Ill-behaviour of transformation-frontiers with environmental quality versus pollution

If one looks at environmental quality N as a renewable natural resource (with its own natural dynamics) which is changed by emissions Z, then one gets a better understanding of the shape of the damage function. In the case of a logistic growth dynamics one obtains a well-shaped transformation frontier N(Z), even in a two-species natural dynamics. For a more general natural interaction in the framework of a prey-predator model one obtains the possibilities of a cusp catastrophe which makes the transformation frontier N(Z) ill-shaped for the standard arguments of economists and their most favoured environmental policy instruments.     

Advancing into the 21st Century: Visions and Challenges Facing the Downunder Economy

Long-term visions serve to focus on essentials for sustained economic and social welfare. We now have to face up to the challenge of globalisation (growing international capital mobility), at a time when we are undoing our historic, self-imposed protectionism. This also creates new opportunities, in particular in the dynamic Asia-Pacific economies.
There still is a 'window of opportunity' before an aging population will become a dominant problem. In the next 25 years, business will have to cope with high real interest rates and major uncertainties that now surround environmental policies.
If we are to take on these challenges in constructive and beneficial ways, we have to develop an institutional order that enables the utilisation of knowledge by enterprising people. This requires a simple, transparent and reliable legal and regulatory framework, which supports competitive market processes, and the defence of openness to international trade and capital flows against particular interest groups.
It seems plausible that the Downunder economy can grow over the next 25 years at about 3.5 per cent per capita if the right institutional conditions are created. If we fail to do so, a growing share of the capital, the skills and the enterprise made Down-under will move to offshore locations which encourage a better use of knowledge and capital by enterprising people. This would deprive many of economic opportunity. The central challenge therefore is to develop a system of government and labour relations which makes the Downunder economy internationally attractive.     

Strategy Development: Conceptual Framework on Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its action-oriented offspring Corporate Citizenship (CC) currently trigger an intensifying debate on ethics, role and behavior of companies within civil society. For companies, CSR raises the question of what may be the “good reason(s)” for acting responsible towards its members, customers or society. In order to answer this question, we face the debate on CSR and its strategic engagement drivers on the levels of corporate culture, social innovation, and civil society. In this article, we provide a conceptual framework based on the analytic distinction of legitimation and sensemaking. The conceptual framework developed in this article can serve as a basis to develop a company’s CSR strategy. It provides measures and instruments to make complex CSR processes more visible and manageable.     

Wage rigidity and the structure of the Austrian manufacturing industry

Zusammenfassung Starrheit der L?hne und die Industriestruktur ?sterreichs. Eine ?konometrische Analyse der Lohnrelationen. — Die vorliegende Studie untersucht das Ph?nomen der Lohnrigidit?t in gewissen Bereichen der Volkswirtschaft. Ausgehend von einem theoretischen Modell, das die Bedeutung der internen betrieblichen Anpassungskosten berücksichtigt, werden Gleichungen für die relativen L?hne formuliert, die als Hauptdeterminanten die Arbeitsmarktbedingungen und den Anteil der Fremdarbeiter in der Gesamtwirtschaft enthalten. Dabei unterliegen die Parameterwerte gewissen Restriktionen in Abh?ngigkeit von den Charakteristika der jeweiligen Industriezweige. Die empirischen Resultate für die Industrie ?sterreichs sind mit dem Modell konsistent und erlauben es, innerhalb der Industrie zwischen Branchen mit flexiblen und rigiden L?hnen zu unterscheiden, eine Unterscheidung, die für eine wirksamere Einkommenspolitik wesentlich ist. Au\erdem bildet der empirische Befund die Basis für einen Vergleich zwischen dem vorliegenden Modell und einem Modell, in dem die Gewerkschaften die Lohnbildung determinieren.

---

Résumé La rigidité de salaire et la structure de l’industrie manufacturière autrichienne. Une analyse économétrique des salaires relatifs. — Cette étude analyse le phénomène de la rigidité de salaire dans certains secteurs de l’économie. En cadre théorique basé sur l’importance des co?ts internes d’ajustement l’auteur formule sous certaines restrictions paramétriques liées aux caractéristiques industrielles des équations de salaire relatif dont les conditions du marché de travail et la part des travailleurs étrangers dans l’économie sont des déterminants principaux. Les résultats empiriques qui correspondent au modèle présenté permettent de classifier les industries selon le degré de la flexibilité (ou rigidité) des salaires et donnent ainsi la base pour une politique des revenus plus efficace. Finalement, l’auteur évalue l’applicabilité d’un modèle dont la formation des salaires est déterminée par des syndicats ouvriers.

