Analysis of risk and risk-reduction strategies—A multiple product case

This study investigated both the amount of risk that consumers face in a new car purchase situation and the different types of strategies that they use to reduce that risk. The findings revealed that owners of different makes of cars perceive varying amounts of risk to be associated with the purchase of a new car. However, no significant differences in the overall amounts of risk associated with the different purchase situations were found. Also it was found that different strategies for reducing the risk were utilized by the different car ownership groups.     

Power Politics and International Labor Standards

This paper analyzes how a country's commitment to labor standards is affected by the international political power they possess. Powerful countries may be less committed to actual enforcement of certain labor standards since they are unlikely to face significant threats of international sanctions regardless of their actions. The paper introduces an index of international power for 116 countries that is used to examine how power affects the extent to which countries enforce standards relating to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The evidence suggests that, even after controlling for differences in wealth, productivity, and market freedom, powerful countries are significantly less committed to the protection of labor standards than less powerful countries. We wish to thank participants at the International Atlantic Economic conference in Washington, D.C., October 10–13, 2002, the Western Economics Association International conference in Denver, 2003, as well as the numerous suggestions of anonymous referees. Special thanks to David Kucera for supplying us with his dataset.     

Unveiling the temporally contingent role of codification in alliance success

While prior research highlights the importance of codifying alliance experience to achieve alliance success, it is unclear whether codification is equally useful in the different phases of an alliance. Based on a sample of 192 technology firms that report on over 3,400 strategic alliances, we find that in the partner selection and termination phases, reliance on codified knowledge is useful. However, in the partner management phase, reliance on codified knowledge is less beneficial and can be even negatively related to performance. Our findings have implications for the tension between flexibility and efficiency and the relationship between structure and performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A panel data approach to the demand for money and the effects of financial reforms in the Asian countries

Alternative panel data estimation methods are used to estimate the cointegrating equations for the demand for money (M1) for a panel of 14 Asian countries from 1970 to 2005. The effects of financial reforms are analyzed with estimates for two sets of sub-samples and two break dates. Our results show that money demand function has been stable and financial reforms are yet to have any significant effects. Since there is no evidence for instability in the demand for money, the central banks of these countries should use money supply, instead of the rate of interest, as the monetary policy instrument.     

MEASURING INTERNATIONAL AND INTER-SECTORAL TERMS OF TRADE: SOME METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

The view is expressed that the well-known formulae for measuring changes in terms of trade cannot be used to conclude whether a country is better off or not. Other variables which reflect the impact upon production, employment, and the competitive position should also be taken into account.
Similarly, changes in terms of trade between the industrial sectors of an economy cannot be used to conclude whether one sector is better off than others. Other factors which play a role include increases in productivity per man-hour. These may help to explain why in some sectors prices increase less than in others. An attempt is made to illustrate this point using some statistics for the Netherlands.     

Return generating processes of long-term bonds and measurement of risk: Theory and empirical tests

Using a continuous-time framework, Kazemi (1992) shows that changes in prices of long-term bonds could be perfectly correlated with changes in the representative investor's marginal utility of wealth. Therefore, the equilibrium expected excess return on any security would be proportional to its covariance with changes in prices of long-term bonds. The present paper first extends the above result to a discrete time framework and shows that there are significant differences between the continuous time and discrete time versions of the model. Second, we test an empirical implication of this result; the evidence supports the theoretical model.     

Know-how sharing with stochastic innovations

We provide a model of know-how sharing between competing firms in which each of two firms gets a stochastic innovation in its stock of know-how in every period. Separately considering the cases when innovations are indivisible and divisible, we examine the nature of the subgame perfect sharing agreements that can obtain. We discover that both stochasticity and indivisibility undermine the ability to support sharing. Furthermore, we find that there are equilibria in which know-how sharing can be intermittent and that small innovations are more likely to be shared than large ones, when innovations are divisible but not necessarily when they are indivisible. JEL Classification: O30, O33
Partage du savoir faire quand les innovations sont stochastiques. Les auteurs proposent un modèle de partage du savoir-faire entre entreprises concurrentes dans lequel chacune des deux entreprises obtient une innovation stochastique dans son stock of savoir-faire à chaque période. En considérant séparément les cas où les innovations sont divisibles et non-divisibles, on examine la nature des accords de partage parfait qui peuvent se produire dans le sous-jeu. On montre que la stochasticité et l'indivisibilité minent la possibilité de maintenir le partage. De plus, on découvre que des solutions d'équilibre avec partage de savoir-faire peuvent jouer par intermittence, et qu'on est davantage susceptible de partager les fruits des petites innovations plus que des grandes quand les innovations sont divisibles, mais pas nécessairement quand elles sont indivisibles.     

Maximising sustainability of Dutch dairy farming systems for different stakeholders: A modelling approach

A multi-attribute sustainability function is included into a dairy farm LP-model by using Weighted Goal Programming. The created Weighted Linear Goal Programming (WLGP)-model is used to maximise sustainability of different Dutch dairy farming systems and to analyse the impact of: (1) maximisation of individual sustainability aspects (economic, social and ecological sustainability) and (2) maximisation of overall sustainability using stakeholder preferences. Maximising the individual aspects of both dairy farming systems, i.e. conventional and organic, shows the trade-offs between different aspects of sustainability. For conventional as well as organic dairy farming maximum scores are highest for external social sustainability. The conventional dairy farm achieves a slightly higher score for overall sustainability than the organic dairy farm for all stakeholders (i.e. consumers and producers). This shows that it is possible for conventional dairy farms, similar to the conventional farm used in the analysis especially regarding the stocking density and under Dutch policy conditions, to achieve equal sustainability scores in comparison with organic dairy farms. It is concluded that the WLGP model is a suitable tool to analyse the sustainability of different dairy farming systems.