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NEP: New Economics Papers
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Edited by: Marco Novarese
           http://ideas.repec.org/e/pno2.html
           Universita  del Piemonte Orientale
Date:      2005-07-25
Papers:	   267

This document is in the public domain, feel free to circulate it.

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1. FIRM SIZE DISTRIBUTION: DO FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS EXPLAIN IT 
   ALL? EVIDENCE FROM SURVEY DATA
  
    Paolo Angelini (Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department)
    Andrea Generale (Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department)

We address the question in the title using survey-based measures 
of financial constraints, as opposed to the proxies typically 
used in the literature. We find that in our dataset of Italian 
firms, those declaring to be financially constrained are smaller 
and younger than the others. However, the size distribution of 
non constrained firms is significantly skewed, and virtually 
overlaps with the FSD for the entire sample. Similar conclusions 
are drawn from the analysis of a large subsample comprising very 
young firms. These results are broadly confirmed using several 
non survey-based proxies of financial constraints, and over a 
second large sample including firms from OECD and non OECD 
countries. The analysis of the latter dataset suggests that 
financial constraints are a relatively more serious problem in 
developing countries. We conclude that financial constraints 
cannot be the main determinant of the FSD evolution over time, 
especially in financially developed economies.
 
Keywords: firm size distribution, financial constraints.
JEL:      L11
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_549_05&r=all



2. Proprieta', controllo e trasferimenti nelle imprese italiane. 
   Cosa e' cambiato nel decennio 1993-2003?
  
    Silvia Giacomelli (Banca d'Italia)
    Sandro Trento (Banca d'Italia)

This paper analyzes the results of two surveys conducted by the 
Bank of Italy in 2003, respectively among 1,900 and 500 Italian 
firms, on ownership structures, control and control transfers of 
non-listed firms, building upon similar surveys carried on in 
1993. The aim of the research is to assess the degree and the 
directions of changes in control patterns of industrial firms in 
Italy. The data show that ownership concentration, as measured by 
various indicators, is high and that direct family control of 
firms is prevalent. Separation between ownership and control is 
limited. Financial institutions (including private equity) rarely 
own capital stakes or play a role in controlling non-financial 
firms. Ownership of a firm by another firm is widespread, 
especially for bigger firms; ultimate owners are usually families.
Foreign ownership and control of Italian firms is growing. 
Overall, relatively small changes in the patterns of ownership 
and control have occurred over the decade (1993-2003). The market 
for corporate control has not developed significantly; it remains 
based on personal contacts. Financial institutions do not play a 
relevant role in it; transactions are usually mediated by legal 
and accounting professionals. Many firms will deal with 
generational transfers of control in the near future.
 
Keywords: ownership structure, control, control transfers
JEL:      G32
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_550_05&r=all



3. QUOTA DEI PROFITTI E REDDITIVITA DEL CAPITALE IN ITALIA: UN 
   TENTATIVO DI INTERPRETAZIONE
  
    Roberto Torrini (BANK OF ITALY)

Profit share in Italy has been growing between the mid-1970s and 
the mid-1990s, remaining stable at historically high levels since 
than. After dropping in the first half of the 1970s, owing to an 
unprecedented rapid rise in wages, profit share started to 
recover. The rise during the 1980s involved the entire business 
sector and was part of this recovery process. During the 1990s 
profit share continued to grow on average, but with large cross-
sector differences. Profit share in manufacturing, which is more 
exposed to international competition, declined, together with the 
returns on capital stock, but increased in the rest of the 
business sector. We show that the better performance of the non-
manufacturing business sector is mainly due to the industries 
most affected by the large-scale privatisations and restructuring 
of State-owned companies that began in the first half of the 
1990s. They led to a rapid growth in total factor productivity 
and a deceleration in wages, without a major impact on the market 
power of privatised companies. On the contrary, profitability in 
the manufacturing sector was negatively affected by a loss of 
competitiveness in international markets.
 
Keywords: factors shares, returns on capital, privatisations
JEL:      E25 E22 E24 L32 L33 J30
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_551_05&r=all



4. HIRING INCENTIVES AND LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION IN ITALY
  
    Piero Cipollone (BANK OF ITALY)
    Corrado Di Maria (Tilburg University)
    Anita Guelfi (Confindustria)

A long-standing economic tradition maintains that labour supply 
reacts to market tightness; its sensitivity to job quality has 
received less attention. If firms hire workers with both 
temporary and open-end contracts, does participation increase 
when more permanent jobs are available? We investigate this 
relationship within a policy evaluation framework; in particular, 
we examine how labour supply reacted in Italy to a recent subsidy 
in favour of open-end contracts. This subsidy increased labour 
force participation by 1.4% in 2001 and 2.1% in 2002. This 
increase was concentrated on males aged 35-54, with a low or at 
most a secondary schooling level, and might be due to the choice 
to leave undegraound economy.
 
Keywords: labour supply, program evaluation, temporary contracts,
          open-end contracts, shadow economy
JEL:      D78 H25 J22 J38
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_552_05&r=all



5. Contracting Out Public Service Provision to Not-For-Profit 
   Firms
  
    John Bennett
    Elisabetta Iossa

In an incomplete contract setting, we analyze the contracting 
out of public service provision, comparing the performance of for-
profit and not-for-profit private firms. Two institutional 
arrangements are considered, control rights lying either with the 
firm as under the UK’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) or the 
government (as under traditional procurement). We derive the 
conditions under which provision by not-for-profit firms leads to 
greater investment and social benefit than provision by for 
profit firms. The role played by the non-distribution constraint 
in not-for profit firms and the nature of the investment are 
emphasized.
 
Keywords: contracting out, not-for-profit firms, private finance 
          initiative, public-private partnership, incomplete 
          contracts, public service provision
JEL:      H41 L31 L33
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:05/124&r=all



6. Division of Labour and Directed Production
  
    Marisa Ratto
    Wendelin Schnedler

We examine a situation where efforts on different tasks 
positively affect production but are not separately verifiable 
and where the manager (principal) and the worker (agent) have 
different ideas about how production should be carried out: 
agents prefer a less efficient way of production. We show that by 
dividing labour (assigning tasks to different agents and 
verifying that agents do not carry out tasks to which they are 
not assigned), it is possible for the principal to implement the 
efficient way of production. Colluding agents can undermine this 
implementation. However, if agents have different abilities, 
collusion can be prevented by a specific assignment of agents 
tasks.
 
Keywords: hidden action, moral hazard, specialisation, job design
JEL:      L23 M52 D82 J24
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:05/126&r=all



7. Does external trade promote financial development?
  
    Yongfu Huang
    Jonathan Temple

Several recent papers have argued that trade and financial 
development may be linked, either for political economy reasons, 
or because foreign competition and exposure to shocks lead to 
changes in the demand for external finance. In this paper we use 
the cross-country and time-series variation in openness to study 
the relationship between trade and finance in more detail. Our 
results suggest that increases in goods market openness are 
typically followed by sustained increases in financial depth.
 
Keywords: openness, trade, financial development.
JEL:      F13 O16
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:05/575&r=all



8. La guerra justa y el fin de la historieta(un manifiesto 
   neomoderno)
  
    Carlos Escude

If all cultures are morally equivalent, then all individuals are 
not essentially endowed with the same human rights, because some 
cultures award some men more rights than are allotted to other 
men and women. If, on the other hand, all men and women are 
endowed with the same human rights, then all cultures are not 
morally equivalent, because cultures that acknowledge that "all 
men are created equal" are ethically superior to those that do 
not. These two statements are mutually contradictory and cannot 
both be true. Moreover, there is a natural conflict between them, 
leading to inevitable intra and inter-civilizational clashes. 
Relativism will confront evolutionism and hierarchical theocracy 
will confront secularized republicanism. This essay takes sides 
and argues that cultural superiority can be asserted on two 
different levels: moral and epistemological. A culture that 
acknowledges a set of universal human rights is superior to one 
that does not, even if it often deviates from these very norms. A 
culture capable of delving into nature increasing life expectancy 
through scientific discovery is superior to one that cannot. 
Furthermore, waging war to defend a superior culture is a moral 
imperative.
 
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:295&r=all



9. Housing Price Dispersion: an empirical investigation
  
    Charles Ka Yui Leung
    Youngman Chun Fai Leong
    Siu Kei Wong

The efficiency of a market is challenged when price dispersion 
occurs. Previous studies focused on non-durable consumption goods.
This study extends the analysis to the case of residential 
property, whose transactions are dominated by a second-hand 
market with many potential buyers and sellers. We demonstrate 
that housing price dispersion exists, and the degree of 
dispersion changes systematically with some macroeconomic factors,
though the second and the third moment of the price distribution 
react differently to the macroeconomic variables. Some directions 
for future research are suggested.
 
Keywords: price dispersion, search models, macroeconomic factor, 
          time aggregation
JEL:      C32 D61 D83 E30 R31
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chk:cuhkdc:00012&r=all



10. Forced information disclosure and the fallacy of 
    transparency in markets
  
    Cason, Timothy N.
    Plott, Charles R.

A theory advanced in regulatory hearings holds that market 
performance will be improved if one side of the market is forced 
to publicly reveal preferences. For example, wholesale 
electricity producers claim that retail electricity consumers 
would pay lower prices if wholesale public utility demand is 
disclosed to producers. Experimental markets studied here 
featured decentralized, privately negotiated contracts, typical 
of the wholesale electricity markets. Two conclusions emerge: (i) 
such markets generally converge to the competitive equilibrium 
and (ii) forced disclosure works to the disadvantage of the 
disclosing side. Information disclosure would result in higher 
wholesale and thus higher retail electricity prices
 
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clt:sswopa:1202&r=all



11. Costo de Uso del capital en Colombia: 1997-2003.
  
    Leonardo RHENALS ROJAS

El documento analiza la evolucion del costo de uso del capital 
en el periodo 1997 – 2003 en Colombia. A diferencia de los 
trabajos anteriores se construye una serie del costo de uso del 
capital a partir de la informacion suministrada por las empresas 
a la Superintendencia de Sociedades, lo cual evita los errores 
generados por la utilizacion de variables macroeconomicas 
agregadas. Durante los ultimos siete anos las tasas de interes 
y la inflacion se han reducido drasticamente luego de la crisis 
de finales de los noventa, lo cual ha repercutido sobre el costo 
de uso del capital en Colombia. Por otra parte, las tasas 
impositivas han permanecido relativamente constantes, a pesar de 
las numerosas reformas tributarias las cuales han estado mas 
orientadas a aumentar la base gravable. Estos dos factores 
afectan las decisiones de inversion y financiamiento por parte 
de las empresas lo cual se ve reflejado en el crecimiento 
economico de mediano y largo plazo. Durante el periodo de 
estudio el costo de uso se ha reducido en poco mas de un tercio 
desde su nivel en 1997, sin embargo en terminos reales sigue 
siendo alto. Medidas adoptadas recientemente para estimular la 
inversion via descuento de inversiones en activos productivos 
tendrian un impacto limitado sobre el costo de uso del capital 
con respecto a medidas de politica monetaria tendientes a 
reducir las tasas de interes y la inflacion.
 
Keywords: Inversion
Date:     2005-01-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001100&r=all



12. Costos generados por la violencia armada en Colombia: 1993-
    2003.
  
    Maria Eugenia PINTO BORREGO
    Andres VERGARA BALLEN
    Yilberto LAHUERTA PERCIPIANO

Este documento incluye un ejercicio de valoracion de los costos 
tanto directos como indirectos que la violencia armada ha 
impuesto a la economia nacional entre los anos 1999 y 2003. 
Entre los costos considerados se cuentan aquellos generados por 
el dano a infraestructura energetica, vial y aeroportuaria, por 
fenomenos como el secuestro, al extorsion, el narcotrafico, el 
desplazamiento forzado, el uso de minas antipersonal, asi como 
el pago de indemnizaciones a victimas, entre otros. Como 
resultado del ejercicio se estima que los costos de la violencia 
armada en Colombia durante 1999-2003 se acercan a los $16,5 
billones de 2003. La mayor parte de los costos calculados, $14,6 
Billones, corresponden a la categoria de costos directos (88.3% 
del total de costos). Por su parte, los costos indirectos, 
ascendieron a $1,9 Billones, equivalentes al 11,7% del total. 
Estos costos equivalen al 7,4% del PIB de 2003, a 2,7 veces el 
deficit del sector publico consolidado de 2003; ademas, es 2,1 
veces el Presupuesto de Inversion de la Nacion y el 14,1% de la 
deuda del sector publico no financiero (neto de activos).
 
Keywords: conflicto
Date:     2005-01-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001101&r=all



13. ?Se ha liberalizado el comercio de servicios en los 
    acuerdos comerciales de EEUU? El caso de NAFTA y los TLC con 
    Chile y Singapur.
  
    Alejandra RANGEL
    Catalina DELGADO
    Jorge CEPEDA
    German MUNOZ

Debido a la importancia de los servicios en la produccion, el 
empleo y el comercio internacional, la eliminacion de las 
barreras al comercio de este sector y su consecuente 
liberalizacion, se ha convertido en uno de los principales 
objetivos de las negociaciones comerciales llevadas a cabo en los 
ultimos anos. Dado que Colombia se encuentra actualmente 
impulsando la negociacion de un tratado bilateral con Estados 
Unidos, resulta conveniente examinar los ultimos 
tratadosfirmados por este pais a fin de establecer el grado de 
liberalizacion de los paises en el sector servicios. Para esto, 
se requiere una metodologia que tenga en cuenta que las barreras 
al comercio en este sector no son aranceles -como en el comercio 
de bienes- sino regulaciones internas de los paises. En este 
documento, se empleo el tradicional indice de Hoekman para 
comparar algunos acuerdos firmados por Estados Unidos, el TLCAN 
con Mexico y Canada y los TLC con Chile y Singapur. La 
metodologia muestra que, en promedio, el tratado menos liberal 
es el firmado entre EEUU y Chile, y el mas abierto es el TLCAN. 
Sin embargo, el grado de liberalizacion de Estados Unidos cambia 
en cada uno de los tratados, lo mismo sucede por sectores.
 
Keywords: comercio de servicios
Date:     2005-01-26
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001102&r=all



14. Una propuesta de subsidio al salario para Colombia (version 
    preliminar).
  
    Letty Margarita BOHORQUEZ
    Cesar Augusto MERCHAN

Desde la segunda mitad de los noventa el desempleo en Colombia 
adquirio magnitudes preocupantes (alrededor del 18%) y aunque ha 
habido cierta tendencia a la baja, o al menos a su 
estabilizacion, el fenomeno sigue siendo alarmante con respecto 
a la situacion de los demas paises de la region y frente al 
propio historial del pais. Para atenuar el problema, el gobierno 
ha intensificado sus esfuerzos en cuatro componentes directos 
utilizados tipicamente para enfrentar el fenomeno: a) 
reentrenamiento y capacitacion laboral desarrollado 
principalmente por el SENA y el subprograma Jovenes en Accion; 
b) intermediacion laboral, tambien a cargo del SENA y de 
diferentes empresas privadas; c) desarrollo empresarial, con los 
diversos apoyos a las empresas, y d) programas de empleo publico 
como el subpograma Empleo en Accion. Estos esfuerzos han sido 
insuficientes para contrarrestar el desempleo y han llevado al 
Gobierno Nacional a plantear la posibilidad, a nivel normativo, 
de crear un subsidio al salario (tambien denominado subsidio al 
empleo). Dicha opcion ya se ha aplicado tanto en paises 
desarrollados como en algunos de Latinoamerica, con resultados y 
recomendaciones de politica diversos. Incluso en Colombia se han 
hecho intentos pero con resultados poco favorables. Explorar la 
viabilidad tecnica de un subsidio al salario, asi como su 
pertinencia y forma de aplicacion en Colombia, es el objetivo de 
este estudio que se compone de siete secciones. En la siguiente 
seccion se describe en breve la gravedad del desempleo del pais.
Las secciones tercera y cuarta resumen tanto el marco teorico 
como las caracteristicas generales de los programas de subsidio 
al salario, mientras que la quinta describe algunas experiencias 
internacionales. En la seccion seis se esboza la estructura 
basica de un subsidio al salario para Colombia, para finalizar 
en las acostumbradas conclusiones y recomendaciones de politica.
 
Keywords: Subsidio
Date:     2005-02-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001103&r=all



15. Colombia en los proximos veinte anos. El pais que 
    queremos.
  
    Rudolf HOMMES RODRIGUEZ
    Claudia Marcela UMANA APONTE.

El objetivo de este analisis es plantear metas de crecimiento 
economico que le permitan a Colombia en el transcurso de 20 
anos alcanzar el desarrollo suficiente para duplicar el Producto 
Interno Bruto (PIB) per capita del pais. Asi mismo, se busca 
plantear metas de politica social que mejoren el bienestar de la 
poblacion colombiana. Para lograr estos objetivos se analizo el 
proceso de desarrollo de paises que rapida y establemente 
alcanzaron altos niveles de PIB per capita en el mismo periodo 
de tiempo o menos. Basicamente el analisis se centro en los 
paises asiaticos y especialmente en el desarrollo de Corea del 
Sur.
 
Keywords: desarrollo economico
Date:     2005-03-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001104&r=all



16. Tratado de Libre Comercio y Barreras No Arancelarias: Un 
    analisis critico.
  
    Daniel VAUGHAN CARO

En este documento se presenta una revision critica de la 
literatura acerca de los efectos y cuantificacion de las 
barreras no arancelarias, dentro del marco de las negociaciones 
de un tratado de libre comercio con Estados Unidos. Para esto, se 
realiza una revision de la literatura teorica y empirica, y 
una revision historica de la posicion de Estados Unidos y 
Colombia. Por ultimo, se utiliza un modelo de equilibrio general 
computable para simular la eliminacion de las barreras 
arancelarias y no arancelarias entre Estados Unidos y Colombia. 
Se concluye que los modelos de equilibrio general computable 
sobre estiman los efectos de las BNAs debido principalmente a 
limitaciones de la metodologia utilizada para cuantificar los 
efectos de las mismas y de los supuestos utilizados para modelar 
la demanda de importaciones.
 
Keywords: Barreras no arancelarias
Date:     2005-04-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001105&r=all



17. Educacion y pensiones en Colombia: Una perspectiva 
    intergeneracional.
  
    Catalina DELGADO GONZALEZ

Este trabajo recurre al marco de analisis sobre los sistemas 
publicos de educacion y pensiones de Boldrin y Montes (2002), 
basado en un modelo de generaciones traslapadas con produccion y 
acumulacion de capital fisico y humano. Partiendo de este 
modelo teorico, se presenta un ejercicio empirico para el caso 
colombiano, en el que se busca establecer hasta que punto las 
transferencias intergeneracionales inducidas por los sistemas de 
educacion y pensiones vigentes, replican las condiciones de 
eficiencia que plantea el modelo. Con base en informacion micro 
de la Encuesta de Calidad de Vida y cifras agregadas del 
Presupuesto para 2003, se realizaron las estimaciones, que 
muestran que en Colombia no solo no existen los mecanismos de 
transferencias intergeneracionales que permiten asignaciones 
eficientes, sino tambien que existen asimetrias de genero que 
hacen que invertir en capital humano sea mas rentable para los 
hombres.
 
Keywords: pensiones
Date:     2005-04-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001106&r=all



18. Evaluacion del desempeno de las instituciones aseguradoras 
    EPS y ARS) en terminos de su contribucion al logro de uno 
    de los fundamentos de
  
    Maria Cristina PENALOZA RAMOS.

El presente documento tiene como objetivo realizar una 
evaluacion del desempeno de las instituciones aseguradoras (EPS 
y ARS) en terminos de su contribucion al logro de uno de los 
fundamentos de la Ley 100 de 1993, el cual es la equidad en la 
prestacion de servicios de salud del SGSSS. Este aspecto de 
equidad / inequidad del Sistema sera observada desde el punto de 
vista del acceso y utilizacion de servicios de salud por parte 
de la poblacion.
 
Keywords: EPS
Date:     2005-05-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001107&r=all



19. El modelo DNPension V 4.0 Parte I.
  
    Javier Hernando OSORIO GONZALEZ
    Juliana MARTINEZ CUELLAR
    Tomas RODRIGUEZ BARRAQUER.

El modelo DNPension es un modelo contable discreto, basado en 
un componente demografico que simula el comportamiento del 
sistema pensional colombiano a un horizonte de 100 anos. La 
version 4.0 cuenta con la versatilidad necesaria para simular 
practicamente cualquier cambio en los parametros fundamentales 
que caracterizan un sistema pensional, en un lapso de tiempo 
considerablemente pequeno. El modelo se viene desarrollando de 
una manera continua desde 1999 y esta basado en la idea original 
de Juan Carlos Parra Osorio. El objetivo de este documento es 
explicar el funcionamiento del modelo, comenzado por un analisis 
general de los datos que lo alimentan y una descripcion de su 
funcionamiento. A manera de ilustracion, se muestran los 
resultados de dos ejercicios. El primero cuantifica el deficit 
del ISS y Cajanal. El segundo evalua diferentes escenarios del 
ejercicio de pilares, donde el primer pilar varia entre 1, 2, 3 
y 4 SMLV. Finalmente se cierra este documento con un informe de 
la evolucion del modelo, no solo en materia de programacion 
sino tambien en el tema de la calidad de la informacion que 
utiliza.
 
Keywords: pensiones
Date:     2005-06-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001108&r=all



20. Crecimiento pro-poor en Colombia: 1996-2004.
  
    Alfredo SARMIENTO
    Jorge Ivan GONZALEZ
    Roberto ANGULO
    Francisco ESPINOSA

Este articulo explica el significado conceptual, la medicion y 
la importancia que tiene en la actual coyuntura colombiana, la 
Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) de Kakwani, Khandker y Son (
2004). El analisis de los datos de la experiencia reciente 
muestra que en la mayor parte de los anos el crecimiento tiende 
a no ser a favor de los pobres. De manera que se hace necesario 
un esfuerzo explicito a favor de politicas de crecimiento que 
favorezcan la distribucion. En particular, estrategias dirigidas 
a mejorar el acceso a activos como tierra, capital, credito y 
educacion para los mas pobres. Las politicas distributivas 
convierten el crecimiento en un crecimiento a favor de los pobres.
 
Keywords: crecimiento pro-poor
Date:     2005-05-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000107:001109&r=all



21. COMPARACION DEL GASTO DE LOS HOGARES ENTRE 1997 Y 2003, 
    SEGUN RESULTADOS DE LAS ENCUESTAS DE CALIDAD DE VIDA: 
    MAGNITUD, COMPOSICION Y DISTRI
  
    Manuel Ramirez
    Andres Zambrano
    Manuel Munoz

El proposito de este estudio es analizar el cambio en magnitud, 
composicion y distribucion del gasto de los hogares en los 
anos 1997 y 2003, usando las encuestas de calidad de vida. Este 
analisis encuentra una gran disminucion del gasto per capita (
23.9%), especialmente en zonas urbanas y regiones mas 
adelantadas, reflejo de la crisis economica que golpea al pais 
desde 1998. Este decrecimiento desigual genero una mejor 
distribucion en el 2003 y ocasiono un cambio en la estructura 
de gastos, llevando a un importante crecimiento de la proporcion 
de los gastos en alimentos y una disminucion de los gastos de 
educacion y salud. En el documento se utilizo estadistica 
descriptiva, discriminando por quintiles de cada region y clase (
urbano rural). Posteriormente se realizaron estimaciones 
parametricas y no parametricas de las curvas de Engel, para 
cada rubro, con el fin de identificar su naturaleza.
 
Keywords: Gasto de los Hogares
JEL:      D12
Date:     2005-06-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001114&r=all



22. Biased selection within the social health insurance market 
    in Colombia
  
    Ramon Castano
    Andres Zambrano

Reducing the impact of insurance market failures with 
regulations such as community-rated premiums, standardized 
benefit packages and open enrolment, yield limited impact because 
they create room for selection bias. The Colombian social health 
insurance system started a market approach in 1993 on the 
expectation to improve performance of preexisting monopolistic 
insurance funds by exposing them to competition by new entrants. 
It is hypothesized that market failures would lead to biased 
selection favoring new entrants. Two household surveys are 
analyzed using Self-reported health status and the presence of 
chronic conditions as indicators of prospective risk of enrolees. 
Biased selection is found to take place, leading to adverse 
selection among incumbents, and favorable selection among new 
entrants. This pattern is observed in 1997 and worsens in 2003. 
Although the two incumbents analyzed are public organizations, 
and their size dropped substantially between these two years, 
fiscal implications in terms of government bailouts are analyzed.
 
Keywords: Social Health Insurance
JEL:      I11
Date:     2005-05-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001115&r=all



23. Estructuras organizacionales, esquemas salariales y calidad 
    educativa en America Latina: un estudio comparativo de los 
    casos de Chile, Mexic
  
    Carolina Alban

Las deficiencias que registran los diferentes paises de 
America Latina en los indicadores relacionados con el 
rendimiento escolar y la calidad educativa han sido un tema 
recurrente en la agenda politica de los gobiernos de la region 
durante las ultimas decadas. Diferentes estudios sugieren la 
incidencia de variables como la razon maestro/alumno, el gasto 
per capita y la formacion docente, entre otros. Sin embargo, se 
ha explorado muy poco la influencia de variables como la 
estructura organizacional, los sistemas de evaluacion, los 
esquemas salariales y los incentivos, entre otros. Este trabajo 
pretende realizar una caracterizacion del desarrollo de estos 
aspectos para cuatro paises de America Latina: Chile, Mexico, 
Peru y Uruguay, en el marco de las reformas educativas 
emprendidas en los noventas. Adicionalmente se presenta un 
analisis de los principales resultados obtenidos hasta el 
momento, discriminados en dos tipos: la evolucion de los 
salarios docentes y el mejoramiento en los resultados academicos 
de los estudiantes.
 
Keywords: Analisis de Educacion
JEL:      I21
Date:     2005-06-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001116&r=all



24. Subsidios cruzados: el caso del sector postal
  
    Luis Fernando Gamboa Nino
    Leslie Bravo Chew

The document seeks to evaluate the existence of cross 
subsidization between the regulated and competitive parts of the 
postal sector. We analyze the incentive to make cross 
subsidization when prices are regulated by Ramsey Pricing or by 
Global Price Cap. By means of a linear demand function, we found 
cross subsidies constrain and distort the liberalization of the 
sector and it is important to avoid them for the competition.
 
Keywords: Postal Sector
JEL:      D42
Date:     2005-05-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001117&r=all



25. Ownership and Control in Colombian Corporations
  
    Carlos Pombo
    Luis H Gutierrez
    Rodrigo Taborda

We study the separation of ownership and control for an average 
of 140 listed non-financial Corporations in Colombia during the 
1996-2002 period. Breaking the sample according to their listing 
status and economic activity, voting rights are greater than cash 
flow rights because of the presence of indirect ownership across 
firms that belong mainly to pyramidal and cross share holdings. 
The study sample also includes an important set of non-affiliated 
firms. Ownership statistics show high concentration for the top-
four largest voting blocks similar to the levels observed in 
continental Europe, although the largest stake has on average 20% 
lower voting rights than the average observed in that region. 
Finally, holding investment and trust funds play a central role 
as the holdings’ ultimate controllers.
 
Keywords: Ownership
JEL:      G32
Date:     2005-05-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001118&r=all



26. MARKET ACCESS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: IMPLICATIONS FOR 
    THE ANDEAN
  
    Ricardo Arguello
    Ernesto Valenzuela

This study contributes to the economic assessment of further 
trade liberalization in the Western Hemisphere over the Andean 
Community member countries. The most significant trade 
liberalization scenarios are identified and simulated by means of 
the standard, constant returns to scale, GTAP model. The main 
results show little coincidence in the direction of welfare 
changes for the Andean countries under the four scenarios 
analyzed. In a very simplified way, further trade liberalization 
brings welfare losses for Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador-Bolivia, 
while Venezuela experiences gains under the implementation of the 
Free Trade Area of the Americas and loses under the 
implementation of Free Trade Agreements of the other Andean 
countries with the U.S. Terms of trade effects play a significant 
role in determining this outcome. In general, they move against 
these economies, with the notorious exception of Venezuela. It 
appears that Andean countries have benefited in the past from 
trade deviation from other regions as they entered into 
preferential trade agreements. With the erosion of preferential 
market access embodied in the scenarios simulated, the increase 
in competition at the import and export levels tend to adjust the 
standing of these countries, bringing in new challenges for them.
 
Keywords: Trade liberalization
JEL:      F13
Date:     2005-06-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001119&r=all



27. Una aproximacion al financiamiento de un sistema de 
    proteccion social en Colombia
  
    Olga Lucia Acosta
    Luis Fernando Gamboa Nino

El documento hace una revision de las principales fuentes de 
proteccion social que hay en Colombia y las caracteristicas de 
los sistemas de proteccion de otros paises. Se encuentra que 
gran parte de lo que se conoce como gasto social se destina al 
tema pensional y que los resultados de los fondos de solidaridad 
son muy pequenos frente a la autoproteccion de los hogares. Se 
propone tener en cuenta los esfuerzos individuales y privados que 
hay en Colombia al disenar un sistema de proteccion social, 
pues de lo contrario se estarian desincentivando estos esfuerzos.
 
Keywords: Proteccion Social
JEL:      H11
Date:     2005-06-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000116:001120&r=all



28. Adjustment of the WACC with Subsidized Debt in the Presence 
    of Corporate Taxes: the N-Period Case
  
    Ignacio Velez-Pareja
    Joseph Tham
    Viviana Fernandez

Abstract: In the standard Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
applied to the free cash flow (FCF), we assume that the cost of 
debt is the market, unsubsidized rate. With debt at the market 
rate and perfect capital markets, debt only creates value in the 
presence of taxes through the tax shield. In some cases, the firm 
may be able to obtain a loan at a rate that is below the market 
rate. In a previous work, we showed how to adjust the WACC in the 
presence of a subsidy and no taxes. There, we showed that 
plugging the lower (subsidized) cost of debt into the WACC 
formula is not the correct approach to measuring the value 
creation due to the subsidy. With subsidized debt and taxes, 
there would be a benefit to debt financing, and the unleveraged 
and leveraged values of the cash flows would be unequal. The 
benefit of lower tax savings are offset by the benefit of the 
subsidy. These two benefits have to be introduced explicitly. How 
would we adjust the WACC to take account of the subsidized debt? 
And how would we adjust the expression for the required return to 
leveraged equity? In this paper, using a multiple period example 
we present the adjustments to the WACC with subsidized debt and 
taxes. We demonstrate the analysis for both the WACC applied to 
the FCF and the WACC applied to the capital cash flow (CCF). We 
use the calculation of the Adjusted Present Value, APV, to 
consider both, the tax savings and the subsidy. We show how all 
the methods match.
 
Keywords: Adjusted Present Value, APV,
JEL:      D61
Date:     2005-03-08
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000135:001133&r=all



29. Consistency in Valuation: A Practical Guide
  
    Ignacio Velez-Pareja
    Antonio Burbano

Abstract: Practitioners and teachers very easily break some 
consistency rules when doing or teaching valuation of assets. In 
this short and simple note we present a practical guide to call 
the attention upon the most frequent broken consistency rules. 
They have to do firstly with the consistency in the matching of 
the cash flows, this is, the free cash flow (FCF), the cash flow 
to debt (CFD), the cash flow to equity (CFE), the capital cash 
flow (CCF) and the tax savings or tax shield (TS). Secondly, they 
have to do with the proper expression for the cost of levered 
equity, Ke and different formulations for the weighted average 
cost of capital, WACC, with finite cash flows and perpetuities. 
Thirdly, they have to do with the consistency between the 
terminal value and growth for the FCF and the terminal value and 
growth for the CFE. And finally, the proper determination of the 
cost of capital either departing from the cost of unlevered 
equity (Ku) or the cost of levered equity (Ke). We illustrate the 
consistency using a simple example. In the Appendixes we show 
some algebraic derivations.
 
Keywords: free cash flow,
JEL:      M21
Date:     2005-05-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000135:001135&r=all



30. Una nota sobre el calculo del valor con endeudamiento 
    constante
  
    Ignacio Velez-Pareja
    Joseph Tham

Es ampliamente conocido que si el endeudamiento es constante en 
el tiempo, entonces el costo del patrimonio, Ke, y el costo 
promedio de capital CPPCFCL tambien es constante. En otras 
palabras, no es correcto usar un CPPCFCL constante para descontar 
el flujo de caja libre FCL, si el endeudamiento cambia en el 
tiempo. Sin embargo, es muy comun, tanto en la practica, como 
en la literatura, encontrar analistas y autores que de manera 
inconsistente usan un CPPCFCL para descontar el FCL aunque el 
endeudamiento no sea constante. En esta nota pedagogica 
utilizamos un ejemplo numerico sencillo para ilustrar como 
modelar los flujos de caja que sean consistentes con ese 
endeudamiento. En el ejemplo se verifica la consistencia con dos 
principios basicos: la conservacion de los flujos de caja y la 
conservacion de los valores.
 
