The Hungarian Insurance Market: Economic Transition in the Insurance Sector

This article analyzes Hungary's insurance sector as an important part of the country's economic transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. It details the historic economic development of the Hungarian insurance market from a state monopoly to a competitive insurance market where foreign-owned insurance companies have a dominant market share.     

Penalty Functions for Environmental Violations: Evidence from Water Quality Enforcement

We empirically estimate a penalty function for water quality violations of private firms in Georgia. We find that seriousness of infraction and historical compliance records strongly influence penalty levels, while the intentionality of violations and the method of discovery do not. The size of the polluting company is also an important determinant of financial penalties. Overall the results support the plausibility of modeling assumptions used in much the theoretical enforcement literature but indicate the need for caution in interpreting models that assume penalty amounts are invariant to violation characteristics.     

ANTECEDENTS AND DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER PARTNERING BEHAVIOR IN LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS

In order to be successful in today's competitive environment, third‐party logistics providers (3PLs) increasingly strive to develop close, mutually beneficial long‐term relationships with customers. The current study identifies inter‐organizational conditions and firm‐specific factors that influence a firm's partnering behavior with its 3PL. A model of the antecedents and dimensions of partnering behavior is developed and tested with a diverse set of relationships between a focal 3PL and members of its customer base.     

Heterodox Economic Thinking and Public Policy

Research on innovation and entrepreneurship policy (IEP) is almost exclusively concerned with the instrumental question of which policy measures are most effective in promoting “productive” entrepreneurial activities. The positive (political economy) and normative (welfare) dimensions are largely neglected. I focus on the latter, asking what could be a plausible normative rationale for innovation policy beyond the simple invocation of “growth” and the related use of orthodox criteria (such as “market failure”). This is a non-trivial issue, given (i) the ambiguous welfare implications of innovation in general, and (ii) the fact that standard notions of welfare cannot be consistently applied in an entrepreneurial, “Schumpeterian” economy. I suggest a dynamic criterion according to which IEP should ensure that individuals are able to engage in effective preference learning over time. This reconstruction of the normative basis of innovation policy helps clarify several contentious issues, among which are the desirability of selfemployment and the role of social security arrangements.     

An Examination of Alternative Approaches to Risk Management and Insurance Research

Much current risk management and insurance research follows a pattern prescribed by the science paradigm. This article discusses some well-recognized problems associated with the science paradigm, and then presents several alternatives that can supplement the science paradigm, thereby broadening and deepening the scope of risk management and insurance research and education.     

Trade and market selection: Evidence from manufacturing plants in Colombia

We examine the link between trade liberalization and aggregate productivity, with a focus on improved market selection resulting from a reduction in trade barriers and in the dispersion of these barriers across producers. Our analysis exploits tariff changes across sectors after the Colombian trade reform. An additional advantage of our analysis is that our TFP measure does not include demand and price effects. We find that reduced trade protection makes plant survival depend more closely on productivity. Using a dynamic simulation, we find that enhanced selection increases aggregate productivity substantially. Trade liberalization also increases productivity of incumbent plants and improves the allocation of activity. We find larger effects on allocative efficiency with our TFP measure than with a traditional measure including price effects.     

The four Rs of place branding

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of ownership in relation to place branding and to establish a basis upon which the representation of a place as a brand can be developed. We suggest that a bottom-up approach based on the paradigm of co-creation should be taken to developing a place brand and that brand ownership is determined by the extent to which the representation of the place reflects the experience of the community. Such an approach, we believe, is essential to achieve authenticity (brand essence), commitment from stakeholders, and brand sustainability. Grounded in ethnographic research, this paper presents a model that structures the features of community ownership from a bottom-up perspective and proposes four fundamental elements of place branding that encapsulate the experience of the place: rights, roles, relationships, and responsibilities.