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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:      2005-06-19
Papers:	   82

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1. A primer on governance and performance in small and medium-
   sized enterprises
  
    Enrique Yacuzzi

This paper is a primer on corporate performance, corporate 
governance, and their interrelationships and measurement systems, 
with particular focus on Small and Medium- Sized Enterprises (
SMEs). This is the first report of a larger on going research 
project. In the domain of performance measurement the paper 
describes the trend from financial to non-financial measures, as 
well as a taxonomy of measures and the impact of the TQM movement 
on measurement practices. In the domain of governance, governance 
as a general concept is presented, followed by the more specific 
concept of corporate governance. Four theories of corporate 
governance are explained, along with literature findings on the 
relationship between corporate governance and corporate 
performance, with reference to both works on large firms and 
works on SMEs.
 
Keywords: Corporate governance, corporate performance, 
          measurement, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
JEL:      G30 G34 L25 M11
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:293&r=all



2. Analogy-Based Expectation Equilibrium
  
    Philippe Jehiel

Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:784828000000000106&r=all



3. Valuation Equilibria
  
    Philippe Jehiel
    Dov Samet

Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:784828000000000111&r=all



4. ?Cuanto cuesta vivir en las principales ciudades 
   colombianas? Indice de Costo de Vida Comparativo
  
    Julio Romero

Actualmente no se cuenta con una medicion de las disparidades 
regionales en el costo de vida para Colombia. En este trabajo se 
calcula un indice de costo de vida comparativo. Se trata de un 
deflactor regional que puede ser utilizado para comparar otras 
variables asociadas a la demanda, tales como el ingreso laboral. 
Para expresar las diferencias regionales en el costo de vida se 
propone la construccion de un indicador que compara el gasto 
minimo de cada ciudad con el escenario alternativo, es decir, 
que este mismo plan sea evaluado en la situacion de precios de 
las demas ciudades. Como resultado de este trabajo se evidencia 
la existencia de importantes diferencias regionales en el costo 
de vida de los hogares colombianos; estas son, en promedio, del 
26% entre la ciudad de mayor y menor costo de vida comparativo.
 
Keywords: Economia regional,
JEL:      R10
Date:     2005-06-30
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:000984&r=all



5. The Impact of Government Debt on Private Consumption in OECD 
   Countries
  
    Robert-Paul Berben
    Teunis Brosens

Using data for 17 OECD countries from 1983 to 2003, this paper 
establishes a non-linear relationship between private consumption 
and the level of government debt. In countries with a high level 
of government debt, a fiscal expansion is partly crowded out by a 
fall in private consumption. In contrast, in low debt countries, 
private consumption is insensitive to changes in government debt. 
This means that fiscal policy will be less effective in 
stabilising business cycle fluctuations at higher levels of 
government debt.
 
Keywords: consumption; government debt; panel data
JEL:      E21 E62 C23
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:045&r=all



6. Europe Without Borders? The Effect of the EMU on Relative 
   Prices
  
    Hisham Foad

Has the formation of the European Monetary Union reduced the 
impact of national borders on cross-border market convergence? 
This paper extends Engel and Rogers (1996) well known work on 
border effects to cities across Western Europe over the period 
1995 . 2002 and finds two key results. First, cross-border 
relative prices tend to be more volatile than prices between 
locations not separated by a border. This result is robust to a 
variety of potential explanations for border effects, such as 
uneven sampling bias, idiosyncratic price shocks, and incomplete 
exchange rate-pass through. Turning our attention to cross-border 
price volatility before and after the formation of the EMU, the 
effects vary by country size. Within the EMU, cross-border price 
volatility has not changed between the "small" countries, but has 
fallen significantly between the large EMU countries. Between the 
EMU and the UK, cross-border volatility has increased between the 
UK and the small EMU countries, but there has been no significant 
change between the UK and the large EMU countries. These results 
are consistent with the fact that exchange rates are more likely 
to adjust to price differentials between small countries than 
between large countries.
 
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0515&r=all



7. Currency Unions, Options, and Foreign Direct Investment
  
    Hisham Foad

A multinational deciding on where to locate a foreign production 
facility may not be indifferent to the choice of location. 
Numerous variables such as production costs, market access, and 
local tax treatments will influence the decision as to where the 
plant is located. Another key variable in this decision is 
uncertainty. Following the work of Dixit, a firm has an option to 
make a risky investment, and if this investment is at least 
partially irreversible, the option has some positive value. As 
the uncertainty in the investment project increases, so too does 
the value of the option. When comparing two investment projects 
that are identical in all respects except their underlying profit 
volatility, the one with the greater degree of uncertainty will 
require a higher trigger level of profits to be exercised. This 
paper examines the impact of uncertainty in exchange rates on a 
multinational.s decision to locate within or outside a currency 
union. The option values and trigger levels of investment within 
and outside the union are derived as a function of exchange rate 
variances and correlations, transport costs, and market size.
 
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0516&r=all



8. An Efficiency Argument For Balanced Transaction Costs
  
    Maria Arbatskaya

Transaction costs are usually thought to be a major source of 
inefficiency because they do not allow efficient trades to take 
place. One might think that lowering transaction costs is always 
welfare-improving. This paper argues that, in contrast to 
conventional wisdom, it may be beneficial to increase transaction 
costs on one side of the market to balance them with the costs on 
the other side. In the model, transaction costs imposed on 
applicants serve as a screening device that substantially reduces 
evaluation costs. Even when application costs are totally 
wasteful, they arise endogenously in the equilibrium and can 
result in a welfare improvement.
 
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:0517&r=all



9. Measuring Change in Employment Characteristics: the effects 
   of dependent interviewing
  
    Peter Lynn (Institute for Social and Economic Research)
    Emanuela Sala (Institute for Social and Economic Research)

Surveys that take repeat measurements on the same individuals (
panel or follow-up surveys) are often used to measure change in 
employment characteristics. This article is concerned with 
measurement error in such estimates of change and, specifically, 
how the error might be reduced by the use of dependent 
interviewing (DI) techniques. We use data from a large-scale 
experiment that involved two interviews at an interval of around 
17 months and compare estimates of change that are obtained using 
three different interviewing techniques: traditional independent 
interviewing (INDI), proactive dependent interviewing (PDI) and 
reactive dependent interviewing (RDI). We examine three 
characteristics of the respondent’s employment (occupation, 
employed status, and whether or not the respondent has managerial 
or supervisory responsibilities) and three characteristics of the 
employing organisation (industry, type of organisation, number of 
employees). We focus on the estimation of change in each of these 
six characteristics. We find that PDI results in lower levels of 
observed change for occupation, industry and number of employees. 
This reduction in observed change appears to represent a 
reduction in measurement error as the effect of PDI is 
particularly pronounced amongst respondents who have not reported 
a change in job between survey waves. Levels of change in 
employment characteristics amongst INDI respondents who have not 
reported a change in job remain implausibly high. The reduction 
in measurement error brought about by PDI is particularly 
associated with certain employment characteristics. A reduction 
in the observed level of change in occupation is associated with 
SOC major groups 1-4 and respondents working at workplaces with 
large number of employees. A reduction in the observed level of 
change in industry is associated with certain industries and with 
respondents who are managers or professionals (SOC major groups 1 
or 2) or have foreman or supervisor status. A reduction with PDI 
in the observed level of change in number of employees at the 
workplace is associated with large workplaces, having 
foreman/supervisor status, being employed in the public 
administration or education sectors, and being in a craft or 
related occupation or a plant or machine operative. We also found 
that measurement error was particularly reduced by PDI amongst 
respondents aged 36 or over and amongst the most highly qualified 
respondents.
 
