Practicing Human Dignity: Ethical Lessons from Commedia dell’Arte and Theater

The paper considers two main cases of how the creative arts can inform a greater appreciation of human dignity. The first case explores a form of theater, Commedia dell’Arte that has deep roots in Italian culture. The second recounts a set of theater exercises done with very minimal direction or self-direction in executive education and MBA courses at the Darden School, University of Virginia, in the United States. In both cases we highlight how the creative arts can be important for promoting human dignity in organizations, and how they can lead to a more authentic conversation about values, ethics, and meaning.     

Persistence,Long Memory,and Unit Roots in Commodity Prices

This article investigates the degree of persistence in several weekly and monthly agricultural prices (corn, soybeans, barrow and gilts, and milk) using long memory (fractional integration) techniques. The results indicate mean reversion (i.e., orders of integration smaller than one) in some of the agricultural prices like corn, milk, and barrow and gilts when the disturbances are autocorrelated. Further, we examine the stability across time in the degree of dependence, and the results indicate that the fractional differencing parameters have not remained constant across time. When we take into account a structural break we find that during the first subsamples, the series are stationary though highly persistent, with orders of integration close to 0 and with large autoregressive coefficients. However, for the periods after the break, the series seem to be nonstationary I(1). Dans le présent article, nous avons étudié le degré de persistance des prix hebdomadaires et mensuels de plusieurs produits agricoles (maïs, soja, castrats et cochettes, lait) à l’aide de tests de mémoire longue (intégration fractionnaire). Nos résultats indiquent une stationnarité (c.‐à.‐d. des ordres d’intégration inférieurs à un) des prix de certains produits agricoles, tels que le maïs, le lait, les castrats et cochettes, lorsque les perturbations sont autocorrélées. Nous avons également étudié la stabilité du degré de dépendance à travers le temps, et nos résultats indiquent que les paramètres de différenciation fractionnaire ne sont pas demeurés constants. Lorsque nous avons tenu compte d’une rupture structurelle, nous avons trouvé que dans les premiers sous‐échantillons, les séries étaient stationnaires quoique très persistantes, avec des ordres d’intégration près de 0 et d’importants coefficients d’autorégression. Dans le cas des périodes suivant la rupture, les séries semblaient non stationnaires I(1).     

Genetically Modified Crops, Corporate Pricing Strategies, and Farmers' Adoption: The Case of Bt Cotton in Argentina

This article analyzes adoption and impacts of Bt cotton in Argentina against the background of monopoly pricing. Based on survey data, it is shown that the technology significantly reduces insecticide applications and increases yields; however, these advantages are curbed by the high price charged for genetically modified seeds. Using the contingent valuation method, it is shown that farmers' average willingness to pay is less than half the actual technology price. A lower price would not only increase benefits for growers, but could also multiply company profits, thus, resulting in a Pareto improvement. Implications of the sub-optimal pricing strategy are discussed.     

Optimum Currency Areas in Emerging Market Regions: Evidence Based on the Symmetry of Economic Shocks

This paper examines which emerging market regions form optimum currency areas (OCAs) by assessing the symmetry of macroeconomic shocks. We extend the output-prices-VAR framework by adding net exports and the real effective exchange rate as endogenous variables. Based on theoretical considerations, we derive which shocks affect these variables in the long run: shocks to labor productivity, foreign trade, labor supply, and money supply. The considered economies of Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, East and Southeast Asia, and South Asia, exhibit large enough shock symmetry to form a currency union; the economies of Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East do not.     

On consistency of redescending M-kernel smoothers

M-estimators and M-kernel estimators with a redescending ψ-function are not in general consistent. This is often handled by means of coupling the estimator to a consistent one. Coupling the estimator to the (inconsistent) starting point improves the jump preserving properties. However, the consistency depends heavily on the shape of the density of the residuals. This paper shows inconsistency under convenient conditions as well as consistency – even at jump points – under somewhat stronger conditions. Research supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and by grant Mu 1031/4-1/2 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft     

The Kyoto Protocol,market power,and enforcement

The Kyoto Protocol aims to limit aggregate carbon emissions by participating countries to 1990 emissions levels in aggregate. It also allows for the creation of a permit market in which countries will be able to buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. This paper investigates how market power, held by the countries of the former Soviet Union, and enforcement of the carbon emission limits might affect the abatement and the cost of compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. To do so, it uses a modified version of the van Egteren–Weber (1996 Van Egteren, H and Weber, M. 1996. Marketable permits, market power, and cheating. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 30: 161–74. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) model to investigate a permit market in the presence of both market power and enforcement difficulties. It then simulates the model, finding that if meeting abatement targets is the goal, regulating the supply side of the market and convex fine schedules are the most effective tools.     

Structural Models of Factor Demands and Technological Change: An Empirical Assessment of Dynamic Adjustment Specifications for Sectors of the Dutch Economy

In this paper, we combine a translog cost functional form with an adjustment process according to the error correction mechanism to explain the simultaneous determination of factor demands and technological change. To save degrees of freedom in the estimation procedure, we also consider the imposition of restrictions on the matrices of lag parameters and/or the covariance matrix of the disturbances. Using a model selection strategy based on a combination of economic-theoretical considerations and a formal model selection criterion, a model is selected for each of 17 sectors of the Dutch economy. It turns out that, for 14 of the 17 sectors under consideration, a model is chosen that allows the imposition of restrictions with respect to the matrices of lag parameters. A comparison of the present results with those obtained by Lesuis and de Boer reveals that the application of more general dynamic structures leads to results that are more in accordance with economic theory.