Determinants of International Activities: Are SMEs Different?

In this paper we econometrically investigate the factors determining the choice of a specific internationalisation strategy. We distinguish four strategies, ranging from “serving foreign markets through exports only” up to “exporting and locating abroad several business functions such as distribution, production and R & D”. These strategies are evaluated against the reference category “domestic sales only” (multinomial logit model). The analysis, to a large extent, confirms Dunning’s well-known OLI paradigm. O-advantages turn out to be the main drivers of internationalisation, irrespective of firm size and internationalisation strategy. However, the knowledge-base on which O-advantages of smaller firms rests is more narrow than that of large companies. Whereas the former rely, in relative terms, primarily on capabilities related to incremental innovations, the latter draw to a higher extent on assets enabling them to be competitive in terms of far-reaching innovations. L-advantages (wages, regulatory framework, etc.) primarily are relevant in case of small firms; but even for this size class, O-advantages are dominant.     

Deutschlands Chancen im Handel mit Dienstleistungen

Der Dienstleistungssektor hat in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten erheblich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Wo ist Deutschland im internationalen Dienstleistungshandel einzuordnen? Welche Faktoren bestimmen das Muster des internationalen Dienstleistungshandels? Wer kann von einer ?ffnung der Dienstleistungsm?rkte profitieren?     

Umverteilung in verschiedenen Pensionssystemen für Österreich

Using a state-of-the-art microsimulation model, we analyse the redistributional effects of four different pension systems for Austria: the status quo, the new pension account system (APG), and two versions of a Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) system — one with and the other without non-contribution-based pension benefits. We identify the largest redistribution in the status quo. Women, low-income earners and persons with limited years of contributions benefit the most. The redistribution is reduced in the APG and nearly eliminated in the NDC system. We disentangle implicit and explicit redistribution in the APG system. The relative share of implicit redistribution decreases with income, whereas the absolute value of redistribution increases.     

EU enlargement and governance of the Common Agricultural Policy

The requirements for the implementation, administration and control of the application of the current CAP are much higher than they were 15 years ago. The governance problems caused in the present EU by today’s higher regulation density are already severe. The new member countries are even less well equipped than the present ones to deal with these problems. What political consequences should be drawn?     

Kurz Kommentiert

KURZ KOMMENTIERT

Kurz Kommentiert     

Further results on monopolistic competition,markup pricing and the business cycle in Switzerland

This paper investigates how firms’ market power affects the price level. Based on a small macro-model it is shown empirically that firms have structural markup pricing power and take advantage of favourable business cycle fluctuations. To this aim, a multivariate time series model with double integrated variables is estimated. Thereby a model-based business cycle indicator can be derived. Its information content is confronted with survey data giving rise to what is going to be called semantic cross validation approach.

市场环境、商会介入与企业间合作——以反倾销应诉为例

本文以反倾销应诉为例,考察了在市场环境和商会介入下,企业间合作网络的形成及其变化情况。研究表明,企业的应诉决策相互影响,合作应诉网络的形成具有动态性;包括市场竞争、市场容量和市场结构、行业特性在内的市场环境变化将带来企业间合作应诉网络规模的变化;市场环境下的企业间合作应诉网络规模往往较小,而商会的介入能有效地扩展企业间合作应诉网络规模,商会也可视为反倾销中企业合作应诉的重要机制。     

The diminution of the physical stature of the English male population in the eighteenth century

We re-estimate the height of Englishmen using the sample originally collected by Roderick Floud. We merge the samples from the army and the Royal Marines by weighting the observations in order to reflect the proportions of servicemen in the two branches of the military. In addition to truncated regression, we use cubic spline functions in order to estimate the trend in the physical stature of Englishmen. The results indicate that a very rapid decline in height of c. 1.6 cm per decade accompanied the onset of the industrial and demographic revolutions, implying that the nutritional status of the population deteriorated considerably as it throughout the European Continent.