Keywords: Measurement error, employment, interviewers, survey 
          errors, survey methodology
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2004-26&r=all



10. The Impact of Interviewing Method On Measurement Error in 
    Panel Survey Measures of Benefit Receipt: evidence from a 
    validation study
  
    Stephen P. Jenkins (Institute for Social and Economic 
      Research)
    Annette Jackle (Institute for Social and Economic Research)
    Peter Lynn (Institute for Social and Economic Research)
    Emanuela Sala (Institute for Social and Economic Research)

This article is concerned with measurement error in panel survey 
reports of social security benefit receipt. Our aims are two-fold.
First, we attempt to quantify the extent of measurement error 
and to identify its correlates. Second, we assess the extent to 
which this varies according to the questioning method used. 
Specifically, dependent interviewing has been proposed as a way 
to reduce under-reporting in some circumstances and we compare 
two versions of dependent interviewing (DI) with traditional 
independent interviewing in an experimental design. We use data 
from a large-scale UK household panel survey and we consider six 
benefits. To assess the measurement error, a validation exercise 
was conducted, with administrative data on benefit receipt 
matched at the individual level to the survey micro data.
 
Keywords: Measurement error, dependent interviewing, 
          longitudinal data quality, panel data
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2004-28&r=all



11. Marriage and Wages
  
    Elena Bardasi (The World Bank)
    Mark P. Taylor (Institute for Social and Economic Research)

This work investigates the presence of and potential economic 
explanations for a wage premium for married men in Britain using 
panel data covering the 1990s. We explicitly test several 
hypotheses developed in the literature to explain this premium, 
including the household division of labour and specialisation, 
differential rates of human capital formation, employer 
favouritism, and self-selection. After accounting for individual 
specific, time invariant effects, and a wide range of individual, 
household and job and employer related characteristics, we find a 
small, but statistically significant premium remains that can be 
attributed to productivity effects. Our estimates provide 
evidence for the existence of a large effect of selection into 
marriage based on both observable and unobservable 
characteristics that are positively correlated with wages, and 
limited evidence in support of the specialisation and human 
capital accumulation explanations.
 
Keywords: bhps, marriage, panel data, wage growth, wages
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-01&r=all



12. Differences in Delaying Motherhood across European Countries:
    empirical evidence from the ECHP
  
    Cheti Nicoletti (Institute for Social and Economic Research)

The age at motherhood has increased in most European Countries 
in the past decades. The main aim of this paper is to assess the 
impact of women's education and work experience on the timing of 
first birth across the European Union (EU). According to the 
literature - based on income maximisation framework (Gustafsson 
2001, Hotz et al. 1997) - women with a higher degree of education 
and a shorter work experience are more likely to delay motherhood 
or to remain childless. However, recent micro-level studies have 
shown contradictory empirical evidence. For instance, higher 
educated women or career women seem to enter motherhood earlier 
in the Northern European Countries (Kravdal 1994, Hoem 2000, 
Andersson 2001). Conceivably, these ambiguous findings might 
reflect substantial cross-country differences that we would like 
to point out. Therefore, we conduct an analysis to explain how 
the probability to enter into motherhood differs across 10 
European Union countries by using the European Community 
Household Panel survey (ECHP). On one side, the gap between 
countries may reflect differences in the observed characteristics 
of the national women populations, such as differences in the 
female labour participation and in the human capital investment. 
On the other side, the gap may be instead due to different 
fertility behaviours across countries. In the empirical 
application we try to disentangle between these two reasons.
 
Keywords: cross-national research methods, europe, fertility
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-04&r=all



13. Methods for Summarizing and Comparing Wealth Distributions
  
    Stephen P. Jenkins (Institute for Social and Economic 
      Research)
    Markus Jantti (University of Tampere)

This paper reviews methods for summarizing and comparing wealth 
distributions. We show that many of the tools commonly used to 
summarize income distributions can also be applied to wealth 
distributions, albeit adapted in order to account for the 
distinctive features of wealth distributions: zero and negative 
wealth values; spikes in density at or around zero; right-
skewness with long and sparse tails combined with non-trivial 
prevalence of extreme values. Illustrations are provided using 
data for Finland.
 
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-05&r=all



14. Are Scottish Degrees Better?
  
    Mark P. Taylor (Institute for Social and Economic Research)
    Robert E. Wright (University of Stirling)

In wave 12 of the BHPS, information was collected about the 
institution attended by respondents with higher education, making 
it possible to identify those who studied and Scottish and 
English institutions. In this paper, wage equation are estimated 
with panel data methods in an attempt to measure differences in 
the rates of return to Scottish and English degrees. The analysis 
suggests that the earnings returns to higher education are larger 
in Scotland than in England. However the return to English 
degrees appears to be higher than for Scottish degrees in both 
the English and Scottish labour markets.
 
Keywords: bhps, earnings, education
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-06&r=all



15. Does Dependent Interviewing Really Increase Efficiency and 
    Reduce Respondent Burden?
  
    Annette Jackle (Institute for Social and Economic Research)

Dependent interviewing techniques, where substantive information 
from previous interviews is fed forward and used in the 
formulation of questions or to prompt post-response edit checks, 
are increasingly employed by panel surveys. While there is 
substantial evidence that dependent interviewing improves the 
quality of longitudinal data, claims of improved efficiency of 
data collection and reduced respondent burden are mostly 
anecdotal. This paper uses data from a large experiment to 
systematically compare the effects of different question designs 
on efficiency and burden. The comparison highlights the wide 
variety of design options for dependent interviewing questions 
and their corresponding effects. In the present setup, efficiency 
gains were mainly due to reductions in coding costs for 
occupation and industry questions. The paper concludes by 
identifying the conditions under which dependent interviewing 
offers the largest scope for efficiency gains and burden 
reduction.
 
