Trade Structure, Transboundary Pollution and Multilateral Trade Liberalization: The Effects on Environmental Taxes and Welfare

This paper considers a trade situation where the production activities of potentially heterogeneous countries generate pollution which can cross borders and harm the well-being of all the countries involved. In each of those countries the policy maker levies pollution taxes on the polluting firms and a tariff on imports in order to correct that distortion. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effect of a reduction in the tariff on equilibrium pollution taxes and welfare. The existing literature has investigated this problem for trade between two identical countries. This paper analyzes the problem in the more realistic context where countries are not necessarily identical and trade can be multilateral. It becomes possible to show what bias is introduced when those two realities are neglected. I find that a tariff reduction can actually lower output; it can also lower welfare even if pollution is purely local.     

Well-being and war

Happiness research has dealt with a great number of determinants of well-being but has neglected the effect of war. Wars drastically reduce people??s happiness. The large psychic costs of soldiers, the suffering of civilians, and the material destruction are well documented. An important issue for happiness research is how to calculate the forgone well-being of the people killed in war. Wars may also increase happiness by providing shared experiences, raising national pride, and ??ennobling?? people. ??Combat flow?? increases an individual soldier??s subjective happiness. Deep issues are elicited regarding what type of happiness is legitimate.     

Understanding Configuration and Transformation through a Multiple Rationalities Approach

Why are some transformational change attempts implemented while others are rejected? This study suggests that patterns of underlying multiple rationalities commitments help to explain. Data from four periods of configuration and 11 transformational change attempts spanning a 40-year organizational history are analysed using a multiple rationalities framework. The findings suggest that transformational change attempts are ubiquitous, that transformational changes are more likely to be implemented if supported primarily by value-based rationality, and that organizational members' support for an incumbent configuration increases over time. The conclusion calls for a reconceptualization of configuration, and the inclusion of rejected change attempts in future studies of change and stability.     

Analysis of the volatility’s dependency structure during the subprime crisis

In this article, we test the hypothesis of contagion amongst sectors within the United States’ economy during the subprime crisis. The econometric methodology applied here is based on the dynamic conditional correlation model proposed by Engle (2002). Further, we applied several Lagrange multiplier (LM)-robust tests to test whether there were structural breaks in series’ dependency structures during the period of interest. Events theoretically classified as relevant to the crisis upshots as well as the interactions between the moments of the series were used as indicator functions to the referred structural breaks. The main conclusion of this study is that one can indeed observe contagion within almost all pairs of sectors’ indices. Thus, we conclude that the dependency structure of the sectors of interest has faced structural changes during the years of 2007 and 2008. Hence, diversification strategies as well as the risk analysis inherent to the portfolios’ management may have been drastically affected.     

Happiness of economists

We study the importance of economists’ professional situation towards their life satisfaction based on a unique survey of mostly academic economists. On average, economists report to be highly happy with life. Satisfaction is positively related to spending more time on doing research. The lack of a tenured position decreases satisfaction. However, the extent to which the uncertainty created by the tenure system affects satisfaction varies with the contract terms. The effect is stronger if the contract expires in the near future or cannot be extended. Publication success has no effect if it is controlled for academic rank and the contract duration. The finding suggests that publications are rather a means to an end, for example, to acquire a tenured position. While the perceived level of external pressure also has no impact, the perceived change of pressure in recent years is positively related to economists’ life satisfaction. An explanation is that economists have accepted a high level of pressure when entering academia but are not willing to cope with the recent increase.     

The Impact of Collaborative Agreement on Firms' Performances: The Case of the IT Industry in the 1990s1

In the information technology (IT) industry, which confronted a major transition phase during the 1990s, partnerships became a strategic component of the new ‘divided technical leadership’ that emerged from the industry's vertical disintegration. This paper attempts to evaluate the impact of 1676 partnerships on the financial performance (revenue and profit) of 14 large firms and 725 of their partners. On average, there is a positive impact of collaborative agreements on large incumbents and their partners' financial performance. These results vary according to the type, form and content of the agreement and according to the partner's field of activity. Incumbents get the most benefit from broad informal alliances while smaller and more hierarchical forms of partnerships (consortia, joint-ventures) do profit to their partners. For large incumbents, partnerships are more effective with partners from the services industry than with partners from the IT industry.     

The Prosperity of Vice: A Worried View of Economics

Nearly four decades ago, Stephen Marglin explored the origins of hierarchy in capitalist production with a divide and conquer hypothesis based on the idea that the monopolisation of knowledge about production technology plays a major role in explaining how workers are deprived of control over the labour process. Nevertheless, this explanation has some shortcomings that Marx and Babbage had avoided. Those two authors provided a highly accurate and convincing interpretation of the division of labour that remains relevant. The present paper proposes a general synthesis of their analysis. Two points are emphasised: (1) the division of labour plays a major role in wage determination; and (2) the division of labour largely determines the form of subjection of labour to capital.     

Historical Materialism and Democratic Firm Management

Abstract

This article starts from the premise that the precondition for the unreserved acceptance of historical materialism and, hence, Marxism is the belief that a new production mode will arise and take the place of capitalism after its suppression. From this perspective, however, the new production mode to rise from the ashes of capitalism is not the Soviet-type central planning model, but a system of democratically managed firms. If socialism is equated with worker control of firms, it is contended, Marxism will become more viable than ever, although it will need to be approached from a different viewpoint.     

The instability principle revisited: an essay in Harrodian dynamics

Abstract

Harrod's contribution to economic dynamics is very often reduced to the dynamic equation whose character is unstable. Growth theory and cycle theory based on Harrod's contributions aimed at reducing this instability. Following Harrod, who was strongly opposed to the ‘knife-edge’ interpretation, we define the warranted rate of growth as a ‘moving equilibrium’ and focus on its interaction with the effective rate of growth. Our simple Harrodian model generates various dynamics from stable path, to growth cycle and corridor of stability.     

Market consumption and hidden consumption. A test for substitutability

Previous studies point to a generally efficient baseball betting market with no profitable betting strategies. However, failure to consider the time of year in which the bets are placed neglects differences in available information throughout the season. This analysis largely confirms the general efficiency of the major league baseball betting market by existing measures; however, incorporating the time of the year in which the bet is made generates persistent profitable betting strategies. The process by which information impacts returns is considered; increasing difficulties in determining the true favourite likely play the largest role, while assessing the exact favourite underdog relationship also has an impact.