Main issues in the regulation of licence arrangements on foreign trademarks: The Latin American experience

The licensing of foreign trademarks has become an issue of concern for a majority of Latin American governments during the last decade. The impact of such arrangements on the balance of payments, the growing dependence of licensees vis-à-vis the licensor, and the risks involved in the development of new markets through the use of licensed trademarks have, among other reasons of public policy, led to the adoption of a number of regulatory measures. These range from the control of restrictive practices, the price and duration of such arrangements, to the direct limitation of the use of foreign trademarks. The implementation of these measures, however, has encountered serious obstacles and, in some cases, has not achieved their declared aims. Therefore, the appropriate regulation of licensing on foreign trademarks is, to a great extent, still an unresolved issue.     

Mathematical models for decision-making in planning drug abuse control programs

In this paper, a framework for systematizing the different applications of decision-making models to the control of drug abuse is first presented. Next, the available literature on the topic is used to exemplify as many as possible of the elements of the framework presented. Finally, extensions of the current state of the field in the direction of disaggregated and of dynamic models are presented.     

Boards and Sustainability: the Contingent Influence of Director Interlocks on Corporate Environmental Performance

This paper highlights the importance of a firm's board with respect to sustainability issues by analysing the relationship between director interlocks, i.e. directors who simultaneously belong to the boards of directors of several companies, and a firm's environmental performance. The previous literature has focused on the influence of firm‐level resources on corporate environmental performance. This study utilizes insights from a resource‐based view and research on social capital to demonstrate that the environmental performance of a firm is also influenced by the difficult‐to‐imitate capabilities that are embedded in the network relationships of its directors. Our results support a contingency perspective of the social capital theory that finds that director interlocks are positively connected with the environmental performance of a firm in two specific situations: (1) when the firm is linked to a larger parent company and (2) in cases of low and high levels of interlock diversity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Self-selection in the market of teachers

Public school teachers are usually paid according to centralized earning schedules, in which their income depends mainly on experience. By contrast, in private schools, there is high wage dispersion, and salaries correspond mainly to teachers’ performance. That dichotomous labour regulation encourages teachers with better unobservable skills to self-select into private schools because the likelihood of earning higher wages is higher than in public schools. The other side of the coin is the self-selection of ‘bad’ teachers into public schools. Using a representative sample of Chilean teachers, we estimate a two-sector Roy model to test self-selection. We find evidence of negative self-selection of teachers into public schools.     

The psychological and social variables determining education

The object of the paper is to logically integrate in a single frame of reference the studies of the psychological and sociological determinants of achievement and acculturation of the students.

The education or socialization process is defined as the process of social interaction that has as its object the teaching-learning of culture.

The two main instruments used for the analysis of education are a model of social interaction, and, since the characteristics of any social interaction depend upon the way in which the actors in it peform their roles, a model of the performance of any activity.

The model of social interaction, applied to classroom interactions, gives the basis determining the main elements of the roles of teachers and students. The influence that the performance of these roles has on the indoctrination and achievement of the students is studied with the model of the performance of any activity. Finally it is assumed that the levels of achievement and indoctrination attained by the students determines whether or not they remain in the educational system.     

Service Regulations,Input Prices and Export Volumes: Evidence from a Panel of Manufacturing Firms

Using a panel of firm‐level data from Spanish manufacturers, this study shows that better service regulation reduces the price of intermediate inputs paid by downstream firms. The beneficial cost effects of services reforms extend to both large and small‐to‐medium sized corporations (SME’s), but the former tend to enjoy greater gains. This feature also manifests itself in international markets. We find evidence of an input cost channel through which service regulations affect the volume of exports of large manufacturers, while the evidence of such a channel is weaker for SME’s. Our estimates indicate that, from 1991 to 2007, large firms increased their volume of exports by an average of 20 per cent as a result of the direct input cost effect of services reforms, such that the firms that benefited the most typically belonged to industries more dependent on service inputs. Furthermore, convergence to the ‘best practice’ regulatory framework in services would have raised exports at least by an additional nine per cent. We conclude that firm size is relevant for the connection between services reforms, intermediate input prices and export volumes.     

The economic impact of telecommunications diffusion on UK productivity growth

This paper investigates the relationship between telecommunications infrastructure competition, investment and productivity. Using a novel methodology comprising of econometric modelling and input–output economics, the extent to which telecommunications has contributed to national and sectoral productivity performance is examined. The main findings from this paper suggest that most industries have benefited from the incorporation of advances of telecommunications technology, which might have, amongst other things, emanated from encouraging infrastructure investment, in their production processes.     

Saving,Lending and Interest Rates: A Critique (of the Model) of Financial Liberalisation in India

The case for financial liberalisation is founded on the neoclassical proposition that savings causes investment and that the interest rate tends to move to equate the two. We find little support for this thesis from the experience of India. Alternatively, we suggest that the Post Keynesian approach that includes the liquidity preferences of banks might be a fruitful way to examine the dynamics of an economy in transition.     

In search of competence: aligning strategy and competences in the telecommunications industry

Competence management and management by competences are new concerns among academics and professionals. In this paper we argue that the most appropriate way to advance in the construction of a new managerial approach is by relating competence to the strategy of the organization. To make that operational we develop an analytical framework. Since competence has slightly different meanings in the North American and European literature, we first proceed to a revision of conceptual approaches. The analytical framework was empirically tested in a field survey conducted among companies in the Brazilian telecommunications industry.