A Simple Extension of the Dasgupta–Maskin Theorem,with an Application

This paper generalizes the classical existence results for games with discontinuous payoffs, developed by Dasgupta and Maskin in 1986. This new existence result is then applied to a simple duopoly model with quantity precommitment and Bertrand competition.     

“Buy National” and protectionism in the great recession — Can it work?

Against the backdrop of the considerable increase in protectionist measures that could be observed during the recent fi nancial crisis, this article investigates the following questions: Are “Buy National” clauses a suitable instrument to internalise the externality that arises because the stimulating effect of “general”, non-discriminatory government spending is distributed among many countries, while the cost of the stimulus is borne by only one country? Are shortterm trade policies, like import tariffs, export subsidies and “Buy National” policies, suitable policies to mitigate an economic downturn?     

Genetically modified crops as real options: Identifying regional and country-specific differences

This paper employs real options methodology for evaluating profitability of genetically modified (GM) crops in volatile market and regulatory environments. Observed instances of market entry, or product introduction, are viewed as outcomes of profit maximizing decisions based on comparison of market entry costs, expected future returns, and the value of managerial flexibility. The process is estimated using simulated maximum likelihood. The estimates suggest that, in the developing countries, the downward volatility of the returns is higher resulting in lower adoption rates, whereas the environment in the top four industrialized GMO adopting countries appears to be costlier but much more optimistic. Commercial success of GM soybean and maize in Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S. is explained mostly by a combination of high upward return volatility and moderate entry costs. The findings may contribute to the general understanding, measurement, and possibilities of controlling the rate of technical advance in biotechnology.     

Why ‘Buy American’ is a bad idea but politicians still like it

Abstract When the world economy was recently hit by a severe recession, governments all over the world reacted by initiating stimulus packages. Some countries (among them, most notably, China and the US) tried to put special emphasis on their home industries by including ‘Buy National’ clauses into the stimulus package. By analyzing the dynamics of transitory changes of trade barriers as a short‐run response to an economic downturn, we show that beggar‐thy‐neighbour policies do not work. We then come up with two rationales that help us understand why countries nevertheless consider protectionism to be a good response to a recession: (i) the lobbying of domestic, non‐exporting firms, and (ii) the relationship between vulnerability, the degree of openness and loss aversion of consumers.     

Models with graphical representation for innovation management: a literature review

In the last decades, the management of innovation has achieved increasing importance in both academic and business environments. For the companies, an effective engagement in innovation efforts involves the adoption of management models to guide the definition of organizational processes to conduct innovation opportunities throughout the organization. In this context, graphical representations can strongly communicate the central propositions of each model, accelerating the diffusion and influence of such models in both academic and business environments. Based on an academic database search, and snowball procedure, models were selected considering the unique characteristics of their graphical representation. This article contributes to the knowledge in the field by proposing a typology of innovation management models, highlighting model's biases, gaps, strengths and weaknesses, and by identifying important tensions among models that spillover to the innovation management field in both research and practice. This article discusses conflicts regarding the limits of the innovation process (events that start and end the process and complementary approaches), the limits of focusing on processes, the differentiation of research and development and new product development activities. In the end, the article addresses emerging approaches related to radical innovation, design thinking and startups, and stresses contributions for research and practice.     

Investment in financial literacy and saving decisions

We present an intertemporal consumption model of investment in financial literacy. Consumers benefit from such investment because financial literacy allows them to increase the returns on wealth. Since literacy depreciates over time and has a cost in terms of current consumption, the model delivers an optimal investment in literacy. Furthermore, literacy and wealth are determined jointly, and are positively correlated over the life-cycle. The model drives our empirical approach to the analysis of the effect of financial literacy on wealth and saving and indicates that the stock of financial literacy early in life is a valid instrument in the regression of wealth on financial literacy. Using microeconomic and aggregate data, we find strong support for the model’s predictions.     

Extreme volatility,speculative efficiency,and the hedging effectiveness of the oil futures markets

This study investigates the efficiency of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) Division light sweet crude oil futures contract market during recent periods of extreme conditional volatility. Crude oil futures contract prices are found to be cointegrated with spot prices and unbiased predictors of future spot prices, including the period prior to the onset of the Iraqi war and until the formation of the new Iraqi government in April 2005. Both futures and spot prices exhibit asymmetric volatility characteristics. Hedging performance is improved when asymmetries are accounted for. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:61–84, 2007     

On China's exosomatic energy metabolism: An application of multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism (MSIASM)

The methodology of multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism (MSIASM) is applied to the analysis of the recent evolution of Chinese economy. This paper has two goals: (1) to show the MSIASM scheme is effective in handling in an integrated way different types of data, mixing extensive and intensive variables, on different levels; and (2) to provide a multi-scale integrated analysis of the trajectory of development of China. The quality of possible scenarios is checked by identifying constraints affecting their feasibility and by characterizing them in relation to different dimensions and scales of analysis.This entails 4 tasks: (i) identifying a set of benchmarks that makes it possible to compare different characteristics and features of China to other countries and to the average values calculated for the world level; (ii) explaining the differences found over the selected set of benchmarks, by looking at the characteristics of the various sub-sectors of Chinese economy; (iii) understanding existing trends and future feasible paths of China's development by studying the existence of reciprocal constraints between the whole economy and its compartments; and (iv) examining possible future scenarios of development for China.