Understanding types of organizational networking behaviors in the UK manufacturing sector

This research is aimed at understanding firms' different types of ‘networking behaviors’, i.e., how and why firms affect their strategic network position by activities/routines/practices aimed not just at their business partners, but beyond such direct relationships. Thus, we adopt a network perspective to examine how firms exploit their webs of direct and indirect business relationships in order to assess and embrace the potential opportunities and constraints in the network. Based on the industrial network approach (INA), this exploratory research specifically focuses on networking behaviors in the UK manufacturing sector. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews with executive managers from fifteen firms were conducted. We identify four types of organizational networking behaviors by the way in which firms utilize their web of relationships to achieve certain goals. By using the concept of networking behaviors based on the INA as well as the strong-and-weak-tie argument in economic sociology, purposeful networking behaviors can be categorized into the following: information acquisition, opportunity enabling, strong-tie resource mobilization and weak-tie resource mobilization. These four ‘types’ of organizational networking behaviors provide a deeper understanding of how firms operating in business-to-business exchanges relate to and exploit their webs of direct and indirect relationships, taking into consideration the embeddedness and interconnectedness of the network context.     

Does more medical care improve population health? New evidence for an old controversy

This article investigates the aggregate relationship between medical care and health for the US population. I use annual state level panel data for the period 1983 to 2000 to estimate static and dynamic health production function models. I find no compelling evidence that greater aggregate utilization of medical care from application of existing technology improves population health by lowering mortality in the short run or long run. My results suggest that development of new medical technologies that diffuse rapidly throughout the nation and at different rates across states may well explain much of the decline in the age-adjusted death rate over the past several decades, as well as persistent differences in mortality across geographic regions. Overall, my findings suggest that the US may be experiencing ‘flat of the curve medicine’ with future improvements in mortality from medical care coming from new and better technologies rather than greater intensity of services.     

Carbon sequestration and farm income in West Africa: Identifying best management practices for smallholder agricultural systems in northern Ghana

The interest in agricultural soils as global storage of carbon has increased in recent years, along with the prospect of farmers' participation in payment schemes under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol. Thus, a better understanding of agricultural practices that can increase soil carbon and enhance the livelihoods of farmers is necessary, particularly in smallholder farming systems of West Africa. This study evaluates different crop management strategies both by their capacity to sequester carbon in agricultural soils and by their contribution to household income. A case study in Wa, Upper West Region of Ghana is used to test 48 different cropping strategies by means of a crop simulation model and a household-level multiple-criteria optimisation model. Each cropping strategy is evaluated after a 20-year simulation period by its capacity to accrue carbon in the soil, by its economic performance at the plot-level, and by its contribution to the farm income with and without carbon payments. A set of best management practices that concomitantly increase soil carbon and farm income are identified and classified by their cost of investment.     

The Impact of Corporate Governance on IFRS Adoption Choices

We investigate the association between corporate governance strength and EU listed firms' choices with respect to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in 2005. We measure governance strength by aggregating variables such as board independence, board functioning and audit committee effectiveness. The firms exhibit heterogeneity in both compliance and disclosure quality; some firms do not even meet the minimum disclosure requirements. Regression results show that stronger governance firms disclose more information, comply more fully and use IAS 39's carve-out provision less opportunistically. These findings are germane to accountants, managers and regulators in countries soon to adopt IFRS.     

Resolving the unbiasedness and forward premium puzzles

There are two unresolved puzzles in the foreign exchange literature. The unbiasedness puzzle – the finding of a marked difference in the conclusion about the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis depending on whether the hypothesis is tested using the forward rate equation or forward premium equation, and the forward premium puzzle – the fact that more often than not the forward premium incorrectly predicts the direction of the subsequent change in the spot rate. This paper resolves both puzzles.     

Structural change in the Russian far east: The implications for trade and factor markets

This study compares actual directions of structural adjustment in the Russian Far East since the collapse of the former Soviet Union with estimated directions of adjustment that would be predicted to follow an opening of the region to the world market. How would moving to world prices affect the competitiveness of individual sectors of the Russian Far East? This author estimates the impact of changing terms of trade by revaluing a 1987 input-output table for the Russian Far East by price relatives between internal Soviet prices and world prices estimated by David Tarr [1992]. These estimates measure apparent competitiveness of each sector at world prices and identify four sectors of the Russian Far East—food processing, forest products, light industry, and the chemical industry—as negative value added sectors at world prices. However, actual short-run directions of adjustment in 1992–94 are only partly consistent with the directions predicted in the model. Measured gains from trade are strong on the import side but not on the export side.     

The Relative Size of Banks and Industrial Firms in Japan, The U.S. and the EEC

This paper shows that Japanese banks are unusually large when compared to banks and industrial corporations from the four major EEC countries and the U.S. It argues that they are so large as to raise a question regarding the ability of EEC and U.S. banks to compete in the supply of credit to industry. It also argued that monetary unification in the EEC, the EEC's 1992 financial services program, and the dismantling of Glass-Steagall in the U.S. are the appropriate policy responses. Such changes should lead to a reduction in the regulatory and other costs that forestall the expansion of EEC and American banks. In particular, they should reduce the relative cost-of-capital advantage of Japanese banks.     

The expectation hypothesis of the term structure of very short-term rates: Statistical tests and economic value

This paper reexamines the validity of the expectation hypothesis (EH) of the term structure of US repo rates ranging in maturity from overnight to 3 months. We extend the work of Longstaff [2000b. The term structure of very short term rates: new evidence for the expectations hypothesis. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 397–415] in two directions: (1) we implement statistical tests designed to increase test power in this context; (2) more important, we assess the economic value of departures from the EH based on criteria of profitability and economic significance in the context of a simple trading strategy. The EH is rejected throughout the term structure examined on the basis of the statistical tests. However, the results of our economic analysis are favorable to the EH, suggesting that the statistical rejections of the EH in the repo market are economically insignificant.