---

Resumen Rigidez salarial y la estructura de la industria manufacturera austríaca. Un anàlisis econométrico de salarios relativos. — En este axtículo se investiga el fenómeno de la rigidez de la economía. Dentro de un marco teórico basado en la importancia de costos de ajuste internos se formulan ecuaciones salariales, con ciertas restricciones de parámetres ligados a las características industriales, que incluyen las condiciones del mercado laboral y la participatión de trabajadores extranjeros en la economía como los principales déterminantes. Los resultados empíricos consistentes con el modelo presentado, permiten una clasificación en industrias con salarios flexibles y rigidos, proveiendo de esta manera una base para una política de ingresos más eficiente. Finalmente se evaluó la aplicabilidad de un modelo de orientatión sindical para la determinatión de salarios.

     

Where is the value added of rebalancing? A systematic comparison of alternative rebalancing strategies

This study compares the performance of different rebalancing strategies under realistic market conditions by reporting statistical significance levels. Our analysis is based on historical data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany and comprises three different classes of rebalancing (periodic, threshold, and range rebalancing). Despite cross-country differences, our history-based simulation results show that all rebalancing strategies outperform a buy-and-hold strategy in terms of Sharpe ratios, Sortino ratios, and Omega measures. The differences in risk-adjusted performance are not only statistically significant, but also economically relevant. However, the choice of a particular rebalancing strategy is of only minor economic importance.     

The deployment and penetration of high-speed fiber networks and services: Why are EU member states lagging behind?

One of the most controversial regulatory issues in Europe (and elsewhere) is whether the emerging next-generation access (NGA) infrastructure should be subjected to cost-based access regulation or whether at least a temporary removal of ex ante obligations (“regulatory holidays”) should be granted. Likewise, the role of NGA-specific state aid policies is increasingly capturing the attention of policy makers and the academic literature.     

How to sell services more profitably

When products become commodities, manufacturing companies may seek to differentiate themselves with value-added services--a potentially profitable strategy. Unfortunately, companies often stumble in the effort. Reinartz and Ulaga conducted in-depth studies of 18 leading companies in a broad variety of product markets to learn what distinguished the successes from the rest. They discovered four steps to developing a profitable services capability. RECOGNIZE THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE A SERVICE COMPANY: You can identify and charge for simple services--as Merck did when it stopped quietly absorbing shipping costs. Switching services from free to fee clarifies their value for managers as well as for customers. INDUSTRIALIZE THE BACK OFFICE: To prevent delivery costs from eating up service-offering margins, build flexible service platforms, closely monitor process costs, and exploit new technologies that enable process innovations. The Swedish bearings manufacturer SKF provided off-site access to an online monitoring tool that could warn of potential failure in customers' machines. CREATE A SERVICE-SAVVY SALES FORCE: Services require longer sales cycles and, often, decisions from high up in a customer's hierarchy; what's more, product salespeople may be inimical to change. Schneider-Electric did a major overhaul of its sales organization and trained its people to switch from cost-plus pricing to value-based pricing. FOCUS ON CUSTOMERS' PROCESSES AND THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY AFFORD FOR NEW SERVICE OFFERINGS: You may need to acquire new capabilities to take advantage of those opportunities: The industrial coatings specialist PPG had to learn how painting robots function after it offered to take over Fiat's Torino paint shop. Services can both lock in customers and help acquire new accounts. They should be developed with care and attention.     

Semiparametric diffusion estimation and application to a stock market index

The analysis of diffusion processes in financial models is crucially dependent on the form of the drift and diffusion coefficient functions. A new model for a stock market index process is proposed in which the index is decomposed into an average growth process and an ergodic diffusion. The ergodic diffusion part of the model is not directly observable. A methodology is developed for estimating and testing the coefficient functions of this unobserved diffusion process. The estimation is based on the observations of the index process and uses semiparametric and non-parametric techniques. The testing is performed via the wild bootstrap resampling technique. The method is illustrated on S&P 500 index data.