Technology management and collaboration profile: virtual companies and industrial platforms in the high‐tech biotechnology industries

In this paper we discuss collaboration in the area of technology management. We propose the concept of collaboration profile to describe various forms of networks along key differentiating characteristics. The collaboration profile is then applied using two examples to illustrate different forms of collaboration in the biotechnology industries, the ‘virtual company’ and the ‘industrial platform’. Based on interviews with members of a virtual company as well as members of industrial platforms and drawing conclusions from theoretical insights, the advantages and disadvantages of these forms and their suitability for different stages of the technology life cycle will be discussed. Specifically, we address the following questions: What kind of collaboration profile applies to virtual companies and industrial platforms? How does the suitability of collaboration forms vary with the stage of technology development? Furthermore, we demonstrate the usefulness of the collaboration profile for analysing features and potential problems of collaborations by describing two examples. Focusing on the key characteristics of a collaboration helps to check the appropriateness of the collaboration form and to identify and manage respective problems.     

Score-driven copula models for portfolios of two risky assets

ABSTRACT

The precise measurement of the association between asset returns is important for financial investors and risk managers. In this paper, we focus on a recent class of association models: Dynamic Conditional Score (DCS) copula models. Our contributions are the following: (i) We compare the statistical performance of several DCS copulas for several portfolios. We study the Clayton, rotated Clayton, Frank, Gaussian, Gumbel, rotated Gumbel, Plackett and Student's t copulas. We find that the DCS model with the Student's t copula is the most parsimonious model. (ii) We demonstrate that the copula score function discounts extreme observations. (iii) We jointly estimate the marginal distributions and the copula, by using the Maximum Likelihood method. We use DCS models for mean, volatility and association of asset returns. (iv) We estimate robust DCS copula models, for which the probability of a zero return observation is not necessarily zero. (v) We compare different patterns of association in different regions of the distribution for different DCS copulas, by using density contour plots and Monte Carlo (MC) experiments. (vi) We undertake a portfolio performance study with the estimation and backtesting of MC Value-at-Risk for the DCS model with the Student's t copula.     

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Zusammenfassung  Job-Food — Das kennt jeder, der in einem Pflegeberuf arbeitet: St?ndige Hektik, der Terminkalender platzt aus allen N?hten, der Schichtwechsel naht und dann f?llt auch noch ein Kollege aus – da bleibt einfach keine Zeit zum Essen. Doch das muss nicht sein.     

How persuasive is ‘free’ public transport?: A survey among commuters in the Brussels Capital Region

In Belgium, several cities have been experimenting with ‘free’ public transport based on the concept of a third payer system. This study explores the modal shift potential of this measure for commuters by means of a large-scale survey. The results indicate that there is still a margin for a further modal shift, but in order to make public transport more attractive to car users, the price paid by the commuter should be lowered, the quality and capacity of the public services should be improved and the mobility policy of the companies should be adjusted in favour of public transport.     

Work and Wage Dynamics around Childbirth

In this paper, we investigate how the wage processes of women who are well established in the labour market are affected by having children. We estimate a flexible fixed‐effects wage regression model extended by post‐childbirth fixed effects. We use register data on West Germany, and we exploit the expansionary family policy during the late 1980s and 1990s for identification. On their return to work after childbirth, the wages of mothers drop by 3–5.7 per cent per year of leave. We find negative selection back to full‐time work after childbirth. We discuss the policy implications regarding statistical discrimination and the results concerning the family gap.     

Structural breaks in public finances in Central and Eastern European countries

This article studies the evolution of quarterly government Total Deficit (TD) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and debt to GDP ratios of seven Central and Eastern European member states (CEEC-7) of the European Union over the period 2000 Q1 to 2011 Q2. Alternative unit root tests are applied to identify the number and date(s) of structural break(s) in the fiscal ratios. The breakpoint date(s) are estimated endogenously. The best performing unit root test is determined by the adjusted R-squared metric. The level and trend of fiscal ratios are estimated by using breaking trend regression models. Unit root tests performed for the period 2000 Q1 to 2007 Q4 identify the number and date(s) of structural break(s) in fiscal variables before the global economic crisis. Unit root tests and breaking trend regressions are estimated for total Eurozone TD to GDP and debt to GDP to compare the evolution of total Eurozone fiscal ratios with those of each CEEC-7.