The relationship between risk attitudes and heuristics in search tasks: A laboratory experiment

Experimental studies of search behavior suggest that individuals stop searching earlier than the optimal, risk-neutral stopping rule predicts. Two different classes of decision rules could generate this behavior: rules that are optimal conditional on utility functions departing from risk neutrality, or heuristics derived from limited cognitive processing capacities and satisficing. To discriminate between these possibilities, we conducted an experiment that consists of a search task as well as a lottery task designed to elicit utility functions. We find that search heuristics are not related to measures of risk aversion, but to measures of loss aversion.     

Altschuldenentlastung der Bundesländer: Verteilungswirkungen ausgewählter Vorschläge

Due to large public deficits in the past, many German states face high interest payments in their budgets today. Therefore, a restructuring of this outstanding debt will be a major topic in forthcoming negotiations on the future design of the fiscal equalisation scheme. This article presents some proposals that are currently being discussed and calculates their redistributional effects between the federal government and the states. It is shown that all models would lead to a significantly higher burden for the federal budget. The only way to afford this is either to increase the value added tax rates or to keep the so-called solidarity surcharge that was originally introduced to finance transfers to East Germany.     

MULTIFRACTIONAL STOCHASTIC VOLATILITY MODELS

The aim of this work is to advocate the use of multifractional Brownian motion (mBm) as a relevant model in financial mathematics. mBm is an extension of fractional Brownian motion where the Hurst parameter is allowed to vary in time. This enables the possibility to accommodate for varying local regularity, and to decouple it from long‐range dependence properties. While we believe that mBm is potentially useful in a variety of applications in finance, we focus here on a multifractional stochastic volatility Hull & White model that is an extension of the model studied in Comte and Renault. Using the stochastic calculus with respect to mBm developed in Lebovits and Lévy Véhel, we solve the corresponding stochastic differential equations. Since the solutions are of course not explicit, we take advantage of recently developed numerical techniques, namely functional quantization‐based cubature methods, to get accurate approximations. This allows us to test the behavior of our model (as well as the one in Comte and Renault) with respect to its parameters, and in particular its ability to explain some features of the implied volatility surface. An advantage of our model is that it is able both to fit smiles at different maturities, and to take volatility persistence into account in a more precise way than Comte and Renault.     

Translating satisfaction determination from health care to the automotive industry

This study is based on the case of BMW, and aims to improve the determination of perceived consumer satisfaction in the automotive industry by transferring existing knowledge from the health care sector. A literature analysis of the health care sector and the automotive industry was conducted to identify the common concepts of determining satisfaction. These were the service encounter, situational factors, and sociodemographics. The practical application was tested by analyzing a contemporary survey from BMW. Based on the findings, managers responsible for customer satisfaction in after-sales services in the automotive industry could improve measurement of customer satisfaction.     

Firm size and job creation in Germany

This paper reports new results on the role of firms from various size classes in the job generation process in Germany. It is based on a unique longitudinal data set covering all manufacturing establishments that existed in at least one year between 1978 and 1993 in the German federal state Lower Saxony. We find that gross job creation and destruction rates tend to decline with firm size, while net job creation rates and firm size are not systematically related when firms are classified according to their average number of employees in the base and end year. Small firms create (destroy) quite a large share of all new (lost) jobs.     

Higher wages in exporting firms: self-selection, export effect, or both? First evidence from linked employer-employee data

While it is a stylized fact that exporting firms pay higher wages than non-exporting firms, the direction of the link between exporting and wages is less clear. Using a rich set of German linked employer-employee panel data we follow over time plants that start to export. We show that the exporter wage premium does already exist in the years before firms start to export, and that it does not increase in the following years. Higher wages in exporting firms are thus due to self-selection of more productive, better paying firms into export markets; they are not caused by export activities.     

