Dynamic Use of Closures and Imperfectly Enforced Quotas in a Metapopulation

The dynamic efficiency of closures in bioeconomic systems depends upon stock levels and in situ values that evolve over time, and on relative costs of implementation. A model of a harvested metapopulation is presented in which second-best reduction of harvest from open-access levels using input quotas balances monitoring costs against dynamic benefits of mitigating overharvesting. Temporary or permanent closures—though generally still second best—are preferable to quotas under certain conditions, as demonstrated for a representative patch and time period. Interactions between patches are discussed. Numerical solutions illustrate comparative dynamics of closure use, and show their potential benefits in a dynamic regulatory path.     

Does Conservation Agriculture Change Labour Requirements? Evidence of Sustainable Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa

Population growth, increasing wealth and changing diets require agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa to intensify to meet future food demand and ensure food security in the region. Conservation agriculture can increase yields in the long run and reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive farming. In changing the mix of resources used and how they are managed, the adoption of conservation agriculture can have a direct impact on farm labour. We study the relationship between conservation agriculture and labour input requirements as observed in five Sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on the amount of work required and the source of the work employed (household or hired, by gender, by children and by production stage). We apply multinomial endogenous switching regression models on a panel of household and farm data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. We find that conservation agriculture increases farms’ labour input requirements. Higher demand is driven by more work during the harvesting and threshing stages. Increases in labour requirements are usually met by household labour, not paid work. The workload change is also higher for women than for men, and, in certain cases, is met by children.     

Bio-economic modelling of soil erosion externalities and policy options: a Tunisian case study

Soil erosion is one of the most important of today’s environmental externalities and a major threat to sustainability of agricultural system. It constitutes the most widespread forms of land degradation throughout the world. The aim of this paper is to estimate the amount of soil erosion generated by the current cropping systems in Tunisia and to assess the economic and ecological impacts of policy instruments designed to handle this problem. The analysed policy options are based on soil conservation practices and direct incentive farming anti-erosive measures. The selected measures are the reduction of tillage, the avoidance of bare fallow and the use of legume-based crop rotation. A bio-economic modelling framework coupling the biophysical model EPIC to a non-linear dynamic programming farm model was used for this impact analysis. It was performed in a set of representative farms belonging to a region in North-Eastern Tunisia (Zaghouan) strongly affected by this phenomenon. The main finding of this research is the non-convexity of the crop yield—soil erosion space. That is, the use of more intensive techniques to increase productivity (i.e. crop yield) may be accompanied by rough changes in soil erosion (damage) curves, manifested either by non-monotony or non-convexity. In term of policy options and because of giving up convexity assumptions, incentive anti-erosive measures appear more efficient than conventional environmental policies such as Pigouvian taxes or quota systems. The implementation of soil conservation practices would leads to a net decrease in soil erosion and an increase in farm income. However, with the current interest rate of 7% the possible rise in income is not enough to stimulate farmers to invest on these practices. A maximum rate of 4% would be necessary to make this policy option more effective.     

Dynamics of the evolution of the strategy concept 1962–2008: a co‐word analysis

The aim of this paper is to extend recent reflection on the evolution of strategic management by analyzing the field's object of study: strategy. We show how the concept of strategy has formed the backbone of the development of strategic management as an academic field and how consensus regarding it has evolved in the academic community during the stages of its historical development. We also address changes in the structure of the definition as it evolved through the growth of internal consistency, the centrality degree of the key terms that have shaped it, and how this evolution fostered the emergence of new research topics during the development of the discipline. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stagflationary Effects of Stabilization Programs in Reforming Socialist Countries: Enterprise-Side and Household-Side Factors

Dismantling subsidies could give rise to serious macroeconomicdifficulties in the short run. This article explores a viewbased on the enterprise sector as a central source and mainchannel of the stagflation phenomenon, using as an example thestagflation that followed the 1990 stabilization program inPoland. The stagflation phenomenon is linked to features ofthe financial market that are somewhat peculiar to reformingsocialist economies: the weak credit links between householdsand enterprises, and the existence of large interenterprisedebt. The policy implications of the enterprise-side view includemore explicit consideration of initial conditions in the creditmarket, implementation of privatization schemes, and the developmentof a domestic banking system.     

Capital accumulation and welfare: a note

Diamond's neoclassical growth model with National Debt is reconsidered with respect to dynamic welfare considerations. Conditions under which capital deepening implies increasing welfare are dependent upon the stability of the steady state, the interest elasticity of savings, and the relationship between the marginal propensity to save and the elasticity of substitution in production.     

Currency substitution and the real exchange rate: the utility maximization approach

This paper studies the currency-substitution hypothesis with Rational Expectations in terms of a Sidrauski-type model where domestic and foreign money enter the utility function. It shows that, contrary to Liviatan (1981), the approach does not necessarily contradict Calvo and Rodriguez (1977). Furthermore, the impact of monetary stabilization policy is fully characterized with flexible and (pre-) fixed rates for an extension of Dornbusch and Mussa (1975). A brief analysis of the Optimal Quantity of Money is also provided.     

The Effects of Attitudes,Subjective Norms,Attributions, and Individualism–Collectivism on Managers’ Responses to Bribery in Organizations: Evidence from a Developing Nation

The goal of this study was to introduce a model explaining how managers’ attitudes, subjective norms, attributions, and the individualism–collectivism cultural dimension affect the way managers’ deal with employee bribery in organizations. Twenty-six internal and external attributions related to bribery were identified through a series of structured interviews with 65 subject matter experts. These attributions, together with the other variables in the model, were evaluated by 354 (n = 354) Ecuadorian managers. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that attitudes and external attributions significantly predicted managers’ intentions to discipline employees who accepted a bribe. In addition, external attributions mediated the relationship between individualism–collectivism and intent to discipline corrupt employees. Implications for the management of bribery in Latin American organizations are discussed.