Product line extensions: causes and effects

In this paper, and using data from a sample of five US manufacturing industries, we study the implications of market demand growth on product line extensions and the effects of the latter on industry profit margins. Companies extend their product lines in response to expansions in market demand and this tends to depress profit margins in the industry. Finally, these results are quantitatively significant. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporary layoffs and split population models

This paper develops and estimates a split population model for the duration of temporary layoffs in the German labour market; the population being split according to whether a layoff is temporary or permanent. A flexible piecewise constant hazard is employed and the recall propensity is used to condition the duration of a temporary layoff. The distinction between factors that influence the recall propensity and factors that influence the duration of a temporary layoff is shown to be of empirical significance. The results of the paper are used to evaluate implicit contract and search theories of temporary layoffs. The paper suggests that implicit contracts can explain the behaviour of unemployed workers with high worker–firm attachment whilst search can explain the behaviour of workers with low worker–firm attachment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Production Structure, Technical Change, and Productivity Growth in Albanian Agriculture

This paper analyzes the production structure, technical change, and total factor productivity of Albanian agriculture during the postwar period. Albanian agriculture faced severe structural problems such as limited economies of scale, labor-using technical change, decreasing partial factor (land and labor) productivities, and slow growth of total factor productivity. Agricultural development in Albania was based mainly on input increases, which accounted for almost 90% of output growth. Consequently, the economic crisis appearing since 1990 is not due only to the adjustment process toward a market economy but has also been affected by the postwar agricultural development strategy.     

Evaluating currency crises: the case of the European monetary system

In this paper we examine the nature of currency crises. We ascertain whether the currency crises of the European Monetary System (EMS) were based either on fundamentals, or on self-fulfilling market expectations driven by extrinsic uncertainty. In particular, we extend previous work of Jeanne and Masson (J Int Econ 50:327–350, 2000) regarding the evaluation of currency crisis. We contribute to the existing literature proposing the use of Markov regime-switching with time-varying transition probability model. Our empirical results suggest that the currency crises of the EMS were not due only to market expectations driven by external uncertainty, or ‘sunspots’, but also to fundamental variables that help to explain the behavior of market expectations. We would like to thank Joseph Byrne, James Mitchell, Martin Weale and two anonymous referees for very useful comments and suggestions.     

Back to basics: The Comanor–Wilson MES index revisited

The present article attempts to investigate the validity of the Comanor–Wilson Minimum Efficient Size (MES) measure. The basic assumption is that firms that have exhausted scale economies are in non-increasing returns to scale. The same firms are also assumed to have a size greater than MES estimated on sales (total turnover), employment or fixed assets. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used, on a sample of firms in three Greek manufacturing industries, to classify firms in operation according to increasing or non-increasing returns to scale. On the basis of the results of the DEA input oriented model, the MES measure correctly predicts over 85% of the cases. A probit model is applied to those cases that are not identically predicted by MES concerning returns to scale. Results indicate that technical efficiency, size and age are the factors that compel MES to yield the same prediction as the DEA approach.

Are cooperatives the weakest link in European banking? A non-parametric metafrontier approach

This paper investigates the productive performance of cooperative banking firms as compared to their commercial and savings counterparts, accounting for technology heterogeneity due to different ownership in European banking. Based on the metafrontier notion, we introduce a methodology which allows the identification of technology gaps among different bank types and their decomposition into input- and output-invariant components. Our findings suggest that the type-specific frontier corresponding to cooperative banking firms lies, to its largest part, away from the European metafrontier. Furthermore, within the cooperative bank type a dichotomy seems to arise. The decomposition results suggest that the cooperatives’ technology gap is attributed to output production rather than input use.     

Provider involvement in business service definition: A typology

This paper proposes a typology for provider roles in defining business services. The starting point of the study is the underlying rationale of much of the service purchasing literature that buyers have or can easily access the necessary know-how to procure business services. If this does not hold, the implication is that buying firms would shy away from buying complex services. An alternative perspective recognizes that purchasing business services requires its own set of sourcing capabilities, which may be lacking. Buying firms may have limited know-how in terms of defining and articulating their requirements or not be fully aware of them in the first place. However, the buyer's lack of sourcing capabilities need not be an injunction to internalize the service. In these circumstances, service providers step in, help buying firms specify their requirements and play a key role in defining what is procured and how. We build on this interactive view of service definition to undertake a comparative case analysis of four business service contracting situations arrayed along two dimensions — buyer perceived uncertainty and provider's buyer-specific experience. We conclude that service providers play different roles in each case. These are classified as translating, re-engineering, developing, and fine-tuning roles.