International business complexity and the internationalization of languages

While the impacts of culture on international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) have been much discussed, the influence of languages has been underappreciated in international business. We address this paucity by integrating literature from international economics, international business, Chinese business history, and linguistics to examine the transaction costs of languages. While we recognize that languages represent both a tool in international economic transactions and a vehicle to transmit cultural values, our results point out that this tool is employed differently in international trade and in FDI. Communication costs for both FDI and international trade show a hierarchy, with English the most inexpensive among major trade languages; however, we find that communication costs are much more important in FDI than in international trade. Herein, we offer practical suggestions corporations may implement regarding the matter.     

The Measurement of Growth Rates From Time Series

Growth rates are commonly used as summaries of trends in time series data. Productivity indexes, price indexes and output series are usually discussed in terms of the changing growth rates over various periods of time. Policy decisions are often based on such growth rate estimates. However, there are several techniques for measuring growth rates and depending on the nature and structure of the data, each may provide a different result. The problems of traditional measures of growth rates are discussed and some new measures and their merits are also presented. An empirical example shows the potential problems associated with some growth rate measures and presents some solutions.     

US shadow economies: a state-level study

Recent studies of shadow economies focus primarily on cross-country comparisons. Few have examined regional or state-level variations in underground economic activity. This paper presents estimates of the shadow economy for 50 US states over the period 1997–2008. Results suggest that tax and social welfare burdens, labor market regulations, and intensity of regulation enforcement are important determinants of the underground economy. Among the states, Delaware, on average, maintains the smallest shadow economy at 7.28 % of GDP; Oregon, on average, has the second smallest shadow economy at 7.41 % of GDP; followed by Colorado, averaging 7.52 % of GDP, rounding out the three smallest shadow economies in the US West Virginia and Mississippi, on average, have the largest shadow economies in the US as a percent of GDP (9.32 and 9.54 %, respectively).     

Money Funds or Markets? Valuing Intermediary Services

Recent market developments, such as on-line trading of Treasury securities and the reduction of the minimum Treasury bill denomination to $1,000, facilitate creation of a viable alternative to U.S. Treasury money funds for investors. Comparison of a direct investment in Treasury bills to U.S. Treasury money funds shows that money fund intermediary services such as check writing, telephone exchange privileges, payroll and automatic transfers, retirement plans, and minimum initial and subsequent purchases are worth an estimated 43 basis points per year, and investors pay an additional 11 basis points for active portfolio management. An analysis of fund net cash flows shows evidence consistent with arbitrage activity between money funds and the direct investment in Treasury bills, especially for investors with few ties to the money fund manager.     

Private pay clients in adult day services

Data collected for all 3,992 participants in Maryland's adult day care programs as of December 31, 1993 showed that the majority of clients were supported by publicly supported "welfare" funding sources. The authors examined the differences in characteristics and service needs between the public payer population and private pay patients, including those who were charged on a sliding scale. They found that private pay clients were not dependent on others to "initiate service arrangements when they want and can find them." Private pay clients were twice as likely to be self or family referrals and more likely to be older, white, and living with a spouse or adult child. Private pay patients were also much more likely to have a history of the recent onset of cognitive impairment and associated memory loss but less likely to fall into the more ADL dependent categories. The nuclear families of private pay clients who are primary caregivers are described as the "critical marketing targets" and that services specifically for the cognitively impaired should be developed.     

Security Concentration and Active Fund Management: Do Focused Funds Offer Superior Performance?

We examine gross fund returns based on the number of securities held and find no evidence that focused funds outperform diversified funds. After deducting expenses, focused funds significantly underperform. Controlling for various fund characteristics, fund performance is positively related to the fund's number of holdings both before and after expenses. We find evidence linking focused fund underperformance to agency and liquidity problems. Finally, the attrition rate of focused funds is higher than that of diversified funds. These results do not support the view that managers holding focused portfolios have superior stock‐picking skills or that focused funds provide value to investors.     

Patent disclosure requirements and benefit sharing: A counterfactual case of Morocco's argan oil

This article uses the seemingly promising case of Morocco's argan oil to assess the value of patent disclosure requirements (PDRs) as a policy instrument aimed at improving the sharing of biodiversity benefits. After introducing the disclosure requirements debate and discussing relevant features of the argan oil case, I construct a simple counterfactual by asking: “How would PDRs have changed benefit sharing in the argan oil case?” From this case, three practical considerations emerge that shed a realistic, if cautious, light on the marginal value of PDRs as a benefit sharing mechanism: (1) PDRs require an accompanying national biodiversity regime but their relative value is inversely proportional to regime strength (2) PDRs should be assessed based on the additional compliance incentives they provide and median, not blockbuster, patent values and (3) the alternative to no PDRs and no regime is not zero benefits. While these considerations are inherently country-specific, PDRs should generally be assessed at the margin rather than in vague conceptual and aggregate ways.