Information technology,transaction costs and the decision to 'make or buy'

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a wide ranging impact on business. One of the effects is on the 'make or buy decision'. This is analysed from the perspective of transactzon cost economm (TCE). On the one hand ICT reduces transaction costs by reducing search costs, by facilitating monitoring and control of performance and by yielding a greater flexibility of production, which reduces the transaction specificity of assets. These efiects, favour the decision to 'buy'. On the other hand, ICT reduces economies of scale, in some areas of production, which makes outside production i n a specializedfirm less attractive. Also, ICT may be used to impose switching costs between suppliers and buyers, thereby miszng transaction costs. But such ploys appear to be feasible only temporarily, with a pressure from users and competitors towards standardization and open systems. Thus the effects of ICT are diverse, but on the whole it tends to favour the option to contract out.     

ICT,BUSINESS SERVICES AND LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH

This paper focuses on the diffusion of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in relation to information and communication technology-based innovations and their effect on productivity growth. Intermediate purchases of KIBS by any other industry determine the extent of KIBS diffusion. This diffusion is seen as part of the broader process of organisational innovations. We find a significant positive relation between this measure of KIBS diffusion and the intensity of information technology (IT). Not only do use of IT and KIBS both contribute positively to labour productivity growth, we also find that the combination of these two inputs adds further to productivity growth for the aggregate economy.     

An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input–Output Database: the Case of Global Automotive Production

This article provides guidance to prudent use of the World Input–Output Database (WIOD) in analyses of international trade. The WIOD contains annual time‐series of world input–output tables and factor requirements covering the period from 1995 to 2011. Underlying concepts, construction methods and data sources are introduced, pointing out particular strengths and weaknesses. We illustrate its usefulness by analyzing the geographical and factorial distribution of value added in global automotive production and show increasing fragmentation, both within and across regions. Possible improvements and extensions to the data are discussed.     

Front-running dynamics

We integrate a monopolist dual trader into a dynamic model of speculation. In static settings, [J.-C. Rochet, J.-L. Vila, Insider trading without normality, Rev. Econ. Stud. 61 (1994), 131-152] establish an irrelevance result—expected equilibrium outcomes are the same whether the monopolist speculator sees liquidity trade or not; and Roell [Dual-capacity trading and market quality, J. Finan. Intermediation (1990), 105-124] shows that with multiple speculators, dual trading benefits liquidity traders. In dynamic settings, these results are reversed: a front-running speculator exploits knowledge of future liquidity trade, extracting greater profits by smoothing profit extraction intertemporally. Front running introduces positive serial correlation to order flow. Accordingly, market makers discount past order flow in prices, but prices retain the martingale property.     

Social Employment of Welfare Recipients in Belgium: An Evaluation

In Belgium, welfare agencies receive a subsidy to employ welfare recipients for a period sufficiently long to entitle them to unemployment benefits. We investigate the effect of this programme on the exit rate from welfare. We propose a grouping/IV estimator of the programme effect that eliminates selection bias. The estimator is consistent, even if the selection into the programme depends on the average unobserved characteristics of welfare recipients in a region and in a welfare duration interval. Without correction for selectivity we find that the programme reduces welfare dependence, but after correction this conclusion is reversed.     

INFLATION INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Different spending patterns across households and differences in price increases across goods and services lead to unequal levels of inflation faced by different households. In this paper we measure the degree of inequality in inflation across U.S. households for the period 1987–2000. The broad picture that emerges from our results is that over our whole sample period there are substantial differences in the inflation experiences across U.S. households. We find that the cost of living increases were generally higher for the elderly, in large part because of their health care expenditures, and that the cost of living of poor households is most sensitive to the, historically large, fluctuations in gasoline prices. Still, when looking at the whole population, we find that individual households that are confronted with high inflation in one year do not generally face high inflation in the subsequent year as well.     

Use Tables for Imported Goods and Valuation Matrices for Trade Margins—an Integrated Approach for the Compilation of the Belgian 1995 Input–Output Tables

This paper describes the compilation of the use table for imported goods and the valuation matrix of trade margins for Belgium in 1995. It introduces the methodological novelty of integrating the compilation of both tables and systematically exploiting the fact that large import and export flows do not generate trade margins. This is notably the case for direct imports for intermediate consumption or investment by non-traders, and direct exports by producers. For identifying these trade flows, extensive use was made of intrastat and extrastat data. The results are compared with those of a proportional distribution of imports and trade margins. Many statistical offices resort to the latter approach because of a lack of survey data on the destination of trade margins and imports. We demonstrate that the integrated approach can improve the quality of both the import matrix and the valuation matrix for trade margins, while using only existing data sources.     

Income Level and the Value of Non-Wage Employee Benefits

With continuing increases in the cost of medical insurance and other “fringe” benefits, payroll cost for monetary and non-monetary aspects of compensation is a significant factor for most organizations. While this is not a new phenomenon, relatively few studies in the empirical literature have examined the role of fringe benefits in employee compensation plans. Especially in under researched areas, it is imperative that researchers utilize ideas and theories from other disciplines to further our knowledge. Accordingly, this paper borrows the concept of elasticity from the economic literature to help explain and understand employee perceptions of two of the most common, costly, and important benefits—medical insurance and retirement plans. Specifically, the relationship between the current income of employees is analyzed in relation to employee perceptions of the value and importance of benefits. Results suggest that employees do not value medical insurance and retirement plans in the same manner. This result is interpreted in terms of the change in the marginal utility of the specific benefit.