Comparing supply‐side specifications in models of global agriculture and the food system

This article compares the theoretical and functional specification of production in partial equilibrium (PE) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models of the global agricultural and food system included in the AgMIP model comparison study. The two model families differ in their scope—partial versus economy‐wide—and in how they represent technology and the behavior of supply and demand in markets. The CGE models are “deep” structural models in that they explicitly solve the maximization problem of consumers and producers, assuming utility maximization and profit maximization with production/cost functions that include all factor inputs. The PE models divide into two groups on the supply side: (1) “shallow” structural models, which essentially specify area/yield supply functions with no explicit maximization behavior, and (2) “deep” structural models that provide a detailed activity‐analysis specification of technology and explicit optimizing behavior by producers. While the models vary in their specifications of technology, both within and between the PE and CGE families, we consider two stylized theoretical models to compare the behavior of crop yields and supply functions in CGE models with their behavior in shallow structural PE models. We find that the theoretical responsiveness of supply to changes in prices can be similar, depending on parameter choices that define the behavior of implicit supply functions over the domain of applicability defined by the common scenarios used in the AgMIP comparisons. In practice, however, the applied models are more complex and differ in their empirical sensitivity to variations in specification—comparability of results given parameter choices is an empirical question. To illustrate the issues, sensitivity analysis is done with one global CGE model, MAGNET, to indicate how the results vary with different specification of technical change, and how they compare with the results from PE models.     

Deciding to Peg the Exchange Rate in Developing Countries: The Role of Private-Sector Debt

We argue that a higher share of the private sector in a country’s external debt raises the incentive to stabilize the exchange rate. We present a simple model in which exchange rate volatility does not affect agents’ welfare if all the debt is incurred by the government. Once we introduce private banks who borrow in foreign currency and lend to domestic firms, the monetary authority has an incentive to dampen the distributional consequences of exchange rate fluctuations. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that not only the level, but also the composition of foreign debt matters for exchange-rate policy.     

Einbindung des Finanzbereichs in das Beteiligungscontrolling

Zusammenfassung Auf der Grundlage einer umfassenden empirischen Bestandsaufnahme und L?ngsschnittsanalyse der Finanzorganisation befasst sich dieser Beitrag mit der Einbindung des Finanzbereichs in das Beteiligungscontrolling. Die zentralen Befunde dieser Organisationsproblematik lauten: a) für die Beziehungen zwischen Finanzzentrale und Verbundmitgliedern: Zentrale Finanzhoheit beruht in der Regel auf dem Vertrauen der Verbundglieder in die Leistungsf?higkeit und den Leistungswillen einer konzernweiten finanziellen Führungsinstanz. Dieses Vertrauen wird durch marktnahe, transparente Regelung der Konditionen im konzernweiten Liquidit?tsausgleich gef?rdert, durch autonomes Ertragsstreben seitens der Zentrale jedoch oftmals beeintr?chtigt; b) für die Beziehungen zwischen finanzieller Führung und Beteiligungscontrolling: Voraussetzung für die konstruktive Zusammenarbeit dieser Instanzen ist eine reibungslose Kommunikation auf gleicher Hierarchiestufe. Das Beteiligungscontrolling fungiert dabei als Informationsknotenpunkt für repetitive Informationen der Verbundglieder und leitet diese an die finanzielle Führung weiter. Unsere Daten geben Hinweise darauf, dass die Finanzplanung und -kontrolle im Team aus Treasurer und Controller besonders geeignet ist, Synergien freizusetzen. Die bewusste Einschaltung der finanziellen Führung w?hrend des laufenden Entscheidungsprozesses über langfristige Sachinvestitionen kann als Indikator einer dialog- und konfliktf?higen Führungsorganisationen dienen und pr?destiniert eine Integration der finanziellen Führung in das Beteiligungscontrolling.

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Summary Based on data from 29 German industrial multinational corporations we analyze the considerations between treasuring and controlling. Successful leading of subsidiaries depends on confidential cooperation between these both departments, equal in rang within the top of the whole corporation. In this cooperation, treasuring is focused on the liquidity-goal and controlling on the profit-goal. To reach these goals, it is necessary to implement a powerful central treasuring with financial market oriented regulations which are transparent and equal for all subsidiaries. On the other hand it is not recommended that the central treasuring strive for own profit of the subsidiaries’ costs.

