Cross-country variation in the quality of consumption

The quality of consumption, formulated in terms of the luxary/necessity composition of the consumer's basket, is measured by means of an index for each of 15 countries ranging in affluence from the U.S. to India. The discussion includes the real-income, relative-price, and residual components of this index.     

On the geometry and the numerical approximation of cost of living and real income indices

Summary The economic theory of the “true” cost of living and real income index numbers is described and illustrated geometrically in the logarithmic price-income space. Special attention is paid to the real income index evaluated at the geometric means of the prices in the two periods and to the cost of living index evaluated at the utility level which is associated with these geometric mean prices and geometric mean income. It is shown that this particular pair of index numbers is the only pair which satisfies a certain simple set of axioms. It is also shown how these index numbers can be approximated on the basis of observable price-quantity data. The approximation is accurate up to the second order in price and income log-changes.     

On latitude and affluence: The equatorial grand canyon

Our objective is to explain per capita GDPs by the countries' latitude, using PPP-based data for 138 countries in 1985 (PPP = purchasing power parity). A simple approach is formulated which nevertheless accounts for as much as two-thirds of the variance of the per capita GDPs.Theil is the McKethan-Matherly Eminent Scholar Emeritus and Courtesy Professor of Food and Resource Economics, while Galvez is an Associate in Research of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, both at the University of Florida (UF). We thank Sri Devi Deepak, Charles B. Moss and James L. Seale of the UF Food and Resource Economics Department for helpful discussions and Robert Summers of the University of Pennsylvania for making the data available to us.     

Quousque Tandem?

Zwolle, October 1911     

Applying knowledge management to project marketing in a demanding technology transfer project: Convincing the industrial customer over the knowledge gap

Literature in project and knowledge management has examined knowledge management in projects, but the utilization of knowledge management in project marketing is still largely unexplored. This study examines the links between knowledge management and project marketing activities in a project where the seller wants to convince the potential buyer about a demanding investment project. An in-depth case study illustrates this in a situation hampered by a technical knowledge gap between the parties. The buyer is committed when they can trust the seller's capability to successfully accomplish the project. The seller must criticize and communicate its core and project specific knowledge of technologies and customer needs through project marketing. A framework and implications on knowledge management and project marketing activities in different project phases is presented. It is proposed that knowledge management is a pertinent tool for project marketing as it helps to understand the roles of different knowledge types.     

Competitive dynamics,strategic consistency,and organizational survival

This study investigates strategic consistency in competitive behavior. We construct a logically consistent evolutionary model, providing a causal argument to link a level of strategic consistency to long‐term organizational survival. According to our results, strategic consistency seems to be related to both organizational survival and the most efficient change over time concerning the key elements of a firm's strategy. One of the benefits of the model is that some of the components and processes may be manipulated through experimental or simulation interventions. This means that the model can be formally tested in future studies and managers can use it to fine‐tune patterns of competitive behavior. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relating the environmental impact of consumption to household expenditures: An input-output analysis

In this paper we evaluate the relationships between household expenditures and the environmental impact categories climate change, acidification, eutrophication and smog formation, by combining household expenditures with environmentally extended input-output analysis. Expenditure elasticities are examined with regression analysis, and are compared and interpreted on the basis of insight at the product level. With data from the Netherlands in the year 2000, we find that environmental impact increases with increasing household expenditures, although the degree to which the environmental impact increases differs per impact category. Climate change and eutrophication increase less than proportionally with increasing expenditures. Acidification increases nearly proportionally with increasing expenditures, whereas smog formation increases more than proportionally. It appears that the mix of necessities and luxuries to which an environmental impact is related is essential in explaining the relationship.     

Management accounting in its social context: Rimailho revisited

The homogeneous sections method prescribed by the Plan comptable general (the French national accounting plan) since its origin is commonly attributed to the influence of the Rimailho Report (1928, in its final version). An in-depth analysis of the processes and management systems Rimailho set up, described in minute detail in his major works, has led to the belief that he was the pioneer of a certain type of the activity-based costing method. But other aspects of his work are far more interesting. With Rimailho, accountancy plays a role which is closely linked to his political and social convictions. Rimailho's management accounting appears as the strategic tool in a type of corporate regulation involving organizational slack, possible in a defender 's strategy deployed in a specific competitive and technological environment. Rimailho's organization does not fit into today's standard typologies (Anthony, Woodward, Ouchi, etc.). It is an appropriate challenge for researchers in accounting and management control.     

The best quadratic estimator of the residual variance in regression analysis

De beste kwadratische schattingsfunctie van de storingsvariantie in regressie-analyse.
Dit artikel handelt over de schatting van de variantie σ² van de storingen in de regressieanalyse onder klassieke veronderstellingen: niet-stochastische waarden aangenomen door de verklarende variabelen en normaliteit, onafhankelijkheid en homoskedasticiteit van de storingen. Bekend is dat de schatting volgens maximale aannemelijkheid neerkomt op net bepalen van de kwadratensom van de volgens kleinste-kwadraten geschatte storingen en deling door T (het aantal waarne-mingen); voorts, dat de schatting die minimale variantie heeft binnen de klasse van schattingsfuncties die zuiver zijn en kwadratisch in de afhankelijke variabele (de beste zuivere kwadratische schattingsfunctie) gevonden wordt door genoemde kwadratensom te delen door T–A, waarbij λ het aantal te schatten coëfficiënten is [d.w.z. het aantal verklarende variabelen (+ 1 indien een constante term aanwezig is)]. Hier wordt aangetoond, dat de schattingsfunctie van σ² die een minimaal tweede moment heeft binnen de klasse van schattingsfuncties die kwadratisch zijn in de afhankelijke variabele (de beste kwadratische schattingsfunctie) gevonden wordt door de kwadratensom van de volgens kleinste kwadraten geschatte storingen te delen door T–Λ+ 2.