Keywords: CPPC para el Flujo de caja libre
JEL:      D61
Date:     2005-06-28
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000135:001136&r=all



31. Historia monetaria de Colombia en el siglo XX: grandes 
    tendencias y episodios relevantes.
  
    Fabio Sanchez
    Andres Fernandez
    Armando Armenta

El objetivo general de la investigacion es analizar la 
evolucion, determinantes y efectos del dinero a traves del 
siglo XX en Colombia. La investigacion se concentra con mayor 
detalle despues de 1923 ano de la fundacion del Banco de la 
Republica en 1923, pues la informacion es mejor y mas 
abundante. Un ejemplo son las Actas de la Junta Directiva del 
Banco. El trabajo examina las decisiones de politica monetaria 
bajo los distintos arreglos cambiarios e institucionales que tuvo 
el pais: el de Patron Oro, tasa de cambio fija, crawling peg, 
el regimen de bandas cambiarias y de flotacion, estos dos 
ultimos bajo un marco de independencia del Emisor. El analisis 
de la evolucion del crecimiento del dinero durante el siglo XX 
muestra que su principal determinante fue el sector externo y, 
–en menor medida– los desequilibrios del sector publico. En 
adicion a los determinantes mencionados, la politica monetaria 
se utilizo en forma contraciclica. Asi, a pesar de que en el 
largo plazo no existe una relacion sistematica entre el 
crecimiento del dinero y cambios en la actividad real –como si 
con el nivel de precios–, la autoridad si exploto en el corto 
plazo la relacion positiva entre estas dos variables. En forma 
paralela a los movimientos del dinero, el Banco de la Republica 
aumento su presencia institucional y economica ademas de 
mejorar y consolidar sus instrumentos de politica. El documento 
presenta, por una parte, un vision general del los movimientos 
del dinero a lo largo del siglo, y por otro, examina algunos de 
los episodios historicos monetarios relevantes. El analisis 
documenta el proceso de toma de decisiones por parte de la 
autoridad monetaria a partir de las fuentes primarias narrativas 
y de la recopilacion de los indicadores economicos disponibles 
en cada momento historico.
 
Keywords: Politica monetaria
JEL:      N16
Date:     2005-05-15
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001110&r=all



32. El censo nacional de poblacion: una comparacion de 
    metodologias mediante simulaciones de Monte Carlo
  
    Christian Jaramillo
    Ana Maria Ibanez

Bajo una fuerte polemica, Colombia se prepara para aplicar un 
nuevo censo de poblacion. La adopcion de una enumeracion 
continua constituye una de las principales modificaciones y es el 
centro de la polemica suscitada. Numerosas dudas han surgido en 
torno al nuevo diseno y un interrogante particular es la 
efectividad de un censo continuo dado la alta movilidad de la 
poblacion colombiana debido al fenomeno del desplazamiento 
forzado. El objetivo de este articulo es evaluar la exactitud de 
la informacion obtenida y su degradacion, es decir, la perdida 
de exactitud en el conteo de la poblacion colombiana a traves 
el tiempo para los dos tipos de censos: censo tradicional y censo 
continuo. La comparacion, basada en simulaciones de Monte Carlo, 
indica que la diferencia en la exactitud y degradacion de la 
informacion entre los dos tipos de censo, aunque 
estadisticamente significativa, es minima.
 
Keywords: Censo Nacional de Poblacion
JEL:      C15
Date:     2005-05-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001111&r=all



33. Conflicto, estado y descentralizacion: del progreso social 
    a la disputa armada por el control local.1974-2002
  
    Fabio Sanchez
    Mario Chacon

El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar las variables que 
explican la actividad armada de los grupos irregulares desde 
mediados de los anos setenta y establecer las posibles causas de 
expansion hasta el ano 2002, teniendo en cuenta particularmente 
el papel de la descentralizacion entendida coma la mayor 
autonomia politica, presupuestal y administrativa de los 
gobiernos locales. En los ultimos treinta anos el pais 
experimento profundos cambios a nivel economico, social e 
institucional. No solo se consolido el proceso de urbanizacion 
a la vez que disminuyo la participacion del sector agropecuario 
en la produccion nacional sino que se profundizo fuertemente el 
proceso de descentralizacion desde mediados de los anos ochenta.
El presente trabajo sostiene que la descentralizacion traslado 
el conflicto a una disputa por el poder local, lo que se 
manifiesta en el uso de la violencia ya sea para apropiarse de 
los bienes y recursos publicos, para influenciar los resultados 
politicos y electorales de conveniencia para los grupos 
irregulares y/o para consolidar su dominio territorial desde lo 
local. El analisis de la actividad temprana (1974-1982) de los 
grupos guerrilleros muestra que ella esta explicada en mayor 
medida por variables socioeconomicas (pobreza, desigualdad). Sin 
embargo, su evolucion desde mediados de los ochenta esta ligada 
al proceso de descentralizacion el cual creo incentivos a los 
grupos irregulares para el dominio de lo local a traves del uso 
de la violencia. Dada la debilidad del Estado en lo relativo al 
monopolio de la fuerza y a la administracion de justicia, se 
facilito la expansion e intensificacion de la actividad armada 
de los grupos guerrilleros y de las autodefensas ilegales. Los 
distintos resultados estadisticos y econometricos revelan un 
nexo fuerte entre la intensificacion de la accion armada y la 
mayor independencia politica y fortaleza fiscal de los gobiernos 
locales. Esto trabajo conto con nuevos datos historicos sobre 
el conflicto e informacion economica, fiscal, social y 
politica a nivel municipal. Se utilizo la informacion 
recientemente recopilada a nivel municipal por el IEPRI sobre la 
actividad y acciones de armadas de los distintos grupos 
guerrilleros (FARC, ELN. M-19) para el periodo 1974-1982 y las 
bases de datos municipales de la Fundacion Social, Departamento 
Nacional de Planeacion y Presidencia de la Republica sobre 
acciones y ataques de grupos guerrilleros, de autodefensas y de 
delincuentes para el periodo 1985 a 2002.
 
Keywords: Conflicto armado
JEL:      R12
Date:     2005-06-15
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001113&r=all



34. The role of networks in collective action with costly 
    communication.
  
    Christian R. Jaramillo H.

Individuals frequently contribute their resources voluntarily to 
provide public goods. This paper models the manner in which the 
linkage between members in a community influences the likelihood 
of such actions through spontaneous activism in networks. The 
model I use abstracts from the issue of free-riding behavior by 
means of small deviations from standard preferences. Instead, it 
concentrates on the communication aspect of provision through 
collective action. The solution concept is Nash equilibrium. I 
find that the likelihood of efficient provision of a discrete 
public good in random social networks increases very rapidly for 
parameter values where the network experiences a phase transition 
and large-scale decentralized activism becomes feasible. As a 
result, the model shows that successful coordination may be more 
readily achieved the larger the population is, provided its 
members are sufficiently connected. In contrast with previous 
results in the literature, this results holds even as the size of 
the population increases without bound, and it is consistent with 
the existence of largescale activism in large populations.
 
Keywords: Collective Action
JEL:      D70
Date:     2005-06-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001121&r=all



35. Civil conflict and forced migration: the micro determinantes 
    and the welfare losses of displacement in Colombia
  
    Ana Maria Ibanez
    Carlos Eduardo Velez

During the last decade, forced internal displacement in Colombia 
has been a growing phenomenon closely linked to the escalation of 
the internal armed conflict - particularly in rural areas. The 
displacement problem has affected nearly every region and 
vulnerable groups of the population. Two emerging policy 
questions are whether the magnitude of the response to this 
problem has been proportional to its size and to what extent the 
instruments chosen are the most adequate to address it. The 
purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to identify the 
determinants of displacement behavior and to compare these 
findings with standard migration literature. Second, to estimate 
the burden or welfare losses of displacement. Empirical evidence 
shows that the welfare loss of displacement is considerable and 
amount to 37 percent of the net present value of rural lifetime 
aggregate consumption for the average household. This loss is 
estimated for each household with a method that derives welfare 
changes from behavioral model estimates – widely used in 
environmental economics. Our empirical findings also show that 
the level of violence at the origin site is not only the dominant 
factor of displacement behavior, but also that in a violent 
environment other migration determinants have the opposite effect,
relative to the one expected by the migration literature in a 
non-violent context. That is, the violent environment modifies 
the migration incentives for risk aversion, access to information,
the planning horizon, and location-specific assets – human and 
non-human.
 
Keywords: Forced displacement
JEL:      C35
Date:     2005-05-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001122&r=all



36. Politica monetaria y la corte constitucional: el caso del 
    Salario minimo.
  
    Marc Hofstetter

En 1999 la Corte Constitucional determino que los incrementos 
en el salario minimo no debian hacerse por debajo de la 
inflacion pasada. En este articulo exploramos el impacto de 
esta decision sobre la efectividad de la politica monetaria. En 
el marco de un modelo macroeconomico sencillo, se muestra que 
obligar a los agentes a ajustar el salario teniendo en cuenta los 
precios pasados, implica que la politica monetaria tiene un 
mayor efecto sobre la actividad real y genera una persistencia 
mas alta de la inflacion. Estos resultados se cumplen aun bajo 
los supuestos clasicos mas tradicionales: expectativas 
racionales, perfecta credibilidad y ajustes sincronizados de los 
precios.
 
Keywords: Politica monetaria
JEL:      E31
Date:     2005-06-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001123&r=all



37. National, departmental and municipal rural agricultural land 
    distribution in Colombia: analyzing the web of inequality, 
    poverty and violence
  
    Norman Offstein

Recent literature points to a relationship between inequality, 
economic growth and socio-economic variables. In order to 
continue to research the relationship between these factors and 
inequality in Colombia, it is essential to construct a precise 
measure of rural land distribution. This paper presents 
calculations of rural land size and land value Gini coefficients 
for Colombia at the national, departmental and municipal levels 
using approximately 2.5 million registries of plot level data 
supplied by the Instituto Geografico Agustin Codazzi. In 
general, value Ginis, where value controls for land quality and 
improvements, are lower than plot size Ginis, and even after 
meticulous filtration anomalies remain in the data. Additionally, 
the relationship between the Gini coefficients and municipal 
level variables are analyzed to consider the relation between 
inequality, poverty, rurality and other municipal characteristics.
Lastly, earlier results relating Gini to violence are 
reconsidered. After controlling for other factors, distribution 
does not explain significantly violence.
 
Keywords: land Gini
JEL:      D63
Date:     2005-06-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001124&r=all



38. Determinants, effects and costs of domestic violence
  
    Rocio Ribero
    Fabio Sanchez

This paper analyzes the determinants, effects and costs of 
domestic violence (DV) against women and children in Colombia. 
The most relevant factors that explain the occurrence of DV in a 
household are suffering from DV as a child and living with 
someone that frequently and excessively consumes alcohol. DV 
against women increases their probability of unemployment by 6.4 
percentage points, lowers their earnings by approximately 40% and 
worsens their health. DV against children negatively affects 
their health, school attendance and academic attainment. It is 
estimated that at least 4.2% of Colombian GDP is lost due to 
indirect costs of DV.
 
Keywords: Domestic Violence
JEL:      J1
Date:     2005-06-30
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001125&r=all



39. Posibilidades y limitantes de un cambio en la productividad 
    de los sectores colombianos: textiles-confecciones, avicola-
    porcicola, siderurgi
  
    Juan Carlos Echeverry
    Monica Hernandez

Tradicionalmente la productividad en Colombia se ha estudiado a 
partir de metodologias econometricas y rankings internacionales 
basados en encuestas de percepcion. A pesar de que este tipo de 
acercamientos son interesantes y necesarios, finalmente son pocas 
las recomendaciones que se pueden hacer a los sectores 
industriales y al gobierno respecto a la mejor forma de aumentar 
la productividad sectorial. La presente investigacion busca 
proponer una nueva metodologia de estudio de la productividad, 
basado en un trabajo directo con empresarios a traves grupos de 
trabajo (focus groups). La metodologia permite “aterrizar” 
las consideraciones de productividad, identificando no solo los 
puntos debiles y fuertes que cada gremio considera tener, sino 
las fortalezas y amenazas de las que ellos mismos pueden no ser 
conscientes. El principal aporte que brinda el presente estudio 
es que cada sector industrial presenta una dinamica diferente y 
que factores que pueden ser benefactores para un sector, resultan 
ser irrelevantes o incluso perjudiciales para otro. Este tipo de 
consideraciones deben ser tenidas en cuenta en el momento de 
formular estrategias para aumentar la productividad y 
competitividad del pais. Se cuestiona la conveniencia de 
esquemas como las cadenas productivas en sectores en donde la 
materia prima resulta ser el eslabon menos productivo, minando 
la competitividad de los eslabones que se ubican en niveles mas 
altos de la cadena. El impacto de elementos como la geografia, 
la planificacion y consistencia de las politicas sectoriales y 
el tipo de innovacion tecnologica son tratados con enfasis 
sectorial, lo cual revela la riqueza de este tipo de analisis, y 
los riesgos de los analisis con cifras demasiado agregadas que 
desconocen las diferencias entre sectores de la actividad 
productiva.
 
Keywords: Productividad
JEL:      D24
Date:     2005-07-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001126&r=all



40. La prueba de razonabilidad y la estabilidad de las reglas de 
    juego.
  
    Maria Mercedes Cuellar

No deja de sorprender que una persona que se precia de haber 
estado involucrada, desde hace muchos anos, en el ejercicio de 
la economia publica, desde el gobierno, el Banco Central y la 
actividad privada y gremial, como es mi caso, desconociera por 
completo la existencia de “el principio de proporcionalidad”, 
componente de otro concepto denominado “la prueba de 
razonabilidad”. Estos, constituyen una de las herramientas 
conceptuales y teoricas fundamentales del constitucionalismo 
moderno, con particular incidencia en el estudio constitucional 
de normas de alcance economico1. Esta confesion de culpa la 
hago sin mayor pudor, pues tengo la certeza de que mis colegas 
economistas podrian, si quisieran, formular el mismo mea culpa. 
No me sorprenderia si encontrasemos uno o varios casos 
analogos de ignorancia inexcusable entre los abogados. 
Apostaria a que muchos de ellos desconocen la existencia 
siquiera del concepto de “sostenibilidad fiscal” o de 
“funcion de bienestar” y, peor aun, de la relevancia de 
estos conceptos para la aplicacion correcta de la Constitucion. 
El texto se divide en tres partes. La primera explica la prueba 
de razonabilidad. En la segunda se presenta un breve analisis de 
algunas sentencias de la Corte para discernir si ha aplicado 
dicha prueba y cuales han sido los cambios y efectos de la 
jurisprudencia que han generado una reaccion de los economistas. 
Y en la tercera se presentan las conclusiones.
 
Keywords: constitucion
JEL:      A12
Date:     2005-07-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001127&r=all



41. El censo nacional de poblacion: una comparacion de 
    metodologias mediante simulaciones de Monte Carlo
  
    Christian Jaramillo
    Ana Maria Ibanez

Bajo una fuerte polemica, Colombia se prepara para aplicar un 
nuevo censo de poblacion. La adopcion de una enumeracion 
continua constituye una de las principales modificaciones y es el 
centro de la polemica suscitada. Numerosas dudas han surgido en 
torno al nuevo diseno y un interrogante particular es la 
efectividad de un censo continuo dado la alta movilidad de la 
poblacion colombiana debido al fenomeno del desplazamiento 
forzado. El objetivo de este articulo es evaluar la exactitud de 
la informacion obtenida y su degradacion, es decir, la perdida 
de exactitud en el conteo de la poblacion colombiana a traves 
el tiempo para los dos tipos de censos: censo tradicional y censo 
continuo. La comparacion, basada en simulaciones de Monte Carlo, 
indica que la diferencia en la exactitud y degradacion de la 
informacion entre los dos tipos de censo, aunque 
estadisticamente significativa, es minima.
 
Keywords: Censo Nacional de Poblacion
JEL:      C15
Date:     2005-05-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001111&r=all



42. Crisis cambiarias en Colombia bajo tipo de cambio Fijo: 1938-
    1967.
  
    Fabio Sanchez
    Andres Fernandez
    Armando Armenta.

Entre 1938 y 1967, lo cual incluye el periodo de Bretton Woods 
despues de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Colombia fijo su tipo de 
cambio al dolar. A pesar de que el regimen cambiario opero 
bajo el esquema de fijacion del tipo de cambio, el peso fue 
devaluado oficialmente en mas de 12% en seis ocasiones. Los 
episodios de devaluacion fueron complejos, traumaticos, con un 
alto componente politico e implicaron ajustes macroeconomicos 
costosos. El acuerdo de Bretton Woods sostenia que los paises 
podian devaluar sus monedas solo en presencia de desequilibrios 
fundamentales como resultado, por ejemplo, de caidas 
estructurales de sus terminos de intercambio. Sin embargo, este 
trabajo sostiene que los desequilibrios en el mercado monetario 
fueron determinantes en la explicacion de las crisis cambiarias 
durante el periodo de cambio fijo. El ensayo esta organizado en 
tres partes. Primero, se plantea un modelo teorico simple para 
una economia pequena y abierta con movilidad imperfecta de 
capitales en el que se puedan analizar las posibles causas de las 
devaluaciones nominales. En segundo lugar, se emplea un enfoque 
narrativo para describir las circunstancias economicas que 
rodearon cada una de las devaluaciones: asi como la revision de 
evidencia cualitativa de la epoca. Finalmente, se realiza un 
conjunto de ejercicios econometricos para identificar las 
variables determinantes de los desequilibrios macroeconomicos 
que precedieron cada crisis cambiaria. Los resultados muestran 
que los desajustes externos estuvieron primordialmente asociados 
con desequilibrios en el mercado monetario. Los movimientos 
adversos en los terminos de intercambio explican solo una 
pequena porcion de las crisis cambiarias.
 
Keywords: Bretton Woods
JEL:      N16
Date:     2005-06-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001112&r=all



43. Conflicto, estado y descentralizacion: del progreso social 
    a la disputa armada por el control local.1974-2002
  
    Fabio Sanchez
    Mario Chacon

El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar las variables que 
explican la actividad armada de los grupos irregulares desde 
mediados de los anos setenta y establecer las posibles causas de 
expansion hasta el ano 2002, teniendo en cuenta particularmente 
el papel de la descentralizacion entendida coma la mayor 
autonomia politica, presupuestal y administrativa de los 
gobiernos locales. En los ultimos treinta anos el pais 
experimento profundos cambios a nivel economico, social e 
institucional. No solo se consolido el proceso de urbanizacion 
a la vez que disminuyo la participacion del sector agropecuario 
en la produccion nacional sino que se profundizo fuertemente el 
proceso de descentralizacion desde mediados de los anos ochenta.
El presente trabajo sostiene que la descentralizacion traslado 
el conflicto a una disputa por el poder local, lo que se 
manifiesta en el uso de la violencia ya sea para apropiarse de 
los bienes y recursos publicos, para influenciar los resultados 
politicos y electorales de conveniencia para los grupos 
irregulares y/o para consolidar su dominio territorial desde lo 
local. El analisis de la actividad temprana (1974-1982) de los 
grupos guerrilleros muestra que ella esta explicada en mayor 
medida por variables socioeconomicas (pobreza, desigualdad). Sin 
embargo, su evolucion desde mediados de los ochenta esta ligada 
al proceso de descentralizacion el cual creo incentivos a los 
grupos irregulares para el dominio de lo local a traves del uso 
de la violencia. Dada la debilidad del Estado en lo relativo al 
monopolio de la fuerza y a la administracion de justicia, se 
facilito la expansion e intensificacion de la actividad armada 
de los grupos guerrilleros y de las autodefensas ilegales. Los 
distintos resultados estadisticos y econometricos revelan un 
nexo fuerte entre la intensificacion de la accion armada y la 
mayor independencia politica y fortaleza fiscal de los gobiernos 
locales. Esto trabajo conto con nuevos datos historicos sobre 
el conflicto e informacion economica, fiscal, social y 
politica a nivel municipal. Se utilizo la informacion 
recientemente recopilada a nivel municipal por el IEPRI sobre la 
actividad y acciones de armadas de los distintos grupos 
guerrilleros (FARC, ELN. M-19) para el periodo 1974-1982 y las 
bases de datos municipales de la Fundacion Social, Departamento 
Nacional de Planeacion y Presidencia de la Republica sobre 
acciones y ataques de grupos guerrilleros, de autodefensas y de 
delincuentes para el periodo 1985 a 2002.
 
Keywords: Conflicto armado
JEL:      R12
Date:     2005-06-15
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001113&r=all



44. Civil conflict and forced migration: the micro determinantes 
    and the welfare losses of displacement in Colombia
  
    Ana Maria Ibanez
    Carlos Eduardo Velez

During the last decade, forced internal displacement in Colombia 
has been a growing phenomenon closely linked to the escalation of 
the internal armed conflict - particularly in rural areas. The 
displacement problem has affected nearly every region and 
vulnerable groups of the population. Two emerging policy 
questions are whether the magnitude of the response to this 
problem has been proportional to its size and to what extent the 
instruments chosen are the most adequate to address it. The 
purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to identify the 
determinants of displacement behavior and to compare these 
findings with standard migration literature. Second, to estimate 
the burden or welfare losses of displacement. Empirical evidence 
shows that the welfare loss of displacement is considerable and 
amount to 37 percent of the net present value of rural lifetime 
aggregate consumption for the average household. This loss is 
estimated for each household with a method that derives welfare 
changes from behavioral model estimates – widely used in 
environmental economics. Our empirical findings also show that 
the level of violence at the origin site is not only the dominant 
factor of displacement behavior, but also that in a violent 
environment other migration determinants have the opposite effect,
relative to the one expected by the migration literature in a 
non-violent context. That is, the violent environment modifies 
the migration incentives for risk aversion, access to information,
the planning horizon, and location-specific assets – human and 
non-human.
 
Keywords: Forced displacement
JEL:      C35
Date:     2005-05-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001122&r=all



45. National, departmental and municipal rural agricultural land 
    distribution in Colombia: analyzing the web of inequality, 
    poverty and violence
  
    Norman Offstein

Recent literature points to a relationship between inequality, 
economic growth and socio-economic variables. In order to 
continue to research the relationship between these factors and 
inequality in Colombia, it is essential to construct a precise 
measure of rural land distribution. This paper presents 
calculations of rural land size and land value Gini coefficients 
for Colombia at the national, departmental and municipal levels 
using approximately 2.5 million registries of plot level data 
supplied by the Instituto Geografico Agustin Codazzi. In 
general, value Ginis, where value controls for land quality and 
improvements, are lower than plot size Ginis, and even after 
meticulous filtration anomalies remain in the data. Additionally, 
the relationship between the Gini coefficients and municipal 
level variables are analyzed to consider the relation between 
inequality, poverty, rurality and other municipal characteristics.
Lastly, earlier results relating Gini to violence are 
reconsidered. After controlling for other factors, distribution 
does not explain significantly violence.
 
Keywords: land Gini
JEL:      D63
Date:     2005-06-25
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001124&r=all



46. Determinants, effects and costs of domestic violence
  
    Rocio Ribero
    Fabio Sanchez

This paper analyzes the determinants, effects and costs of 
domestic violence (DV) against women and children in Colombia. 
The most relevant factors that explain the occurrence of DV in a 
household are suffering from DV as a child and living with 
someone that frequently and excessively consumes alcohol. DV 
against women increases their probability of unemployment by 6.4 
percentage points, lowers their earnings by approximately 40% and 
worsens their health. DV against children negatively affects 
their health, school attendance and academic attainment. It is 
estimated that at least 4.2% of Colombian GDP is lost due to 
indirect costs of DV.
 
Keywords: Domestic Violence
JEL:      J1
Date:     2005-06-30
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001125&r=all



47. Posibilidades y limitantes de un cambio en la productividad 
    de los sectores colombianos: textiles-confecciones, avicola-
    porcicola, siderurgi
  
    Juan Carlos Echeverry
    Monica Hernandez

Tradicionalmente la productividad en Colombia se ha estudiado a 
partir de metodologias econometricas y rankings internacionales 
basados en encuestas de percepcion. A pesar de que este tipo de 
acercamientos son interesantes y necesarios, finalmente son pocas 
las recomendaciones que se pueden hacer a los sectores 
industriales y al gobierno respecto a la mejor forma de aumentar 
la productividad sectorial. La presente investigacion busca 
proponer una nueva metodologia de estudio de la productividad, 
basado en un trabajo directo con empresarios a traves grupos de 
trabajo (focus groups). La metodologia permite “aterrizar” 
las consideraciones de productividad, identificando no solo los 
puntos debiles y fuertes que cada gremio considera tener, sino 
las fortalezas y amenazas de las que ellos mismos pueden no ser 
conscientes. El principal aporte que brinda el presente estudio 
es que cada sector industrial presenta una dinamica diferente y 
que factores que pueden ser benefactores para un sector, resultan 
ser irrelevantes o incluso perjudiciales para otro. Este tipo de 
consideraciones deben ser tenidas en cuenta en el momento de 
formular estrategias para aumentar la productividad y 
competitividad del pais. Se cuestiona la conveniencia de 
esquemas como las cadenas productivas en sectores en donde la 
materia prima resulta ser el eslabon menos productivo, minando 
la competitividad de los eslabones que se ubican en niveles mas 
altos de la cadena. El impacto de elementos como la geografia, 
la planificacion y consistencia de las politicas sectoriales y 
el tipo de innovacion tecnologica son tratados con enfasis 
sectorial, lo cual revela la riqueza de este tipo de analisis, y 
los riesgos de los analisis con cifras demasiado agregadas que 
desconocen las diferencias entre sectores de la actividad 
productiva.
 
Keywords: Productividad
JEL:      D24
Date:     2005-07-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001126&r=all



48. La prueba de razonabilidad y la estabilidad de las reglas de 
    juego.
  
    Maria Mercedes Cuellar

No deja de sorprender que una persona que se precia de haber 
estado involucrada, desde hace muchos anos, en el ejercicio de 
la economia publica, desde el gobierno, el Banco Central y la 
actividad privada y gremial, como es mi caso, desconociera por 
completo la existencia de “el principio de proporcionalidad”, 
componente de otro concepto denominado “la prueba de 
razonabilidad”. Estos, constituyen una de las herramientas 
conceptuales y teoricas fundamentales del constitucionalismo 
moderno, con particular incidencia en el estudio constitucional 
de normas de alcance economico1. Esta confesion de culpa la 
hago sin mayor pudor, pues tengo la certeza de que mis colegas 
economistas podrian, si quisieran, formular el mismo mea culpa. 
No me sorprenderia si encontrasemos uno o varios casos 
analogos de ignorancia inexcusable entre los abogados. 
Apostaria a que muchos de ellos desconocen la existencia 
siquiera del concepto de “sostenibilidad fiscal” o de 
“funcion de bienestar” y, peor aun, de la relevancia de 
estos conceptos para la aplicacion correcta de la Constitucion. 
El texto se divide en tres partes. La primera explica la prueba 
de razonabilidad. En la segunda se presenta un breve analisis de 
algunas sentencias de la Corte para discernir si ha aplicado 
dicha prueba y cuales han sido los cambios y efectos de la 
jurisprudencia que han generado una reaccion de los economistas. 
Y en la tercera se presentan las conclusiones.
 
Keywords: constitucion
JEL:      A12
Date:     2005-07-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000145:001127&r=all



49. Canales de transmision monetaria: una revision para 
    Colombia
  
    Alexander Correa Ospina

Los canales de transmision monetaria son los mecanismos 
mediante los cuales las acciones de politica monetaria influyen 
sobre las variables macroeconomicas, tales como inflacion y 
produccion. Un claro entendimiento del funcionamiento de estos 
canales es de vital importancia para el diseno de la politica 
monetaria. Los cambios estructurales en la economia pueden 
alterar los efectos economicos de una medida de politica 
monetaria. De igual forma, el contexto institucional y politico 
en el que se implementa determinada politica puede hacer que los 
efectos de esta medida sean diferentes a los deseados. En este 
articulo se analizan estas cuestiones, y a traves de un 
sencillo modelo econometrico se concluye que el banco central de 
Colombia es un banco que da una mayor importancia relativa a la 
volatilidad de la inflacion que a la volatilidad de la 
produccion.
 
Keywords: canales de transmision
JEL:      E52
Date:     2004-09-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000125:001128&r=all



50. Interacciones sociales y productivas: una aproximacion a la 
    teoria de redes
  
    Julian Pineres Ramirez

La presente revision teorica analiza la evolucion de los 
esquemas de interaccion entre los individuos y las 
organizaciones, a partir de los cambios en los contextos 
economicos y las complejidades del mercado —que se entienden 
como la especializacion de la demanda, el creciente cambio del 
desarrollo tecnologico, el aumento de las exigencias normativas 
en los mercados internacionales y las redes globales de 
distribucion, entre otros— y como dichos cambios crean la 
necesidad de plantear estrategias distintas de desarrollo 
industrial, para lo cual se introduce el concepto de redes que al 
analizarse a partir de su naturaleza y tipologia permite 
encontrar en los ambientes economicos cuatro formas de 
interaccion entre las organizaciones y los individuos con el 
proposito de aumentar sus capacidades y por ende su eficiencia y 
competitividad: redes de cadenas de abastecimiento, conglomerados 
industriales, redes de emprendimiento y redes de innovacion. Por 
lo tanto, se denota un cambio en los paradigmas organizacionales 
que hacen cada vez mas importante el desarrollo de sinergias en 
torno a una actividad economica que involucra el conocimiento 
como factor de desarrollo y la innovacion como un proceso 
constante para mantenerse en el libre juego de la oferta y la 
demanda.
 
Keywords: redes sociales
JEL:      D85
Date:     2005-09-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000125:001129&r=all



51. Aproximacion al analisis de politicas publicas 
    nacionales que pueden incidir en la conformacion y 
    consolidacion de iniciativas en ciencia y
  
    Rodrigo Alberto Matta Diaz
    Myriam Sanchez Mejia
    Ana Milena Yoshioka Vargas
    Julian Pineres Ramirez

El desarrollo de estrategias industriales tipo cluster, cadenas 
productivas y redes, y el fomento de la Ciencia, la Tecnologia y 
la Innovacion (CyT + I) para incrementar las capacidades de una 
region basadas en el conocimiento, deben tener una coherencia 
estrategica en el corto, mediano y largo plazo; en los niveles 
macro, meso y microeconomico. En este sentido, las politicas 
publicas juegan un papel predominante, puesto que pueden ser 
facilitadoras de ambientes economicos favorables articulados 
coherentemente o creadoras de obstaculos para inhibir el 
desarrollo de los mismos. El presente trabajo parte entonces de 
la identificacion y analisis de las politicas publicas que 
podrian incidir en la formacion y puesta en marcha de una 
plataforma tecnologica e institucional de apoyo a la 
bioindustria en el Valle del Cauca con el proposito de formar un 
cluster. El articulo resalta, por lo tanto, los resultados 
obtenidos en la investigacion «Fundamentos para el desarrollo 
de politicas publicas y estrategias empresariales dirigidas a 
la formacion social y productiva del Cluster Bioindustrial del 
Occidente Colombiano (CBOC)», tomando como base el diseno de 
una metodologia y su posterior aplicacion, realizando una 
primera aproximacion en este tipo de analisis, orientados al 
desarrollo de clusters basados en el conocimiento y la 
tecnologia (en este caso biotecnologia).
 
Keywords: cluster bioindustrial
JEL:      R58
Date:     2005-09-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000125:001130&r=all



52. Desarrollo economico local y Nuevos Yacimientos de Empleo (
    NYE) para Cali
  
    Luis Fernando Aguado Quintero

Este articulo tiene como objetivo presentar los Nuevos 
Yacimientos de Empleo (NYE), estrategia desarrollada en la Union 
Europea, como opcion para generar empleo a nivel local en 
Santiago de Cali. Los NYE lucen como una opcion adecuada para 
generar empleo en el plano local en grupos de poblacion 
desempleada con caracteristicas particulares tales como jovenes 
pobres en situacion de acceso al primer empleo, jefes de familia 
con secundaria incompleta y madres solteras con restricciones de 
horario. Con mayor razon en el contexto actual, en que la 
politica del Gobierno nacional central esta mas orientada a 
corregir los desequilibrios de flujos y balances, el deficit 
fiscal y la deuda publica.
 
Keywords: creacion de empleo
JEL:      J48
Date:     2005-09-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000125:001131&r=all



53. Mercadeo con causa social: ?Responsabilidad social o 
    estrategia comercial?
  
    Juan Vianey Gomez Jimenez

La necesidad de ser competitivos ha llevado a la gerencia de las 
empresas a buscar diferentes formas o alternativas de alcanzar la 
diferenciacion de sus productos y servicios. Atendiendo a las 
actuales tendencias, las decisiones de diferenciacion han estado 
basadas en lo que los clientes y ciudadanos consideran importante.
Estos, frente a los continuos cambios economicos y sociales al 
igual que ante la continua presencia de desastres naturales y 
infermedades de dificil cura, han evolucionado en su forma de 
pensar y han sentido la necesidad de ser solidarios y 
coparticipes en la solucion de los variados problemas que 
afectan a la poblacion mundial, en especial a la poblacion con 
menos recursos. Junto a este sentir, ha evolucionado la creencia 
de que las empresas son responsables de algunas de las 
situaciones que afectan a la comunidad y que su funcion deberia 
ir por tanto mas alla de la generacion de empleo y la 
elaboracion de productos de buena calidad, papel que la empresa 
debiera atender desde unos objetivos institucionales claros, 
explicitos e integrados en su mision y no a traves de 
campanas de mercadeo hacia lo social que buscan «responder» al 
sentimiento de solidaridad de las personas y que finalmente, 
generan hacia la empresa fidelidad de los clientes y aumento de 
las ventas, pero que dejan a la comunidad sin verdaderas 
soluciones que la eduquen para el desarrollo.
 
