Dealing with demand forecasting games in transport privatization

Privatization has increased the number of players in the decision-making process for major transport investment decisions. The main argument of this paper is that this fragmentation is creating opportunities for strategic decision-making by each actor and that this is particularly obvious in the context of demand forecasting. This paper explores some of the specific causes and consequences of this new situation, including the perverse incentives, linked to the diversity of the objectives across the actors and to the risk allocation induced by the regulatory regime. It illustrates the issues and possible solutions from a wide range of modal and country experiences. In particular, it discusses the role of the newly independent sector regulators in reconciling these diverse goals and their limitations in view of the major information asymmetries problems they face.     

Input Chains and Industrialization

A key aspect of industrialization is the adoption of increasing-returns-to-scale, industrial , technologies. Two other well-documented aspects are that industrial technologies (ITs) are adopted throughout intermediate-input chains and that they use intermediate inputs intensively relative to the technologies they replace. These features of ITs combined imply that countries with access to similar technologies may have very different levels of industrialization and aggregate income, even if the degree of increasing returns to scale at the firm level is relatively small. Furthermore, a minor improvement in the productivity of ITs can trigger full-scale industrialization and a large increase in aggregate income.     

Introverts abroad? Long-term visitors' adaptations to the multicultural tourism context of Costa Blanca,Spain

Many people from North-Western Europe have quite long stays in Mediterranean Spain, partly related to phenomena such as ‘wintering’, seasonal movements and sabbatical holidays, for the most part dwelling in their own houses or apartments. This paper explores intercultural relations of long-term visitors and it raises some questions on differentiation and dedifferentiation in the consolidated holidaymaking context of Costa Blanca (Alicante, Spain). The paper includes visitors' assessments of certain central aspects of their (temporary) life in Spain, based on an exit survey. It is revealed that long-term visitors have far more varied and wide-ranging adjustments to their new and/or temporary surroundings than is usually assumed in news media and in some previous scholarly works. The study also demonstrates that generalised views depicting long-term visitors as secluded and living predominantly in compatriot enclaves are too simple, especially in long-established holiday destination areas. A considerable proportion of long-term visitors make an effort to relate to the language, culture, and social conditions of the host society. It is argued that a more nuanced and complex analysis is needed in order to describe the varied life situations of sojourners and other long-term visitors in Mediterranean Spain.     

Management of capabilities and situations in R&D centres: the matrix of competences

The paper presents the first results of research carried out by the authors in the research centre of an important Italian industrial group. The management of the centre is strongly interested in new methodological approaches to identify and to represent individual competences. To satisfy this specific need, the authors suggest a method based on the matrix of competences that is the set of relationships between capabilities and situations. The situations and the capabilities are identified by analysing the judgements that other subjects, internal or external to the organization, express on an individual's behaviour.
A sample of fifteen individuals has been investigated in order to identify their individual competences and the most significant situations within the centre. For each individual a network of subjects, the supervisor and some clients and collaborators, has been considered. On the basis of the results, the implications for management are discussed, with particular regard to the design of new procedures for personnel evaluation.     

Intra-industry trade and inter-industry specialization as concurrent sources of International Trade in manufactures

