Reliable Estimates of Sovereign Rating

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Comparative Analysis of Thresholds of Non-Revolutionary Institutional Change: China and the United States in the 1980s

Ireland has experienced a series of interlocking banking, fiscal, unemployment, and political crises since 2007. We detail the challenges involved in modeling individual moments of the crisis through the lens of balance sheets and transactions matrices among sectors of the Irish society. We conclude with a series of recommendations for models of small open economies.     

Rol-Land Farms—Passing the Mantle

Succession planning for family farms is a complicated process, since the business is usually tied to the family home, heritage, and history. Family farming operations are also becoming larger, more valuable, and more complex to manage. Rol-Land Farms is a successful mushroom and specialty crop production and distribution company with 250 employees and annual sales of C$12M. Hank Vander Pol, the driving force behind Rol-Land for three decades, is considering retirement. The transition will not be easy. Three Vander Pol families are involved in the business and no obvious successor is in sight.     

A New Typology for Economic Sectors with a view to Policy Implications

This paper is an attempt to tease out a typology of economic sectors based on a systems approach to innovation and economic growth that may be useful for policy analysis. The typology explored here revolves around novel products rather than ethereal knowledge-producing entities. This insight goes back to Allyn Young (1928) and Joseph Schumpeter (1934) who argued that the introduction of new goods was the engine of economic growth. More precisely, our typology of sectors focuses on novel products which are efficiency-enhancing within and between sectors through the market mechanism. The scheme revolves around the relationship between 'Enabling' and 'Recipient' sectors (which gives the typology its name: ER), and offers a lens for viewing and interpreting a substantive part of the mechanics of modern economic growth. The last part of the paper briefly discusses a few immediate policy implications, although it has the potential for greater use and value in this regard.