Environmental externalities and regulation constrained cost productivity growth in the US electric utility industry

This paper examines whether having to comply with Phase 1 of Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act, and rate of return regulation, each impacted the rate of total factor productivity (TFP) growth when accounting for the production of good and bad outputs. Phase 1, effective from 1995 to 1999, requires electric utilities to reduce their emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (bad outputs). Actions undertaken to reduce the emissions (using less sulfur content coal, installing equipment), may have led to higher production costs, and impacted the rate of TFP growth. Rate regulation may impact how the firm produces its selected output level, which could lead to higher cost over time, and biased estimates of TFP growth. Following the work of Ball et al. (Struct Change Econ Dyn 16(3): 374–394, 2005), who developed the standard Malmquist cost productivity (MCP) index, we develop a MCP index for a rate regulated firm (RMCP index) then use the standard and regulated indices to determine whether having to comply with Phase 1 impacted TFP growth. Empirical results indicate that (i) the RMCP index underestimated the rate at which TFP growth occurred, (ii) Phase 1 utilities on average experienced positive TFP growth from 1996 to 2000 (Phase 1 firms experienced higher TFP growth rates than the rates experienced by firms not subject to Phase 1), and operated more allocatively inefficient in complying with the Phase 1 restrictions. Complying with Phase 1 did not affect the rate at which technical change occurred or the rates of change in scale efficiency.     

Learning to save in a voluntary pension system: toward an agent-based model

Mandatory pension systems partially replace old-age income, therefore the government matches additional life-cycle savings in a voluntary pension system. Though the individual saving decisions are apparently independent, the earmarked taxes (paid to finance the matching) connect them. Previous models either neglected the endogenous tax expenditures (e.g. Choi et al., in: Wise (ed) Perspectives in the economics of aging, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 81–121, 2004) or assumed very sophisticated saving strategies (e.g. Fehr et al. in FinanzArchiv Pub Finance Anal 64:171–198, 2008). We create twin models: myopic workers learn (i) from farsighted workers using public information (analytic model) and (ii) also from each other (agent-based model). These models provide more realistic results on saving behavior and the impact of matching on the income redistribution than the earlier models.

     

Contagion of network products in small-world networks

We formulate a model in which agents embedded in an exogenous social network decide whether to adopt a new network product or not. In the theoretical part of the paper, we characterize the stochastically stable equilibria for complete networks and cycles. For an arbitrary network structure, we develop a novel graph decomposition method to characterize the set of recurrent communication states, which is a superset of stochastically stable equilibria of the adoption game presented in our model. In the simulation part, we study the contagion process of a network product in small-world networks that systematically represent social networks. We simulate a generalization of the Morris (Rev Econ Stud 67(1):57–78, 2000) Contagion model that can explain the chasm between early adopters and early majority. Our numerical analysis shows that the failure of a new network product is less likely in a highly cliquish network. In addition, the contagion process reaches to steady state faster in random networks than in highly cliquish networks. It turns out that marketers should work with mixed marketing strategies, which will result in a full contagion of a network product and faster contagion rates with a higher probability.

     

A note on the relationship between the total factor productivity and the network of firms

In this paper we study the robustness of the results found recently by Guzzini and Palestrini (J Econ Interact Coord 11:35–55, 2016). Since the original analysis was carried out in a static setting, we perform a dynamic panel analysis by using the same dataset. The inclusion of the lagged value of the endogenous variable, missing in the original paper, could be justified for several reasons. Firstly, the statistical relationship may have itself a dynamical nature; secondly the inclusion of lagged-endogenous variable is a way to mitigate the possibility of an omitted variable problem. We find that the results are only qualitatively the same, and we discuss the quantitative differences.

     

Poverty trap,boom and bust periods and growth. A nonlinear model for non-developed and developing countries

This work investigates the qualitative and quantitative dynamics of a Solow–Swan growth model with differential savings as proposed by Böhm and Kaas (J Econ Dyn Control 24:965–980, 2000) assuming the shifted Cobb–Douglas (SCD) production function (see Capasso et al. in Nonlinear Anal. 11:3858–3876, 2010) which makes it possible to consider the long-run dynamics of non-developed and developing countries as well as that of developed economies. The resulting model is described by a nonlinear discontinuous map generating both a poverty trap and complex dynamics. Furthermore, multistability phenomena may emerge: besides the “vicious circle of poverty”, long-run behaviours may include boom and bust periods. Complex basins can emerge, hence, economic policies trying to raise the capital per capita may fail and economies may be captured by the poverty trap.     