Zusammenfassung Intra-industrieller Handel und interindustrielle Spezialisierung als Ursachen des internationalen Handels mit Industrieerzeugnissen. — Der Hauptzweck dieses Aufsatzes ist es, zur besseren Einsch?tzung der empirischen Relevanz von Intra-Handel und industrieller Spezialisierung als gleichzeitige Quellen des internationalen Handels mit Industrieerzeugnissen beizutragen. Nach einigen überlegungen zur theoretischen Natur des Ph?nomens des Intra-Handels wird gezeigt, daβ die Indizes, die Grubel und Lloyd zur Messung seiner empirischen Relevanz vorgeschlagen haben, dann ganz unzuverl?ssig sind, wenn sich der Gesamthandel des Landes in einem erheblichen Ungleichgewicht befindet. Es werden andere Mase für den Intra-Handel vorgeschlagen, die nicht mit diesen M?ngeln behaftet zu sein scheinen, und die groβen Unterschiede im empirischen Verhalten der verschiedenen Indizes werden an Hand des Handels mit Industriewaren im Jahre 1972 gezeigt. Dann wird die Beziehung zwischen der Export- und der Importstruktur für Industriewaren untersucht mit dem überraschenden Ergebnis, daβ ein Land dann, wenn es verh?ltnism?βig groβe Mengen eines Gutes exportiert, im allgemeinen auch verh?ltnism?βig viel davon importiert. Schlieβlich untersucht die Arbeit auf Jahres-basis die Ver?nderungen des Ausmaβes der interindustriellen Spezialisierung im Zeitraum 1951–1974. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daβ das Ausmaβ der interindustriellen Spezialisierung in diesem Zeitraum recht begrenzt war und sogar im Laufe der Zeit abgenommen hat.

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Résumé Le commerce intra-industriel et la spécialisation inter-industrielle comme des sources concurrentes du commerce international en produits manufacturiers. — Le but essentiel de cet article est de contribuer à une détermination meilleure de l’importance empirique du commerce intra-industriel et de la spécialisation inter-industrielle comme de sources concurrentes du commerce international avec des produits manufacturiers. Après quelques réflexions sur la nature théorique du phénomène du commerce intra-industriel nous démontrons que les indices proposés par Grubel et Lloyd pour mesurer son importance empirique sont toujours entièrement douteux si le commerce total du pays est substantiellement disbalancé. Nous proposons quelques mesures différentes du commerce intra-industriel qu’elles ne semblent pas être influé par ces défauts et nous démontrons les grandes différences de la performance empirique des indices différents concernant le réseau du commerce avec des produits manufacturiers en 1972. Puis nous analysons la relation entre les réseaux d’exportation et d’importation des produits manufacturiers avec le résultat étonnant que si un pays exporte relativement beaucoup d’un produit il normalement veut aussi importer relativement beaucoup du même produit. Finalement, le papier analyse sur une base annuelle les changes de l’étendue de la spécialisation inter-industrielle en produits manufacturiers en cours de la période 1951–1974. Les résultats démontrent que l’étendue de la spécialisation inter-industrielle en produits manufacturiers était assez limitée en cours de cette période et même déclinait en cours du temps.

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Resumen Comercio intra-industrial y especialización inter-industrial como fuentes concurrentes del comercio internacional en manufacturas. — El principal propósito de este artículo es contribuir a un mejor entendimiento de la relevancia empírica del comercio intra-industrial y de la especialización inter-industrial como fuentes concurrentes del comercio internacional en bienes manufacturados. Después de algunas reflexiones acerca de la naturaleza teórica del fenómeno del comercio intra-industrial se muestra, que los índices propuestos por Grubel y Lloyd para medir su relevancia empírica son poco confiables en el caso que el comercio total de un país está sustancialmente desequilibrado. Se proponen medidas diferentes del comercio intra-industrial que parecen no ser afectadas por estas limitaciones y se muestran las grandes diferencias en el desempe?o empírico de los distintos índices con respecto al partón de comercio en manufacturas de 1972. En seguida se investiga la relación entre los patrones de exportación e importación de manufacturas con el resultado sorprendente, que cuando un país exporta relativamente mucho de un bien también importará relativamente mucho del mismo bien. Finalmente, el artículo investiga sobre una basis anual los cambios en la magnitud de la especialización inter-industrial en manufacturas parael periodo 1951–1974. Los resultados muestran, que la magnitud de la especialización inter-industrial en manufacturas ha sido bastante limitada a través de este período e incluso ha declinado a través del tiempo.