Keywords: data collection, dependent interviewing
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-11&r=all



16. The Economics of Entrepreneurship: What We Know and What We 
    Don't
  
    Simon C Parker

This introductory, non-technical, article offers a reflective 
overview of what Economics adds to our understanding of 
entrepreneurship. It is designed primarily to showcase to young 
entrepreneurship scholars several interesting research questions 
and a toolbox of methods to answer them. First, I will illustrate 
the kinds of questions that can be posed and answered using 
Economics. Then I will present and discuss a selective list of 
"canonical" theoretical and empirical models that form the 
intellectual bedrock of the Economics of Entrepreneurship. After 
that, I present and discuss some well-established theoretical 
contributions and empirical findings that have been generated by 
the approach. I conclude by discussing aspects of "What we don't 
know" and should. This part of the article identifies several 
ideal future trends in research that build on and complement the 
foundations of entrepreneurship that are delineated in the main 
body of the article.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2005-18&r=all



17. Two Theories of Entrepreneurship: Alternative Assumptions 
    and the Study of Entrepreneurial Action
  
    Sharon A. Alvarez

URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2005-19&r=all



18. Where in Entrepreneurship Research Heading?
  
    Scott Shane

URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2005-20&r=all



19. Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  
    Zoltan J. Acs
    David B. Audretsch

URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2005-21&r=all



20. Firm Level Implications of Early Stage Venture Capital 
    Investment - An Empiri cal Investigation
  
    Max Keilbach
    Dirk Engel

The paper analyses the impact of venture capital finance on 
growth and innovation activities of young German firms. Among 
other variables, our panel of firm data includes data on venture 
capital funding and patent applications. With statistical 
matching procedures we draw an adequate control group of 
non­venture funded but otherwise comparable firms. The analysis 
confirms other findings that venture funded firms in Germany have 
higher number of patent applications than those in the control 
group. However, they do so already before the venture capitalists 
engagement. After this engagement, the number of patent 
applications does not differ significantly from that of the 
control group, however the venture funded firms display 
significantly larger growthrates. We conclude that the higher 
innovation output of venture funded firms is mainly driven by the 
selection process made by the venture capitalist.
 
Keywords: Firm Demography, Firm Start­Ups, Firm Growth, Venture 
          Capital, Patented Inventions, Microeconometric 
          Evaluation Methods
JEL:      L21 D21 D92 C14 C33
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2005-22&r=all



21. Discrimination against Newcomers: Impacts of the German 
    Emission Trading Regime on the Electricity Sector
  
    Bode, Sven
    Hubl, Lothar
    Schaffner, Joey
    Twelemann, Sven

The EU Directive 2003/87/EC for the introduction of a European 
emission trading system has left the task of allocating the 
emission allowances mainly to the member states. In Germany the 
details of the allocation method are laid down in the Allocation 
Act (ZuG 2007). One central element of the Allocation Act is the 
so called transfer-rule, which is intended to provide incentives 
for the replacement of emission intensive installations and thus 
to achieve environmental benefits. This paper takes a closer look 
at the transfer-rule's ecological impacts and competitive effects 
in the field of electricity generation. The analysis suggests 
that the investment incentives provided by the transfer-rule are 
limited and uncertain, while at the same time the overall amount 
of emissions from participants of the trading scheme will not be 
reduced. Instead the transfer-rule causes windfall profits for 
incumbent generators and leads to a significant distortion of 
competition. This cannot be justified by environmental benefits, 
as has been done by the German government and the European 
Commission.
 
Keywords: Emission Trading, Competition, Electricity
JEL:      L49 L94 Q28 Q48
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-316&r=all



22. Are objective, official measures of disability reliable?
  
    Johansson, Per (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy 
      Evaluation)
    Skedinger, Per (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (
      IUI))

The issue considered in this study is whether objective, 
official reports on disability status are reliable. While there 
is a rather large literature on the reliability of self-reported 
disability, evidence regarding objective data is scant. It seems 
to be a widely held view among researchers that, since 
individuals out of work are inclined to respond towards poor 
health, it would be best to have official data provided by the 
relevant administrative bodies. But we argue that such 
administrative data should be regarded with some suspicion, since 
the administrators also may have incentives to misreport. The 
empirical evidence, based on a large sample of Swedish jobseekers,
suggests systematic misreporting by the Public Employment 
Service of objective, official disability measures due to 
incentives to exaggerate disability.
 
Keywords: Work disability; classification error; public 
          employment service
JEL:      I12 J28 J68
Date:     2005-05-16
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_014&r=all



23. Investment Liberalization - Why a Restrictive Cross-Border 
    Merger Policy can be Counterproductive
  
    Norback, Pehr-Johan (The Research Institute of Industrial 
      Economics)
    Persson, Lars (The Research Institute of Industrial 
      Economics)

Investment liberalizing countries are often concerned that cross-
border mergers & acquisitions, in contrast to greenfield 
investments, might have an adverse effect on domestic firms and 
consumers. However, given that domestic assets are sufficiently 
scarce, we identify a preemption effect and an asset 
complementarity effect, which imply that the acquisition price is 
substantially higher than the domestic seller's profits. Moreover,
we show that for the acquisition to take place, the MNE must be 
sufficiently efficient when using the domestic assets, otherwise 
rivals will expand their business, thereby making the acquisition 
unprofitable. Consequently, restricting cross-border M&As may 
also hurt consumers.
 
Keywords: Investment Liberalization; Mergers & Acquisitions; 
          Development; Ownership
JEL:      F23 K21 L13 O12
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0644&r=all



24. Annual Estimates of Swedish GDP in 1720-1800
  
    Edvinsson, Rodney (Stockholm University)

For the period 1800 onwards, annual figures over GDP and GDP per 
capita for Sweden have been presented in different studies. For 
the 18th century no such annual series exist. The aim of this 
paper is to present annual data on GDP and GDP per capita in 
volume values for Sweden for the whole period 1720-1800. Only 
very rough estimates are provided, which are not based on any 
disaggregation of the different components of GDP. To estimate 
annual fluctuations, four different indicators are used: changes 
in the official accounts of harvests, marriage rates, the price 
of rye and import of un-milled grains. When investigating the 
long-term trends, the conclusion is that there was only a very 
modest increase in GDP per capita over the studied period. The 
growth of the GDP per capita became substantial not until the mid 
19th century. However, GDP grew significantly during the studied 
period, but this growth mainly took the form of population growth.
This in itself constituted a kind of technological progress, 
allowing a larger population per unit of land without a 
significant decrease in per capita production.
 
Keywords: GDP; 18th century; Sweden; economic growth; national 
          accounts; economic history
JEL:      E23 E32 J10 N13 N53 O10 O13 O47 O52 Q13
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0070&r=all



25. Real and Nominal Wage Adjustment in Open Economies
  
    Forslund, Anders (Institute for Labour Makret Policy 
      Evaluation)
    Gottfries, Nils (Department of Economics)
    Westermark, Andreas (Department of Economics)

A wage equation for a small open economy is derived and 
estimated on aggregate data for the Nordic countries. The 
equation is derived from a model of wage bargaining over nominal 
wages; hence both long run coefficients and adjustment parameters 
have clear economic interpretations. Wages depend on the scope (
main course) for wage increases; based on our theoretical model 
we interpret this as evidence of union bargaining power. 
Unemployment benefits have substantial effects on wages in all 
four countries. There is substantial nominal wage rigidity; hence 
changes in exchange rates have large and persistent effects on 
competitiveness.
 
