The possibilities of entering new markets for Romanian companies from wood manufacturing industries

Romania has the potential of resources, labor and real capacity to adapt to the gait of a global economic competition. But it required a long term policy and environment which could support this potential value. If not, we will risk turning into a consumer economy, consumption will not be funded on internal production and become supplier of labor services for peripheral. In the context of economic crisis, Romanian furniture retains its significant competitive advantages, including the price in export markets. The most important markets for exporters of furniture from Romania are Ukraine and Russia, markets with great potential, but affected by problems such as devaluing local currencies, and recently, imposing new duties.     

Attitudes towards immigration—Perceived consequences and economic self-interest

Using the European Social Survey 2002/3, we develop a new test of whether economic self-interest influences people's attitudes towards immigration, exploiting that people have widely different perceptions of the consequences of immigration.     

The specificity of manufacturing in Marx's economic thought

Abstract

This article examines Marx's approach to manufacturing and the extent to which manufacturing could be considered to have a special place in Marx's economic thought, especially in relation to accumulation and growth. The important ‘progressive’ features of manufacturing that can be found in Marx's writings and which are discussed here include: division of labour; socialisation of labour; mechanisation; increasing returns to scale; learning-by-doing; technological advancement; and overall, superior potential for cumulative productivity increases. These insights anticipate some of the thinking around the specificity of manufacturing found in twentieth-century structuralist development economics and some heterodox schools of thought such as Kaldorian approaches. This article suggests an interpretation of Marx as having a two-dimensional conceptualisation of activity specificity, with not only sectoral but also ‘technological–organisational’ dimensions, where these two dimensions are not fully independent of each other.     

Subjective conditional probabilities—A new approach

A new technique for estimating the joint probability of a pair of future events is presented. In contrast with the approach previously suggested by Mitchell and Tydeman, the new approach uses a five-outcome model rather than an eight-outcome model and hence requires fewer subjective estimates from the respondents. Conditions for pairwise consistency are discussed.     

Productivity growth patterns in US dairy products manufacturing plants

We analyse the productivity growth patterns in the US dairy products industry using the Census Bureau's plant-level data set. We decompose Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth into the scale and technical change components and analyse variability of plants’ productivity by constructing transition matrices. We observe a cross-sectional dispersion in plant-level productivity growth in the industry. Even though the industry aggregate shows a small TFP growth rate ?0.3%, quartile rank analysis shows that while the lowest productivity quartile plants average 1.9% loss in productivity, the highest productivity quartile plants average 1.1% growth annually. Our results show considerable movements of plants in their productivity rank categories overall and across age groups, and we find that the scale effect contribution to TFP growth accounts for about 90% of TFP growth on average in the industry. These plants extract scale efficiencies over technological progress to fuel TFP growth. The youngest plants start with the lowest productivity growth at the initial time period, but they catch up older plants productivity, which present the highest average growth rate through years. This may indicate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process for the industry.     

The relative economic performance of foreign subsidiaries in UK manufacturing

This paper compares the economic performance of UK and foreign-owned firms in UK manufacturing industry. A panel data set covering 14 233 firms for the period 1992–1996 is used and the influences of firm-, industry- and country-specific advantages on productivity are examined. The results of the study show that labour productivity is higher in foreign subsidiaries than in UK firms and that foreign subsidiaries as a whole employ higher levels of human capital and enjoy greater economies of scale. A further source of productivity advantage for US subsidiaries is their higher level of intangible assets, and for European and Japanese subsidiaries their higher level of capital intensity. The results have policy implications for the targeting of promotion activities to attract FDI.     

Flexible mandates for investment in new technology

Environmental regulators often seek to promote forefront technology for new investments; however, technology mandates are suspected of raising cost and delaying investment. We examine investment choices under an inflexible (traditional) emissions rate performance standard for new sources. We compare the inflexible standard with a flexible one that imposes an alternative compliance payment (surcharge) for emissions in excess of the standard. A third policy allows the surcharge revenue to fund later retrofits. Analytical results indicate that increasing flexibility leads to earlier introduction of new technology, lower aggregate emissions and higher profits. We test this using multi-stage stochastic optimization for introduction of carbon capture and storage, with uncertain future natural gas and emissions allowance prices. Under perfect foresight, the analytical predictions hold. With uncertainty these predictions hold most often, but we find exceptions. In some cases investments are delayed to enable the decision maker to discover additional information.     

