Factor-price equalization under joint and nonjoint production

We investigate how joint production affects the likelihood of factor price equalization (FPE) through trade. Following up on recent contributions by Samuelson (1992) and Jones (1992), we propose to take the relative size of the FPE region of endowment distributions to measure this likelihood, and we show that it mayincrease even if joint production leads to adecrease of the number of basic production processes, and it maydecrease even if the number of basic production processes operated in equilibrium isthe same as under nonjoint production. A 2×2×2 example is analyzed in more detail. Moreover, we show that the argument of Jones (1992) can be reinterpreted in a more applied direction by considering the effects of switching from a regime where only intermediate products are traded to a regime where all products are traded. The paper shows that the likelihood of FPE may decrease by integrating product markets in this way. Still more surprising is the fact that integration may even destroy FPE.     

Portugal at the crossroads of change, facing the shock of the new: People, knowledge and ideas fostering the social fabric to facilitate the concentration of knowledge integrated communities

Portugal has recently achieved the average OECD level in terms of the number of researchers per thousand workforce and the need to continue fostering the advanced training of human resources and the concentration of knowledge integrated communities as drivers of larger communities of users is discussed in the context of changing and evolving patterns in Portugal. This requires an ongoing public effort, but also a better understanding of the effectiveness of the mix of public support mechanisms and private incentives for the development of knowledge networks and flows of skilled people in times of increased uncertainty.Our hypothesis gains from the experience of a unique set of international collaborations with leading institutions worldwide that has been successfully developed over the last years based on thematic R&D networks, integrating advanced training initiatives and programs of industrial affiliation. It is in this context that we frame our hypothesis and argue for the need for Portugal to continue attracting and fostering open and dynamic “creative communities”.The main policy implication of our analysis is that Portugal needs to double the number of researchers per thousand workforce in the coming years. This requires a broad social basis for science policies across a wide range of public and private sectors, as well as that innovation is considered together with competence building and the need to foster individual skills through the complex interaction between formal and informal qualifications. Emerging user-centered innovation requires users able to access new knowledge. This implies a broad societal engagement in knowledge activities, including higher education enrolment, and we need to strengthen the top of the research system in order to create a locus of knowledge production at the highest level. But it also implies consideration of the social shaping of technology, because incentives and infrastructures do not operate in a vacuum, but shape and are shaped by the particular context in which they operate. Strengthening external societal links and “system linkages” is critical in making the institutional changes required to meet the needs of global competition and the knowledge economy.     

Sustainable Development and a Dwindling Carbon Space

Curbing global warming by setting long term maxima for temperature rise or concentrations of greenhouse gases defines spaces within which further emissions of these gases are to remain (referred to here as ‘carbon spaces’). This paper addresses questions related to how to share between countries the carbon space and/or efforts to stay within it, in the perspective of sustainable development; different allocation mechanisms are reviewed, responding to criteria such as ‘responsibility’ for climate change, ‘capability’ to engage in abating it, and ‘potential’ or future contribution. The carbon space remaining at any time will depend on effective mitigation up till that time, and will condense if more stringent maxima are to be set; per capita this space becomes smaller with rising population. Sharing the carbon space in a fair way requires “convergence” of currently widely unequal per capita emissions. If the world is to stay within the carbon space consistent with <2° warming, then developed economies—the wealthiest sources of greenhouse gases should quickly and deeply engage in mitigation. Also, substantial mitigation is to take place in developing countries and that this will require substantial support to developing countries (financially, technologically). Changing development paths can make a major contribution to climate change mitigation; this requires changes in investment, production and consumption patterns. Green New Deals as proposed in the context of a widened response to the current economic crisis could become a first phase of a fundamental transition towards a decarbonised global economy worldwide. Concerns to do with equity as well as sustainability must be incorporated and integrated into coherent transitory strategies.     

Bargained shares in joint ventures among asymmetric partners: Is the matthew effect catalyzing?

The impact of asymmetries between partners on the likelihood of establishing successful research and development and production joint ventures relative to the alternative of own development is assessed analytically. The often empirically observed 50/50 sharing rule in asymmetric alliances is compared to a bargained rule, where asymmetries in absorptive capacity, as well as R&D and production efficiency are explicitly taken into account. Industry settings in which successful asymmetric alliances are more likely to occur are pinpointed. The analysis focuses on the influence of the size and format of these asymmetries, the technological appropriability and complementarity between partners on the incentives for both partners to cooperate as well as to cheat on the venture agreement. The results are compared to a setting where the joint venture is only involved in R&D.     