The potential benefits to LDCs of trade liberalization in beef and sugar by industrialized countries

Zusammenfassung Vorteile der Entwicklungsl?nder aus einer m?glichen Handelsliberalisierung für Rindfleisch und Zucker in den Industriel?ndern. - Die Studie geht von der Annahme aus, da\ die Gruppe der Industriel?nder ihre gegenw?rtigen Handelshemmnisse für Zucker und Rindfleisch aufhebt, und versucht zu ermitteln, welche potentiellen ?nderungen an Wohlfahrt und Devisenerl?sen sich daraus für die Entwicklungsl?nder ergeben. Grundlage ist ein komparativ-statisches Gleichgewichtsmodell für den Weltmarkt eines Gutes. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, da\ die Entwicklungsl?nder für beide Produkte zusammengenommen eine Steigerung ihrer Devisenerl?se um 6,6 bis über 12 Milliarden US-Dollar pro Jahr (auf der Basis von 1980) erwarten k?nnen. Das ist nicht nur absolut oder relativ sehr viel, sondern auch im Vergleich zu der laufenden Entwicklungshilfe.

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Résumé Bénéfices potentiels des PVD à cause d’une libéralisation de commerce en viande de boeuf et sucre par les pays industrialisés. - Cette étude essaie d’identifier le changement potentiel de bien-être et des revenus en devises des PVD en supposant que le groupe des pays industrialisés éliminent leurs obstacles commerciaux actuels pour la viande de boeuf et le sucre. Le cadre essentiel est un modèle du type comparatif statique d’équilibre de marché mondial d’un seul bien. Les résultats suggèrent que pour les deux biens ensemble les PVD pourraient attendre une augmentation des revenus en devises entre 6,6 et plus que 12 milliards US $ par année (base 1980): un montant très grand non pas seulement en terme absolu ou relatif mais aussi en comparaison avec l’aide de développement pour les PVD.

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Resumen Los beneficios potenciales de la liberalización de las importaciones de carne y azúcar en los países industrializados para los países en desarrollo. - Este trabajo intenta estimar el cambio en el bienestar y en el ingreso de divisas de los países en desarrollo, asumiendo que el grupo de países industrializados elimina las barreras al comercio actualmente vigentes para el azúcar y la carne. El marco teórico lo constituye un modelo de equilibrio de mercado para una materia prima de tipo comparativo-estático. Los resultados sugieren que para ambas materias primas los países en desarrollo podrían registrar un aumento en le ingreso de divisas entre 6,6 y 12 mil millones de dólares por a?o (a precios de 1980). Estas cifras no sólo son muy altas en términos absolutes o relativos, sino también si se las compara con los flujos de la ayuda al desarrollo.

     

Factors Affecting Technical Efficiency among Coffee Farmers in Côte d’Ivoire: Evidence from the Centre West Region

This paper presents measures of technical efficiency for a sample of 81 peasant farmers in the low‐income region of Côte d’Ivoire. DEA techniques were used to compute farm‐level technical efficiency (TE) measures. The analysis reveals average levels of technical efficiency equal to 36 per cent and 47 per cent respectively for the CCR ( Charnes et al., 1978 ) and BCC ( Banker et al., 1984 ) models. These results suggest that substantial gains in output and/or decreases in cost can be attained given existing technology. In a second step analysis, two‐limit Tobit regression techniques were used to examine the relationship between TE and various farm/farmer characteristics. From a policy point of view, an important conclusion stemming from the analysis of our sample is that family size, membership to farmer's club or association and the origin of the farmer are the variables found to be most promising for action. The analysis suggests that policymakers should foster the development of the formal farmers’ club or association by building the capacity of the farmers. Our analysis also supports the argument for public sector involvement in the provision of information on labour force management to peasant farmers as a means to improve efficiency levels, and thus household incomes.     

Modularity and intellectual property protection

Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. When state‐sanctioned intellectual property (IP) rights are ineffective or costly to enforce, modularity can be used to hide information and thus protect IP. We investigate the impact of modularity on IP protection by formally modeling the threat of expropriation by agents. The principal has three options to address this threat: trust, licensing, and paying agents to stay loyal. We show how the principal can influence the value of these options by modularizing the system and by hiring clans of agents, thus exploiting relationships among them. Extensions address screening and signaling in hiring, the effects of an imperfect legal system, and social norms of fairness. We illustrate our arguments with examples from practice.© 2014 The Authors. Strategic Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.