International evidence on misspecification of the standard money demand equation

This paper tests the proposition that the interest rate in the standard money demand equation acts as a proxy for the expected change in interest rates. If this is true, the interest elasticity in the standard equation will depend on the expectations process for interest rates. Using cross-country data, we find that there does exist a relationship between the observed interest elasticity in the standard equation and the predictability of future interest rates from current interest rates.     

Corporate goal structures and business students: A comparative study of values

Are the values of business students of today synchronized with the reality of the present business environment? Two hundred twenty-two business students rated the importance of twenty corporate goals. Moreover, the students rated the same goals as they perceived chief executive officers (CEOs) would have rated them. Significant differences were found between the two ratings, with students ranking social and employee-oriented goals as more important than they perceived CEOs would have.     

Blacks in rural America: Socioeconomic status and policies to enhance economic well-being

This research documents the disadvantaged status of rural blacks. Many indicators of economic well-being reveal that rural blacks lag behind both urban blacks and rural whites. Investments in human capital are critical for improving the economic status of rural blacks; public assistance and equal opportunity policies are also important. Financing alternative policies remains a major constraint to reducing the disparity between the economic well-being of rural blacks and their white counterparts and between blacks in rural and urban communities.     

LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION, RACE AND HUMAN CAPITAL: INFLUENCE ON EARNINGS DISTRIBUTIONS ACROSS STATES

In this paper we analyze the level of income inequality across states in 1970 and 1980 for several demographic groups. Furthermore, we examine the impact of labor force participation (LFP), education and other variables on inequality. We find that for tshe whole population, states with high LFP by females are states with low income inequality. The same holds true for states with high LFP for men. When we disaggregate by race, the results are quite consistent for whites, but not for blacks. States with relatively high education levels are associated with high inequality levels for the white cohort and the whole population, but there appears to be no similar association between education and inequality across states for blacks.     

New development: Implementing and evaluating government strategic plans—the Europe 2020 Strategy

ABSTRACT

This article examines the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The authors analysed the strategic and management plans of the European Commission’s directorates-general (DGs) to identify the main and dominant discourses in the documents. The supplementing or supplanting of the simple strategy framework of the early years by a political framework after 2014 can be seen as caused by an interaction between rational management evaluation on one hand and political values and will on the other.     

Managing information sharing: Interorganizational communication in collaborations with competitors

A key challenge for managing interorganizational relationships in high-tech sectors is to design information sharing practices for supporting cooperative activities without leaking competitive proprietary information. In this paper, we use a qualitative multi-case study to explore the role of communication in supporting cooperative information sharing while keeping competitive information concerns at bay. We study two contrasting dyads of a Taiwanese buyer and Korean supplier in the digital home entertainment industry --- one which was a successful interorganizational relationship and led to further collaboration and the other which was unsuccessful and thus terminated. Drawing insights from Media Synchronicity Theory (MST), we develop a process model that explores the combination of communication media with communication content and processes for effective (ineffective) communication that promotes trust, information sharing and open communication in successful (unsuccessful) interorganizational relationships.     

The governance of agro- and pharmaceutical biotechnology innovation: Public policy and industrial strategy

Multinational companies in the life science sector are heavily influenced by government policies and regulations and in turn attempt to influence these actors nationally and internationally. This paper focuses on recent and on-going research, principally on the agro-biotechnology and, to a lesser extent, on the pharmaceutical industries, covering the evolution of policy and regulation in Europe, how policies are influenced by stakeholder pressures and how policy in turn influences company strategies for product development. We focus particularly on new ‘governance’ agendas in Europe and consider the relative impacts of enabling, constraining, discriminating and indiscriminate policies on company strategies as part of our development of an integrated approach to policy and governance. We also consider changes in external operating environments for multinational companies and compare past histories and present pressures on agro-biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The paper argues, with evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating policy and regulatory environment can achieve public goals more efficiently and effectively, taking account of impacts on innovation, than more blunt policy instruments. This type of environment takes into account the resources and capabilities available to firms and research laboratories rather than relying on broad brush carrot and stick approaches.     

The IMF and the Liberalization of Capital Flows

We evaluate the claim that the International Monetary Fund precipitated financial crises during the 1990s, by pressuring countries to liberalize their capital accounts prematurely. Using data from a panel of developing economies from 1982–98, we examine whether the changes in the regime governing capital flows took place during participation in IMF programs. We find evidence that IMF program participation is correlated with capital account liberalization episodes during the 1990s. We verify the robustness of our results using alternative indicators of capital account openness. To determine whether decontrol was premature, we compare the economic and financial characteristics of countries that decontrolled during IMF programs with those of countries who did so independently, and find some evidence of IMF-led premature liberalizations.     

Insolvency practice in the field of football

This paper is concerned with UK insolvency practice. It considers how the field of insolvency has developed since the passing of the Insolvency Act 1986 through a Bourdieusian theoretical lens. The case of the administration of Gretna football club is presented as a “special case of what is possible” to enable one to consider “the deepest logic of the social world” (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 4). Football is a field with its own complex insolvency rules which are incommensurable with the Insolvency Act. The case therefore presents an opportunity to reveal that whether insolvency laws are applied or not is determined by a complex socio-political process. Through revealing the socio-political process the paper problematises the notion that insolvency practice is neutral.