On sustained economic growth with wealth effects

In a discounted one-sector convex model of optimal economic growth where utility may depend on both consumption and capital stock, I derive necessary and sufficient conditions for sustained growth (unbounded expansion of capital and consumption). Conditions for bounded growth and extinction are also outlined. Optimal paths may be non-monotone. Sustained growth may occur even though the asymptotic marginal productivity is less than the discount rate and may require the initial capital stock to be above a critical level. The behavior of the marginal rate of substitution between consumption and capital plays a crucial role in the conditions.     

Farmers' Preference for Farming: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Farm Survey in India

Using data from a nationally representative farm survey in India, we have analyzed Indian farmers' stated preference for farming as a profession. Findings show that more than 40% of farmers dislike farming as a profession because of low profits, high risk, and lack of social status, yet they continue with it owing to a lack of opportunities outside agriculture. Farmers who express a preference for moving out of agriculture are mostly those with small landholdings, poor irrigation facilities, fewer productive assets including livestock, and follow a cereal‐centric cropping pattern. They also have relatively lower access to credit, insurance, and information, and are weakly integrated with social networks such as self‐help groups and farmers' organizations. Importantly, the disinclination for farming, conditional on other covariates, is not significantly differentiated by caste, an important indicator of social status in rural India. Yet, within a caste group, the dislike for farming moderates with larger landholdings.     

Do Potential Skilled Emigrants Care about Political Stability at Home?

In this paper, we consider the role of political stability in the source country as a potential reason for skilled emigration. We control for all prospective source country characteristics, and yet skilled emigration is seen to be driven by a relatively better situation of political stability in the home country. Our research clearly shows that government stability, socioeconomic conditions, investment profiles, democratic accountability, internal conflict, and ethnic tensions in source nations have significant impacts on the rate of skilled emigration for a sample of developed and developing countries. The results retain robustness even for a subset of only developing nations.     

Industry dynamics: Foundations for models with an infinite number of firms

This paper explores the connection between three important threads of economic research offering different approaches to studying the dynamics of an industry with heterogeneous firms. Finite models of the form pioneered by Ericson and Pakes (1995) capture the dynamics of a finite number of heterogeneous firms as they compete in an industry, and are typically analyzed using the concept of Markov perfect equilibrium (MPE). Infinite models of the form pioneered by Hopenhayn (1992), on the other hand, consider an infinite number of infinitesimal firms, and are typically analyzed using the concept of stationary equilibrium (SE). A third approach uses oblivious equilibrium (OE), which maintains the simplifying benefits of an infinite model but within the more realistic setting of a finite model. The paper relates these three approaches. The main result of the paper provides conditions under which SE of infinite models approximate MPE of finite models arbitrarily well in asymptotically large markets. Our conditions require that the distribution of firm states in SE obeys a certain “light-tail” condition. In a second set of results, we show that the set of OE of a finite model approaches the set of SE of the infinite model in large markets under a similar light-tail condition.     

The Effect of Risk Context on the Value of a Statistical Life: a Bayesian Meta-model

This paper presents the first value of statistical life (VSL) meta-analysis that empirically estimates correction factors for ‘out of context’ benefits transfer (BT) purposes. In the field of mortality risk reductions elicited willingness to pay values in one risk context, say road safety, are frequently applied in other risk contexts like air pollution. However, differences in risk perception and the population at risk across contexts are likely to result in diverging VSL estimates. In a meta-analysis of 26 international stated preference studies, a Bayesian model is estimated regressing contingent values for mortality risk reductions, originating from three different risk contexts, on the characteristics of the risk reduction itself and additional variables characterizing the underlying studies. A willingness to pay (WTP) premium for mortality risk reductions in the air pollution and general mortality risk context relative to improving road safety is observed. Evaluated at the mean, road safety VSL estimates should be multiplied by a factor 1.8 before being applicable in the air pollution context. Moreover, in an illustrative BT exercise we find limited overlap in the set of context specific predictive VSL distributions. Consequently, ‘out of context’ BT results in a substantial over- or underestimation of the VSL.     

Candidate gene studies and the quest for the entrepreneurial gene

Candidate gene studies of human behavior are gaining interest in economics and entrepreneurship research. Performing and interpreting these studies is not straightforward because the selection of candidates influences the interpretation of the results. As an example, Nicolaou et al. (Small Bus Econ 36:151?C155, 2011) report a significant association between a common genetic variant in the DRD3 gene and the tendency to be an entrepreneur. We fail to replicate this finding using a much larger, independent dataset. In addition, we discuss the candidate gene approach and give suggestions to avoid the publication of false positives.     

宝洁公司在RFID技术应用中的实践

宝洁公司对RFID技术的应用方式非常了解。早在第二次世界大战之后它就开始了RFID技术的研究,并且意识到此项技术的研发能够提供所需的信息和管理办法。当前的供应链系统被看成是到处充满各种暗示的猜谜游戏,因此RFID技术的研究是非常必要的。随着研究工作的不断深入,越来越多的公司加入其中。     

Technical Efficiency and Farmers' Attitudes toward Technological Innovation: The Case of the Potato Farmers in Quebec

The research reported in this paper uses a deterministic statistical frontier production function to estimate the Quebec potato farmers' technical efficiency. Also, the relationship between technical efficiency and conservation technologies adoption is estimated. Results show that the average potato farm is 80% efficient, implying that some improvements in technical efficiency are still possible. In addition, farming experience and the adoption of conservation technologies are both significant variables for improving technical efficiency. Furthermore, efficient farmers are more likely than others to invest in conservation practices.
Cette recherche utilise une fonction de production frontière déterministe pour: i) estimer I'efficacité technique des producteurs de pommes de terre du Quebec et ii) établir la relation entre cette efficacité et la velléité des producteurs à adopter des technologies et des pratiques culturales conservatrices de l'environnement. Les résultats montrent qu'en moyenne, les producteurs de pommes de terre du Québec sont efficace à 80%. Ceci signifie qu'une amélioration du niveau d'efficacité technique demeurepossible. De plus, I'expérience agricole et I'adoption de technologies conservatrices de I'environnement se sont avérées des variables significatives pour expliquer les différences des niveaux d'efficacité technique des fermes. Par ailleurs, les fermiers efficaces semblent plus portés que les autres à investir dans technologies et des pratiques culturales conservatrices de I'environnement.     

Capitalism and democracy in the 21st Century: from the managed to the entrepreneurial economy*

 This paper explains how and why the developed countries are undergoing a fundamental shift away from a managed economy and towards an entrepreneurial economy. This shift is shaping the development of western capitalism and has triggered a shift in government policies away from constraining the freedom of business to contract through regulation, public ownership and antitrust towards a new set of enabling policies which foster the creation and commercialization of new knowledge. The empirical evidence from a cross-section of countries over time suggests that those countries that have experienced a greater shift from the managed to the entrepreneurial economy have had lower levels of unemployment.     

Empirical Tests of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis When Environmental Regulation is Endogenous

The pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) posits that production within polluting industries will shift to locations with lax environmental regulation. While straightforward, the existing empirical literature is inconclusive owing to two shortcomings. First, unobserved heterogeneity and measurement error are typically ignored due to the lack of a credible, traditional instrumental variable for regulation. Second, geographic spillovers have not been adequately incorporated into tests of the PHH. We overcome these issues utilizing two novel identification strategies within a model incorporating spillovers. Using US state‐level data, own environmental regulation negatively impacts inbound foreign direct investment. Moreover, endogeneity is both statistically and economically relevant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.