic is more efficient than a REIT with an alternative characteristic. The results show that, for the years studied, REITs are relatively cost efficient with most REITs facing increasing returns to scale. Additionally, the REIT's use of debt and the REIT's management style significantly affect the cost performance of REITs during the aforementioned time period. Finally, diversification across property types, as measured, does not seem to influence REIT cost efficiency.