Structural differences across macroregions: an empirical investigation

Using a macro–micro econometric framework that allows studying the labour market dynamics, this paper offers an in-depth investigation of the structures of both national and macro regional labour markets in Italy. The simulation results reveal structural differences between regions in the short as well as the long run. Regional gaps represent one of the main components of the natural unemployment rate in Italy. The results may help regional and national policy makers in the European Union to formulate strategies tailored to the specific needs of regional labour markets.     

US domestic barter: an empirical investigation

This paper studies the barter industry developed in North America during the 1950s, pointing out some of its main characteristics. Thus, it examines its two main sectors: (i) corporate barter and (ii) commercial barter. Contrary to expectations, the analysis of official data shows that this phenomenon is essentially pro-cyclical for the commercial barter component. Moreover, commercial barter activity turns out to be complementary to the cash economy. While the two sectors display some differences in their pattern, they both help firms to increase their profits.     

Cross-border commuting and consuming: an empirical investigation

This article contributes to our understanding of cross-border activity in general and the determinants of cross-border trade in particular by focusing on the part of cross-border sales that arise due to work-related cross-border crossings of households. We analyse empirically how cross-border consumption expenditures vary across product and services categories as well as household characteristics using representative household survey data of cross-border commuters to Luxembourg. In total, these households spend an estimated 17% of their gross annual income across the border, contributing about 10% to the total household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) in Luxembourg. Cross-border expenditure is linked to individual- and household-related characteristics and to distance between home and work. Cross-border commuters systematically exploit arbitrage opportunities that arise because of existing price level (index) differences between the country of work and the country of residence.     

Crowdfunding and social influence: an empirical investigation

The literature so far provides no in-depth investigation of the determinants of decisions to contribute to crowdfunding platforms. The present article draws on work measuring the decisions and prosocial behaviours of individuals in relation to public goods, and uses survey data on crowdfunding behaviour. We surveyed an original sample of individuals in France to explore individual decisions and amounts of funding chosen to support a creative project. We show that in non-equity crowdfunding contributing money is associated with altruism. Our findings suggest that the ‘warm glow’ effect influences the level of the contribution; we show also those monetary incentives could ‘crowd out’ the decisions to contribute of crowdfunders. Our study has some implications for business strategy since understanding why people contribute adds to our knowledge about the incentives that might encourage them to increase their contributions, and allows predictions about how changes to how crowdfunding platforms are managed might affect individual incentives to give.     

Trade protection and bureaucratic corruption: an empirical investigation

Abstract .  We examine whether protectionist trade policies lead to increased bureaucratic corruption. Using multiple measures of corruption and trade policies, we find strong evidence that corruption is significantly higher in countries with protectionist trade policies. These results are robust to endogeneity concerns. Next, a panel-data-based GMM methodology is used to estimate a dynamic model of corruption. This estimator controls for country-specific effects, potential endogeneity of trade policy, and existence of measurement errors afflicting the corruption data. The paper strengthens the case for trade liberalization and argues that trade reforms may lead to improvements in governance.     

Population age structure and asset returns: an empirical investigation

"This paper investigates the association between population age structure, particularly the share of the population in the 'prime saving years' 45-60, and the returns on stocks and bonds. The paper is motivated by the claim that the aging of the 'Baby Boom' cohort in the United States is a key factor in explaining the recent rise in asset values. It also addresses the associated claim that asset prices will decline when this large cohort reaches retirement age and begins to reduce its asset holdings. This paper begins by considering household age-asset accumulation profiles. Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances suggest that while cross-sectional age-wealth profiles peak for households in their early 60s, cohort data on the asset ownership of the same households show a much less pronounced peak.... The paper then considers the historical relationship between demographic structure and real returns on Treasury bills, long-term government bonds, and corporate stock. The results do not suggest any robust relationship between demographic structure and asset returns.... The paper concludes by discussing factors such as international capital flows and forward-looking behavior on the part of market participants that could weaken the relationship between age structure and asset returns in a single nation."     

Heterogeneous ideas production and endogenous growth: an empirical investigation

Abstract .  We examine the dynamics of ideas production and knowledge-productivity relationship in a panel of 19 OECD countries. A new data set of triadic patents is used. We rigorously address the issues of cross-country heterogeneity and endogeneity. Domestic and foreign ideas stocks exert positive but heterogeneous effects on ideas production. We find evidence of duplicate R&D but little support for endogenous growth. Countries with low domestic ideas bases could considerably improve productivity through ideas accumulation; however, this effect is modest for countries with sizeable ideas bases. An implication is that country-specific R&D policy appears potentially more effective than the one-size-fits-all approach.     

Saving and the intra-household distribution of income: an empirical investigation

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between household saving and the distribution of income within the household. Various theoretical reasons why the level of saving might depend on the latter are given. Some of these can be rationalized within the usual “unitary” model of household decision but others recognize explicitly that different members of the household may have different preferences about how much to save.Particular attention is paid to saving for retirement since the facts that wives are, on average, younger than their husbands and women have longer life expectancies means that wives typically anticipate a longer retirement period than their husbands. Thus wives may prefer to save more for retirement than their husbands.The empirical analysis uses a sample of Canadian households from five Family Expenditure Surveys. These surveys include measures of financial saving as well saving in retirement accounts. After accounting for many of the other influences on saving (for example: age, household composition, occupation and education levels but not household income) we find some effects of the intra-household distribution of income on savings rates. The parameter estimates suggest that the household saving rate decreases with the share of the wife in household income.     