Keywords: wage formation; bargaining; rent sharing; turnover; 
          search; exchange rate policy; wage equation; wage 
          rigidity; competitiveness
JEL:      E52 F33 F41 J31 J51 J63 J64
Date:     2005-06-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2005_018&r=all



26. Freedom, Servitude and Voluntary Contract
  
    Jonathan Conning (Hunter College, Department of Economics)
    Michael Kevane (Santa Clara University, Department of 
      Economics)

We present a framework to revisit and reframe some important 
debates over the nature of free versus unfree labor and the 
economic consequences of emancipation. We use a simple general 
equilibrium model in which labor can be either free or coerced 
and where land and labor will be exchanged on markets that can be 
competitive or manipulated or via other non-market collusive 
arrangements. Tied labor-service contracts and other forms of 
'servility' clauses are 'necessary' only as a strategy to help 
landlords sustain a collusive arrangement to pay workers wages 
below their marginal product. We discuss two purported paradoxed 
that have been stressed in the literature: the paradox of 
immiserizing emancipation (that explains why total output fell in 
so many post-emancipation societies) and the paradox of bans (
that claims that interference with workers freedom to enter into 
voluntary contracts can only be Pareto-decreasing. We argue that 
while these paradoxes are generally valid when examined in the 
context of simpler bilateral contracting situations, they fail to 
consider important general equilibrium considerations.
 
JEL:      N50 O1 O12 O17 P14 P16
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:htr:hcecon:408&r=all



27. Culture and Institutions: economic development in the 
    regions of Europe
  
    Guido Tabellini

Does culture have a causal effect on economic development? The 
data on European regions suggest that it does. Culture is 
measured by indicators of individual values and beliefs, such as 
trust and respect for others, and confidence in individual 
selfdetermination. To isolate the exogenous variation in culture, 
I rely on two historical variables used as instruments: the 
literacy rate at the end of the XIXth century, and the political 
institutions in place over the past several centuries. The 
political and social history of Europe provides a rich source of 
variation in these two variables at a regional level. The 
exogenous component of culture due to history is strongly 
correlated with current regional economic development, after 
controlling for contemporaneous education, urbanization rates 
around 1850 and national effects. Moreover, the data do not 
reject the over-identifying assumption that the two historical 
variables used as instruments only influence regional development 
through culture. The indicators of culture used in this paper are 
also strongly correlated with economic development and with 
available measures of institutions in a cross-country setting.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:292&r=all



28. Autoregressive Approximation in Nonstandard Situations: The 
    Non-Invertible and Fractionally Integrated Cases.
  
    D. S. Poskitt

Autoregressive models are commonly employed to analyze empirical 
time series. In practice, however, any autoregressive model will 
only be an approximation to reality and in order to achieve a 
reasonable approximation and allow for full generality the order 
of the autoregression, h say, must be allowed to go to infinity 
with T, the sample size. Although results are available on the 
estimation of autoregressive models when h increases indefinitely 
with T such results are usually predicated on assumptions that 
exclude (i) non-invertible processes and (ii) fractionally 
integrated processes. In this paper we will investigate the 
consequences of fitting long autoregressions under regularity 
conditions that allow for these two situations and where an 
infinite autoregressive representation of the process need not 
exist. Uniform convergence rates for the sample autocovariances 
are derived and corresponding convergence rates for the estimates 
of AR(h) approximations are established. A central limit theorem 
for the coefficient estimates is also obtained. An extension of a 
result on the predictive optimality of AIC to fractional and non-
invertible processes is obtained.
 
Keywords: Autoregression, Autoregressive approximation, 
          Fractional process, Non-invertibility, Order selection, 
          Asymptotic efficiency.
JEL:      C14 C32 C53
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msh:ebswps:2005-16&r=all



29. The Political Economy of Portuguese Intergovernmental Grants
  
    Linda Goncalves Veiga (Universidade do Minho - NIPE)
    Maria Manuel Pinho (Universidade do Porto)

We use a large and unexplored dataset covering all mainland 
Portuguese municipalities from 1979 to 2002 to evaluate the 
impact of political forces in the allocation of grants from the 
central government to local authorities. Empirical results 
clearly show that, besides variables that proxi local population 
needs and the macroeconomic situation of the country, political 
variables condition the granting system: (1) grants increase in 
municipal and legislative election years, (2) the larger the 
number of years a mayor has been in office, the larger the amount 
of funds transferred to his/her municipality. These effects are 
particularly strong for grants that are not formula-determined.
 
Keywords: political economy, intergovernmental relations, grants,
          Portugal.
JEL:      H77 H59 D72
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:8/2005&r=all



30. Privatizing the Commons and Economic Degradation
  
    Christopher J. Ellis (University of Oregon)
    Edward Birdyshaw (California State University, Fresno)

We develop a dynamic model of the exploitation of an 
environmental resource with endogenous property rights. We are 
able to explain both the evolution of property rights and 
environmental quality. In some circumstances the time path of 
environmental quality is U-shaped and resembles an Environmental 
Kuznets Curve. However this patern derives from changes in the 
property rights regime, not from changes in income.
 
Keywords: Commons, Property Rights, Environmental Resource
JEL:      Q20 Q50
Date:     2005-05-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ore:uoecwp:2005-10&r=all



31. Market Integration in Wholesale Rice Markets in India
  
    Raghbendra Jha
    K.V. Bhanu Murthy
    Anurag Sharma

This paper tests for market integration in 55 wholesale rice 
markets in India using monthly data over the period January 1970 -
December 1999. The technique of Gonzalez-Rivera and Helfand (
2001) is used to identify common factors across various markets. 
It is discovered that market integration is far from complete in 
India and a major reason for this is the excessive interference 
in rice markets by government agencies. As a result it is hard 
for scarcity conditions in isolated markets to be picked up by 
markets with abundance in supply. A number of policy implications 
are also considered.
 
Keywords: Length (pages): 36
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2005-03&r=all



32. Nash rationalizability of collective choice over lotteries
  
    T. DEMUYNCK
    L. LAUWERS

To test the joint hypothesis that players in a noncooperative 
game (allowing mixed strategies) maximize expected utilities and 
select a Nash equilibrium, it suffices to study the reaction of 
the revealed collective choice upon changes in the space of 
strategies available to the players. The joint hypothesis is 
supported if the revealed choices satisfy an extended version of 
Richter’s congruence axiom together with a contraction-
expansion axiom that models the noncooperative behavior. In 
addition, we provide sufficient and necessary conditions for a 
binary relation to have an independent ordering extension, and 
for individual choices over lotteries to be rationalizable.
 
