Computerization,workplace organization,skilled labour and firm productivity: Evidence for the Swiss business sector

The present study explores empirically the hypothesis that information and communication technologies, new organizational practices and human capital are important determinants of firm efficiency and performance, further that the combined use of these three factors leads to a mutual strengthening of their impact on firm performance. The analytical framework is that of a production function at firm level. The new contribution of this study to the empirical literature is that it is the first empirical study of this type for the Swiss business sector, using a rich data set at firm level for the year 1999 which were collected by means of a postal survey, and giving particular attention to the complementarity issue (several approaches) and to the endogenization of the technology and organization variables.     

价格水平目标制成为货币政策的新选择

通胀目标制面临挑战 过去20年之中,通胀目标制已成为当代央行操作的基准模式。大多数央行都设定了某种形式的通胀目标,而且它们决定利率水平的主要着眼点在于,将中期通胀率稳定在目标值附近。然而,近期的经济动向对实行通胀目标制的央行构成了重大挑战,原因有两方面：     

Unit Root Investigation of Greek Real Money Supply and GDP

In this article, the time series of Greek real GDP and real money supply are investigated for the presence of a unit root, allowing for maximum two breaks which take place at an unknown point in time. This methodology is preferred to conventional Dickey & Fuller tests because the covered time horizon, namely from 1858 to 1938, is characterized by a number of very important events, the nature of which is either economic or historical. In addition, time series stationarity is checked through a Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt, and Shin (KPSS) test.University of Macedonia—Greece. The article was presented at the Fifty-Ninth International Atlantic Economic Conference, London, England, March 9–13, 2005     

Is there any Impact of University–Industry Knowledge Transfer on Innovation and Productivity? An Empirical Analysis Based on Swiss Firm Data

This study investigates the impact of a wide spectrum of knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities (general information; educational activities; research activities; activities related with technical infrastructure; and consulting) (a) on two innovation indicators in the framework of an innovation equation with a endogenized variable of KTT activities as an additional determinant of innovation; and (b) on labour productivity in the framework of a production function with endogenized innovation variables and the variable for KTT activities as additional production factors.      

Factors Determining the Adoption of Energy-Saving Technologies in Swiss Firms: An Analysis Based on Micro Data

This study investigates the factors that determine firms’ decisions to adopt energysaving technologies. We distinguish between the decisions of whether or not to use a technology (“inter-firm diffusion”), and of how intensely to use a technology (“intra-firm diffusion”). The empirical model used accommodates several effects that have been postulated in the theoretical diffusion literature: firm and industry heterogeneity, strategic considerations and external effects. Data for 2,324 Swiss firms for the year 2008 is used, with separate information for four categories of energy-saving technology applications (electromechanical and electronic, motor vehicles and traffic engineering, construction, power-generating processes). The results reveal significant differences with respect to firm characteristics and adoption barriers between inter-firm and intrafirm diffusion. In practically all cases, positive net external effects of adoption can be found. Inducement effects, particularly those traced back to intrinsic motivations for environment-friendly technologies, show clearly positive effects on adoption behavior.     

FIRM LOCATION: FIRM COMPETENCES,FINANCIAL STRUCTURE AND REGIONAL DETERMINANTS

This paper examines the choice of firms to locate in particular regions based on an expanded set of decision making determinants which takes into consideration firm profiles and competences, firm characteristics with particular emphasis on their financial structure and attractive regional factors focusing on knowledge. It combines intuitions from industrial economics, spatial analysis, corporate finance theory and strategic management to explore in greater depth the location of entrepreneurial activities at the sub‐national level of regions, in particular between large urban areas and the periphery. Results suggest that the firm competences are conducive to their location and that other firm attributes contribute to this decision. When regional development and technological sophistication is taken into account, it is evidenced that they act as catalysts to the above decision, though only with respect to metropolitan regions where economies of scale could be exploited.     

Unawareness of theorems

This paper provides a set-theoretic model of knowledge and unawareness. A new property called Awareness Leads to Knowledge shows that unawareness of theorems not only constrains an agent’s knowledge, but also can impair his reasoning about what other agents know. For example, in contrast to Li (J Econ Theory 144:977–993, 2009), Heifetz et al. (J Econ Theory 130:78–94, 25 2006) and the standard model of knowledge, it is possible that two agents disagree on whether another agent knows a particular event. The model follows Aumann (Ann Stat 4:1236–1239, 1976) in defining common knowledge and characterizing it in terms of a self-evident event, but departs in showing that no-trade theorems do not hold.     

Strategy and industry effects on profitability: evidence from Greece

The present study examines the impact of firm and industry‐specific factors on profitability, using census data on Greek manufacturing. At the firm level, particular attention is given to strategy effects. Based on a modification of Porter's typology, these effects are captured through different forms of both ‘pure’ and ‘hybrid’ strategies. Industry effects are represented using industry concentration, entry barriers, and growth. Hypotheses are developed taking into account both previous research and the particular idiosyncrasies of the national context. The results obtained provide important insights on specific determinants of firm profitability. With respect to strategy, results confirm the hypothesis that hybrid strategies are clearly preferable compared to pure ones. In addition, it was found that the more generic strategy dimensions are included in the strategy mix, the more profitable the strategy is, provided that one of the key ingredients is low cost. Industry‐level effects, although weaker, show strong impact of industry entry barriers. Moreover, the findings suggest that while both sets of factors significantly contribute to firm profitability, firm‐specific factors explain more than twice as much profit variability as industry factors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decisionmetrics: A decision-based approach to econometric modelling

An approach to developing a possibly misspecified econometric model that will be used as the beliefs of an expected utility maximiser is proposed. This approach builds on a novel objective function that measures the value of predictive distributions in decision-making and is used in model estimation, selection and evaluation. The methods proposed also provide an econometric approach for developing arbitrary parametric action rules such as technical trading rules. The approach is compared in detail with existing methods and is applied in the context of a CARA investor's decision problem where analytical and empirical results suggest it is very effective.