Scale,Technique and Composition Effects in Manufacturing SO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions

Combining two data sources on emissions with value-added and employment data, this paper constructs six data bases on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) intensities that vary across countries, sectors and years. This allows us to perform a growth decomposition exercise where the change in world manufacturing emissions is decomposed into scale, composition and technique effects. The sample covers the period 1990–2000, and includes 62 countries that account for 76% of world-wide emissions. While manufacturing activity has increased by a rough 10% (scale effect), we estimate that emissions have fallen by about 10%, thanks to the adoption of cleaner production techniques (the technique effect) and a small shift towards cleaner industries (between-sector effect). As output and productivity gains have been biased towards large emerging countries like China and India, which are both clean in terms of emissions per unit labor and dirty in terms of emissions per dollar, the sign and magnitude of the between-country effect depends on the choice regarding the scaling factor ( − 2% for employment,  + 25% for value-added, with a corresponding adjustment of the technique effect). The paper also shows that these estimates are robust to changes in aggregation across entities (regions or countries) and across industries, and that composition changes are correlated with changes in prices and trade intensities.

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Structural and competitive determinants of globally oriented small- and medium-sized enterprises: An empirical analysis

This paper examines the factors influencing the internationalization of the activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an entrepreneurial response to the opportunities and threats posed by the increasing globalization of the economic system. Findings from agricultural equipment manufacturers indicate that size, international experience, innovation, and distinctiveness have a direct influence on the degree in internationalization by SMEs. Scanning, learning, and networking have some influence on the extent of internationalization of SME activities but only indirectly through other variables. Competition intensity and uncertainty also have an indirect impact on internationalization, but standardization does not. Relative importance of each determinant is ascertained and the impact of SME internationalization activities on performance is assessed.     

On the performance of the tick test

In financial research, the sign of a trade (or identity of trade aggressor) is not always available in the transaction dataset and it can be estimated using a simple set of rules called the tick test. In this paper we investigate the accuracy of the tick test from an analytical perspective by providing a closed formula for the performance of the prediction algorithm. By analyzing the derived equation, we provide formal arguments for the use of the tick test by proving that it is bounded to perform better than chance (50/50) and that the set of rules from the tick test provides an unbiased estimator of the trade signs. On the empirical side of the research, we compare the values from the analytical formula against the empirical performance of the tick test for fifteen heavily traded stocks in the Brazilian equity market. The results show that the formula is quite realistic in assessing the accuracy of the prediction algorithm in a real data situation.     

EX-DIVIDEND DAY PRICE CHANGES AND IMPLIED TAX RATES: AN EVALUATION

The ratio of price changes to dividends is sometimes used to assess personal tax rates and detect tax clientele for dividends. It is suggested here that the model is unable to detect possible tax effects, given the sample sizes available to most researchers.     

On the design of invoicing practices in international trade

We advance an explanation for the choice of the invoice currency of international trade contracts on the basis of strategic bargaining considerations. The choice of the invoice currency originates in a situation in which each trader takes into account the other party's bargaining power. The latter depends on the individual discount factor, whether one is the first or second proposer, and whether one is on the short or long side of the market. Along these lines we explain the Grassman bias for trade contracts to be invoiced in the exporter's currency.     

Mortality risks,education and child labor

In this paper, we investigate the role of young adult mortality on child labor and educational decisions. We argue that mortality risks are a major source of risks in returns to education in developing countries. We show that, in the absence of appropriate insurance mechanisms, the level of child labor is inefficient, but it can be too high or too low. It is too high when parents are not very altruistic and anticipate positive transfers from their children in the future. Uncertain returns to education, endogenous mortality or imperfect capital markets unambiguously increase child labor. When the level of child labor is inefficiently high, we also show that a cash transfer conditional on child's schooling can always restore efficiency regarding child labor.     

Investment coordination and demand complementarities

Summary. This paper establishes necessary conditions for demand complementarity to imply investment coordination failure and explores the welfare implications of coordinated investment. Our main results caution against demand complementarities as a motive for investment coordination. We find that: 1) generally, a strict notion of complementarity (Hicks) is necessary for the existence of an investment coordination problem and 2) that when the problem does exist, coordination lowers social welfare without countervailing sectoral asymmetries. Received: June 19, 1996; revised version: December 5, 1997     

Regulation and Productivity

We investigate the impact of occupational safety and health (OSH) and environmental regulation on the rate of growth of total factor productivity (TFP) in the Quebec manufacturing sector during the 1985–88 period. Our results show that environmental regulation and OSH protective reassignments (a prevention policy with respect to OSH) have led to a reduction in productivity growth, while the presence of mandatory prevention programs and of fines for infractions to OSH rules have led to an increase in productivity growth. Interestingly, this is, to our knowledge, the first result showing that OSH regulation may have had a positive effect on productivity growth.