Multidimensional scaling reliability in similarity judgments about environmental sentences

The aim of this research was to analyze the stability of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). The investigations on this topic include studies related to the assumptions of linearity and monotonicity and to the validity and reliability of MDS procedures. Centered in this last topic, a test of the reliability of MDS procedure was carried out. We employed a set of complex stimuli: 21 sentences related to environmental field. 40 subjects made similarity judgements about both pairs “sentence A — sentence B” and “sentence B — sentence A”, so obtaining one square matrix per subject. Each of these matrices was broken down into two triangular matrices that were scaled separately by INDSCAL. The coordinates of stimuli in both MDS solutions were correlated. The results show a significant correlation between the two solutions.     

Impacts of trade reform: sensitivity of model results to key assumptions

The WTO’s Doha Development Agenda has generated demand for estimates of the potential economic consequences of global trade reform. Recent improvements in the GTAP dataset have provided a much better representation of tariff restrictions as of 2001. However, despite its use by most global trade modelers, substantial differences in results emerge from different computable general equilibrium exercises. To help understand these differences, this paper examines the sensitivity of full global and regional trade liberalization results from the GTAP model, using the GTAP version 6.1 database, to different assumptions about factor mobility, fiscal neutrality, macro-economic closure, and trade (Armington) elasticities.

Global financial cycle and Brazil’s financial integration

ABSTRACT

Recent studies have discussed the influence of the global financial cycle on capital flows to emerging and developing countries. This paper evaluates the relationship between the greater degree of financial integration, and macroeconomic performance over the last two decades in Brazil. The literature has highlighted the Brazilian experience as being paradigmatic among emerging countries regarding the relationship between financial integration and regulation of capital flows to deal with boom and bust cycles. Methodologically, we employ a vector autoregressive model with error correction that allows us to evaluate the cointegration between the variables. Our main hypothesis is that a greater degree of financial integration is associated with negative developments in variables such as gross domestic product, country risk, interest rates, and exchange rate volatility. In addition, this study presents a further contribution by observing the existence of the interaction between the consequences of financial integration and the global financial cycle. More specifically, we found that: (i) an increase in the degree of financial integration generates deeper effects in downward periods of the global financial cycle; and (ii) a decline in that cycle generates greater impacts when a higher degree of financial integration is present.     

Local industrial structure,agglomeration economies and the creation of innovative start-ups: evidence from the Italian case

We explore the local factors associated with the emergence of innovative start-ups fostered by a targeted industrial policy intervention in Italy. We focus on the local industrial fabric and the agglomeration mechanisms, namely localization (specialization) economies, diversification economies and the proximity to large firms. Results show that both localization economies and diversification economies are at play. Notably, a greater presence of large firms at local level seems to support the creation of innovative start-ups. Other factors, such us the presence of technical and scientific universities and the urbanization, are found to encourage their formation. The contribution of local factors to the innovative start-up creation is found to be different depending on the regional development conditions. Our analysis outlines the features of a local ecosystem favourable to the emergence of these firms, providing policy makers with suggestions for moulding industrial policies to regional specific needs and to better exploit the local opportunities.     

How would global trade liberalization affect rural and regional incomes in Australia?

Agricultural protection in rich countries, which had depressed Australian farm incomes via its impact on Australia’s terms of trade, has diminished over the past two decades. So too has agricultural export taxation in poor countries, which has had the opposite impact on those terms of trade. Meanwhile, however, import protection for developing country farmers has been steadily growing. To what extent are Australian farmers and rural regions still adversely affected by farm and non‐farm price‐ and trade‐distortive policies abroad? This paper draws on new estimates of the current extent of those domestic and foreign distortions: first, to model their net impact on Australia’s terms of trade (using the World Bank’s Linkage model of the global economy); and second, to model the effects of that terms of trade impact on output and real incomes in rural versus urban and other regions and households within Australia as of 2004 (using Monash’s multi‐regional TERM model of the Australian economy).     

The Spanish path of agrarian change, 1950–2005: From authoritarian to export‐oriented productivism

The aim of this study is to determine whether the evolution of Spain's agrarian change, between 1950 and 2005, exhibits any features important enough to differentiate it from the common model of developed countries in Western Europe. On the one hand, the Spanish agrarian transformations share the main features of the changes in Western Europe: technological innovation, increased production and productivity, the diminishing importance of the agricultural sector, close integration with the industrial sector, and a high environmental impact. On the other hand, a series of important peculiarities can be observed in Spain's agrarian change: strong expansion of intensive livestock farming; the role of increased irrigation in explaining the transformation of agriculture; policies that offered very little support to the agricultural sector under a dictatorship that denied a voice to farmers; and the prominent role of agriculture in the economy despite its small contribution to GDP.     

Micro-multinational or not? International entrepreneurship,networking and learning effects

Micro-multinational enterprises (mMNEs) represent a new breed of smaller firms in the field of international entrepreneurship. This study investigates the effects of the three sets of variables, namely international entrepreneurship (which encompasses innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking propensity), networking and learning on the probability that a firm will become a MNE. Drawing upon a survey of the activities of 116 Chilean internationalized small- and medium-sized firms and utilizing a logistic regression analysis, this study suggests that risk-taking propensity and networking with domestic and international partners increase the likelihood that the firm will become a mMNE. Our findings confirm the predictive validity of the international entrepreneurship and networking perspectives. Because of the positive association between mMNEs and international performance, the suggestions for management of internationalized firms are to nurture a risk-taking propensity and cultivate a networking orientation.