Stock Market Reaction to Monetary Policy: An Event Study Analysis of the Brazilian Case

This article examines the relationship between the monetary policy implemented by the Central Bank of Brazil and the stock market. We implement event study analysis and analyze the effect of the anticipated and unanticipated components of monetary policy decisions on the returns of the IBOVESPA index and 53 stocks. We find that monetary policy has a significant effect on the stock market, but is only responsible for a small proportion of market variation. The analysis at the sector level with expected returns identifies that the financial sector is the most affected by this policy, whereas with excess returns only industrial goods are significantly affected. Moreover, individual assets respond in a rather heterogeneous fashion to monetary policy; however, when we look at excess returns, we identify a reduction in the intensity and in the number of companies impacted by monetary policy. Finally, the monetary shock is explained by unanticipated variations in the unemployment rate, in the Industrial Production Index, in the General Market Price Index, and in the Broad Consumer Price Index.     

An Optimal Strategy for Capacity Expansion

A mathematical model is developed for determining the optimal sequence of expansions for a processing industry. The demand for the output is increasing over time at a geometric rate. The economic objective is minimization of the present worth of the total system cost to meet this growing demand. The cost includes the expenditure for development and operation of local plants and the cost of importing products when the supply from these plants is not adequate to meet the demand.

For illustrative purposes the model is applied to find the expansion strategy for the primary aluminum industry in Argentina.     

Assessing Systemic Importance With a Fuzzy Logic Inference System

Three metrics are designed to assess Colombian financial institutions' size, connectedness and non-substitutability as the main drivers of systemic importance: (i) centrality as net borrower in the money market network; (ii) centrality as payments originator in the large-value payment system network; and (iii) asset value of core financial services. An aggregated systemic importance index is calculated based on expert knowledge by using a fuzzy logic inference system. We use principal component analysis to calculate a benchmark index for comparison purposes. Overall similarities between both indexes put forward that expert knowledge aggregation is consistent with that based on a purely quantitative standard approach. Specific non-negligible differences concur with the nonlinear features of an approach whose intention is to replicate human reasoning. Both indexes are complementary and provide a comprehensive relative assessment of each financial institution's systemic importance in the Colombian case, in which the choice of metrics pursues the macroprudential perspective of financial stability. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Protection and Trade in Services: A Survey

This paper surveys the literature on trade in services, focusing on the policies that are used to restrict such trade, the gains from liberalization, and the institutional mechanisms that have been adopted in the pursuit of liberalization. The paper argues that technological progress and international trade negotiations are likely to keep liberalization of trade in services a high profile policy issue. It also suggests that the research agenda should focus on developing better estimates of the welfare costs of protectionism in the service sector.     

Is the Culture of Family Firms Really Different? A Value-based Model for Its Survival through Generations

The current work represents a piece of research on the family firm of the semasiological, interpretive or culture creation type. In it we carry out a comparative analysis of the organizational culture of this type of firm along with firms not considered to be family firms, using as theoretical framework generally accepted theories in business administration, such as the systems, neoinstitutional, transformational leadership, and social identity theories. Our findings confirm the existence of certain elements of culture, especially values and allow us to propose a value-based model to help family firms to survive through different family generations.     

A simple Keynesian model of inflation and unemployment under rational expectations

Zusammenfassung Ein einfaches keynesianisches Modell der Inflation und der Arbeitslosigkeit bei rationalen Erwartungen. — Dieser Aufsatz entwickelt ein einfaches makro?konomisches Modell keynesianischer Struktur, in dem eine lang-same Anpassung der Nominall?hne das gleichzeitige Bestehen von Inflation und Arbeitslosigkeit zul?βt. Die Preise der Fertigwaren sind vollst?ndig flexibel, und die Erwartungen hinsichtlich der zukünftigen Preisbewegungen werden rational ge-bildet, so daβ sie alle Informationen über institutionelle Beschr?nkungen des Arbeits-marktes und über die w?hrungs- und fiskalpolitischen Regeln der Regierung ent-halten. Es wird gezeigt, daβ es trotz kurzfristiger Starrheit der L?hne m?glich ist, die Volkswirtschaft sofort bei Zielgr?βen für Inflation und Besch?ftigung zu stabili-sieren, wenn man die Maβnahmen so kombiniert, wie R. Mundell (1971) vorgeschla-gen hat, d.h. die Rate der monet?ren Expansion sollte sich nach der angestrebten Inflationsrate richten und die Fiskalpolitik dem Besch?ftigungsziel dienen.