论我国西部油气资源地经济发展战略的选择

西部地区是我国重要的油气资源地,发展资源导向型产业既符合比较优势原则要求,又能够充分利用油气资源产业强有力的产业关联效应。但我国西部各省经济发展在不同程度上存在“资源诅咒”的现象。文章认为,造成这种现象的原因在于目前我国油气资源开发没有承担起资源地经济发展的责任,而不在于资源导向型发展战略,我国西部地区应该坚持资源导向型发展战略。     

Technologies, products and firms' strategies part 1—a framework for .analysis

This article examines, the character and significance of 'strategies' formulated within the R&D function of a business, and their relatzonship to the broader business strategy of the parent company. The discussion forms a basis for the analysis of case studies of three large UK companies, which will be published later as Part 2 of this article Part 1 of the article identifies three foci of innovation studzes: first, that of the innovations themselves; secondly, that of patterns of innovation within discrete industrial sectors; thirdly, that of the innovating firms and their strategies. The discussion focuses on the third topic nad explores two aspects of the tehnological components of innovation strategies. First, the shape of the prorgolio of products under development, the technical and market specificities they possess, and secondly, the structure of the portfolios of technologies required and used in those products. These dimensions of strategy combine both firm-specific and public-domain tecnoligical competenes. These competences affect both the competitive position and the strategic direction of firms. Finally, the article proposes some analytical devices for making sense of technology strategies in the thre firms studied. Part 2 of the article presetns the substance of the case studies, and reviews the lessons which they reveal.     

Reforming the new economic mechanism in Hungary

Following steps taken towards recentralization between 1972 and 1976, the reform measures introduced in 1980 and 1981 have re-established the original directions of the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary. The NEM, established in 1968, had aimed at replacing plan directives by market relations among firms, limiting the scope of central price determination, linking domestic prices to world-market prices, and increasingly decentralizing investment decisions. The recent reform measures are evaluated and possible future changes are considered. Price setting, exchange rate and protection, wage determination and personal income, investment decisions, and organizational structure are examined.     

Short- and long-term impact of remarkable economic events on the growth causes of China–Germany trade in agri-food products

This paper focuses on a systematic quantitative discussion of the short- and long-term impact of remarkable economic events on international trade in a two-stage framework. Firstly, procedures based on dummy variables are proposed to detect structural breaks, types and sizes of jumps caused by such events. Then we propose to apply a hierarchical CMS (Constant Market Share) model to all sub-periods determined by the detected change points to study the short- and long-term impact of those events on growth causes. Application to China–Germany trade in agri-food products shows that China's accession to WTO had a negative short-term impact on corresponding series. But its long-term impact on China's export competitiveness was clearly positive. The short-term impact of the EU's CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) reform on Germany's exports to China was also negative. Its long-term impact on export competitiveness was sometimes positive and sometimes negative. The financial crisis of 2008 caused a significant reduction of China's agri-food exports to Germany. But Germany's exports to China in 2009 were not affected by the financial crisis as much.     

A study of environmental impact on manufacturing products trade in Shandong,China

Based on the situation that the trade of manufactured goods takes the main position in Shandong Province,this paper identifies Shandong industrial pollutant discharge by three indices,which are industrial effluent discharge,industrial SO2 emission,and solid waste disposal.Furthermore,it conducts an empirical analysis of the trade terms of pollution content transfer on nine identified industrial sectors.The conclusion is that the increase in industrial effluent discharge,industrial SO2 emission,and solid waste disposal has paralleled the growth of the GDP in Shandong.The rapid economic growth brings obvious negative impact on the environment.Compared with that in 1998,the increase in the pollution content of exports in 2007 indicated that more environmental costs were generated with the economic development in Shandong.There is a need for optimization of foreign trade structure in Shandong,especially the need for increasing import of the pollution intensive products and decreasing the export of the pollution intensive products.The research on the relationship between manufactured goods trade and the environmental impact will make a contribution to the adjustment of foreign trade and environmental policies.     

