Early Smithian economics in the Spanish empire: J. H. Vieytes and colonial policy *

Juan Hipolito Vieytes (1762–1815)was a hero of the May 1810 Revolution in Buenos Aires and one of the early economists in the River Plate area. Although Robert Sidney Smith dismissed Vieytes as a very minor figure in Spanish economic thought, this article attempts to show that Vieytes, an entrepreneur and journalist and only self-taught in political economy, was an early and able follower and divulgator of Smithian economics. He advocated free trade and liberal economic reforms, pointing at the competitiveness of the domestic workshops or ‘popular industry’ in a country with scanty population and extensive and cheap land.     

Marx on division of labour,mechanization and technical progress

The paper reconstructs Marx's analysis of the development of the forces of production in terms of the interaction among division of labour in particular processes of production, social division of labour and technical progress. It also brings out Marx's conception of technical progress and establishes his view of the essential interdependence among the development of the forces of production, the process of capital accumulation and the expansion of markets; it further brings out the role of competition as a fundamental driving force in the interrelated processes of accumulation and of development of the social productivity of labour.     

The Influence of Managerial Ownership on Bank Market Value,Performance, and Risk: Evidence from Banks Listed on the Stoxx Global Index

We follow agency theory to assess the influence of managerial ownership on the market value, performance, and risk of 123 listed banks in 23 countries included in the STOXX Global Index in 2007 and 2010. After controlling for bank characteristics, regulatory restrictions, and macroeconomic conditions, our findings show a positive relation between managerial ownership and both market value (Tobin's Q) and performance (ROA and ROE). Moreover, we find a negative relation between managerial ownership and risk (EDF, NPL/L, and Z‐SCORE). Bank market value and performance is a non‐linear, inverse U‐shaped function of managerial ownership. The negative relation between managerial ownership and bank risk is also non‐linear and U‐shaped. Our results remain robust to reverse causality. In their effort to immunize the global financial system from systemic risks, central banks and practitioners should find our results relevant for regulation purposes.     

Valuing American-style options under the CEV model: an integral representation based method

Review of Derivatives Research - This article derives a new integral representation of the early exercise boundary for valuing American-style options under the constant elasticity of variance (CEV)...     

Multiple product qualities in monopoly: Sailing the RMS Titanic into the economics classroom

In this pedagogical contribution the authors extend the traditional three-class tariff employed in the French passenger railway system with the more resonant story of the service quality variations associated with the three passenger classes of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. In doing so, they provide economics instructors with an opportunity to integrate the well-known motion picture Titanic (Cameron and Landau 1997 Cameron, J., and J. Landau. 1997. Titanic. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Lightstorm Entertainment. [Google Scholar]) into the teaching of economics. This article provides instructors with resources that can be used to link historical and modern travel examples of price discrimination in order for students to reach a “deeper understanding of course concepts” (Salemi 2002 Salemi, M. K. 2002. An illustrated case for active learning. Southern Economic Journal 68 (3): 721–31.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 725).     

Openness of the economy,terms of trade,and arms

It is estimated that world military spending in 2011 amounted to over 2.5% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This corresponds to a spending of $233 per person in the world at 2010 constant prices, an amount close to the GDP per capita of the poorest country in the world. Therefore, it is important for economists to understand the allocation of resources to this sector of the economy. I present a model that explores the determinants of a country's level of military spending. I show how greater gains from trade can lead to greater military expenditures to protect them. It is also found that expansion in the demand for a country's tradable commodities, that is, an improvement in that country's terms of trade, will impact defense spending. Several other propositions emerge from the model which are then empirically tested using both pooled and time series data. The statistical results support the model's propositions.     

Model Analysis of the Relationship Between Strategic Organization Knowledge and the Use of Information Systems in Firm Performance in Brazil

Information Technology （IT） consolidates as an essential element to support the business strategies to survive and rapidly adapts to changes in the competitive environment. This paper examines the impact of the use of information systems （IS） and strategic organization knowledge （SOK） on firm performance in 150 Brazilian companies. The study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling （PLS-SEM） and establishes models to express the relationship among the constructs examined. The study identifies that the direct influence of 1S use on performance is moderately significant. However, when mediated by orientation strategy, the total effect of IS use on firm performance is demonstrated to be highly significant. The model explains 54% of the variability of firm performance and confirms IS use as a fundamental resource to support strategic business processes.     

Evidence of the impacts of public e-procurement: The Portuguese experience

This paper analyses public e-procurement implementation and emphasizes its main difficulties and impacts in relation to the type of public organizations. The primary impacts and changes in the Portuguese public sector are analyzed within the new legal framework, which adopts mandatory e-procurement for any open, restricted or negotiated procedure. In this sense, two surveys carried out in consecutive years were conducted to assess the implementation difficulties and impact of e-procurement in the Portuguese public sector.The major value of this research is that it presents and discusses, for the first time, evidences about difficulties and impacts on the mandatory adoption of public e-procurement, based on the case of Portugal. The results show that the entities’ administrative level influences the e-procurement implementation, which is influenced by the innovation adoption process.