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Résumé Un simple modèle Keynesien d’inflation et de ch?mage sous des expectatives rationelles. — Ce papier développe un simple modèle macroéconomique de la structure Keynesienne où l’ajustement lent des rémunérations nominales permet la coexistence de l’inflation et du ch?mage. Les prix des biens finaux sont complètement flexibles et les expectatives concernant les mouvements futurs des prix sont formées rationellement en manière qu’elles incorporent toutes les informations regardant les restrictions institutionelles sur le marché du travail aussi bien que les règles de la politique monétaire et fiscale du gouvernement. Nous démontrons que, malgré de la rigidité salariale à court terme il est possible de stabiliser immédiatement l’économie sur le niveau des buts d’inflation et de ch?mage supposé que la combinaison des politiques recommandée par R. Mundell ({dy1971}) soit pour-suivie, c’est-à-dire que le taux de l’expansión monétaire devrait être lié au but d’inflation et la politique fiscale au but de ch?mage.

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Resumen Un modelo keynesiano simple de inflación y desempleo bajo expec-tativas racionales. — En este artículo se desarrolla un modelo macroeconómico simple de una estrutura keynesiana, donde un ajuste lento de los salarios nominales permite la coexistencia de inflación y desempleo. Los precios de los bienes finales son completamente flexibles y las expectativas referentes a movimientos futuros de precios se forman racionalmente, de tal manera que ellas incorporan toda la información referente a limitaciones institucionales en el mercado del trabajo, como también las reglas gubernamentales de las políticas monetaria y fiscal. Se muestra, que a pesar de la rigidez de corto plazo de los salarios, es posible estabilizar instan-tàneamente la economia a niveles establecidos como metas para la inflación y el desempleo, siempre que se aplique la mezcla de politicas recomendada por R. Mundell (1971), p.ej.: la tasa de expansión monetaria debe ser ajustada a la tasa de inflación asignada como meta y la política fiscal a la tasa de desempleo asignada como meta.

     

E-procurement in the Greek food and drink industry: Drivers and impediments

Most empirical research on e-procurement has focused on large economies and technology-related industries, paying little attention to smaller economies and traditional industries. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a study on the state and development of e-procurement in the Greek food and drink industry, based on four case studies with some of the largest organisations in the industry. This study indicates that the uptake of e-procurement has been slow and reveals some important impediments, such as the uncertainty of the technology and its benefits, the lack of infrastructure and skills and the traditional nature of the industry. These results led to a series of findings, propositions for further investigation. The drivers and impediments to e-procurement have been classified into four different levels: global, country, industry and firm. Each of these levels requires a different approach to dealing with it, having implications for practitioners and policymakers.     

Drug selection: Mozambique

Whereas a few hundred generic drugs are essential for health care, the international and many national markets are flooded with tens of thousands of brand-name preparations. This numerical difference is because of the many imitative products, drug combinations, brandname duplications, and drugs with low therapeutic value and/or unacceptable adverse effects. Since independence Mozambique has reduced the number of registered products, including those for retail pharmacy sale, from some 26,000 to about 1200. An effective national formulary has been introduced for health service use and now contains only 343 distinct therapeutic substances. The formulary uses only international non-proprietary names, and has been used to rationalize state pharmaceutical procurement with cost savings and to improve drug information and use.