Live or Let Die? Alternative Routes to Industry Exit

Each year around 8% of Swedish manufacturing firms leave an industry. Of the exit routes available, the least likely is firm closure. Firms are more likely to merge, become acquired or switch to a new industry. We investigate the importance of a range of firm and industry characteristics for the exit decision of Swedish firms from 1980–1996. From our analysis two patterns are evident. First, firms that close down appear to be the most distinct compared to those that remain within the sector. Second the same characteristics can have quite different associations with different exit strategies.

Learning‐by‐Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence*

Two non‐mutually exclusive hypotheses can explain the empirically established export premium: self‐selection of more productive firms into export markets and learning‐by‐exporting. This paper focuses on how the temporal dimension of firms' exporting activities and the intensity of exports influence the scope of learning effects. Using a panel of Swedish firms and dynamic generalized method of moments estimation, we find a learning effect among persistent exporters with high export intensity, but not among temporary exporters or persistent exporters with low export intensity. For small firms, exports boost productivity among persistent exporters with both high and low export intensity, but the effect is stronger for persistent export‐intensive small firms.     

Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on livestock and tree holdings of rural households

We evaluated the impacts of the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on rural households' holdings of livestock and forest assets/trees. We found no indication that participation in PSNP induces households to disinvest in livestock or trees. In fact, households that participated in the program increased the number of trees planted, but there was no increase in their livestock holdings. We found no strong evidence that the PSNP protects livestock in times of shock. Shocks appear to lead households to disinvest in livestock, but not in trees. Our results suggest that there is increased forestry activity as a result of PSNP, and that improved credit access encourages households to increase their livestock holdings.     

On the Gram series on Pearson's system of frequency functions

Abstract

Among the manifold frequency curves that may conceivably arise when it is assumed that, instead of the variate χ itself, a function of the latter, u = ψ(χ), is normally distributed, the logarithmic normal curve occupies a unique position for two reasons: it can be theoretically deduced from a slightly modified elementary error hypothesis and it is applicable in practice to different cases.     

Profits,dividends and industry restructuring: the Swedish paper and pulp industry between 1945 and 1977

This paper explores the role of profit distribution in the restructuring of the Swedish paper and pulp (P&P) industry between 1945 and 1977. In addressing this issue, we will draw on the life-cycle theory and market imperfection arguments to examine whether the less profitable firms shared more of their profits as dividends, or remained on the market longer by reinvesting the majority of the profits. Our study shows that an increasing share of the profits was distributed to owners over time, and thus less profit was reinvested in industrial renewal. We find that the observed general upward trend in dividends can be attributed to the decline in profit and firm legacy, as firms in the Swedish P&P industry kept dividends up while reducing reinvestment as their profit margins decreased over time. Our study shows that the market imperfections related to capital taxation and investment funds increased rather than decreased dividends.     

A Panel CUSUM Test of the Null of Cointegration*

This paper proposes a simple residual‐based panel CUSUM test of the null hypothesis of cointegration. The test has a limiting normal distribution that is free of nuisance parameters, it is robust to heteroskedasticity and it allows for mixtures of cointegrated and spurious alternatives. Our Monte Carlo results suggest that the test has small‐size distortions and reasonable power. In our empirical application to international R&D spillovers, we present evidence suggesting that total factor productivity is heterogeneously cointegrated with foreign and domestic R&D capital stocks.     

Effective patent life of drugs in Sweden—a comparison with international studies

The effective patent life of all pharmaceutical New Chemical Entities registered in Sweden was investigated for the period 1965-88. Three-year moving average effective patent life was 12.3 years in the beginning of the period, while by the end of the period it had decreased to 8.3 years. If we exclude the increase in the nominal patent term which accompanied Sweden's entry into the European Patent Convention, the effective patent life decreases over the period by over 3 months per year. This coincides with the results of similar studies in other countries. If European research-oriented Pharmaceuticals companies are to maintain their international long-term competitiveness, patent term restoration measures appear to be urgently needed.     

Optimizing or maximizing growth? A challenge for sustainable tourism

Virtually all destinations seek to increase tourist numbers, pursuing economic maximization strategies. Considerably less attention is paid to optimizing existing tourist systems to create more profitable, stable, resilient and potentially more sustainable entities. While aspects of tourist expenditure, average length of stay and seasonality as three key destination management variables have received considerable attention in the literature, focus has usually been on the identification of “profitable” tourism markets by considering observed patterns of spending, length of stay and vacation timing. Building on such earlier studies, this paper focuses on flexibilities in these parameters: could tourists have spent more, stayed longer or visited during a different season? Perceptions of destination expensiveness as a potential deterrent to visitation were also addressed. Based on a sample (n = 1914) of domestic and international tourists in the Swedish cities of Kalmar and Stockholm, data were collected in face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. Results indicate considerable potential to optimize the Swedish tourism system with regard to all variables studied, while also providing new insights for destination management in the context of economic resilience. Results also indicate the need for researchers everywhere to have detailed market knowledge if they are to persuade the industry to change its sustainability behavior.