Inter-industry and intra-industry specialization in manufactured goods

Zusammenfassung Interindustrielle und intraindustrielle Spezialisierung bei gewerblichen Gütern. -In diesem Aufsatz werden in einem Mehrl?nder-Modell mit mehreren Industrien die Bestimmungsgründe der Au?enhandelsstr?me zwischen jeweils zwei L?ndern für einzelne Industriezweige analysiert. W?hrend die Nettoexporte von den komparativen Vorteilen beeinflu?t werden, wirkt sich auf die unsaldierten Handelsstr?me auch das Ausma? der intraindustriellen Spezialisierung aus, die sowohl Ausfuhren als auch Einfuhren im bilateralen Handel erh?ht. Die Untersuchung testet mit Erfolg Hypothesen hinsichtlich des inter-und des intraindustriellen Handels und au?erdem die Wirkungen von den aus der Gravitationstheorie her bekannten Determinanten. In den Ergebnissen zeigt sich der komplement?re Charakter von inter-und intraindustrieller Spezialisierung. Die geographische Disaggregation der Sch?tzungen best?tigt die Robustheit der Ergebnisse.

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Résumé Spécialisation inter-industrielle et intra-industrielle en biens manufacturiers. -Dans cet article les auteurs appliquent un modèle multi-pays et multi-industrie pour analyser les déterminants du commerce extérieur des industries individuelles entre des paires de pays. Pendant que les exportations nettes sont influencées par l’avantage comparatif, le commerce brut est aussi déterminé par la spécialisation intra-industrielle qui augmente les exportations aussi bien que les importations en commerce bilatéral. Les auteurs ont testé avec succès des hypothèses concernant le commerce inter-industriel et intra-industriel aussi bien que les effets des facteurs gravitationnels. Les résultats confirment le caractère complémentaire de la spécialisation inter-industrielle et intra-industrielle. En plus, la désagrégation géographique des estimations souligne la vigueur des résultats.

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Resumen Especialización intersectorial e intrasectorial en bienes manufacturados. -En este trabajo se utiliza un modelo multinacional y multisectorial para analizar las déterminantes del comercio (bruto) entre los sectores industriales de dos países. Mientras que el comercio neto es afectado por las ventajas comparativas, el comercio bruto también es influenciado por el grado de especialización intrasectorial, que aumenta las exportaciones e importaciones en el comercio bilateral. Se someten a un test empfrico hipótesis relativas al comercio intersectorial e intrasectorial como también a los efectos de factures gravitacionales. Los resultados demuestran el carácter complementario de la especialización intersectorial e intrasectorial. La desagregación geográfica de las estimaciones confirma la estabilidad de los resultados.

     

Firm size and inventive activity: The evidence reconsidered

This paper analyses the relationship between firm size and inventive activity in the United States for the late seventies. It is argued that the inventive activity measure used, R&D expenditure, is a more ‘neutral’ measure in relation to firm size, than both R&D employment and the number of patents. Contrary to most empirical research in this field, the analyses carried out in the present paper indicate that inventive activity seems to increase more than proportionately with firm size.     

Benefiting from a Clean Environment versus Undertaking Efforts to Protect the Environment

We make an important distinction between product attribute claims related to (1) the environment of the production site and (2) environmentally friendly actions. A producer using type #1 claims benefits from a clean environment, while a producer using type #2 claims undertakes efforts to protect the environment. The categorization of those claims may not be clear to consumers. Rather than focus on informational asymmetry between producers and consumers, this article deals with the way producers may support environmental claims on agrifood products using one of the two categories.     

Comparing and explaining HR department effectiveness assessments: evidence from line managers and trade union representatives

We compare and explain effectiveness assessments of two HR stakeholders: line managers and trade union representatives. We examine whether they have the same preferences regarding the roles the HR department has to fulfil (Ulrich 1997). Next, we test which strong HRM system characteristics (Bowen and Ostroff 2004) are decisive in determining the perceived effectiveness of the HR department in the preferential roles. With these analyses we examine whether the HR roles and strong HRM system characteristics are equally important to different stakeholders. Results show that the perceived effectiveness of the HR department in its operational roles is decisive in trade union representatives' general HR effectiveness assessment. For line managers, process-oriented roles are crucial. Next, if the HR department scores high on strong HRM system characteristics, it is perceived as more effective in its HR roles. Yet, the importance of specific HRM system characteristics depends on the role and stakeholder.     