Technology and public goods

This paper presents a theory of public goods based on production theory where public goods are viewed as inputs to the production process. We examine the pure case of public inputs (no private inputs) as well as the mixed case (private and public inputs). We show how the case of public inputs is related to certain forms of nonjoint production, and we characterize it in terms of variable profit and joint cost functions. Comparative statics results are derived graphically in the two-by-two case.     

Non-marketed options, non-existence of equilibria, and non-linear prices

This paper presents a surprising example that shows that the lattice theoretic properties in Mas-Colell's (1986) seminal work are relevant to the existence of equilibrium even when the commodity space is finite dimensional.The example is a two-period securities model with a three-dimensional portfolio space and two traders. The paper identifies a non-marketed call option that fails to have a minimum cost super-replicating portfolio. Using this option, we construct an economy that satisfies all of Mas-Colell's assumptions, except that the three-dimensional commodity space is not a vector lattice. In this economy, there is no Walrasian equilibrium and the second theorem of welfare economics fails.Our example has important finite- as well as infinite-dimensional implications. It is also an example of a “well behaved” economy in which optimal allocations that are not supported by linear Walrasian prices are decentralized by the non-linear prices studied in Aliprantis-Tourky-Yannelis (2001).     

Specialisation,localisation, and trade value in the wake of cross-border production sharing. The Central Eastern European Countries' case

We focus on five among the sectors in which most of the CEECs’ trade in middle products with EU-15 is concentrated. Over the second half of the 1990s, we observe remarkable changes in both production and trade specialization as well as a significant relocation of industries within CEECs. Using jointly trade and production data we outline co-movements in the adjustment of specialisation patterns. We also show that the redistribution of activities at the regional level reflects the relocation of industries at the global level. Finally, we try to detect the scope of fragmentation of production characterizing each industry and the ways in which CEECs are moving along the “internationally sliced-up value chain”. (JEL: F10, F14, F15)     

Is big better? On scale and scope economies in the Portuguese water sector

The ‘big is better’ idea has recently been challenged in network industries. Scale economies are considered finite so that for the individual utility an optimal scale of operations arises. A similar observation yields for scope economies as joint production is not predicted univocally anymore. In the water sector, scale economies and joint production are preferred. Nevertheless, several countries are restructuring the sector in order to improve the scale and scope of operations. This article intends to provide some insights into this matter. We analyze the Portuguese water market structure using non-parametric techniques with data from the year 2005. After surveying the literature on scale and scope economies, we discuss the peculiarities of the Portuguese water sector. The paper confirms the natural monopoly features. Although scope economies are absent, it highlights scale economies. The optimal scale of the utilities is located between 160,000 and 180,000 inhabitants. As such, the Portuguese water sector optimally counts 60 water utilities.     

How Should An Accumulative Toxic Substance be Banned?

The harmful effects on human health or ecosystems of many toxic substances depend on their cumulative concentration in the carrying medium (water, soil, or air), not just on the annual deposition rates of the substances. Accumulative toxic substances pose challenges to regulatory policy that are not faced when controlling pollutants whose damaging effects are though to depend primarily on annual emission flows. An increasingly common response is to phase out offending uses or production of the substance. In this paper we take as given the goal of phasing out an accumulative pollutant and examine different ways this could be done using a simple, partial-equilibrium dynamic model. We focus on phaseout measures in which the cumulative production and release of the offending substance over the transition period is fixed. Once this cumulative volume is reached, users must convert to a known but higher-cost substitute that is assumed to be benign. The key to the analysis is the observation that the quota on cumulative production makes production of the toxic substance during the transition analogous to extraction of an exhaustible resource with a higher-cost, nonexhaustible ‘backstop’ technology. Using this framework, we first describe the cost-effective outcome when the ‘sunset’ date is chosen to maximize product market surplus subject to the cumulative production constraint. This outcome is compared to one in which the regulator fixes the sunset date, and one in which the regulator limits annual production as well as cumulative production out of concern for acute exposure effects. Finally, we discuss the kinds of market-based policy instruments that would be appropriate for supporting a cost-effective outcome.     

