The control of CO2 emissions and its economic impact: An AGE model for a german state

Since it is believed that CO₂ is responsible for 55% of the greenhouse effect, a CO₂ levy is now under consideration in several countries. For an assessment of the macroeconomic implications of an integrated energy and environmental policy we employ an applied general equilibrium model (AGE) since all sectors of an economy and all private households contribute to CO₂ emission. Our model is a temporary equilibrium model with capacity extension under adjustment costs and with abatement activities for SO₂ and NO_x emissions.The model of consumer behavior will result in a system of consumer demand functions for non-durables as well as for durable goods. The simulations show the cost of inefficiency in resource allocation if CO₂ taxes differ between industries and households. We finally present the marginal cost curve of CO₂ emission reduction.     

The Value of Plains Cotton Cooperative Association

The Value of Plains Cotton Cooperative Association is a teaching case that allows students to consider the cooperative business model and the impact of this unique form of organization in agriculture. The Plains Cotton Cooperative Association (PCCA) , a highly successful, innovative, and dominant cotton cooperative, is considered in this case.
The general question is whether the cooperative form of organization is viable and relevant in the face of intensifying economic competition. Cotton producers and long-time co-op members must decide if they will remain loyal to the cooperative in light of recent negative publicity and disappointing returns from its marketing operations.     

Overcoming the ethnocentric firm? – foreign fresh university graduate employment in Japan as a new international human resource development method

Abstract

This article analyses a new and, by international comparison, distinct recruitment trend – the systematic hiring of foreign fresh university graduates (FFGs) into Japanese multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) operations in Japan. Our explorative research, which is based on interviews with HR managers and FFGs, offers three major findings related to international HR development methods. Firstly, the inpatriate literature has identified the roles of foreign (subsidiary) staff as knowledge conduits and boundary-spanners between headquarters and subsidiaries. While such objectives do not drive Japan’s FFG hiring trend, we find similar challenges in terms of the absorptive capacities of headquarters. Secondly, following a Varieties-of-Capitalism perspective, we argue that FFG hiring is an institutional answer to the particularities of Japan’s employment system. Aiming at internationalizing headquarters from within, it contributes to resolving the internationalization conundrum of Japanese MNEs, but rather than overcoming the existing ethnocentric HR model it accommodates this orientation. Thirdly, we advance the general HR literature by proposing a new framework that addresses the viability of international personnel development methods in dependence of the workforce diversity and distinctiveness of employment practices in headquarters. We locate FFG hiring, inpatriation and self-initiated assignments within this framework.     

A Different approach to the measurement of income inequality

This article presents Atkinson indices of racial income inequality for 1954-1989. This approach permits the study of racial inequality and inequality in the overall distribution of income in a consistent framework. The Atkinson index shows that progress towards racial equality stopped much earlier than observation of mean income ratios would suggest and that most of the gains have been eroded.     

The advantage of being first and competition between firms

It is frequently suggested that the first brand in a product market enjoys a price advantage over its imitators due to imperfect information about product quality. This article considers the effect of this advantage on prices and market shares in a dominant firm price leadership model. An established firm with a price advantage faces free entry by firms producing unbranded products (generics). In equilibrium, the first brand enjoys a market share advantage over entrants in entry and post entry periods. If the initial price disadvantage is large, entry will not occur.     

An anatomy of trading strategies

In this article we use a single unifying framework to analyzethe sources of profits to a wide spectrum of return-based tradingstrategies implemented in the literature. We show that lessthan 50% of the 120 strategies implemented in the article yieldstatistically significant profits and, unconditionally, momentumand contrarian strategies are equally likely to be successful.However, when we condition on the return horizon (short, medium,or long) of the strategy, or the time period during which itis implemented, two patterns emerge. A momentum strategy isusually profitable at the medium (3- to 12-months) horizon,while a contrarian strategy nets statistically significant profitsat long horizons, but only during the 1926-1947 subperiod. Moreimportantly, our results show that the cross-sectional variationin the mean returns of individual securities included in thesestrategies play an important role in their profitability. Thecross-sectional variation can potentially account for the profitabilityof momentum strategies and it is also responsible for attenuatingthe profits from price reversals to long-horizon contrarianstrategies.     

Mean reversion in short-horizon expected returns

This article develops and estimates a simple model for monthlyexpected stock returns that relies on the rapidly decaying structureof shorter-horizon (weekly) expected returns. The most strikingaspect of our finds is that the rapid mean reversion in short-horizonexpected returns implies much greater variation through timein monthly expected returns than has been documented in earlierstudies. For instance, during the 1962 to 1985 period, over25 percent of the return variance of small firms can be explainedby time variation in expected returns.