Keywords: independence condition, binary extensions, 
          rationalizability, Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies
JEL:      C72 C92
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/301&r=all



33. Implementing Extended Producer Responsibility in Flemish 
    Waste Policy: Evaluation of the Introduction of the Duty of 
    Acceptance
  
    R. BRACKE
    M. DE CLERCQ

In order to implement extended producer responsibility in the 
Flemish waste policy, the Flemish government introduced the duty 
of acceptance in the Waste Decree. At the moment, the duty 
applies for paper, batteries, vehicles, tyres and electrical and 
electronic equipment. Producers are obliged to set up free of 
charge take-back collection systems for the disposal of their 
products in the post-consumption phase. As such, market failure 
is corrected by reconverting social costs into private ones, 
respecting the polluter pays principle. For the practical 
execution of the basic rules laid down in the legal framework, 
negotiated agreements are concluded with sector associations. 
This sector-based policy approach allows setting up efficient 
collection and disposal networks taking into account the specific 
characteristics of each waste product rather than implementing a 
uniform system. Although the duty of acceptance confronts 
producers with waste management responsibilities, they have 
actually succeeded in shifting most of the burden to the recovery 
sector. As waste management organisations have become the 
rightful owner of end-of-life products, they were able to create 
a rivalry amongst waste management companies. This enabled them 
to impose the recovery targets, to which the producers have 
engaged themselves in the negotiated agreements, on the recovery 
sector. On the one hand the monopolistic position of these waste 
management organisations stimulates market concentration in the 
recovery sector, setting aside small and medium sized companies, 
which could lead to negative monopolistic consequences. On the 
other hand, this entails a positive effect on the environmental 
performance of the recovery sector. Moreover, a lot of management 
tasks are passed on from government administrations to these 
private waste management organisations so that more government 
resources can be spent to tailor-made waste policy making. 
Additional resources and learning experiences have significantly 
improved the quality of more recently concluded negotiated 
agreements. Convinced that this innovative policy approach 
contributes to the overall goal of sustainable development, the 
government has already planned to start up additional sector-
based policy programs based on the duty of acceptance.
 
Keywords: Waste management policy, extended producer 
          responsibility, negotiated agreements, duty of 
          acceptance
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/302&r=all



34. Environmental Auditing and the Role of the Accountancy 
    Profession: A Literature Review
  
    P. DE MOOR
    I. DE BEELDE

This review of the literature on environmental auditing and the 
potential role of accountants distinguishes between compliance 
audits and audits of the environmental management system. After 
an extensive introduction to the concept, this review focuses on 
the similarities and differences between an environmental audit 
and a financial statement audit. Except that environmental audits 
are largely unregulated, the general approach to both types of 
audits is similar. Both audits place an emphasis on the 
evaluation of control systems, which is an argument in favor of 
external auditors playing a role in environmental audits. Another 
argument for including external accountants, is their code of 
ethics. However, these professionals seem to be reluctant to 
enter the field of environmental auditing. It is argued that this 
reluctance is because of a lack of generally accepted principles 
for conducting environmental audits. If external accountants are 
engaged in environmental auditing, they should be part of 
multidisciplinary teams that also include scientists and 
engineers to avoid a too strong focus on procedures. Rather than 
treating these audits as totally different, it is proposed that 
there be a move towards integrated, or even universal, audits.
 
Keywords: Environmental auditing, Environmental reporting, 
          Compliance audit, Environmental management system, 
          External auditors
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/303&r=all



35. Internal Auditor’s Perception about their Role in Risk 
    Management Comparison between Belgian and US Companies
  
    G. SARENS
    I. DE BEELDE

In addition to a number of quantitative studies in this area, 
this study wants firstly to elaborate in a complementary 
qualitative way how internal auditors perceive their current role 
in risk management within the Belgian context where internal 
auditing is a relatively young profession. Secondly, we want to 
investigate whether, under the influence of recent changes in 
corporate governance regulations, a greater financial emphasis in 
internal auditors’ work can be noticed. Thirdly, we are 
interested in differences between Belgian companies and Belgian 
subsidiaries of US companies with relation to internal 
auditors’ role in risk management. In order to get adequate 
data, we interviewed 10 Chief Audit Executives and collected 
relevant documents. The data reveal that the specific content of 
internal auditors’ role in risk management is very time and 
country specific. For the Belgian companies, internal auditors’ 
focus on acute shortcomings in the risk management system creates 
opportunities to demonstrate their value in the short run. 
Internal auditors are playing a pioneering role in the creation 
of a higher level of risk and control awareness and a more 
formalised, standardised, transparent and documented risk 
management system. In the Belgian subsidiaries of US companies, 
internal auditors’ objective evaluations and opinions are a 
valuable input for the new internal control review and disclosure 
requirements mentioned in the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Moreover, an 
enhanced attention for financial controls and the quality of 
financial reporting was noticed within these companies.
 
Keywords: internal auditors, risk assessment, risk management, 
          risk and internal control communication, Sarbanes Oxley 
          Act, interviews
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/304&r=all



36. On the IASB Comprehensive Income Project, Neutrality of 
    Display and the Case for Two EPS Numbers
  
    P. VAN CAUWENBERGE
    I. DE BEELDE

The IASB is presently involved in a project on reporting 
comprehensive income. Since the IASB accounting system is a 
mixture of two income determination methods, to wit historical 
cost accounting and fair value accounting, an interesting 
question pertains to whether the display of comprehensive income 
should be neutral with regard to these two competing paradigms. 
This paper scrutinizes, with a valuation perspective in mind, the 
typical arguments made by proponents of historical cost net 
income and comprehensive fair value income and finds that claims 
for exclusive reliance on a single concept of earnings are 
untenable. This means that a case could be made for advancing 
neutral income display as a policy objective. The matrix format 
of comprehensive income that is proposed under the IASB 
performance project certainly allows for such a neutral 
interpretation. However, given the importance of summarization in 
financial analysis, as is most extremely reflected in the focus 
on the earnings per share (EPS) number, if neutrality is to 
prevail, then it should also be reflected at the highest level of 
summarization of financial performance reporting. In other words, 
mandatory publication of two EPS numbers, one for net income and 
one for comprehensive income, should be considered. Possible 
effects on perception and actual use of financial reports that 
should enter such a consideration are suggested as topics for 
experimental research.
 