"SPILLOVERS" AND PRODUCTIVITY: THE CASE OF THE TAIWANESE HIGH-TECH FIRMS

In this paper, we first estimate firms' total factor productivity by differentiating marginal contributions to firms' production from various types of workers, grouped by their highest educational attainments. Second, we investigate whether there are human capital as well as research and development (R&D) spillovers across firms. Using data for 72 Taiwanese high-tech firms, we find (a) more educated workers are more productive: workers with master's (bachelor's) degrees are at least three times (two times) as productive as high school–graduated ones, (b) human capital and R&D spillovers are substantial across firms, and (iii) smaller firms tend to benefit more from R&D spillovers. ( JEL D24, I21, O3)     

Is the natural resource production a blessing or curse for China's urbanization? Evidence from a space–time panel data model

This paper provides an analytical framework to evaluate under what conditions the natural resource production could promote or hinder urbanization process, focusing on factors mostly relevant for China. Considering both structure breaks and cross-sectional dependence as well as spatial spillovers, the study deploys a comprehensive approach to rigorously prove the validity of the proposed space–time panel data model that includes the second generation panel unit root test and panel cointegration, panel threshold regression and spatial panel Durbin model. The results not only offer strong evidences that the natural resource production non-linearly impacts on urbanization process, but also show that there exists a dynamic response over time and space as well as space–time diffusion impact, in which these percentages are different from each other confirming an asymmetric effect of the natural resource production on urbanization process.     

Evaluating the carbon-macroeconomy relationship: Evidence from threshold vector error-correction and Markov-switching VAR models

This paper studies the nonlinear adjustment between industrial production and carbon prices – coined as ‘the carbon-macroeconomy relationship’ – in the EU 27. We model carbon price returns and industrial production as nonlinear and state-dependent, with dynamics depending on the sign and magnitude of past realization of returns and the growth of industrial production. Our findings show that (i) macroeconomic activity is likely to affect carbon prices with a lag, due to the specific institutional constraints of this environmental market; (ii) the joint dynamics of industrial production and carbon prices seem adequately captured by two-regime threshold vector error-correction and two-regime Markov-switching VAR models compared to linear models as main competitors. The regime-switching models proposed are profoundly checked for their economic content and statistical congruency, and are found to provide a sound statistical framework for a comprehensive analysis of the carbon-macroeconomy relationship.     

Regulation and altruism

We study optimal contracts in a regulator–agent setting with joint production, altruistic and selfish agents, limited liability, and uneasy outcome measurement. Such a setting represents sectors of activities such as education and healthcare provision. The agents and the regulator jointly produce an outcome for which they all care to some extent that is varying from agent to agent. Some agents, the altruistic ones, care more than the regulator does while others, the selfish agents, care less. Moral hazard is present due to both the agent's effort and the joint outcome that are not contractible. Adverse selection is present too since the regulator cannot a priori distinguish between altruistic and selfish agents. Contracts consist of a simple transfer from the regulator to the agents together with the regulator's input in the joint production. We show that, under the conditions of our setting and when we face both moral hazard and adverse selection, the regulator maximizes welfare with a menu of contracts, which specify higher transfers for the altruistic agents and higher regulator's inputs for the selfish agents.     

Wood Fuel or Carbon Sink? Aspects of Forestry in the Climate Question

This paper discusses and contrasts two mainroles of forestry in light of the debate on theglobal climate. As the main problem is relatedto the increases of the CO₂-concentrationin the atmosphere, forests may be viewed aspart of the alleviation of the problem throughtheir function as (i) a source of biomass forenergy production, which may replace fossilfuels and thus indirectly reduceCO₂-emissions, and as (ii) carbon storage,since a growing forest extracts atmosphericCO₂ and fixes it as carbon in biomass. Inthe Scandinavian forestry, logging residues areincreasingly being used for energy production.In this paper the value of forests as a sourceof bioenergy is added to the traditional timbervalue. Formulated as a joint production modelwithin the Faustmann framework, the effect ofthis addition on the optimal rotation length isdiscussed. Based on data for spruce, thedominant species in the Scandinavian forestry,it is demonstrated that the rotation length isshortened compared to the standard Faustmannmodel. Shorter rotation length implies lesscarbon storage. Therefore, in this modelwithout explicit regard to the social carbonstorage value of the forest, the gains in termsof the climate problem from utilisation offorest biomass for energy production are beingdiminished by the value of reduced carbonstorage. The carbon value of the forest is thenadded to complete the model, with the effect ofincreasing the rotation length, a result thatis well known in the literature. Finally, theempirical effects of the interaction of thesetwo climate-related value elements of theforest are discussed.     

Does unemployment insurance crowd out home production?

