Producer Services, Manufacturing Linkages, and Trade

Working with a mix of panel data on goods and services trade for the OECD for 1994–2004, combined with social accounts data (i.e. data on intermediate linkages) for 78 countries benchmarked to the panel midpoint, we examine the role of services as inputs in manufacturing, with a particular focus on indirect exports of services through merchandise exports, and also on the related interaction between service sector openness and the overall pattern of manufacturing exports. From the cross-section, we also develop a set of stylized facts linking services to the level of development and the density of intermediate linkages. We find significant and strong positive effects from increased business service openness (i.e. greater levels of imports) on industries like machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals and electric equipment, supporting the notion that off-shoring of business services may promote the competitiveness of the most skill and technology intensive industries in the OECD. Conversely, we find evidence of negative general equilibrium effects for sectors that are less service intensive.     

Asian contexts and the search for general theory in management research: A rejoinder

“Asian Management Research Needs More Self-confidence” (Meyer, 2006) generated a surprisingly extended and diverse set of responses from Asia and beyond. In this rejoinder, I draw together a few lines of arguments that have emerged in that debate with the aim of moving the debate—and thus Asian management research agendas—forward. In particular, I argue that context is a crucial variable to explain management behavior, yet for practical reasons, it has been neglected in research published in top journals. Thus, I challenge management scholars in Asia and beyond to devise new research strategies to enhance our understanding of the contextual boundaries of our knowledge.

Political constraints and currency crises in emerging markets and less developed economies

Review of World Economics - Political institutions may directly affect the likelihood of currency crises by influencing market confidence. They may indirectly affect the likelihood of currency...     

The European Central Bank’s Ethical Rules

Intereconomics - The study analyses the private securities transactions at the US Federal Reserve that have been made public since late 2021 and are worthy of criticism. It is shown by way of...     

Fishing for excuses and performance evaluation

We study a principal–agent model in which the agent can provide ex post additional relevant information regarding his performance. In particular, he can provide a legitimate excuse, that is, evidence that a poor result is only due to factors outside his control. However, building a convincing case requires time, time that is not spent on exerting productive effort and thus generating information represents an opportunity cost. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the principal to prefer a policy of adjusting ex post the performance measure for the information provided by the agent to a policy of conforming to a result-based system with no adjustments. The risk aversion and a possible limited liability of the agent play an important role in the analysis. This paper clarifies the issues associated with the so-called “excuse culture” prevailing in some organizations.     

Measuring market integration in the presence of transaction costs–a threshold vector error correction approach

Applied econometric analyses of market integration based on price data alone have been criticised because they neglect the role of transaction costs. To meet this objection, threshold vector error correction models are used. Threshold models can account for the effects of transaction costs in price transmission without directly relying upon information about these costs, which are often unavailable. It is argued that threshold models that are based on two thresholds provide results that are economically more intuitive than those obtained from one-threshold models. However, to this point no adequate econometric test is available for threshold significance in a two-threshold model; such tests are only available for the one-threshold model. In this paper a restricted two-threshold model is developed in which the significance of the thresholds can be tested. This model is therefore amenable to economic interpretation and statistical inference. The model is used to estimate market integration in the European pig market.     

The Doha Round of the World Trade Organization and Agricultural Markets Liberalization: Impacts on Developing Economies

We investigate the impacts of multilateral removal of all border taxes and farm programs and their distortions on developing economies, using a world agriculture partial equilibrium model. We quantify changes in prices, trade flows, and production locations. Border measures and farm programs both affect world trade, but trade barriers have the largest impact. Following removal, trade expansion is substantial for most commodities, especially dairy, meats, and vegetable oils. Net agricultural and food exporters emerge with expanded exports; net importing countries with limited distortions before liberalization are penalized by higher world prices and reduced imports. We draw implications for current World Trade Organization negotiations.     

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Affective and continuance commitment and their relations with deviant workplace behaviors in Korea

This study examined the nature of the relations between affective and continuance components of organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991, Human Resource Management Review, 1: 61–89) and deviant workplace behaviors (DWB; Bennett & Robinson, 2003) in a sample of 120 Korean employees and their supervisors. As expected, we found that affective commitment was negatively related, and continuance commitment was positively, albeit modestly, related to supervisor ratings of DWB. Implications for the theory and practice are discussed.