Keywords: Comprehensive income; Neutrality of income display; 
          Double EPS reporting
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/305&r=all



37. Outsourcing bij Vlaamse Ondernemingen: een Exploratief 
    Onderzoek
  
    P. EVERAERT
    G. SARENS

In deze paper onderzoeken we hoe Vlaamse bedrijven beslissen 
over outsourcing. In dit verkennende onderzoek komen volgende 
aspecten aan bod: (1) de soort activiteiten die worden uitbesteed,
(2) de voornaamste drijfveren om aan outsourcing te doen, (3) de 
gepercipieerde risico’s verbonden aan outsourcing, en (4) het 
verloop van het outsourcingsproces. De resultaten zijn gebaseerd 
op een vragenlijst, afgenomen bij 35 grote productiebedrijven, 
gevestigd in Vlaanderen. De resultaten tonen dat vooral 
activiteiten worden uitbesteed met een lage strategische waarde (
zoals drukwerk, transport, loonadministratie, onderhoud, ...) wat 
overeenstemt met internationaal onderzoek (o.a. Quinn en Hilmer, 
1994). Strategisch belangrijke activiteiten (zoals netwerkbeheer, 
onderzoek en ontwikkeling, productie) worden momenteel niet (of 
nauwelijks) uitbesteed en worden ook niet in aanmerking genomen 
voor de toekomst. Als voornaamste redenen om aan outsourcing te 
doen worden kostenbeheersing en verhoogde flexibiliteit 
aangehaald. De respondenten schatten het negatieve sociale 
klimaat in als voornaamste risico van outsourcing. Ondanks het 
feit dat kostenbeheersing reden nummer een is om aan 
outsourcing te doen, vinden Vlaamse ondernemingen het aangeboden 
kwaliteitsniveau iets belangrijker dan de te betalen prijs bij de 
selectie van een geschikte leverancier. Het hele selectieproces 
duurt gemiddeld genomen twee maanden en twee derde van de 
respondenten maakt gebruik van meerdere leveranciers.
 
Keywords: uitbesteden, outsourcing, Vlaamse ondernemingen, 
          exploratief onderzoek
JEL:      M10 M55
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/306&r=all



38. Bank Supervision Russian Style: Rules vs Enforcement and 
    Tacit Objectives
  
    S. CLAEYS
    G. LANINE
    K. SCHOORs

We focus on the conflict between two central bank objectives, 
namely individual bank stability and systemic stability. We study 
the licensing policy of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) in 1999-
2002. Banks in poorly banked regions, banks that are too big to 
be disciplined adequately and banks that are active on the 
interbank market enjoy protection from license withdrawal, 
showing a tacit concern for systemic stability. The CBR is also 
reluctant to withdraw licenses from banks that violate the 
individuals’ deposits to capital ratio, because this conflicts 
with the tacit CBR objective to secure depositor trust and 
systemic stability.
 
Keywords: Bank supervision, bank crisis, Russia
JEL:      G2 N2 E5
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/307&r=all



39. Boycotts, power politics or trust building: how to prevent 
    conflict?
  
    A. SCHOLLAERT
    D. VAN DE GAER

In a game of imperfect information, the paper analyzes whether 
different types of intervention by third parties can ensure that 
political (ethnic, religious, social, . . . ) groups within a 
country will pursue a cooperative strategy and how easy it is to 
predict their effects. We conclude that a strong boycott is the 
most effective instrument, then comes a weak boycott, followed by 
power politics. Finally, apart from requiring very detailed 
information on the relevant parameters of the economy, the use of 
confidence building measures has a serious flaw: it is incapable 
of averting civil war.
 
Keywords: Non Cooperative Games; Third-party Intervention; 
          Conflict Prevention
JEL:      C72 D74
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/308&r=all



40. How to Catch Foreign Fish? FDI and Privatisation in EU 
    Accession Countries
  
    B. MERLEVEDE
    K. SCHOORS

In a partial adjustment framework the observed FDI stock is the 
result of two driving forces. First, the stock converges towards 
its equilibrium level, even without policy changes. Second, the 
equilibrium level itself is driven by changes in its determinants.
By means of a dynamic panel data analysis we examine the 
determinants of investment by ‘old’ EU-members in ten 
countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We find a rapid 
adjustment towards equilibrium. Traditional variables, such as 
market potential, trade integration, and relative unit labour 
costs, are fairly stable as determinants of equilibrium FDI 
stocks in transition economies. Institutional development in all 
its forms is a robust determinant of the optimal level of FDI. 
The relationship between FDI and the privatization process is 
complex. Non-direct privatization schemes negatively affect the 
speed of adjustment towards the equilibrium, whereas current 
direct privatization strategies positively affect the equilibrium 
level of FDI. Privatization history increases equilibrium FDI, 
independently of the method applied.
 
Keywords: foreign direct investment, privatisation, partial 
          adjustment
JEL:      F20 F23 P33
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:05/309&r=all



41. Do On-Line Labor Market Intermediaries Matter? The Impact of 
    AlmaLaurea on the University-to-Work Transition
  
    Manuel Bagues
    Mauro Sylos Labini

University-to-work transition is affected by different kinds of 
information imperfections and asymmetries. The present paper 
studies the consequences of on-line institutional arrangements 
aimed at reducing information imperfections in this segment of 
the labor market. More specifically, this work is concerned with 
the impact of a specific labor intermediary, the interuniversity 
consortium called AlmaLaurea, on the graduates labor market 
outcomes. In order to measure the effect of AlmaLaurea a pooled 
cross section data set is exploited employing the "difference-in-
differences" method. It is shown that AlmaLaurea has a clear 
effect on both individual unemployment probability and different 
measures of job satisfaction.
 
Keywords: Labor Markets Intermediaries, Job Search, Electronic 
          Markets
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2005/15&r=all



42. Explaining the Distribution of Firms Growth Rates
  
    Giulio Bottazzi
    Angelo Secchi

Empirical analyses on aggregated datasets have revealed a common 
exponential behavior in the shape of the probability density of 
the corporate growth rates. We present clearcut evidence on this 
topic using disaggregated data. We explain the observed 
regularities proposing a model in which the firms’ ability of 
taking up new business opportunities increases with the number of 
opportunities already exploited. A theoretical result is 
presented for the limiting case in which the number of firms and 
opportunities go to infinity. Moreover, using simulations, we 
show that even in a small industry the agreement with asymptotic 
results is almost complete.
 
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2005/16&r=all



43. Unobservable Heterogeneity in Directed Search
  
    Peters, Michael

This paper studies a simple directed search model where workers 
have private information about their own productivity. Their 
productivity is observable to firms once workers apply but not 
verifiable so that it cannot be directly rewarded by firms in the 
form of higher wages. This unobservable heterogeneity among 
workers provides a very natural way of modeling application 
decisions. More important, this approach breaks the tight 
connection between the wage and unemployment duration that 
appears to constitute a weakness of the directed search approach. 
In a particular, using the reciprocal of the employment 
probability as a proxy for average duration of unemployment, the 
model predicts an inverse relationship between the wage at which 
a worker leaves unemployment and the average duration of 
unemployment. This prediction is consistent with existing 
empirical work on the topic, but differs from previous models of 
directed search.
 
