Public policies and convergence

This paper employs a dynamic framework to compare the effects of alternative government policies on convergence of industrialized economies to the technology frontier. The government's instruments include facilitating private investment and education policy. The latter enhances skills of heterogenous specialists and implies the decision on their respective shares. The analysis distinguishes between an isolated policy of a single economy and coordinated policies of various countries. Which policy maximizes the speed of convergence is crucially affected by the economy's state of development. A policy switch between the mentioned instruments while catching-up may be preferable.     

Volatility in Cereal Prices: Intra‐ Versus Inter‐annual Volatility

Intra‐annual (within crop year) price volatility and inter‐annual (between crop years) price volatility are measured for wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats and rye. A set of explanatory variables is used in a pooled regression to explain variations in these price volatilities. With low cereal stocks, supply (yield) shocks (defined here as volatilities, as for the price volatilities) mostly influence inter‐annual volatility while other influential factors are the crude oil price and exchange rate. Cereal demand and interest rate shocks combined with low stocks affect intra‐annual volatility, while other explanatory factors include exchange rate and crude oil price shocks. The derivatives market activity appears to have no significant effect on either intra‐ or inter‐annual volatility. In contrast, large cereal stocks and a well‐functioning international cereal market reduce the effects of shocks in the explanatory variables on both intra‐ and inter‐annual volatilities.     

Long‐term Futures Curves and Seasonal Structures of Wheat in the European Union and the United States

A two‐factor affine theoretical model is used to estimate the long‐term futures curves for wheat in the European Union and the United States, as represented by the Euronext and CME markets, respectively. The CME futures curve exhibits a long‐term equilibrium; in contrast, the Euronext futures curve does not show a tendency for futures to revert to a long‐term equilibrium value. The estimated seasonality is relatively similar for both markets. However, the seasonal minimum and maximum points in the futures curve occur one to two months later for Euronext compared to the CME. More importantly, the futures curve for Euronext has a much more marked seasonality than the CME futures curve. Credible intervals of the futures curves are also estimated. The width clearly increases for longer maturities, but it does so much faster for Euronext than for the CME. For long‐maturity futures, variability in the parameter estimates (as opposed to the residual errors) accounts for most of the width of the credible intervals, especially for Euronext. The proposed model can be used to price long‐term futures options, long‐term price insurance, and long‐term swaps, among other applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 33:1118–1142, 2013     

When Production and Consumption Meet: Cultural Contradictions and the Enchanting Myth of Customer Sovereignty

ABSTRACT The central cultural contradiction of capitalism, argued Bell some 25 years ago, was the existence of rationalized, disciplined production alongside free and hedonistic consumption. This paper argues that this thesis, although overstated, has resonance within contemporary capitalism. The paper then considers the question of how this contradiction is managed when production and consumption meet directly within the service interaction. On the production-side rationalization is joined by customer-orientation, and on the consumption-side management promotes consumption of the enchanting myth of sovereignty. Here the customer is meant to experience a sense of being sovereign. At the same time the space is created for the customer to be, potentially, substantively directed and influenced to follow the requirements that flow from the rationalized elements of production. Key aspects of the service interaction, including the menu and its presentation, the display of empathy and aesthetic labour, and the use of naming within the service interaction, are analysed in terms of the promotion of the enchanting myth of sovereignty. Consumption, however, is a fragile process, and remains, to an important degree, 'unmanageable'. The analysis, therefore, also examines how the promotion of the enchanting myth of sovereignty systematically creates the conditions for the myth's negation.     

Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue, “Developing the African Continent: Selected Issues,” is the outgrowth of a conference held in Gaborone, Botswana, August 19–21, 2008 sponsored by the Institute for Economic Policy Studies (IEPS), Worcester Massachusetts, USA. The theme of the conference was, “Developing the African Continent: Who is in Charge?”     

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