Persistence of financial efficiency in indian hospitality and tourism industry: a dynamic panel Approach

This paper analyses the degree of persistence of financial efficiency for the hospitality and tourism industry in India. The paper deploys the Data Envelopment Analysis technique to generate overall technical efficiency scores as well as pure technical efficiency scores. Furthermore, a dynamic panel technique proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991), is employed to test the degree of persistence of financial efficiency and its key determinants. The results confirm positive and significant persistence of efficiency for the sample firms from the hospitality industry in India. The overall results indicate that hospitality firms in India can create entry and exit barriers to generate positive persistence of financial efficiency. The study suggests regulators specifically focus on policies that can enhance the competitive dynamics of the industry. Such measures may make it imperative for the management of the firms in the sector to streamline their financial management policies to control costs and devise methods for the enhancement of revenues.

     

Decomposition of technical efficiency under fixed proportion technologies: an application of data envelopment analysis

In this paper, we extend the four-component stochastic frontier model to allow for global spatial dependence via the endogenous spatial autoregressive variable. Our proposed model is more general than the model considered by (Glass et al., 2016) in the sense that we include a random effect as well as a permanent efficiency component. With the spatial autoregressive specification, our model is able to capture the asymmetric efficiency spillovers and also decompose the persistent/transient inefficiencies into direct and indirect efficiencies. Moreover, we also investigate the marginal effects of the exogenous variables on the persistent/transient efficiency. We suggest a maximum simulated likelihood method to estimate the frontier parameters of the model, and we predict the efficiencies using the simulated estimator. Monte Carlo simulations reveal that the suggested estimator performs well in finite samples. An empirical application is considered to illustrate the usefulness of our proposed model and method.

     

A model of market making with heterogeneous speculators

I introduce an optimizing monopolistic market maker in an otherwise standard setting à la Brock and Hommes (J Econ Dyn Control 22(8–9):1235–1274, 1998) (BH98). The market maker sets the price of a zero-yielding asset taking advantage of her knowledge of speculators’ demand, manages her inventory of the asset and eventually earns profits from trading. The resulting dynamic behavior is qualitatively identical to the one described in BH98, showing that the results of the latter are independent from the institutional framework of the market. At the same time, I show that the market maker has conflicting effects. She acts as a stabilizer when she allows for market imbalances, while she acts as a destabilizer when she manages aggressively her inventories and when she trades, especially if she acts as fundamentalist or if she is a strong extrapolator. Indeed the more stable institutional framework is one in which the market makers are inventory neutral and doesn’t trade but, even in this case, the typical complex behavior of BH98 occurs.

     

HRM in dynamic environments: Exploitative,exploratory, and ambidextrous HR architectures

Abstract

The current economic crisis has brought to the fore the need for firms to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Hence, firms need a specific balance between exploration and exploitation in order to keep pace with varying and changing environmental conditions. Hitherto, there is limited research that has examined the nexus of HR architectures, ambidexterity, and environmental dynamics. In this conceptual paper we ask: How do HR architectures serve as a means of balancing exploitative and exploratory learning in different dynamic environments? We explain how exploratory, exploitative, and ambidextrous HR architectures with their embedded HRM systems on the business unit level enable organizations to meet different environmental requirements. Thus, firms in which heterogeneous demands for flexibility and for innovation co-exist need to develop internally differentiated HR architectures. In particular, we elucidate how critical the organization’s ability is to connect different HRM systems to create an ambidextrous HR architecture to find an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation.     

Hypothesis testing in nonparametric models of production using multiple sample splits

Several tests of model structure developed by Kneip et al. (J Bus Econ Stat 34:435–456, 2016) and Daraio et al. (Econ J 21:170–191, 2018) rely on comparing sample means of two different efficiency estimators, one appropriate under the conditions of the null hypothesis and the other appropriate under the conditions of the alternative hypothesis. These tests rely on central limit theorems developed by Kneip et al. (Econ Theory 31:394–422, 2015) and Daraio et al. (Econ J 21:170–191, 2018), but require that the original sample be split randomly into two independent subsamples. This introduces some ambiguity surrounding the sample-split, which may be determined by choice of a seed for a random number generator. We develop a method that eliminates much of this ambiguity by repeating the random splits a large number of times. We use a bootstrap algorithm to exploit the information from the multiple sample-splits. Our simulation results show that in many cases, eliminating this ambiguity results in tests with better size and power than tests that employ a single sample-split.