新产品成功的衡量：对澳大利亚中小企业的实证调查

创新长期来一直被认为对组织成功是至关重要的，亦被认为是学术研究的一个重要领域。过去三十年来，人们在研究创新的诸多方面做出了重大的努力，这也反映了创新的重要性。创新研究中最重要的主题之一一直是试图确定与新产品成功相关的各因子（Cooper,1979b；Cooper ＆ Klcischrnidt，1987，1993a；Madique ＆ Zirger,1984）。然而，要确定与新产品成功相关的各因子首先要弄明白什么是新产品成功，因为“成功”的不同定义可能会产生出不同的结果（Craig＆Hart，1992）。     

Complementarities and spillovers in mergers: an empirical investigation using patent data

We investigate the merger behavior of firms in the plant biotechnology sector using firm-level patent data for public and private firms in the 1980s and 1990s. Conditional logit estimation is used to estimate the probability that the firms will match in mergers and spinoffs. We calculate several patent portfolio-based measures of complementarity and spillovers between firms, and find that both are important to defining a good match of acquirer and target. However, complementarities provide the more robust explanation. The mergers and spinoffs observed in plant biotechnology may have been designed to overcome the anti-commons problem of mutually blocking technology, an extreme form of complementarity. Our results highlight the need to integrate patent and competition policy.     

过度医疗行为的理论、实证与管理式医疗制度

本文是一篇文献综述,主要回顾过度医疗行为的理论与实证研究成果;其次,阐述与分析了以该理论为基础的美国管理式医疗与支付制度。     

Asset correlations in single factor credit risk models: an empirical investigation

The internal ratings–based (IRB) approach (based on a single risk factor model) was designed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) to determine banks’ regulatory credit risk capital. Key inputs of the model – asset correlations – are prescribed by the regulator; relevant banks must use them for capital determination. To ascertain whether these correlations are too onerous or too lenient, empirical asset correlations embedded in loss data spanning different loss milieu were backed out of the regulatory model. Static and rolling correlations over a period of time were compared with the prescribed correlations for developed and developing economies and found to be significantly more conservative.     

Determinants of firm start-up size in the Brazilian industry: an empirical investigation

The article investigates the determinants of newly created industrial establishments in Brazil in 1997 taking as reference explanatory variables referring to market structure and industry dynamics, stronger effects are detected for larger firms. Minimum efficient scale, industry size, industry growth and turbulence display the expected positive effects on firm size, but the intensity of those are more pronounced for larger firms. The suboptimal scale variable, on the other hand, exhibits a counterintuitive positive effect and perhaps other types of barriers to entry that are not related to scale aspects may be important in the Brazilian case.     

Semiparametric versus parametric hedonic wine price models: an empirical investigation

In this article, we conduct formal statistical tests to compare a semiparametric hedonic wine price model with its parametric counterpart using a Canadian data set. The relevant test results turn out to be overwhelmingly in favour of the semiparametric specification. The estimated semiparametric model also provides clear evidence of nonlinearity between wine prices and quality when other wine attributes are controlled for.     

Exchange rate models and exchange rate expectations: an empirical investigation

A non parametrictest of popular modern exchange rate models under alternative expectation specifications is presented. It is found that there is little difference in the predictive success of the alternative exchange rate models, however, there are significant differences in the performance of a model depending upon the expectations mechanism specified. Our most important finding is that the flexible price monetary model, the portfolio balance model and a hybrid model under extrapolative and adaptive expectations mechanisms provide statistically significant information about the direction of exchange rate movements. By contrast, the same models when employing static, regressive and rational expectation mechanisms do not provideany satistically significant information.     

The nonlinear effects of firm size on innovation: an empirical investigation

ABSTRACT

In conventional studies, large firms tend to emphasize more on process innovation than product innovation. This paper explores factors that could indicate a distinct pattern of firms’ innovation-size relationship: threshold size that implies a positive effect of firm size on the probability of product innovation success; cannibalization effect that creates incentives for large firms to favor product innovations; and financial constraints that have differential effects given different firm sizes. A hypothesis about a non-monotonic relationship between the proportion of product innovation and firm size is tested with nonlinear and dynamic econometric models. For the large firms, empirical evidence shows product innovations result in an overall larger share of new products in total sales, relative to existing products in which process innovations are rooted.     

Regional wages and market potential in the enlarged EU: an empirical investigation

This article empirically analyses the link between market potential and regional wages in the enlarged EU. We contribute to the existing literature in several ways: (1) we analyse the link between market potential and wages for the EU27 and (2) deconstruct total market potential into several geographical components and analyse their respective contributions to explaining the geographical wage structure. We correct for existing spatial autocorrelation and endogeneity by using an instrumental variable generalized spatial two-stage least squares (IV GS2SLS).