Are Choice Rationality and Social Consistency Two Sides of a Same Coin?

This paper aims at proving that a society cannot be consistent if it is constituted of decision-makers who are not rational. For that purpose, we propose to justify social interactions by means of individual preferences. More precisely, we establish that individual choice rationality is logically equivalent, i.e. is a necessary and sufficient condition, to social consistency—when individual rationality means that preferences are completely ordered (as in standard microeconomics) and social consistency that there is a one-to-one mapping from the list of actual communities to the underlying particular interaction (unique, reflexive and symmetric) between all individuals of the society.     

Imbalances,Inequality and Growth — Rethinking Growth Policies for Europe

Positive GDP growth is important, but how much GDP growth we need and how the growth of income should be distributed are equally important questions. This explains why (for reasons of distribution and environmental sustainability) a movement has developed over the last ten years to go "beyond GDP". Progress has been made in measuring the social and environmental impact of growth, which has helped in the development of EU objectives like achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.     

Are Consumer and Brand Personalities the Same?

Current discussions of brand personality refer to a personified brand image, that is, a brand image that can possess any attributes of consumers, rather than brand personality. From a conceptual and methodological critique of the literature, this paper applies the definition of personality to brand personality, and tests the idea using a peer‐rating methodology that focuses on each individual's perception of a brand (the brand × subject structure). The results reveal that consumers reflect their personalities by the brands they use, but the relationship between brand choice and symbolic dimensions (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) is much stronger than the relationship with functional dimensions (i.e., conscientiousness). Moreover, the pattern of this relationship remains consistent across symbolic and utilitarian products, which implies that consumers choose brands with similar personalities to theirs across various products. The study concludes that an abridged personality scale, based on the Big Five, can be applied to both brands and consumers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do Welfare-Maximizing Governments Cause Political Business Cycles in Growth and Inequality?

In this paper we study how an elected government maximizes social welfare over its period in office, subject to a growth–equality trade-off. Optimal output and equality paths are derived and their implications are discussed. A central finding is the prediction of political business cycles in both growth and equality. It is also demonstrated that any tightening of the growth–equality trade-off should encourage government to favour growth relative to equality.     

Are the Direct and Indirect Growth Effects of Remittances Significant?

Development economists believe that migrant workers’ remittances are an important source of funds for long‐run growth. Therefore, recent studies have investigated the growth effects of remittances but reached different conclusions. In these studies, the rate of growth of output is simply regressed on both remittances and the channels through which remittances affect growth. Thus, no distinction has been made between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances. Such regressions may give unreliable estimates because the channels may also capture some growth effects of remittances, making the growth effects of remittances insignificant. In this study, we make a distinction between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances. Our model is estimated with panel data of 40 high remittance recipient countries with the system generalized method of moment. We found that remittances have no direct growth effects but they have small indirect growth effects.     

Wage Inequality in the United Kingdom: Trade and/or Technology?

I employ two alternative intra‐industry trade Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) models to explain some stylised facts of the British economy. The model with skill‐biased technical change (i.e. exogenous skill‐biased technical change à la Solow) can explain the rise in wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers, the decline in manufacturing and the expansion of modern services. However, the model where technical change is trade‐induced (i.e. endogenous sector‐biased technical change à la Romer) performs better, because it can also explain the exponential rise of imported intermediate capital goods and developments in the wage rate of unskilled workers.     

Italy’s Political Upheaval and the Consequences of Inequality

Intereconomics - Political upheaval, with the dangerous rise of the far right – in Italy and Europe – is likely to be stabilised when politics and policies again turn their attention to...     

Do Continuous and Categorical Measures Capture the Same Construct of Diversity? Evidence from China

Chinese researchers have long preferred substantive research (i.e., examination of relationships among variables) to construct validation research, while failing to realize that construct validation research is the foundation of substantive research. This paper endeavors to answer a question: Do Rumelt’s (1974) categorical and Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and skill-based continuous measures capture the same construct of diversity in the context of China? We take two steps to investigate the question. First, are continuous measures (SIC & skill-based entropy and Montgomery product count) appropriately differentiated among Rumelt’s categories? Second, are the categories converted from SIC & Skill-based measures convergent to Rumelt’s categorical measures? Results show that the two measures are consistent with each other.     

