On maximum likelihood estimation of functional form and heteroskedasticity

The maximum-likelihood procedure has been developed to estimate the Box-Cox functional form parameter and the degree of heteroskedasticity simultaneously. By using an illustrative example, it is shown the likelihood ratio tests conditional on homoskedastic prior can sometimes yield misleading results.     

International joint ventures and tax competition in an integrated market

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it develops a theoretical model of international joint ventures to suggest a new approach to the determination of profit allocation between the partners in the joint venture. Second, we examine the issue of tax competition between two countries for an international joint venture. We find that even in the absence of any bargaining power for the domestic firms, the foreign firm would like to give up more than half of profits to its partner. Furthermore, the foreign firm would like to locate in a country in which the partner firm is more efficient. We also find, with numerical simulations, that the domestic firm will accept the joint venture if the foreign firm's technology is significantly more superior than its own.     

Nowcasting US GDP: The role of ISM business surveys

We study the role of the well-known monthly diffusion indices produced by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) in nowcasting current quarter US GDP growth. In contrast to the existing literature on ISM surveys, we investigate their marginal impact on these nowcasts when large unbalanced (jagged edge) macroeconomic data sets are used to generate them in real time. We find evidence that these ISM indices are helpful in improving the nowcasts when new ISM information becomes available at the beginning of the month, ahead of other monthly indicators. Furthermore, while the existing literature has focused almost exclusively on manufacturing information, here we establish the increasingly significant role of the recently created non-manufacturing ISM diffusion indices in such nowcasting contexts.     

India-focused publications in leading international business journals

Despite an increase in the number of India-focused articles appearing in leading international business journals, there has not been any attempt to conduct systematic reviews that can inform academicians and practitioners about research that has accumulated over the years and identify areas that may be worthwhile to pursue in the future. This article attempts to fill this gap by providing an overview of all publications focusing on the Indian context that appeared in seven leading international business journals between 1991 and 2008. Findings suggest that 74 publications involving 180 authors affiliated to 112 academic and six non-academic institutions from nine international locations contributed to the research by examining a wide variety of international business topics. Findings also reveal that authors affiliated to US-based institutions published more than others and the majority of top-cited publications appeared after 1995. Contributions of various authors and institutions are ranked and summaries of publication types, research methodologies, examined topics, and citations received by different articles are provided. This article concludes by suggesting avenues of future research.     

Remittances and income diversification in Bolivia’s rural sector

This article examines the role of remittances in income diversification strategies in Bolivia’s rural sector. Remittances can be consumed or invested by the recipient. As an investment, funds can be used for farming or to finance other nonfarm productions. In this article, we use a large and nationally representative survey to estimate the effect that remittances have on the probability of producing income from nonfarm activities (diversification) by using a bivariate probit model. Our evidence shows that remittances increase the probability that a rural family engages in nonfarm activities, at least in some regions of Bolivia. We also find evidence that the sender’s decision to remit and the recipient’s decision to diversify may be jointly determined. As such, this suggests that remittances may serve as a mechanism to overcome localized failures in Bolivia’s capital markets.     

International Business Alliance under Asymmetric Information: Technology vis‐à‐vis Information Advantage

We study the relationship between a multinational corporation (MNC) and a domestic firm under demand uncertainty. The MNC possesses a superior production technology, but the domestic firm is better at predicting market demand. We examine the MNC's preference for, and the ownership structure of, an international alliance (IA) and find, inter alia, that binding borrowing constraints have serious implications for the results. Interestingly, a firm's preference for and profits in IA do not necessarily increase as its advantage in market information or production technology increases. We also consider a dynamic setting with technology spillover and show that whether technology spillover hinders or facilitates IA once again depends on the nature of the credit market.     

Profit Share and Partner Choice in International Joint Ventures

This paper suggests a new approach to the determination of profit allocation between the partners in international joint ventures (IJVs). We also examine the issue of partnership choice. The foreign firm gives a large share of profits to its partner and in return receives a better tax treatment from the host government. Under linearity of costs and demand functions, it would choose the more efficient domestic firm as an IJV partner, and the domestic firms would happily accept the offer of partnership from the foreign firm. However, the host government, under certain situations, may persuade the foreign firm, by a suitable lump‐sum transfer, to form a partnership with the less efficient firm.     

The Supporting Line Property and the Additive Choice Function for Two-Dimensional Choice Problems

The paper provides an axiomatic characterization of the additive choice function using the additivity property. It is seen that, along with Pareto optimality, symmetry, and a supporting line property, the additivity axiom uniquely characterizes the additive choice function. The additive choice function as defined in this paper does not satisfy Nash's assumption of the independence of irrelevant alternatives. This raises the question of when a choice function is representable, an issue addressed in an appendix.     

Foreign Aid as Prize: Incentives for a Pro-Poor Policy

The authors develop a theoretical model of foreign aid to analyze a method of disbursement of aid which induces the recipient government to follow a more pro-poor policy than it otherwise would do. In their two-period model, aid is given in the second period and the volume of it depends on the level of well-being of the target group in the first period. They find that this way of designing aid does increase the welfare of the poor. They also consider the situations where the donor and the recipient governments act simultaneously as well as sequentially, and they find that, by moving first in a sequential game, the donor country can, under certain conditions, increase the welfare of the poor and that of its own country compared to the case of simultaneous moves.