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:pmicro:peters-05-06-13-01-50-30&r=all



44. Welfare Reform, Saving, and Vehicle Ownership: Do Asset 
    Limits and Vehicle Exemptions Matter?
  
    James X. Sullivan (University of Notre Dame)

This paper examines whether AFDC/TANF asset tests affect the 
asset holdings of low-educated single mothers, exploiting 
variation in asset limits and exemptions across states and over 
time. There are important reasons to examine vehicle assets in 
this context. For example, vehicles make up a very significant 
share of total wealth for poor families, and the variation in 
vehicle exemptions over time and across states far exceeds the 
variation in asset limits. Consistent with other recent research, 
I find little evidence that asset limits have an effect on the 
amount of liquid assets that single mothers hold. However, I find 
evidence that vehicle exemptions do have an important effect on 
vehicle assets. The findings suggest that moving from a $1500 
vehicle exemption to a full vehicle exemption increases the 
probability of owning a car by 20 percentage points for low-
educated single mothers relative to a comparison group. Also, the 
results indicate that single mothers are not substituting vehicle 
equity for liquid assets in response to more relaxed restrictions 
on vehicles.
 
Keywords: Sullivan, TANF, eligibility, vehicle, asset limits
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:05-117&r=all



45. Inferential Expectations
  
    Gordon Menzies (School of Finance and Economics, University 
      of Technology, Sydney)
    Daniel John Zizzo (University of East Anglia)

We propose that the formation of beliefs be treated as 
statistical hypothesis tests, and we label such beliefs 
inferential expectations. If a belief is overturned through the 
build-up of evidence, agents are assumed to switch to the 
rational expectation. Rational expectations are shown to be a 
special (limiting) case of inferential expectations, with the 
test size a becoming a metric for rationality. When inferential 
expectations are built into a Dornbusch-style model of the 
exchange rate, regression tests of Uncovered Interest Parity and 
the rational expectations version of the term structure both 
display downward bias in the slope coefficient. We present the 
results of an experiment that supports inferential expectations.
 
Keywords: expectations; macroeconomics; rationality; uncovered 
          interest parity; term structure; exchange rate
JEL:      C91 D84 E50 F31
Date:     2005-05-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uts:rpaper:159&r=all



46. Inspiration About The Economy
  
    ZhaoYuan Wang (/)

If there is a kind of theory can explain people ' s daily life 
that is economy.
 
JEL:      C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpem:0506006&r=all



47. Structural change in Export and economics growth: Analysis 
    for spain (1980-2001)
  
    zaharey (UMS-Labuan International Campus)

Structural change in Export and economics growth: Analysis for 
spain (1980-2001)
 
Keywords: ekonometrik
JEL:      C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpem:0506007&r=all



48. Chaotic expansion of powers and martingale representation (
    v1.2)
  
    Farshid Jamshidian (Univ. of Twente)

This paper extends a recent martingale representation result of 
[N-S] for a L\'{e}vy process to filtrations generated by a rather 
large class of semimartingales. As in [N-S], we assume the 
underlying processes have moments of all orders, but here we 
allow angle brackets to be stochastic. Following their approach, 
including a chaotic expansion, and incorporating an idea of 
strong orthogonalization from [D], we show that the stable 
subspace generated by Teugels martingales is dense in the space 
of square-integrable martingales, yielding the representation. 
While discontinuities are of primary interest here, the special 
case of a (possibly infinite-dimensional) Brownian filtration is 
an easy consequence.
 
Keywords: Martingale Representation, chaotic expansion, power 
          brackets, Teugels martingales, Hilbert space, strong 
          orthogonalization
JEL:      G
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0506008&r=all



49. Non Cooperative Games: design of fictitious republic money 
    for exchange control, banking and taxation
  
    Krishna Gopal Misra (QUALITYMETER.COM)

'Reality of money' is curiously similar to uncertainty theory of 
Heisenberg) quantum physics. To some (natural societies), 
legitimacy of exchange control is derived by associating it with 
certain physical significance of 'real' goods. Exchange control 
is thus decided by producers in commodity exchanges. Others (
Republicans of Greek civilization) think, money can be only a 
symbolic or fictitious unit, and any physical significance 
attached to it will undermine sanctity (in respect to space and 
time) of money used as unit for measurement of the prices. Under 
these circumstances, exchange control is monopoly of republics 
and debt engine produces competition and enterprises in people. 
There are two worlds. Performance of markets (Republics vs. 
Natural Societies) is going to test which of the perspective and 
understanding are true and for how long. A republic is design of 
a game of Master and Slaves in creating forces of competition 
with fictitious (unreal or without physical significance) coupons.
This is a human nature that people are excited so much about 
unreal things and they can always produce any amount of real / 
natural things or sacrifices to pay for unreal or unknowable. 
Gaming/ gambling unfortunately uses of this human weakness in 
making slaves compete among themselves. This article describes 
design of Republican (Greek civilization) monetary system as a 
NON CO-OPERATIVE GAMES and how the psychograph of ignorant souls 
is exploited by the state, and how the mess of economics is 
successfully able to create a form of criminal peace and 
prosperity. This article discusses the valuation of prices, unit 
price or measuring unit for prices, legitimacy of exchange 
control in markets, invention of commodity exchanges using 'real' 
money, invention of 'fictitious' money, banking, state monopoly 
of exchange control and mathematical legitimacy of interests and 
taxation.
 
Keywords: liberatarians, free markets, ligitimacy of exchange 
          control, natural thinking on economics, human 
          psychology in economics
JEL:      A
Date:     2005-06-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpgt:0506006&r=all



50. Porter and Weihrich: Two Faces of a Strategic Matrix for 
    Developing the Portuguese Molds Industry
  
    Joao Leitao (Universidade da Beira Interior)
    Carlos Deodato (Universidade da Beira Interior)

The Portuguese producers of Molds are in its majority of small 
or medium dimension, competing in highly competitive 
international markets and using processes, which incorporate new 
technologies. The present study aims to identify the strategic 
quadrants for developing the Portuguese Molds Industry, in order 
to overcome the growing competition originated by the producers 
located in East Europe, and in Asia. In this sense, a strategic 
diagnosis is made, using, in first place, the model of the five 
competitive forces of Porter (1986) and, in second place, the 
TOWS Matrix of Weihrich (1982). Through the identification of the 
five competitive forces, we find out that the suppliers have a 
considerable bargaining power, and that the threat of new enters 
doesn't exercise great pressure on the industry, in analysis. 
Furthermore, the determinants of the rivalry are strong, whereas 
the threat for substitutes is weak. According to the application 
of the TOWS Matrix, we retain that this industry presents a good 
competitive positioning in the international markets; 
nevertheless, she has to bet in the formation of a specialized 
labour force, and in the promotion of a trade mark image, in 
order to increase the market power, and to overcome the direct 
competitors.
 
Keywords: Clusters, Competitive Strategy, Molds.
JEL:      M20 M21
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0506007&r=all



51. China Business: Experiential Viewpoints and Approaches
  
    Kiyoshi Urakami (Urakami Asia Management Research)

Asian business has undergone substantial changes with the 
emergence of China. This paper aims at describing general trends 
in China business strategies being sought and followed by the 
Japanese multinationals in the electronics industry based on the 
authorfs practical business experiences with Hitachi, Ltd. in the 
region. One of the objectives of the paper is to document the 
authorfs experiential viewpoints and approaches.
 
