THE ESSENCE OF THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

In a lecture in November 2008, Professor Huerta de Soto set out the key contributions of the Austrian School to economic thought.     

Production planning and inventories optimization: A backward approach in the convex storage cost case

We study the deterministic optimization problem of a profit-maximizing firm which plans its sales/production schedule. The firm controls both its production and sales rates and knows the revenue associated to a given level of sales, as well as its production and storage costs. The revenue and the production cost are assumed to be respectively concave and convex. In Chazal et al. [Chazal, M., Jouini, E., Tahraoui, R., 2003. Production planning and inventories optimization with a general storage cost function. Nonlinear Analysis 54, 1365–1395], we provide an existence result and derive some necessary conditions of optimality. Here, we further assume that the storage cost is convex. This allows us to relate the optimal planning problem to the study of a backward integro-differential equation, from which we obtain an explicit construction of the optimal plan.     

Dimensions of uncertainty and their moderating effect on new product development project performance

In this study, we measure the dimensions of uncertainty, starting from the definitions constructed for and generally used in innovation projects. We then evaluate their direct and indirect effects on the performance of product and service development projects. Four dimensions of uncertainty are delimited with satisfactory validity and reliability, suggesting a differential moderating effect of the four types of uncertainty (technical and project uncertainty, market uncertainty, fuzziness and complexity) depending on the performance dimension (effectiveness and efficiency) and co‐moderator (project methods and human resource adequacy). Of the four dimensions explored, technical and project, and market uncertainty are true moderators and have the largest interactive effect, fuzziness has a strong direct effect on both performance dimensions whereas complexity weakly directly influences effectiveness. The latter two also influence the relations between performance and the factors related to human resources and project management methods.     

What labelling policy for consumer choice? The case of genetically modified food in Canada and Europe

Abstract. Faced with divergent opinions among consumers on the use of genetically modified (GM) foods, Canada has adopted a voluntary labelling approach for non‐GM foods, whereas the European Union has a mandatory labelling policy for GM foods. Interestingly, both labelling systems have resulted in very little, if any, additional consumer choice. Using an analytical model, we show that the coexistence of GM and non‐GM products at the retail level depends on the labelling policy, consumer perceptions, and the type of product. Although voluntary labelling tends to favour the use of GM products, it is more likely to provide consumer choice.     

Technology Adoption with Multiple Alternative Designs and the Option to Wait

Technology adoption is one the most important elements of a firm's strategy. In this paper, we address an essential, yet largely overlooked, question: What should a firm do when faced with several alternative proprietary designs of a new technology? In our base case we assume there are two technology designs, each described by an independent stochastic process of technology evolution. We show that, in equilibrium, a buyer chooses the leading technology design as soon as the discounted payoff from doing so is positive. When the option value of waiting is very high, it is jointly optimal to delay adoption. But because sellers cannot commit not to extract all of the buyer's future rents, inefficiently early adoption takes place. Strategies that improve commitment to low future license fees, such as increasing the number of competitors or cross‐licensing, may alleviate the hold up problem. Although previous research stressed the benefit of such commitments in terms of increasing the rate of technology adoption, we present a class of cases when the benefit from commitment is efficiently to delay adoption.     

Production in incomplete markets: Expectations matter for political stability

In the present paper we study voting-based corporate control in a general equilibrium model with incomplete financial markets. Since voting takes place in a multi-dimensional setting, super-majority rules are needed to ensure existence of equilibrium. In a linear–quadratic setup we show that the endogenization of voting weights (given by portfolio holdings) can give rise to – through self-fulfilling expectations – dramatical political instability, i.e. Condorcet cycles of length two even for very high majority rules.     

