Political fragmentation,competition, and investment decisions: the medieval grinding industry in Ponthieu,France, 1150–1250

This article explores the effects of political structure on rulers' monopolistic gains and investment decisions in the context of the medieval milling industry in northern France, 1150–1250. Using Salop's spatial model, this article aims to show that political fragmentation increased investment in watermill construction because it reduced the capacity of rulers to limit competition from neighbouring mills. The calculations demonstrate that competition significantly reduced rulers' income from watermills and that the construction of more than 50 per cent of these mills cannot be economically ‘justified’ unless rulers' profit maximization over joint production is considered, and revenues from additional labour allocated to wheat production is included.     

PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY IN THE IVORIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY USING A DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS APPROACH

The African industrial structure is characterized by firm‐size heterogeneity with the coexistence of small, if not micro, enterprises in the informal sector and large formal organizations operating with modern technology. In this paper, using the Data Envelopment Analysis production frontier methodology, we investigate the technical efficiency of Ivorian manufacturing firms in four sectors of economic activity: textiles and garments, metal products, food processing, and wood and furniture. Efficiency scores are adjusted to take into account the impact of the external operating environment. These scores are then broken down into three elements: the purely managerial effect, the impact of the scale of production, and a technological effect capturing the potential gain that could result from the adoption of modern technology by small informal organizations. Not only formal activities prove to be more efficient in scaling their production but also, they greatly benefit from their modem technology.     

ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH TRADE IN FACTORS OF PRODUCTION

We study the world trading equilibrium in a Ricardian model, where factors of production are produced and traded. Even in the absence of technology transfer, international investment, research and development, and aggregate scale effects, trade affects economic growth through comparative advantage. Trade may raise the growth rate or leave it unchanged, depending on the patterns of comparative and absolute advantage. Trade in factors of production can effectively equalize technology even when technology transfer does not occur. Factor price equalization may hold, but the Stolper–Samuelson and Rybczynski theorems do not. The transition dynamics can be monotonic or oscillatory.     

Global Currency Hedging

Over the period 1975 to 2005, the U.S. dollar (particularly in relation to the Canadian dollar), the euro, and the Swiss franc (particularly in the second half of the period) moved against world equity markets. Thus, these currencies should be attractive to risk-minimizing global equity investors despite their low average returns. The risk-minimizing currency strategy for a global bond investor is close to a full currency hedge, with a modest long position in the U.S. dollar. There is little evidence that risk-minimizing investors should adjust their currency positions in response to movements in interest differentials.