Upstreamness,Wages and Gender: Equal Benefits for All?

This article provides first evidence on the impact of a direct measure of firm‐level upstreamness (i.e. the steps before the production of a firm meets final demand) on workers’ wages. It also investigates whether results vary along the earnings distribution and by gender. Findings, based on unique matched employer–employee data relative to the Belgian manufacturing industry for the period 2002–2010, show that workers earn significantly higher wages when employed in more upstream firms. Yet, the gains from upstreamness are found to be very unequally shared among workers. Unconditional quantile estimates suggest that male top earners are the main beneficiaries, whereas women, irrespective of their earnings, appear to be unfairly rewarded. Quantile decompositions further show that these differences in wage premia account for a substantial part of the gender wage gap, especially at the top of the earnings distribution.     

The Cost Factor in Patent Systems

The objective of this paper is to assess to what extent the cost of patenting affects the demand for patents. The empirical analysis, which focuses on the patent systems of the USA, Japan, and Europe in 2003, leads to the following methodological and empirical conclusions: (1) for a proper international comparison, the size of the market and the average number of claims included in a patent must be accounted for; (2) when the cost per claim per capita (the 3C-index) is considered, a negative linear relationship appears between the cost of patenting and the number of claims that are filed; (3) after the grant of a patent by the EPO, the translation, validation and transaction costs induced by an effective protection in several European countries witness a highly fragmented and very expensive European market for intellectual property; (4) for a patent designating 13 European countries, the 3C-index is about ten (two) times higher than in the US (Japanese) system (for process and translation costs up to the grant); (5) The European market being more than twice as large as the US market in terms of inhabitants, the 3C-index suggests that there would be a clear justification for higher nominal examination fees at the EPO, that would ensure the pursuit of a rigorous granting process.     

Closed-form solutions to stochastic process switching problems

This paper studies the price of an asset depending on both a fundamental and possible interventions of an authority. Using the martingale approach in continuous time, we provide closed-form solutions to switching problems involving irreversible, state dependent and intramarginal switch policies. The martingale approach provides additional information regarding the switching policy, namely the average time before authority intervention, the conditional probability of intervention, or the total time of intervention. Applications in international and financial economics include exchange rates modelling, corporate claims valuation and capital budgeting decisions.     

Selecting A Forecasting Method For Investory Control: A Safety Stock Based Criterion

The paper presents results related to the application of several forecasting methods to problems of inventory control. In particular it is shown that an accuracy measure based on an inventory control criterion is more useful in ranking the forecasting methods than currently used measures based on forecast errors. Résumé Cette étude présente des résultats reliés à l'application de plusieurs méthodes de prévision dans un contexte de gestion des stocks. Il est démontré en particulier qu'une mesure de précision basée sur un critère de gestion des stocks est plus utile pour évaluer les méthodes de prévision que les mesure usuelles qui fondées sur les erreurs de prévisions.     

Effets des réglementations sur la rentabilité et le risque des compagnies d'assurances iard

La réglementation des sociétés d'assurances par les autorités de tutelle impose différentes contraintes aux gestionnaires. Il est difficile d'en apprécier les effets finaux si l'on ne dispose pas d'un modèle d'ensemble de l'entreprise. La rentabilité des compagnies d'assurances dépend de la gestion de l'actif et du passif du bilan, portefeuille déplacements et portefeuille d'assurances. La réglementation intervient pour poser des limites à ces choix sous forme de plafonds en pourcentages pour certains types de placements. Cette étude dans le contexte Canadien met en évidence le coǔt économique, en termes de risque et de rendement, d'une réglementation sur les placements. Abstract The control of insurance companies by the regulatory authorities imposes constraints on the manager's decisions. The companies' profitability is a function of the management of both assets and liabilities. Therefore it depends on the relative importance of the diverse lines of insurance - the insurance portfolio - and relative weight of the various assets - the investment portfolio. Portfolio theory demonstrates that the total risk is a non-linear combination of those component risks in a portfolio. This, in turn, determines the pursuit of the optimal portfolio structure, a structure defined by a minimal risk for a given level of profitability. With such a generalized portfolio model for insurance companies, one could simulate the consequences of the modification of any given regulation on either the assets or liabilities. The combination of risk level and profitability accessible to the companies vary as a function of markets constraints and regulations considered. It is therefore possible to demonstrate the effect, in terms of risk and return framework, of various regulations. The first section of this paper discusses the appropriate approach to the portfolio problem applied to insurance. The second section describes the data and the empirical results.     

Currency Boards and Debt Traps: Evidence from Argentina and Relevance for Estonia

This paper analyses the November 2000 liquidity crisis that brought Argentina near default on its foreign debt. The main purpose of this paper is to assess whether this crisis may be taken as a warning signal for Estonia, given the similar exchange‐rate system shared by the two countries. It seems that with a low level of public debt and a balanced budget, Estonia will not face a similar liquidity crisis as its Latin American counterpart, which remained heavily reliant on foreign borrowings. But the substantial real exchange‐rate appreciation of the kroon under the Currency‐Board Arrangement has resulted in serious external imbalances, which will need to be corrected to avoid balance of payments pressure and reduce Estonia's high dependency on the level of foreign direct investments.