The experience of Latin America with export subsidies

Zusammenfassung Die Erfahrungen Lateinamerikas mit Exportsubventionen. — Vor ann?hernd 30 Jahren wurde aus den ?konomischen überlegungen zum Thema Exportsubventionen abgeleitet, solche Subventionen würden zu gr?\erer Exportdiversifizierung und -leistung fuhren. Die Erfahrung zeigt indessen, da\ das im allgemeinen nicht geschehen ist. Das lag — wie in diesem Aufsatz gezeigt wird — in den meisten F?llen daran, da\ die Exportsubventionen nicht durch eine liberale Importpolitik unterstützt wurden. Im Ergebnis verminderten die Exportsubventionen nur geringfügig die von der Importprotektion ausgehende Exportschw?che lateinamerikanischer L?nder. Zus?tzlich negative Wirkungen sind von sehr unstabilen realen Wechselkursen ausgegangen. Bemerkenswerte Ausnahmen mit guten Exportleistungen sind Brasilien, wo Exportsubventionen von einer Liberalisierung der Importe, einer beachtlichen Stabilisierung der realen Wechselkurse und anderen, exportfreundlichen Ma\nahmen begleitet waren, sowie Mexiko, wo zu den nur minimalen Exportsubventionen eine Abwertung, Stabilisierung und Importliberalisierung hinzukamen.

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Résumé L’expérience de l’Amérique Latine avec les subventions aux exportateurs. — Il y a prèsque 30 années que les économistes ont argumenté que les subventions aux exportateurs augmenteraient les exportations et que les exportations deviendraient plus diversifiées. Mais au contraire, l’expérience démontre que cette expectation n’est pas arrivée en général. Dans cette étude on a argumenté que la raison pour ce résultat est dans la majorité des cas que les subventions aux exportateurs n’étaient pas secondées par des politiques d’importations plus libérales. C’est pourquoi les subventions aux exportateurs réduisaient seulement un peu le désavantage pour des exportations causé par la politique en Amérique Latine. De plus, les taux de change réels très instabiles ont contribué aux résultats négatifs. Mais il y a des exceptions notables avec une bonne performance d’exportations: le Brésil et le Mexique. En Brésil, les subventions aux exportateurs étaient accompagnées par une libéralisation des importations, une stabilisation significative des taux de change réels et d’autres politiques propices aux exportations. En Mexique, les subventions aux exportateurs seulement peu importantes étaient accompagnées par une dévaluation, une stabilisation et une libéralisation des importations.

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Resumen La experiencia de Latinoamérica con subsidios a la exportación. — Casi 30 a?os atrás el razonamiento económico sobre subsidios a la exportación sugería que estos resultarían en una mayor diversificación y en un mayor volumen de exportaciones. La experiencia, en cambio, muestra que esto generalmente no ha ocurrido. En este trabajo se arguye que esto se debe a que, en la mayoría de los casos, los subsidios a la exportación no fueron apoyados por políticas de importation liberales. Como consecuencia, los subsidios a la exportaci?n redujeron sólo marginalmente el sesgo antiexportador de los países latinoamericanos. Efectos negativos adicionales sobre las exportaciones derivaron de la inestabilidad de las tasas de cambio reales (RER). Excepciones notables con un buen sector exportador son el Brasil, donde los subsidios fueron acompa?ados por una liberalización de importaciones, una significante estabilización de las RER y otras politicas propicias al crecimiento de las exportaciones, y México, donde subsidios mínimos a la exportación fueron acompa?ados por una devaluatión, una política de estabilización y una liberalización de importaciones.

     

Coping with regional inequality in Sweden: structural change,migrations, and policy, 1860–2000

In many countries, regional income inequality has followed an inverted U‐shaped curve, growing during industrialization and market integration and declining thereafter. By contrast, Sweden's regional inequality dropped from 1860 to 1980 and did not exhibit this U‐shaped pattern. Accordingly, today's regional income inequality in Sweden is lower than in other European countries. We note that the prime mover behind the long‐run reduction in regional income differentials was structural change, whereas neoclassical and technological forces played a relatively less important role. However, this process of regional income convergence can be divided into three major periods. During the first period (1860–1940), the unrestricted action of market forces, particularly the expansion of markets and high rates of internal and international migration, led to the compression of regional income differentials. During the next period (1940–80), regional convergence was even more intense. In this period, institutional arrangements favoured the reduction of productivity differentials across industries and successive governments aided the reallocation of the workforce from declining to thriving regions and economic sectors. During the last period (1980–2000), when regional incomes diverged, internal migration and structural change slowed. Furthermore, the development of knowledge‐intensive service industries favoured economic growth in the main metropolitan areas.