Protection of Intellectual Property for Both Sides of the Straits

At the invitation of Pen-tsao Chang, Chairman of the Commercial Affairs Coordination Committee for the Two Sides of the Straits, a delegation composed of nine intellectual property experts and scholars, headed by Xie Jianqun, Vicechairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and Chairman of the Economic and Trade Coordination Committee for the Two Sides of the Straits, recently paid a nineday visit to Taiwan. The visit caught the attention of Taiwan's mass media as it was the first high-ranking economic and     

Elitism in Higher Education and Inequality: Why Are the Nordic Countries So Special?

Countries in which there are two channels of education may have a separating equilibrium in which individuals with high abilities learn in elite universities and individuals with low ability learn in standard ones. Elite universities have higher budgets, better scholars, better labs and a better student network, resulting in the human capital of these students having a higher productivity in the more competitive tradable sector.     

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and its Rules of Origin: Generosity Undermined?

This paper describes the United States recently enacted Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and assesses its quantitative impact on African exports. The AGOA expands the scope of preferential access of Africa's exports to the United States in key areas such as clothing. However, its medium‐term benefits – estimated at about US$100‐$140 million, an 8−11 per cent addition to current non‐oil exports – would have been nearly five times greater (US$540 million) if no restrictive conditions had been imposed on the terms of market access. The most important of these conditions are the rules of origin with which African exporters of clothing must comply to benefit from duty‐free access.     

Made-in-India Show:Shows Different Sides of India

The opening ceremony of the Sec ond Made-in-India Show was held in China Beijing National Agricultural Exhibition Center on December 1, 2004. Just before this exhibition, the Agricultural Exhibition Center had also held the symposium on the promotion of Sino-India investment and trade. Those made speeches at the symposium include Mr. Sunil Kant     

The Bright and Dark Sides of Religiosity Among University Students: Do Gender, College Major, and Income Matter?

We develop a theoretical model involving religiosity [intrinsic (I), extrinsic-social (E _s), and extrinsic-personal (E _p), Time 1], Machiavellianism (Time 2), and propensity to engage in unethical behavior (Time 2) to investigate direct and indirect paths. We collected two-wave panel data from 359 students who had some work experiences. For the whole sample, intrinsic religiosity (I) indirectly curbed unethical intentions through the absence of Machiavellianism, the bright side of religiosity. Both extrinsic-social (E _s) and extrinsic-personal (E _p) directly, while extrinsic-social (E _s) indirectly, exacerbated unethical intentions, the dark side of religiosity. Multiple-group analyses across gender, college major, and income showed that the bright side existed directly for low-income students, but indirectly for males and females, business majors, and low-income students. Our novel finding showed that E _p undermined unethical intentions indirectly for females. For the dark side, E _s incited unethical intentions directly for males, business students, and low-income individuals, but indirectly for females, psychology majors, and low-income people. The Machiavellianism–unethical intentions relationship was the strongest for high-income participants. Religiosity had the highest number of significant paths for low-income individuals and the strongest dark side for males and high-income students, but the highest bright outcome for females. Our novel, original findings foster theory development and testing, add new vocabulary to the conversation of religiosity and unethical intentions, and improve practice.     