     

Greek sovereign bond index,volatility, and structural breaks

This article investigates volatility changes in the 10-year Greek sovereign bond index returns using the multiple structural break test developed by Bai and Perron (Econometrica 66:47–78, 1998, J Appl Econ 18:1–22, 2003), which allows for endogenous identification of break dates. We find that there exists one break date in volatility, April 2010, when the European debt crisis worsened and the Greek sovereign bond was downgraded to junk status. We also obtain evidence of performance improvement in our modeling by including structural break dummies into the variance equation. We observe sharp drops in a measure of volatility persistence after incorporating the structural change. Our findings are important for not only investors who assess the volatility of sovereign bonds for portfolio risk management, but also for policy makers who wish to understand and minimize the impacts of excess volatility on the financial system in government bond markets.     

Dynamic R&D with spillovers: A comment

Cellini and Lambertini [2009. Dynamic R&D with spillovers: competition vs cooperation. J. Econ. Dyn. Control 33, 568–582] study a dynamic R&D game with spillovers. This comment demonstrates that, contrary to what is claimed in their paper, the game is not state redundant and the open-loop Nash equilibrium is not subgame perfect.     

External Interaction,Innovation and Productivity: An Application of the Innovation Value Chain to Ireland

Abstract

This paper analyses the innovation value chain for the Irish Community Innovation Survey (CIS): 2004–2006. In estimating innovation and productivity simultaneously, it extends the CDM methodology to include a range of external knowledge sources. Feedback effects are found to be vital, with more productive firms being more innovative and vice versa. External knowledge sources affect the innovation decision but not innovation performance, thus pointing to the primacy of internal processes for the crucial task of knowledge exploitation. There is evidence of dichotomous knowledge sourcing in Ireland, with some firms sourcing from market and others, especially high-technology businesses, from non-market agents.

External interaction, innovation et productivité extérieure: une application de la chaîne de valeur de l'innovation à l'Irlande

La présente communication analyse la chaîne de valeur d'innovation pour le CIS : 2004–2006 irlandais. En estimant l'innovation et la productivité simultanément, elle procède au développement de la méthodologie CDM, en incorporant un éventail de sources de connaissances extérieures. Il s'avère que les effets de la rétroaction sont essentiels, les entreprises les plus productives étant plus innovantes et vice-versa. Des sources de connaissances externes affectent les décisions sur l'innovation, mais non pas les performances de l'innovation, en soulignant ainsi l'importance primordiale des procédés internes pour la tâche essentielle de l'exploitation des connaissances. On a relevé des traces des sourçage dichotomique des connaissances en Irlande, certaines entreprises s'approvisionnant directement sur le marché, d'autres, notamment dans le secteur des technologies de pointe, s'inspirant d'agents extérieurs au marché.

Interacción, innovación y productividad externas: una aplicación de la cadena de valor de la innovación en Irlanda

En este trabajo se analiza la cadena de valor de la innovación de Irish CIS: 2004–2006. Al estimar simultáneamente la innovación y la productividad, se amplía la metodología CDM para abarcar una serie de fuentes externas de conocimiento. En este análisis se concluyó que los efectos de la realimentación son vitales, dado que más firmas productivas son más innovadoras y viceversa. Las fuentes externas de conocimiento afectan las decisiones de innovación y no el rendimiento asociado con la innovación y, por consiguiente, se señala el predominio de los procesos internos para la tarea crucial de explotación del conocimiento. En Irlanda, hay evidencias de obtención dicotómica del conocimiento, con algunas firmas que lo obtienen en el mercado y otras, en especial las empresas de alta tecnología, a través de agentes fuera del mercado.

     

Convex incentives in financial markets: an agent-based analysis

We investigate whether convex incentive contracts are a source of instability of financial markets as indicated by the results of a continuous double-auction asset market experiment performed by Holmen et al. (J Econ Dyn Control 40:179–194, 2014). We develop a model to replicate the setting of the experiment and perform an agent-based simulation where agents have linear or convex incentives. Extending the simulation by varying features of actual asset markets that were not studied in the experiment, our main results show that increasing the number of convex incentive contracts increases prices and volatility and decreases market liquidity, measured both as bid–ask spreads and volumes. We also observe that the influence of risk aversion on traders’ decisions decreases when there are convex contracts and that increasing the differences in initial wealth among the traders has similar effects as increasing number of convex incentive contracts.     