Keywords: accion social
JEL:      M14
Date:     2005-09-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000125:001132&r=all



54. Assignment situations with multiple ownership and their games
  
    Miquel,Silvia
    Velzen,Bas van
    Hamers,Herbert
    Norde,Henk (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research)

An assignment situation can be considered as a two-sided market 
consisting of two disjoint sets of objects. A non-negative reward 
matrix describes the profit if an object of one group is assigned 
to an object of the other group. Assuming that each object is 
owned by a different agent, Shapley and Shubik (1972) introduced 
a class of assignment games arising from these assignment 
situations. This paper introduces assignment situations with 
multiple ownership. In these situations each object can be owned 
by several agents and each agent can participate in the ownership 
of more than one object. In this paper we study simple assignment 
games and relaxations that arise from assignment situations with 
multiple ownership. First, necessary and sufficient conditions 
are provided for balanced assignment situations with multiple 
ownership. An assignment situation with multiple ownership is 
balanced if for any choice of the reward matrix the corresponding 
simple assignment game is balanced. Second, balancedness results 
are obtained for relaxations of simple assignment games.
 
JEL:      C71
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200578&r=all



55. Nested maximin Latin hypercube designs in two dimensions
  
    Husslage,B
    Dam,E. van
    Hertog,D. den (Tilburg University, Center for Economic 
      Research)

In black box evaluation and optimization Latin hypercube designs 
play an important role. When dealing with multiple black box 
functions the need often arises to construct designs for all 
black boxes jointly, instead of individually. These so-called 
nested designs consist of two separate designs, one being a 
subset of the other, and are used to deal with linking parameters 
and sequential evaluations. In this paper we construct nested 
maximin designs in two dimensions. We show that different types 
of grids should be considered when constructing nested designs 
and discuss how to determine which grid to use best for a specifc 
computer experiment. In the appendix to this paper maximin 
distances for different numbers of points are provided; the 
corresponding nested maximin designs can be found on the website 
http://www.spacefillingdesigns.nl.
 
JEL:      C90
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:200579&r=all



56. Innovation races: An experimental study on strategic 
    research activities
  
    Uwe Cantner
    Andreas Nicklisch
    Torsten Weiland

In an experimental setting, firms in a duopoly market engage in 
a patent tournament and compete for profit-enhancing product 
advancements. The firms generate income by matching exogenously 
defined demand preferences with an appropriately composed product 
portfolio of their own. Demand preferences are initially unknown 
and first need to be revealed by an investigation of the possible 
product variations. The better firms approximate demand 
preferences, the higher their profits. In the ensuing innovation 
race, firms interact through information spillovers resulting 
from the imperfect appropriability of research successes. In the 
random period of the experiment, the continuity of the search 
process is disturbed by an exogenous shock that affects both the 
supply and demand side and again spurs research competition. 
Firms may henceforth explore an enlarged product space in 
attempting to match the equally modified demand preferences. In 
our analysis, we explore the behavioral regularities of agents 
who are engaged in innovation activities. As a key element we 
test to what extend relative economic performance exercises a 
stimulating effect on the implementation of innovation and 
imitation strategies.
 
Keywords: Innovation, Imitation, Patent Tournament, Trial and 
          Error Process
JEL:      D81 O31
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-14&r=all



57. Causes, consequences, and cures of myopic loss aversion - An 
    experimental investigation
  
    Gerlinde Fellner
    Matthias Sutter

Myopic loss aversion (MLA) has been established as one prominent 
explanation for the equity premium puzzle. In this paper we 
address two issues related to the effects of MLA on risky 
investment decisions. First, we assess the relative impact of 
feedback frequency and investment flexibility (via the investment 
horizon) on risky investments. Second, given that we observe 
higher investments with a longer investment horizon, we examine 
conditions under which investors might endogenously opt for a 
longer investment horizon in order to avoid the negative effects 
of MLA on investments. We find in our experimental study that 
investment flexibility seems to be at least as relevant as 
feedback frequency for the effects of myopic loss aversion. When 
subjects are given the choice to opt for a long or short 
investment horizon, there is no clear preference for either. Yet, 
if subjects face a default horizon (either long or short), there 
is rather little switching from the one to the other horizon, 
showing that a default might work to attenuate the effects of MLA.
However, /if/ subjects switch, they are more often willing to 
switch from the long to the short horizon than vice versa, 
suggesting a preference for higher investment flexibility.
 
Keywords: loss aversion, risk, investment, experiment
JEL:      C91 D80 G11
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-15&r=all



58. Economics research in Canada: A long-run assessment of 
    journal publications
  
    James B. Davies
    Matthias Sutter
    Martin G. Kocher

We examine the publications of authors affiliated with an 
economics research institution in Canada in (i) the Top-10 
journals in economics according to journals' impact factors, and (
ii) the /Canadian Journal of Economics/. We consider all 
publications in the even years from 1980 to 2000. Canadian 
economists contributed about 5% of publications in the Top-10 
journals and about 55% of publications in the /Canadian Journal 
of Economics /over this period. We identify the most active 
research centres and identify trends in their relative outputs 
over time. Those research centres successful in publishing in the 
Top-10 journals are found to also dominate the /Canadian Journal 
of Economics/. Additionally, we present data on authors' Ph.D.-
origin, thereby indicating output and its concentration in 
graduate education.
 
Keywords: research in economics, Canadian economics, top journals
JEL:      A11 A14
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-16&r=all



59. Leading by example in a public goods experiment with 
    heterogeneity and incomplete information
  
    M. Vittoria Levati
    Matthias Sutter
    Eline van der Heijden

We study the effects of leadership on the private provision of a 
public good when group members are heterogeneously endowed. 
Leadership is implemented as a sequential public goods game where 
one group member contributes first and all the others follow. Our 
results show that the presence of a leader increases average 
contribution levels, but less so than in case of homogeneous 
endowments. Leadership is almost ineffective, though, if subjects 
do not know the distribution of endowments. Granting the leaders 
exclusion power does not lead to significantly higher 
contributions.
 
Keywords: public goods experiment, leadership, exclusion, 
          heterogeneous endowments, incomplete information
JEL:      C72 C92 H41
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-17&r=all



60. Commitment and Observability in an Economic Environment
  
    V. Bhaskar

Bagwell (1995) argues that commitment in undermined by the 
slightest imperfectness in observation. Guth, Ritzberger & 
Kirchsteiger (1998) question this assertion: for any finite 
leader-follower game, with arbitrary many players in each role 
and generic payoffs, they show that there always exists a subgame 
perfect equilibrium outcome that is accessible, i.e. it can be 
approximated by the outcome of a mixed equilibrium of the game 
with imperfect observation. We show that accessibility fails in a 
class of games played in economic environments, where the payoffs 
to commitment actions depend upon prices set by other agents, 
prices being chosen from a continuum. Accessibility requires 
either that commitment is not required or that the price setting 
agents have no monopoly power. Our result follows from a 
generalized indifference principle which mixed strategies must 
satisfy in such economic environments.
 
Date:     2005-07-17
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:596&r=all



61. Decentralization and the Productive Efficiency of Government:
    Evidence from Swiss Cantons
  
    Iwan Barankay
    Ben Lockwood

Advocates of fiscal decentralization argue that amongst other 
benefits, it can increase the productive efficiency of delivery 
of government services. This paper is one of the first to 
evaluate this claim empirically by looking at the association 
between expenditure decentralization and the productive 
efficiency of government using a data-set of Swiss cantons. We 
first provide careful evidence that expenditure decentralization 
is a powerful proxy for factual local autonomy. Further panel 
regressions of Swiss cantons provide robust evidence that more 
decentralization is associated with higher educational attainment.
We also show that these gains lead to no adverse effects across 
education types but that male students benefited more from 
educational decentralization closing, for the Swiss case, the 
gender education gap. Finally, we present evidence of the 
importance of competence in government and how it can reinforce 
the gains from decentralization.
 
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:597&r=all



62. Do Countries Free Ride on MFN?
  
    Rodney Ludema (Georgetown University)and Anna Maria Mayda (
      Georgetown University and CEPR) (Department of Economics, 
      Georgetown University)

The Most-Favored Nation (MFN) clause has long been suspected of 
creating a free rider problem in multilateral trade negotiations. 
To address this issue, we model multilateral negotiations as a 
mechanism design problem with voluntary participation. We show 
that an optimal mechanism induces only the largest exporters to 
participate in negotiations over any product, thus providing a 
rationalization for the Principal supplier rule. We also show 
that, through this channel, equilibrium tariffs vary according to 
the Herfindahl index of export shares: higher concentration in a 
sector reduces free riding and thus causes a lower tariff. 
Estimation of our model using sector-level tariff data for the U.
S. provides strong support for this relationship. Classification-
JEL Codes: F13, D7
 
Keywords: Most-Favored Nation (MFN) clause, free riding, 
          Principal supplier rule
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~05-05-13&r=all



63. The link between the diversity of productive models and the 
    variety of capitalisms
  
    Yannick LUNG (E3i, IFReDE-GRES & GERPISA)

Prepared within the framework of the ESEMK project supported by 
the EU (FP6, Priority 7, CIT-CT-2004-506077 The European Socio-
Economic Models of a Knowledge-based society), this paper 
discusses the linking between the variety of capitalism and the 
diversity of organisational forms for firms. This linking is 
illustrated through the case of the car industry. First part 
presents the works based on the hypothesis of an institutional 
isomorphism between the macro-level and the organisation. Second 
part tries to link analytical grids which integrate the diversity 
of institutional forms at the macro, meso and micro-levels.
 
Keywords: car industry, institution, institutional isomorphism, 
          organisation of the firm, productive models, sector, 
          variety of capitalism
JEL:      B52 L20 L62 P50
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2005-17&r=all



64. Relative Market Share, Leadership and Competition in 
    Concentrated Banking Markets.
  
    Arie Melnik
    Oz Shy
    Rune Stenbacka

For many years IO economists devoted attention to the size 
distributions’ of firms in a given industry. Most studies 
showed that the size distribution of firms in oligopolistic 
markets is highly skewed. There are many small firms and a few 
large firms. There is also a consensus that relative market 
shares are important and that large firms are, in general, more 
profitable and durable than small firms. Relative size is also 
important as a determinant of the structure of the industry. The 
concept is also central in strategic analysis of business firms 
and in the formulation of government (regulatory) policy. In this 
paper we propose to use an empirical measure of market leadership.
The measure relies on the assumption that the degree of 
competition critically depends on how dominant the leading firm 
is in a given industry. The measure also takes into account the 
number of “significant” competitors in the market and how 
close they are to the leading firm in terms of size. The measure 
is simple to use and easy to interpret. It also yields a critical 
value that facilitates comparisons between different markets.
 
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:14-2005&r=all



65. How Interest Groups with Limited Resources can Influence 
    Political Outcomes: Information Control and the Landless 
    Peasant Movement in Brazil.
  
    Lee J. Alston
    Gary D. Libecap
    Bernardo Mueller

In this paper we examine how an interest group with limited 
resources (votes and campaign contributions) nevertheless 
effectively influenced political policy through the control of 
information to general voters. Voters in turn lobbied politicians 
to take actions desired by the interest group. Our focus is on 
the Landless Peasants Movement (Movimento Sem-Terra) or MST and 
its success in invigorating land reform in Brazil. Although we 
direct attention to the MST, our analysis can be generalized to 
interest group behavior in other settings.
 
Keywords: Landless Peasant Movement; MST; Interest groups; 
          multiprincipal; multitask; land reform.
JEL:      D23 D72 D78
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:15-2005&r=all



66. Chinatown: Transaction Costs in Water Rights Exchanges. The 
    Owens Valley Transfer to Los Angeles.
  
    Gary D. Libecap

I re-examine the notorious Owens Valley water transfer to Los 
Angeles, which is a pivotal episode in the political economy of 
contemporary western water allocation. Negotiated between 1905 
and 1935, it remains one of the largest voluntary water sales in 
U.S. history. It made the growth of semi-arid Los Angeles 
possible, increasing the city’s water supply by over 4 times. 
Water rights were bundled with the land so that the Los Angeles 
Water Board had to purchase nearly 1,000 small farms. The 
negotiations between property owners and the agency were 
complicated. There often were lengthy disputes over farm 
characteristics, amounts of water conveyed, and valuation of both 
land and water. Bilateral monopoly emerged between sellers’ 
pools and the Board. During bargaining impasses, the aqueduct was 
periodically dynamited. Today, the outcome of the Owens Valley 
water exchange is viewed as very one sided--one of “theft” by 
Los Angeles. As such, it discourages contemporary transfers of 
water from agricultural to urban areas. Using new qualitative and 
quantitative evidence, especially for 1924-34, when most water-
bearing land was purchased, I examine the sources of bargaining 
conflicts, the timing of sales, the distribution of the gains 
from trade, and offer a new assessment of the results of the 
transfer. Implications for current water rights negotiations are 
drawn.
 
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:16-2005&r=all



67. The Common Agricultural Policy and the greenhouse gases 
    emissions.
  
    Fernando Brito Soares
    Roberto Ronco

The evolution of greenhouse gases emissions in the EU-15 
countries is accessed. While the absolute level of emissions 
turns out to be declining in the last thirty years in EU-15 
Member States, emissions per output tend to rise. A relationship 
between the adoption of the Common Agricultural policy and the 
emissions level can be detected for Spain, Austria, Finland and 
Sweden.
 
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:icr:wpicer:17-2005&r=all



68. Format Choice of Food and Grocery Retailers
  
    Sinha Piyush Kumar
    Mathew Elizabeth
    Kansal Ankur

Format choice is recognized as a cognitive process. Like any 
other purchasing decision format choice also is an information 
processing behavior. A store is chosen based on the confidence 
that the customer has regarding the store; about the nature and 
quality of product and service he will receive. In Indian 
scenario formats have been found to be influencing the choice of 
store as well as orientation of the shoppers (Sinha and Uniyal, 
2005). This study seeks to analyze the various factors 
influencing decision making process of customers in choosing a 
store format. A full-profile* procedure was used for the Conjoint 
Analysis in this study. The exploratory study brought out five 
different formats that existed in the food and grocery sector. 
With this it also identified combinations of the seven parameters 
have given rise to some generic retail formats. It also helped 
identifying the important factor set which affects consumer 
format choice decisions. The findings also provide details useful 
for retailers in designing an efficient retail package to offer 
their customers. * Full-profile conjoint analysis has been a 
popular approach to measure attribute utilities. In the full-
profile conjoint task, different product descriptions (or even 
different actual products) are developed and presented to the 
respondent for acceptability or preference evaluations. Each 
product profile is designed as part of a fractional factorial 
experimental design that evenly matches the occurrence of each 
attribute with all other attributes. By controlling the attribute 
pairings, the researcher can estimate the respondent’s utility 
for each level of each attribute tested.
 
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2005-07-04&r=all



69. Rice Consumption in the United States: New Evidence from 
    Food Consumption Surveys
  
    Batres-Marquez, S. Patricia
    Jensen, Helen H.

Evidence from recent U.S. food consumption surveys provides new 
information on the distribution of rice consumption, the 
characteristics of rice consumers, and the diets of people who 
consume rice. Recently available data from nationally 
representative surveys of food consumed by individuals in the 
United States allowed comparison of consumption today (2001-02) 
with consumption in the mid-1990s. Data come from the Continuing 
Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (1994-96) and the National 
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-02). Rice is 
consumed by a significant portion of the U.S. adult population. 
In 2001-02, over 18 percent (18.2 percent) of adults reported 
eating at least half a serving of white or brown rice in one day 
of observed intake. This share was slightly higher than that of 
1994-96 (17.4 percent). Compared with others, individuals who 
consumed at least half a serving of white or brown rice in the 
observed day of intake consumed a smaller share of calories per 
day from fat and saturated fat; less discretionary fat or added 
sugar; and more fiber, dietary folate, fruit, vegetables, and 
enriched grains. Consumers eating rice were more likely to eat a 
diet that included choices of foods consistent with the 2005 U.S. 
Dietary Guidelines.
 
Keywords: dietary guidelines, rice consumption.
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12398&r=all



70. Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation
  
    Flavio Cunha (University of Chicago)
    James J. Heckman (University of Chicago, University College 
      London, American Bar Foundation and IZA Bonn)
    Lance Lochner (University of Western Ontario)
    Dimitriy V. Masterov (University of Chicago)

This paper presents economic models of child development that 
capture the essence of recent findings from the empirical 
literature on skill formation. The goal of this essay is to 
provide a theoretical framework for interpreting the evidence 
from a vast empirical literature, for guiding the next generation 
of empirical studies, and for formulating policy. Central to our 
analysis is the concept that childhood has more than one stage. 
We formalize the concepts of self-productivity and 
complementarity of human capital investments and use them to 
explain the evidence on skill formation. Together, they explain 
why skill begets skill through a multiplier process. Skill 
formation is a life cycle process. It starts in the womb and goes 
on throughout life. Families play a role in this process that is 
far more important than the role of schools. There are multiple 
skills and multiple abilities that are important for adult 
success. Abilities are both inherited and created, and the 
traditional debate about nature versus nurture is scientifically 
obsolete. Human capital investment exhibits both self-
productivity and complementarity. Skill attainment at one stage 
of the life cycle raises skill attainment at later stages of the 
life cycle (self-productivity). Early investment facilitates the 
productivity of later investment (complementarity). Early 
investments are not productive if they are not followed up by 
later investments (another aspect of complementarity). This 
complementarity explains why there is no equity-efficiency trade-
off for early investment. The returns to investing early in the 
life cycle are high. Remediation of inadequate early investments 
is difficult and very costly as a consequence of both self-
productivity and complementarity.
 
Keywords: skill formation, education, government policy, 
          educational finance
JEL:      J31 I21 I22 I28
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1675&r=all



71. Should the U.S. Have Locked the Heaven’s Door? Reassessing 
    the Benefits of the Postwar Immigration
  
    Xavier Chojnicki (MEDEE, University of Lille 1 and CEPII)
    Frederic Docquier (CADRE, University of Lille 2, World 
      Bank and IZA Bonn)
    Lionel Ragot (MEDEE, University of Lille 1 and EUREQua, 
      University of Paris 1)

This paper examines the economic impact of the second great 
immigration wave (1945- 2000) on the US economy. Contrary to 
recent studies, we estimate that immigration induced important 
net gains and small redistributive effects among natives. Our 
analysis relies on a computable general equilibrium model 
combining the major interactions between immigrants and natives (
labor market impact, fiscal impact, capital deepening, endogenous 
education, endogenous inequality). We use a backsolving method to 
calibrate the model on historical data and then consider two 
counterfactual variants: a cutoff of all immigration flows since 
1950 and a stronger selection policy. According to our 
simulations, the postwar US immigration is beneficial for all 
cohorts and all skill groups. These gains are closely related to 
a long-run fiscal gain and a small labor market impact of 
immigrants. Finally, we also demonstrate that all generations 
would have benefited from a stronger selection of immigrants.
 
Keywords: immigration, inequality, welfare, computable general 
          equilibrium
JEL:      J61 I3 D58
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1676&r=all



72. The Determinants of the Prevalence of Single Mothers: A 
    Cross-Country Analysis
  
    Libertad Gonzalez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and IZA Bonn)

This paper examines the effect of public assistance, labor 
market and marriage market conditions on the prevalence of single 
mother families across countries and over time. A multinomial 
logit derived from a random utility approach is estimated using 
individual-level data for 14 countries. I find evidence that 
increases in the level of public support are significantly and 
positively associated with a higher incidence of both never 
married and divorced mothers. The results also suggest that 
single mothers are more prevalent when female wages are lower. 
Higher male earnings and employment opportunities in a woman’s 
marriage market appear to lead to fewer never married mothers, 
but more divorced mothers. Higher child support or alimony 
payments are associated with a higher prevalence of divorced 
mothers.
 
Keywords: single mothers, marriage, fertility, welfare benefits, 
          marriage markets
JEL:      J12 J13 I38
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1677&r=all



73. Optimum Income Taxation and Layoff Taxes
  
    Pierre Cahuc (CREST-INSEE, University of Paris 1, CEPR and 
      IZA Bonn)
    Andre Zylberberg (EUREQua, University of Paris 1 and CNRS)

This paper analyzes optimum income taxation in a model with 
endogenous job destruction that gives rise to unemployment. It is 
shown that optimal tax schemes comprise both payroll and layoff 
taxes when the state provides public unemployment insurance and 
aims at redistributing income. The optimal layoff tax is equal to 
the social cost of job destruction, which amounts to the 
discounted value of the sum of unemployment benefits (that the 
state pays to unemployed workers) and payroll taxes (that the 
state does not get when workers are unemployed). Our quantitative 
analysis suggests that the introduction of layoff taxes, that are 
usually absent from actual tax schemes, could lead to significant 
increases in employment and GDP.
 
Keywords: layoff taxes, optimal taxation, job destruction
JEL:      H21 H32 J38 J65
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1678&r=all



74. The Perverse Effects of Partial Employment Protection Reform:
    Experience Rating and French Older Workers
  
    Luc Behaghel (LEA-INRA)
    Bruno Crepon (CREST-INSEE and IZA Bonn)
    Beatrice Sedillot (DARES)

French firms laying off workers aged 50 and above have to pay a 
tax to the unemployment insurance system, known as the Delalande 
tax. This is an original case of experience rating in the 
European context, restricted to older workers, whose employment 
prospects are particularly bad. We evaluate its impact on layoff (
firing) as well as on hiring, taking advantage of several changes 
in the measure since its introduction in 1987. We find 
particularly strong evidence of an adverse effect of the tax on 
the firms’ propensity to hire older workers, thanks to a 
legislative change in 1992, when workers hired after the age of 
50 stopped being liable for the tax. Chances to find a job 
increased significantly for unemployed workers older than 50, 
compared to workers just below 50 who remained liable for the tax.
We estimate that before 1992, the tax reduced the probability 
that an unemployed worker aged 50 find a job by as much as 25%. 
Evidence on the effect on layoffs is less clear cut. The impact 
is sizeable only for the most stringent tax schedule, after 1998, 
but it is also imprecisely estimated.
 
Keywords: experience rating, employment protection, older 
          workers, firing, hiring
JEL:      J23 J63 J65
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1679&r=all



75. The Economics of Workaholism: We Should Not Have Worked on 
    This Paper
  
    Daniel S. Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin, NBER and 
      IZA Bonn)
    Joel Slemrod (University of Michigan and NBER)

A large literature examines the addictive properties of such 
behaviors as smoking, drinking alcohol and eating. We argue that 
for some people addictive behavior may apply to a much more 
central aspect of economic life: working. Workaholism is subject 
to the same concerns about the individual as other addictions, is 
more likely to be a problem of higher-income individuals, and can,
under conditions of jointness in the workplace or the household, 
generate negative spillovers onto individuals around the 
workaholic. Using the Retirement History Survey and the Panel 
Study of Income Dynamics, we find evidence that is consistent 
with the idea that high-income, highly educated people suffer 
from workaholism with regard to retiring, in that they are more 
likely to postpone earlier plans for retirement. The theory and 
evidence suggest that optimal policy involves a more progressive 
tax system than in the absence of workaholism.
 
Keywords: addiction, retirement, labor supply, tax policy
JEL:      J26 H21
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1680&r=all



76. Labour Market Institutions and the Personal Distribution of 
    Income in the OECD
  
    Daniele Checchi (University of Milan and IZA Bonn)
    Cecilia Garcia Penalosa (CNRS and GREQAM)

We examine what determines differences across countries and over 
time in the distribution of personal incomes in the OECD. We 
first model the wage determination process and show that 
unemployment, the labour share, and the wage differential are all 
functions of labour market institutions. Next we show that in a 
model economy with only four types of agents - capitalists, 
skilled and unskilled workers, and unemployed - the Gini 
coefficient of personal incomes can be expressed as a function of 
the above three variables. Labour market institutions hence 
affect income inequality, though the sign of their impact is 
ambiguous. Stronger unions and/or a more generous unemployment 
benefit tend to reduce inequality through reduced wage 
differentials, a higher labour share, and also higher 
unemployment. We then use a panel of OECD countries for the 
period 1970-96 to examine these effects. We find, first, that the 
labour share remains an important aspect of overall inequality 
patterns, and, second, that stronger unions and a more generous 
unemployment benefit tend to reduce income inequality. High 
capital-labour ratios also emerge as a strong equalising factor, 
which has in part offset the impact of increasing wage inequality 
on the US distribution of personal incomes.
 
Keywords: income inequality, labour share, trade unions
JEL:      D31 D33
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1681&r=all



77. Friendship Relations in the School Class and Adult Economic 
    Attainment
  
    Andrea Galeotti (California Institute of Technology and 
      University of Essex)
    Gerrit Mueller (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen 
      Institute and IZA Bonn)

We analyze the impact of adolescents’ friendship relations in 
their final-year class of high school on subsequent labor market 
success. Based on a typology of network positions we locate each 
student within the social system of the school class as either: 
an isolate, a sycophant, a broker or a receiver. These positions 
identify individuals’ social standing within the group of 
classmates and proxy for their interpersonal behavior and social 
competencies. We offer empirical evidence that differential 
social standing in adolescence predicts large and persistent 
earnings disparities over the entire life course. The estimated 
wage premia and penalties do not appear to be substantially 
confounded by measures of family and school resources, and 
materialize largely independent of differences in cognitive 
abilities, grade rank in class, personality traits or friends’ 
characteristics. A moderate share of the earnings inequalities is 
mediated by differential post-secondary human and social capital 
investment. From a conceptual point of view, we contribute an 
application of egocentered network methods within conventional 
labor economic survey research.
 
Keywords: friendship ties, social capital, earnings
JEL:      A14 I21 J31
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1682&r=all



78. The Roots of Low European Employment: Family Culture?
  
    Yann Algan (Universite Marne la Vallee, CEPREMAP, OEP and 
      IZA Bonn)
    Pierre Cahuc (University of Paris 1, CREST-INSEE, CEPR and 
      IZA Bonn)

OECD countries faced largely divergent employment rates during 
the last decades. But the whole bulk of the cross-national and 
cross-temporal heterogeneity relies on specific demographic 
groups: prime-age women and younger and older individuals. This 
paper argues that family labor supply interactions and cross-
country heterogeneity in family culture are key for explaining 
these stylized facts. First we provide a simple labor supply 
model in which heterogeneity in family preferences can account 
for cross-country variations in both the level and the dynamics 
of employment rates of demographic groups. Second, we provide 
evidence based on international individual surveys that family 
attitudes do differ across countries and are largely shaped by 
national features. We also document that cross-country 
differences in family culture cause cross-national differences in 
family attitudes. Studying the correlation between employment 
rates and family attitudes, we then show that the stronger 
preferences for family activities in European countries may 
explain both their lower female employment rate and the fall in 
the employment rates of young and older people.
 
Keywords: employment rate, culture, family attitudes
JEL:      J21 J22 Z13
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1683&r=all



79. The Curse and Blessing of Training the Unemployed in a 
    Changing Economy: The Case of East Germany After Unification
  
    Michael Lechner (SIAW, University of St. Gallen, CEPR, ZEW, 
      PSI and IZA Bonn)
    Ruth Miquel (SIAW, University of St. Gallen)
    Conny Wunsch (SIAW, University of St. Gallen)

We analyse the effects of government-sponsored training for the 
unemployed conducted during East German transition. For the 
microeconometric analysis, we use a new, large and informative 
administrative database that allows us to use matching methods to 
reduce potential selection bias, to study different types of 
programmes, and to observe interesting labour market outcomes 
over 8 years. We find that, generally, all training programmes 
under investigation increase long-term employment prospects and 
earnings. However, as an important exception, the longer training 
programmes are on average not helpful for their male participants.
At least part of the explanation for this negative result is 
that caseworkers severely misjudged the structure of the future 
demand for skills.
 
Keywords: active labour market policy, nonparametric 
          identification, matching estimation, causal effects, 
          programme evaluation, panel data, gender differences
JEL:      J68
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1684&r=all



80. Price Volatility and Banking in Green Certificate Markets
  
    Eirik S. Amundsen (Department of Economics, University of 
      Bergen)
    Fridrik M. Baldursson (Department of Economics, University 
      of Iceland)
    Jorgen Birk Mortensen (Institute of Economics, University 
      of Copenhagen)

There is concern that prices in a market for Green Certificates (
GCs) primarily based on volatile wind power will fluctuate 
excessively, leading to corresponding volatility of electricity 
prices. Applying a rational expectations simulation model of 
competitive storage and speculation of GCs the paper shows that 
the introduction of banking of GCs may reduce price volatility 
considerably and lead to increased social surplus. Banking lowers 
average prices and is therefore not necessarily to the benefit of 
“green producers”. Proposed price bounds on GC-prices will 
reduce the importance of banking and even of the GC system itself.
 
Keywords: electricity; environment; commodity speculation; green 
          certificates; marketable permits; uncertainty
JEL:      Q28 Q42 Q48
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0508&r=all



81. Nouvelles Technologies et Nouvelles Formes d'Organisation du 
    Travail : Quelles consequences pour l'emploi des salaries 
    ages ?
  
    Aubert Patrick
    Caroli Eve
    Roger Muriel

This paper investigates the relationships between new 
technologies, innovative workplace practices and the age 
structure of the workforce in a static labour demand framework. 
As a first step, we assume that, in the short run, the only 
variable factor is the number of workers in different age groups. 
We then assume, as a second step that the number of workers by 
age and skill group may vary. The data we use come from several 
sources: the Changements Organisationnels et Informatisation 
survey (COI); the Declarations Annuelles des Donnees Sociales (
DADS) and the Benefices Reels Normaux database (BRN). We find 
evidence that the wage-bill share of older workers is lower in 
innovative firms. This age bias affects is also evidenced within 
occupational groups, thus suggesting that skills do not 
completely protect workers against the labour-market consequences 
of ageing..
 
Keywords: new work practices, technology, older workers, labour 
          demand
JEL:      J23 L23 O33
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lea:leawpi:0506&r=all



82. Merger Policy to Promote Global Players? A Simple Model
  
    Haufler, Andreas
    Nielsen, Soren Bo

We use a simple framework where firms in two countries serve 
their respective domestic markets and a world market to analyze 
under which conditions cost-reducing mergers will be beneficial 
for the merging firms, the home country, and the world as a whole.
For a national merger, the policies enacted by a national merger 
authority tend to be overly restrictive from a global efficiency 
perspective. In contrast, all international mergers that benefit 
the merging firms will be cleared by either a national or a 
regional regulator, and this laissez-faire approach is also 
globally efficient. Finally, we derive the properties of the 
endogenous merger equilibrium.
 
JEL:      H77 F13 L41
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:666&r=all



83. Fairness, Adverse Selection, and Employment Contracts
  
    von Siemens, Ferdinand

This paper considers a firm whose potential employees have 
private information on both their productivity and the extent of 
their fairness concerns. Fairness is modelled as inequity 
aversion, where fair-minded workers suffer if their colleagues 
get more income net of production costs. Screening workers with 
equal productivity but different fairness concerns is shown to be 
impossible if both types are to be employed, thereby rendering 
the optimal employment contracts discontinuous in the fraction of 
fair-minded workers. As a result, fairness might infuence the 
employment contracts of all workers although only some are fair-
minded, and identical firms facing very similar pools of workers 
might employ very different remuneration schemes.
 
JEL:      J31 D82 D63 D42 D21 C70
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:669&r=all



84. Parameter Estimation in Semi-Linear Models Using a Maximal 
    Invariant Likelihood Function
  
    Jahar L. Bhowmik
    Maxwell L. King

In this paper, we consider the problem of estimation of semi-
linear regression models. Using invariance arguments, Bhowmik and 
King (2001) have derived the probability density functions of the 
maximal invariant statistic for the nonlinear component of these 
models. Using these density functions as likelihood functions 
allows us to estimate these models in a two-step process. First 
the nonlinear component parameters are estimated by maximising 
the maximal invariant likelihood function. Then the nonlinear 
component, with the parameter values replaced by estimates, is 
treated as a regressor and ordinary least squares is used to 
estimate the remaining parameters. We report the results of a 
simulation study conducted to compare the accuracy of this 
approach with full maximum likelihood estimation. We find 
maximising the maximal invariant likelihood function typically 
results in less biased and lower variance estimates than those 
from full maximum likelihood.
 
Keywords: Maximum likelihood estimation, nonlinear modelling, 
          simulation experiment, two-step estimation.
JEL:      C2 C12
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msh:ebswps:2005-18&r=all



85. Deriving Tests of the Semi-Linear Regression Model Using the 
    Density Function of a Maximal Invariant
  
    Jahar L. Bhowmik
    Maxwell L. King

In the context of a general regression model in which some 
regression coefficients are of interest and others are purely 
nuisance parameters, we derive the density function of a maximal 
invariant statistic with the aim of testing for the inclusion of 
regressors (either linear or non-linear) in linear or semi-linear 
models. This allows the construction of the locally best 
invariant test, which in two important cases is equivalent to the 
one-sided t-test for a regression coefficient in an artificial 
linear regression model.
 
