An assessment of the equality of access and no-regulation approaches to next generation networks

The European Commission believes that for the regulation of next generation fixed telecommunications networks the continuity approach is preferable to the equality of access approach and the no-regulation approach. According to the European Commission, (i) functional separation eliminates discrimination and promotes competition, but should only be used as a measure of last resort because it involves various complex trade-offs, whereas (ii) the no-regulation approach fosters investment, at the cost of sacrificing competition. The article agrees that functional separation involves complex trade-offs but disputes the assertion that functional separation necessarily eliminates discrimination and promotes competition. In addition, the article also establishes conditions under which the no-regulation approach does not reduce competition.     

The impact of exporting on firm productivity: a meta-analysis of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis

We conduct a meta-analysis of more than 30 papers that study the causal relationship between exporting and firm productivity. Our main result, robust to different specifications and to different weights for each observation, indicates that the impact of exporting upon productivity is higher for developing than developed economies. We also find that the export effect tends to be higher (1) in the first year that firms start exporting (compared to later years); and (2) when the sample used in the paper is not restricted to matched firms. Moreover, we find no evidence of publication bias.     

Do technology and manufacturing strategy links enhance operational performance? Empirical research in the auto supplier sector

Although much of the literature on manufacturing strategy (MS) and technology studies the implementation and impact of these manufacturing programs in isolation, this paper goes further by assessing the joint implementation and effect of these two manufacturing programs on performance, even when some contextual factors are present. Thus, this paper investigates how plants from the auto supplier sector make use of some operations practices from manufacturing strategy (MS) and from both product and process technology, by testing the effectiveness of both sets of practices, with the ultimate goal of enhancing operational performance. The results suggest that there are only very minor differences between high and standard performers on the aggregated level for technology practices, which may be the reason why technology does not result in significant performance differences between the two plant types. On the other hand, on the aggregated levels, there are somewhat greater differences for MS practices than for technology in both plant types, leading to larger differences in performance. While this study provides a foundation for examining MS, technology and context within a single framework, it is only through further research that a full understanding of the relationship between them will be obtained.     

Modelling economic growth with internal and external imbalances: Empirical evidence from Portugal

Thirlwall's Law considers that growth can be constrained by the balance-of-payments when the current account is in permanent deficit. The Law focuses on external imbalances as impediments to growth and does not consider the case where internal imbalances (budget deficits or public debt) can also constrain growth. The recent European public debt crisis shows that when internal imbalances are out of control they can constrain growth and domestic demand in a severe way. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by developing a growth model in line with Thirlwall's Law that takes into account both internal and external imbalances. The model is tested for Portugal which recently fell into a public debt crisis with serious negative consequences on growth. The empirical analysis shows that the growth rate in Portugal is in fact balance-of-payments constrained and the main drawback is the high import elasticity of the components of demand and in particular that of exports.     

How socially derived characteristics of technology shape the adoption of corporate Web 2.0 tools for collaboration

Socially derived characteristics (perceptions of individuals about technology-related characteristics) of Web 2.0 tools are not generally taken into account when decisions are made about which systems to use for collaboration in corporate settings. This exploratory research studies the influence of these characteristics—perceived compatibility, social presence, and group supportability—in the adoption of corporate blogs and validates a theory-grounded model with data from 73 employees. The results show that social presence and users’ values influence perceived usefulness of corporate blogs and play an important role in their adoption, while existing work practices, prior experience and group supportability do not.     

INTER-REGIONAL TRADE FLOW ESTIMATION THROUGH NON-SURVEY MODELS: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT

Inter-regional trade estimation has been pointed out as a crucial problem when constructing a multiregional input–output system. Knowledge of inter-regional trade flows, at least of the pooled volume of exports and imports by commodity, is critical in accounting for important spillover and feedback effects deriving from inter-regional linkages. However, in most countries, there are no completely reliable survey-based statistics on inter-regional trade. Thus, this paper intends to evaluate the reasonability of using indirect inter-regional trade estimates, comparing different estimating methods and assessing the sensitivity of the model results. Based on our empirical comparisons we conclude that input–output models are not greatly affected by the insertion of different trade values. Thus, our results support the use of indirect estimates for inter-regional trade, whenever survey-based data are unavailable.     

Money is an experience good: Competition and trust in the private provision of money

The interplay between competition and trust as efficiency-enhancing mechanisms in the private provision of money is studied. With commitment, trust is automatically achieved and competition ensures efficiency. Without commitment, competition plays no role. Trust does play a role but requires a bound on efficiency. Stationary inflation must be non-negative and, therefore, the Friedman rule cannot be achieved. The quality of money can be observed only after its purchasing capacity is realized. In this sense, money is an experience good.     

Alliances and other things

Every time we talk about alliances it is important to clarify what are we talking about. Obviously an acquisition is not an alliance. A McDonalds franchise is not an alliance. A contract to supply tyres for the new VW Beetle is not an alliance. We consider alliances to be other types of agreements between companies, affecting parts of their operations on a permanent or temporary basis, different from the conventional customer/supplier relationships, generally involving sharing resources in some way, while not preventing competition. We will refer in this presentation to alliances as situations where the partners do not individually have the necessary resources to accomplish whatever is their objective and then, they decide to combine their efforts sharing some of their resources. For example, if six airlines, including United and Lufthansa form the so-called Star Alliance, or if Coca-Cola and Nestle decide to get together to produce, sell and distribute Nestea, these are alliances. However, if General Mills decides to distribute its breakfast cereal in China through Nestle or Jaguar and Louis Vuitton decide to sponsor together a golf tournament, these are a conventional distribution agreement, and a conventional joint promotion. If Philips and Sony agreed in some way on the standards for the minidisk, or the high definition TV, things that I do not imply, I am not sure we could call this an alliance, I would call it just a non-competing agreement. Perhaps with a lot of sense, but, at the end, a non-competing agreement.     

Evaluation of the cognitive image of a country/destination by the media during the coverage of mega‐events: the case of UEFA EURO 2004TM in Portugal

By reporting a study undertaken during the final stages of the European Football Championships—UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) EURO 2004^TM, this paper aims to evaluate the cognitive image of a country/destination by the media during the coverage of mega‐events, which may in turn contribute to the field of tourism promotion and planning. By applying various statistical methods, it is possible not only to assess and identify the aspects which have contributed the most to the opinion‐forming of autonomous agents, but also to present empirical evidence of the influence of the organisation of this event on the image formation of the destination as a whole. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the relevance of exchange rate regimes for stabilization policy

This paper assesses the relevance of the exchange rate regime for stabilization policy. Using both fiscal and monetary policy, we conclude that the exchange rate regime is irrelevant. This is the case independently of the severity of price rigidities, independently of asymmetries across countries in shocks and transmission mechanisms. The only relevant conditions are on the mobility of labor and financial assets. The results can be summarized with the claim that every currency area is an optimal currency area. However, with labor mobility or tradable state-contingent assets, additional policy instruments would be required to establish the irrelevance result.