The estimation of intra-industry trade in South Africa

This article uses recently released data to analyse the nature of trade between South Africa and the world. Two variations of the Grubel-Lloyd index are calculated, and they reveal that South Africa has predictably low levels of intra-industry trade among the primary product chapters, as well as low overall levels of intra-industry trade. It is only in certain manufacturing chapters (eg clothing and textiles) that the level of intra-industry trade is generally higher. There is, however, a very definite upward trend in the overall level of intra-industry trade manifested at all levels.     

Measuring the effectiveness of non-price export promotion using a supply-side approach

In this paper we assess the effectiveness of the Market Promotion Program (MPP) in increasing U.S. exports and benefitting U.S. agricultural producers and food processors. Export shipments are linked to producer welfare using Kohli's (1978) profit maximization (GNP function) approach to modeling international trade. Using estimated profit functions in conjunction with a synthetic export demand function for processed agricultural products, we compute changes in farm and food processing sector profits that result from alternative own-price and advertising elasticities of export demand with and without the MPP subsidy. This approach allows us to investigate aggregate welfare effects of nonprice promotion without requiring the difficult task of estimating the export demand effects of market promotion activities for numerous commodities and importing countries. First version received: April 1999/Final version received: June 2000     

THE PRIVATE COMPANY DISCOUNT

When appraisers or investment bankers value privately held companies by making comparisons to otherwise similar public companies, they typically apply a discount. Most practitioners attribute this discount mainly to the relative illiquidity of private companies; and, for this reason, they value private companies based on empirical studies designed to measure illiquidity discounts. But this assumption and the valuations based upon it are likely to be unreliable because private companies are valued differently than public companies owing to a variety of other, more "fundamental" factors that have caused the firm to stay private rather than choosing to list on an exchange.
This article presents an alternative framework to estimate the discount for private companies that computes four separate valuation multiples for a set of private transactions and a comparable set of public transactions. After comparing these four sets of multiples for both domestic and foreign firms, the authors reach the following conclusions:

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   Domestic private companies are acquired at an average 20–30% discount relative to similar public companies when using earnings (more precisely, EBIT and EBITDA) multiples as the basis for valuing the transactions. The average discount measured using price- to-book value multiples are somewhat lower, and there are no significant differences between the revenue multiples of acquired private and public companies.

       

BEEF PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS FROM SAMPLE FARMS IN NOVA SCOTIA*

The beef production function of different enterprises has been estimated for the sample farms in Nova Scotia. The returns to scale and marginal productivity of resources are derived from the production functions. It indicates decreasing returns to scale and the low marginal productivities of grain, labor, and variable costs for all enterprises. Grain and hay are the most important feeds for beef production. Many beef farms in the province produce more roughage than grain. The marginal rate of substitution of hay for grain is diminishing. Beef farmers can produce equal amounts of product with different combinations of the two feeds. The results provide the possibility of finding the least-cost combination of inputs. This study has specified the optimum input levels under different prices of inputs. It will help beef farmers to allocate their resources properly in order to maximize profits. Les fonctions de production de boeuf de différentes entreprises ont été eslimées à partir de fermes selectionées en Nouvelle-Ecosse. Les économies ?échelle et la productivté marginale des ressources sont dérivées des fonctions de production. On retrouve dans toutes les entreprises des économies ?échelle décroissantes et une faille productivity marginale du grain, du travail et des couts variables. Le grain el le foin constituent la plus importanle source ?alimentation dans la production de boeuf. Plusieurs fermes ?élevage de boef produisent plus de fourrage que de grain. Le laux marginal de substitution du foin pour le grain va en diminuant. Les éleveurs de boeuf peuvent produire des quantités egales par des combinaisons différentes de ces deux aliments. Les résultats ptrmettent de déterminer la combinaison la moins coûteuse pour la consommation des aliments, Cette étude a détérmine les niveaux optime de consommation selon les différents prix des aliments. Elle aidera les producteurs de boeuf à distribuer adéquatement les aliments afin de maximiser les profits.     

Wealth effects of convertible-bond and warrant-bond offerings: a meta-analysis

The literature on wealth effects associated with the announcements of convertible-bond and warrant-bond offerings is reviewed. The findings of 35 event studies, which include 84 sub-samples and 6310 announcements, are analysed using meta-analysis. We find a mean cumulative abnormal return of?1.14% for convertibles compared with?0.02% for warrant bonds, the significant difference confirming a relative advantage for warrant bonds. Abnormal returns for hybrid securities issued in the USA are significantly more negative than those issued in other countries. In addition, issuing hybrid securities to refund debt does not seem to be favoured by investors. Finally, several factors identified as important by theory or in prior research are not significant within our cross-study models, suggesting that more evidence is needed to confirm whether they are robust.     

The Economics of Morality and Environmental Policy: Comment on the Paper by Frey

Journal of Consumer Policy -