Fiscal Decentralization and Public Sector Size in Australia*

This paper examines the impact of fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental collusion, and the resulting fiscal dependence, on the size of the public sector in Australia. Contrary to evidence for the United States, fiscal decentralization is found to have no impact on public sector size in Australia. Three possible explanations for this finding were suggested the relatively small number of lower-level governments; the economic insignificance of local governments; and the relative immobility of citizens. Fiscal dependence of State governments on the Commonwealth proves a significant determinant of public sector size, consistent with findings for the United States.     

The heterogeneity among commodity-rich economies: Beyond the prices of commodities

Commodity-rich economies share many common factors, which resulted in the generalization of any findings obtained from a single commodity-rich economy. This paper proposes a small open economy model for a commodity-rich country and studies the triggers of business cycles for four different commodity-rich economies to highlight the existence of heterogeneity among commodity-rich economies. The model introduces government consumption in a non-separable form to the utility function. Commodities have a central role in private consumption, production of final goods, and windfalls for the domestic government. We feed the model with a variety of shocks suggested by the previous literature. The estimations of the model show that oil-rich economies are more vulnerable to external shocks than their commodity-rich counterparts. The findings of the paper indicate that government spending is a significant source of heterogeneity. Also, given the relatively higher share of commodity rents when the principal commodity is oil, oil-rich countries need to adopt more prudential fiscal measures.     

THE COMPLEX RESPONSE OF MONETARY POLICY TO THE EXCHANGE RATE

We estimate a flexible non‐linear monetary policy rule for the United Kingdom to examine the response of policymakers to the real exchange rate. We have three main findings. First, policymakers respond to real exchange rate misalignment rather than to the real exchange rate itself. Second, policymakers ignore small deviations of the exchange rate; they only respond to real exchange under‐valuations of more than 4% and over‐valuations of more than 5%. Third, the response of policymakers to inflation is smaller when the exchange rate is over‐valued and larger when it is under‐valued. None of these responses is allowed for in the widely used linear Taylor‐type rules, suggesting that monetary policy is better analysed using a more sophisticated model, such as the one suggested in this paper.     

Testing population variance in case of one sample and the difference of variances in case of two samples: Example of wage and pension data sets in Serbia

Testing one population variance and the difference in variances of two populations based on the ordinary t-statistics combined with the bootstrap method are suggested in this article. Suggested techniques are combined with Hall's transformation approach. Application of presented methods in domain of real economic data set is described and analyzed. We compare the outputs of suggested methods and traditional methods for considered data set. The results show that these introduced methods have small advantages in comparisons with traditional methods especially for small samples.     

Estimating Nonlinear DSGE Models with Moments Based Methods

This article suggests a new approach to approximating moments for nonlinear DSGE models. This approach is fast and sufficiently accurate to estimate nonlinear DSGE models. A small financial DSGE model is repeatedly estimated by several modifications of the suggested approach. Approximations of the moments are close to the results of the large sample Monte Carlo estimation. The quality of parameter estimation using our suggested approach is close to the Central Difference Kalman Filter (CDKF); and our suggested approach is much faster.     

Technology transfer and innovation performance: Evidence from Chinese firms

This paper explores the relationship between technology transfer activities and innovation performance with special reference to Chinese industrial firms. It is based on a recent nationwide survey covering 2334 Chinese industrial firms. The impact of technology transfer on their innovative performance was analyzed for all the responded firms and similar analyses also addressed the issue from perspectives of general industrial firms versus high-tech firms, and large firms versus small and medium firms. Several critical types of technology transfer activities were identified and both positive and negative impacts were discussed along with the Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis. The study revealed that the innovation activities in Chinese manufacturing firms could not be boosted substantially merely through the acquisition of key equipment and apparatus from abroad. The findings also suggested that Chinese firms should develop their technological absorptive capacity and transformative capacity, and foster technology transfer and communications among trading partners. Moreover, it would be crucial for Chinese firms to stress the nurturing of indigenous innovation capabilities so as to sustain their performance improvement.     

A robust test for multivariate normality

The size of the Jarque-Bera test for multivariate normality can be severely distorted in small samples. An alternative test procedure, that turns out to have good size and power properties, is suggested.     

