Profitability of mergers in food manufacturing

Two issues are examined. The statistical significance of a number of socio-economic factors that affect the level of charitable giving are evaluated. Family wealth and age of the head of household tend to be significant determinants of charitable giving, regardless of whether it is to all charities or to religious charities only. Such is not the case for the price of giving; for instance, the price of giving is an important determinant of all charitable contributions, but almost non-existent as a determinant for religious donations. Results such as this suggest that changes in marginal tax rates prompted by a switch to a tax credit as a substitute for a deduction, and hence a change in the price of giving, may have virtually no impact on contributions to religious organizations but may affect conntributions to other charitable organizations. The extent to which some socio-economic factors changed in relative importance as determinants of charitable giving from 1982 to 1986 is also reviewed.     

Aggregate returns to scale in Greek manufacturing

This paper takes an imperfect competition model of the economy in order to investigate for retuns to scale in Greek manufacturing and examines, through a small-scale macroeconomic model, the implication of estimates. For this purpose a price, wage and demand for output equations are estimated, using annual data for the period 1954–94. Prices come through the profits maximization process and depend on wage, capital rental, demand and a number of other variables denoing technology and market competition. Results are clearly in favour of increasing returns to scale hypothesis, although alternative explanations for the negative demand effect on prices cannot be excluded.     

Monetary policy and inventory investment in Greek manufacturing industry

The paper reports an attempt to estimate the role of Greek monetary policy in inventory investment in manufacturing. Interest and inflation rate expectations exercise a significant influence. Expected fluctations in the exchange rate, for the first time examined, are of major importance especially for stocks of raw materials which are mostly imported. Being strongly affected by monetary variables, inventory investment can play a major role as a transmission channel of monetary policy changes to the Greek economy.     

Determining factors of interindustry wage level differentials in Greek manufacturing

The present paper contains the main findings of an empirical inquiry purporting to identify the major determinants of interindustry wage level differentials in Greek manufacturing, to quantify their relative significance and to trace their policy implications. The statistical estimates provide some evidence that the economic mechanism underlying the working of Greek industrial sector is inherently inflationary and inefficient, in the sense that it is causing mis-allocation of labour among industries; moreover, it is affecting the choice of techniques, the allocation of investment and the growth pattern of industry not in accordance with the relative scarcity of economic resources.     

Capital structure,asset utilization,profitability and growth in the Greek manufacturing sector

Greece's accession to the European Union (EU) has affected its economy and its manufacturing sector. Large-size enterprises (LSEs) form a small but vital part of Greek manufacturing and constitute a major component of the country's stock market. According to finance theory, the capital structure of a firm affects its capital cost and market value. This paper, by using dynamic panel data techniques, investigates the determinants of capital structure of LSEs in the Greek manufacturing sector. The findings suggest that asset utilization, gross and net profitability and total assets growth have a significant effect on the capital structure of LSEs. This has straightforward policy implications. Following recent economic developments, Greek firms are exposed to a stronger competition in the EU and global markets, but also to new opportunities. In order to improve their capital structure, Greek manufacturing LSEs need to achieve higher asset utilization and profit margins through economies of scale attained mainly by higher exports. Moreover, governmental measures aiming to support LSEs' efforts should focus their impact on alleviating taxation, reducing bureaucratic burdens, minimizing market imperfections and subsidizing applications of new technology.     

The persistence of profits in the Greek manufacturing industry, 1963–88

The objective of this article is to evaluate empirically the profit rate persistence in the case of the Greek manufacturing industry (1963–88). More specifically, we address ourselves to two questions: first, do industrial profit rates eventually converge on a common rate? and secondly, what are the factors that affect the speed of adjustment of industrial profit rates? Our results suggest: a high persistence of profit rates for most industrial sectors; a generally high permanent component of the profit rates with substantial variations among sectors; and a similarity with other studies of industrialized countries with regards to the factors (concentration ratio, advertising intensity, export intensity, capital intensity etc.) affecting the speed of adjustment.     

Insurer Profitability in Different Regulatory and Legal Environments

This paper examines the variation in insurance company financial performance across states with different legal and regulatory environments. These environments are distinguished by a diverse set of measures created by the states to address problems in the insurance area. Using firm–level financial data for the period 1984–1991, quantile regression methodology is used to describe the differential relationships between profitability and these measures. The results indicate that the distribution of profitability is only weakly related to insurers regulatory and legal environments, and is significantly related to other factors, such as the size of the firm and the effective number of competitors.     

Profitability and Concentration in Australian Manufacturing Industries:A Reply

This brief note takes the adjusted profitability data series suggested by Leech and Grant, and shows that the weak and generally not strongly significant effect which concentration has on such profitability data (as shown by Leech and Grant) becomes even weaker and less significant when the model is more appropriately specified to include a capital-output variable.     

The Determinants of Firm Profitability in Australian Manufacturing

This study provides new evidence on the determinants of the profitability of Australian manufacturing firms by analyzing a unique firm-level data set of firm performance over the period 1984-93. The panel nature of the data permits the estimation of dynamic profitability models over the business cycle, to test both the persistence and cyclicality of firm profitability. Econometric results suggest that lagged profitability is a significant determinant of current profit margins, and that industry concentration is positively related to firm profit margins. Also, profit margins are found to be procyciical in concentrated industries but counter-cyclical in less concentrated industries.     

