Price uncertainty,future markets and correlation

This paper examines the optimal trade and hedging decisions of a competitive exporting firm which faces concurrently hedgeable exchange rate risk and non‐hedgeable inflation risk. The macroeconomic interaction between exchange rate and domestic inflation rate risk is described by a state variable. The (strong) correlation is pivotal in determining the optimal risk management. It is shown how optimal hedging strategies are affected by state‐dependent preferences of the firm. The optimal hedge policy is to minimize the variation of marginal utility of final wealth across states of nature instead of minimizing the variance of final wealth.     

Employment Effects of Acquisitions: Evidence from Acquired European Firms

This paper examines the employment effects of acquisitions for acquired European firms, taking non-random selection of acquisition targets explicitly into account. Following the empirical firm growth literature and theories put forward in the mergers and acquisition (M&A) literature, we control for convergence dynamics in firm size and distinguish between different types of acquisitions. Empirically, we estimate an endogenous treatment model using accounting data for a newly created sample of acquired and non-acquired European firms. Our results reveal positive employment effects for different types of acquisitions indicating that M&As likely induce efficiency gains.     

Klimaschutz und industrielle Wettbewerbsfähigkeit – Synergien nutzen,Konflikte entschärfen

It is often argued that ambitious domestic climate policies would jeopardize the competitiveness of German and European industry, possibly leading to industrial relocation and carbon leakage. Upon closer scrutiny, however, such concerns are widely unsubstantiated. Instead, economic prosperity and climate protection can be reconciled and even reveal synergies. This requires that relief from energy and climate policy-related burdens is well-targeted and maintains strong incentives for GHG reductions as well as energy efficiency improvements. The upcoming reform of the EU ETS offers an opportunity to make progress towards this end.     

Country size and the trade effects of the euro

This paper investigates whether small countries gain relatively more than large countries from an ‘expansion’ of their market through the creation of a single currency. The introduction of the euro offers a particularly valuable source to test this hypothesis, which we motivate using the theoretical model by Casella of the year 1996. Our results from a panel data analysis, using both aggregate and disaggregated trade data, point to a statistically significant but quantitatively moderate small country bonus. On average, the euro has led to an improvement of the small euro area’s relative export performance by 3–9%.

Globalization, the output-inflation tradeoff and inflation

This paper provides comprehensive evidence on the relation between inflation and globalization, defined here as trade and financial openness, using a large cross-section of 91 countries over the period 1985-2004. We establish two main empirical regularities: both higher trade and financial openness (i) reduce central banks’ inflation bias, yielding lower average inflation and (ii) are associated with a larger output-inflation tradeoff. This evidence is at odds with the standard Barro-Gordon framework, which would require globalization to have a negative effect on the output-inflation tradeoff to yield lower equilibrium inflation, but it is consistent with a recent strand of new Keynesian models emphasizing the role of imperfect competition and nominal rigidities. Our findings also support the relevance of the time-inconsistency hypothesis, which underlies the theoretical models predicting a relation between globalization and inflation. For the OECD subsample, however, we do not find an effect of openness on inflation (the output-inflation tradeoff), suggesting that these countries have created an institutional framework for central banks that eliminates distortions due to the time-inconsistency problem.     

“Nobody Told Me I was a Nano-Consumer:” How Nanotechnologies Might Challenge the Notion of Consumer Rights

Regarding nanotechnologies and the consumer, a central paradox is the absence of a regulatory framework while more than 1,000 nano-enabled products are already available on the consumer markets. This represents a serious challenge for the consumer interest. Even though the prospects of nanotechnologies are truly fascinating and represent possibilities to solve major problems—for instance in the realms of health, energy and poverty—it is important to also discuss the potential risks of nano-enabled products. The present study reports on a Norwegian study with data derived from focus groups, a content analysis of advertisements, packaging and labels for cosmetics as well as on a Norwegian consumer survey. Conceptually, the paper is based on the notion of consumer rights introduced by President J.F. Kennedy in 1962. Based on the results of these studies, consumer policy implications are sketched.     

The Influence of Retail Management’s Use of Social Power on Corporate Ethical Values,Employee Commitment,and Performance

Recent cases in retailing reflect that ethics have a major impact on brands and performance, in turn, demonstrating that brand owners, employees, and consumers focus on ethical values. In this study, we analyze how various sources of social power affect corporate ethical values, retailer’s commitment to the retail organization, and ultimately sales and service quality. Multi-source data based on a sample of 225 retailers indicated a strong link between power, ethics, and commitment and that these affected output performance.     

Growth and the cycle: Creative destruction versus entrenchment

Newly estaboished firms often try to secure their market position by building up a base of loyal customers. While recessions may not destroy technological leadership, they may be harmful for such firm-customer relationships. Without such customer bases, these firms find themselves more vulnerable to attacks by competitors. We formulate this idea within an Aghion-Howitt-type model of creative destruction and discuss its implications for growth. In the context of this model, recessions might be good for growth since they weaken the incumbent firm's position and, thereby, stimulate research by outside firms. The model allows for the extreme case where the leading firm can be so entrenched that growth ceases, unless a recession shakes up its customer base. We find a one-to-one relationship between the average growth rate and the cyclical variability, a U-shaped relationship between the average speed of building up good customer relationships and the average growth rate, and a positive relationship between the arrival rate of recessions and average growth. It is finally shown that an appropriate stochastic tax program can implement the social planner's solution. In some cases, general-equilibrium effects may generate interesting results, conflicting with intuition from a partial-equilibrium approach: we show that, in some cases, a social planner might want to subsidize research in order to discourage it.     

欧共体反倾销制度的突出特点

译文首先从制度控制层面的角度介绍欧共体反倾销制度,认为欧同体反倾销措施受到了反倾销委员会、欧洲初审法院和欧洲法院以及WTO争端解决机制三个层面有效控制;其次专门介绍了公共利益评估和从低征税这两个“超WTO”规则：最后介绍了欧同体对非市场经济和转型经济的实践。欧共体反倾销制度有效地平衡当事方利益,是较为成功的制度。