     

Career concerns and peer effects in institutional tournaments: Evidence from ECB reserve currency portfolios

Using data on European Central Bank's (ECB's) reserve currency portfolios, we find that money managers react to relative rankings (i.e., own vs. peers’ performance) by adjusting portfolio active risk levels measured ex ante by actual deviations from their benchmark. This occurs in the absence of explicit incentives as no monetary reward is promised for winning this “tournament” among portfolio managers. We collect information on managers’ characteristics, including age, education, tenure, salary, and career path, and investigate the role played by implicit incentives. We provide evidence that both individual career concerns and institutional peer pressure contribute to the documented relationship between ranking and risk taking.     

Explaining Differences in Milk Quota Values: The Role of Economic Efficiency

This article explores the relationship between milk quota values and economic efficiency in order to analyze government interventions in quota allocations among producers. For this purpose, we estimate quota values using a panel of Spanish dairy farms. Quota values are then decomposed into economic efficiency, price, and scale effects in order to assess the relative influence of these factors. We find that efficiency is important in explaining quota values but is uncorrelated with observable farm characteristics. This casts doubts on the government's ability to allocate quotas to efficient farms.     

Is Oil Palm Expansion a Challenge to Agroecology? Smallholders Practising Industrial Farming in Mexico

Agroecology has become a powerful alternative paradigm for rural development. In contrast to conventional approaches, this paradigm shifts the emphasis from technology and markets to local knowledge, social justice and food sovereignty, to overcome rural poverty and environmental degradation. However, the spread of this approach faces several obstacles. This paper deals with one of these obstacles: the ‘preference’ of smallholders for industrial farming. We specifically analyse the widespread uptake up of oil palm by smallholders in Chiapas. Contrary to agro‐ecological assumptions, oil palm proved favourable to smallholders in Chiapas because of historical and contemporary state–peasant relations and the advantageous economic circumstances within the oil palm sector. Based on this research, we identify four challenges for agroecology: (i) the existence of contradictory interests within the peasantry as a result of social differentiation; (ii) the role of the state in making conventional development models relatively favourable to smallholders; (iii) the prevalence of modernization ideologies in many rural areas; and (iv) the need for this paradigm to acknowledge smallholders' agency also when engaged in industrial farming. These challenges need to be tackled for agroecology to offer viable alternatives in a context of agro‐industrialization.     

Risk and Crisis Management in the Reformed European Agricultural Policy

Currently there is ample discussion among EU Institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, and Member States' governments) on the opportunity for setting up a comprehensive EU‐wide framework on risk and crises in agriculture. In the meantime, within the limits of the WTO rules on agriculture, national governments are allowed to intervene through direct compensation to farmers in case of exceptional events that cause damages to farming operations and through subsidies to crop insurance programs. Such schemes are quite expensive for domestic budgets and some Member States are trying to switch some of their cost to the Community's budget, although an expansion of financial resources devoted to agriculture in Europe is rather unlikely. Moving from the recently emanated proposal of the European Commission, this paper discusses the main issues related to public intervention for risk and crises management in agriculture. Actuellement, les institutions européennes (Commission européenne, Parlement européen et gouvernements des pays membres) discutent intensément de l'opportunité d'élaborer un cadre général pour l'ensemble de l'Union européenne sur les crises et les risques dans le secteur agricole. Entre‐temps, selon les règles de l'OMC sur l'agriculture, les gouvernements nationaux peuvent intervenir en accordant des compensations financières directes aux agriculteurs en cas de circonstances exceptionnelles causant des dommages aux exploitations agricoles ainsi que des subventions aux programmes d'assurance récolte. Ces interventions amputent considérablement les budgets nationaux, et certains pays membres tentent de transférer une partie de leurs coûts au budget de l'Union européenne, bien qu'il soit peu probable que les ressources financières consacrées à l'agriculture en Europe augmentent. A la lumière de la récente proposition de la Commission européenne, le présent article traite des principaux thèmes liés à l'intervention publique dans la gestion des risques et des crises dans le secteur agricole.