陕西小城镇发展的模式探讨

陕西小城镇具有发展水平低、分布不平衡、数量增长超过规模的扩张和质量的提升等特征，其发展的主要问题在于非农经济落后、宏观指导不力、微观管理不到位等方面，其发展上既有西部大开发的良好机遇，又存在着自身基础薄弱、大中城市的竞争限帛和地理环境制约等不利条件。作者认为陕西小城镇的发展应与区域优势资源的开发和非农产业的发展相结合，突出重点，以质的提升取代量的扩张，因地制宜的选择发展模式。基于此认识本文提出了陕西关中、陕南、陕北三大地理区和六种不同类型地域城镇化发展模式及相应的政策建议。     

Firm size and capital structure: evidence using dynamic panel data

This article suggests that the validity of the Trade-Off Theory (TOT) and Pecking-Order Theory (POT) to explain financing decisions varies among small, medium-sized and large firms. Using dynamic panel data tests on a sample of 3439 Spanish firms over the period 1995–2003, results are partially consistent with both explanations but suggest a greater validity of pecking-order predictions for small firms. In small firms, the negative influence of profitability and the positive influence of investment opportunities and of intangible assets on firm debt predicted by the POT are heightened. However, no differences are observed between small and large firms in their speed of adjustment to the target leverage as suggested by the TOT.     

Environmental Innovations in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Supporting and accelerating the adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations amongst small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is a major challenge to environmental policy makers. Research suggests that whilst SMEs possess high flexibility, their innovative capacity may be limited to incremental changes within their existing technology system and network. Twenty case studies examining the innovation adoption process in SMEs in four sectors and in five countries within the ENVIS project (commissioned by the EU) revealed great variety in factors driving this process. Findings indicate that this variation can be attributed to the character of the environmental innovation, the specific business opportunity, the regulatory setting and pressure experienced by the sector. Based on these findings an analytical framework is suggested, whereby the environmental innovative capability of SMEs is conceived as the result of an interplay between the competencies, the network relations and the strategic orientation of the company (the 'dynamic triangle'). This indicates that policy to support SME's adoption of environmental innovations has to take an integrated form, i.e. addressing and developing competence, networks and strategic orientation of SMEs simultaneously whilst remaining systemic and context sensitive.     

Environmental Innovations in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Supporting and accelerating the adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations amongst small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is a major challenge to environmental policy makers. Research suggests that whilst SMEs possess high flexibility, their innovative capacity may be limited to incremental changes within their existing technology system and network. Twenty case studies examining the innovation adoption process in SMEs in four sectors and in five countries within the ENVIS project (commissioned by the EU) revealed great variety in factors driving this process. Findings indicate that this variation can be attributed to the character of the environmental innovation, the specific business opportunity, the regulatory setting and pressure experienced by the sector. Based on these findings an analytical framework is suggested, whereby the environmental innovative capability of SMEs is conceived as the result of an interplay between the competencies, the network relations and the strategic orientation of the company (the 'dynamic triangle'). This indicates that policy to support SME's adoption of environmental innovations has to take an integrated form, i.e. addressing and developing competence, networks and strategic orientation of SMEs simultaneously whilst remaining systemic and context sensitive.     

Does the paradox of plenty exist? Experimental evidence on the curse of resource abundance

There is conflicting evidence about whether abundant resources are indeed a blessing or a curse. We make use of specially designed economic experiments to investigate how resource abundance affects cooperation in the absence or presence of regulatory institutions. We observe that in the absence of regulatory institutions, there is less cooperation in groups with access to large resource pools than in groups with access to small resource pools. However, if regulatory institutions are present, we show that there is more cooperation in groups with access to large resource pools than in groups with access to small resource pools. Our findings also reveal that resource users are more willing to regulate access to abundant than to small resource pools. These findings provide causal evidence for the “paradox of plenty” and identify the causes for the pitfalls and potentials of resource wealth.     

The results of ‘mass privatization’in Romania: A first empirical study1

This paper provides an assessment of the contribution to privatization in Romania of the 1995-96 Mass Privatization Programme (MPP), which offered shares in nearly 5,000 companies to citizens in exchange for coupons. Analysing a comprehensive database of MPP companies, we find that an average of only 18.7 per cent of these companies' shares were actually transferred to Romanian citizens, and only 7.8 per cent of the companies were majority privatized (on a size-weighted basis). We estimate that the MPP accounted for only about 5.5 per cent of the value of state-owned enterprise assets inherited from the socialist period. The design of the programme created highly dispersed ownership structures, which is likely to generate particularly difficult problems in the many small companies in the programme. We place our findings in the context of the history of Romanian privatization policies since 1990, and provide some comparisons with mass privatization programmes in other countries. We also analyse the implications of the MPP for the corporate governance and the restructuring of enterprises.     

