Assessment of trade liberalisation in sub-Saharan Africa

The following paper describes the efforts of sub-Saharan African countries to liberalise their trade regimes and analyses the response of the economy to this reform in the short and medium run. In a sample of eight countries the economic reaction is found to be consistent with the ranking of countries according to their trade restrictiveness. However, additional explanations are found to be crucial to the success of African trade reform. Particularly, the lack of supporting policies and institutions, such as export promotion and developed capital markets, threaten the pursuit of reform and undermine the medium-run response of the economy.     

The Innovation Process and the Development of a Sustainability Strategy

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes what influences a firm's choice of strategy—why some firms stick to defensive strategies while others rely on offensive ones. With this in mind a survey was conducted on mineral sector companies associated with the Brazilian Mining Institute. The results show that the majority of companies use an offensive strategy and that some companies use more than one strategy at the same time. That is, they possess a corporate strategy and a sustainability strategy.     

Privatisation and local governments in Mainland China: A critical assessment

Local authorities in China have already privatised most of their small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises (SOEs) following the endorsement of this policy by the 15th Communist Party Congress in September 1997. Their incentives for doing so, however, are often to be found in rent-seeking rather than in the desire to increase competition or attract foreign direct investment. Profound economic and institutional reforms will be required if “market-preserving” incentives are to become the dominant ones in China’s transition process.     

Beyond financing: crowdfunding as an informational mechanism

Besides providing financial support for new ventures, crowdfunding can bring additional advantages for entrepreneurs. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that crowdfunding also serves as an informational mechanism. Using a unique dataset built with publicly available data from Internet-based sources, and after controlling for alternative explanations, we empirically show that when not successful on crowdfunding, thus not accessing capital, project owners may decide to release the product in the market if contributions suggest positive valuation from the “crowd”.     

Testing the Market Integration Process in the European Car Sector: Evidence from Pricing‐to‐market Behaviour

In this study, we investigate the process of the European car market integration by analysing the evolution of cross‐country differences in the degree of pricing‐to‐market behaviour of United Kingdom exporters. We estimate these country differences by exploiting statistical information for pre‐tax retail prices and for export unit values. Conclusions from both independent data sets are, in general, quite consistent. Results support the claim that, in the period before the Block Exemption Regulation (1400/2002) came fully into force, international price discrimination was an important source of car price dispersion within the euro area. For a more recent period, we found that estimated deviations in pricing‐to‐market behaviour across destinations have become lower. This convergence suggests that car market integration was progressively improved at the end of the last decade.     

Behavioral Finance in Brazil: A Bibliometric Study from 2007 to 2017

This article analyzed 58 Brazilian journals in order to address the gap unexplored in the past 10?years by congresses and periodical journals. In this research, an analysis based on keywords was used, followed by analysis of citations and co-citations that allowed to verify: an average growth of 20% p.a. of publications; the most common focus was replication of Kahneman and Tversky; the most studied group tended to be university students; quality has failed to accompany the increase in publications; public institutions publish more. A gap was perceived in the surveying of financial managers and investors, as well as bias and heuristics as a subject.     

Structural change in exports and economic growth: cointegration and causality analysis for Spain (1961–2000)

The Spanish export-led growth hypothesis is re-examined from the trade liberalization process initiated four decades ago. For this purpose both the export expansion and the progression from ‘traditional’ exports to manufactured and semimanufactured exports are taken into consideration. A new evidence is reported for the above period. Alongside a feedback between aggregate exports and real output, it has been proved that the structural transformation in export composition has also become a key factor for Spain's economic development.     

Reconsidering union membership in Spain, 1977-1994: halting decline in a context of democratic consolidation

Examining newly available figures, this article argues that in spite of Spanish high unemployment and economic re-structuring, union membership in Spain increased significantly from 1986 to 1993. The effect of democratic consolidation, as well as complex union dynamics in the labour market, generate this recovery that challenges, to some extent, the pessimistic union decline thesis.