Business Ethics in Belgium

Business Ethics has really taken off in Belgium. The author is Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, and an Associate Editor.     

Hard times in 19th-century Sweden: A comment

An alternative interpretation, the growth/workload hypothesis, is given to counter the recent argument by Sandberg and Steckel (1988, Explorations in Economic History 25, 1–19) on overpopulation and malnutrition in Sweden around the mid-19th century. This explains the joint behavior of agrarian growth and labor demand, poverty, side employment, and nutrition within a regional framework. The mid-19th century is seen as a transitional period which succeeded remarkably well in avoiding pauperization despite strong population growth.     

Total factor productivity in South African agriculture, 1947‐91

Indices of total factor productivity (TFP) measure aggregate output per unit of aggregate input, providing a guide to the efficiency of agricultural production. This article outlines the relationship between production functions and TFP indices. Then, an index is constructed for South African agriculture for the period 1947‐91. The index shows that TFP grew at an average rate of 1,3 per cent per annum. However, TFP growth has increased since the reforms of the early 1980s. Since capital has been more realistically priced relative to labour, greater productivity growth has gone together with increasing employment, which must have improved social welfare.     

Quality differentiation and factor proportions in international trade: An empirical test of the Swedish case

Review of World Economics -     

A macroeconomic model with asset equilibrium for an open economy

This article is concerned with the problem of the effects of monetary policy in an open economy in the long run. In order to analyze this problem under assumptions that are more suitable for long-run analysis than those of the usual IS-LM model a new model has been constructed with flexible prices, fixed exchange rates and a flexible capital stock. Within this framework it is found that the effectiveness of monetary policy crucially depends upon the degree of asset and goods arbitrage across national borders. Sufficient asset or goods arbitrage are both sufficient conditions to yield a zero effect of monetary policy except on foreign exchange reserves.     

Multinationals vs. Cooperatives: The Income and Efficiency Effects of Supply Chain Governance in India

The impact of multinational firms on the domestic agricultural sector in developing countries is controversial, in particular in India. Relying on a unique set of household‐level data from the state of Punjab, we study the biggest dairy company in the world (Nestlé) in India and compare its vertical spillover effects on upstream suppliers to other market channels (informal sector and cooperatives). We find that farmers that supply informal channels are less efficient and earn lower profits per dairy animal than farmers supplying the cooperative and the multinational sector. Furthermore, we find that farmers using the multinational channel are more efficient than farmers in the cooperative channel, but equally profitable. Hence, we do not find that supplying the cooperative channel is more beneficial for local dairy farmers than supplying the multinational channel. Overall, however, dairy productivity and profitability levels are still dramatically low, with substantial scope for dairy development.