Regional volatility in emerging countriesThe case of Russia1

An uneven distribution of natural resources and the Soviet legacy of artificial regional specialization expose Russia's regions to large income shocks. Using an unique regional dataset covering Russian regions between 1992 and 2003, we assess how these features influence the magnitude and persistence of regional income shocks. We propose a novel measure of regional exogenous shocks that we use to show that fiscal policy in Russia's regions has largely been pro‐cyclical, exacerbating rather than moderating regional exogenous shocks.     

National nanotechnology research prominence

A new bibliometric technique enables one to distinguish high emergence topical content. This technique can be applied to sets of research publication abstracts reflecting a given technical domain (here, nanotechnology) to score cutting edge research terms. The resulting high emergence terms warrant special consideration in setting R&D priorities. The researchers (individuals, organizations, or countries) whose publications address those emergent terms heavily deserve consideration as possible leaders in that technical domain. This paper studies nanotechnology research publications using the new emergence scoring in conjunction with established bibliometric publication and citation measures. Findings challenge U.S. superiority in cutting edge nanotechnology research. China shows strongest at addressing emergent nanotechnology topics, followed by the U.S., South Korea, India, and, surprisingly, Iran.     

Monopoly capital and capitalist inefficiency

This paper examines the arguments and assertions of Baran’s and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (1966) by assessing the degree of economic efficiency or inefficiency in how surplus value and economic surplus were created by 16 major capitalist economies during the 2000s using data envelopment analysis (DEA). After assigning a score to the degree of economic efficiency/inefficiency for each country, one can then assess which factors influence the degree of efficiency/inefficiency. This paper finds empirical support for many of the arguments put forth by the authors, Baran and Sweezy, as well as others regarding the inefficiency of the use of some forms of economic activity to help absorb economic surplus and to create surplus value.     

Evolution of the Interindustry Wage Structure in China Since the 1980s

Industry mean wages in China have exhibited sharply increased dispersion since the early1990s. Researchers have attributed this rising inequality within the industrial wage structure to: (i) increasingly competitive labour markets leading to better matches between worker pay, worker skills and employer demands; or (ii) residual government control in some industrial sectors that has generated high wages through monopoly rent sharing. We argue that the rise in China's industrial wage dispersion is primarily attributable to increasingly competitive labour markets, which have led to greater returns to schooling and to efficient redistribution of workers across major industry groups. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that the level or changes in government monopoly power has had negligible impact on China's rising industrial wage dispersion.     

Employee reactions to gainsharing under seniority pay systems: The mediating effect of distributive,procedural, and interactional justice

This study examines the effects of gainsharing under seniority‐based pay systems on employee attitudes in Korea. It is hypothesized that gainsharing, which emphasizes performance, employee participation, and cooperation enhances employee perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, and that this, in turn, produces positive employee attitudes. The participants were a sample of individuals from five firms that combined seniority‐based pay and gainsharing incentives and five comparable firms that used only seniority‐based pay. The results supported the partial mediation model whereby distributive and interactional justice partially mediated the effects of gainsharing on employee attitudes, but procedural justice did not. The practical implications of this international compensation research include careful consideration of the integration of gainsharing with the total rewards mix in an organization. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Optimizing the block size in container yards

A block is the basic unit of storage space in container terminals. This study proposes two methods for optimizing the block size, by considering the throughput requirements of yard cranes (YCs) and the block storage requirements. To estimate the YC performance, cycle-time models of various handling operations of YCs are analytically derived. Two types of container yards are examined: those with blocks that are laid out parallel to the quay and those laid out vertical to the quay.     

A stochastic programming winner determination model for truckload procurement under shipment uncertainty

We propose a two-stage stochastic integer programming model for the winner determination problem (WDP) in combinatorial auctions to hedge the shipper’s risk under shipment uncertainty. The shipper allows bids on combinations of lanes and solves the WDP to determine which carriers are to be awarded lanes. In addition, many other important comprehensive business side constraints are included in the model. We demonstrate the value of the stochastic solution over one obtained by a deterministic model based on using average shipment volumes. Computational results are given that indicate that moderately sized realistic instances can be solved by commercial branch and bound solvers in reasonable time.     

The East Asian model of economic development

Unlike existing models of the rapid growth of the East Asian economies that are based on stylised facts, this paper formulates a model by introducing an all‐encompassing (core) variable that explains the unique path to success in East Asia. Using three propositions, the model explains the transition from a backward economy to an industrial economy. Central to the model is policy‐augmented human capital (PAHC)—human capital with a road map for development—led by a capable leader. The model is unique in that it validates the critical role of human capital in a time of ‘high development theory’ when the emphasis was skewed towards the accumulation of physical capital, and the role of government at a time when interventionist policies were either failing elsewhere (in the 1950s and 1960s) or facing opposition (in the 1970s and 1980s). The success of the East Asian model provides evidence pointing to a preference for economic development over democracy.     

Entry Invitations in a Market with Network Effects

Abstract

This paper reinvestigates the well-known claim by Economides (1996) that the network effects can lead a monopolist to give away its technology for free. This so-called ‘open’ strategy is likely to be adopted when marginal network effects are strong but not too strong relative to marginal price effects. Highly elastic demand and highly convex costs also increase the likelihood of such a strategy. I first study the case in which the post-entry market structure is of the Cournot type and later compare the results with the Stackelberg case.     

Marijuana and alcohol: Evidence using border analysis and retail sales data

We use retail scanner data on purchases of alcoholic beverages across US counties for 2006 to 2015 to study the link between medical marijuana laws (MMLs) and alcohol consumption. To do this, we exploit differences in the timing of marijuana laws among states and find that they are substitutes. We show that unlike traditional national-level analysis, focusing on contiguous-border county pairs provides unbiased estimates of the effect of MMLs on alcohol sales. Specifically, alcohol sales in counties located in MML states decreased by 12.4%. Results are robust to including placebo effective dates for MMLs in treated states.