Monetary transmission in Spain: a structural cointegrated VAR approach

This paper analyses the monetary policy channels in Spain using a cointegrated structural VAR approach which explicitly accounts for endogenous policy reactions in a small open economy. Evidence is found of one cointegrating relation which is identified as a long-run money demand function. In addition, stability tests are applied to this relationship to assess whether there has been a change of monetary regime. The impulse-responses for the non-monetary shocks as well as the absence of the puzzles traditionally found in the empirical literature, suggest that the model specification identifies the monetary policy shocks correctly. Thus, according to our results, a monetary contraction causes a weak downward response in the price level, as well as an increase in both short and long-run nominal interest rates, a decrease in aggregate output and an exchange rate appreciation.     

The economics of joint ventures in centrally planned and labor-managed economies

The paper analyzes the allocational and distributional issues connected with the operation of joint ventures by firms in Yugoslavia, several Eastern European countries and the People's Republic of China with Western firms. A variable-bargaining-power model is used to examine the behavior of joint ventures under the various institutional circumstances of these countries. Contrary to Brada's conclusions (J. Comp. Econ.1(2):167–181, June 1977), the present study indicates that the behavior of joint ventures in most of these countries is likely to be quite similar.     

Cocreating business's new social compact

Moving beyond decades of mutual distrust and animosity, corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are learning to cooperate with each other. Realizing that their interests are converging, the two sides are working together to create innovative business models that are helping to grow new markets and accelerate the eradication of poverty. The path to convergence has proceeded in three stages. In the initial be-responsible stage, companies and NGOs, realizing that they had to coexist, started to look for ways to influence each other through joint social responsibility projects. This experience paved the way for the get-into-business stage, in which NGOs and companies sought to serve the poor by setting up successful businesses. In the process, NGOs learned business discipline from the private sector, while corporations gained an appreciation for the local knowledge, low-cost business models, and community-based marketing techniques that the NGOs have mastered. Increased success on both sides has laid the foundation for the cocreate-business stage, in which companies and NGOs become key parts of each other's capacity to deliver value. When BP sought to market a duel-fuel portable stove in India, it set up one such cocreation system with three Indian NGOs. The system allowed BP to bring the innovative stove to a geographically dispersed market through myriad local distributors without incurring distribution costs so high that the product would become unaffordable. The company sold its stoves profitably, the NGOs gained access to a lucrative revenue stream that could fund other projects, and consumers got more than the ability to sit down to a hot meal-they got the opportunity to earn incomes as the local distributors and thus to gain economic and social influence.     

Macroeconomic Influences and the Variability of the Commodity Futures Basis

We provide evidence that the spread between commodity spot and futures prices (the basis) reflects the macroeconomic risks common to all asset markets. The basis of many commodities is correlated with the stock index dividend yield and corporate bond quality spread. Explanatory power is related to exposure to macroeconomic fluctuations: about 40 percent of the variation in the basis of a portfolio of commodities with high business cycle sensitivity is explained by the stock and bond yields. Further diagnostics indicate that these associations are largely due to the presence of risk premiums, rather than spot price forecasts, in the basis.     

When trade unions turn to litigation: ‘getting all the ducks in a row’

Driven by their members' demands and the need to adopt more combative legal strategies in order to oppose the deterioration of working and employment conditions, British trade unions have developed in‐house legal expertise and supported many individual and multiple claims. This article investigates the variation in unions' legal practices and examines their organisational responses to law and the role of compliance professionals in the regulation of employment litigation. It provides a nuanced account of the influence of legal rationality on the framing of union strategies and shows that, under certain conditions, trade unions are able to build multi‐pronged tactics by using litigation as a complement to other forms of action.