Foundations of economic change—an extended Schumpeterian approach

This paper employs the Schumpeterian approach to the development of economies in order to identify the core building blocks of a theory of endogenous economic change. Borders and insights are widened by combining concepts and findings from behavioral economics, from evolutionary economics, and from complexity economics. Actor heterogeneity, on the one hand, and mechanisms of actors’ interaction, on the other, are suggested to be fundamental elements of that theory. Theoretical analyses and empirical accounts are presented, achievements are discussed, and further avenues of research are suggested.     

A Structural Model of Australia as a Small Open Economy

This paper sets up and estimates a structural model of Australia as a small open economy using Bayesian techniques. Unlike other recent studies, the paper shows that a small micro-founded model can capture the open economy dimensions quite well. Specifically, the model attributes a substantial fraction of the volatility of domestic output and inflation to foreign disturbances, close to what is suggested by unrestricted VAR studies. The paper also investigates the effects of various exogenous shocks on the Australian economy.     

Carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater: Sonographic and CT diagnosis

Twenty patients with carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater were studied with sonography (N = 9) or both sonography and CT (N = 11). The tumor was shown by sonography in 16 patients (80%) as a small, round or oval, fairly well delineated mass in between the dilated distal common bile duct and duodenum which was delineated owing to luminal fluid or gas (N = 13); or as a polypoid mass within the dilated distal common bile duct resulting in abrupt obstruction (N = 3). In the remaining four patients, the mass was not delineated. Bile ducts were dilated down to the level of mass or ampullary region in all cases (100%), while the pancreatic duct was dilated in five cases (45%). We believe that sonography is the technique of initial choice in the diagnosis of carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater by identifying the mass at the distal end of the dilated common bile duct and/or pancreatic duct.     

Technology mining for small firms: Knowledge prospecting for competitive advantage

Successful small businesses effectively use outside information. High tech small firms are designed to be flexible and innovative. They are often built upon a successful innovative product. These organizations are challenged to remain innovative in a fast-paced competitive environment. However, they face constraints due to the costs associated with the development of continuous innovation. This paper presents technology mining as a method to aid small firms in remaining knowledgeable about innovative ideas. In doing so, the authors present findings from a small high tech company whose issues are typical of other small high tech firms. Areas for improvement and recommendations to address those areas are also presented for review and further reflection.     

Exploring larger biotech research firm strategies: Projections from a comparison of small and larger firms

This is an exploratory study of larger biotech firms using insights from a head-to-head comparison of 49 small and 17 large U.S. biotech firms using archival data. We found small and large biotech firms to be significantly different from each other on R&D intensity and funding strategies. The findings are used to project and hypothesize about larger biotech firm growth strategies.Whereas R&D expenses in the small firms exceed total income by a wide margin, larger firms are able to cover most, if not all, of their R&D expenses. Thus, the larger firms are relatively more financially viable. Results also show that the larger firms derive a greater proportion of their revenues from collaborative research agreements (CRAs), which has key implications for revenue growth in these firms.Based on the findings we project R&D expenses and collaborative research revenues for biotech firms as they grow in size.     

Influence of body image in urbanized areas: differences in long-term changes in teenage body mass index between boys and girls in Japan

Japanese prefecture level panel data for the period 1986?C2003 was used to analyze and compare the determinants of teenage body mass index (BMI) by sex. Major findings through random effects estimation were as follows: BMI was not influenced by the degree of population density in males and younger females. However, the BMI of 16-year-old females was markedly lower in more densely populated residential areas. These findings suggest that girls who reach adolescence are more likely to diet and that this tendency is more distinct in more urbanized areas.     

The Gains from Trade in a Cournot–Nash Trading Equilibrium

It has recently been suggested by several authors that a Cournot–Nash free‐trade equilibrium might leave each country worse off than under autarky, in apparent contradiction of earlier findings. In the present note it is shown that the suggestion is typically based on self‐contradictory assumptions and is therefore unacceptable.