Forecasting a long memory process subject to structural breaks

We develop an easy-to-implement method for forecasting a stationary autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) process subject to structural breaks with unknown break dates. We show that an ARFIMA process subject to a mean shift and a change in the long memory parameter can be well approximated by an autoregressive (AR) model and suggest using an information criterion (AIC or Mallows’ _Cp$C_p$) to choose the order of the approximate AR model. Our method avoids the issue of estimation inaccuracy of the long memory parameter and the issue of spurious breaks in finite sample. Insights from our theoretical analysis are confirmed by Monte Carlo experiments, through which we also find that our method provides a substantial improvement over existing prediction methods. An empirical application to the realized volatility of three exchange rates illustrates the usefulness of our forecasting procedure. The empirical success of the HAR-RV model can be explained, from an econometric perspective, by our theoretical and simulation results.     

Toward an assessment of perceived HRM system strength: scale development and validation

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a theoretically grounded instrument to measure perceived HRM system strength. Relying on the work of Bowen and Ostroff, we identify different constructs capturing measurable features of a strong HRM system. Next, we develop items to measure these constructs, and use two different samples to validate the instrument. The resulting instrument builds on 11 constructs, organized along 3 different hierarchical levels. It is useful for HR practitioners in evaluating their functioning and for researchers to further test and develop theoretical insights in the HRM–performance relationship.     

Variable preference relations: Existence of maximal elements

We consider variable preference relations, also called reference dependent preference relations, which are typical in the study of dynamic models in economic theories. We introduce a new concept of weak consistency, a generalization of acyclicity, as an immediate regret condition for variable preferences. The main result to establish is on an existence criterion for maximal elements of a space equipped with a weakly consistent variable preference relation. It is expressed via a preference completeness condition which is equivalent to existence of aspiration points. As applications, we show that a number of results known in the recent literature on maximum principles on a space with or without topological structure can be obtained from the unifying approach of this paper. Habit formation and state functions are also discussed in the framework of variable preference relations.     

Environmental Determinants of Public Sector Innovation: A study of innovation awards in Canada

Abstract

In this article, we conduct an empirical study of administrative innovation in the Canadian public sector by examining applications to the Innovative Management Award of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). After a review of the literature on innovation in the public sector and of the history of this award, we come to the conclusion that the relationship between innovation and environment has been studied only sparingly, which explains the focus of our research and our hypotheses. Through an analysis of award applications over 21 years, and of award finalists and winners, we demonstrate that such environmental variables as strength of the economy, size of the civil service, deficits, unemployment rate, investment in R&D, and type of government have important consequences for administrative innovation in the public sector. We also suggest some implications of our findings for future research on this subject.     

More than ‘Mutual Information’: Educational and sectoral gender segregation and their interaction on the Flemish labor market

We build on the Information Theory foundations of the Mutual Information Index of Segregation [Mora and Ruiz-Castillo, 2003; Frankel and Volij, 2011] to analyze two horizontal dimensions of gender segregation on the labor market. We provide a novel, three-way additive decomposition of their effects on overall segregation. Using survey data from 41,712 Flemish employees, we find that choice of study field has a larger effect on overall segregation than sectoral choice. Their mutual interaction is negative, indicating that sectoral segregation, although low, is still partly explained by educational choices.     

Food Price Crisis,Poverty, and Inequality

This paper simulates how a doubling of food prices affects absolute poverty and the food‐price‐adjusted real income distribution. We assume unsubsidized world food prices in order to derive the cost of poverty deepening and poverty expansion. We also estimate the degree to which inequality increases if no measures are put in place to offset rising food prices. Both measures are vulnerability indicators useful for social policy planning. Our results show that low‐income countries experience dramatic increases in absolute poverty as a result of doubling food prices. Middle‐income countries experience the greatest decrease in absolute income, which contributes most to an increase in world income inequality. The paper estimates that the global dollar value of the absolute poverty gap ($1.25/day) has the potential to increase by 400%, with poverty deepening accounting for two thirds of the increase.