Profitability of corporate social responsibility in network industries

The present paper shows that, when firms compete in a non-cooperative way on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in network industries, the conventional result of the prisoner’s dilemma structure of the game in standard industries—i.e. to have social concerns is the Nash equilibrium, but it is harmful for firms’ profits—vanishes and, for sufficiently intense network externalities, the equilibrium in which both firms have social concerns is more profitable than simple profit-seeking. Moreover, we show that—when firms cooperate in choosing the profit-maximising level of social concerns—a profit-maximising CSR level does exist, provided that network effects are sufficiently strong. Therefore, in network industries, firms may obtain higher profits engaging in—cooperatively as well as non-cooperatively—CSR activities, showing that firms’ social concerns may be motivated by the owners’ selfish behaviour. Finally, a counter-intuitive result as regards consumer’s surplus and social welfare is obtained: those are always higher under competitive than cooperative choice of CSR because the level of CSR activities is higher in the former case. However, given that firms gain their largest profits with the cooperative choice of CSR, a Pareto-superior outcome is not reached.     

资产的本质:一种创利能力--基于经济环境的理论分析

资产不仅是一种重要的会计概念，也是一种重要的经济学概念。关于资产本质的价值观和成本观都将会计理论与实务的发展产生深远影响。现代经济环境的变迁，特别是金融及资本市场的发展导致了资产要素内容的创新。资产要素也具有适应了经济环境变化的新的特征，资产是特定实体所控制的，具有创利能力的资源。     

论生态旅游发展的持续性与利益化的制衡

可持续旅游的核心包含了努力将经济、社会、文化目标相融合的观念。生态旅游由于在资源的持续利用和促进旅游目的地社会经济发展方面具有双重意义,近10年来在全球许多地方蓬勃发展。但由于缺乏合理规划和有效管理,随着旅游者人数的不断增加,对新的场所和经历的需求也不断增加,在一些旅游目的地,生态旅游开始对当地居民生活及生态环境造成负面影响,对野生生物、自然和人文资源造成危害。生态旅游的负面影响和成本因子不断显现,环境退化、经济的不稳定性和不公平性、社会文化的改变等因素使生态旅游发展陷入困境。为使生态旅游在持续性和利益化之间协调发展,就需要采取一系列措施来保护生态旅游赖以发展的自然环境,确保旅游资源的可持续利用。     

An alternative approach to the monitoring of technological diffusion via foreign direct investment: evidence from the Greek manufacturing sector

The existing studies of foreign direct investment and the corresponding technological diffusion process that they generate, focus either on specific parameters of the production process in isolation, or they combine certain parameters to construct indices that are not consistent across studies. The present analysis proposes an alternative approach that captures the entire production process and multinational firms are viewed as the platform that transfers more advanced technologies to the host countries. As multinational firms are able to utilise more efficiently the available production process, an efficiency gap ensues between the domestically owned firms of a country and the multinational firms that operate in it. We capture and provide a measure and a monitoring mechanism of the technological diffusion process via foreign direct investment through the evolution of the efficiency gap between the two groups of firms whilst controlling for other variables that might contribute to such a gap. We apply our approach to the manufacturing sector of the Greek economy that experiences a consistent presence of foreign direct investment inflows over the time period 2001–2007.     

上市公司盈利能力的因子分析

本文以国外50家上市公司和国内187家上市公司为样本,利用其1998-2002年连续5的财务会计信息,运用因子分析法,分别对样本公司按照应计制和现金制会计基础下衡量公司盈利能力的财务指标进行了分析.研究发现,以应计制会计基础和以现金制会计基础衡量的企业盈利能力存在很大的差异,因而单独运用某一基础下的财务指标来衡量公司的盈利能力都是不全面的,应该将两者相互融合起来.     

三重悖论：收益性、安全性、流动性监管之谜

收益性、安全性和流动性的单一优化过程极易产生内在矛盾．使事物走向反面。文章结合金融危机提供的诸多案例,分析了如何化解矛盾,改进监管,实现真正的良性循环。     

Implementation of computer-integrated manufacturing in small manufacturing firms

Even though small firms are the most fertile institutions in terms of job creation and also comprise the larger part of the manufacturing base of most countries, small firms have been generally quite slow in adapting computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) technology. This is especially problematic in taday's consumer-oriented market-place, where global competitive pressures are forcing firms to develop highly integrated information systems. In this paper, we will discuss the main reasons for this state of affairs and the steps needed for the implementation of such new methodology. In addition, we explore the advantages of establishing a CIM system as it relates primarily to two areas of operation; logistics planning, and human competence engineering.     

Implementation of computer-integrated manufacturing in small manufacturing firms

Even though small firms are the most fertile institutions in terms of job creation and also comprise the larger part of the manufacturing base of most countries, small firms have been generally quite slow in adapting computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) technology. This is especially problematic in taday's consumer-oriented market-place, where global competitive pressures are forcing firms to develop highly integrated information systems. In this paper, we will discuss the main reasons for this state of affairs and the steps needed for the implementation of such new methodology. In addition, we explore the advantages of establishing a CIM system as it relates primarily to two areas of operation; logistics planning, and human competence engineering.