Technological change and the U.S. real interest rate

Economic theory predicts that the rate of technological growth exerts a positive influence on the real rate of interest. To test this hypothesis, I examine the relationship between the inflation-adjusted yield of the 90-day Treasury-Bill and two measures of innovation: the rate of growth of the stock of patents per worker and R&D spending relative to GDP. As theory predicts, from 1963 to 2008 the rate of interest responds positively to an increase in either measure. The point-estimates imply an elasticity of intertemporal substitution between one and two. The findings suggest that a change in the stance of monetary policy and a wave of innovation both contributed to the rise of real interest rates in the 1980s.     

Testing the Competitive Environment and the Persistence of Profits Hypotheses

In the present paper I examine Brozen's (1970, 1971a, b, c, 1982) Competitive Environment Hypothesis and Mueller's (1977) Persistence of Profits Hypothesis in the Greek manufacturing industries between 1958 and 1984. The analysis reveals a positive (market power) association between past and current price-cost margins, although a considerable scrambling in the ranks of price-cost margins takes place over time. A high concentration and high barriers to entry sub-sample of markets examined, showed a general reduction in concentration, barriers to entry and a mobility in price-cost margins ranks, indicating that disciplinary competitive forces are also at work within manufacturing markets.     

Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries in the WTO: Moving Forward After Cancún

The issue of special and differential treatment (SDT) for developing countries in the WTO has become a source of tension in North‐South trade relations. The absence of an effective SDT regime clearly contributed to the failure of the Cancún Ministerial meeting of the WTO. This paper argues for a new approach that puts the emphasis on efforts to improve the development relevance of WTO rules and create mechanisms which allow greater differentiation across WTO members in determining the applicability of WTO disciplines; complemented by non‐discriminatory liberalisation of trade in goods and services in which developing countries have an export interest. The former is key in allowing the WTO to expand its reach to new ‘behind the border’ policies; and the latter is important to establishing a development dimension in multilateral trade negotiations.     

It Pays to Value Family: Work and Family Tradeoffs Reconsidered

We use longitudinal data to assess whether individuals who place greater importance on marriage and family pay a price for that priority in subsequent labor market success. Males placing a high priority on family before entering the labor market earn more, contrary to behavioral research but consistent with the economics literature. More important, females who place a high priority on family do not suffer in terms of subsequent earnings, contrary to most previous research.     

Probing the future: Mobilising foresight in multiple-product innovation firms

With rapid changes in technology and intense competition in the business environment the importance of cultivating and sustaining foresight in multiple-product innovation firms has been propelled to unprecedented heights. Yet, research on the processes through which such firms mobilise foresight in their working environment remains scarce. This paper seeks to explore the different processes through which a high-performing new product design consultancy probes into the future aiming to identify possible avenues for product development and potentially define trends in multiple industries. This inductive, theory-building study identifies seven key processes and stresses the importance of perpetual probing and learning for sustaining foresight in such high-change environments.     

Strategy fit and performance consequences of international marketing standardization

This study addresses a long‐standing debate in the literature regarding the appropriateness and performance consequences of marketing strategy standardization vs. adaptation. Much of the relevant literature represents the headquarters' viewpoint and broadly assesses antecedents of standardization or adaptation across widely varying markets. Using strategic fit as the theoretical platform for analysis, the study investigates international marketing strategy for a specific product or line within subsidiaries of U.S., Japanese, and German multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in the U.K. The results indicate that degree of strategy standardization is significantly related to similarity between markets with respect to regulatory environments, technological intensity and velocity, customs and traditions, customer characteristics, a product's stage in its life cycle, and competitive intensity. On the critical question of performance consequences, the findings suggest that superior performance results from strategy standardization only to the extent that there is fit or coalignment between the MNC's environmental context and its international marketing strategy choice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Price instability and inflation: The Latin American case

This paper provides empirical evidence substantiating the existence of an over-time relationship between inflation and price variability for 23 Latin American countries, by employing a novel measure of price instability based on price expectations.     

Union structure and firms' incentives for cooperative R&D investments

Abstract .  We investigate the impact of alternative unionization structures on firms' incentives to invest on cost-reducing R&D and to form Research Joint Ventures (RJVs), in the presence of R&D spillovers. We show that if firms invest non-cooperatively and spillovers are low, R&D investments are higher under centralized rather than under decentralized wage-setting. In contrast, investments are always higher under decentralized wage-setting in the case of RJVs. Firms' incentives to form an RJV are stronger under centralized wage-setting if and only if spillovers are low enough. Finally, centralized wage-setting may hinder the formation of costly RJVs and their potential welfare benefits.     

The issue of import motivation in manufacturer—overseas distributor relationships: Implications for exporters

Understanding the factors influencing the import decision making process plays an important role in export growth and development. However, little empirical work has been done in the pertinent marketing literature to examine the issue of import motivation. This paper reports on a systematic study of import stimulus variables in the UK exporting manufacturer‐Bahraini distributor relationship. It identifies a “multi‐attribute perceptual gap” in import motivation between exporting and importing companies, on the basis of which exporters appear to underestimate the significance of several variables in influencing the import decision of Bahraini distributors. The research findings have important implications for business practitioners in exporting firms and future research directions.