A Study on the Indian Information Sector: An Experiment with Input-Output Techniques

It is widely recognized that rapid changes in information technology (IT) are bringing about major structural changes in the economies of the world. Information flexibility, product quality and fast response are the key factors for global competition and IT plays a critical role in these areas. Policy-makers in industrialized and developing countries view IT as a critical infrastructure to enhance their access to global knowledge, markets and capital. These views--of IT as infrastructure and as core capability for development--resonate with India's aspirations to modernize its infrastructure, transform its industry and join the global economy. Realizing the huge potential of the Indian IT industry, we make an attempt in this paper to study the extent of informatization in the Indian economy during the period 1983-84 to 1989-90 and try to identify the information intensive sectors. This paper also studies the sources of growth of the information sectors of India during 1983-84 to 1989-90 with the help of a structural decomposition analysis (SDA).     

Retail profit margins in Japan and Germany

Retail Profit Margins in Japan and Germany. — This study compares the determinants of retail profit margins in Japan and Germany. Although several studies consider the peculiarities of the Japanese society and its economic structure, the comparison in this study is the first systematic, empirical analysis of the consequences of these characteristics for Japanese retail profit margins. For this purpose, two extensive data sets are used and a mark-up relationship is tailored to examine differences in Japanese and German retail profit margins. The empirical outcomes indicate that small firms can survive more easily in Japan than in Germany. This explains the abundance of small stores in Japan.     

The intertemporal stability of the concentration-margins relationship in Dutch and U.S. manufacturing

Factors influencing price-cost margins are investigated using a rich panel data base of the Dutch manufacturing sector. Attention is devoted to the intertemporal stability of the relationship explaining price-cost margins and to a comparison with U.S. results. Our results indicate that isolated cross-section analyses can be misleading. Evidence is provided for similarities and dissimilarities between the U.S. and the Netherlands when explaining price-cost margins. Dutch margins are influenced by industry-specific factors such as sales changes, import competition, capital intensity and operating expenses. Domestic seller concentration, aggregate capacity utilization and export intensity play no distinct roles.This research was sponsored in part by the Economics Research Foundation, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. We wish to thank H. W. de Jong, Leo Sleuwaegen, David Audretsch and Aad Kleijweg for their useful comments.     

Assessment centers: A contrast of usage in diverse environments

The assessment center technique for sales force selection, promotion, career development, and training has received substantial attention. In addition to being cited as having substantial potential for more traditional sales management applications, the approach has been identified as well-suited for cross-cultural and multinational sales environments. This study appraises assessment center applications in two divergent settings: the United States and Europe. Expectations of greater awareness and utilization among European marketing managers were confirmed. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Investment performance of canadian real estate stocks using sharpe's performance index

The investment performance of a Canadian portfolio of Canadian public real estate companies is analyzed over the period 1971–79. Using Sharpe's index of performance, it would appear at first sight that this portfolio exhibited remarkable superior performance. Moreover, this conclusion is not due to some peculiarity of the Sharpe measure: results using Treynor's measure suggest a similar conclusion. We then apply the significance tests recently recommended by Jobson and Korkie (1981). When their preferred test is applied, we are unable to reject the null hypothesis that the real estate portfolio did not exhibit superior investment performance. This result illustrates the necessity of performing adequate statistical significance tests whenever investment performance is being evaluated.     

The impact of regulation on innovation: Some U.S. data

Data is presented on the impact of government regulation on the rate and direction of innovation in U.S. manufacturing and industry. Regulation has forced some innovation, be it compliance, but in most cases it has not stimulated radical technical change. Overall, evidence suggests that the impact of regulation on business innovation has been negative and that regulation has delayed and even prevented innovation in a number of areas.