A study and implementation of business-to-business e-commerce with the OBI standard

Internet based e-commerce has flourished in the business-to-consumer world. The lack of well-accepted standards is hindering the success in providing business-to-business e-commerce solutions. Open Buying on the Internet, or OBI, standard is one of the recent efforts in bringing business-to-business e-commerce into corporate purchasing. OBI is a common standard, based on the existing industry standards, that guides trading partners in implementing interoperable purchasing systems on the Internet. In this paper, we present a field study project on how companies may use OBI. We also survey the additional desirable services expected from managers who may use OBI-based e-commerce systems. We then describe a prototype implementation to enable the OBI capability in the IBM Net.Commerce merchant server software. With our implementation, existing merchant servers can be easily augmented to adopt the OBI standard for business-to-business e-commerce. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effects of offshoring to low-wage countries on domestic wages: a worldwide industrial analysis

This paper extends the literature on the implications of offshoring for labour markets by investigating its effect on the wages of different skill groups in a broad global context. The analysis draws on input–output data from the WIOD project, and in the panel analysed (13 manufacturing industries, 40 countries, 1995–2009) we account for up to 96 % of the international trade in manufacturing inputs. Being particularly interested in the wage effects of offshoring to low-wage countries (LWC), we use precise LWC classifications (varying across industries and time) to decompose overall offshoring by source country. We use a decomposition of the conventional offshoring measure in order to capture its pure international component, which is further instrumented using a gravity-based strategy. According to the estimation results, the negative impact of offshoring on wages mainly concerns low and medium skilled workers. However, in terms of magnitude, the downward pressure on domestic wages exhibited by offshoring to LWC is relatively small.     

The returns to promotion of healthy choices in Tasmania: are you in the dark about the power of mushrooms?

The Australian Mushroom Growers Association (AMGA) has recently developed a revised marketing strategy to promote mushrooms using messages based on scientific findings about the nutrition and health consequences of regularly incorporating mushrooms into meals. This article evaluates impacts based on a test‐market experiment in Tasmania. We use a difference‐in‐differences econometric methodology to quantify the programme‐induced shifts in demand, and we use the resulting estimates in a supply and demand modelling framework to quantify the effects of promotion‐induced demand shifts on prices, quantities, and measures of economic well‐being. We estimate a conservative benefit–cost ratio for Tasmanian producers of 7.6:1 if they were to bear the entire cost and 11.4:1 if the programme were financed by a levy on production (or spawn). The aggregate benefit–cost ratio, including benefits to consumers is also 11.4:1.     

Comercio y trabajo a la luz del pluralismo del Órgano de Apelación de la OMC

Los Acuerdos de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) pueden limitar la capacidad de sus Estados Miembros para reaccionar ante violaciones de los derechos y normas (internacionales) del trabajo tanto en su territorio como en el extranjero. Se expone aquí cómo el Órgano de Apelación de la OMC ha interpretado esos Acuerdos con un enfoque «pluralista», preservando el derecho de los Miembros a legislar, ampliando el alcance de las excepciones generales y atenuando los efectos desreguladores de ciertas disposiciones. Numerosas medidas de protección del trabajo podrían pues ser compatibles con las obligaciones de no discriminación del derecho mercantil internacional.     

UNPREPARED FOR FINANCIAL SHOCKS: EMERGENCY SAVINGS AND CREDIT CARD DEBT

We measure readiness to face emergency expenses using data from a representative survey of U.S. consumers. Our main findings are as follows: (1) there is substantial heterogeneity in financial readiness, with lowest‐income, least‐educated, unemployed, and Black consumers most likely to have $0 saved for emergency expenses; (2) the amount of emergency savings is correlated with payment choice: Less financially prepared individuals use cash more and credit cards less, compared to those with higher emergency savings; (3) while people with low emergency savings rely more on cash than credit cards, they revolve more debt, and so a financial shock is costlier for them; (4) changes in income from one year to the next do not appear to affect the likelihood of revolving on credit cards or increase the amount borrowed, although the data were collected before the COVID‐19 pandemic. For those with little or no savings and already financially vulnerable, even a temporary financial shock—an unexpected negative income shock (such as a layoff or a short‐term government shutdown) or an unexpected expenditure (such as a medical expense or a car repair)—could have severe financial consequences, exacerbated by the high cost of borrowing on credit cards. (JEL D12, D14, D15, E21)     

Ready to export? The role of export readiness for superior export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises

Drawing on the entrepreneurship perspective and the network-based view on internationalisation, this exploratory study contributes to our understanding of why some exporters succeed while others do not, through an empirical examination of export readiness factors. The paper provides an operationalisation of export readiness for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on a sample of 96 New Zealand SMEs, we find that export readiness is a complex construct involving finance, trade and exchange, and marketing. The study provides evidence that internal export stimuli are important antecedents of export readiness, while factors traditionally assumed to be critical to export success, such as importing and pre-export domestic expansion, may not be prerequisites to being export-ready. Finally, the study examines the link between export readiness and subsequent, initial export performance and finds a strong, positive relationship. Our study contributes to the export literature by providing a deeper and more integrated understanding of the antecedents of export readiness in a small, open economy, and its implications for subsequent export performance.     

Endogenous research and development spillovers and asymmetric firms

We examine an asymmetric research and development (R&D) duopoly, where firms differ in their research and development productivity, one firm being technologically advanced. We find that both firms can benefit and increase their profitability by entering into a voluntary information sharing agreement despite their asymmetry and highlight the conditions needed for such an agreement to take place.     

Rule of Law and Rules‐Lawyering: Legal Corruption and ‘Reprivatization Business’ in Warsaw

Delving into the nexus between the state and informality, this paper discusses the informality of the legal and judicial systems. Produced by structurally powerful actors, this kind of informality is not so much legitimized by the law, but concealed within the very process of legitimization. To capture how legal engineering welds formalized laws with informal translations, I look at judicial outcomes that, while formally legal, are socially delegitimized and perceived as legal corruption. After analysing the contested judicial outcomes of Warsaw's ‘reprivatization’ process (property restitution), I define the mechanism of legal corruption as rules‐lawyering, by which I mean an attempt to gain legal advantage by obsessively sticking to the written laws, while deliberately desecrating its spirit. I describe three of its mechanisms: appropriation, redefinition and fraud laundering. Finally, in my preliminary vivisection of the recent and ongoing process of delegalizing the legal corruption that has been part of the reprivatization process, all the allied concepts of this forum come together to demonstrate the essential inseparability of informality and state.