Uneven Development and the Destabilization of the North: a Keynesian view

Can Keynesian theory illuminate the questions of rising North–South trade in manufacturing, industrial relocation from North to South, rising wage inequality and unemployment in the North, and the consequent breakdown of Northern labour movements as effective political forces? I think so. Indeed I will argue here that the main relevance of Keynesian theory today may lie in its capacity to capture the dynamics of the North–South relationship, and especially the influence of Northern macroeconomic policy and Northern business cycles on industrial trading patters.     

Consumption volatility and financial openness

Economic theory predicts that the integration of financial markets lowers the volatility of consumption. In this article, we study long-term trends in the consumption volatility of the G7 countries. Using different measures of financial openness, we find evidence that greater financial openness has been associated with lower consumption volatility. However, volatility of consumption relative to output has not declined.     

Some evidence in defense of the vehicle currency hypothesis

The role of the dollar as a vehicle currency has been questioned by reference to patterns of trade invoicing. Here it is shown that a cross-section of country dollar holdings can be explained by reference to trade patterns.     

ECONOMIC VALUATION OF ACID DEPOSITION DAMAGES

This paper summarizes estimates of the monetary value of the physical damages that acid deposition causes in the United States. These estimates were developed for the Interim Assessment of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) but were not included in the final version of the assessment report. This paper describes this research and discusses why these estimates received so little support within the NAPAP. It outlines the role of economics in the current Integrated Assessment and discusses the extent to which lessons learned earlier have been integrated into the current assessment.     

EQUIVALENCE SCALE SENSITIVITY OF POVERTY STATISTICS FOR THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

Using microdata from Household Budget Surveys of the Member States of the European Community, this paper examines the sensitivity of poverty statistics with respect to the choice of the equivalence scale. The results show that the ranking of the countries with respect to the overall poverty incidence is hardly affected when different equivalence scales are used. However, the composition of the poor population shows considerable changes when e.g. subjective equivalence scales are used instead of the OECD equivalence scale. The poverty incidence among specific household groups, such as single elderly and households with children, is particularly sensitive to the choice of the equivalence scale.     

Marketing and r&d strategies for biotechnology firms in the usa

This pape reports on a survey of 64 biotechnology firms in the USA about their R&D strategy, marketing focud and sources of technology. The survey explored the interrelationships among the strategic issues and how they were related with the means of appropriating R&D results. Three stralegic clusters for technology acquisitin emerged from the data: (i) internal developer, (ii) joint developer, and (iii) cooperative financed. Three marketing clusters were: (i) market penetartor, (ii) innovative marketer, and (iii) market developer. The R&D clusters were: (i) defensive strategy, (ii) aggressive strategy, and (iii) research-intensive strategy. External sources of technology appeared to be predominant among thje various firms and apparently marketing strategy and source of technology had no significant relationship. Most of the firms were involved with commercial innovation in their R&D strategy and few were research specialists. Innovative firms were inclined to depend on external sources sources of technology. Issues related to appropriability of R&D results for the different groups have been examined for their implications for public policy.     

A generalized theorem of the maximum

Summary This paper generalizes the Theorem of the Maximum (Berge [2]) to allow for discontinuous changes in the domain and the objective function. It also provides a geometrical version of the (generalized) theorem.This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant SES-86-19012. Financial assistance was also provided, for Lawrence Ausubel, by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and for Raymond Deneckere, by the Kellogg School of Management's Beatrice/Esmark Research Chair. We thank Alejandro Manelli and Israel Zang for many helpful conversations.