Strategic timing in R&D agreements

We study the endogenous formation of R&D agreements in a R&D/Cournot duopoly model with spillovers where also the timing of R&D investments is endogenous. This allows us to consider the incentives for firms to sign R&D agreements over time. It is shown that, when both R&D spillovers and investment costs are sufficiently low, firms may find difficult to maintain a stable agreement due to the strong incentive to invest noncooperatively as leaders. In this case, the stability of an agreement requires that the joint investment occurs at the initial stage, thus avoiding any delay. When spillovers are sufficiently high, the coordination of R&D efforts becomes a profitable option, although firms may also have an incentive to sequence noncooperatively their investment over time. Finally, when spillovers are asymmetric and knowledge mainly leaks from the leader to the follower, investing as follower may become extremely profitable, making R&D agreements hard to sustain unless firms strategically delay their joint investment in R&D.     

Supply Chain Finance: A supply chain-oriented perspective to mitigate commodity risk and pricing volatility

This study addresses the Supply Chain Finance challenge of Commodity Price Volatility (CPV) by adopting a supply chain-oriented perspective. In particular, the effectiveness of two Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) strategies in mitigating CPV, namely, Switching suppliers and Substituting Commodities, and the main factors that may affect their value, are investigated with a simulation analysis. A Real Option Valuation (ROV) model was developed and tested on real cases of CPV mitigation, as experienced by a large multinational company (Fortune 100) leader in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. The results show the effectiveness of Switching suppliers and Substituting Commodities in mitigating CPV, highlighting that the convenience of adopting such strategies is strongly influenced by some specific conditions, like the relative values of the long-term prices of the commodities, the purchasing volume, and the sunk cost needed to build flexibility.     

Teaching across disciplines: using collaborative instruction in undergraduate education

Learning communities (LCs) are one example of collaborative instruction used in undergraduate and graduate level courses. This paper discusses the development and delivery of this collaborative instruction and learning model to teach economics principles and finance courses at Nassau Community College (NCC), a suburban two-year college in New York.     

Foreword from the Co-Editors

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Mind-Dependence. The Past in the Grip of the Present

Synopsis Recent developments in economic literature have pointed out that path-dependence has a cognitive dimension. The paper shows how this result may be analyzed in more depth, by making explicit the links between the properties of path-dependent processes in economics and the functioning of the mind. Through the investigation of memory mechanisms, we explain why human beings might be considered as complex systems whose growth follows a stochastic and non-ergodic dynamic. Our main claim is that the concept of path-dependence, as commonly interpreted, does not take the reconstructive nature which characterizes human memory into full account. When such nature is acknowledged, the relevance of the mind in orientating individual attitude toward the past is extended and seems to be more important than discussed in the traditional literature. To specifically clarify the active role played by the human mind in the continuous process of revising past experiences and their influence on current outcomes, we introduce the concept of mind-dependence. Among the most relevant implications for economic theory, mind-dependence extends the meaning of lock-in and allows for the definition of new devices to escape trapping states.      

Reviews

Unemployment and social exclusion. Hills, J. 1999: SOCIAL EXCLUSION, INCOME DYNAMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY. Northern Ireland Economic Council, no price listed.

Turok, I. and Edge, N. 1999: THE JOBS GAP IN BRITAIN'S CITIES: EMPLOYMENT LOSS AND LABOUR MARKET CONSEQUENCES. The Policy Press and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, £13.95 paper.

GREEN, A. E. AND OWEN, D. 1998: WHERE ARE THE JOBLESS? CHANGING UNEMPLOYMENT AND NON-EMPLOYMENT IN CITIES AND REGIONS. The Policy Press and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, £11.95 paper.

Fifty years of planning. Cullingworth, B. (ed) 1999: BRITISH PLANNING: 50 YEARS OF URBAN AND REGIONAL POLICY. London: Athlone Press, £47.50 cased, £16.99 paper.

LETS in low income areas. Hudson, H., Newby, L., Hutchinson, N. and Harding, L. 1999: MAKING “LETS” WORK IN LOW INCOME AREAS. Forum for the Future. “Insights”: The Sustainable Economy Programme Publication Series, £10 paper.

Sustainable economic development. Newby, L. (ed) 1999: CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Forum for the Future, £40.00 set in a ring binder.

Ahrel, F., Schofield, S. and Newby, L. 1999: THE MISSING LINK? A STUDY OF THE INTEGRATION OF LOCAL AGENDA 21 AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN LOCAL AUTHORITIES. Forum for the Future, £15.00 paper.

MacGillivary, A., Weston, C. and Unsworth, C. 1998: COMMUNITIES COUNT! A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS. New Economics Foundation, £15.00 paper.     

Cultural technology district: a model for local and regional development

The urgency to cope with the international economic crisis has led to efforts to identify innovative tools and frameworks that are capable of regenerating local and national economic development. The enhancement of the cultural heritage sector can be a strategic factor in improving the competitiveness of country systems. In Italy, the nation's rich cultural heritage is not managed in an efficient and effective manner, even though it embodies a tremendous opportunity to enhance local economic growth, especially in light of the role of new cultural technology districts (CTDs). This article intends to present the CTD business model aimed to promote local and regional development in Italy, to attract domestic and international tourist flows and spread them out more evenly across all regional territories and to verify the CTD's opportunity through the Lazio Region experience.