Keywords: Invariance; linear regression model; locally best 
          invariant test; non-linear regression model; nuisance 
          parameters; t-test.
JEL:      C2 C12
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msh:ebswps:2005-19&r=all



86. Relative Price Volatility Under Sudden Stops: The Relevance 
    of Balance Sheet Effects
  
    Guillermo A. Calvo
    Alejandro Izquierdo
    Rudy Loo-Kung

Sudden Stops are associated with increased volatility in 
relative prices. We introduce a model based on information 
acquisition to rationalize this increased volatility. An 
empirical analysis of the conditional variance of the wholesale 
price to consumer price ratio using panel ARCH techniques 
confirms the relevance of Sudden Stops and potential balance-
sheet effects as key determinants of relative-price volatility, 
where balance-sheet effects are captured by the interaction of a 
proxy for potential changes in the real exchange rate (linked to 
the degree of external leverage of the absorption of tradable 
goods) and a measure of domestic liability dollarization.
 
JEL:      F31 F32 F34 F41
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11492&r=all



87. Searching, Matching and Education: a Note
  
    Joao Cerejeira Silva (Universidade do Minho - NIPE) (
      European University Institute)

In this paper the individual optimal level of education is set 
in a frictional labor market, where matching is not perfect. Also 
search frictions are a function of the average education can 
improve economic efficiency, not only through improvements in 
workers productivity, but also making the matching process more 
efficient, and thus reducing the unemployment level.
 
Keywords: Education, Externalities, Search, Matching, 
          Unemployment.
JEL:      I21 J41 J64
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:11/2005&r=all



88. Trade Policy Reforms and the Structure of Protection in 
    Vietnam
  
    Prema-chandra Athukorala

This paper examines the current state of the trade policy regime 
in Vietnam against the backdrop of market-oriented policy reforms 
undertaken over the past one-and-a-half decades. The core of the 
paper is an in-depth analysis of the structure of protection, 
focussing on both incentives for import-competing production the 
bias in the incentive structure against export production 
compared to import-competing production. It is found that, 
despite notable reform efforts, the structure of protection in 
Vietnam is still out of line with that of the major trading 
nations in the region, in terms of the level and the inter-
industry dispersion of nominal and effective protection rates. 
There is a clear ani-export bias in the incentive structure, even 
though the degree of the bias has considerably declined over the 
years. There is no evidence to justify the existing protection 
structure on grounds of infant industry protection or employment 
generation.
 
Keywords: Length (pages): 45
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2005-06&r=all



89. Production Fragmentation and Trade Integration: East Asia in 
    a Global Context
  
    Prema-chandra Athukorala
    Nobuaki Yamashita

This paper examines the implications of international production 
fragmentation for analysing global and regional trade patterns, 
with special emphasis on countries in East Asia. It is found that,
while 'fragmentation trade' has generally grown faster than 
total world manufacturing trade, the degree of dependence of East 
Asia on this new form of international specialisation is 
proportionately larger compared to North America and Europe. 
International production fragmentation has certainly played a 
pivotal role in continuing dynamism of the East Asian economies 
and increasing intra-regional economic interdependence. There is, 
however, no evidence to suggest that this new form of 
international exchange has contributed to lessoning the regions 
dependence on the global economy. On the contrary, growth 
dynamism based on vertical specialisation depends inexorably on 
extra-regional trade in final good, and this dependence has in 
fact increased over the years.
 
Keywords: production fragmentation, vertical specialisation, 
          regional integration Length (pages): 48
JEL:      F15 F23 O53
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2005-07&r=all



90. Testing for Asymmetries in the Preferences of the Euro-Area 
    Monetary Policymaker
  
    Alvaro Aguiar (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade 
      do Porto)
    Manuel M. F. Martins (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia, 
      Universidade do Porto)

This paper tests for asymmetries in the preferences of the Euro-
Area monetary policymaker with 1995:I-2004:III data from the last 
update of the ECB's Area-wide database. Following the relevant 
literature, we distinguish between three types of asymmetry: 
precautionary demand for expansions, precautionary demand for 
price stability and interest rate smoothing asymmetry. Based on 
the joint GMM estimation of the Euler equation of optimal policy 
and the AS-AD structure of the macroeconomy, we find evidence of 
precautionary demand for price stability in the preferences 
revealed by the monetary policymaker. This type of asymmetry is 
consistent with the ECB’s definition of price stability and 
with the priority of credibility-building by a recently created 
monetary authority.
 
Keywords: Central Bank Preferences, Asymmetry, Euro Area, 
          Optimal Control, GMM.
JEL:      E52 E58 C32 C61
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:182&r=all



91. Underlying Inflation: Concepts, Measurement and Performance
  
    Ivan Roberts (Reserve Bank of Australia)

This paper explores the concept of underlying inflation and the 
properties of various measures of underlying inflation in the 
Australian context. Underlying inflation measures are routinely 
calculated and monitored by central banks in many countries, 
including the Reserve Bank of Australia. Alternative measurement 
concepts are explored, and a range of measures that have been 
calculated for Australia are discussed and evaluated on the basis 
of statistical criteria. These criteria capture the intuition 
that a good measure of underlying inflation should be less 
volatile than CPI (or headline) inflation, be unbiased with 
respect to CPI inflation, and capture the 'trend' in CPI 
inflation so that, on average, CPI inflation will tend to adjust 
towards the measure of underlying inflation. In the Australian 
context, statistical measures of underlying inflation, such as 
the trimmed mean or weighted median, perform fairly 
satisfactorily against these criteria. The performance of these 
measures can be further improved by seasonally adjusting prices 
at the CPI component level. Although underlying inflation 
measures have become less necessary in the past decade as 
inflation itself has become less volatile, these findings suggest 
that underlying inflation measures can still add value to the 
analysis of inflationary trends.
 
Keywords: underlying inflation; core inflation; trimmed mean; 
          weighted median; volatility-weighted measures
JEL:      C43 E31
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2005-05&r=all



92. A Three-Layer Atmosphere-Ocean Time Series Model of Global 
    Climate Change
  
    David I. Stern (Department of Economics, Rensselaer 
      Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590, USA)

Time series models of global climate change have tended to 
estimate a low climate sensitivity and a fast adjustment rate to 
equilibrium. These results appear to be biased by omission of a 
key variable - heat stored in the ocean. I develop a time series 
model of the ocean atmosphere climate system where atmospheric 
temperature moves towards a long-run equilibrium with both 
radiative forcing and ocean heat content, which is distributed 
between upper ocean and deep ocean components. The time series 
model utilizes the notion of multicointegration to impose energy 
balance relations on an autoregressive model. As there are only 
around fifty years of observations on ocean heat content I use 
the Kalman filter to estimate heat content as a latent state 
variable constrained by the available observations. The estimate 
of the equilibrium climate sensitivity is 8.4K with a confidence 
interval of 5.0 to 11.7K. Temperature takes centuries to adjust 
to an increase in radiative forcing. The transient climate 
sensitivity at the point of carbon dioxide doubling is 1.7K.
 
JEL:      Q53 Q54
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rpi:rpiwpe:0510&r=all



93. No euro please, We’re British!
  
    Lucio Valerio Spagnolo, Mario Cerrato (CELPE-DISES, 
      Universita degli Studi di Salerno)

Comparing the economic performances between UK and Euroland, the 
appropriate and obvious question should be: why does not Euroland 
replace its euro with the British pound? However, economy does 
not represent all the interests of the human beings. They believe 
in values beyond the economy. Right! It may well be that Euroland 
citizens, once with the euro, feel much more confiance in 
themselves, as part of a larger world, as they trust the monetary 
and political decision makers of the EU Institutions. If that was 
the truth, the European integration process should proceed just 
like a ball thrown against standing skittle-pins waiting to be 
got down! Unfortunately, that is not the case. The authors try to 
point out some reasons to understand those British people who 
love to look at the euro experience, sitting in their armchairs 
and, above all, without loosing their national pound.
 
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sal:celpdp:95&r=all



94. Finance and Growth: A Critical Survey
  
    Alex W. Trew

This paper surveys the literature on the relationship between 
finance and growth from a longitudinal, and primarily theoretical,
perspective. Important qualifications to the empirical consensus 
are noted and we consider the prevalence of cross-section 
econometrics as dominant in shaping the present theoretical 
consensus. We develop a general model capable of capturing a 
number of key conclusions from theoretical research. We then 
trace out the numerical implications of this class of models for 
time-series growth, as well as outlining ways in which these 
models might be tested quantitatively for historical congruence. 
We suggest a reason for the preponderance of theoretical 
considerations of financial efficiency despite empirical analysis 
of financial deepness, and how this makes direct comparisons 
between the theory and empirics of finance and growth difficult. 
The core implications of many finance and growth theories are 
shown to be incongruent with the historical record.
 
Keywords: finance and growth, endogenous growth, economic 
          history.
JEL:      O11 O16 O40 N23
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:0507&r=all



95. It takes three to tango: Soft budget constraint and cream 
    skimming in the hospital care market
  
    Levaggi, Rosella
    Montefiori, Marcello

Cream skimming is an illegal behaviour that consists in choosing 
to treat patients according to their ability to recover. It 
arises from the use of prospective payment schemes in an 
asymmetry of information framework. In this context in fact the 
provider can observe some relevant information (freely or at a 
cost) before making its effort which will then be used to its own 
advantage. The paper studies the scope for these types of 
behaviour in a mixed market for hospital care where the hospitals 
do not share the same objectives. We show that in this context 
cream skimming is made possible by the presence of two important 
elements: the public hospital prefers to treat high severity 
patients and the regulator is unable to enforce hard budget 
constraint rules. The paper adds an important dimension to the 
study of cream skimming as proposed by the traditional literature 
where asymmetry of information alone is considered the cause of 
this market failure. In our context, in fact, cream skimming 
arises mainly from a regulatory failure.
 
JEL:      I11 I18 D82
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:48&r=all



96. Elimination of the Foreign Property Rule on Tax Deferred 
    Savings Plans
  
    Joel Fried (University of Western Ontario)

The Foreign Property Rule (FPR), limiting the holding of foreign 
property in pension plan assets, is scheduled to be eliminated 
this year. It has been rationalized on economic grounds by 
asserting that it improves the value of the dollar and decreases 
the cost of capital yet, at the time the FPR began, the 
government was trying to keep the dollar from rising and there 
were strong capital inflows. Further, evidence from the past 
changes in the FPR indicates it had little, if any, affect on the 
cost of capital and exchange rate, but cost middle income workers 
between one and three billion dollars per annum when set at 30%. 
I argue that the reason for its existence was the then common 
belief that governments could make better economic allocation 
decisions than markets. Removing the FPR provides pension plans 
with greater opportunity for risk adjusted returns as well as 
responsibilities. Relevant issues that arise include the degree 
of foreign currency exposure that is desirable and the degree of 
active management desired in foreign assets, and whether it makes 
sense to choose fund managers that are regionally focused rather 
than global. Pension boards will also have to rethink what a 
Canadian fund is and whether it should mimic Canadian production (
as currently structured) or Canadian consumption patterns. An 
encouraging aspect of eliminating the FPR is the possibility that 
government ideology is changing to place greater emphasis on the 
positive benefits of using markets to allocate resources.
 
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:epuwoc:20055&r=all



97. Are Sports Teams Multi-Product Firms?
  
    Kenneth G. Stewart (Department of Economics, University of 
      Victoria)
    J. C. H. Jones (Department of Economics, University of 
      Victoria)

The appropriate conception of team outputs is investigated by 
estimating a two-output factor demand system for baseball teams, 
relative to which single-output models are rejected. There is, 
however, some empirical support for output separability, 
suggesting that team outputs may sometimes be adequately treated 
as a production aggregate.
 
Keywords: Sports economics, multi-output production
JEL:      D24 L83
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vic:vicewp:0513&r=all



98. THE GROWING THREAT OF GLOBAL POVERTY: The Case of Africa
  
    Ingo Bobel (International University of Monaco)

The goal is to try to give inputs on a global problem: 
eradicating poverty on a global scale. That is, to find evidence 
and discuss complex problems regarding cronic poverty, a major 
source of instability in our world today, and to put forward what 
could be some possible solutions. The aim of this endeavour is to 
further sensitize public opinion to a major, chronic and 
exponential problem that is affecting an increasing number of the 
population world wide. The focus is on (sub-Saharan) Africa and 
its (past and present) problems. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region 
which has the greatest percentage of its population in poverty 
and also the greatest depth of poverty. Questions that will be 
explored and addressed are, among others, related to agriculture, 
water management, education, health, the role of woman in society,
and especially micro credits and micro lending – all questions 
related to how the threat of global poverty can be averted, and 
how the world can be shaped for the benefit of future generations.
 
Keywords: Poverty, Africa, Millenium Development Goals (MDG)
JEL:      O P
Date:     2005-07-17
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0507006&r=all



99. The Neuroeconomics of Trust
  
    Paul J. Zak (Claremont Graduate University)

The traditional view in economics is that individuals respond to 
incentives, but absent strong incentives to the contrary 
selfishness prevails. Moreover, this “greed is good” approach 
is deemed “rational” behavior. Nevertheless, in daily 
interactions and in numerous laboratory studies, a high degree of 
cooperative behavior prevails—even among strangers. A possible 
explanation for the substantial amount of “irrational” 
behavior observed in markets (and elsewhere) is that humans are a 
highly social species and to an extent value what other humans 
think of them. This behavior can be termed 
trustworthiness—cooperating when someone places trust in us. I 
also analyze the cross-country evidence for environments that 
produce high or low trust. A number of recent experiments from my 
lab have demonstrated that the neuroactive hormone oxytocin 
facilitates trust between strangers, and appears to induce 
trustworthiness. In rodents, oxytocin has been associated with 
maternal bonding, pro-social behaviors, and in some species long-
term pair bonds, but prior to the work reviewed here, the 
behavioral effects of oxytocin in humans had not been studied. 
This presentation discusses the neurobiology of positive social 
behaviors and how these are facilitated by oxytocin. My 
experiments show that positive social signals cause oxytocin to 
be released by the brain, producing an unconscious attachment to 
a stranger. I also discuss recent research that manipulates 
oxytocin levels, and functional brain imaging research on trust.
 
Keywords: Oxytocin, social capital, neuroeconomics, development, 
          experiments
JEL:      C9
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpex:0507004&r=all



100. Accessing Formal Credit: Social Capital versus ‘Social 
     Position’ (Lesson from a Javanese Village)
  
    Aloysius Gunadi Brata (Research Institute, University of 
      Atma Jaya Yogyakarta)

Low access to formal credit persists in most of developing 
economies also in Indonesia. Most of households especially in 
rural areas do not familiar with formal credit. Therefore, formal 
credit institution needs a mediation or substitution. Recent 
studies argue that social capital could to a better flow of 
information between creditors and borrowers and hence less 
adverse selection and moral hazard in the market for credit. The 
guarantee of groups and pressure by social network also are 
important techniques to improve credit performance. The relation 
between social capital and credit access is an interesting issue 
since the promotion of formal credit facilities in rural areas is 
argued as an important policy in reducing poverty level. The aim 
of this paper is to describe the connection between social 
capital and access to formal credit, especially from commercial 
banking in the case of a Javanese village. To describe the 
connection, this paper will seek what are the different 
characteristics between household that having access to 
commercial credit and the other group of households. However, 
since there is also an argument that social capital does not 
guarantee poor people to access formal credit, this paper also 
analyse other important variable namely ‘social position’ of 
the head of household in their rural community.
 
Keywords: social capital, rural credit, formal credit, ‘social 
          position’, Java, Indonesia
JEL:      G
Date:     2005-07-17
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0507016&r=all



101. Banks, Markets, and Efficiency
  
    Falko Fecht (Deutsche Bundesbank)
    Antoine Martin (Federal Reserve Bank of New York)

Following Diamond (1997) and Fecht (2004) we use a model in 
which financial market access of households restrains the 
efficiency of the liquidity insurance that banks' deposit 
contracts provide to households that are subject to idiosyncratic 
liquidity shocks. But in contrast to these approaches we assume 
spacial monopolistic competition among banks. Since monopoly 
rents are assumed to bring about inefficiencies, improved 
financial market access that limits monopoly rents also entails a 
positive effect. But this beneficial effect is only relevant if 
competition among banks does not sufficiently restrain monopoly 
rents already. Thus our results suggest that in the bank-
dominated financial system of Germany, in which banks intensely 
compete for households' deposits, improved financial market 
access might reduce welfare because it only reduces risk sharing. 
In contrast, in the banking system of the U.S., with less 
competition for households' deposits, a high level of households' 
financial market participation might be beneficial.
 
Keywords: Financial Intermediaries, Risk Sharing, Banking 
          Competition, Comparing Financial Systems
JEL:      E44 G10 G21
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0507017&r=all



102. Building a Better Fund of Hedge Funds: A Fractal and Alpha -
     Stable Distribution Approach
  
    Yan Olszewski (Maple Financial Alternative Investments)

Markowitz’s (1952) portfolio theory has permeated financial 
institutions over the past 50 years. Assuming that returns are 
normally distributed, Markowitz suggests that portfolio 
optimization should be performed in a mean-variance framework. 
With the emergence of hedge funds and their non-normally 
distributed returns, mean-variance portfolio optimization is no 
longer adequate. Here, hedge fund returns are modeled with the 
alpha-stable distribution and a mean-CVaR portfolio optimization 
is performed. Results indicate that by using the alpha- stable 
distribution, a more efficient fund of hedge funds portfolio can 
be created than would be by assuming a normal distribution. To 
further increase efficiency, the Hurst exponent is considered as 
a filtering tool and it is found that combining hedge fund 
strategies with particular Hurst exponents leads to the creation 
of more efficient portfolios as characterized by higher risk-
adjusted ratios. These findings open the door for the further 
study of econophysics tools in the analysis of hedge fund returns.
 
Keywords: hedge funds, fund of funds, portfolio optimization, 
          conditional value at risk, alpha-stable distribution, 
          Hurst exponent, fractals
JEL:      C61 E17 G11 G23
Date:     2005-07-19
Date:     2005-07-20
Date:     2005-07-20
Date:     2005-07-20
Date:     2005-07-20
Date:     2005-07-20
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0507018&r=all



103. VALUATION OF CALLABLE BONDS: THE SALOMON BROTHERS APROACH
  
    Fernando Rubio (FERNCAPITAL S.A.)

This paper explain, analyze and apply in an example the original 
paper developed by Kopprasch, Boyce, Koenigsberg, Tatevossian, 
and Yampol (1987) from The Salomon Brothers Inc. Bond Portfolio 
Analysis Group. Please, be aware. This paper is for educational 
issues only. There is a Spanish version in EconWPA.
 
Keywords: Salomon Brothers, bond portfolio, duration and 
          convexity, effective duration, valuation, callable and 
          non callable bond
JEL:      G10 G15 G21 G32
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0507019&r=all



104. The intraday price of money: evidence from the e-MID market
  
    Angelo Baglioni (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
    Andrea Monticini (University of Exeter)

We present a simple model, where intraday and overnight interest 
rates are linked by a no-arbitrage argument. The hourly interest 
rate is shown to be a function of the intraday term structure of 
the overnight rate. This property holds under both assumptions, 
where an explicit intraday market for interbank loans exists and 
when it does not. In the first case, such a property is an 
equilibrium condition; in the second one it holds by definition, 
as a synthetic hourly loan is a portfolio of overnight contracts. 
We then provide empirical evidence, based on tick- by-tick data 
for the e-MID money market (covering the whole 2003). The 
overnight rate shows a clear downward pattern throughout the 
operating day. A positive hourly interest rate emerges from the 
intraday term structure of the overnight rate: we estimate the 
market price of a one hour interbank loan to be slightly above a 
half basis point.
 
Keywords: intraday interest rate, overnight interbank loans, 
          money market.
JEL:      G21 E43
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0507020&r=all



105. Sustainability of the Slovenian Pension System: An Analysis 
     with an Overlapping-generations General Equilibrium Model
  
    Miroslav Verbic (Institute for Economic Research Ljubljana)
    Boris Majcen (Institute for Economic Research Ljubljana)
    Renger van Nieuwkoop (ECOPLAN Berne)

The article presents an analysis of welfare effects in Slovenia, 
an analysis of macroeconomic effects of the Slovenian pension 
reform and an analysis of effects of the pension fund deficit on 
sustainability of Slovenian public finances with a dynamic OLG 
general equilibrium model. It has been established that while 
young generations and new generations will lose from the pension 
reform, even complete implementation of the reform might not be 
sufficient to compensate unfavourable demographic developments. 
The level of expected deficit of the PAYG-financed state pension 
fund seems to be most worrying. Financing the pension system with 
VAT revenues as an extreme case could result in more sustainable 
public finances, since GDP and welfare levels ought to increase, 
yet this might be infeasible to implement politically, given that 
the generations of voters would have their welfare decreased. In 
addition, the present pension system is intransparent and 
tremendously complicated and should primarily be made more 
comprehensible to the public.
 
Keywords: general equilibrium models, macroeconomic effects, OLG-
          GE, PAYG, pension system, sustainability of public 
          finances, Slovenia, welfare analysis
JEL:      C68 D58 D61 D91 E62 H55
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpge:0507010&r=all



106. Growth, private investment and reforms : A comparative 
     perspective
  
    Ghazouani KAMEL (Hight trade school of Tunis, Manouba 
      University)

In this paper we empirically analyse the linkages among growth, 
investment and reforms in the South East Asian countries, in the 
North Africa and in the non CFA Sub-Saharan Africa economies over 
1970-89 to 2003. These regions differ considerably among them 
selves as well as with regard to the rest of the world, in terms 
of resources endowment, structure of production , and also in 
terms of economic reforms , physical infrastructure, and human 
capital. Our empirical analysis has clearly revealed the 
importance and the complementarities between macroeconomic 
reforms, physical infrastructure, human capital and structural 
reforms for the growth prospects of the economies. These factors 
have shown a strong effect on growth and have contributed greatly 
to the growth process for north Africa countries and the non CFA 
sub Sahara African countries. In north Africa economies and in 
the Sub Sahara African countries, the lack of macroeconomic 
reforms, the deficiencies of the physical infrastructure and the 
human capital explain, although at differing degrees , well the 
deficit in economic growth. This has been particularly the case 
of road networks, electronic equipments, sanitary conditions and 
schooling. The model simulation shows that an improvement of 
secondary schooling and physical infrastructure, similar to South 
East Asia, would have stimulated North Africa economic growth by 
respectively 0.61percent and 0.17 percent against only 1.23 
percent and 0.39 percent for non CFA Sub Saharan Africa
 
Keywords: Growth , reforms, Human capital , Structural reforms, 
          macroeconomic stability, PCA, investment, Panel
JEL:      C23 C82 E17 O40
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpge:0507012&r=all



107. Virtual Branding: Turning a stone into a Jewel
  
    David Ward (European School of Economics)
    Dario Secondi (Amway Italia)

This short paper discusses the evolution of branding and its 
projection in the near and distant future. In particular it 
examines and suggests why certain brands have become legends and 
common place e.g. Coca Cola, Mercedes, McDonalds etc. The authors 
start from Sapir-Whorf’s hypothesis for linguistic determinism 
to show that he who controls the vocabulary of branding could, in 
effect, control the world of products and services simply because 
we are hindered if not incapable of evaluating other options. The 
paper places emphasis on two aspects of the future of branding: 1.
the ultimate limit of branding, that the authors have baptised 
as V-Branding (Virtual Branding), and 2. the development of a 
framework, process and assessment tool that allows companies to 
evaluate and steer their brand(s). The assessment tool, 
denominated as the RIB matrix-graph (Real-Imaginary Branding 
matrix- graph) can be used in 2D format (with Awareness and 
Degree of Diffusion forming the two axes or dimensions) and 3D 
format i.e. with an additional dimension such as age group, 
social status, period, time frame etc. Tool applicability 
stretches from the small business to transnational companies and 
from products to services. The paper also looks at the transition 
from lifestyles to mindstyles, the evolution of the consumer and 
how these link to branding evolution.
 
Keywords: virtual, branding, mindstyles, lifestyles, evolution, 
          matrix, Sapir, Whorf, linguistic determinism
JEL:      A
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpgt:0507001&r=all



108. Gender Inequality in a Globalizing World
  
    Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont & The Levy 
      Economics Institute)

Emphasis on market-friendly macroeconomic and development 
strategies in recent years has resulted in deleterious effects on 
growth and well- being, and has done little to promote greater 
gender equality. This paper argues that the example of East Asia 
states, which recognized their position as “late 
industrializers,” relied on a managed-market approach with the 
state that employed a wide variety of policy instruments to 
promote industrialization. Nevertheless, while Asian growth was 
rapid, it was not enough to produce greater gender equality. A 
concentration of women in mobile export industries that face 
severe competition from other low-wage countries reduces their 
bargaining power and inhibits closure of gender-wage gaps. Gender-
equitable macroeconomic and development policies are thus 
required, including financial market regulation, regulation of 
trade and investment flows, and gender- sensitive public sector 
spending..
 
Keywords: gender, inequality, industrial policy, firm mobility, 
          trade
JEL:      L5 F4 E24 F16 J16 I31
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0507005&r=all



109. From Planning to Mature: on the Determinants of Open Source 
     Take Off
  
    Fabio M. Manenti (Universita di Padova Italy)
    Stefano Comino (Universita di Trento Italy)
    Marialaura Parisi (Universita di Brescia Italy)

In this paper we use data from SourceForge.net, the largest open 
source projects repository, to estimate the main determinants of 
the progress in the development of a stable and mature code of a 
software. We find that the less restrictive the licensing terms 
the larger the likelihood of reaching an advanced development 
status and that this effect is even stronger for newer projects. 
We also find that projects geared towards system administrators 
appear to be the more successful ones. The determinants of 
projects' development stage change with the age of the project in 
many dimensions, i.e. licensing terms, software audience and 
contents, thus supporting the common perception of open source as 
a very dynamic phenomenon. The data seem to suggest that open 
source is evolving towards more commercial applications.
 
Keywords: software market, open source software, development 
          status, intended audience, license
JEL:      O38 L51 L63
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0507006&r=all



110. The Erosion of Tariff Preferences: The Impact of U.S. 
     Tariff Reductions on Developing Countries
  
    Kara Reynolds (American University)

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the program 
instituted in 1976 that allows developing countries to export 
thousands of products to the United States duty-free, is an 
important element of U.S. efforts to promote economic growth in 
the developing world. However, since the program's inception U.S. 
tariff rates have fallen significantly, thus potentially reducing 
the ability of the GSP program to encourage U.S. imports from 
beneficiary countries. This paper estimates the impact of U.S. 
tariff reductions on imports from the developing world using a 
panel of import data from 76 countries and 2,389 GSP-eligible 
products between 1998 and 2001. It finds that reductions in U.S. 
tariff rates have diminished imports from developing countries 
significantly, although some countries have been impacted more 
than others.
 
Keywords: Generalized System of Preferences, GSP, Trade 
          Diversion, Preferential Tariffs
JEL:      F13 F15 O1
Date:     2005-07-18
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0507001&r=all



111. International Mobility of Highly-Qualified People in APEC
  
    Surendra Gera (Industry Canada)
    Thitima Songsakul (Industry Canada)

An important aspect of the global knowledge-based economy is the 
emergence of a new trend where certain groups of highly-qualified 
workers have become increasingly mobile internationally. Reaching 
the goal of being more innovative economy requires that the 
highly-qualified workforce is of sufficient quantity and quality 
to support the expansion of innovative activities by firms. Many 
industrialized countries compete strategically in attracting 
these workers. It is necessary that the economic policy 
discussion surrounding the international mobility of skilled 
labour must take into consideration the wide variety of ways the 
migration of labour affects the economy. Numerous drivers, policy 
and non-policy induced, are at work. Attention must now turn 
towards the links between these movements and the regulating 
institutions; the performance in the trade of goods and services, 
FDI, human capital formation and multinational enterprises 
location, and income convergence among countries. This paper 
focuses on four key issues: First, it examines the global trends 
in the international migratory flows of highly qualified persons (
HQPs), focusing on APEC economies. Second, it discusses the 
fundamental non-policy drivers of the increased HQP flows in the 
new global economy. Third, it reviews the literature on the 
economic costs and benefits associated with cross-country 
movement of HQPs and the main factors conditioning these costs 
and benefits. Finally, it addresses the question of how policy in 
APEC economies has adjusted or should adjust to the increased 
international HQP mobility.
 
Keywords: International migration, Skilled workers, Labour 
          mobility
JEL:      F1 F2
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0507002&r=all



112. Should We Set the Market Free? Some Notes on International 
     Economic Sanctions
  
    Raul Caruso (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

Keywords: International Political economy, International 
          economic sanctions, international trade
JEL:      F1 F2
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0507003&r=all



113. International Mobility of Skilled Labour: Analytical and 
     Empirical Issues, and Research Priorities
  
    Surendra Gera (Industry Canada)
    Samuel Laryea (Human Resources Development Canada)
    Thitima Songsakul (Industry Canada)

The international mobility of skilled labour has become a key 
component of the global knowledge-based economy. Rising levels of 
foreign direct investment (FDI), international trade, research 
and development (R&D), technological advances and increased 
demand for skilled workers seem to have all contributed to an 
increase in the international mobility of skilled labour. 
Internationally mobile individuals are often found participating 
in industries that are largely knowledge-based and global in 
scope. As a result, it has become increasingly important that the 
economic policy discussion surrounding the international mobility 
of skilled labour must take into consideration the wide variety 
of ways the migration of skilled labour affects the economy. 
Numerous drivers, policy and non-policy induced, are at work. 
Attention must now turn towards the links between these movements 
and the institutions regulating them; the performance in the 
trade of goods and services; FDI; human capital formation and 
multinational enterprises location; and income convergence among 
countries. This paper provides an overview of the literature on 
four key issues surrounding the international mobility of skilled 
workers, while identifying potential directions for future 
research. First, global trends of recent international skilled 
migratory flows – magnitude and their composition in terms of 
underlying skills/education of migrants with a focus on Canada-US 
migratory flows. Second, fundamental (non-policy) drivers of the 
increased skilled migratory flows, especially among advanced 
countries. Third, economic costs and benefits associated with 
cross-country movement of skilled labour and the main factors 
conditioning these costs and benefits. Fourth, how policy has 
adjusted or should adjust to increased skilled labour mobility in 
the global economy?
 
JEL:      F1 F2
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0507004&r=all



114. EXCHANGE RATE AND INFLATION TARGETING IN MOROCCO AND TUNISIA
  
    Grand Nathalie (Institut de la Mediterranee, Marseille, 
      FRANCE)
    Dropsy Vincent (California State University, Fullerton, USA)

Morocco and Tunisia have started to open their markets to 
international trade and capital flows in order to bolster 
investment and growth. These liberalization programs require 
important adjustments in their economic policies, in particular 
their exchange rate regimes and monetary policies. This objective 
of this paper is to examine why Morocco and Tunisia should 
progressively opt for greater exchange rate flexibility as well 
as a monetary policy based on inflation targeting rather than 
exchange rate targeting and money-growth rules, as their markets 
are increasingly liberalized. First, their past economic policies 
are reviewed and analyzed. Second, the theoretical sources of 
inflation (cost push and demand pull factors as well as factors 
due to financial liberalization) are identified. Third, a Markov 
switching model with time-varying transition probabilities is 
estimated for Morocco and Tunisia to provide important 
information concerning the mechanisms underlying inflation regime 
changes. The empirical results provide evidence that high 
inflation regimes are more persistent in Morocco than in Tunisia, 
and that inflation regime switches can be explained by external 
shocks in the 1970s, and by the sound fiscal and monetary 
policies in the mid-1980s. Finally the institutional and 
operational conditions for the success of an inflation-targeting 
framework are outlined.
 
Keywords: Markov switching; Inflation; Inflation targeting, 
          Monetary policy, Central Banks; Policy Designs and 
          Consistency; Policy Coordination; Morocco; Tunisia
JEL:      E
Date:     2005-07-18
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507018&r=all



115. Non-linear real exchange rate effects in the UK labour 
     market
  
    Gabriella Legrenzi (Keele University)
    Costas Milas (Keele University)

Using UK data over the 1973q1-2004q1 period, we find that the 
dynamics of the real exchange rate, real wages and unemployment 
vary both with large versus small real exchange rate 
disequilibria and rising versus falling unemployment regimes. The 
short-run real exchange rate adjusts only when large 
disequilibrium deviations occur. We report fast real exchange 
rate adjustment in periods of falling unemployment. This implies 
that prices and wages are more flexible when real output is high. 
When the real exchange rate is highly undervalued, workers 
respond to an improvement in domestic competitiveness by 
demanding and getting higher wages. Unemployment is reduced 
following gains in competitiveness when the real exchange rate is 
further away from equilibrium.
 
Keywords: Real exchange rate; unemployment; Smooth Transition 
          Vector Error Correction Model.
JEL:      E
Date:     2005-07-18
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507019&r=all



116. Tolerance For Uncertainty and the Growth of Informationally 
     Opaque Industries
  
    Rocco Huang (University of Amsterdam)

Hofstede (1980)’s cross-country psychological survey of IBM 
employees shows that some countries (societies) are 
systematically more tolerant of uncertainty, while tolerance of 
uncertainty is shown by Rigotti et al. (2003)’s model to be 
essential to the growth of “emerging sectors about which little 
is known”. We use Durnev, Morck and Yeung (2004)’s 
methodology to identify these informationally opaque industries. 
We hypothesize that, countries characterized by high uncertainty 
aversion (measured by Hofstede’s indicator) will, because of 
uncertainty aversion, grow disproportionately slower in 
industrial sectors where information is less available (proxied 
by lower informativeness of stock prices in the U.S., Durnev et 
al. 2004). Using the Rajan and Zingales (1998) “differences-in-
differences” methodology, in 34 countries and 36 manufacturing 
industries, we indeed find robust evidence for this pattern of 
industrial growth. We also show that national uncertainty 
aversion is not proxying for under-development of financial 
sector, inadaptability of civil law systems, lower level of 
economic development, or many other factors. Our results are also 
robust when we use religious (Protestant/Catholic) composition to 
instrument for national uncertainty aversion.
 
