Price Effects of Across-State Regulation of U.S. Electric Utilities

Investor-owned utilities (IOUs)serving multiple states are subject to multiple publicservice (utility) commission (PSC) regulation. Focusing on relative rates of an IOU across PSCsisolates regulatory effects. This analysis examines38 such multistate IOUs from 1995. For theresidential-commercial customer comparison, electedPSC commissioners, Republican-appointed commissioners,PSC jurisdiction over municipally-owned utilities (anindirect IOU competitor), and IOU home-state statusare associated with a higher relative rate, whereasmore PSC employees per capita and population densityare associated with a lower relative rate. Thecommercial-industrial comparison results are largelyreversed, but are similarly robust.     

The internationalization journey of a high‐tech cluster

We examine the internationalization processes of a sample of photonics companies, using in‐depth interviews conducted with twenty‐two CEOs. The texts of these interviews were appraised by using content analysis, combined with a grounded theory approach. In this way, the internationalization theory was critiqued and some insights developed into the international strategy process. Some salient findings emerged, such as that cluster externalities had a positive impact on the internationalization of firms within the cluster, and the degree of strategic vulnerability that cluster firms faced from developing‐country competitors. These findings are discussed in relation to their research and managerial implications. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Forecasting and Futurology

The Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has published forecasts of the Australian economy since the late 1960s. These forecasts (usually 12 to 18 months ahead) have been dominated by short-term macroeconomic factors. Compared with when the IAESR commenced its forecasting, there are now many forecasters who concentrate on the performance of the Australian economy over the short term. There is, however, a dearth of regular commentary which focuses on policy options for the medium to long term. This article is the first of many which will aim to fill this perceived gap. In so doing we shall adopt a wider concept of forecasting called futurology. In this approach, many constraints of traditional forecasting are relaxed. In particular, we allow responses by economic agents to policy changes. This will suggest plausible situations in which different outcomes are possible. Our purpose is not to suggest what the future will be, but what it might be under different scenarios. Here, we put together some necessary ingredients to facilitate futurology. We review recent Australian economic performance, consider the implications of meeting a goal of five per cent unemployment by the year 2000 and outline some important influences on likely future growth. We suggest that new growth theory may provide a policy framework to achieve both high growth and low unemployment, noting the constraints imposed by increasing globalisation. In subsequent articles, we shall employ these ingredients to write out plausible timepaths setting out how desirable end-points (including the reduction of unemployment) may be achieved.     

Testing for non-linear dependence in inter-war exchange rates

Testing for Non-Linear Dependence in Inter-War Exchange Rates. — This paper tests weekly inter-war floating exchange rate data for the pound-dollar, pound-franc and pound-reichsmark for non-linearity. Initial tests reveal strong evidence of generic non-linearity in these series and indicate neglected non-linear structure in the residuals of linear representations. Attempts to model this structure using GARCH residual processes have only been partially successful. Thus, two parametric models of such non-linearity were estimated. Comparing the forecasts from these models shows the mean square forecast errors of linear-GARCH and bilinear models to be lower than those from linear forecasts for all series, and that SETAR model forecasts outperform all other models for the pound-dollar.     

Business Political Influence on Municipal Budgets

A bstract Past empirical studies of local government fiscal performance have made extensive use of the median voter model Despite its analytical advantages, the model proceeds from a highly simplified conception of politics in which business firms play no direct role An alternative model is developed which permits statistical tests for business political influence on municipal budgeting and the estimation of local residents' net fiscal benefit from firms Firms'fiscal impact varies widely across municipalities, often entailing a negative net effect on residents Variations in these impacts indicate not only the presence of business influence but also permit tests of alternative hypotheses of interest group politics The data used dealt with eighty-six San Francisco Bay area cities     

Continuous measurement of self-report of emotional response

There has been substantial recent interest in measurement of emotional responses to advertising. One of the promising methods recently introduced has been the continuous measurement of specific feelings through a “warmth monitor” introduced by Aaker, Stayman, and Hagerty (1986). This article reports research extending the work of Aaker, Stayman, and Hagerty (1986) in two ways. First, it tests whether the warmth monitor method distinguishes feelings from the global reactions that are more commonly measured with continuous self-report measures. Second, it tests the extension of the method to a general emotion monitor that measures feelings other than warmth. Support is found for discrimination between feelings and overall liking and for the validity of a humor, but possibly not irritation, monitor. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.