Choosing among alternative technologies: conditions for assuring the feasibility of an input–output database or scenario

The conceptual reach of the basic input–output modeling framework is substantially extended by new models that incorporate the economic logic of comparative advantage as the basis for the endogenous choice among alternative production technologies. This paper establishes procedures that define the conditions under which the database used for scenario analysis in this extended framework assures the existence of an economically feasible solution. We provide a criterion for structural feasibility, the property established by the Hawkins–Simon condition for the basic input–output model, and introduce a criterion for scale feasibility. The logic underlying the tests is illustrated by numerical examples based on the Rectangular Choice-of-Technology model and database. These procedures can be particularly useful for incorporating engineering and other technical sources of information into multi-regional input–output databases; they can also provide substantial underlying detail about individual technologies, sectors, and factors of production for both feasible and infeasible scenarios.     

Relationship Quality and Performance Outcomes: Achieving a Sustainable Competitive Advantage

As firms strive to develop a sustainable competitive advantage, the relationships formed among supply chain parties become a critical consideration. Firms seek to establish relationships that can provide the desired level of performance and competitiveness. Relationship quality provides a global measure of buyer–supplier relationships and can be used to assess the types of relationships a firm has within its supply chain. This research examines the impact of relationship quality on supply chain operational performance and satisfaction with strategic performance while considering both buyer and supplier perspectives and collaborative and arm’s length types of relationships.     

责任投资趋势下的报告发布机遇

据一月份Financial Times报道,几家大型资产管理公司2011年将把部分责任投资团队搬到亚洲地区。不管其在亚洲责任投资团队的大小,该决定的重要意义在于,将会给亚洲企业带来许多新的机会。     

CSR报告绩效披露应更体现外部诉求

从2007年至今，企业发布社会责任报告的数量在快速地增长。从客观角度来看，企业透明度已经达到有史以来的最高点。但与此同时，大多数报告尽管介绍了企业大量的优秀实践，仍难以识别出企业运营是否符合可持续性的原则。这一社会责任报告的问题可能一部分来自越来越成熟的相关标准、评级系统以及专业培训，导致企业发布的报告也越来越相似，包含的主题很一致，介绍的活动很雷同，编写的风格也有很多共同的地方。     

Competitive Storage,Biofuels and the Corn Price

The use of corn as an ethanol feedstock has been stimulated by US biofuels policy. This has changed both the position and the slope of the corn demand curve and increased the pass-through from crude oil to corn prices. The principal constraints on ethanol consumption and production have been regulation (the biofuels mandate), capacity constraints in ethanol refining and the blend wall, which puts a ceiling on the ethanol content of gasoline. The incidence of these constraints has varied over time. We model these impacts within the competitive storage model using structural break regression analysis. Our analysis shows that the pass-through has varied over time in relation to the share of ethanol in total US corn use. Our analysis provides robust empirical evidence of an increase in the pass-through from crude oil to corn prices over the period from the start of the century to a high level over 2004–2008 when corn use in ethanol was growing very fast. This enhanced sensitivity was driven by competition for corn as an ethanol feedstock with stock demand exerting strong upward pressure on the corn price.     

Redistribution and persistent exploitation in an accumulation economy with decreasing marginal impatience

Abstract

A variant of John Roemer’s accumulation economy is studied in which agents have identical payoff functions characterized by decreasing marginal impatience (DMI), such that time discount rates are decreasing in individual wealth levels. The implications of DMI for the existence and persistence of positive rates of profit and exploitation in the presence of capital accumulation, as well as for the dynamic redistribution of wealth, are derived. It is demonstrated that with DMI, differential ownership of productive assets is sufficient to ensure ongoing capital scarcity, and thus persistently positive rates of return and exploitation, as well as eventual redistribution of productive assets to the wealthiest agents.     

DO WATER-RICH REGIONS HAVE A COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN FOOD PRODUCTION? IMPROVING THE REPRESENTATION OF WATER FOR AGRICULTURE IN ECONOMIC MODELS

With growing demand for fresh water and uncertain supplies, there is an increasing concern about future water scarcity. Since most freshwater withdrawals are for agriculture, reliance on water embodied in imported food (trade in ‘virtual water’) is a possible strategy to provide food to water-stressed regions while conserving their scarce supply for other purposes. To evaluate this proposition, we extend a model of interregional trade by (1) defining endowments of water that cannot be exceeded, (2) allowing simultaneous operation of rainfed and irrigated agriculture, and (3) distinguishing sub-regional endowments within a larger economic region. An application to the Mexican economy compares region-specific water abundance with economic comparative advantage under alternative scenarios. We conclude that the water-rich regions of Mexico are relatively high-cost producers of food and that they do not pick up the slack even when the lowest-cost Mexican regions are constrained by binding water constraints.