Private Property or Several Control: A Rejoinder

Following Mises’s foundational paper, ‘Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth’, first published in 1920, writers in the Austrian tradition have argued that socialism is impossible, because under socialism there would be no private property in the means of production, and without that private property economic calculation could not take place. In the article ‘Economic Calculation: Private Property or Several Control?’, published in this journal in 2015, I argued that this was mistaken. Not private property, but several control, was required for economic calculation, and since several control is consistent with public ownership, this argument for the impossibility of socialism fails. Another article, ‘Private Property and Economic Calculation: A Reply to Andy Denis’, by Bylund and Manish, published in this issue of the Review of Political Economy, defends the traditional interpretation of Austrian reasoning, contending that my argument fails. My rejoinder re-states the issues, addressing, and, ultimately rejecting, the Bylund and Manish critique.     

Bribery,corruption and bureaucratic hassle: Evidence from Myanmar

Corruption has been found to be the most severe obstacle to business operations, according to a recent survey of over 3000 firms in Myanmar. This paper sets out to understand the structure of corruption through an econometric analysis of this survey. It finds that firms with higher ‘ability to pay’ (proxied by sales revenue and employee growth) are more likely to pay bribes. While firms with lower ‘refusal power’ (i.e. those dependent on bureaucratic permissions to export and import) are more likely to find corruption to be an obstacle. A distinct but related question is whether bribes act as ‘efficiency grease’ by allowing firms to circumvent red tape. No evidence is found to support this hypothesis; in fact, firms that pay bribes report greater bureaucratic hassle compared to firms that do not. This result fits in more closely with the view that red tape could be used to extract bribes from firms.     

关于民办高校绿色薪酬激励机制改革的探讨

本文以民办高校绿色薪酬制度的作用为出发点,分析民办高校绿色薪酬激励机制改革的措施。     

International aid from the recipient perspective: public or private good input assistance?

This article proposes a theoretical model from the recipient perspective that considers what type of assistance a donor country should provide: public good assistance or private good assistance. We investigate the effects of migration and free riders under both types of assistance. We empirically apply this model to the rapidly growing economies and a large official development assistance disbursement for East Asia.     

(De)Politicization Dynamics in Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs): Lessons from a comparison between UK and Flemish PPP policy

This article analyses the (de)politicization dynamics in complex and technical matters like public–private partnerships, which is necessary given its social impact and budgetary consequences for the years and generations to come. The global financial crisis provides an excellent window of opportunity to present this argument, because PPP policy needs to reinvent itself. We argue that PPP policy needs to be (re)politicized at the broader societal and discursive levels, which means that their public nature is recognized and that policy alternatives are debated in the public forums. The ‘Private Finance Initiative’ reassessment process in the UK may serve as an example.     

The international diversification-performance link in Spain: Does firm size really matter?

This study provides new insights into the link between international diversification and firm performance in a sample of large manufacturing firms and SMEs based in Spain for the 1994–2008 period. Specifically, the focus is on how the nature and shape of this relationship may vary over time with firm size. The results show the existence of a horizontal-S curve when the whole sample of firms is considered in the empirical analysis. However, major differences are found between SMEs and large firms, and even within the actual group of SMEs. Strong support is found in large firms for the existence of a horizontal-S curve. Within the group of SMEs, there are small firms with a linear and negative relationship, whereas medium-sized firms record a U-shaped form. These findings suggest that as the international diversification-performance link is size-dependent, future research should explicitly consider firm size in order to better understand the nature of this relationship.     

Do innovative emerging market cross-border acquirers create more shareholder value? Evidence from India

This study attempts to investigate the role of absorptive capacity of emerging market firms in creating shareholder value from developed market acquisitions. It analyzes the cumulative abnormal return of cross border acquisitions of listed Indian firms in Europe focusing on acquirers’ research intensity. The study discovers a U-shaped relationship between research intensity of Indian acquirers and their cumulative abnormal return following acquisitions in Europe. As such, firms with no research capacity can benefit from the acquisition by accessing advanced targets, although firms with extensive research capacity outperform any of their Indian competitors as these firms have the absorptive capacity to not only exploit but also explore the knowledge base of the acquired target. Furthermore, we found a positive effect of the acquisition of a high-tech target company, regardless of the absorptive capacity of the acquirer. We also found that business group membership has a positive impact on shareholder value, although horizontal acquisitions as compared to vertical and unrelated deals have a significantly negative impact for these companies. This result is again linked to the more explorative nature of vertical and unrelated acquisitions in comparison with horizontal deals that are more based on the exploitation of existing resources and capabilities.     

The effectiveness of quantitative easing: new evidence on private investment

This paper examines the effect of Federal Reserve’s large-scale purchases of securities on private investment. We find tentative evidence that quantitative easing (QE) stimulated the level of aggregate investment through the interest rate channel by narrowing corporate bond spread. In particular, the Fed’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities were found to have a statistically significant effect on aggregate private investment. Moreover, using a GARCH model, we find that QE has led to a reduction in the volatility of private investment. This finding remains robust with a QE dummy variable as an alternative measure of the unconventional monetary policy. The study also indicates how different aspects of QE influence private investment and its volatility.