JEL:      E
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507020&r=all



117. The Price Puzzle and Indeterminacy
  
    Efrem Castelnuovo (University of Padua)
    Paolo Surico (Bank of England & University of Bari)

This paper re-examines the empirical evidence on the price 
puzzle and proposes a new theoretical interpretation. Using 
structural VARs and two different identification strategies based 
on zero restrictions and sign restrictions, we find that the 
positive response of price to a monetary policy shock is 
historically limited to the sub-samples associated with a weak 
central bank response to inflation. These sub-samples correspond 
to the pre-Volcker period for the US and the pre-inflation 
targeting regime for the UK. Using a micro-founded DSGE sticky 
price model of the US economy, we then show that the structural 
VARs are capable of reproducing the price puzzle on artificial 
data only when monetary policy is passive and hence multiple 
equilibria arise. In contrast, the DSGE model never generates on 
impact a positive inflation response to a policy shock. The 
omission in the VARs of a variable capturing the high persistence 
of expected inflation under indeterminacy is found to account for 
the price puzzle observed on actual data.
 
Keywords: Price puzzle, DSGE model, Taylor principle, 
          Indeterminacy, SVARs
JEL:      E30 E52
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507021&r=all



118. Are Europe's Interest Rates led by FED Announcements?
  
    Andrea Monticini (University of Exeter)
    Giacomo Vaciago (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

This paper investigates the degree and nature of economic and 
monetary policy relations among the United States, the Euro area, 
and Great Britain. Using daily interest rates, we estimate the 
impact of monetary policy announcements of a Central Bank on its 
domestic market and in what measure those announcements are able 
to influence other financial markets. In particular, we analyse 
the effect of the FED, ECB, and BoE monetary policy announcements 
on European markets. We find that Europe’s interest rates have 
a relevant response to FED announcements.
 
Keywords: Monetary policy; Term structure of interest rates.
JEL:      E4 E43 E52 F42
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507022&r=all



119. L’ATTRACTION DES IDE EST UNE QUESTION D’ADAPTATION 
     INSTITUTIONNELLE : Modele theorique et estimations pour 
     les regions PECO & MENA
  
    Ghazouani kamel (Ecole superieure de commerce de Tunis)

Cet article analyse les elements determinants des flux nets 
d’IDE. Son cadre theorique repose sur le concept de 
l'adaptation institutionnelle a l'IDE, celle-ci affirme que 
l'IDE est moins determine par des elements fondamentaux que 
par des variables institutionnelles qui se pretent plus au 
changement, a savoir les politiques, les lois et leur 
application. La theorie de l'adaptation institutionnelle 
suggere que chaque pays a la possibilite d'identifier et de 
developper ses facteurs de competitivite pour augmenter sa 
part dans l'investissement direct etranger global. Le concept 
d'adaptation a l'IDE est teste dans une etude econometrique 
sur donnees de PANEL a travers 37 economies representant les 
pays des zones PECO et MENA. Il s’ensuit de cette analyse 
econometrique que les variables liees a l’environnement 
politique sont les elements determinants les plus 
significatifs des influx d'IDE. L'adaptation politique se 
reflete dans l'ouverture economique avec un minimum de 
controle sur le commerce et le taux de change. L'adaptation 
politique signifie aussi un etat de droit sain et un bas niveau 
de corruption, reposant sur l'egalite et la transparence 
juridique et administrative. L'adaptation du marche est 
representee par des volumes eleves d'echanges commerciaux, 
un bas niveau de taxation, un degre eleve d'urbanisation et la 
presence du credit. Comme ces facteurs determinants 
decouragent le comportement arbitraire et la recherche du 
benefice personnel, les resultats des regressions 
econometriques prouvent que, bien qu'ils acceptent de negocier,
les investisseurs cherchent la stabilite et la transparence et 
preferent des reglements nets et appliques de facon 
reguliere a des privileges individuels obtenus par des 
marchandages. La facon dont les politiciens dirigent les 
institutions, les politiques, les lois et leur application est 
beaucoup plus importante aux yeux des investisseurs directs 
etrangers que des facteurs relativement immuables tels que 
l'importance de la population et le milieu socioculturel.
 
Keywords: IDE, Adaptation institutionnelle, integration, PECO, 
          MENA, Panel
JEL:      E
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507023&r=all



120. Does Inefficiency Justify Privatization? The Case of 
     Intermediate Industry Monopolies
  
    Gerhard Glomm (Indiana University)
    Fabio Mendez (University of Arkansas)

We use an infinitely lived agent model in which an intermediate 
good is provided either by a public or a private monopolist to 
study the effects of privatization on steady state levels of 
income. We allow for public sector inefficiencies(x-inefficiency) 
which shift down the intermediate goods technology as well as 
bureaucratic inefficiencies which decrease the amount of tax 
revenue which will actually be allocated to public investment. We 
solve the model numerically for reasonable parameter values. The 
results of the model indicate that the benefits of this type of 
privatizations depend crucially on the size of the relative 
inefficiency of public firms and the amount of public investment. 
Furthermore, the gains from privatization are found to be 
strongly related to the balance sheet of the public firm that is 
privatized. Privatization of public firms which run deficits (
surpluses) typically generate increases (decreases) in steady 
state consumption.
 
Keywords: Privatization, Deregulation, Public Inefficiency, 
          Public Monopolies
JEL:      E
Date:     2005-07-22
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0507024&r=all



121. The size and performance of public sector activities in 
     Europe
  
    Heinz Handler (Austrian Institute of Economic Research)
    Bertrand Koebel (University of Strasbourg)
    Philipp Reiss (University of Madgeburg)
    Margit Schratzenstaller (Austrian Institute of Economic 
      Research)

The obvious difference in the economic performance of countries 
has led to the question why some countries are so much wealthier 
than others, and whether the size, the structure, and the 
organisation of the public sector contribute to cross-country 
income and growth gaps. Public sector activities may have an 
effect on overall productivity and growth either directly by the 
level and changes of productivity within the public sector, or 
indirectly by triggering off productivity changes in private 
production. This paper is concerned with the former aspect. It 
provides an overview of the size and the structure of the public 
sector in Europe and compares it with the US and Japan. This is 
related to the more recent empirical literature on public sector 
performance. After reviewing some of the measurement issues 
related to public services, the evidence on the size of 
government and its performance is analysed. The results on 
industrial countries are not fully conclusive, but seem to 
attribute more efficiency to smaller rather than to larger 
governments. Public sector reforms to consolidate the size of 
government are therefore likely to enhance the sector's own 
productivity and thereby positively contribute to overall 
economic performance.
 
Keywords: public sector size, performance of public sector
JEL:      D6 D7 H
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0507011&r=all



122. Das oeffentliche Auftragswesen im gesamtwirtschaftlichen 
     Zusammenhang
  
    Heinz Handler (Austrian Institute of Economic Research)

This paper, written in German language, deals with public 
procurement policies in the European Union in an overall economic 
context. Public sector contracts for goods and services make up 
about one sixth of Community GDP. Governments of all levels tend 
to rely on local firms when extenting delivery contracts. This 
may be in conflict with the rules of the EU internal market which,
for larger contracts, request competition among bidders. The 
current essay discusses the possible tensions between competition 
in the market and the regulation of public procurement. Public 
contracts have been used to implement additional policy goals, 
such as social and environmental aspects or to aid small business.
The latter goal is often blurred by the tendency to centralise 
procurement in order to increase the market power of public 
demand. In general, such a mix of goals may reduce the efficiency 
of procurement policy.
 
Keywords: public procurement, EU internal market, public demand 
          and competition
JEL:      D6 D7 H
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0507012&r=all



123. Fast Computation of the Economic Capital, the Value at Risk 
     and the Greeks of a Loan Portfolio in the Gaussian Factor 
     Model
  
    Pavel Okunev (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

We propose a fast algorithm for computing the economic capital, 
Value at Risk and Greeks in the Gaussian factor model. The 
algorithm proposed here is much faster than brute force Monte 
Carlo simulations or Fourier transform based methods. While the 
algorithm of Hull-White is comparably fast, it assumes that all 
the loans in the portfolio have equal notionals and recovery 
rates. This is a very restrictive assumption which is unrealistic 
for many portfolios encountered in practice. Our algorithm makes 
no assumptions about the homogeneity of the portfolio. 
Additionally, it is easier to implement than the algorithm of 
Hull- White. We use the implicit function theorem to derive 
analytic expressions for the Greeks
 
Keywords: Economic capital, gaussian factor model, value at risk,
          unexpected loss, fast algorithm
Date:     2005-07-23
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpri:0507004&r=all



124. How does liquidity react to stress periods in a limit order 
     market?
  
    Helena Beltran (Universite catholique de Louvain, CORE)
    Alain Durre (Catholic University of Lille, Institut 
      d'Economie Scientifique et de Gestion) (National Bank of 
      Belgium, Research Department)
    Pierre Giot (University of Namur) (CORE, Universite 
      catholique de Louvain)

This paper looks at the interplay of volatility and liquidity on 
the Euronext trading platform during the December 2, 2002 to 
April 30, 2003 time period. Using transaction and order book data 
for some large- and mid-cap Brussels-traded stocks on Euronext, 
we study the ex-ante liquidity vs volatility and ex-post 
liquidity vs volatility relationships to ascertain if the high 
volatility led to decreases in liquidity and large trading costs. 
We show that the provision of liquidity remains adequate when 
volatility increases, although we do find that it is more costly 
to trade and that the market dynamics is somewhat affected when 
volatility is high.
 
Keywords: order book, volatility, liquidity
JEL:      G10 C32
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200405-5&r=all



125. Measuring inflation persistence: a structural time series 
     approach
  
    Maarten Dossche (National Bank of Belgium, Research 
      Department)
    Gerdie Everaert (Ghent University, Study Hive for Economic 
      Research and Public Policy Analysis (SHERPPA))

Time series estimates of inflation persistence incur an upward 
bias if shifts in the inflation target of the central bank remain 
unaccounted for. Using a structural time series approach we 
measure different sorts of inflation persistence allowing for an 
unobserved timevarying inflation target. Unobserved components 
are identified using Kalman filtering and smoothing techniques. 
Posterior densities of the model parameters and the unobserved 
components are obtained in a Bayesian framework based on 
importance sampling. We find that inflation persistence, 
expressed by the halflife of a shock, can range from 1 quarter in 
case of a costpush shock to several years for a shock to longrun 
inflation expectations or the output gap.
 
Keywords: Inflation persistence, inflation target, Kalman filter,
          Bayesian analysis.
JEL:      C11 C13 C22 C32 E31
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200506-1&r=all



126. Optimal Commodity Taxation When Land and Structures Must Be 
     Taxed at the Same Rate
  
    Saku Aura (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-
      Columbia)
    Thomas Davidoff

We show that the optimal property tax rate rises with the ratio 
of land rents to structure and land development costs. 
California’s high ratio of income to property tax revenue and 
the distribution of Federal housing subsidies thus appear 
geographically misplaced. Proportional taxation of non-housing 
commodities is not optimal, even when elasticities with respect 
to wages are identical. Absent externalities, the desirability of 
transportation taxes and“anti-sprawl” growth controls hinge 
on the relative importance of time versus money in commuting 
costs.
 
Keywords: Property Taxes, Henry George Theorem
JEL:      H21 R13
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0505&r=all



127. Putting a Smiley Face on the Dragon: Wal-Mart as Catalyst 
     to U.S.-China Trade
  
    Emek Basker (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-
      Columbia)
    Pham Hoang Van (Department of Economics, University of 
      Missouri-Columbia)

Retail chains and imports from developing countries have grown 
sharply over the past 25 years. Wal-Mart’s chain, which 
currently accounts for 10% of U.S. imports from China, grew 10-
fold and its sales 90-fold over this period, while U.S. imports 
from China increased 30-fold. We relate these trends using a 
model in which scale economies in retail interact with scale 
economies in the import process. Combined, these scale economies 
amplify the effects of technological change and trade 
liberalization. Falling trade barriers increase imports not only 
through direct reduction of input costs but also through an 
expanded chain and higher investment in technology. This 
mechanism can explain why a surge in U.S. imports followed 
relatively modest tariff declines and why Wal-Mart abandoned its 
“Buy American” campaign in the 1990s. Also consistent with 
these facts, we show that tariff reductions have a greater effect 
the more advanced the retailer’s technology. The model has 
implications for the pace of the product cycle and sheds light on 
the recent apparent acceleration in foreign outsourcing.
 
Keywords: Wal-Mart, Trade, Increasing Returns
JEL:      L11 L81 F12
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0506&r=all



128. A theory of low inflation in a non Ricardian economy with 
     credit Constraints.
  
    Xavier Ragot

This paper explores the relationship between the severity of 
credit constraints and long run inflation in a simple non 
Ricardian setting. It is shown that a low positive inflation can 
loosen credit constraints and that this effect yields a theory of 
the optimal long run inflation target with no assumption 
concerning nominal rigidities or expectation errors. Credit 
constraints introduce an un-priced negative effect of the real 
interest rate on investment. Because of this effect, the standard 
characterization of economic efficiency with the Golden Rule 
fails to apply. When fiscal policy is optimally designed, the 
first best allocation can be achieved thanks to a positive 
inflation rate and a proportional tax on consumption.
 
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2005-20&r=all



129. Subsidy competition in integrating economies.
  
    Facundo Albornoz
    Gregory Corcos

Regional integration affects location decisions of MNCs and 
therefore influences each member country's provision of 
investment incentives, which in turn may trigger relocation. As a 
consequence, subsidy competition increases as integration 
proceeds. We analyze the welfare consequences of this phenomenon, 
modelling subsidization as a game between a MNC facing different 
location alternatives and governments that may deter or induce 
relocation by means of subsidies. We show that the combination of 
integration and subsidy competition may lead to an excess of 
subsidization. We also discuss how the interest of harmonizing 
subsidies, the net gains from integration crucially depend on 
technological differences, ownership and the absorption capacity 
of MNC profits by countries. Lastly, we find that the gain from 
supranational subsidy coordination increases with integration.
 
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2005-21&r=all



130. The Reform of Local Taxation in the United Kingdom in the 
     Light of The Balance of Funding Review Report.
  
    Fender, John.

Currently, local authorities in the UK raise only about a 
quarter of their revenues from taxes under their control. The 
Balance of Funding Review Report considered whether this 
proportion should be increased, and if so, how. This paper 
considers the report and possible reforms. Reasons why the 
balance of funding is a problem are discussed. However, there are 
problems with the current system apart from the balance of 
funding, and to solve some of these a closer link between council 
tax bills and property values is suggested. Whether a local 
income tax should be introduced as a supplement to a reformed 
council tax, and other possible reforms, are also discussed.
 
Keywords: Balance of funding, property tax, business rates, 
          local income tax
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-03&r=all



131. Non-Linear Strategies in a Linear Quadratic Differential 
     Game
  
    Rowat, Colin

We study non-linear Markov perfect equilibria in a two agent 
linear quadratic differential game. In contrast to the literature 
owing to Tsutsui and Mino (1990), we do not associate endogenous 
subsets of the state space with candidate solutions. Instead, we 
address the problem of unbounded-below value functions over 
infinite horizons by use of the 'catching up optimality' 
criterion. We present sufficiency conditions for existence based 
on results in Dockner, Jorgenson, Long, and Sorger (2000). 
Applying these to our model yields the familiar linear solution 
as well as a condition under which a continuum of non-linear 
solutions exist. As this condition is relaxed when agents are 
more patient, and allows more efficient steady states, it 
resembles a Folk Theorem for differential games. The model 
presented here is one of atmospheric pollution; the results apply 
to differential games more generally.
 
Keywords: Differential game, Non-Linear Strategies, Catching up 
          Optimal, Folk Theorem
JEL:      C61 C73 H41 Q00
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-05&r=all



132. On Robust Trend Function Hypothesis Testing
  
    Harvey, David I; Leybourne, Stephen J; Taylor, A.M. Robert

In this paper we build upon the robust procedures proposed in 
Vogelsang (1998) for testing hypotheses concerning the 
deterministric trend function of a univariate time series. 
Vogelsang proposes statistics formed from taking the product of a 
normalised) Wald statistic for the trend function hypothesis 
under test with a specific function of a separate variable 
addition Wald statistic. The function of the second statistic is 
explicitly chosen such that the resultant product statistic has 
pivotal limiting null distributions, coincident at a chosen level,
under I(0) or I(1) errors. The variable addition statistic in 
question has also been suggested as a unit root statistic, and we 
propose corresponding tests based on other well-known unit root 
statistics. We find that, in the case of the linear trend model, 
a test formed using the familiar augmented Dickey-Fuller [ADF] 
statistic provides a useful complement to Vogelsang's original 
tests, demonstrating generally superior power when the errors 
display strong serial correlation with this pattern tending to 
reverse as the degree of serial correlation in the errors lessens.
Importantly for practical considerations, the ADF-based tests 
also display significantly less finite sample over-size in the 
presence of weakly dependent errors than the original tests.
 
Keywords: Wald tests; trend function hypotheses; unit root 
          statistics
JEL:      C22
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-07&r=all



133. Can Mediation Improve Upon Cheap-Talk? A Note
  
    Ganguly, Chirantan; Ray, Indrajit

In the Crawford-Sobel (uniform, quadratic utility) cheap-talk 
model we allow for mediation in which the informed agent reports 
one possible element of a partition to a mediator (a 
communication device) and then the mediator suggests an action to 
the uninformed decision-maker according to the probability 
distribution of the device. We compare the unmediated N-partition 
equilibrium of the Crawford-Sobel model with a mediated 
equilibrium involving exactly N elements to report and N actions 
to choose from. We show that such a mediated equilibrium cannot 
improve upon the unmediated N-partition equilibrium when the 
preference divergence parameter is small.
 
Keywords: Cheap Talk, Mediated Equilibrium
JEL:      C72
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-08&r=all



134. The Real Part of a Complex ARMA Process
  
    Bailey, Ralph

Keywords: Complex ARMA processes; cycles; reciprocal polynomials;
          palindromic polynomials
JEL:      C32
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-09&r=all



135. Ambiguity in Financial Markets: Herding and Contrarian 
     Behaviour
  
    Ford, James L; Kelsey, D; Pang, W

The paper studies the impact of ambiguity on history-dependant 
beahviour in the standard microstructure model of financial 
markets. We show that differences in ambiguity attitudes between 
market makers and traders can generate contrarian and herding 
behaviour in stock markets where assets are traded sequentially 
and trading prices are endogenously determined. We also show the 
mispricing can be only short-term, and in the long-run market is 
efficient in the sense that the market price aggregates 
information without distortions.
 
Keywords: Ambiguity, Choquet Expected Utility, Generalized 
          Bayesian update, Optimism, Herding, Contrarian behaviour
JEL:      D81 G1
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:05-11&r=all



136. Aerospace Competitiveness: UK, US and Europe
  
    Derek Braddon (School of Economics, University of the West 
      of England)
    Keith Hartley (Centre for Defence Economics, University of 
      York)

This paper assesses the UK aerospace industry’s 
competitiveness. Various statistical indicators are used to 
measure competitiveness, based on published data at the industry 
and firm level. The indicators include productivity, output, firm 
size, development time-scales, labour hoarding, exports and 
profitability.
 
Keywords: Aerospace; industry; competitiveness
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0503&r=all



137. Arms Trade Offsets and Development
  
    Jurgen Brauer (Augusta State University)
    J Paul Dunne (School of Economics, University of the West of 
      England)

Offsets, arrangements that obligate the arms seller to reinvest (
“offset”) arms sales proceeds in the purchasing country, are 
an increasingly important facet of the international trade in 
arms. They are used to justify spending on imports by promises 
that there will be significant benefits to the economy, through 
the promotion and development of local industry, technology and 
employment. Until recently, however, there has been little 
research on how well offsets work in practice. This paper is a 
‘state-of-the-art’ review of our empirical knowledge 
regarding arms trade offsets. We find virtually no case where 
offset arrangements have yielded unambiguous net benefits for a 
country’s economic development. As a general rule arms trade 
offset deals are more costly than ‘off-the-shelf’ arms 
purchases, create little by way of new or sustainable employment, 
do not appear to contribute in any substantive way to general 
economic development, and with very few exceptions do not result 
in significant technology transfers, not even within the military 
sector.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0504&r=all



138. Choice of Monetary and Exchange Regimes in ECOWAS: An 
     Optimum Currency Area Analysis
  
    Chantal Dupasquier (UN Economic Commission for Africa)
    Patrick N. Osakwe (UN Economic Commission for Africa)
    Shandre M. Thangavelu (Department of Economics, National 
      University of Singapore)

There are plans by five West African countries to establish a 
second monetary zone in the sub-region by December 2009. In this 
paper we ask whether a monetary union is the appropriate exchange 
rate regime for the sub-region based on economic criteria. We 
address the issue using a rigorous theoretical framework that 
captures the crucial trade-off between the savings in transaction 
costs, resulting from a common currency, and the macroeconomic 
stabilization benefits of a flexible exchange rate regime. The 
main result is that a flexible exchange rate regime dominates a 
monetary union in the ECOWAS subregion.
 
Keywords: Exchange rates; Regimes; Welfare; Transaction costs; 
          West Africa
JEL:      E52 F33 F41
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sca:scaewp:0510&r=all



139. Risk aversion, intergenerational equity and climate change.
  
    Minh Ha-Duong (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur 
      l'Environnement et le Developpement - http://www.centre-
      cired.fr - CNRS : UMR8568 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en 
      Sciences Sociales;Ecole Nationale du Genie Rural des Eaux 
      et des Forets;Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees)
    Nicolas Treich (LEERNA - Laboratoire d'Economie de 
      l'Environnement et des Ressources Naturelles - http://w3.
      toulouse.inra.fr/leerna/index.html - INRA - Universite des 
      Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I)

The paper investigates a climate-economy model with an iso-
elastic welfare function in which one parameter gamma measures 
relative risk-aversion and a distinct parameter rho measures 
resistance to intertemporal substitution. We show both 
theoretically and numerically that climate policy responds 
differently to variations in the two parameters. In particular, 
we show that higher gamma but lower rho leads to increase 
emissions control. We also argue that climate-economy models 
based on intertemporal expected utility maximization, i.e. models 
where gamma = rho, may misinterpret the sensitivity of the 
climate policy to risk-aversion.
 
Keywords: risk aversion; equity; discounting; climate change
Date:     2005-07-18
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00000680_v2&r=all



140. Contrats d'acquisition, maintenance et cout global de<br 
     />possession : comparaisons dans le domaine aeronautique<br 
     />entre la France, le Royaume-Uni, les Etats-Unis et l'OTAN
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Denis Bayon (ISH - chercheur contractuel (Institut des 
      Sciences de l'Homme -Lyon) - http://www.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr)

Recherche menee pour le compte de l'Observatoire economique de 
la Defense.
 
Keywords: Defense ; marches publics ; maintenance ; 
          aeronautique ; droit ; economie
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004201_v1&r=all



141. Les conflits d'usage et leur expression territoriale : une 
     analyse des profils contentieux de sept departements 
     francais
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Christine Lefranc (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut 
      national d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.
      fr)

Les conflits d'usage sont observes par l'activite des 
tribunaux judiciaires et administratifs dans sept departements 
francais, sur la periode janvier 1981-juillet 2003. L'analyse 
statistique lexicale des decisions de justice des cours d'appel, 
de la Cour de cassation, des cours administratives d'appel et du 
Conseil d'Etat fait apparaitre des profils contentieux 
specifiques aux departements. Les specificites 
departementales s'expriment aux niveaux des acteurs presents 
dans les conflits, des logiques d'action (individuelle ou 
collective) et des dispositifs juridiques mobilises, notamment 
dans la contestation des projets de transformation des usages. La 
communication montre que l'activite des tribunaux est un angle 
d'observation fecond de la conflictualite, et que les regles 
du droit administratif organisent les possibilites d'une 
expression des oppositions aux projets de modification des usages 
des sols, des paysages et des ressources naturelles.
 
Keywords: conflits d'usage - amenagements - urbanisme - 
          environnement - contentieux
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004203_v1&r=all



142. Regles de comptabilite publique, droit des marches 
     publics et management public :<br />Reflexions sur les 
     dimensions economiques et juridiques du controle de la 
     depense publique
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Frederic Marty (IDEFI - Institut de droit et d'economie 
      de la firme et de l'industrie - http://www.idefi.cnrs.fr/ - 
      CNRS : FRE2814 - Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis)

Le papier traite des relations entre la comptabilite publique, 
le droit du contrat public et la gestion publique. Le point de 
depart en est le constat de la pauvre performance de la 
comptabilite publique de caisse dans la regulation des 
surcouts et des retards dans l'execution des marches publics. 
Cet etat de fait peut etre explique par la nature 
particuliere et la destination de l'information comptable 
produite par l'appareil public. Elle releve davantage d'une 
rationalite politique et administrative qu'economique et 
gestionnaire. Nous soutenons que la mise en oeuvre de nouvelles 
formes de contrats publics (tels les contrats de partenariat 
public-prive) a cadre comptable inchange risque de conduire a 
une impasse. En effet, les partenariats public-prive sont 
susceptibles de generer de nouveaux risques si leur 
environnement comptable n'est pas approprie. Nous debouchons 
sur une reflexion sur la comptabilite patrimoniale de l'Etat et 
les reformes budgetaires.
 
Keywords: comptabilite publique - contrat public -gestion 
          publique
Date:     2005-07-19
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004205_v1&r=all



143. La mise en ?uvre de la reglementation : une lecture 
     economico-juridique du secteur electrique et des marches 
     publics
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Frederic Marty (IDEFI - Institut de droit et d'economie 
      de la firme et de l'industrie - http://www.idefi.cnrs.fr/ - 
      CNRS : FRE2814 - Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis)

Nous nous proposons d'appliquer une grille de lecture 
institutionnelle, sensible aux dimensions economiques du droit, 
aux dispositifs juridiques relatifs au secteur electrique et aux 
marches publics, en particulier de la defense. Ces domaines ont 
en commun d'etre fortement reglementes, de mettre en jeu la 
presence de l'Etat dans l'activite economique et, a ce titre, 
d'etre lies a la conduite de l'action publique. Deux 
dimensions seront privilegiees : d'une part, celle de 
l'architecture institutionnelle des systemes de reglementation 
et des conditions dans lesquelles ils operent ; d'autre part, 
celle de la mise en ?uvre des regles, dont nous verrons qu'elle 
constitue un processus plus complexe qu'une simple application de 
regles prescrivant des comportements. <br />Une premiere 
section sera consacree aux logiques d'action des institutions de 
reglementation. La seconde abordera la question de la mise en 
?uvre des regles, et insistera sur l'importance des recours aux 
tribunaux et des interdependances entre regles. La conclusion 
reviendra sur les questions methodologiques que l'utilisation de 
materiaux juridiques en economie permet de poser.
 
Keywords: reglementation - droit - economie - secteur 
          electrique - marches publics
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004221_v1&r=all



144. Les conflits d'amenagement, de l'utilite sociale a 
     l'equite locale : le calcul economique et les dispositifs 
     juridiques au defi de l'equite dans les nuisances des 
     infrastructures.
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Nadine Levratto (IDHE-Cachan - Institutions et Dynamiques 
      Historiques de l'Economie - http://www.idhe.ens-cachan.fr/ -
      CNRS : UMR8533 - Universite Pantheon-Sorbonne - Paris I;
      Universite Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis;Universite de 
      Nanterre - Paris X - Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan)

Cet article s'interesse a la question de l'equite et a 
differentes formes sociales et territoriales face a 
l'exposition aux nuisances liees aux amenagements et ouvrages 
d'interet public. La perspective suivie met en parallele les 
termes du calcul economique public mobilise et les differents 
dispositifs juridiques mis en ?uvre dans de tels projets. 
L'article montre comment l'analyse des conflits permet d'aborder 
la question des politiques publiques d'amenagement et des 
conflits afferents. On montre que la compensation des 
externalites non prevue dans la decision d'Etat ne peut 
trouver une expression que dans le « voice » et ses avatars (
conflits, recours en justice…).
 
Keywords: conflits d'amenagement - environnement - calcul 
          economique - droit - equite
Date:     2005-07-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004222_v1&r=all



145. Modalites d'emergence et procedures de resolution des 
     conflits d'usage autour de l'espace et des ressources 
     naturelles. Analyse dans les espaces ruraux
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Andre Torre (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut national 
      d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.fr)
    Armelle Caron (ENGREF - ENGREF Clermont-Ferrand - http://www.
      engref.fr/clermont.htm)
    Anastasia Aviles (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut 
      national d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.
      fr)
    Christine Lefranc (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut 
      national d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.
      fr)
    Marina Galman (ENSAR (RENNES) - ENSAR (Rennes))
    Romain Melot (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut national 
      d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.fr)
    Cecile Rialland (GEDEP, UNIVERSITE DE TOURS-FRANCOIS 
      RABELAIS - GEDEP, Universite de Tours-Francois Rabelais)
    Maria-Isabel Salazar (INRA - INRA - UMR SAD-APT (Institut 
      national d'agronomie de Paris-Grignon) - http://www.inapg.
      fr)

rapport de recherche au programme Environnement, vie, societes 
du CNRS - appel d'offres "la gouvernance en question"
 
Keywords: conflits d'usage - amenagements - environnement - 
          urbanisme
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004202_v1&r=all



146. Observer les conflits d'usage : que nous apprend le 
     contentieux judiciaire et administratif sur le 
     developpement des regions ?
  
    Thierry Kirat (IRISECREP - Institut de recherche 
      interdisciplinaire en socio-economie - Centres de 
      Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques - http://www.dauphine.
      fr/iris - CNRS : UMR7170 - Universite Paris Dauphine - 
      Paris IX)
    Philippe Jeanneaux (ENITAC - Ecole Nationale d'Ingenieurs 
      des Travaux Agricoles de Clermont-Ferrand - http://www.
      enitac.fr)

Le developpement des territoires est un processus 
multidimensionnel qui met en jeu la confrontation de 
preferences individuelles ou collectives quant a l'allocation 
des ressources territoriales (sols, espaces naturels, ressources 
naturelles) a des usages alternatifs. Nous analysons les apports 
de l'etude du contentieux devant les juridictions judiciaires et,
surtout, administratives a la comprehension des conflits 
d'usage lies au developpement des territoires. L'accent est mis 
sur les departements de l'Isere et du Puy de Dome, mais des 
elements sur d'autres territoires sont presentes. La section 
1 presente la methodologie et les sources utilisees. La 
section 2 degage des enseignements sur le plan theorique, a 
partir des principaux apports de l'analyse empirique.
 
Keywords: conflits - droit – contentieux – espaces - 
          environnement – industrie - amenagements
Date:     2005-07-21
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00004237_v1&r=all



147. The Effects of Beliefs versus Risk Preferences on 
     Bargaining Outcomes
  
    David L. Dickinson

In bargaining environments with uncertain impasse outcomes (e.g.,
litigation or labor strike outcomes), there is an identification 
problem that confounds data interpretation. In such environments, 
the minimally acceptable settlement value from a risk-averse (
risk-loving) but unbiased bargainer is empirically 
indistinguishable from what one could get with risk-neutrality 
and pessimism (optimism). This paper reports data from a 
controlled bargaining experiment where risk preferences and 
beliefs are both measured in order to assess their relative 
importance in bargaining outcomes. The average lab subject is 
risk-averse, yet optimistic, which is consistent with existing 
studies that examine each in isolation. I also find that the 
effects of optimism dominate those of risk-aversion. Optimistic 
bargainers are significantly more likely to dispute and have 
aggressive final bargaining positions. Dispute rates are not 
statistically affected by risk preferences, but there is some 
evidence that risk aversion leads to less aggressive bargaining 
positions and lower payoff outcomes. A key implication is that 
increased settlement rates are more likely achieved by minimizing 
impasse uncertainty (to limit the potential for optimism) rather 
than maximizing uncertainty (to weaken the reservation point of 
risk-averse bargainers), as has been argued in the dispute 
resolution literature.
 
Keywords: risk preference, optimism, bargaining, experiments
JEL:      C91 D81 D84
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:05-17&r=all



148. Deflation and Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity: Evidence from 
     Japan
  
    Kengo Yasui (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)
    Shinji Takenaka (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)

This study empirically analyzed downward nominal wage rigidity 
using time-series cross-industry data from 1981 to 2002, a period 
which included deflation. We found that nominal wages remained 
rigid to downward pressure by expected deflation and labor-market 
tightness. Estimations according to worker age categories 
revealed downward wage rigidity with deflationary pressure for 
most age categories. Wage rigidity during labor-market tightness 
was greater for younger workers.
 
