A quantitative analysis of unemployment benefit extensions

Extensions of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits have been implemented in response to the Great Recession. This paper measures the effect of these extensions on the unemployment rate using a calibrated structural model featuring job search and consumption-saving decisions, skill depreciation, and UI eligibility. The ongoing UI benefit extensions are found to have raised the unemployment rate by 1.4 percentage points, which is about 30% of the observed increase since 2007. Moreover, the contribution of the UI benefit extensions to the elevated unemployment rate increased during 2009–2011; while the number of vacancies recovered, the successive extensions kept search intensity down.     

Interlinkage in the endogenous real business cycles of international economies

Summary This study investigates interlinkage among the business cycles of countries from the viewpoint of endogenous real business cycles. For this purpose, we build a simple perfect foresight equilibrium model with two countries and characterize the global dynamics of a free-trade equilibrium as well as that of each country's autarky equilibrium by means of the fundamental structure of an economy.We are greatful to Murray Kemp, Mukul Majumdar, Takashi Negishi, Marcus Noland, Ian Novos, Jose Scheinkman and an anonymous referee for useful conversations and suggestions.     

A Note on Environmental Awareness and Cross-Border Pollution

Considering a Nash equilibrium in which a developed country chooses the amount of foreign aid and a developing country sets the emission tax rate and the proportion of the received aid allocated to public abatement of pollution, it is shown that an increase in the recipient countrys environmental awareness will reduce the level of cross-border pollution and benefits the donor though its foreign aid is increased.     

Ergodic chaos in optimal growth models with low discount rates

Summary We show that for every discount factor(0,1) one can find infinitely many strictly concave discrete-time optimal growth models in reduced form which have optimal policy functions exhibiting ergodic chaos. These reduced form models are interpreted in a two-sector optimal growth setting with utility functions depending on consumption as well as on capital.We thank Luigi Montrucchio for pointing out an error in a previous version of the paper.     

Stability and Turnpike Theorems in Dynamic Competitive Equilibrium

This study reviews the main results in the literature on the integration of competitive equilibrium theory and optimal growth theory, in particular those concerning the convergence of an equilibrium path to a stationary state (stability theorems).
JEL Classification Numbers: C6, D9.     

A model of merchants

I propose a simple model of merchants who are specialized in buying and selling a homogeneous good. Facing the same frictions as in the buyer-seller direct trades, merchants can make profits with an ability to buy and sell many units of the good. They set the price to compete in the market and provide buyers with a strong likelihood of obtaining the good. This paper establishes a turnover equilibrium where some agents choose to become merchants endogenously. An interesting multiplicity can emerge.     

Altruism as a motive for intergenerational transfers

This study investigates the role of altruism as a motive for transfer payments. In the existing literature on altruism, it is generally assumed that a transfer payment is made out of altruism that a transferor feels towards a transferee. This study demonstrates that this is not necessarily the case. By using a dynamic model in which children are altruistic towards parents, it demonstrates that such altruism may induce a parent to give a transfer to children.     

Are regional asymmetries detrimental to tax coordination in a repeated game setting?

This paper reexamines the main findings of Cardarelli et al. [Cardarelli, R., Taugourdeau, E., Vidal, J.-P., 2002. A repeated interactions model of tax competition, Journal of Public Economic Theory 4, 19-38], and Catenaro and Vidal [Catenaro, M., Vidal, J.-P., 2006. Implicit tax co-ordination under repeated policy interactions, Recherches Economiques de Louvain 72, 1-17], who show that regional asymmetries undermine the implicit collusion of tax coordination in a repeated game model of capital tax competition. In particular, this paper investigates how increased regional differences in per capita capital endowments and/or production technologies affect the willingness of each region to cooperate in achieving tax coordination. It is shown that there may exist cases where as regional asymmetries in net capital exporting positions increase, regions are more likely to cooperate on capital taxes and thereby achieve tax coordination.     

Learning-Oriented Sales Management Control: The Case of a Pharmaceutical Company

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The primary goal was to identify organizational conditions for developing a learning-oriented behavioral control system, an issue that has been neglected in previous studies.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors conducted a case study of Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim (NBI).

Findings: We found that a behavior-based sales management control system facilitates learning by salespersons when 1) the focus is on skill development, 2) fewer key performance indicators are being used, and 3) supportive supervision and knowledge sharing are promoted.

Research Limitations: Because this was a single case study, it is necessary to investigate other cases in other countries and to compare the results with those of NBI to develop theories about learning-oriented behavior control systems.

Practical Implications: In the early stages of sales reform, sales managers and medical representatives should not use multiple process indicators for multiple evaluations; rather, they should use a small number of process indicators (e.g., number of visits per day) so that all individuals concerned about a problem can share information and promote improvement.