Regional integration in Africa versus higher levels of intra-Africa trade

Regional integration arrangements have mushroomed worldwide, both on intra-regional and extra-regional levels. On an intra-regional level, Africa faces a complicated grid of multiple and overlapping membership of several regional integration organisations, aiming to increase intra-regional trade and cooperation. In this study, a comparative analysis will be executed, based on an intra-regional breakdown of trade, using the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa classification of countries according to geographical region. The level of intra-regional trade will be determined, whereafter the level of inter-regional trade will be established and, lastly, trade with the rest of the world. It seems that despite the high level of regional integration within Africa, it does not necessarily stimulate intra-Africa trade to expected levels as proposed by literature. A regional integration strategy that would cause deeper integration is crucial if the continent is to play a rightful role in the global arena.     

New development: Budgetary accounting in Colombia—arguments for a much-needed reform

ABSTRACT

Public financial management reforms are needed in Colombia to integrate the accrual-based accounting system with budgets. This would remove the need to make accounting variations through deficit measurement and would supply better information about the impact of public policies on the country’s financial situation. This article briefly explains why Colombia needs to integrate its accounting and budgeting systems.     

Insights from machine learning for evaluating production function estimators on manufacturing survey data

Journal of Productivity Analysis - National statistical organizations often rely on non-exhaustive surveys to estimate industry-level production functions in years in which a full census is not...     

Kyle equilibrium under random price pressure

Decisions in Economics and Finance - We study the equilibrium in the model proposed by Kyle (Econometrica 53(6):1315–1335, 1985) and extended to the continuous-time setting by Back (Rev...     

Measuring the economic contribution of tourism to destinations within an input-output framework: some methodological issues

Portuguese Economic Journal - The input-output model is a traditional tool employed in the literature for measuring the contribution of an economic activity within a given territory. In the case of...     

Nothing so Certain as your Anchors? A Consumer Bias that may Lower Prices and Prevent Cartels

In this paper, we investigate the effect of reference prices on oligopolistic firms’ behavior. Specifically, we analyze pricing strategies and equilibrium outcomes when differentiated firms compete in Bertrand fashion and reference prices act as anchors. We show that anchoring may lower the prices charged in the long run. Furthermore, we claim that the existence of anchoring makes collusion less stable. This might have implications on the optimal allocation of regulatory resources.     

Drivers of change in the European youth employment: a comparative structural decomposition analysis

This paper uses a structural decomposition approach to examine the proximate causes of change in the EU15 youth workforce from 1995 to 2011. Besides the traditional sources considered by the literature, I include age-specific factors: a labor utilization index that accounts for the hours that employed youth work by showing the extent of part-time contracts; an age mix factor that indicates the share that youth comprise of total employment and, finally, changes in the inverse of the overall sectoral labor productivity, which describes variations in total labor demand. By applying this approach, I identify the core drivers behind the recent changes in the evolution of youth employment in each of the 15 countries; this is crucial for tailoring policy strategies. Results suggest that to foster youth employment, most Mediterranean countries should implement youth-specific measures while other EU15 countries could do so by enhancing overall employment.     

The social profitability of business incubators: a measurement proposal

Abstract

Public business incubators are services placed at the disposal of original, generally newly-created projects, to which physical accompaniment, supervision and location are offered at prices below market value. They have as their aim to help set in motion and consolidate these firms during the stages in which they are weaker. The ultimate goal consists in favouring the generation of innovative firms, inducers of high-quality jobs, which can diversify the local business fabric, thus becoming a key tool in local development. The present paper provides a methodology to study the economic – but above all social – impact of business incubators, based on the examination of 40 from the 42 incubators existing in the Valencian Community (a Spanish autonomous region with five million inhabitants). Data analysis allows us to state that, although business incubators are not economically profitable since they need financial aids and public investment to start operating, they do have social profitability, insofar as the activity developed by entrepreneurs permits to provide public administrations – via taxes – with returns exceeding what was invested in these incubators. It has been determined that 2.8 euros (which can be applied to a variety of social areas) are collected via taxes for each euro spent to start them up.