Keywords: wage rigidity, nominal wage, deflation, unemployment, 
          Japan
JEL:      E24 E31 J30
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0521&r=all



149. Policy-Induced Mean Reversion in the Real Interest Rate?
  
    Zisimos Koustas (Department of Economics, Brock University)
    Jean-Francois Lamarche (Department of Economics, Brock 
      University)

This paper utilizes tests for a unit root that have power 
against nonlinear alternatives to provide empirical evidence on 
the time series properties of the ex-post real interest rate in 
the G7 countries. We find that the unit-root hypothesis can be 
rejected in the presence of a nonlinear alternative motivated by 
theoretical literature on optimal monetary policy rules. This 
represents a reversal of the results obtained using standard 
linear unit-root and cointegration tests. Tests for linearity 
reject this hypothesis for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and 
the US. For these countries we estimate nonlinear models to 
capture the dynamics of the ex-post real interest rate.
 
Keywords: Fisher Effect; Unit Roots; Self-Exciting Threshold 
          Autoregression
JEL:      E40 E50 C32
Date:     2005-07
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brk:wpaper:0503&r=all



150. Banks without Parachutes – Competitive Effects of 
     Government Bail-out Policies
  
    Hendrik Hakenes (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)
    Isabel Schnabel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

The explicit or implicit protection of banks through government 
bail-out policies is a universal phenomenon. We analyze the 
competitive effects of such policies in two models with different 
degrees of transparency in the banking sector. Our main result is 
that the bail-out policy unambiguously leads to higher risk-
taking at those banks that do not enjoy a bail-out guarantee. The 
reason is that the prospect of a bail-out induces the protected 
bank to expand, thereby intensifying competition in the deposit 
market and depressing other banks’ margins. In contrast, the 
effects on the protected bank’s risk-taking and on welfare 
depend on the transparency of the banking sector.
 
Keywords: Government bail-out, banking competition, transparency,
          “too big to fail”, financial stability
JEL:      G21 G28 L11
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_12&r=all



151. Optimal Income Taxation, Public-Goods Provision and Public-
     Sector Pricing: A Contribution to the Foundations of Public 
     Economics
  
    Martin Hellwig (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

The paper develops an integrated model of optimal nonlinear 
income taxation, public-goods provision and pricing in a large 
economy. With asymmetric information about labour productivities 
and publicgoods preferences, the multidimensional mechanism 
design problem becomes tractable by requiring renegotiation 
proofness of the final allocation of private goods and admission 
tickets for excludable public goods. Under an affiliation 
assumption on the underlying distribution, optimal income 
taxation, public-goods provision and admission fees have the same 
qualitative properties as in unidimensional models. These 
properties are obtained for utilitarian welfare maximization and 
for a Ramsey-Boiteux formulation with interim participation 
constraints.
 
Keywords: Optimal Income Taxation, Public Goods, Public-Sector 
          Pricing, Multidimensional Mechanism Design, Ramsey-
          Boiteux Pricing
JEL:      D82 H20 H40
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_14&r=all



152. Cost and Benefits from Infrastructure Competition. 
     Estimating Welfare Effects from Broadband Access Competition
  
    Felix Hoffler (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Competition between parallel infrastructures incorporates 
opposing welfare effects. The gain from reduced deadweight loss 
might be outweighed by the inefficient duplication of an existing 
infrastructure. Using data from broadband internet access for 
Western Europe 2000-2004, this paper investigates which effect 
prevails empirically. Infrastructure competition between DSL and 
cable TV had a significant and positive impact on the broadband 
penetration. Comparing the additional social surplus attributable 
to cable competition with the cable investments, we conclude that 
infrastructure competition has not been welfare enhancing. A 
theoretical model is provided, formalizing why the effect of 
competition on penetration might be limited.
 
Keywords: Infrastructure Competition, Service Competition, 
          Broadband, Internet, Cable TV, DSL
JEL:      L51 L86 L96 L12 K23
Date:     2005-02
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_1&r=all



153. A Note on Budget Balance under Interim Participation 
     Constraints: The Case of Independet Types
  
    Tilman Borgers (Department of Economics, University College 
      London)
    Peter Norman (Department of Economics,University of British 
      Columbia, Vancouver)

We provide a simple proof of the equivalence between ex ante and 
ex post budget balance constraints in Bayesian mechanism design 
with independent types when participation decisions are made at 
the interim stage. The result is given an interpretation in terms 
of efficient allocation of risk.
 
Date:     2005-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_14&r=all



154. Switching Costs in Retroactive Rebates – What’s time 
     got to do with it?
  
    Frank P. Maier-Rigaud (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

This paper analyzes the role of the reference period in 
assessing switching costs in retroactive rebates. A retroactive 
rebate allows a firm to use the inelastic portion of demand as 
leverage to decrease price in the elastic portion of demand, 
thereby artificially increasing switching costs of buyers. I 
identify two factors that determine the extent to which 
retroactive rebates, as a form of infra-personal price-
discrimination, can result in potential market foreclosure. These 
two factors are the rebate percentage and the threshold at which 
this percentage is retroactively applied. In contrast to the 
existing literature, the length of the reference period within 
which a rebate scheme applies is demonstrated to be at best an 
indirect approximation of the potential foreclosure effects of a 
rebate.
 
Keywords: Retroactive rebates, article 82 ECT, reference period, 
          infrapersonal price discrimination, foreclosure
JEL:      L42 K21 D43
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_3&r=all



155. The Role of Liquidity and Implicit Guarantees in the German 
     Twin Crisis of 1931
  
    Isabel Schnabel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Using monthly balance-sheet data of all major German credit 
banks, we analyze deposit with-drawals and bank failures in the 
German banking and currency crisis of 1931. We find that de-posit 
withdrawals were driven by the run on the currency, but were also 
related to banks’ liquidity positions; that branch banks were 
no more stable than unit banks; and that large banks were 
privileged, being bailed out and receiving preferential access to 
the discount window. These findings underline the importance of 
liquidity and implicit guarantees in twin crises, while they 
question the benefits of branching in such crises.
 
Keywords: Twin crises, liquidity, implicit guarantees, “too 
          big to fail”
JEL:      G21 E5 N24 C34
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_5&r=all



156. Bank Size and Risk-Taking under Basel II
  
    Hendrik Hakenes (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)
    Isabel Schnabel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

This paper discusses the relationship between bank size and risk-
taking under Pillar I of the New Basel Capital Accord. Using a 
model with imperfect competition and moral hazard, we find that 
small banks (and hence small borrowers) may profit from the 
introduction of an internal ratings based (IRB) approach if this 
approach is applied uniformly across banks. However, the banks’ 
right to choose between the standardized and the IRB approaches 
unambiguously hurts small banks, and pushes them towards higher 
risk-taking due to fiercer competition. This may even lead to 
higher aggregate risk in the economy.
 
Keywords: Basel II, IRB approach, bank competition, capital 
          requirements, SME financing
JEL:      G21 G28 L11
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_6&r=all



157. Monopoly Prices versus Ramsey-Boiteux Prices: Are they 
     "similar", and: Does it matter?
  
    Felix Hoffler (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Ramsey-Boiteux prices and monopoly prices are frequently 
regarded as being similar. This might suggest that, in particular 
in network industries with large fixed costs, sometimes monopoly 
pricing is close to the Ramsey-Boiteux second best and welfare 
superior to imperfectly regulated prices. This paper tries to 
specify what is meant by "being similar", and it analyzes the 
welfare implications that can be drawn from comparing both sets 
of prices. Interdependence of demand and the impact of 
competition are discussed. We reinforce the view that monopoly 
prices are usually not "similar", and even if they are, this 
implies no positive welfare judgments on monopoly pricing.
 
Keywords: Ramsey Pricing, Regulation, Access Pricing, Termination
JEL:      L33 L50 L94
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_7&r=all



158. Altruism and charitable giving in a fully replicated economy
  
    Thomas Gaube (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

In this paper, an economy is analyzed where one group of agents, 
the altruists, cares about the well-being of another group of 
agents, the recipients. It is asked how changes in the size of 
these groups affect the altruists’ charitable giving in the 
Nash equilibrium. I show that a pure group size effect, i.e., a 
proportional expansion of both subgroups can lead to less free 
riding and to a lower degree of underprovision relative to the 
efficient level of charitable giving.
 
Keywords: altruism, public goods, group size, charitable giving
JEL:      D64 H41
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_8&r=all



159. Second-Best Pollution Taxation and Environmental Quality
  
    Thomas Gaube (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

This paper deals with second-best pollution taxation by 
investigating allocations instead of the corresponding tax rates. 
Assuming certain restrictions on utility and that the marginal 
revenue from environmental taxation is positive, it is shown that 
environmental quality is higher in second best where only 
distortionary taxes are used to finance public expenditures than 
in the first-best optimum where lump-sum taxes are available.
 
Keywords: environmental taxation, public goods
JEL:      H21 H41
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_9&r=all



160. Market Definition As a Social Construction (Marktabgrenzung 
     als soziale Konstruktion)
  
    Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Anti-trust cases more often than not hinge upon market 
definition. The anti-trust authorities use standardised tests for 
the purpose, like the "small but significant and nontransitory 
increase in price" test prevalent in US law. These tests are 
often read as neoclassical economics, watered down to legal scale.
They then are interpreted by economic concepts like cross price 
elasticities. These interpretations rest on methodological 
individualism. Social phenomena, like competition, are explained 
from the perspective of actors maximising their individual 
utility. If one wants to understand how an individual firm is 
controlled by competition, this is a most helpful approach. But 
for defining the effective area of competition, or the relevant 
market, methodological holism is more powerful. Its basic 
conceptual unit is not the individual, but communication. Markets 
are seen as implicitly or explicitly organised entities, giving 
an industry an identity, and helping the consumers orient 
themselves in a complex environment. Specifically, a market turns 
out to be a hybrid between co-operation (for constituting the 
area of competition) and conflict (within the area thus defined). 
This alternative approach is important for anti-trust practice. 
The decisive fact is not whether two products "objectively ought 
to be" substitutes. What market participants see as substitutes 
is the only thing that matters. Consequently, for market 
definition, anti-trust authorities may not (only) rely on their 
own wisdom. They must find ways to reconstruct the communication 
among market participants.
 
Keywords: Market Definition, Constructivism
JEL:      B50 L40 L41
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2003_11&r=all



161. Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance
  
    Chrysostomos Mantzavinos (Faculty of Economics and Business, 
      Witten/Herdecke University)
    Douglas C. North (Washington University, St. Louis)
    Syed Shariq (Institute for International Studies, Stanford 
      University)

In this article, we provide a broad overview of the interplay 
among cognition, belief systems, and institutions, and how they 
affect economic performance. We argue that a deeper understanding 
of institutions’ emergence, their working properties, and their 
effect on economic and political outcomes should begin from an 
analysis of cognitive processes. We explore the nature of 
individual and collective learning, stressing that the issue is 
not whether agents are perfectly or boundedly rational, but 
rather how human beings actually reason and choose, individually 
and in collective settings. We then tie the processes of learning 
to institutional analysis, providing arguments in favor of what 
can be characterized as “cognitive institutionalism.” Besides,
we show that a full treatment of the phenomenon of path 
dependence should start at the cognitive level, proceed at the 
institutional level, and culminate at the economic level.
 
Date:     2003-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2003_13&r=all



162. The Democratic Legitimacy of Business Interest 
     Representation in the European Union: Normative Implications 
     of the Logic of Access
  
    Pieter Bouwen (Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

This paper studies the capacity of business interests to 
contribute to the democratic legitimacy of EU governance through 
participation in the EU policy-making process. Whereas the 
unbalanced participation of business as opposed to non-business 
interests in EU policy-making has been problematized, no research 
has been conducted regarding the unequal participation of 
different organizational forms of business interest 
representation (companies, associations and consultants). Here, 
first it is argued on the basis of a theory of access that this 
unequal participation has important repercussions because the 
different organizational forms do not have the same potential to 
contribute to the legitimacy of EU governance. The theoretical 
approach makes it possible to bridge the gap between the EU 
legitimacy debate and the literature on EU business interest 
representation by establishing a relationship between the new 
concept of ‘access goods’ and the existing notions of 
input/output legitimacy. Second, an empirical investigation of 
business interest participation is undertaken in order to 
systematically assess the empirical relevance of the normative 
propositions and consequently to make inferences about the 
democratic legitimacy of business interest participation in the 
EU policy-making process.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2003_8&r=all



163. Is there an optimization in bounded rationality? The ratio 
     of aspiration levels
  
    Martin Beckenkamp (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Simon’s (1955) famous paper was one of the first to cast doubt 
on the validity of rational choice theory; it has been 
supplemented by many more papers in the last three and a half 
decades. Nevertheless, rational choice theory plays a crucial 
role in classical and neoclassical economic theory, which 
presumes a completely rational agent. The central points 
characterizing such an agent are: (1) The agent uses all the 
information that is given to him. (2) The agent has clear 
preferences with respect to the results of different actions. (3) 
The agent has adequate competences to optimize his decisions. As 
an alternative to this conception, Simon (1955) himself suggests 
the concept of “bounded rationality”. In this context, Simon (
1956) discusses a principle, which he names the “satisficing 
principle” (for explanations with respect to this notion cf. 
Gigerenzer & Todd 1999, p. 13). It assumes that, instead of 
searching for an optimal action, the search for an action 
terminates if an alternative has been found that satisfies a 
given “aspiration level”. It will be demonstrated that 
although the satisficing principle is nothing but a heuristic, 
there is a mathematical optimization at work when aspiration 
levels are used in this kind of problems. The question about the 
optimal aspiration level can be posed. Optimization within the 
framework of bounded rationality is possible. However, the way in 
which such an optimization can be achieved is very simple: 
Optimal thresholds in binary sequential decisions rest with the 
median.
 
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_15&r=all



164. The Institutional-Evolutionary Antitrust Model
  
    Chrysostomos Mantzavinos (Faculty of Economics and Business, 
      Witten/Herdecke University)

The purpose of this article is to provide an alternative 
antitrust model to the mainstream model that is used in 
competition policy. I call it the Institutional-Evolutionary 
Antitrust Model. In order to construct an antitrust model one 
needs both empirical knowledge and considerations of how to 
adequately deal with norms. The analysis of competition as an 
evolutionary process that unfolds within legal rules provides the 
empirical foundation for the model. The development of the 
normative dimension involves the elaboration of a comparative 
approach. Building on those foundations the main features of the 
Institutional-Evolutionary Model are sketched out and it is shown 
that its use leads to systematically different outcomes and 
conclusions than the dominant antitrust ideals.
 
Keywords: Antitrust, Competition, Competition Policy, 
          Evolutionary Process, Institutions
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_1a&r=all



165. The Role of Rivalry. Public Goods versus Common-Pool 
     Resources
  
    Frank P. Maier-Rigaud (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)
    Jose Apesteguia

Despite a large theoretical and empirical literature on public 
goods and common-pool resources, a systematic comparison of these 
two types of social dilemmas is lacking. In fact, there is 
considerable confusion about these two types of dilemma 
situations. As a result, they are often treated alike. In this 
paper we argue that the degree of rivalry is the fundamental 
difference between the two games. We show that rivalry implies 
that both games cannot be represented by the same game theoretic 
structure. Fur-thermore, we experimentally study behavior in a 
quadratic public good and a quadratic common-pool resource game 
with identical Pareto opti-mum but divergent interior Nash 
equilibria. The results show that partici-pants clearly perceive 
the differences in rivalry. Aggregate behavior in both games 
starts relatively close to Pareto efficiency and converges to the 
respective Nash equilibrium.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_2&r=all



166. Globalisation and National Incentives for Protecting 
     Environmental Goods
  
    Alkuin Kolliker (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

This article tries to explain national incentives for protecting 
environmental goods either autonomously or collectively; it 
explores how globalisation has affected those incentives; and it 
suggests how national environmental policy might respond so as to 
ensure its effectiveness. The central argument is that national 
incentives for environmental protection may to a considerable 
extent be explained by a combination of the type of environmental 
good to be protected (in terms of public goods theory) and the 
effects of environmental protection measures on international 
competitiveness. Arrangements for protecting environmental goods 
can be ranked according to their centripetal effects on non-
participating countries. Centripetal effects are strongest in the 
case of club goods (1), followed by private goods (2), public 
goods (3), and common pool resources (4). The centripetal effects 
resulting from the type of environmental good can be further 
reinforced by competitive advantages resulting from environmental 
protection measures; they can be weakened by competitive 
disadvantages; or they can remain unchanged due to competitive 
neutrality. The combination of four types of environmental goods 
and three types of competitive effects (positive, negative, 
neutral) results in twelve possible cases, with differing 
national incentives for autonomous and collective environmental 
protection. Given specific assumptions, these twelve cases can be 
ranked with regard to the severity of collective action problems 
they involve. The article includes a short empirical illustration 
for each case. It also analyses how globalisation (in the form of 
increasing trade) and some of its driving forces (in the form of 
free trade agreements) influence national incentives and legal 
possibilities for environmental protection. This article 
concludes with a brief discussion of four options for (re-)
expanding the action space for national environmental policies 
under the condition of economic globalisation.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_3&r=all



167. Social Dilemmas, Revisited from a Heuristics Perspective
  
    Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

The standard tool for analysing social dilemmas is game theory. 
They are reconstructed as prisoner dilemma games. This is helpful 
for understanding the incentive structure. Yet this analysis is 
based on the classic homo oeconomicus assumptions. In many real 
world dilemma situations, these assumptions are misleading. A 
case in point is the contribution of households to climate change.
Decisions about using cars instead of public transport, or about 
extensive air conditioning, are typically not based on ad hoc 
calculation. Rather, individuals rely on situational heuristics 
for the purpose. This paper does two things: it offers a model of 
heuristics, in the interest of making behaviour that is guided by 
heuristics comparable to behaviour based on rational reasoning. 
Based on this model, the paper determines the implications for 
the definition of social dilemmas. In some contexts, the social 
dilemma vanishes. In other contexts, it must be understood, and 
hence solved, in substantially different ways.
 
Keywords: Heuristic, Social Dilemma, Public Good, Prisoner’s 
          Dilemma
JEL:      A12 A13 C91 D62 H41 K32
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_4&r=all



168. Risk Aversion in the Small and in the Large. When Outcomes 
     are Multidimensional
  
    Martin Hellwig (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

The paper discusses criteria for comparing risk aversion of 
decision makers when outcomes are multidimensional. A weak 
concept, ”commodity specific greater risk aversion”, is based 
on the comparison of risk premia paid in a specified commodity. A 
stronger concept, ”uniformly greater risk aversion” is based 
on the comparison of risk premia regardless of what commodities 
are used for payment. Neither concept presumes that von Neumann-
Morgenstern utility functions are ordinally equivalent. 
Nonincreasing consumption specific risk aversion is shown to be 
sufficient to make randomization undesirable in an agency problem 
with hidden characteristics.
 
Keywords: Multidimensional Risks, Risk Aversion, Risk Premia, 
          Randomization in Incentive Schemes
JEL:      D81 D82
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_6&r=all



169. Nonlinear Incentive Provision in Walrasian Markets: A 
     Cournot Convergence Approach
  
    Martin Hellwig (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

The paper studies insurance with moral hazard in a system of 
contingent-claims markets. Insurance buyers are modelled as 
Cournot monopolists or oligopolists. The other agents condition 
their expectations on market prices, as in models of rational-
expectations equilibrium with asymmetric information. Thereby 
they correctly anticipate accident probabilities corresponding to 
effort incentives induced by insurance buyers’ net trades. When 
there are many agents to share the insurance buyer’s risk, 
Cournot equilibrium outcomes are close to being second-best. In 
contrast, if insurance buyers are price takers, equilibria fail 
to exist or are bounded away from being second-best.
 
Keywords: Insurance, Moral Hazard, Incentive Contracting, 
          Walrasian Markets, Rational-Expectations, Cournot 
          Equilibrium
JEL:      D50 D62 D80
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2004_8&r=all



170. Offentlichkeitsarbeit der Regierung (Governmental Public 
     Relations)
  
    Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)

Should government be allowed to spend tax payers’ money on 
public relations? If one frames the question that way, the 
negative answer suggests itself. Yet government communication 
serves more purposes. These purposes may be analysed in terms of 
behavioural economics and psychology. In moral suasion, 
government communication is the governance tool itself. Most 
other governance tools do not automatically reach their 
addressees. Appropriate communication is necessary for them to 
become effective. Finally, government is a legitimate player in 
political process, and communication to the public is a 
legitimate element of this process. Specifically, the normatively 
desirable and the normative problematic aspects can usually not 
be fully disentangled. Hence, the potential distortion of 
elections must be outweighed against the governance effect. This 
paper does so by interpreting governmental public relations as a 
bundled product. It models the people as the principal, and the 
political parties running government as the agent. The distortion 
effect is observable, the governance effect is not. This set-up 
of the model invites a second-best solution in terms of mechanism 
design. Government is free to advertise. But advertising is 
costly in that it generates a handicap at the next elections. 
This solution is taken as a benchmark for discussing politically 
more digestible third and forth best alternatives.
 
Keywords: Governmental Public Relations; Governmental 
          Communication; Mechanism Design; Constitutional Law
JEL:      D72 D82
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2005_2&r=all



171. The Role of Choice in Social Dilemma Experiments
  
    Frank P. Maier-Rigaud (Max Planck Institute for Research on 
      Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany)
    Jose Apesteguia

On the basis of problems related to asymmetric information, self-
governance has been proposed and often empirically found to be 
superior to the external imposition of rules in social dilemma 
situations. The present paper suggests and experimentally 
analyses a different line of argument, namely to what extent 
behavioral aspects can explain these findings. We study this 
hypothesis using the simplest, most general dilemma form: the 
prisoner’s dilemma (PD). We compare behavior when players are 
given the possibility of choosing between two different 
representations of the same PD, to behavior when players are 
externally assigned to play a specific game. We find that 
cooperation rates are significantly higher in the games that were 
chosen.
 
Keywords: Freedom of Choice, Self-governance, Social Dilemmas, 
          Framing
JEL:      H41 C90 C91
Date:     2003-09
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2003_7&r=all



172. Macroeconomic Effects of Reallocation Shocks: A generalised 
     impulse response function analysis for three European 
     countries
  
    Theodore Panagiotidis (Dept of Economics, Loughborough 
      University)
    Gianluigi Pelloni (University of Bologna)

We develop a generalised impulse response function (GIRF) 
approach to explore the different impacts of aggregate and 
sectoral shocks within a VAR-GARCH-M model. Using the output of 
our GIRF analysis, we explore the behaviour of three European 
countries (Germany, Spain and the UK). We analyse the aggregate 
and sectoral responses to discriminate among three different 
hypotheses of business cycle fluctuations. Links are established 
and explanations are provided within the still experimental 
character of our exercise.
 
Keywords: sectoral shifts, employment fluctuations, generalised 
          impulse response function.
JEL:      E30 C10 J21
Date:     2003-12
Date:     2003-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2003_15&r=all



173. Using the Correlation Dimension to Detect non-linear 
     dynamics
  
    Theodore Panagiotidis (Dept of Economics, Loughborough 
      University)
    David Chappell (University of Sheffield)

The standardised residuals from GARCH models fitted to three 
stock indices of the Athens Stock Exchange are examined for 
evidence of chaotic behaviour. In each case the correlation 
dimension is calculated for a range of embedding dimensions. The 
results do not support the hypothesis of chaotic behaviour; it 
appears that each set of residuals is iid.
 
Keywords: Non-linear Dynamics, Stock Indices, Chaos, Correlation 
          Dimension.
JEL:      C22 C53 G10
Date:     2004-11
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2004_17&r=all



174. University Funding Systems and their Impact on Research and 
     Teaching: A General Framework
  
    John Beath (University of St Andrews)
    Joanna Poyago-Theotoky (University of Loughborough)
    David Ulph (Inland Revenue)

This paper addresses the following question: how does a higher 
education funding system influence the trade-off that 
universities make between research and teaching? We do so by 
constructing a general model that allows universities to choose 
actively the quality of their teaching and research when faced 
with different funding systems. In particular, we derive the 
feasible sets that face universities under such systems and show 
how, as the parameters of the system are varied, the nature of 
the university system itself changes. The “culture” of the 
university system thus becomes endogenous. This makes the model 
useful for the analysis of reforms in funding and also for 
international comparisons.
 
Keywords: University funding system, higher education, teaching 
          quality, research quality, research elite.
JEL:      I21 I22
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2005_2&r=all



175. Estonian Inflation Model
  
    Urmas Sepp
    Andres Vesilind
    Ulo Kaasik

The objective of model-building was an inflation model suitable 
for prognosis as well as for simulation. The model serves two 
purposes. First of all, it is a tool for analysing inflation. 
Secondly, it is part of the model of Estonian economy, which 
completes the adjustment loop of the macromodel. The theoretical 
background of the inflation model derives from four basic 
features of Estonian economy. Namely, Estonia is: a small and 
open economy, a transitional economy, economy under currency 
board arrangement and a market economy. When estimating the model,
inflation was decomposed into a) underlying inflation which is a 
long-run process and b) inflation deviations from the equilibrium 
which are caused by the short-run impact of inflation factors. 
The underlying inflation, which reflects the convergence, is 
determined as a trend. The latter was specified as a time 
function, ARMA process, moving average and HP filter, whereas the 
best result was obtained with time function. According to 
modelling output the short run dynamics of the inflation are 
determined by three main factors - demand pressure reflected by 
the GDP gap, exchange rate of the US dollar (which is proxy for 
foreign prices), and administrative action for correcting 
regulated prices. The adequacy of the model has been tested on 
the basis of ex post and ex ante prognosis. The model provided 
acceptable results in the simulation of endogenous and exogenous 
shocks
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2000-01&r=all



176. Assessment of the Euro\'s implications for European 
     economic development
  
    Iika Korhonen
    Mare Randveer

This paper assesses the impacts of Economic and Monetary Union 
and the euro on developments within the EU and globally. The 
emphasis is on euro-11 countries and the eight most advanced 
accession candidates in Central and Eastern Europe. The single 
currency completes the project for a single market in Europe, and 
overall, clear efficiency gains for participating countries are 
expected. Low, stable interest rates should spur investment and 
the single currency should promote the formation of large, liquid 
capital markets, eventually transforming the structure of 
financial intermediation within the euro area. Although 
participating countries achieved a high degree of nominal 
convergence in the 1990s, this process now appears to have ended. 
Moreover, the conduct of a common monetary policy becomes more 
problematic with countries at different phases in the economic 
cycle. Accession candidates may use a variety of foreign exchange 
rate regimes before they join the EU, but ultimately their 
economic policies become a matter of common interest. Pressure to 
peg to the euro obviously increases as membership approaches, but 
there is compelling evidence that countries should hold back on 
pegging to the euro until they have achieved sufficient 
convergence to attain credibility for a policy of fixed exchange 
rates.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2000-02&r=all



177. Equilibrium exchange rate of the Estonian kroon, its 
     dynamics and impacts of deviations
  
    Fabio Filipozzi

The aim of the analysis presented here is to examine the 
behaviour of the real exchange rate of the Estonian kroon, to 
estimate its equilibrium value and investigate its impact on the 
competitiveness of Estonian economy. A brief account on possible 
measures of the real exchange rate (RER) is given, and then the 
real effective exchange rate (REER) weighted with domestic and 
foreign consumer price indices (CPI) is chosen for the estimation.
A model for the equilibrium real exchange rate (ERER) 
determination suitable for a small open economy as Estonia is 
outlined and provides a theoretical basis for understanding what 
kind of fundamentals can affect real exchange rate behaviour. 
Given the short sample considered here, a single equation 
estimation method is used. The choice of fundamentals is 
determined both by particular features of the Estonian economy 
and data constraint. The fundamentals finally adopted are 
productivity differential between tradeables and nontradeables 
sectors, investment share, resource balance and nominal effective 
exchange rate. Having detected the existence of one cointegration 
vector between RER and fundamentals, it is possible to estimate 
the long-run relationship linking them and an error correction 
mechanism in order to have some information on short-run 
behaviour of the real exchange rate. Estimation results are then 
used to construct both ERER series and misalignment measures. To 
do this, some hypotheses on equilibrium/sustainable levels of 
fundamentals are set and discussed. Our simulation hence brings 
us to conclude that an appreciation of RER in the sample period 
occurred together with an appreciation of its equilibrium level. 
The latter appreciated slower, hence the initial undervaluation 
was corrected and the difference between RER and its equilibrium 
level shrank, leading to a slight overvaluation after the Russian 
crisis.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2000-03&r=all



178. The monetary sector under a currency board arrangement : 
     specification and estimation of a model with Estonian data
  
    Rasmus Pikkani

Modelling work on Estonian data indicates that external 
financing of the private sector has strong impact on domestic 
demand, which implies that valuable insights may be gained in 
this case from understanding the behavioural relationships in the 
monetary sector. The current paper provides a theoretical 
analysis of the monetary sector under a currency board regime and 
applies specification tests to Estonian data. As a final product, 
empirical equations for average lending rate, loans provided to 
the private sector and money demand are estimated. While 
estimations herein use monthly data, quarterly modifications of 
the model will be inserted into Eesti Pank\'s quarterly 
macromodel in the future.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2000-04&r=all



179. Determinants of Estonian export of goods: an econometric 
     analysis and comparison with Latvia and Lithuania
  
    Andres Vesilind
    Laura Ehrlich

The goal of this paper was to analyse empirically the importance 
of different determinants of Estonian export and compare the 
results with Latvia and Lithuania. For a theoretical model, the 
imperfect substitutes model was chosen. For empirical estimation 
Estonian nominal export was disaggregated by commodity groups, by 
customs procedures and by groups of destination countries. 
Besides that an equation of real aggregate goods\' export and 
models of Latvian and Lithuanian export by commodity groups were 
estimated. According to estimated models Estonian export is 
mainly determined by manufacturing output in Finland and Sweden 
and real economic growth in other EU countries. Also real 
consumption in neighbouring countries is important for Estonian 
export, but here the countries of influence change - the 
influence of Russia declines as the influence of Western 
countries rises. Prices and exchange rates have smaller effect to 
Estonian exports. The comparison of the results of Estonian 
export modelling to those of Latvia and Lithuania shows that the 
main determinants of export in three countries are different. 
While Estonian export is mainly influenced by Nordic economies, 
Latvian and Lithuanian export is mainly influenced by Germany and 
the UK. The influence of Russia has declined in all three 
countries, remaining the highest in the case of Lithuania.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2001-01&r=all



180. Potential output estimates for Central and East European 
     countries using production function method
  
    Marit Hinnosaar

In the paper potential output of four Central and East European 
countries is estimated using the Cobb-Douglas production function.
Estonian production function uses data of employment, sectoral 
restructuring, estimated capital stock and foreign direct 
investments. Capital stock and level of technology are estimated 
for the Central and East European countries using the same form 
of production function and parameter estimates of Estonian 
economy. Potential output is calculated using the long-term 
unemployment to approximate potential labour input in the 
production. According to the estimates potential output is higher 
than actual in all the countries during most of the period, 
except in the fast economic growth periods (in the Czech Republic 
in 1995-1996, Estonia in 1997-1998 and Latvia in 1997, 
respectively).
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2001-02&r=all



181. Determinants of Estonian Sovereign Credit Rating
  
    Andres Vesilind
    Ingrid Toming
    Raoul Lattemae

The paper focuses on sovereign credit ratings assigned to 
Estonia and analyses their possible determinants. The first 
chapter gives an overview of different rating agencies and the 
methodology they use in rating process. Besides that the 
interpretation, comparability and explanatory power of different 
ratings are analysed. The chapter concludes with the description 
of Estonian rating history. The second chapter analyses the 
possible determinants of Estonian rating. Firstly, the possible 
problems in analysing the determinants are discussed. Secondly, 
the factors that have been seen as important determinants of 
ratings in theoretical literature or previous empirical 
researches are presented. The third chapter analyses empirically 
the determinants of Estonian credit rating. For this purpose, 
Estonia is analysed in the context of three country groups: 
former socialist countries, developed European countries and 
countries having similar ratings. Also the factors that different 
rating agencies have pointed out in their reports about Estonia 
are compared with the empirical results. The chapter concludes 
with the comparison of the results of the analysis and SWOT 
analysis. The results of the paper show that the most critical 
factors for Estonia that can constrain possible rating upgrade in 
the future are low nominal level of per capita GDP, high 
unemployment rate and high CA deficit. At the same time it should 
be looked after that other important indicators that have a 
strong relation with rating (such as inflation, fiscal balance, 
foreign debt level and speed of transition and EU accession) are 
kept under control.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2001-03&r=all



182. Monetary transmission mechanism in Estonia - some 
     theorethical considerations and stylized aspects
  
    Raoul Lattemae

The monetary system in Estonia is based on the currency board 
arrangement. The strong commitments and rule-based features of 
currency board imply that there is no active monetary policy in 
Estonia - all necessarily monetary adjustments are left to the 
market forces. Under fixed exchange rate and free capital 
mobility Estonian monetary conditions are therefore closely 
linked with monetary policy in Europe - in addition to the 
changes in Estonian risk-premium, interest rate developments in 
Europe can directly influence Estonian interest rates. Those 
monetary signals transmit widely into Estonian financial sector 
and ultimately into Estonian real sector through various channels.
Some theoretical and intuitive aspects that can affect this 
process in Estonia have gained special attention in this paper.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2001-04&r=all