In this paper, we study the interaction between self insurance and public insurance. In particular, we provide evidence on a negative correlation between unemployment insurance benefits and home production using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and the state-level unemployment insurance data of the U.S. The empirical results suggest that moving to a two times more generous state would decrease time spent on home production about 22% for the unemployed. Then, we pursue a quantitative assessment of this empirical finding using a dynamic competitive equilibrium model in which households do home production as well as market production. The model is able to generate the empirical facts regarding the unemployment benefits and home production. The fact that unemployment insurance benefits crowd out home production is interpreted as a substitution between the two insurance mechanisms against loss of earnings during unemployment spells.     

Computing minimal state space recursive equilibrium in OLG models with stochastic production

Using order-theoretic methods, we derive sufficient conditions for the existence, characterization, and computation of minimal state space recursive equilibrium (RE), as well as Stationary Markov equilibrium (SME) for various classes of stochastic overlapping generations models. In contrast to previous work, our methods focus on constructive methods. Our existence results are obtained for models that include public policy (e.g., social security policies, transfers, taxes, etc), production nonconvexities, elastic labor supply, non-monotone income processes, and long-lived agents. We distinguish conditions under which there exist various subclasses of minimal state space RE, including bounded, monotone, non-monotone, semicontinuous, Lipschitz continuous RE. Finally, we provide monotone equilibrium comparative statics results on the space of economies for some RE.     

论科技生态系统及其干预

科技生态系统是由与科技有关的各种相互关联的要素所组成的,这些要素构成不同的科技生态种群和科技生态环境。对科技生态种群和科技生态环境进行了系统地阐述,并指出贯穿于科技生态系统的主线是利益驱动的人类“偏好性”行为,其有效地调节着科技生态系统的运行,可以通过市场或中央计划进行制度性的安排,从而产生协调的科技生态系统之生态关系。     

Demand and cost impacts of the 2 mm technology program in the US motor-vehicle market

We assess the impact on demand and producers’ costs of a new technology implemented in the US auto industry, the 2 mm program. This is a fascinating case partially because of the unique collaboration among public agencies and a consortium of manufacturers and universities. Using a type of hedonic price model for demand, we show that the new technology was responsible for a short-lived increase in demand for vehicles produced by US automakers at increased producers’ costs. Firms that refused to participate in the consortium attained smaller net gains implementing the technology independently. Overall, our approach differs from that of previous analysts in that we (1) separate demand from supply, (2) employ a comprehensive vehicle database, spanning 1981–1998 data, including data on virtually all vehicle models sold in the USA, as well as data on plants’ and producers’ technology characteristics, and (3) rely on sales and production data rather than plant data. Also, we quantify the cost of not participating in the consortium.     

Is the transport system becoming ubiquitous? Socio-technical roadmapping as a tool for integrating the development of transport policies and intelligent transport systems and services in Finland

This paper examines the main development characteristics within the transport system as we are approaching the ubiquitous phase of the information society. Particularly the challenges in designing transport policies on a rapidly evolving technological frontier are emphasised. The theoretical background of the paper stems from policy assessment as well as futures studies, especially from technology roadmapping. The paper presents a socio-technical roadmapping method as a tool to integrate the technology developments better with societal developments and transport policy design. The method is tested with a Finnish case study, which provides three thematic, complementary roadmaps of the potential transport system technology services of the future. The roadmaps illustrate what kind of technologies, services, actors and related policy relevant knowledge is needed in satisfying the demands of transport policy development in the future's ubiquitous society. The case study reveals several changes in the transport system: pluralised number of actor roles and actor networks in the system, emergence of a new kind of business and service layer because of the new dynamic inter-linkages between the actors, and further, possibility to capture the service layer with the concept of “technology service”. The changes require also re-conceptualisation of knowledge production to support transport policies. In conclusion, the socio-technical roadmapping holds great potentials as a tool for aligning technology development with transport policy development.     

Preferences over characteristics and utility functions over commodities

Following Lancaster, preferences are defined over a set of characteristics, while commodities vectors are transformed into characteristics by a production function. We assume that both the preferences over the characteristics and the production functions are “neoclassical” and we characterize the set utility functions over the consumption space derived as the composition of preferences over characteristics and production functions. We prove that, under regularity conditions, any function can be derived by such a composition. Thus, the theories of characteristics does not impose any restrictions on derived utility functions. We thank an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions. The research of Aldo Rustichini was supported by the NSF grant NSF/SES-0136556. Paolo Siconolfi acknowledges the support of the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.