Implementing monetary base rules: The currency problem

Monetary policy rules which rely on the monetary base have been advocated by Meltzer and McCallum. Proponents claim that following monetary base rules would minimize fluctuations around the target growth rate for nominal GNP. Critics of such rules contend that currency has not been properly accounted for in their analysis. This paper examines McCallum's monetary base rule by explicitly taking the demand for currency into account. Assuming that currency is supplied elastically, our investigation quantifies changes in the composition of the monetary base under these rules and provides an estimate of how these compositional changes might affect the variability around the target nominal GNP growth rate.     

Broad-based Employee Stock Options in US 'New Economy' Firms

This paper compares the performance of 229 'New Economy' firms offering broad-based stock options to that of their non-stock option counterparts. A simple comparison of these firms reveals that the former have higher shareholder returns, Tobin's q and new knowledge generation. Multivariate analysis using panel data also suggests that the adoption of a stock option plan results in higher levels of value added per employee. However, we do not find evidence that these plans result in superior growth in Tobin's q or new knowledge generation.     

A regression approach to conceptualizing and analyzing marketing transactions

A conceptual approach is developed in this article using the logic and concepts of statistical regression to analyze marketing phenomena such as: attraction, power, conflict, stability, and competition. Marketing transaction is conceptualized as a perceptual phenomenon in the mind of the marketing agent determined by psychological contiguity between perceived benefits and costs. Theattraction felt by a marketing organization toward a target market is conceptualized as theslope of the regression line,power in theintercept of the regression line,stability in thecoefficient of determination, andconflict in thestandard error of the estimate. Competition is conceptualized in terms of theproportion of variance in benefits extracted by a target market accounted for by costs of one competitor marketing organization relative to the costs of other competitor firms. Marketing transactions can also be similarly analyzed from the perspective of the buying agent in dealing with one or more marketing organizations. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research are also discussed.     

The maize seed industry in Zimbabwe

The development of maize improvement and of the seed industry in Zimbabwe over the past 75 years is outlined. True breeding started in 1933, the first double hybrid was available in 1949, the first single hybrid in 1960 and the first top‐cross for marginal areas in 1963. Commercialisation of both breeding and the seed trade has been inhibited first by the Seed Maize Association's exclusive rights to government germ plasm and certified seed production, and then by government's socialist economic policies and controls. The future for maize breeding and the seed industry in Zimbabwe depends on a market‐orientated economy, the ending of the monopoly on government germ plasm, liberalisation of seed certification procedures, the updating of the Plant Breeders Rights Act and exploiting regional and not only national markets for maize seed.     

Contracting Productivity Growth

This paper analyses the interactions between growth and the contracting environment in production. With incompleteness in contracting, viable production relationships between firms and workers, and therefore the profitability of industries, depend on the rates of innovation and growth. The speed at which new innovations arrive in turn depends on the profitability of production, for the usual reasons examined in the endogenous growth literature. We show that these interactions can have important implications which are consistent with observed phenomena in both the micro and macro environments. In particular, we demonstrate that a technological shock (increasing productivity of research) can, through this interaction, lead to a productivity slowdown and a shift in labour market contracts away from firms providing implicit guarantees of lifetime employment and towards shorter-term "contractor" type arrangements. We show the consistency of an increase in the proportion of the labour force under short-term employment, increased relative returns of workers in high-productivity sectors, and increased income inequality, with a productivity slowdown of finite duration.     

The political economy of Reconstruction Finance Corporation assistance during the Great Depression

This paper analyzes the role of political rent-seeking in New Deal expenditures focusing on the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). Unlike other New Deal agencies, the RFC was not financed by government appropriations, it devolved assistance decisions, and primarily offered loans rather than grants. Although the RFC was subject to pressures for political favor during the Great Depression, the geographic distribution of RFC funds across states is not associated with standard political measures used to examine rent-seeking behavior in other studies of the New Deal.