Explaining Employment Effects in Multipolar Value Chains: A Cross‐National Study on Soft Drinks and Dairy Manufacturing in Europe

The article develops an integrated framework that employs a dynamic perspective on interlinked levels of value chain governance in order to explain employment in value chains. It compares two multipolar chains in food and beverage manufacturing, in two different producer and consumer markets, Belgium and Germany. Analysis reveals that varied value capture dynamics in the food and beverage industries underpin distinct employment effects at specific inter‐firm nodes, as well as between labour and product markets. This reveals institutional and product variation explaining firms’ value capture trajectories. However, it also illustrates a concomitant transnational trend of deteriorating working conditions, stemming from overall chain governance.     

Strukturen der Wirkung von Rhetorik

The question of how important different persuasive elements of speeches are for their effectiveness has been discussed among philosophers and scientists for centuries. Additionally, there are modern myths about the effects of speeches, popular especially among communication coaches. An example of such a myth is the “communication pyramid”. It postulates that 55 percent of the effects of a speech are made up by nonverbal cues, 38 percent by the voice of the speaker and only 7 percent by the content of the speech. The present paper addresses the relationship between content, verbal and non-verbal emphasis in the perception of a political speech, using a laboratory experiment and RTR-measurement. Results indicate that nonverbal components can improve some, and impair the perception of other aspects of a speech. Furthermore it is found that content generally determines the perception of the perceived persuasiveness of the speech and the structure of its effects.     

Price adjustment to news with uncertain precision

We analyze how markets adjust to new information when the reliability of news is uncertain and has to be estimated itself. We propose a Bayesian learning model where market participants receive fundamental information along with noisy estimates of news’ precision. It is shown that the efficiency of a precision estimate drives the slope and the shape of price response functions to news. Increasing estimation errors induce stronger nonlinearities in price responses. Analyzing high-frequency reactions of Treasury bond futures prices to employment releases, we find strong empirical support for the model’s predictions and show that the consideration of precision uncertainty is statistically and economically important.     

A PRIMAL–DUAL ALGORITHM FOR BSDES

We generalize the primal–dual methodology, which is popular in the pricing of early‐exercise options, to a backward dynamic programming equation associated with time discretization schemes of (reflected) backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs). Taking as an input some approximate solution of the backward dynamic program, which was precomputed, e.g., by least‐squares Monte Carlo, this methodology enables us to construct a confidence interval for the unknown true solution of the time‐discretized (reflected) BSDE at time 0. We numerically demonstrate the practical applicability of our method in two 5‐dimensional nonlinear pricing problems where tight price bounds were previously unavailable.     

Local Adaptive Multiplicative Error Models for High‐Frequency Forecasts

We propose a local adaptive multiplicative error model (MEM) accommodating time‐varying parameters. MEM parameters are adaptively estimated based on a sequential testing procedure. A data‐driven optimal length of local windows is selected, yielding adaptive forecasts at each point in time. Analysing 1‐minute cumulative trading volumes of five large NASDAQ stocks in 2008, we show that local windows of approximately 3 to 4 hours are reasonable to capture parameter variations while balancing modelling bias and estimation (in)efficiency. In forecasting, the proposed adaptive approach significantly outperforms a MEM where local estimation windows are fixed on an ad hoc basis. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Privatization from the Acquirer's Perspective: a Mergers and Acquisitions Based Framework

Privatization, especially in developing countries, presents international firms with opportunities for market entry and growth, but acquirers have to consider the distinct characteristics of a state owned enterprise (SOE) and the influence of the government as seller and policy maker. This study introduces a model, based on mergers and acquisitions literature and microeconomic theory, that explains the critical relationships among characteristics of the SOE, the government, and the acquirer. Public administration research suggests that the critical characteristics of SOEs are their sources of funding and their mode of social control of the organization, and recent work in privatizing countries emphasizes the influence of the government. The theoretical framework for the model suggested here is derived from research within the field of strategic management on mergers and acquisitions. The paper develops propositions regarding the organizational fit between private firms and those heretofore owned by governments and discusses research and managerial implications.     

The good,the bad and the ugly – the future of patent assertion entities in Europe

Most of the available evidence on patent assertion entities (PAEs) is coming from the United States, while little is known for Europe. The up-coming Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) system are considered to be game-changing elements for strategic patent options and for patent assertion activity in Europe. Many patent practitioners are watching Europe as the future market place for patenting. PAE activity in Europe is increasing and one reason for this trend is that PAEs originating from the United States are becoming more active in Europe. In the future, fuzzy boundaries of patent claims in general and of software-related claims in particular, new combinations of technologies and enhanced interoperability under the schemes of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things could attract PAE activity in technological fields where it has not been seen before. Altogether, some of the features of the new UPC have the potential to play into the hands of PAEs in Europe. The future will much depend on the implementation of the new UPC system, how the different divisions of the court will establish case law decisions and how PAEs will make use of the new system. The intention of the article is to provide an overview of ongoing PAE activity in Europe and to assess the future strategic options of PAEs in Europe based on the design of the new UP and UPC system.     

How effective are trading pauses?

Exploiting Nasdaq order book data and difference-in-differences methodology, we identify the distinct effects of trading pause mechanisms introduced on US stock exchanges after May 2010. We show that the mere existence of such a regulation makes market participants behave differently in anticipation of a pause. Pauses enhance price discovery during the break but have adverse effects on price stability and liquidity after the pause. We find that pauses ultimately do not “cool off” markets but cause extra volatility. This implies a regulatory trade-off between the protective role of trading pauses and their adverse effects on market quality.     

Path dependent border effects: the case of Poland’s reunification (1918-1939)

The paper explores the persistence of former borders in an integrating economic area, the reborn Polish nation state after World War I. It uses a gravity model of trade for the years 1926-1934 in order to assess the impact of former partition borders that Poland inherited from its period of partition between Germany, Russia, and the Habsburg monarchy (1795-1918). The findings point to a persistent but decreasing impact of former borders over time, interrupted during the Great Depression. Compared to recent findings on border effects between Canada and the US or home bias effects across member states of the contemporary European Union or even between US states the Polish domestic market was quite well integrated.     

the 'making' of an entrepreneur: testing a model of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students at MIT

In the present study a covariance structure model is tested to identify the causes of entrepreneurial intent among engineering students. Specifically, we explore whether steady personal dispositions or whether perceptions of contextual founding conditions have an impact on the intention to found one's own business. The survey of 512 students at the MIT School of Engineering broadly confirms the model. Personality traits have a strong impact on the attitude towards self–employment. The entrepreneurial attitude is strongly linked with the intention to start a new venture. The students' personality therefore shows an indirect effect on intentions. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial intent is directly affected by perceived barriers and support factors in the entrepreneurship–related context. The findings have important implications for policy makers inside and outside universities.