Does the Effect of Inequality on Growth Present an Inverted U Curve？ --Empirical Evidences from Transition Economies

本文以7个代表性转型国家1986—2009年跨国面板数据为样本,利用面板数据模型分析了收入差距对经济增长影响轨迹是否呈倒U型曲线。研究结果表明,转型国家收入差距与经济增长之间存在倒U型曲线关系。即使在样本中除去收入差距较严重的中国数据,收入差距对经济增长影响的倒U型曲线的证据仍然存在。近似计算,基尼系数为0．42是收入差距对经济增长影响由正变负的拐点。本文还发现,经济自由度这一制度因素对中国经济增长有较大影响。中国政府应积极探索有利于缩小收入差距,促进经济增长的经济发展方式及制度环境,包括加大公共服务供给,健全社会保障体系,进一步推进国有企业改革,推进政府体制改革,推动市场化进程,纠正要素价格扭曲行为,打破垄断,深化税制改革,完善转移支付制度等。     

Growth of New Technology-Based Firms: Which Factors Matter?

This paper deals with the explanation of variations in the growth between New Technology-based Firms (NTBFs) and non-innovative firm foundations. Based on theoretical models explaining the growth of firms, hypotheses on potential determinants are derived. The regression results indicate strong correlations between the growth rate on the one hand and firm-specific, founder-specific as well as external factors on the other. These factors influence the growth rates of innovative and non-innovative young firms in different ways. Furthermore, based on the results of multivariate regressions, NTBFs achieve on average higher growth rates than non-innovative firm foundations. Moreover, the net employment effect of those NTBFs founded in 1989/90 is positive. This does not hold for non-innovative young firms, in which the number of jobs destroyed by closures and shrinking firms is larger than the number of new jobs in growing and expanding firms.     

A Commentary on “Business Marketing in Master's Programs: A Part of the Fabric”: Cut from the Same Cloth?

ABSTRACT

The authors of this article and their colleagues at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario are to be commended not only for this well-crafted article but also for their efforts to elevate and incorporate essential knowledge of business marketing into the fabric of their school's master's program. The provocative argument that the authors make is that business marketing behaviors, concepts and topics should not be the focus of just one elective course but that they should serve as a foundation of a school's entire master's program. According to the authors, that foundation can be built around four pillars or business marketing essentials-organizational buyer behavior, relationship marketing, customer value, and business markets. In this article, they present not only a process and guidelines for imbedding these pillars into a master's program but also recommend specific topics and cases for various master's level courses. For these reasons, this article is a “must read” for marketing scholars who seek not only to create and/or improve elective courses business marketing but also to enhance the prominence of the study of business marketing at their respective universities.     

The Economic Contribution of High-Growth Firms: Do Policy Implications Depend on the Choice of Growth Indicator?

Prior studies have defined high-growth firms (HGFs) in terms of growth in firm employment or firm sales, and primarily analyzed their contribution to overall employment growth. In this paper we define HGFs using the commonly applied growth indicators (employment and sales), but also add definitions based on growth in value added and productivity. Our results indicate that HGFs in terms of employment are not the same firms as HGFs in terms of productivity, and that their economic contributions differ significantly. Economic policy promoting fast growth in employment may therefore come at the cost of reduced productivity growth. Although HGFs of different definitions may not be the same firms, young firms are more likely to be HGFs irrespective of definition. This suggests that economic policy should focus on the conditions for new firm formation and early growth of firms, rather than target a particular type of HGFs.     

Conclusion: Korean business and management – the end of the model?

Recent financial crisis has raised questions about the underpinnings and longevity of economic success in Asia, and has reminded us to be sceptical of pundits and the eponymous populist predictions relating to the region. Several perspectives can guide the analysis and evaluation of industrialization, from ‘state’ versus ‘market’, ‘internal’ versus ‘external’, and ‘macro’ versus ‘micro’. Companies in Korea as ‘latecomers’ have pursued ‘catch-up’ strategies. However, Korean corporate capabilities reside in a restricted number of industries, firms and functions (production), and are poor elsewhere, such as in marketing, technology (design and development) and organization, and small and medium-sized enterprises. Furthermore, many factors regarded once as sources of Korea's success are now seen as weaknesses. The future challenges facing Korea include its dirigiste economy, organizational structures and governance, financial transparency and labour market flexibility. While there are undoubted problems, its urgent tasks are not insurmountable.