Is Wheat a Homogeneous Product?

A hedonic approach is used to test for two kinds of product differentiation for wheat. It is shown that wheat is differentiated by end use and by country of origin. This simply recognizes the fact that buyers purchasing wheat for different purposes put different weights on quality criteria and that country-specific factors such as weather as well as grading and inspection systems matter. The results suggest that between 1980 and 1988, wheat protein content had a significant influence on price. This influence varies over time and across wheat categories.     

CONSUMPTION AND PORTFOLIO POLICIES WITH INCOMPLETE MARKETS AND SHORT-SALE CONSTRAINTS IN THE FINITE-DIMENSIONAL CASE: SOME REMARKS

This paper extends He and Pearson's (1991) martingale approach to the study of optimal intertemporal consumption and portfolio policies with incomplete markets and short-sale constraints to a framework in which no assumptions are made on the price process for the securities. We show how both their characterization of the budget-feasible set and duality result can be extended to account for an unbounded set II of Arrow-Debreu state prices compatible with the arbitrage-free assumption. We also supply a (fairly general) sufficient condition for II to be bounded, as required in their setting.     

Patterns of development and acquisitions for silicon valley startups

The patterns of development of 250 high-technology firms, are examined. As of 1980, 36.8% of these firms had discontinued, 30.8% were surviving and independent, and a remarkably high 32.4% had been acquired. The characteristics of both the acquired and acquiring firms are examined and reveal distinctive patterns of acquisition.     

Theorie und empirische Forschung in der Sozialwissenschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Co-existence of Private Economy and Collective Economy in the Democratic State

At the Working Union of Austrian Collcctive Economy autumn assembly, held on 3 December 1954, the principal speaker was Dr. Kreisky, and we are reproducing the following interesting extracts from his address.     

Welfare-State Retrenchment: The Partisan Effect Revisited

This paper aims to shed light on the role of the ‘ideology’of political parties in shaping the evolution of the welfarestate in 18 developed democracies, by providing empirical findingson the determinants of social-programme entitlements and socialspending over the period 1981–99. The paper shows thatstructural change is a major determinant of the extent of socialprotection. Our results suggest that overall spending is drivenup by structural change. On the other hand, strong structuralchange has a negative influence on welfare entitlements measuredby the net rate of sickness insurance. Partisan influence playsan important role in the dynamics of the welfare state. Left-winggovernments strengthen the positive effect of shocks on aggregatesocial expenditure, while right-wing governments undertake evenstronger cutbacks in replacement rates as a reaction to structuralchange. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: bruno.amable{at}ens.fr; donatella.gatti{at}cepremap.cnrs.fr;jan.schumacher{at}wiwi.uni-regensburg.de     

Evaluating risks-based communities of Mafia companies: a complex networks perspective

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - This paper presents a data-driven complex network approach, to show similarities and differences—in terms of financial risks—between the...