Asymmetric Price Effects of Competition

When price dispersion is prevalent, a relevant question is what happens to the whole distribution of equilibrium prices when the number of firms changes. Using data from the gasoline market in the Netherlands, we find, first, that markets with N competitors have price distributions that first‐order stochastically dominate the price distributions in markets with N+1 firms. Second, the effect of competition is stronger for the medium to upper percentiles of the price distribution. Finally, consumer gains from competition are larger for relatively well‐informed consumers. To account for these empirical patterns, we extend Varian's [1980] model by allowing for richer heterogeneity in consumer price information.     

Too smart for their own good? A study of perceived cognitive overqualification in the workforce

This study examined the concept of cognitive overqualification, the possession of a higher level of cognitive ability than is required for a given job. Among 156 US based customer service representatives, cognitive overqualification was found to be associated with job dissatisfaction, but was only weakly related to measures of job and training performance. The results of this study provide support for the common practice among personnel managers to reject overqualified job applicants, as these individuals may be more likely to develop negative job attitudes, although not necessarily in anticipation of their poorer job performance.     

Evaluating Systemic Geopolitics – A Twenty-First Century View

This article explores the effects of borders on the making of trade union policies and on their capacity to act. It takes as an entry-point the reform of Luxembourg's system of family allowances and financial support for students in 2010, which redefined the group of beneficiaries and partly excluded cross-border workers from neighbouring countries. This led to heated debates in Luxembourg and in the Greater Region (comprising Luxembourg, Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lorraine and Wallonia) during which trade unions played an important part. The author explores the contradictory logics of both competition and cooperation within the Greater Region. These lead to a gap between integration as a discourse and what it means for local populations, in particular regarding labour market competition. The debates within trade unions on the issue of social entitlements for cross-border workers offer insights into the dynamics of this dichotomy and into the everyday fabric of cross-border social relations.     

Competition policy in the transitional economies

Conclusion It is very encouraging to note how much progress has been made with competition policy, especially in the four Visegrad countries. One might add that the developments were not merely in the legal front; in both Poland and Hungary the competition offices have forceful and impressive heads who have used their considerable discretion to shape anti-monopoly practice in their respective countries. The weakness of Bulgaria and Romania on this front is a reflection of the more general problems in implementing market-based reforms, and in establishing true independence between the economic and the political sphere.Nonetheless, our discussion indicates several cases where further developments could be made. The legislative structures in the reforming economies perhaps place excessive faith on quantitive indicators of dominance, and in many countries the independence of the competition offices from the political system is insufficient. The reliance on EU-type legislative structures perhaps also leads to insufficientper se prohibitions.     

Methods of privatization and economic growth in transition economies1

We examine how different methods of privatization might have affected growth in transition economies. Using several econometric specifications, including fixed effects and GMM, we estimate a cross‐country panel growth model for 1990–2003. We find only voucher privatization to have been significantly associated with faster growth. Moreover, neither private sector development per se nor capital market development exercised a significant influence. We speculate that voucher privatization may have been effective because of the speed with which links between firms and the state were severed.     

Financial System Development and Economic Growth in Transition Economies: New Empirical Evidence from the CEE and CIS Countries

We examine the role of financial development in economic growth in the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States during the first two decades since the beginning of transition. These countries, which had undeveloped financial systems under Communism, provide an interesting test of the relationship between financial development and growth. Our study is the broadest in terms of coverage and time period. We find that measures of financial market efficiency and competitiveness are more important than the size of the market in terms of promoting economic growth.     

Women and Work: A Survey of Textbooks

The third Marshall–Hicks–Allen rule of elasticity of derived demand purports to show that labor demand is less elastic when labor is a smaller share of total costs. As Hicks, Allen, and then Bronfenbrenner showed, this rule is not quite correct, and actually is complicated by an unexpected negative relationship involving labor's share of total costs and the elasticity of substitution. The standard intuitive explanation for the exception to the rule presented by Stigler and referenced in many textbooks describes a situation rather different than the one described in the rule. The author presents an example that illustrates the peculiar negative impact of labor's share operating via the elasticity of substitution and then explains why the unexpected relationship between labor's share of total cost, the elasticity of substitution, and the elasticity of labor demand holds.     

Institutions,resources, and entry strategies in emerging economies

We investigate the impact of market‐supporting institutions on business strategies by analyzing the entry strategies of foreign investors entering emerging economies. We apply and advance the institution‐based view of strategy by integrating it with resource‐based considerations. In particular, we show how resource‐seeking strategies are pursued using different entry modes in different institutional contexts. Alternative modes of entry—greenfield, acquisition, and joint venture (JV)—allow firms to overcome different kinds of market inefficiencies related to both characteristics of the resources and to the institutional context. In a weaker institutional framework, JVs are used to access many resources, but in a stronger institutional framework, JVs become less important while acquisitions can play a more important role in accessing resources that are intangible and organizationally embedded. Combining survey and archival data from four emerging economies, India, Vietnam, South Africa, and Egypt, we provide empirical support for our hypotheses. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing for Ongoing Convergence in Transition Economies, 1970 to 1998

In this paper, the authors use a time-varying parameters procedure to test for a common growth path in the ex-Communist bloc, both pre- and postreform. They test whether there has been convergence within the bloc or between the bloc as a group and the West. Surprisingly, there is little evidence of convergence within the bloc, which brings into question the effectiveness of policies to reduce differentials in income per capita under the Communists. There is also little evidence of convergence with respect to the West, either during the period from 1970 to 1990 or if the reform years are included (i.e., 1970 to 1998). J. Comp. Econ., December 2001, 29(4), pp. 677–691. © 2001 Elsevier ScienceJournal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: O40, C22, C23, C15.