Stagflation,new products,and speculation

The paper looks at the macroeconomic implications of some recent developments in the theory of industrial organization. In a Kaleckian model, firms are assumed to invest heavily early in the product life cycle, thus creating effective demand. Conversely, it is assumed that late in the product life cycle firms hoard, waiting for new products in which to invest. Under reasonable conditions, the rates of growth, unemployment, and inflation can be related to the fraction of new products in the economy.     

物质能量循环与地区经济新格局

劳动力流动使东部地区与中西部地区之间形成了一个伴随人才"渗漏"的"劳动换工业品"的物质能量循环.这个循环正在催生一个新的分工格局:东部地区演化为工业品的生产中心和经济中心,中西部地区转变为人才输出地、生产要素提供地和工业品的消费地.在市场力量作用下所形成的这种分工格局扩大了地区经济差距,因此,要缩小地区差距必须依靠政府的力量.     

Systems assessment of new technology for decision-making in government and industry part II—Case studies

The study of Systems Assessment of New Technology (SANT) proceeds with the use of case studies. The macromodel for science and technology policy is applied to both the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR. While the macromodel relates science and technology to the national economy, another case study addresses the management of technological change in a somewhat more narrow context, i.e., the management of technological change itself. The final case study deals with management information systems which can be used by management in science and technology planning.     

Export,R&D and new products. a model and a test on European industries

In this article we extend the model developed by Bogliacino and Pianta (Industrial and Corporate Change 22 649, 2013, b) on the link between R&D, innovation and economic performance, considering the impact of innovation on export success. We develop a simultaneous three equation model in order to investigate the existence of a ‘virtuous circle’ between industries’ R&D, share of product innovators and export market shares. We investigate empirically – at the industry level – three key relationships affecting the dynamics of innovation and export performance: first, the capacity of firms to translate their R&D efforts in new products; second, the role of innovation as a determinant of export market shares; third, the export success as a driver of new R&D efforts. The model is tested for 38 manufacturing and service sectors of six European countries over three time periods, from 1995 to 2010. The model effectively accounts for the dynamics of R&D efforts, innovation and international performance of European industries. Moreover, important differences across countries emerge when we split our sample into a Northern group – Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – and a Southern group – France, Italy and Spain. We find that the ‘virtuous circle’ between innovation and competitiveness holds for Northern economies only, while Southern industries fail to translate innovation efforts into export success.     

R&D and manufacturing production specialization in developed economies

A study of the relation between technology and manufacturing production specialization in a series of developed economies is performed by means of models relating indicators of revealed symmetric comparative advantage of value added and exports to similar measures of comparative performance of R&D expenditure, capital intensity, total factor productivity and wage costs. The production and R&D specialization are shown to be substantial and sticky. This contrasts with the evidence of a substantial degree of convergence in the patterns of the other variables. Regression estimates show that, although all variables play their part, the impact of comparative R&D efforts on production specialization is by far the strongest. This impact is found to be stronger in the smaller economies and it is especially important in research-intensive industries. The influence of comparative wages is, moreover, found to be positive here, suggesting the dominance of a labour skill and efficiency wage effect over a wage cost competitiveness effect. These findings are shown to conform quite well with the predictions of Schumpeterian theory and of certain contributions to ‘new trade theory’ that have stressed the importance of dynamic economies of scale.     

中国对亚洲制成品出口竞争力的影响

中国加入WTO,贸易和投资进一步自由化将对发展中国家的竞争力产生极大影响。在这种情况下,亚洲国家和地区既有机遇也有挑战,一些国家将从中国的市场开放中得到更多的投资机会,提高在中国的市场份额和增加世界其他市场的准入机会,一些国家在出口市场和中国市场上则面临更为激烈的竞争,出口份额和产业竞争力会受到损害。制成品出口是一个非常重要也是相当复杂的问题,它是几种竞争优势相互作用的结果,其中的几种竞争优势与政策关系紧密。1988年以来,中国一直是发展中世界最大的制成品出口国,出口增长并不是完全依靠低劳工成本优势…