How Does Probability of Innovation Change with Firm Age?

This paper looks at the probability of introducing innovations by manufacturing firms at different stages of their lives. Once differences related to activity and size are controlled for, we examine how the probability of innovation varies over entry, post-entry ages, and advanced ages of mature firms. We also measure the association between exit from the market and pre-exit innovation. Results show that the probability of innovating widely varies by activity, and that small size per se broadly reduces the probability of innovation, but also that entrant firms tend to present the highest probability of innovation while the oldest firms tend to show lower innovative probabilities. Some sets of firms with intermediate ages also present a high probability of innovation, and exiting firms are clearly associated to lower levels of introducing process innovations.     

Land use externalities, open space preservation, and urban sprawl

Parcel data on residential land conversion are used to investigate how land use externalities influence the rate of development and modify policies designed to manage urban growth and preserve open space. Several “smart growth” policies are found to significantly influence land conversion, including a development clustering policy that concentrates development and generates preserved open space. In addition to directly affecting a parcel's hazard rate of conversion, this policy is found to affect neighboring parcels' conversion by generating a positive open space externality that hastens their development. The implication that the clustering policy could generate a more sprawled pattern of development is explored using spatial simulation.     

Altruistic, egoistic and biospheric values in willingness to pay (WTP) for wildlife

We attempt to measure general attitudes and ethical beliefs towards preservation, as well as the importance of each of the three considered value orientations (biospheric, egoistic and altruistic) in WTP estimates. In the present study, we apply the GAC scale to a contingent valuation exercise for the recovery of the common murre (Uria aalge) in Galicia (Spain). Up to now, only a few studies in the field of environmental and ecological economics have analyzed value orientations under the Environmental Concern (EC) framework, obtaining mixed results. In the present work, we conclude that ethical aspects affect the individuals decision making process, and that value orientations play an important role in the pro-environmental attitude formation. These value orientations affect willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for environmental goods.     

Credit risk transfer and contagion

Some have argued that recent increases in credit risk transfer are desirable because they improve the diversification of risk. Others have suggested that they may be undesirable if they increase the risk of financial crises. Using a model with banking and insurance sectors, we show that credit risk transfer can be beneficial when banks face uniform demand for liquidity. However, when they face idiosyncratic liquidity risk and hedge this risk in an interbank market, credit risk transfer can be detrimental to welfare. It can lead to contagion between the two sectors and increase the risk of crises.     

Social-economic Development of Small West European Peripheral Countries

In the framework of different countries＇ international comparison, the objective of this paper reflects research topic of investigation--the identification of small countries, revealing features of economic development and business growth in economic history context of small economies classification. The object of investigation focuses on West European and Nordic countries＇ small economies. The hypothesis of the article is that small states under consideration are developing as the business competitive peripheries areas due to the special Scandinavian capitalist model development characterized by high level of social capital. The statistical data base includes Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development indicators, World Bank parameters and Nordic transnational corporation＇s annual reports. The paper considers the following research questions： （1） the critical overview of the mainstream academicians opinions concerning different-scaled economies, （2） classification of small states and clarification of different groups of the small-scaled countries role in the world and regional economy through historical context, （3） estimates and variants of small countries＇ social-economic development in accordance with different parameters, （4） consideration of Nordic European countries coming to the business model of the competitive peripheral social-economic development. The main summing up conclusion is that small economies of Nordic Europe are converting nowadays into the experimental laboratory of the European and world economy due to the specific model of their social-oriented economic and business growth, their geopolitical location between developed European integration complex embracing presumably small-scaled states from one side and large-scaled emerging market economy of Asian continent from the other side.     

Parameter estimates comparison of earnings functions in the PSID and CPS data, 1976–2007

Comparing earnings equations in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Current Population Survey, we find that the PSID considerably underestimates the returns to education during the 1992–2007 period. Non-random selection in the PSID sample appears to be the reason.     

Banks’ equity performance and the term structure of interest rates

Using an extensive global sample, this paper investigates the impact of the term structure of interest rates on bank equity returns. Decomposing the yield curve to its three constituents (level, slope and curvature), the paper evaluates the time‐varying sensitivity of the bank's equity returns to these constituents by using a diagonal dynamic conditional correlation multivariate GARCH framework. Evidence reveals that the empirical proxies for the three factors explain the variations in equity returns above and beyond the market‐wide effect. More specifically, shocks to the long‐term (level) and short‐term (slope) factors have a statistically significant impact on equity returns, while those on the medium‐term (curvature) factor are less clear‐cut. Bank size plays an important role in the sense that exposures are higher for SIFIs and large banks compared to medium and small banks. Moreover, banks exhibit greater sensitivities to all risk factors during the crisis and post‐crisis periods compared to the pre‐crisis period; though these sensitivities do not differ for market‐oriented and bank‐oriented financial systems.     

Accounting for Spatial Effects in Economic Models of Land Use: Recent Developments and Challenges Ahead

The marked increase in the availability of spatial data has forced researchers engaged in land use modeling to directly confront the question of space and the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in developing spatial models. Advances have come from multiple disciplines, most notably through the development and application of spatial theory and methods from regional science, geography, urban economics and more recently, theoretical and applied econometrics. The main goal of this paper is to summarize the econometric challenges of spatial data and to highlight spatial models and methods with a particular focus on models of land markets and land use change. We also discuss the data and modeling challenges associated with modeling the underlying spatial economic mechanisms that give rise to land use patterns and the complexities involved in modeling land use as a coupled economic-ecological system.