Non-Walrasian decentralization of the core

We show that in large finite economies, core allocations can be approximately decentralized as Nash (rather than Walras) equilibrium. We argue that this exercise is an essential complement to asymptotic core equivalence results, because it implies that in some approximate sense individual attempts to manipulate the decentralizing prices cannot be beneficial, which fits precisely the interpretation of asymptotic core convergence, namely the emergence of price taking.     

Scale And Scope In Technology: Large Firms 1930/1990

We examine historical empirical patterns of change in corporate. technological scale and scope. Much literature on scale and scope by business and economic historians has conflated product markets and technology together. However, given the technologically complex environment of the late twentieth century, the relationship between scale and scope in production and products is not simple, and conflated discussions may be naive. Consequently we have two aims. Firstly, we wish to see if technological scale and scope follow the historical pattern of broader notions of scale and scope. Secondly, given increasing technological complexity, we consider whether the nature of corporate technological scope has changed over time.

Using data drawn from the University of Reading's patents database, we examine the technological activities in 32 of the world's historically largest patenting firms over the period 1930 to 1990. Shin-sham analyses based on panel-data regressions examine the different influences on technologicascope over time. A technological trend closely resembling that of broader notions of scale to scope is observable in most of the sectors. although it does not proceed uniformly. We also find, that whilst increases in corporate technological scope through diversification are not particularly linked to technological relatedness in recent times, they are periodically influenced by the rise of pervasive, fast-growing new technologies.     

Contributions to Law and Economics: A Survey of Recent Books

The interaction between law and economics has become an important specialty of the economics discipline. This article reviews several of the important books in this field and the schools of thought they embody. The review provides a useful guide for personal reading in this specialty as well as for course needs.     

Without judgment: An empirically-based entrepreneurial theory of the firm

Austrian ideas about the firm have grown rather naturally out of the central body of Austrian thought with its focus on entrepreneurship, subjectivism and market processes. In this paper we critically evaluate some Austrian ideas on the firm, with particular attention to the concept of entrepreneurial judgment. We then describe recent empirical work in entrepreneurship that has identified key elements of what might reside inside the “black box” of entrepreneurial decision making. We conclude that expertise in this type of decision making embodies procedural knowledge that is adaptive in the absence of substantive knowledge, i.e. without judgment.     

PROFIT MARGINS INQUIRY: Note on alternative hypotheses as to the determination of Profit Margins

This paper surveys the various accounts offered by Marxian economists for the ending of the long postwar boom. All focus on the decline in profitability, but they offer different expalanations. Three principal categories of crisis theory are distinguished: underconsumption; Marx's ‘Volume III’ falling rate of profit analysis; and several versions of overaccumulation theory, in particular the French regulation school and the North American discussion of the social structure of accumulation. A separate section deals with the relationship between the capitalist state and the crisis. Some general conclusions are drawn concerning the current nature of Marxian economic theory.     

Unions,wages and productivity: some evidence from UK engineering firms

Estimates of union wage and productivity effects are derived using primary micro-level panel data for a sample of firms in the UK engineering industry. Union wage differentials of the order of 10% are suggested from the results, whereas union productivity impacts appear to be non-linear with respect to union density.     

Equilibrium Search Models and the Transition From School To Work

This paper applies the Burdett–Mortensen (1998) equilibrium search model to study the school to work transitions of U.S. high school graduates. We consider the case of discrete firm heterogeneity and provide a computational method to obtain the MLE. Our results show that unemployed blacks receive fewer offers than whites and employed blacks are more likely to lose their jobs. Importantly, employed blacks and whites receive job offers at the same rate. Assigning the whites' search parameters to the blacks and re-solving reveals that 75 percent of the observed wage differential is explained by the job destruction rate differences.     

Bilateral Tax Treaties and GDP Comovement

Using a 30‐year panel of quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) fluctuations from of a broad set of countries, we demonstrate that the signing of a bilateral tax treaty increases the comovement of treaty partners' business cycles by half a standard deviation. This effect of fiscal policy is as large as the effect of trade linkages on comovement and stronger than the effects of several other common financial and investment linkages. We also show that bilateral tax treaties increase comovement in shocks to nations' GDP trends, demonstrating the permanent effects of coordination on fiscal policy rules. We estimate trend and business cycle components of nations' output series using an unobserved‐components model in order to measure comovement between countries and then estimate the impact of tax treaties using generalized estimating equations.