     

When Production and Consumption Meet: Cultural Contradictions and the Enchanting Myth of Customer Sovereignty

ABSTRACT The central cultural contradiction of capitalism, argued Bell some 25 years ago, was the existence of rationalized, disciplined production alongside free and hedonistic consumption. This paper argues that this thesis, although overstated, has resonance within contemporary capitalism. The paper then considers the question of how this contradiction is managed when production and consumption meet directly within the service interaction. On the production-side rationalization is joined by customer-orientation, and on the consumption-side management promotes consumption of the enchanting myth of sovereignty. Here the customer is meant to experience a sense of being sovereign. At the same time the space is created for the customer to be, potentially, substantively directed and influenced to follow the requirements that flow from the rationalized elements of production. Key aspects of the service interaction, including the menu and its presentation, the display of empathy and aesthetic labour, and the use of naming within the service interaction, are analysed in terms of the promotion of the enchanting myth of sovereignty. Consumption, however, is a fragile process, and remains, to an important degree, 'unmanageable'. The analysis, therefore, also examines how the promotion of the enchanting myth of sovereignty systematically creates the conditions for the myth's negation.     

A MULTIFACTOR GAUSS MARKOV IMPLEMENTATION OF HEATH, JARROW, AND MORTON

Working within the Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework and using the theory of stochastic equations in infinite dimensions, a useful multifactor Gauss-Markov model for the movement of the whole of the yield curve is derived. Swaptions are priced. They are hedged by eliminating random terms between the semimartingale representations of the swaption and hedging instruments. Hedging efficiency is analyzed. the model is fitted to the swap/cap strips in Australia. Computation times on a 20-MHz laptop computer are acceptable.     

Family versus Non‐Family Firm Franchisors: Behavioural and Performance Differences

Drawing from resource‐based theory, we argue that family firm franchisors behave and perform differently compared to non‐family firm franchisors. Our theorizing suggests that compared to a non‐family firm franchisor, a family firm franchisor cultivates stronger relationships with franchisees and provides them with more training. Yet, we predict that a family firm franchisor achieves lower performance than a non‐family firm franchisor. We argue, however, that this performance relationship reverses itself when family firm franchisors are older and larger. We test our hypotheses with a longitudinal dataset including a matched‐pair sample of private U.S. family and non‐family firm franchisors.     

Multiple Ratings Model of Defaultable Term Structure

A new approach to modeling credit risk, to valuation of defaultable debt and to pricing of credit derivatives is developed. Our approach, based on the Heath, Jarrow, and Morton (1992) methodology, uses the available information about the credit spreads combined with the available information about the recovery rates to model the intensities of credit migrations between various credit ratings classes. This results in a conditionally Markovian model of credit risk. We then combine our model of credit risk with a model of interest rate risk in order to derive an arbitrage‐free model of defaultable bonds. As expected, the market price processes of interest rate risk and credit risk provide a natural connection between the actual and the martingale probabilities.     

DEFAULTABLE OPTIONS IN A MARKOVIAN INTENSITY MODEL OF CREDIT RISK

This paper is a follow‐up to “Valuation and Hedging of Defaultable Game Options in a Hazard Process Model” by the same authors. In the present paper we give user friendly assumptions ensuring that the general conditions in the previous paper are satisfied. We also give a systematic procedure to construct suitable intensity models of credit risk, and, in the Markovian case, we provide a variational inequality approach to the pre‐default pricing problem. We finally illustrate our results on a study of defaultable convertible bonds.     

Should Access to Credit be a Right?

Discussion on financial ethics increasingly includes the problem of exclusion of the poorer segments of society from the financial system and access to credit. This paper explores the ethical dimensions surrounding the concept of a human right to credit. If access to credit is directly instrumental to economic development, poverty reduction and the improved welfare of all citizens, then one can proclaim, as Nobel Prize Laureate M. Yunus has done, that it is a moral necessity to establish credit as a right. Arguments both supporting and opposing the concept of a right to credit are presented. While there may be general agreement that access to financial services may provide a pathway out of poverty, granting a universal right could induce perverse effects such as overindebtedness. Bearing in mind the ultimate goal of proponents of this right as well as the potential harmful consequences, this paper offers a new perspective on the question of access to credit based on a goal-right system.