Technical efficiency and productivity growth of entrant firms in the retail sector in Spain

This paper analyses efficiency and productivity growth in relation to size, and age and for both entrant and incumbent firms using a birth cohort approach for the period 1995–2003 for two sectors, non-specialized shop (521) and specialized shop (524) three-digit NACE. On the one hand, our results indicate the existence of statistically significant differences among entrant and incumbent firms by size. Also, we found differences according to the start up size in relation to membership of the birth cohort and activity sectors. On the other hand, productivity growth shows that, in general, the larger entrants in the non-specialized sector obtained higher productivity than did small firms. This phenomenon was not observed in the specialized sector, where firms worsened in productivity in most of the cohorts and we did not find significant differences in productivity growth between large and small firms. Efficiency changes tend to be a positive contributor to total factor productivity change, but technical change tends to be a negative contributor for both sectors. A deeper analysis of the efficiency changes (catching up) has shown that these improvements are generally attributed to pure technical efficiency and the scale.     

Market-oriented reforms,globalization and the recent transformation of Latin American innovation systems

Market-oriented structural reforms were implemented in Latin America under the expectation that the transition from an "inward-oriented", "state-led" growth strategy to one which was more "market-led" and "outward-oriented" was going to be rewarded by a sustainable long-term improvement in the region's rate of economic expansion and productivity growth. The competitive discipline imposed by a more open and deregulated economic regime was expected to induce faster innovation and technological modernization efforts from firms and individuals and, thereafter, a gradual but steady "convergence" to world-wide income and productivity standards. A global look at the region's performance throughout the 1980s and 1990s tells us that such a priori expectation was far from realistic. The paper examines why this has been so.     

Scale-perception bias in the valuation of environmental risks

The valuation of environmental risks is commonly approached with the utilization of stated preference methods such as contingent valuation. In these methods, money is utilized as the scale that reflects the individual's underlying utility function. However, this scale can vary across individuals due to different perceptions on what are the right or appropriate bounds for Willingness To Pay (WTP). In this article, we test for scale-perception bias and propose a correction method based on the utilization of anchoring vignettes that define different degrees of preference for the nonmarket good. The proposed method is applied to study the commonly found anomaly ‘probability neglect’, which is defined by the insensitivity to the probability levels in the valuation of environmental risks. The results show that probability neglect disappears when WTP responses are corrected for self-perception bias through the utilization of the anchoring vignettes approach.     

Replacement cycles,income distribution and dynamic price discrimination

This article analyses how income distribution, Intellectual Property Rights and other regulatory policies such as minimum quality standards determine pricing strategies in a dynamic context where a monopolist periodically introduces new generations or upgrades of a durable good. Discrimination through quality and screening in this article takes place in a context where consumers buy several versions of the durable good during their lifetime, instead of a single version as in Inderst’s (2008) or Koh’s (2006). It also differs from Glass (2001) in that an equilibrium may emerge in which different consumer types replace their durable generations with different frequencies. Our modelling is motivated by stylized facts from the last Brazilian POF (household budget survey).     

A Time Series Analysis of U.K. Construction and Real Estate Indices

This study assess the nonlinear behavior of U.K. Construction and Real Estate indices. Standard unit root tests show that both time series are I(1) processes. However, the empirical results show that the returns series for both indices deviate from the null hypothesis of white noise. Moreover, we have found evidence of nonlinearity but strong evidence against chaos for the returns series. Further tests show that the source of nonlinearity is rather different. Hence, the Construction index returns series displays weak nonlinear forecastability, typical of nonlinear deterministic processes, whereas the Real Estate index could be characterized as a stationary process about a nonlinear deterministic trend.     

Factors Influencing the Presence of Ethics and CSR Stand-alone Courses in the Accounting Masters Curricula: An International Study

Abstract

This paper provides a web-content analysis of the curriculum and subjects of the top accounting and auditing masters identified in the Eduniversal 2012–2013 ratings of the best business schools in the world. The main aim of this study is to analyze the influence exerted by different factors on the extent to which accounting programs are incorporating ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) stand-alone courses. The findings of this study do not offer a very optimistic outlook on the extent to which the accounting and auditing top masters ranked by the Eduniversal ratings are offering stand-alone courses related to ethics and CSR. Also, the findings suggest that the presence of ethics and CSR stand-alone subjects in the accounting and auditing masters analyzed is partially explained by the size and the cultural influence exerted by the geographical location.     

A stylized model of overrepresentation and quality in the Congress

Traditionally, overrepresentation has been used to explain the distribution of benefits across jurisdictions, leaving aside quality components. We present a model that demonstrates that in the dispute of limited federal benefits, although quantity is important, at the margin quality matters.     

Walrasian prices in markets with tradable rights

In this paper, we consider an exchange economy where there is an external restriction for the consumption of goods. This restriction is defined by both, a cap on consumption of certain commodities and the requirement of an amount of rights for the consumption of these commodities. The caps for consumption are imposed exogenously due to the negative effects that the consumption may produce. The consumption rights or licenses are distributed among the agents. This fact leads to the possibility of establishing license markets. These licenses do not participate in agents’ preferences, however, the individual’s budgetary constraint may be modified, leading to a reassignment of resources. Our aim is to show the existence of a Walrasian equilibrium price system linking tradable rights prices with commodity prices.     

Exchange of indivisible goods and indifferences: The Top Trading Absorbing Sets mechanisms

There is a wide range of economic problems that involve the exchange of indivisible goods with no monetary transfers, starting from the housing market model of the seminal paper by Shapley and Scarf (1974) to problems such as the kidney exchange or the school choice problem. The classical solution to many of these models is to apply a mechanism called Top Trading Cycles, attributed to David Gale, which satisfies good properties for the case of strict preferences. In this paper, we propose a family of mechanisms, called Top Trading Absorbing Sets mechanisms, which generalize the Top Trading Cycles to the general case in which individuals are allowed to report indifferences, while preserving a maximal possible set of its desirable properties.