183. Monetary transmission mechanism in Estonia - empirical model
  
    Rasmus Pikkani

Estonia has conducted effectively monetary policy according to 
currency board arrangement for nine years already. For this 
Estonia has traded off its freedom in active monetary policy 
operations for nominal anchoring economy through exchange rate. 
In this context Estonian own monetary policy actions could hardly 
make any difference and Estonian monetary conditions are heavily 
relying on decisions made by the issuer of anchor currency. At 
the same time, there are number of factors having influence on 
the degree of dependence on foreign monetary factors, most 
important of which is the openness of the economy to all balance 
of payments flows and the strength of the domestic banking sector.
A mix of all possible factors and decision-making rules in the 
economy specifies directly the speed and the strength of 
transmission of foreign monetary signal into domestic economy. 
The aim of the current paper is to study transmission of ECB 
monetary policy decisions into Estonian economy. Additionally, 
absorption of unanticipated foreign and domestic monetary shocks 
are analysed. For this, rather small macroeconometric model with 
11 behavioural equations is specified and estimated. Special 
emphasis is given on the formation of domestic interest rates and 
on the intermediation of domestic and foreign funds by domestic 
banking sector over shock periods. As a result, it is found that 
the transmission of ECB monetary policy actions over European 
inter-bank money market into Estonian economy is relatively fast. 
This is probably mostly due to high openness of the economy and 
to high price and wage flexibility in Estonia.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2001-05&r=all



184. Accession to EMU and exchange rate policies in Central 
     Europe - decision under institutional constraints
  
    Andreas Freytag

Currently, five Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are 
negotiating about the membership in the European Union: Czech 
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovak Republic. There is 
a broad consensus that they will eventually become members of the 
European Monetary Union. This requires careful analysis of the 
appropriate exchange rate regime prior to the accession. The 
exchange rate arrangement of the EU applicants plays an important 
 but not exclusive - role in their policy-mix. The history of 
transition economies as well as of other emerging markets 
illustrates that exchange rate policies as such are not a 
distinctive factor for the success and failure of monetary policy 
with respect to price stability. In this paper it is argued that 
this outcome has not emerged by chance. There is no naturally 
superior exchange rate regime that can be applied to all advanced 
countries in transition aiming at stability. By way of contrast, 
an exchange rate arrangement is part of the monetary regime, 
which itself is a component of the economic order. The latter 
consists of both politically chosen and spontaneously evolved 
institutions. This leads to the hypothesis that the choice of an 
exchange rate arrangement in CEE is constrained by this 
institutional setting. The theoretical considerations as well as 
empirical evidence indeed suggest that for guaranteeing stability,
beside the legal monetary commitment (part of which being the 
exchange rate regime) the institutional framework in the country 
is decisive. If the latter matches the commitment, the 
credibility of a monetary regime is relatively high, obviously 
encouraging monetary stability. Therefore, the institutional 
setting in each country should be analysed extensively before an 
exchange rate arrangement is chosen.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-01&r=all



185. Integrated monetary and exchange rate frameworks: are there 
     empirical differences?
  
    Lucio Vinhas de Souza

The aim of the paper is to empirically estimate whether the 
different monetary and exchange rate frameworks observed in the 
accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic 
States do yield different outcomes in terms of level and variance 
of a set of nominal and real variables. The author follows and 
extends the methodology developed by Kuttner and Posen (2001), 
who perform a combined analysis of the individual effects of 
exchange rate regimes, central bank independence and announced 
targets in nominal variables for a large set of developed and 
developing countries. They also estimate that a set-up combining 
a free float, an independent currency board and inflation 
targeting yields an outcome that mimics the price stabilisation 
advantages of a hard peg without its drawbacks in terms of 
extreme volatility. This sample of countries, not covered by the 
Kuttner and Posen study, supports their conclusions for both 
nominal and real variables, testing for both the individual and 
combined effects of the frameworks and indicating that a flexible 
exchange rate regime, coupled with CBI and DIT, would be Pareto-
improving when compared to harder regimes.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-02&r=all



186. The impact of Scandinavian economies on Estonia via foreign 
     trade and direct investments
  
    Laura Ehrlich
    Ulo Kaasik
    Anu Randveer

The paper focuses on the benefits, challenges and risks of the 
Estonian economy stemming from close relations with its main 
foreign partners Finland and Sweden, through foreign direct 
investments and foreign trade. The paper gives a short overview 
of Finnish and Swedish economies to provide a background for the 
analysis of the characteristics of FDI and trade flows between 
Estonia and these countries. As Estonia is a very small and open 
economy main benefits and challenges are related to it. The 
authors find that FDI from Finland and Sweden increase the 
credibility of Estonian economy, but as foreign investment flows 
are subject to push factors they have the potential of 
destabilising capital flows, because these two countries make 
over 70% of FDI into Estonia. The authors also find that the 
dynamics of Estonian exports to Finland and Sweden (which make 
more than half of total exports) is generally determined by the 
demand factors of those countries.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-04&r=all



187. Aspects of the Sustainability of Estonian Currency Board 
     Arrangement
  
    Urmas Sepp
    Martti Randveer

The main aim of the paper is to examine different aspects of the 
sustainability of Estonian CBA. For this purpose the paper gives 
an overview of CBA in general, describes the rationale for the 
choice of the CBA in Estonia and uses model simulations to assess 
its sustainability. It also analyses whether the preconditions 
for the successful performance of the CBA are in place in Estonia 
and discusses the compatibility of Estonian CBA to the EMU and 
ERM 2. The analysis in the paper shows that CBA is a suitable 
exchange rate regime for Estonia. It is argued that the 
preconditions for a well-functioning CBA - resilient financial 
sector, flexible wage and employment system and prudent fiscal 
policy - are in place. The sustainability of the CBA is also 
supported by model simulations, which show that shocks hitting 
Estonian economy do not cause convergence of the Estonian economy 
from the long-run path. Based on the above-mentioned results, the 
paper concludes that the currency board arrangement is the best 
exchange rate regime for Estonia before the full participation in 
the third stage of the EMU.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-05&r=all



188. The Core of a Macro-economic Model for Estonia
  
    Olivier Basdevant
    Ulo Kaasik

This article presents a macro-econometric model for Estonia 
currently developed at the Bank of Estonia. It is based on a 
basic macro-economic framework that integrates both supply and 
demand side components. With this model we analyse the policy 
that should be implemented to maintain sustainable growth. The 
main emphasis is on the need to continue tough fiscal policy in 
order to maintain public deficit, as well as to avoid 
inflationary pressures and keep Estonia attractive to foreign 
investors.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-06&r=all



189. Unemployment and Labour Mobility in Estonia: Analysis Using 
     Duration Models
  
    Marit Hinnosaar

The current paper analyses unemployment and labour movements 
between labour market statuses in the period of January 1997 to 
July 2000 using data from the Estonian Labour Force Surveys. The 
paper is motivated by the hypothesis that in the beginning of 
transition in Estonia high labour mobility and low unemployment 
rate seemed to be related. The analysis reveals that in the end 
of the 1990s labour mobility has decreased substantially in 
Estonia compared to 1994. The results from the paper indicate 
that unemployment rate and labour mobility measure have inverse 
relationship, both in aggregate and disaggregate level. The most 
mobile groups in Estonian labour market are Estonians, people 
living in the area of capital Tallinn and people with higher 
education. Young people also tend to move a lot from job to job. 
High mobility in case of young workers is accompanied by high 
number of unemployment incidents, which is captured by the 
aggregate unemployment rate time series.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-07&r=all



190. Testing the efficiency of emerging markets: the case of the 
     Baltic States
  
    Virmantas Kvedaras
    Olivier Basdevant

There is little evidence on the efficiency of the early stage of 
the capital market in transition countries, although market 
structure developments and the learning process could define the 
framework for efficient markets. The article tries to find out 
whether financial markets are efficient in the three Baltic 
States and if not, whether there are any signs of evolving to the 
efficient capital market. To answer these questions the analysis 
combines the methodology for testing the efficiency of capital 
market using the variance ratio robust to heteroscedasticity with 
the state-space representation, which enables us to use an 
efficient filtering technique - the Kalman filter - to get time 
varying autocorrelations. The official Estonian, Latvian, and 
Lithuanian stock exchange market indices TALSE, DJRSE, and LITIN 
comprising the most liquid parts of the stock market in a 
respective country are analysed. The main conclusion to be drawn 
from the analysis is that financial markets in the Baltic States 
are, with some turbulence, approaching weak form of efficiency.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-09&r=all



191. Reservation wages in Estonia
  
    Marit Hinnosaar

This paper analyses the factors determining reservation wages in 
Estonia, and estimates the influence of the reservation wage on 
unemployment duration. According to estimations there is no 
statistically significant effect of unemployment benefit and 
social assistance on the reservation wage in Estonia. While 
evidence was found, that the higher the reservation wage, the 
lower the probability of finding a job, if all other things are 
equal. It was also found that the eligibility of unemployment 
benefit or social assistance increases the duration of the 
unemployment period, which indicates the lower offer arrival rate 
in the case of unemployed receiving assistance, which might be 
caused by a lower search intensity.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-01&r=all



192. Nominal and real convergence in Estonia: the Balassa-
     Samuelson (Dis)connection
  
    Balazs Egert

The objective of the paper is to analyse the nominal and real 
convergence process in Estonia drawing on the Balassa-Samuelson (
B-S) framework. A 15-sectoral breakdown for GDP and a 5-digit 
level CPI data disaggregation with over 260 items is used for the 
period 1993:Q1 to 2002:Q1 to show that the productivity 
differential is related to the GDP-deflator relative price of non-
tradable goods in the long run. Furthermore, the role of 
regulated prices in the CPI basket is also investigated - we show 
that excluding regulated prices makes it possible to detect a 
robust relationship between productivity and the relative price 
of market services in CPI. The B-S effect could have possibly 
contributed to CPI by a yearly average of 2-3% over the sample 
period, and more specifically 1-4% at the beginning of the period 
and 0.5-1% in 2000 and 2001. The potential long-run impact of the 
B-S effect in Estonia is estimated to amount to 1-2%. Analysis of 
the influence of the B-S effect on the inflation differential and 
the real appreciation of the exchange rate against Finland, 
Sweden, Germany and the UK, shows that, whereas the inflation 
differential attributable to the B-S effect seems to have been 
higher in the early 1990s, it better explains the real 
appreciation occurring in recent years.
 
Keywords: convergence, transition, Balassa-Samuelson effect, 
          productivity, relative prices, tradable goods, 
          regulated prices, real exchange rate
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-04&r=all



193. The impact of minimum wage on the labour market in Estonia: 
     an empirical analysis
  
    Marit Hinnosaar
    Tairi Room

In Estonia, as in several other EU acceding countries, minimum 
wage has been on an upward trend and in the coming years it will 
expectedly be raised faster than the average wage. Despite its 
rapid increase, the impact of the minimum wage on Estonian labour 
market has not been analysed. The current paper aims to fill this 
gap. We estimate the effect of the minimum wage on employment and 
wages in Estonia during the period of 1995-2000, using micro-data 
from Estonian Labour Force Surveys. The estimation results 
indicate that a minimum wage increase leads to employment 
reduction for the group of workers who are directly affected by 
this change, ie those whose wages have to be raised as a result. 
Additional negative effect of raising the minimum wage is that 
the rate of compliance with this regulation diminishes as a 
result, thereby enlarging the share of workers whose salaries 
remain below the legally set minimum.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-08&r=all



194. The relationship between REER and trade flows in the 
     context of the equilibrium exchange rate
  
    Reimo Juks

The paper focuses on the time-series analysis of the traditional 
trade equations. The results from the cointegration, ARDL and 
Granger causality analyses of trade elasticities cast some doubt 
on the usefulness of the internal-external balance approach to 
the equilibrium exchange rate. The long-run impact of the REER on 
trade flows turned out to be statistically insignificant, being 
independent of method and specification of the model employed. 
The latter implies a secondary role for the REER in achieving a 
sustainable position of external balance.
 
Date:     2003-11-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-09&r=all



195. Exchange rate pass-through to Estonian prices
  
    Aurelijus Dabusinskas

The objective of the paper is to further our understanding of 
the relationship between changes in the nominal exchange rate and 
prices in a small open economy. The paper uses data from 1995 Q1-
2003 Q1 for Estonia to investigate the exchange rate pass-through 
to import, producer and consumer prices, both total and 
disaggregated. Although the currency board arrangement eliminates 
exchange rate fluctuations from a very significant share of the 
Estonian effective currency basket, the remaining variation in 
the nominal exchange rate can be regarded as exogenous (
determined by the anchor currency), a useful feature when 
estimating the pass-through. In the case of import unit values, 
the pass-through tends to be statistically significant for 
textiles and commodity-type goods, such as petroleum, non-metal 
mineral products and basic metals. In the case of producer prices,
the long-run pass-through is evident in textiles and chemical 
products. Point estimates of the long-run pass-through to 
aggregate import and producer prices fall between 40 and 50%, 
though the precision of these estimates is low. In contrast, no 
significant exchange rate pass-through is estimated to consumer 
prices, measured by total CPI or its tradable component.
 
Date:     2003-12-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-10&r=all



196. Automatic fiscal stabilisers in Estonia: the impact of 
     economic fluctatios on general government budget balance
  
    Rasmus Kattai
    Alvar Kangur
    Martti Randveer

The paper discusses the functioning of automatic fiscal 
stabilisers in Estonia. The aim of the research is to evaluate 
government budget sensitivity to economic fluctuations and 
thereby assess the importance of automatic fiscal stabilisers in 
Estonia. Specifically we are interested in whether the 
functioning of automatic fiscal stabilisers might under certain 
circumstances create difficulties for the fulfilment of the 
Maastricht deficit criterion according to which public deficit is 
not allowed to exceed the limit of 3% of GDP. The results of our 
research show that the role of automatic fiscal stabilisers is 
modest in Estonia. Budgetary sensitivity was approximately 0.35 
in the period 1996-2001 - an increase in output gap by 1 
percentage point causes a change in the budget balance by 0.35% 
of GDP. According to that maximum value, the budget\'s reaction 
was only 1.3% of GDP (while the output gap was -3.9%). A positive 
implication of this is that Estonia has good chances of holding 
the budget balance within the requested ceilings. If the output 
gap reaches -5%, structural deficit may still be 1% of GDP 
without the actual balance exceeding the 3% deficit boundary.
 
Keywords: automatic fiscal stabilisers, structural budget 
          balance, economic cycle, fiscal policy
JEL:      E32 H2 H5 H6 H87
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2003-11&r=all



197. Lending cycles in Estonia
  
    Marten Kress

The objective of this paper is to examine possible cyclical 
patterns in the lending behavior of Estonian commercial banks. 
Furthermore, the degree of cycle synchronization between the 
business cycle and the credit cycle and how much one cycle is 
behind the other in the case of Estonia is of particular interest.
The paper uses data from between January 1994 and February 2004 
to identify the Estonian business and credit cycles and compare 
their features. A Markov regime-switching technique was used in 
dating both business and credit cycles. Variables of interest in 
terms of the credit cycle include the total amount of loans 
provided by commercial banks, household loans, corporate loans, 
and the share of overdue loans in the total portfolio. Both, 
monthly and quarterly data was utilized to double-check the 
results and the business cycle was dated using the Industrial 
Production Index (IPI) and GDP, respectively. The share of 
overdue loans in the total portfolio appeared to be counter-
cyclical as expected. Changes in the IPI seemed to cause changes 
in corporate loans with a two-quarter lag on average. Asymmetries 
between the credit and business cycles were found for Estonia. 
That is, it takes approximately five months from the beginning of 
an economic slowdown before corporate loans move into a 
contraction regime. However, it takes approximately eight months 
for corporate loans to recover their expansionary growth rate. 
Changes in household loans seemed to precede changes in economic 
activity by approximately one quarter.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2004-03&r=all



198. The importance of the bank-lending channel in Estonia: 
     evidence from micro-economic data
  
    Reimo Juks

The paper studies the importance of the bank-lending channel in 
Estonia. The results from the descriptive evidence suggest that 
there is a significant share of bank dependent borrowers in 
Estonia, but the impact of a monetary policy shock on the loan 
supply of banks seems to be ambiguous. The empirical analysis 
provides evidence in favour of the bank-lending channel in 
Estonia. First, well-capitalized banks seem to experience a 
smaller outflow of deposits after a monetary contraction. Second, 
the liquidity position of banks seems to be an important 
determinant of the loan supply suggesting that more liquid banks 
are able to maintain their loan portfolios, while less liquid 
banks must reduce their loan supply after a monetary policy 
contraction. This finding is consistent with the evidence for the 
euro area, where liquidity is also the most important determinant 
of the loan supply.
 
Keywords: bank lending channel; monetary policy transmission
JEL:      E52 G21 G32 C33
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2004-06&r=all



199. Liquidity Constrains and Ricardian Equivalence in Estonia
  
    Hannes Kaadu
    Lenno Uuskula

This paper aims to find evidence of the influence of government 
deficit on private consumption in Estonia. The data only shows 
some support for Ricardian equivalence. Two approaches were used 
in the empirical tests. The Haque and Montiel (1989) equation of 
consumption was estimated using an instrumental variables 
technique. The Aschauer (1985) system of equations was estimated 
with the full information maximum likelihood method. Formal tests 
based on macro data could neither reject nor confirm the 
existence of liquidity constraints or Ricardian equivalence. 
There remains a lot of room for testing both of these hypotheses 
in Estonia. Further efforts to test liquidity constraints should 
concentrate on using micro data.
 
Keywords: Ricardian equivalence, liquidity constraints, Estonia
JEL:      E21 E62 H62
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2004-07&r=all



200. Estonian labor market institutions within a general 
     equilibrium framework
  
    Marit Hinnosaar

The implications of the Estonian labor market policy reforms, 
such as changes to the minimum wage, social benefits and tax 
allowance, will be analysed using a simple applied general 
equilibrium model. The model used in the paper is from Bovenberg 
et al (2000), with the addition of an efficiency wage section 
based on Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984). The model integrates union 
bargaining and efficiency wage theory into a traditional CGE 
model framework.
 
Keywords: computable general equilibrium models, unemployment, 
          lowskilled labor, minimum wage, benefits, tax allowance
JEL:      D58 E62 J32 J50
Date:     2004-10-20
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2004-5&r=all



201. Estimating the equilibrium exchange rate of the Estonian 
     kroon
  
    Marit Hinnosaar
    Hannes Kaadu
    Lenno Uuskula

The paper presents empirical estimations of the equilibrium 
exchange rate of the Estonian kroon. The behavioural equilibrium 
exchange rate (BEER) approach is used to analyse the dynamics of 
the real effective exchange rate in the time period from 1995 to 
2002. The estimates range from a 15% undervaluation to a small 
overvaluation of the kroon in the beginning of the period and 
indicate a position close to equilibrium in 2002.
 
Keywords: equilibrium exchange rate, BEER, cointegration, Estonia
JEL:      C22 F31
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2005-02&r=all



202. Hooverism, Hyperstabilisation or Halfway-House? Describing 
     Fiscal Policy in Central and Eastern European EU Members
  
    Rasmus Kattai
    John Lewis

This paper develops a simple framework for describing fiscal 
policy where policymakers attempt to minimise deviations in 
output and budget balance from target values. Optimal policy is 
given by minimising a quadratic loss function subject to a linear 
structure of the economy. This policy can be viewed as weighted 
average of two polar cases - the case where the budget deficit 
adjusts to eliminate any deviations from potential output (
hyperstabilisation), and the case where taxes and spending are 
determined exclusively by some budgetary goal (hooverism). We 
find some evidence of stabilisation for Poland, Latvia and 
Estonia. There is no evidence for the Czech Republic, Lithuania, 
Slovakia and Slovenia, suggesting that fiscal policy was being 
used for other objectives. The best fit is for Estonia, 
suggesting that a strict fiscal policy environment may not be 
incompatible with stabilising fiscal policy.
 
Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Fiscal Policy Rules, New EU Member 
          States
JEL:      E61 E62
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2005-05&r=all



203. Application of investment models in foreign exchange 
     reserve management in Eesti Pank
  
    Andres Vesilind
    Toivo Kuus

This paper describes active investment strategy used in the 
central bank of Estonia and introduces model-based investment 
decisions as a component of that strategy. The first chapter of 
the paper describes the evolution of the investment process in 
Eesti Pank and outlines the framework of reserve management. It 
describes the role of several forms and styles of investing: 
active and passive management, qualitative and quantitative 
management, emphasizing the role of diversification for achieving 
better performance. The chapter concludes with the description of 
the investment strategy used in the central bank of Estonia. The 
second chapter describes model-based investing as part of active 
management strategy. Three investment models are estimated and 
tested: a model for directional positions in the US, German and 
Japanese 10-year government bond futures, a model for cross-
currency positions in ten major currencies, and a model for cross-
country yield spread trades in eight major government bond 
markets. The models extend the framework developed by Ilmanen and 
Sayood (Ilmanen et al. 2002). After the model estimation the 
models are combined with a trend-following model and the whole 
set of diversified models is tested. Finally, correlation study 
of these results with the results of external asset managers and 
in-bank discretionary analysis is performed. The paper ends with 
a discussion on the possibilities for further development of the 
quantitative investment program and conclusions.
 
Keywords: trading rules, active management, central bank reserves
JEL:      E44 E47 E58 G11 G15
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2005-06&r=all



204. Privatizing Higher Education in Spain
  
    FRANCISCO MARCOS (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 13/03 Clave pdf)The Spanish university system has witnessed 
many changes. Initial conditions for competition were laid down 
in 83, specially through the recognition of legal status to 
private universities. However, the shortage of students since 98 
and the drop on demand for higher education has prompted further 
reform recently.In 2001 a new act was enacted to force market-
like behavior and to privatize some operating conditions of state 
universities. ItA?s too early to assess the effectiveness of 
these changes, but public funding remains mostly unchanged and 
this is a key issue that would need to be modified in order to 
provide conditions of authentic competition in the higher 
education.
 
Keywords: Competition, Higher education, Privatization, Public 
          goods, Economics of education
Date:     2003-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-13&r=all



205. It Does Matter
  
    ENRIQUE DANS (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 15/03 Clave pdf) Some articles lately have hypothesized 
about IT being a commodity from which firms cannot extract a true 
competitive advantage anymore. Therefore, according to those 
authors, the competitive edge would be now in carefully managing 
IT to reduce costs and avoid overspending. The author rebates 
these viewpoints using SwansonA?s Tri-Core model and proposes a 
different way to look IT management in the future in order to 
avoid the current pitfalls.
 
Keywords: IS strategic planning, IT evaluation, IT management, 
          Organizational use of ISRL, Productivity
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-15&r=all



206. Cost Accounting in Early Regulated Markets: The Case of the 
     Royal Soap Factory of Seville, 1525-1692
  
    SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 16/03 Clave pdf) Regulated markets and state-owned 
monopolies characterized the economies of many Southern European 
territories around the end of the Middle Ages and during the 
Renaissance. Although this economic form was of considerable 
importance in implementing public policy at the time, 
investigation into the functioning of cost accounting in such 
contexts has been consistently neglected in accounting research. 
In this paper, we examine the role of cost systems in early 
regulated markets by focusing on the case of the soap production 
and distribution monopoly in the City of Seville, Spain.
 
Keywords: Early cost accounting, Institutional sociology, 
          Regulated markets
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-16&r=all



207. Who Becomes an Auditing Entrepreneur? The Effects of Human 
     Capital, Age, and Job Stability
  
    SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 17/03 Clave pdf) In this investigation, we focus on the 
individual characteristics of newly certified auditors who apply 
for their auditing licenses in anticipation of entering solo 
practice or a partnership in an auditing firm, comparing them to 
their counterparts who do not apply for such a license. Our 
analysis draws on an integration of the human capital and 
entrepreneurship literatures, leading us to a number of 
hypotheses that are tested through logistic regression models.
 
Keywords: Auditing, Human capital theory
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-17&r=all



208. Information System Management Competencies Of Business 
     Executives In Spain: Insights From (...)
  
    SALVADOR ARAGON (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 19/03 Clave pdf) This paper presents an exploratory study of 
IS competencies of business managers in Spain.Following resource-
based theory and a knowledge-based view of IS competencies, an 
extensive review of the literature is conducted to identify a 
comprehensive list of IS competencies of business managers. In 
order to validate the business IS competence model, a Delphi 
study is conducted using 2 panels consisting of general managers 
and IS managers.The results indicate that IS competencies of 
business managers involve a fluid mix of both explicit and tacit 
knowledge components, and suggest that A?coreA? IS 
competencies involve knowledge and experience in the strategic 
management of IS.
 
Keywords: IS competencies, Management of IS, Business management,
          Delphi study, Resource-based theory
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-19&r=all



209. An Evolutionary Approach to the Process of Technology 
     Difussion and Standardization
  
    JAVIER CARRILLO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 20/03 Clave pdf) The study described here aims to make a 
threefold contribution to the analysis of technology diffusion. 
It tries to offer a new approach to the study of the dynamic of 
innovation diffusion, not from the traditional perspective of the 
rate at which one new technology is fully adopted, but the extent 
of the diffusion of several technologies and the related 
phenomenon of standardization. It aims to show a broadened and 
evolutionary view of the process of technology standardization. 
Finally, it tries to identify and evaluate the relationships 
existing between the main characteristics of industries and the 
attributes of the technology standardization processes in them.
 
Keywords: Agent-based models, Evolutionary models, Lock-in , 
          Standardization, Technology difussion
Date:     2003-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-20&r=all



210. Enterprise Systems Analysis and Modelling
  
    ANGEL ANTONIO DIAZ (Instituto de Empresa)
    OSWALDO LORENZO (Instituto de Empresa)

In ES implementations, process modelling is a critical and often 
overlooked activity. This paper proposes a framework for process 
modelling of ES. The four steps method involves: Current 
Situation Analysis, Business Process Improvements and 
Requirements, Gap Analysis, and To-be process to develop. Outputs 
of the methodology are an interdependent set of organizational 
and system proposed changes, and feedback loops to the ES vendors 
and to the strategy of the firm. In-depth case studies and 
extensive literature review provides methodological support. For 
practitioners, this study provides useful insights into one of 
the reasons by which companies could be frustrated with ES 
implementation.
 
Keywords: E-business, ERP
Date:     2004-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-01&r=all



211. Technology and the environment: an evolutionary approach to 
     sustainable technological change
  
    JAVIER CARRILLO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 02/04 Clave pdf) The results of our model show that it would 
be advisable to undertake policies expressly aimed at the process 
of sustainable technological change in a way that is 
complementary to the conventional equilibrium oriented 
environmental policies. In short, the main objectives of this 
paper are to understand more fully the dynamics of the process of 
technological change, its role in sustainable development, and to 
assess the implications of this dynamic approach to techno-
environmental policy. To achieve these goals we have developed an 
agent based model, using distributed artificial intelligence 
concepts drawn from the general methodology of social simulation.
 
Keywords: Agent-based models, Evolutionary models, Lock-in , 
          Standardization, Technology difussion, Sustainability
Date:     2004-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-02&r=all



212. Do Moving Average Rules Make Profits? A Study Using The 
     Madrid Stock Market
  
    LAURA MARTA NUA‘EZ (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 03/04 Clave pdf) Previous studies have reported mixed 
results with regard to the success of technical trading rules.
Studies that provide positive evidence are [Brock et al (1992), 
Karjalainen (1994), Bessembinder et al (1995),Mills (1997), and 
Fernandez et al (1999)]. Studies rejecting the utility of 
technical trading rules are [Hudson et al (1996) or Allen et al (
1999)]. A recent body of work has applied evolutionary algorithms 
to the design of trading rules [see Karjalainen (1994), Allen et 
al (1999), Fernandez et al (2001) and NuA±ez (2002)].This paper 
uses genetic algorithms to tests the forecastability of the 
moving average in the MSE.We report the lack of utility of this 
indicator.
 
Keywords: Genetic algorithms, Madrid Stock Exchange, Moving 
          average, Trading rules
Date:     2004-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-03&r=all



213. Trading Costs for Emerging Market Stocks
  
    GONZALO CHAVEZ (Instituto de Empresa)
    ANA CRISTINA SILVA (Instituto de Empresa)

We estimate trading costs that include explicit, implicit and 
opportunity costs. The Lesmond et al. (1999) limited dependent 
variable model of returns is applied to stocks in Argentina, 
Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Costs are compared across countries for 
samples matched by market value. Comparisons are performed while 
controlling for variations in the economic variables that affect 
trading costs using regression models [Bessembinder & Kaufman (
1997)]. We find that trading costs for large and medium firms are 
significantly higher for Brazil and Mexico than for Argentina and 
Chile. This result is interesting given that the two former 
markets are, by far, the most active markets in Latin America.
 
Keywords: Emerging markets, Market microstructure, Stock markets,
          Trading costs
Date:     2004-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-04&r=all



214. Market segmentation and the relative cost of trading 
     american depository receipts
  
    GONZALO CHAVEZ (Instituto de Empresa)
    ANA CRISTINA SILVA (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 06/04 Clave pdf) We compare trading costs between local 
stocks and their corresponding NYSE ADRs for Argentina, Brazil, 
Chile and Mexico.Results show that local stocks trading in Mexico 
and Chile exhibit higher costs than their ADRS,while Brazilian 
local stocks cost less. Argentina presents no significant 
differences. When we control for stock characteristics, the 
previous difference disappears for Brazilian and Chilean 
securities,while it is accentuated for Mexico. Local Mexican 
stocks are almost 3% of value traded more costly than their 
corresponding ADRs.Thus,Mexico presents cost barriers that 
inhibit the implementation of arbitrage transactions that 
facilitate stock price alignment.
 
Date:     2004-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-06&r=all



215. The Fallacy of A?Only the Strong SurviveA?: The Effects 
     of Extrinsic (...)
  
    JULIO DE CASTRO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 07/04 Clave pdf) According to economic theory, under-
performing firms should be selected out of the market. However, 
research shows that these firms persist, often for long periods 
of time. In this article we explore the non-firm-performance 
factors that contribute to the decision to persist with an under-
performing firm. Using the escalation of commitment literature we 
identify seven variables that are associated with the persistence 
decision. We reconcile the economic and psychological views by 
finding that the extent to which some of these non-firm-
performance factors influence the persistence decision is, in 
part, dependent upon the owner-managersaˆ™ level of 
extrinsic motivation.
 
Date:     2004-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-07&r=all



216. Piracy as Strategy? A Reexamination of Product Piracy
  
    JULIO DE CASTRO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 08/04 Clave pdf) To explore the impact that piracy has on 
demand for legal versions of a product and firm performance, we 
use the literatures of information economics and strategic 
management to expand the analysis of piracy to markets other than 
software. Our paper helps clarify the nature of customer demand 
for legal versions of products, and gain a deeper understanding 
of the way that piracy can enhance the performance of those firms 
that own the intellectual property. We contend that although 
piracy represents unauthorized imitation of a firmaˆ™s 
intellectual property, there are some circumstances when piracy 
can improve the value of the intellectual property.
 
Date:     2004-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-08&r=all



217. Matching owner-managersA? cognitive style and 
     organizational demands in family firms
  
    JULIO DE CASTRO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 09/04 Clave pdf) Based on responses from 159 owners-managers 
in family firms, we examined the association between specific 
individual characteristics, firm characteristics, and the 
individual psychosocial outcomes of satisfaction, intentions to 
exit, and perceived fit. Hierarchical regression analyses 
indicated higher satisfaction, lower intentions to exit, and 
higher perceived fit for owner-managers whose dominant decision-
making style complemented the levels of formalization in their 
firms.The results suggested that owner-managers with intuitive 
decision-making styles were better fitted to the demands 
corresponding to less structured firm environments than their 
analytic counterparts.
 
Date:     2004-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-09&r=all



218. Mismatch between entrepreneurs and their firms: the role of 
     cognitive fit / misfit
  
    JULIO DE CASTRO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 10/04 Clave pdf) This paper examines the relationship 
between cognitive fit/misfit, and burnout, satisfaction, and 
intentions to exit the firm in entrepreneurs. Given the 
disordinal (crossed) nature of the significant interactions, the 
results indicate when cognitive misfit in entrepreneurs (based on 
their dominant decision-making approach) is more likely lead them 
to experience negative outcomes, given the nature and degree of 
firm structure.
 
Date:     2004-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-10&r=all



219. An empirical assessment of a learning and knowledge 
     management typology for research joint ventures
  
    ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 11/04 Clave pdf) As innovation and technology management 
grow in complexity the need for inter-organizational cooperation 
increases.Part of this cooperation requires the understanding of 
how knowledge management and learning processes may function to 
support a successful research and development collaboration.To 
further this understanding we introduce a typology to help 
categorize various collaborative efforts within a research joint 
venture environment.The typology is based on two dimensions the 
locus of the research joint venture knowledge and the knowledge 
management approach. Using a broad-based European database 98 
research joint venture projects were used to evaluate the 
typology.
 
Date:     2004-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-11&r=all



220. A comprehensive review of the enterprise systems research
  
    OSWALDO LORENZO (Instituto de Empresa)

(WP 12/04 Clave pdf) Enterprise systems (ES) can be considered 
as a novel phenomenon for the information system research and 
other academic fields (e.g. operations and supply chain), which 
has opened an immense potential and opportunities for research. 
Although the interest of the scholars on ES is recent, the number 
of publications is continuously growing since 2000. The aim of 
this paper is to review a sample of important contributions of 
the ES works published to date. To do this, the selected works 
have been classified in four key topics: business implications, 
technical issues, managerial issues, and implementation issues.
 