Addendum to L. Lauwers and L. Van Liedekerke, “Ultraproducts and aggregation” [J. Math. Econ. 24 (3) (1995) 217–237]

This addendum fills a minor gap in the key lemma of a paper by Lauwers and Van Liedekerke [Lauwers, L., Van Liedekerke, L., 1995. J. Math. Econ. 24 (3), 217–237].     

The Effect of Import Competition on Firm Productivity and Innovation: Does the Distance to Technology Frontier Matter?

How does foreign competition affect growth and innovation in China? Using our unique measures of proximity of Chinese firms and industries to the world technology frontier, we find that despite vast sectoral heterogeneity, Chinese manufacturing industries have undergone rapid technological upgrading over the period of 2000–06. The distance to the world production frontier of firms and industries plays an important role in shaping the nexus between the competition pressure from foreign imports and domestic firms' growth and innovation behaviour. Our results support the theoretical predictions of Aghion et al. (2005, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, pp. 701–728) that import competition stimulates the domestic firms' productivity growth and R&D expenditure if firms and their industries are close to the world frontier, but discourages such incentives for laggard firms and industries. The two forces highlighted by the model operate for imports under the ordinary‐trade regime, for collective and private firms, and for imports originated from high‐income countries. Our findings are robust after controlling the influence of foreign investment, the reverse causality of regressors and the short‐term business cycle fluctuations.     

Asymmetric causality between military expenditures and economic growth in top six defense spenders

This study applies asymmetric causality tests, proposed by Hatemi-J (Asymmetric panel causality tests with an application to the impact of fiscal policy on economic performance in Scandinavia, 2011; Empir Econ 43(1):447–456, 2012), to revisit military expenditures-growth nexus for the world top six defense spenders during the period of 1988–2013. Empirical results indicate that the military expenditure-led hypothesis is supported in China and Japan. However, the growth-led hypothesis is supported in four countries, i.e. France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and US. Except for Saudi Arabia, strong economic growth by no means implies automatic expansion of military expenditures. Defense planning in these countries is a matter of matching their limited resources to attain the suitable priorities. The more threats they perceive, the more spend for defense. This evidence provides useful insight into the behavior of other potential defense suppliers.     

Adjusted Pearson Chi-Square feature screening for multi-classification with ultrahigh dimensional data

Huang et al. (J Bus Econ Stat 32:237–244, 2014) first proposed a Pearson Chi-Square based feature screening procedure tailored to multi-classification problem with ultrahigh dimensional categorical covariates, which is a common problem in practice but has seldom been discussed in the literature. However, their work establishes the sure screening property only in a limited setting. Moreover, the p value based adjustments when the number of categories involved by each covariate is different do not work well in several practical situations. In this paper, we propose an adjusted Pearson Chi-Square feature screening procedure and a modified method for tuning parameter selection. Theoretically, we establish the sure screening property of the proposed method in general settings. Empirically, the proposed method is more successful than Pearson Chi-Square feature screening in handling non-equal numbers of covariate categories in finite samples. Results of three simulation studies and one real data analysis are presented. Our work together with Huang et al. (J Bus Econ Stat 32:237–244, 2014) establishes a solid theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for the family of Pearson Chi-Square based feature screening methods.     

Entrepreneurial ecosystems and the lifecycle of university business incubators: An integrative case study

University business incubators (UBIs) are an important part of the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurial activities and economic development. Extant research has focused on examining UBI activities at a single point in time, but there is a paucity of theoretical and empirical work aimed at understanding the forces that explain why and how UBIs change over time. This is an important gap because establishing a university business incubator does not assure its development and growth. We address this issue by drawing upon the Fisher et al. Academy of Management Review, 41(3), 383-409 (2016) Identity-Legitimacy-Life Cycle model to explain how the pursuit of resources and organizational legitimacy shapes the development of UBIs along key strategic and operational dimensions, which has implications for performance evaluation over time. We illustrate with a case study about the creation and evolution of the DMZ, a leading UBI at Ryerson University in Canada. This case provides new insights about the dynamics of UBIs and their relationships with the entrepreneurial ecosystems in which they are embedded. Implications for future research, management practice, and public policy are discussed.