Not so constant! The constant-market-shares analysis and the exchange rate

Summary We show that the results of the Constant-Market-Shares analysis are influenced by the — arbitrary — choice of the currency in which the data have been expressed. The so-called static competition effect is not influenced by the exchange rate. The Dutch export performance in 1989–1991 disaggregated by 17 OECD countries and five product groups serves as an empirical illustration of our findings.Harry Oldersma is at the Directorate-General for Foreign Economic Relations, Department for International Economic Analysis and General Affairs, and Peter van Bergeijk is at the Economic Policy Directorate. This article should not be attributed to the government of The Netherlands.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the ECOZOEK workshop on international economics, Rotterdam, June 3, 1992. Comments by Steven Brakman, Catrinus Jepma, Charles van Marrewijk, Ed Westerhout and the referees of this journal were very useful.     

Ethical Corporate Consultancy

As ethical consultancy to business develops what are its principles, its methods and its possible pitfalls? The author is Professor of Business Ethics at the Netherlands School of Business, Nijenrode, and Chairman of the European Business Ethics Network.     

A dynamic specification of an AIDS import allocation model

In this paper we use the first-order autoregressive scheme in order to introduce dynamics into the AIDS model. We also consider the theoretical restrictions of additivity, homogeneity and symmetry, and use two different specifications of the covariance matrix. We estimate the models using import allocation data for the UK 1952–1979 of five EEC countries and test different specifications against each other.     

Book Review: Bridging the Gap Between Values and Reality

John Donaldson, Business Ethics. A European Casebook , Academic Press, 1992, pp. xxvi + 293, pb, £14.94, ISBN: 0 12 220543X.     

The influence of topic involvement on mail‐survey response behavior

In this study the influence of topic involvement on mail‐survey response rate and speed was experimentally investigated. The results show that response rates for topics that are generally considered as high involvement were higher than for topics that are generally considered as low involvement. However, the speed of response did not differ between the two levels of topic involvement. Moreover, in terms of response rates an interesting interaction effect was observed: For the high‐involvement topic, the response rate showed a further positive and significant correlation with the within‐topic level of involvement, but this was not the case for the low‐involvement topic. The implications of these findings to nonresponse bias in mail survey research are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Values and Beliefs Related to Ethical Decisions

Although there is reason to suspect thatpeople's values and beliefs influenceintegrity-related decisions, few studies haveexamined the values and beliefs related tomanagerial integrity. In the present study,197 students were asked to complete measures ofvalues and beliefs as manifest in theirpreferred courses of action when confrontedwith ambiguous situations. Subsequently, theywere asked to work on a managerial ``in-basket'task where the decisions made might result inharm to others or harm to the organization. Itwas found that values and beliefs were relatedto both types of decisions producing multiplecorrelations in the 0.40s. People whose valuesstressed growth and contributions to others, asopposed to personal gain, and believed actionswere under their control, as opposed toexternal control, exhibited greater integrity. The implications of these findings forunderstanding leader integrity are discussed.     

Optimal Policy with Tradable and Bankable Pollution Permits: Taking the Market Microstructure into Account

This paper analyzes how the way emission permits are traded—their market microstructure—affects the optimal policy to be adopted by the environmental agency. The microstructure used is one of a quote driven market type, which characterizes many financial markets. Market makers act as intermediaries for trading the permits by setting an ask price and a bid price. The possibility of bank permits is also introduced in our dynamic two‐period model. We consider two models whether the market makers are perfectly informed about the technology of the producers or not. When the market makers have complete information, the equilibrium price of permits is the same as if the market is walrasian. When they are imperfectly informed, they may set a positive spread between bid and ask permit prices, which creates some inefficiency as the marginal abatement costs of polluters do not equalize. By allowing more flexibility in the use of the permits, banking may reduce the spread. Moreover, it may introduce price rigidities due to intertemporal arbitrage. In this framework, the circumstances under which banking should be allowed or not depend crucially on the evolution of the marginal willingness to pay for the environment.     

Public Policy and Innovative Capabilities: The Case of Philips' IT Activities

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of public policy on innovative capabilities of firms, focusing on, on the one hand, the measure of sheltering provided by the policies and, on the other hand, the effects of policies on industrial life cycles and on the life cycle related patterns of firms' behaviour. The paper deals with one sector, IT, and discusses EU and Dutch policies directed toward this sector. Furthermore, a case will be presented concerning Philips' ventures in the IT sector. The way in which public policy influenced the innovative capabilities of Philips helps to explain the relative success of the various projects.