Too much of a good thing? On the growth effects of the EU's regional policy

The European Union (EU) provides grants to disadvantaged regions of member states from two pools, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The main goal of the associated transfers is to facilitate convergence of poor regions (in terms of per-capita income) to the EU average. We use data at the NUTS3 level from the last two EU budgetary periods (1994–1999 and 2000–2006) and generalized propensity score estimation to analyze to which extent the goal of fostering growth in the target regions was achieved with the funds provided and whether or not more transfers generated stronger growth effects. We find that, overall, EU transfers enable faster growth in the recipient regions as intended, but we estimate that in 36% of the recipient regions the transfer intensity exceeds the aggregate efficiency maximizing level and in 18% of the regions a reduction of transfers would not even reduce their growth. We conclude that some reallocation of the funds across target regions would lead to higher aggregate growth in the EU and could generate even faster convergence than the current scheme does.     

The Unexpected Effects of Criminal Violence along the Mexico-Texas Border

The violence and insecurity that Mexico suffered during former President Calderon’s war on the Mexican drug cartels have come at a grave economic cost to many cities. The criminal violence had an impact on interdependent borderlands, which are geographic areas that have a symbiotic link between cities and communities of adjoining territories. Mexican business people and consumers that live in cities along the shared border with the United States have the ability to shift their economic transactions away from their insecure environments and to US border communities. In addition, US residents that would normally travel south for economic transactions would decide to avoid violent areas and therefore conduct business on the northern side. This research demonstrates that increased violence in Mexico produced a positive economic effect on the US side of the Mexico–Texas interdependent borderlands. Specifically, our time series analysis (2002–2014) shows that increased homicides, kidnappings and extortions in adjacent Mexican cities are strongly associated with higher gross total sales in the Texas communities while controlling for economic and demographic factors. We also found that the increases in the three crime categories were not associated with the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, nor the accommodation and food services sector performance. However, there was a positive relationship with the retail sales sector.     

Discovering quiescent meanings in technologies: exploring the design management practices that support the development of Technology Epiphanies

In contemporary business and academia, design has been increasingly viewed as an important strategic asset such that several scholars and executives have recently investigated the links among design, innovation and competitive advantage. Indeed, recent and emerging literature streams are exploring the potential contribution design can provide in valorising and differently adopting new or existing technologies [Dell’Era, Marchesi, and Verganti 2010. “Mastering Technologies in Design-Driven Innovation – How Two Italian Companies Made Design a Central Part of their Innovation Process.” Research Technology Management 53 (2): 12–23 Buganza et al. 2015. “Unveiling the Potentialities Provided by New Technologies: A Process to Pursue Technology Epiphanies in the Smartphone App Industry.” Creativity and Innovation Management 24 (3): 391–414]. This paper aims to investigate the design managerial practices able to support Technology Epiphanies, which are defined as the discovery of quiescent meanings in new or existing technologies [Verganti 2009. Design-Driven Innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Boston: Harvard Business Press]. The paper relies on four in-depth case studies developed by both primary and secondary sources: Nintendo, Kartell, Technogym and KUKA Robotics. The paper identifies three design management practices that can guide managers in the development of Technology Epiphanies: interpreting technology as an enabling platform, building double-sided network and accessing new knowledge domains.     

Choice of the empirical definition of zero in the translog multiproduct cost functional form

The translog cost function is valuable to researchers for empirical analysis in themodelling of indirect cost and profit functions. A flaw of the functional form is in themodelling of zero output values. This study examined the impacts of empirical definition of zero output values on price elasticities, economies of scope and scale, using the translog cost function. Estimation of a system of cost and factor share equations with regularity condition imposed was conducted. Results show that the choice of default values affects policy recommendations.     

Regional migration in Spain: the effect of personal characteristics and of unemployment,wage and house price differentials using pooled cross-sections

We present an empirical model of individual migration using time-series of cross-sections from the Spanish Labour Force Surveys 1987–1991. Personal characteristics not only have an important direct effect on migration decisions but also alter the effect of regional variables. We find that the estimated probability of migration for the unemployed not registered, who are known for certain not to receive benefit, is higher than that of the employed which in turn is higher than that of the unemployed registered, which includes all the benefits recipients. An important finding is that the effect of regional unemployment on migration is positive for the unemployed not registered but is important and negative for those registered.     

The new economy of nature：can carbon pay for nature conservation？ The case of the Hong Kong Country Parks

The Country Parks of Hong Kong occupy 40%of the total landmass of Hong Kong,and consists of vast areas of secondary woodlands,scrublands,grasslands,and reservoirs.That vegetation-and the soil underneathsubtract carbon from the atmosphere,which has a market value.The aim of this paper is to estimate the value of that carbon,to assess whether that value would be sufficient to pay for the upkeep of the Country Parks,and to compare that value to the costs of alternative ways to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.To do this,we compare the land cover of 1978,1991,1997 and 2004 using remote sensing,and identify the three predominant land covers（woodlands,scrublands,grasslands） .We then estimate the amount and value of the carbon sequestered by the vegetation and soil of the Country Parks,and compare it to the budget available to the Agriculture,Fisheries and Conservation Department to run the Country Parks（HK$234 million in 2009/2010） .We extrapolate our results over 50 years,from 1978 to 2028.We conclude that by 2028 the carbon sequestered would be valued over HK$800 million,but the value of the additional carbon subtracted yearly would only cover approximately 7%of the total budget needed to run the Country Parks.We also conclude that because of the large budget allocated to the Country Parks,alternative methods of carbon sequestration-represented by the EU ETS price of carbon-are much cheaper.     

Patience and time consistency in collective decisions

We present experimental evidence regarding individual and group decisions over time. Static and longitudinal methods are combined to test four conditions on time preferences: impatience, stationarity, age independence, and dynamic consistency. Decision making in groups should favor coordination via communication about voting intentions. We find that individuals are neither patient nor consistent, that groups are both patient and highly consistent, and that information exchange between participants helps groups converge to stable decisions. Finally we provide additional evidence showing that our results are driven by the specific role of groups and not by either repeated choices or individual preferences when choosing for other subjects.     

COOPERATIVE ESSENCE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL QUALITY: A COMPARATIVE CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

This article links two different fields of research, entrepreneurship and cooperatives, and studies whether, depending on the context, differences in terms of the fulfilment of the cooperative philosophy (cooperative essence) and entrepreneurial quality exist. To this aim, a statistical analysis is carried out using data from two Spanish regions: Andalusia and the Basque Country. The results enable us to conclude, firstly, that cooperative essence differs in relation to regional context, but not in relation to entrepreneurial quality. Secondly, cooperative essence and entrepreneurial quality are positively related, suggesting that cooperative essence may be part of the entrepreneurial quality of these kinds of firms.     

Distortions in oil contract allocation and environmental damage in the presence of corruption

This article investigates how distortions in oil contract allocation can alter a government official’s decisions and shows that corruption enlarges the parameter space over which multinational oil companies win the contract against the smaller companies. It is found that corruption superficially creates an equilibrium outcome that looks efficient even when it is not, and diminishes the official’s concern for environmental damage by weighing damage to the public less and oil revenues more. Sensitivity analyses show that for all levels of environmental damage and corruptibility, multinational oil companies always win the contract. An important policy implication is that corruption distorts optimal decisions and causes oil contract allocation decisions to be based primarily on monetary benefit than social welfare.