Keywords: Enterprise systems, Research
Date:     2004-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-12&r=all



221. Strategic process in operations and environment dynamism: a 
     brazilian - spanish comparative study
  
    ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa)

The strategic process in operations (SPO) is influenced by the 
increasing environmental dynamism in the marketplace. Considering 
organizational knowledge as the support of the whole strategic 
process, managers may choose their objectives based on previous 
experiences. Manufacturing strategic process also allows the link 
between organizational knowledge and dynamic capabilities (Teece 
et al., 1997). Based on these aspects, this research replication 
presents a cross-country comparison focusing empirically some 
theoretical issues related to organizational knowledge and the 
SPO.
 
Keywords: Capabilities , Environment dynamism, Operations 
          strategy, Organizational knowledge
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-13&r=all



222. Organizational evolution and semiotics in complex 
     environments: the case of the aerial safety
  
    ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa)

The effort in advanced information system that many 
organizations have achieved to improve performance under 
foreseeable situations has increased organizational complexity 
decreasing the capacity to deal with unforeseen situations. At 
this respect, our research question is: what is the limit for 
this model of development? Once reached, what are the 
alternatives to improve? An explanation can be organized around 
semiotic. To do this, the aerial safety learning model and its 
collateral effects will be analyzed.
 
Keywords: Air safety, Complex environments, Organizational 
          evolution, Semiotics, Sense
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-14&r=all



223. A model of enterprise systems capabilities
  
    OSWALDO LORENZO (Instituto de Empresa)

This study has developed a model of ES capabilities to analyze 
the extent and quality of the use of ES in organizational 
contexts. The model consists of six general ES capabilities that 
can be used and deployed by organizations: 1) transaction 
automation, 2) decision-making process support, 3) monitoring 
performance, 4) customer service, 5) coordination, and 6) process 
management automation. The model itself was initially formulated 
from concepts in IS and ES literature. Then, the model was 
applied, validated and tuned through an in-depth case study.
 
Keywords: Enterprise systems, ES capabilities, ES use
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-15&r=all



224. Build-to-order is not that easy: adding volume flexibility 
     to mass customization
  
    FABRIZIO SALVADOR (Instituto de Empresa)

The present paper reports preliminary observations from a 
longitudinal case study of the Lawn Mowers & Garden Tractors 
business unit of Deere & Company. This business unit is 
interested in analyzing the applicability of a Build-To-Order 
strategy for its business. By analyzing the problems related to 
the simultaneous pursuit of volume and mix flexibility we propose 
a model explaining how these two trade-offs can be simultaneously 
addressed. We then speculate about the compatibility of the 
techniques generally advocated to address either volume or mix 
flexibility, in this case where these two trade-offs have to be 
jointly reduced.
 
Keywords: Build to order, Flexibility, Theory building
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-16&r=all



225. Fundamentals versus contagion proxies to explain financial 
     assets price changes
  
    EVA RAQUEL PORRAS (Instituto de Empresa)

There is a general consensus that expected returns are 
notoriously difficult to predict for many reasons, including 
modeling and econometric problems. The bubble and contagion 
literature proposes fundamentals and contagion proxies as 
explanatory of financial assetA?s price changes. This paper 
uses mean and semiparametric methods to analyze the explanatory 
value of some of these variables. The goal of this study is to 
determine which variables have higher explanatory value as well 
as their differential impact throughout the distribution of 
returns. The findings suggest that none of the twelve different 
models used to proxy fundamentals have any explanatory value for 
price changes.
 
Keywords: Bubbles, Panel data, Contagion, Semiparametric methods,
          Financial asset prices, Quantile regression
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-17&r=all



226. An extension of time series tests to panel data
  
    EVA RAQUEL PORRAS (Instituto de Empresa)

In the financial field much of the data available is in panel 
form. The objective of this paper is to analyze the long run 
equilibrium relationship between prices and fundamentals while 
proposing a very simple method of extending time series models to 
panel data. This method has several characteristics that make it 
appealing. First, it is simple to implement. Second, it is 
general in scope. Third, it takes into account arbitrary 
correlations. Fourth, it does not require making unrealistic 
assumptions. Our results are supportive of HanA?s (1996) in 
that we do not find cointegration between fundamentals and prices.
 
Keywords: Panel data, Time series, Fundamentals, Prices
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-18&r=all



227. Form postponement: a reconceptualization
  
    FABRIZIO SALVADOR (Instituto de Empresa)

Form postponement has been widely acknowledged as one of the 
main avenues to mitigate the adverse effects of product 
proliferation or customization on operational performance. As it 
often happens with long debated concepts, the proposed 
definitions of form postponement sometimes display substantial 
differences. This paper aims at moving a step forward towards a 
more precise definition of form postponement in the domain of 
tangible products. A first result on this way is that form 
postponement can be referred to physical activities or decisions 
concerning product differentiation. A constitutive and an 
operational definition of form postponement with a decision-
oriented focus are then proposed
 
Keywords: Postponment, Product Variety, Definition, Literature 
          Review
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-19&r=all



228. Effective product assortment communication: overcoming the 
     "product variety paradox" on the net
  
    FABRIZIO SALVADOR (Instituto de Empresa)

When a firm offers customized products, variants and options may 
end up confusing the customer, instead of increasing sales. 
Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology 
made available a class of software products, often termed as 
"product configurators", which appears to offer new solutions to 
support the sale of customized products. The present paper 
analyzes the underlying principles on which successful sales 
configurators have been built. In doing so, the paper attempts a 
formalization of the mechanisms through which a firmA?s product 
assortment can be efficiently and effectively presented to the 
customer.
 
Keywords: e-commerce, Product Variety, Product configuration, 
          Customization
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-20&r=all



229. IT support to product variety management
  
    FABRIZIO SALVADOR (Instituto de Empresa)

Offering to customers a high variety of products while 
guaranteeing competitive prices and reasonable delivery times is 
an ever-increasing necessity for companies. At the same time, the 
growing technological content of products contributes further to 
this complexity, introducing new challenges to management. As for 
any area of company activity, the creativity of software 
producers has brought about the development of information 
science systems, such as Product Configuration Systems, Product 
Data Management systems (PDM) and Customer Relationship 
Management Systems (CRM), which all promise to alleviate the 
problems caused by this complexity.
 
Keywords: Product Variety, Product Configuration Systems, 
          Product Data Management Systems, Customer Relationship 
          Management Systems
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-21&r=all



230. Prospective voluntary agreements to escape carbon lock-in
  
    JAVIER CARRILLO (Instituto de Empresa)

The paper looks for co-evolutionary policy responses to carbon 
lock-in - a persistent state that creates systemic market and 
policy barriers to carbon low technological alternatives. We 
address the coordination role for authorities rather than the 
corrective optimisation and analyse experiences from 
environmental voluntary agreements and foresight activities. The 
paper argues that combining the virtues of these tools into a new 
policy tool, named Prospective Voluntary Agreement (PVA), can 
help facilitate an escape from carbon lock-in and provide policy 
resources for addressing lock-in related issues.
 
Keywords: Lock-in , Carbon, Policy responses, Agreements
Date:     2004-09
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-23&r=all



231. A taxonomy of business processes
  
    LUIS EDUARDO SOLIS (Instituto de Empresa)
    ANGEL ANTONIO DIAZ (Instituto de Empresa)
    OSWALDO LORENZO (Instituto de Empresa)

This study aims to gain a better understanding of key business 
processes. The processes of the firm are analyzed, proposing a 
classification of eight generic intra-organizational processes, 
and eleven generic inter-organizational processes, as well as 
criteria for the determination of the criticality of these 
processes and key performance indicators. Using these criteria 
critical intra-organizational and inter-organizational processes 
are identified in sixteen industrial sectors. Through a better 
understanding of key processes and network relations enterprises 
can develop competitive advantages that leverage their survival 
and well being.
 
Keywords: Business process, Performance measurement, Inter-
          organizational, Intra-organizational
Date:     2004-09
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-24&r=all



232. A test of cointegration between security markets of latin 
     american nations (...)
  
    EVA RAQUEL PORRAS (Instituto de Empresa)

This study uses cointegration tests to examine the relationships 
among the stock markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, 
Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the NYSE and Dow Jones Indexes. The 
goal of this paper to test whether cointegration exists between 
the stock market index of each of the mentioned developing 
nations, and the US stock market. Previous studies have shown 
that unit roots occur in stock price series. Our results also 
show that there is monthly and daily cointegration between the 
NYSE and the Dow Jones Indices and the security markets of Mexico 
and Venezuela, and no cointegration with the stock markets of 
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.
 
Keywords: Diversification, Integration, International markets, 
          Market Efficiency
Date:     2004-09
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-25&r=all



233. An empirical investigation of the relationships among 
     supplier-based relationships (...)
  
    LUIS EDUARDO SOLIS (Instituto de Empresa)

This paper investigates the linkage between one aspect of supply 
chain strategy and TQM principles and outcomes. We empirically 
test the relationship among strategic quality planning, supplier-
based relationships, and some TQM practices such as product 
design, product innovation, dependable deliveries, and value-to-
customer quality and organizational performance. The findings 
suggest that the success of some TQM practices may be buoyed by 
over-lapping supply chain principles such as supply chain 
management strategy. Other positive relationships described in 
the literature such as that between strategy, TQM principles, and 
organizational performance, are again confirmed.
 
Keywords: Survey, Structural equation models, Operations 
          strategy, Quality
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-26&r=all



234. Clarifying leadership roles in ERP implementation projects
  
    JOSE MANUEL ESTEVES (Instituto de Empresa)

Existence of an adequate project champion role has been 
identified as a critical success factor in Enterprise Resource 
Planning (ERP) implementation projects. However, the figure of 
the project champion is not yet quite well understood. Some 
authors relate it with the project sponsor figure while others 
relate it with the project manager figure. This paper tries to 
clarify these concepts. Our research framework is based upon an 
extensive ERP literature review and a web survey. The findings of 
this web survey suggest that the adequate project champion role 
is that of the project sponsor, emerging as a dual-role champion.
 
Keywords: ERP, Leadership , Roles
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-27&r=all



235. Determinants of corporate anti-takeover provisions
  
    JUAN SANTALO (Instituto de Empresa)

In this paper I study empirically the industry and firm 
characteristics that determine the level of corporate 
antitakeover protection. I find that the level of antitakeover 
protection is negatively associated with the level of firm-
specific organizational capital and with stock market volatility. 
On the other hand, firms that allow a larger degree of 
antitakeover protection to their managers do indeed invest more 
in long term projects and operate in more concentrated industries.
All these findings are consistent with a managerial entrenchment 
interpretation of corporate antitakeover provisions.
 
Keywords: Takeover defenses, Organizational capital, Product 
          market competition, Managerial compensation
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-28&r=all



236. Implementing and improving the SEI risk management method 
     in a university software project
  
    JOSE MANUEL ESTEVES (Instituto de Empresa)

Although risk management approaches appeared more than one 
decade ago, there is the evidence of low penetration rate of 
their techniques in software projects. One of the most known 
methods is the SEI Software Continuous Risk Management (SEI-CRM) 
method. This paper addresses the usage of the SEI-CRM method in a 
big software development project. The study we carried out 
suggests that SEI-CRM is limited in terms of the organizational 
risk perspective. This research is expected to contribute with 
the knowledge on risk management for software development 
projects by for which we propose to extend the SEI-CRM method 
with some organizational risk factors that we have found relevant 
from our study.
 
Keywords: Risk, Risk management, SEI-CRM , Organizational risks
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-29&r=all



237. The problem of variable selection for financial distress: 
     applying GRASP methaeuristics
  
    LAURA MARTA NUA‘EZ (Instituto de Empresa)

We use the GRASP procedure to select a subset of financial 
ratios that are then used to estimate a model of logistic 
regression to anticipate financial distress on a sample of 
Spanish firms. The algorithm we suggest is designed "ad-hoc" for 
this type of variables. Reducing dimensionality has several 
advantages such as reducing the cost of data acquisition, better 
understanding of the final classification model, and increasing 
the efficiency and the efficacy. The application of the GRASP 
procedure to preselect a reduced subset of financial ratios 
generated better results than those obtained directly by applying 
a model of logistic regression to the set of the 141 original 
financial ratios.
 
Keywords: Genetic algorithms, Financial distress, Failure, 
          Financial ratios, Variable selection, GRASP, 
          Methaeuristic
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-30&r=all



238. A goals/questions/metrics plan for monitoring user 
     involvement and participation in ERP (...)
  
    JOSE MANUEL ESTEVES (Instituto de Empresa)

ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of 
factors. User involvement and participation is one of the most 
cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, 
and one of the most critical ones for their satisfactory outcome. 
This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring 
user involvement and participation within ERP implementation 
projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. First, a 
literature review is presented. Second, a framework for 
monitoring user involvement and participation in ERP 
implementation projects is proposed. And third, a 
Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor 
and control user involvement.
 
Keywords: ERP, Involvement, Participation, Metrics, Goals, 
          Questions
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-31&r=all



239. The organizational predictors of executive career 
     advancement in career moves across employers
  
    MONIKA HAMORI (Instituto de Empresa)

This paper examines the career moves of executives between two 
different organizations and looks at the characteristics of 
executivesA? employing organizations as a predictor of the 
success of the moves. The paper uses a proprietary data set of a 
retained executive search firm that contains information on the 
career paths of executives in the financial services industry. 
The results show that the perceived operational excellence of 
executivesA? employing organization has a significant signaling 
power for other employers and strongly impacts the success of 
executivesA? moves across different organizations.
 
Keywords: Career management, Organizations, Executives, Finacial 
          services industry, Signaling theory
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-32&r=all



240. Civil organizations. More politics for less organisation: 
     AristotleA?s social theory
  
    JUAN LUIS MARTINEZ (Instituto de Empresa)

There is a lack in analysing Third Sector from a philosophical 
perspective. It is very complicated to answer many questions that 
are arising: Why men are concerned to the problems other men are 
involved in? Which is the driving force of the Social Sector? Why 
are NGOs legitimated to support social matters? What have NGOs to 
do in the XIX century? This questions need to be answered to fix 
correctly future strategy, mission and objectives. It is 
necessary to build an ethical-political frame to understand how 
Third Sector works. This paper studies the relationship between 
NGO and beneficiary, the changes happened in the XX century and 
the challenges NGO need to face in the forthcoming years.
 
Keywords: Non Profit Organisations, Third Sector, Ethics, 
          Ethical-political focus, Relationship, Liberty
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-33&r=all



241. An institutional sociology perspective of the adaptation of 
     activity based costing by spanish health
  
    SCOTT DOUGLAS ERIKSEN (Instituto de Empresa)

Per institutional sociology hospitals will respond to external 
environmental pressures and adopt Activity-Based-Costing (ABC). 
This theory overemphasizes conformity and failures to consider 
the advantages of organizational non-conformance. A conflict of 
interests between physicians and management leads to physician 
resistance of accepting ABC. This paper investigates the Spanish 
governmentA?s response to this resistance by creating new 
public foundation hospitals, and involves a case study of 
foundation hospital AlcorcA?n. Population ecology is offered as 
an explanation for the emergence of new entities as a result of 
inert existing entities resistance to reform.
 
Keywords: ABC implementation, Activity Based Costing, 
          Institutional sociology, Population ecology
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-34&r=all



242. Business-Government relations in a global economy: 
     broadening the conceptual map
  
    DAVID BACH (Instituto de Empresa)

While most work on corporate political activity focuses on the 
domestic arena, globalization has raised the business salience of 
international policymaking such that firms increasingly engage in 
international political processes as well. Political dynamics in 
the two arenas follow different logics whose management 
implications have been largely overlooked. This paper integrates 
management theory and institutional analysis in political science 
to develop two contrasting models, and to delineate what kind of 
political resources and capabilities are necessary to project 
political influence in either arena.
 
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-37&r=all



243. Does the market pick up on the total value added to the 
     peruvian companies by a devaluation of ...
  
    EVA RAQUEL PORRAS (Instituto de Empresa)

The main goal of this paper is to test a form of market 
efficiency in the Lima Stock Exchange. This study examines how 
the individual stock prices of two selected companies are 
affected by three standard deviation changes in the exchange rate 
between the Peruvian Nuevo Sol and the US dollar. The main 
question that drives this paper is whether the market picks up on 
the total value added to these Peruvian companies by a 
devaluation of the Peruvian Nuevo Sol. The findings of this study 
suggest that, in reference to the companies studied, the Peruvian,
stock market does not impound instantly the impact that a change 
on the exchange rate has in the value of these corporations.
 
Keywords: Currency markets, Event study, Exchange rate, Market 
          Efficiency
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp04-38&r=all



244. Entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial environment? A 
     reexamination of the GEMA?s approach
  
    JULIO DE CASTRO (Instituto de Empresa)
    ALBERTO MAYDEU (Instituto de Empresa)

In this paper we re-examine the measurement of entrepreneurial 
activity and provide a model-based approach at measure. The 
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project has been a key 
addition to our ability to measure and compare rates of 
entrepreneurial activity. But even though there is consensus 
about the importance of measuring entrepreneurial activity, 
researchers differ about the appropriate ways to measure the 
breadth of entrepreneurial activity.
 
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial activity, 
          Entrepreneurial environment
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-01&r=all



245. New organizational forms for knowledge transfer. Challenges 
     and lessons for collaborative work
  
    RICARDO PEREZ (Instituto de Empresa)

As knowledge becomes an important part of wealth creation within 
companies, the identification of new organizational forms that 
better capture the needs and preferences of knowledge workers 
becomes more and more important. For some innovative companies, 
in their effort to adapt themselves to new corporate cultures, 
some of the most successful and innovative companies failed to 
survive, losing their best workers. This paper will follow a 
business case of one of these companies in their efforts to 
survive their acquisition by a large telecommunications operator.
 
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-03&r=all



246. The why, when, and how of Corporate Social Responsibility
  
    JUAN LUIS MARTINEZ (Instituto de Empresa)

Reflecting on the question of who is the principal subject of 
social responsibility in the business sphere, Greenfield sets out 
a number of common assumptions among practitioners in the field 
and tries to dismantle them through a critical review of recent 
literature. Some of his reflections need to be nuanced from an 
ethical basis and elaborated upon from a practical point of view. 
Taking as our starting point GreenfieldA?s conclusion "there is 
no such thing as business ethics, only ethics of individual 
business men and women", this article aims to look in more depth 
at the consequences of regulating personal ethics and referring 
it to an institution.
 
Keywords: Business ethics, Corporate social responsability, 
          Strategy
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-04&r=all



247. Are shareholders environmental "laggards"? Corporate 
     Governance and environmental firm performance
  
    JUAN SANTALO (Instituto de Empresa)
    CARL KOCK (Instituto de Empresa)

>From a reactive, antagonistic stance towards environmental 
regulations, many firms have evolved to act in a pro-active 
fashion to integrate environmental issues into their core 
strategies. Using measures of different corporate governance 
instruments that proxy for the ability of managers or 
shareholders to implement their strategic preferences we 
demonstrate empirically that shareholders are indeed laggards 
because they lower firm environmental performance while the 
latter actually has positive effects on firm financial 
performance. Managers, however, push for better environmental and 
hence financial performance and thus act against shareholders 
preferences, but in their interest.
 
Keywords: Corporate governance, Environmental performance, 
          Financial performance
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-05&r=all



248. The Dominance of Diversified Versus Specialized Firms 
     Across Industries
  
    MANUEL BECERRA (Instituto de Empresa)
    JUAN SANTALO (Instituto de Empresa)

Some industries are populated primarily by diversified firms, 
while other industries are dominated by specialized firms, which 
are present only in such a given industry. In this study, we 
analyze what factors determine the dominance of diversified 
versus specialized firms, and its effect on firm performance. In 
line with transaction cost economics, we show that market 
concentration and the degree of variability in the 
diversification pattern of firms in the industry are negatively 
associated with the importance of the activity accounted by 
specialized firms across the 720 industries in our study.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-06&r=all



249. Portfolio Delegation Under Short-Selling Constraints
  
    JUAN PEDRO GOMEZ (Instituto de Empresa)

We study delegated portfolio management when the managerA?s 
ability to short-sell is restricted.Contrary to previous results, 
we show that under moral hazard, linear performance-adjusted 
contracts do provide portfolio managers with incentives to gather 
information.We find that the risk-averse managerA?s effort is 
an increasing function of her share in the portfolioA?s return.
This result affects the risk-averse investorA?s choice of 
contracts.Unlike previous results, the purely risk-sharing 
contract is now shown to be suboptimal.Using numerical methods we 
show that under optimal linear contract, managerA?s share in 
the portfolio return is higher than what it is under a purely 
risk sharing contract
 
Keywords: Linear performance-adjusted contracts, Short-selling 
          constraints, Third best effort
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-07&r=all



250. An International Capm With Consumption Externalities And 
     Non-Financial Wealth
  
    JUAN PEDRO GOMEZ (Instituto de Empresa)

We study an international asset pricing model where agents have 
preferences defined over their own consumption as well as the 
contemporaneous average or per capita consumption in their own 
country. These have been termed "keeping up with the Joneses" 
preferences. In the presence of non-diversifiable non-financial 
wealth, the model predicts that portfolio holdings of the 
representative investor differ across countries. In equilibrium 
we show that this gives rise to a multifactor CAPM where, 
together with the world market price of risk, there exists 
country-specific negative prices of risk associated with 
deviations from the countryA?s average consumption.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-08&r=all



251. Keeping Up With The Joneses In A Non-Symmetric Equilibrium
  
    JUAN PEDRO GOMEZ (Instituto de Empresa)

We prove the existence of a representative agent in an economy 
populated with investors who keep up with the Joneses and have 
heterogeneous portfolio endowments. This result is independent of 
the endowment distribution and robust to a more general 
definition of the Joneses. The implications for the home bias 
puzzle are discussed.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-09&r=all



252. Networks And Effectiveness In Work Teams: The Impact Of 
     Diversity
  
    JUAN CARLOS PASTOR (Instituto de Empresa)
    MARGARITA MAYO (Instituto de Empresa)

This paper examine the role of social networks as mediating 
factors in the relationship between diversity and work team 
effectiveness. These effects were tested with a sample of 71 
organizational teams. Results show that the degree of diversity 
in a team influences the density and centralization of the 
communication network. In turn, network density and 
centralization affect work team outcomes. Results are discussed 
in terms of their theoretical significance for network and 
diversity theory.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-10&r=all



253. A Multidimensional Unfolding Latent Trait Model For Binary 
     Data
  
    ALBERTO MAYDEU (Instituto de Empresa)

We introduce a multidimensional latent trait model for binary 
data with non-monotone item response functions. We assume that 
the conditional probability of endorsing an item is a normal 
probability density function, and that the latent traits are 
normally distributed. The model yields closed form expressions 
for the moments of the multivariate Bernoulli (MVB) distribution. 
As a result, cell probabilities can be computed also in closed 
form, regardless of the dimensionality of the latent traits. The 
model is an ideal point model in the sense that a respondent -
precisely at the ideal point (the mode of the item response 
function)- endorses the item with probability one.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-11&r=all



254. Limited Information Goodness-Of-Fit Testing In 
     Multidimensional Contingency Tables
  
    ALBERTO MAYDEU (Instituto de Empresa)

We introduce a family of goodness-of-fit statistics for testing 
composite null hypotheses in multidimensional contingency tables 
of arbitrary dimensions. These statistics are quadratic forms in 
marginal residuals up to order r. They are asymptotically chi-
square under the null hypothesis when parameters are estimated 
using any consistent and asymptotically normal estimator. We show 
that when r is small (r = 2) the proposed statistics have more 
accurate empirical Type I errors and are more powerful than 
PearsonA?s X2 for a widely used item response model. Also, we 
show that the proposed statistics are asymptotically chi-squared 
under the null hypothesis when applied to subtables.
 
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-12&r=all



255. The Customer Service Process: The Lean Thinking Perspective
  
    DAISY SOCORRO ESCOBAR (Instituto de Empresa)
    ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa)

Lean thinking has proved to be successful in improving results 
in industry. Services could benefit from this approach too. The 
success of lean thinking depends on the appropriate 
identification and elimination of waste. This paper describes the 
work carried out in identifying and analysing waste in the 
customer service process of a major telecommunications operator. 
An Action Research approach was adopted, and a "lean team" of 
company personnel was specially formed to undertake the necessary 
fieldwork. The study inspired management changes aimed at 
improving the customer service centreA?s performance.
 
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-13&r=all



256. Linking Learning Capacity And Business Performance: A 
     Research And Empirical Assessment
  
    ELENA REVILLA (Instituto de Empresa)

There has been little research that includes reliable deductions 
about the influence of knowledge and its associated learning 
processes on business performance. For this reason, the main 
objective of the present study is to empirically explore the link 
between learning flows in organizations, resulting knowledge 
stocks, and business performance evaluated in both financial and 
non-financial terms. Using data from 111 companies, we conduct 
our research through a structural equation modeling. In doing so, 
we establish a measurement model for the main constructs and 
examine the paths between them.
 
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-14&r=all



257. Even Giants Need A Club: Domestic Institutions, Market Size,
     And Regulatory Influence
  
    DAVID BACH (Instituto de Empresa)

This paper show that work on international market regulation has 
paid insufficient attention to the critical role played by 
domestic political and regulatory institutions. Existing 
literature emphasizes the role of market power, determined by 
market size, in analyzing international regulatory influence. 
While we do not contest the importance of market power, we 
introduce the notion of domestic regulatory capacity to capture 
the domestic institutional side of international market 
regulation that previous work has sidestepped. Domestic 
regulatory capacity is the missing link between latent market 
power vested in market size and international influence activated 
through regulatory institutions.
 
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-15&r=all



258. Measuring job security over time: in search of a historical 
     indicator for EPL
  
    GAYLE ALLARD (Instituto de Empresa)

All studies that have explored the impact that job-security 
legislation has had on labor-market performance have been 
handicapped by the lack of a good quantitative indicator covering 
a long enough historical period to reflect the drastic changes 
that have occurred in this area since World War II. This study 
has developed such an indicator in hopes of making a key tool 
available for labor-market research. The paper describes the 
reason that job security is important for labor market 
performance, and outlines the steps taken to develop this time-
series indicator, which should help to deliver on how job-
security laws have affected labor market performance in the 
developed countries since WWII.
 
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-17&r=all



259. The Dissemination Of Accounting Research And Performance 
     Reviews: The Role Of Publication Forms
  
    SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)

This project is supported financially by the CICYT research 
grants # 01-0657 and SEJ-2004-08176-C02-01. I would like to thank 
Jose Carlos Molina for assisting with the management of the 
database. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the 
Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association (Seville, 
2003); the Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference (
Cardiff, 2003); and the World Congress of Accounting Historians (
Oxford, Mississippi, 2004). I am grateful to the participants at 
these conferences and to Garry Carnegie, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Kari 
Lukka, and Steve Walker for their helpful suggestions.
 
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-20&r=all



260. Accounting And Forms Of Accountability In Ancient 
     Civilizations: Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt
  
    SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)

The aim of this paper is to identify the relevance and 
implications of ancient accounting practices to the contemporary 
theorizing of accounting. The paper provides a synthesis of the 
literature on ancient accounting particularly in relation to 
issues of human accountability, identifies its major achievements 
and outlines some of the key challenges facing researchers. We 
argue that far from being an idiosyncratic research field of 
marginal interest, research in ancient accounting is a rich and 
promising undertaking. The paper concludes by considering a 
number of implications of ancient accounting practices for the 
theorizing of accounting and identifies news avenues for future 
research.
 
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-21&r=all



261. From Zero To Infinity: The Use Of Impact Factors In The 
     Evaluation Of Economic Research In Spain
  
    SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)

In the present study, we examine the use of short lists of 
journals in order to assess research performance in Spain - a 
country that features a rare combination of a thin and incomplete 
academic market along with an elite of eminent economists. Our 
analysis reveals that the implementation of bibliometric tools to 
produce short lists of journals for assessment purposes entail 
problems with the statistical significance of cutoff rates, 
neglect of the interdisciplinary nature of economics, and an 
inability to track progress in academic markets that move towards 
internationalization and publications in top-tier, premier 
outlets.
 
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-22&r=all



262. Benevolence Based Trust And Agency Relations Among Upper 
     Echelons Of Family-Owned Firms
  
    MANUEL BECERRA (Instituto de Empresa)
    CRISTINA CRUZ (Instituto de Empresa)

We investigate how the family status of owners, CEO, and top 
management team (TMT) determine CEOA?s perceptions regarding 
the benevolence of his/her TMT and how in turn these perceptions 
of benevolence-based trust influence the nature of TMT control 
and incentive mechanisms. Using a sample of 122 Spanish firms, we 
find that CEOsA? assessment of TMT benevolence in family firms 
is more positive when (a) the CEO is a family member and the 
family is in a stronger ownership position; (b) there is greater 
similarity in family status between CEO and top managers and (c) 
environmental turbulence is low.
 
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-23&r=all



263. Corporate governance & the environment: bad discretion, 
     good discretion, and environmental (...)
  
    JUAN SANTALO (Instituto de Empresa)
    CARL KOCK (Instituto de Empresa)

This paper brings two important topics of corporate 
environmental management and corporate governance by exploring 
the impact of various governance mechanisms on the level of 
environmental performance that is realized by firms. We 
hypothesize that anti-takeover amendments and provisions that 
restrict managersA? personal liability create a sphere of "bad" 
discretion that allows managers to shirk by underinvesting in 
potentially financially beneficial levels of environmental 
performance. We suggest that corporate governance structures that 
emphasize higher levels of performance pay and lower degrees of 
monitoring create a degree of "good" discretion that enhances 
environmental firm performance.
 
Keywords: Corporate governance, Corporate environmental 
          performance, Managerial discretion
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-24&r=all



264. La transformaciA?n del sector profesional
  
    FRANCISCO MARCOS (Instituto de Empresa)

El presente trabajo analiza los principales cambios acaecidos en 
el sector profesional en los A?ltimos aA±os, deteniA©ndose 
especialmente en las cuestiones que el aumento en el nA?mero de 
profesiones y colegios suscita en el plano conceptual, asA­ 
como en las circunstancias que, en teorA­a, justifican una 
aproximaciA?n diferente a las prestaciones profesionales (
asimetrA­a informativa y externalidades) en comparaciA?n con 
otros servicios empresariales. No obstante lo anterior, se 
observa una creciente mercantilizaciA?n de la actividad 
profesional, que se ha modernizado y evoluciona empujada por las 
mismas fuerzas que el resto de las actividades empresariales.
 
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wpe-0516&r=all



265. La economA­a funeraria: demanda y oferta en el mercado de 
     servicios funerarios
  
    FRANCISCO MARCOS (Instituto de Empresa)

(WPE 18/03 Clave pdf) La muerte y lo que la rodea no resulta 
nada atractiva. Esta circunstancia afecta de modo inexorable a 
las condiciones de contrataciA?n en el mercado de los servicios 
funerarios. Los condicionantes emocionales, religiosos y 
culturales afectan poderosamente al juego de las fuerzas de 
mercado en este sector y lo singularizan respecto de otros 
mercados caracterizados por la asimetrA­a de informaciA?n 
entre los contratantes y la inferioridad del consumidor, 
proporcionando un escenario de posibles abusos y fraudes. El 
presente trabajo analiza las caracterA­sticas de la demanda, la 
oferta y otras variables relevantes (precio y calidad) en el 
mercado de servicios funerarios.
 
Keywords: Calidad, Demanda, Mercado de servicios funerarios, 
          Precios
Date:     2003-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wpe03-18&r=all



266. ValoraciA?n de Empresas TecnolA?gicas mediante Opciones 
     Reales
  
    CONCEPCION MARTIN (Instituto de Empresa)

(WPE 05/04 Clave pdf) Las empresas tecnolA?gicas incluyen las 
de la nueva economA­a y aquellas cuya base de negocio es el I + 
D. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar y determinar cuA?les 
son los mA©todos mA?s adecuados de valoraciA?n para 
empresas tecnolA?gicas. En concreto, mediante la aplicaciA?n 
prA?ctica a una tecnolA?gica espaA±ola, se analizan 
cuA?les son los cambios necesarios de realizar para aplicar los 
mA©todos de valoraciA?n tradicionales a este tipo de empresas 
y la validez del enfoque de opciones reales como mA©todo mA?s 
adecuado para valorar este tipo de empresas. En este sentido, se 
concluye que valorar las empresas tecnolA?gicas implica 
identificar y valorar las opciones reales.
 
Keywords: ValoraciA?n de empresas, ValoraciA?n de opciones, 
          Empresas tecnolA?gicas, Opciones reales
Date:     2004-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wpe04-05&r=all



267. La gestiA?n de la confianza como elemento clave para la 
     generalizaciA?n del comercio colaborativo
  
    RICARDO PEREZ (Instituto de Empresa)

Este documento plantea un modelo de convergencia entre la 
gestiA?n de la confianza, elemento clave para la 
colaboraciA?n entre empresas; la incorporaciA?n de los 
servicios web a la gestiA?n de datos entre empresas y el 
comercio colaborativo. Dicho modelo, que se apoya en el trabajo 
de campo realizado con una compaA±A­a que aplica actualmente 
servicios web en el entorno de comercio, aporta una visiA?n 
integrada de la literatura tradicional de sistemas inter-
organizacionales y una tecnologA­a emergente que es relevante 
para un futuro desarrollo empA­rico.
 
Keywords: Comercio colaborativo, Comercio electrA?nico, 
          Confianza , Control , Sistemas interorganizacionales
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wpe04-35&r=all