Global entrepreneurship and institutions: an introduction

This article is an introduction to the special issue from the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Research Conference held at Imperial College Business School, London, in 2010. The article has two objectives. The first is to summarize the history of the GEM consortium, some of the contributions that it has delivered, and some challenges and opportunities ahead. The second is to present a summary of the papers in the context of the utility of GEM data in comparative entrepreneurship research.     

Evolutionary dynamics and backward induction

The backward induction (or subgame-perfect) equilibrium of a perfect information game is shown to be the unique evolutionarily stable outcome for dynamic models consisting of selection and mutation, when the mutation rate is low and the populations are large.     

Institutions and economic development: How strong is the relation?

This paper investigates the relationship between institutions and economic development (output per worker). As in Hall and Jones (1999), we find that a 1% improvement in institutions (as we measure them) generates on average a 5% increase in output per worker. However, this relationship is not linear and the data have important heterogeneity. Countries with the same value of institutions have different levels of income per worker. We ask whether the “returns to institutions” are the same across countries conditional on the level of institutions. Using quantile regression methods, we show that for countries at the top of the conditional distribution of international incomes, the “returns to institutions” are lower (around 3.8%,) than for countries at the bottom of this distribution (around 6.2%). We show that this result is robust for different model specifications and definitions of institutions. We also provide evidence that, conditional on the level of institutional development, the distribution of output per worker tends to become less disperse as countries improve their institutional framework. In other words, having better institutions is essential in order to close the output-per-worker gap across countries. Finally, we provide the rationale behind the results through a modified version of a Neoclassical Growth Model with time varying wedges, representing policy distortions and institutions.We thank Lee Alston, Roger Koenker, and Stephen L. Parente for helpful discussion, Werner Baer for useful comments, and Chad Jones for facilitating access to the data set. We are also indebted to an anonymous referee and an associate editor for important suggestions that improved the final paper. The analysis, opinions and findings expressed herein represent the views of the authors, they are not necessarily those of the Banco de Portugal. Any remaining errors are our responsibility.First version received: May 2001/Final version received: August 2003     

Wage,labour mobility and working time effects of profit sharing

This study presents empirical tests of a number of labour market hypotheses related to profit sharing using individual-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. It examines questions of differing wage, mobility (inter-and intra-firm) and working time responses under profit sharing as compared to conventional compensation arrangements.

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Zusammenfassung Auf Basis der Daten des deutschen Sozio-ökonomischen Panels werden verschiedene Hypothesen über Wirkungen der Gewinnbeteiligung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt getestet. Im einzelnen geht es um Fragen der Lohndifferenzierung, der inner- und zwischenbetrieblichen Mobilität sowie der Arbeitszeit. Es wird untersucht, ob und in welchem Umfang Effekte von der Gewinnbeteiligung ausgehen.

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We thank anonymous referees for helpful comments.     

商业人身保险与社会保险的协调发展问题探讨

随着我国社会保障体系的不断改革和发展，社会保险已经成为保障劳动者的重要手段。一国社会保障制度的完善程度与其经济发展水平呈正相关关系，因受经济发展水平的制约，我国目前的社会保障制度无论是覆盖率还是保障程度都相对落后，所以我国社会保障制度的现状显然是与社会经济发展的保障需求不对称的。商业人身保险可以充分发挥其机动灵活、富于效率的特点，弥补社会保障的不足。     

Bayesian Model Averaging: A Systematic Review and Conceptual Classification

Bayesian model averaging (BMA) provides a coherent and systematic mechanism for accounting for model uncertainty. It can be regarded as an direct application of Bayesian inference to the problem of model selection, combined estimation and prediction. BMA produces a straightforward model choice criterion and less risky predictions. However, the application of BMA is not always straightforward, leading to diverse assumptions and situational choices on its different aspects. Despite the widespread application of BMA in the literature, there were not many accounts of these differences and trends besides a few landmark revisions in the late 1990s and early 2000s, therefore not accounting for advancements made in the last decades. In this work, we present an account of these developments through a careful content analysis of 820 articles in BMA published between 1996 and 2016. We also develop a conceptual classification scheme to better describe this vast literature, understand its trends and future directions and provide guidance for the researcher interested in both the application and development of the methodology. The results of the classification scheme and content review are then used to discuss the present and future of the BMA literature.     

The use of R&D consortia as market barriers: Case studies of consortia in the United States,Japan, and Western Europe

There are strong temptations to use research and development (R&D) consortia as barriers to trade and investment. The cases discussed here, the VLSI Project in Japan, Sematech in the United States, the Joint European Submicron Silicon Initiative (JESSI), the European Eureka EU95 program, the European Vision 1250 program, and NHK Engineering Services in Japan are all in the field of high technology electronics. Electronics has been made a priority for public research and development efforts because the governments of advanced industrial countries believe that competitiveness in high technology electronics is important for both national security and overall economic competitiveness. R&D consortia are used by governments and the European Community to pool the risks of the development of new technologies. Access to full membership in these R&D consortia in all three regions is limited, as a rule, to firms owned and headquartered in the region. Access to the technology created is limited in a variety of ways, the most important of which is the inability to work with the technologies themselves at an early stage, which is a major disadvantage in high technology industries. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.