Export Growth and Economic Development in Colonial British America

This paper analyzes the dynamic relationship between tobacco and the rest of the economy in the colonial Chesapeake to test the staple theory version of the export-led growth hypothesis. The paper adopts a multivariate time-series approach which accommodates the presence of cointegration and contemporaneous correlations among innovations. The empirical evidence strongly supports the staple theory. British demand for tobacco is statistically exogenous and found to induce cyclical fluctuations in the colonial price of tobacco as well as temporary over- or underproduction, as measured by a long-term cointegration relationship between the British demand for tobacco and the colonial price of land.     

Market potential and city growth: Spain 1860–1960

In this paper, we employ parametric and nonparametric techniques to analyse the effect of market potential on the structure and growth of Spanish cities during the period 1860–1960. Even though a few attempts have been made to analyse whether market potential might influence urban structures, this period is especially interesting because it is characterised by advances in the economic integration of the national market together with an intense process of industrialisation. By using an elaborated measure of market potential at the city level, our results show a positive influence of this market potential on city growth, although this influence is heterogeneous over time. Only changes in the market potential from 1900 have a significant effect on population growth.     

The Abatement Market A Proposal for Environmental Cooperation among Asymmetric Countries

We present a model of interaction among technologically asymmetriccountries whose use of an open-access environmental resource generatesmutual externalities. We show that countries can improve bothenvironmental quality and their individual welfare levels by buying/sellingpollution abatement. This market mechanism, which reduces incentive forfree-riding, is more effective the larger the technological gap betweencountries.     

The Border Effect in Spain

This paper analyses the border effect in Spain using a unique dataset on intranational trade flows over the period 1995–98. The results indicate that, after controlling for market size and distance, Spanish regions trade around 22 times more with the rest of Spain than they do with OECD countries. Moreover, the size of the Spanish bias is lower in the case of the Spanish regions’ exports than in the case of imports, although the difference is not statistically significant in most cases. Finally, the border effect is not uniform across Spanish regions.     

CSR Information Disclosure on the Web: A Context-Based Approach Analysing the Influence of Country of Origin and Industry Sector

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a much-discussed subject in the business world. The Internet has become one of the main tools for CSR information disclosure, allowing companies to publicise more information less expensively and faster than ever before. As a result, corporations are increasingly concerned with communicating ethically and responsibly to the diversity of stakeholders through the web. This paper addresses the main question as whether CSR information disclosure on corporate websites is influenced by country of origin and/or industry sector. Analysing the websites of 127 corporations from emerging countries, such as Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and South Africa, it becomes evident that both country of origin and industry sector have a significant influence over CSR information disclosure on the web (CSRIDOW). Based on the data studied, country of origin has a stronger influence over CSRIDOW than industry sector.

The evolution of income inequality in the European Union during the period 1993–1996

The objective of this work is to analyse the income inequality in the 15 EU countries during the convergence process to the Monetary Union, using the information contained in the European Community Household Panel, corresponding to the four first waves. Using the inverse second order stochastic dominance concept, an ordering of these countries has been carried out. Furthermore, this ranking allows one to determine if the differences among EU country members have increased or decreased during this particular period. Whether the inequality of income has diminished within and between countries over time was studied. Gini's generalized family indices proposed by Donaldson and Weymark (Journal of Economic Theory 22: 67–86, 1980 and 29: 353–8, 1983) and Yitzhaki (International Economic Review 24: 617–28, 1983) have been used. This allows one to test the sensitivity of the results obtained to different degrees of inequality aversion and to different equivalence scales, taking into account household sizes.     

Exchange Rate,Income Distribution and Technical Change in a Balance-of-Payments Constrained Growth Model

This article develops a formal model that accounts for the net effect of an exchange rate devaluation on the long-term balance-of-payments constrained growth rate. Such a model investigates how a currency devaluation impacts on the home country non-price competitiveness via changes in income distribution and the rate of technological innovation. The model is built upon two plausible hypotheses. First, it is assumed that the rate of technological innovation is directly related to the income elasticity of demand for exports and inversely related to the income elasticity of demand for imports. Second, it is assumed that a redistribution of income between labor and capital has an ambiguous direct impact on the income elasticities ratio. The model shows that the net impact of a currency devaluation on growth can go either way depending on the institutional framework of the economy.     

Functional and productive dependence: new characteristics for the analysis of enterprises from a macroeconomic view

This article introduce two new characteristics of firms, which are important, from a macroeconomic view, to evaluate the roll of entrepreneurial tissue in the territorial economic growth: functional dependence and productive dependence. An empirical analysis has been formulated in order to contrast the importance of these entrepreneurial characteristics, and try to show its relation with territorial economic growth.     

Shared ownership and pricing in a network switch

We observe that many wholesale switches in automated teller machine (ATM) networks are jointly owned by their members and that this tends to occur more frequently when the wholesale industry is highly concentrated. We also observe that network switches are ‘natural monopolies’, their costs being largely fixed and their demand exhibiting substantial network externalities. Motivated by these observations, we model the competition for members between wholesale switches and the role joint ownership can play in attracting members. The model analyzes both the adoption decision (which network a bank chooses to join) and the subsequent pricing of switch and ATM services. We compare competition between two solely owned switches with competition between one solely owned and one jointly owned switch. Our analysis shows that a more concentrated structure results under the latter and that retail prices are higher. This calls into question the leniency of antitrust policy toward jointly owned structures.