Keywords: Regional headquarters, Greater China region, Market 
          place, Full ownership business
JEL:      F1 F2
Date:     2005-06-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0506004&r=all



52. A NOTE ON INCOME CONVERGE EFFECTS IN REGIONAL INTEGRATION 
    AGREEMENTS
  
    Fabrizio Carmignani (United Nations Economic Commission for 
      Europe)

This paper investigates the extent of per-capita income 
convergence in regional integration initiatives. Panel unit root 
testing is performed on 28 regional groupings. There is evidence 
of convergence in South- South integration, but this might be 
taking place to the bottom.
 
Keywords: Regional integration, Income convergence, 
          Heterogeneous dynamic panels.
JEL:      F15 O40 C12 C23
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0506005&r=all



53. Dreamland
  
    Boonserm Booncharoenpol (Krirk University Bangkok Thailand)

Dreamland is an economic idea for ideal society like Utopia of 
Moore but it is more applicable to the real world. A man, Boon, 
had visited a wonderful land and told us what he met in the ideal 
country. For example: no liquor, limitation of personal wealth, 
education without degree. If any country follow the ideal country,
people will be happy.
 
Keywords: ideal society, history of economic thought, socialism, 
          Buddhist economics
JEL:      B
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmh:0506001&r=all



54. A theory of endogenous time preference, and discounted 
    utility anomalies
  
    Svetlana Boyarchenko (The University of Texas at Austin)
    Sergei Levendorskii (The University of Texas at Austin)

We explain essentially all known discounted utility anomalies as 
artefacts of the optimizing behavior of an individual with a time-
separable utility function, who perceives a good as a source of 
a stochastic consumption stream, and believes that she can wait 
for an optimal moment to buy or sell the good. For this 
individual, the fair price of the corresponding utility stream is 
interpreted as an integral of a deterministic utility stream 
multiplied by certain non-exponential factors which we interpret 
as endogenous discount factors; the factors are different for 
gains and losses, and depend on the utility function and 
underlying uncertainty. We provide analytic expressions and 
numerical examples for discount factors assuming simple utility 
functions and gaussian uncertainty.
 
Keywords: Time preference, discounted utility anomalies, 
          decision-making under uncertainty, optimal stopping
JEL:      D81 D91 C61 G31
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0506005&r=all



55. Book-Tax Gap. An Income Horse Race
  
    Maurizio Bovi (ISAE - Institute for Studies & Economic 
      Analyses)

This paper presents some stylised facts about the book-tax gap, 
i.e. the difference between book and taxable income, of Italian 
corporations. This divergence is a reflection of the usage of any 
tax shields and any applicable credits and rebates which, in turn,
implies that the concept of taxable income is elusive. Moreover 
overlapping fiscal policies make harder, on the one hand, 
firms’ tax planning and, on the other hand, policymakers’ 
control on the effectiveness of their manoeuvres. As for the 
fiscal year 2000, evidence based on data drawn from the Diecofis 
database shows that, as expected (why pay more?), in Italy there 
is a widespread and active industry set up to enable taxpayers to 
identify and take advantage of particular tax effects. In that 
year 55,201 (16% of the) firms were able to report positive book 
profits and to indicate non positive taxable incomes. A less 
expected outcome shows that the “income race” may finish in a 
quite different way. More than half (57%) of the uneconomic 
companies, ends up with positive taxable incomes (83,449 in 
absolute terms). A disaggregated analysis highlights that this 
latter share is much more lower among southern corporations and 
large enterprises, especially in the construction and in the 
hotel/restaurant services sectors. Finally, it results that 
industries whose firms more often declare negative taxable 
incomes tend to display significantly higher shares of irregular 
workers, as well.
 
Keywords: Corporate income tax, tax avoidance, accounting
JEL:      G14 M4 K2
Date:     2005-06-13
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0506009&r=all



56. ?Pueden competir los pequenos productores mexicanos en el 
    mundo actual?
  
    Gustavo Gordillo
    Paul Lewin

Keywords: desarrollo rural, comercio, competitividad, 
          agricultura familiar, pequenos productores, ejido, TLC
JEL:      D6 D7 H
Date:     2005-06-14
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0506010&r=all



57. The Lagrange multipliers and existence of competitive 
    equilibrium in an intertemporal model with endogenous leisure
  
    Nguyen Manh Hung (CERMSEM)
    San Nguyen Van (CERMSEM)

This paper proves the existence of competitive equilibrium in a 
single sector dynamic economy with elastic labor supply. The 
method of proof relies on some recent results (see Le Van and 
Saglam [2004]) concerning the existence of Lagrange multipliers 
in infinite dimensional spaces and their representation as a 
summable sequence.
 
Keywords: Optimal growth model, Lagrange multipliers, 
          competitive equilibrium, elastic labor supply
JEL:      C61 C62 D51 E13 O41
Date:     2005-01
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:b05041&r=all



58. Les fondements economiques de la gratuite des biens et 
    services informationnels. Financement indirect et 
    investissement en gratuite
  
    Francoise Vasselin (MATISSE)

Usually, an economic good isn't available gratuitously, but the 
case of information goods and services (IGS) is specific. Their 
intrinsic properties allow zero prices that is unconceivable for 
the others economic private goods. The gratuitousness is not the 
aim of productive activity ; it results from private choices we 
can group into two innovative generic models. On the one hand, 
the indirect financing of gratuitousness for information services 
is based on natural factors of gratuitousness inherent in 
information. On the other hand, the offer strategy of information 
goods uses potential factors of gratuitousness linked to their 
production and their distribution. These models are founded on 
the information valorisation, the getting round of intellectual 
property rights, opportunity cost and sacrifice of margins that 
constitute the economic foundations of gratuitousness of IGS.
 
Keywords: Information goods and services, free, economies of 
          scale, externalities, rivalry, exclusion, appropriation,
          strategy, financing, investment
JEL:      D62 H41 M2
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05037&r=all



59. L'evaluation du RMI : la simplification de la demarche et 
    ses enjeux
  
    Jacques Bouchoux (MATISSE)
    Yvette Houzel (MATISSE)
    Jean-Luc Outin (MATISSE)

This paper analyses the different evaluation programs which have 
been conducted since the beginning of the minimum income policy 
in 1989. It's aimed at interpreting the links between the 
evaluation models and the policies. Two approaches can be 
highlighted ; the first one, that we can all « pluralistic 
approach » started with the early works of the national 
evaluation committee until the mid-90's and combined many 
purposes and procedures. Despite the extensive knowledge gained 
about the problems of poverty, it led to very few public 
decisions. The second approach initiated in the mid-90's resulted 
from the rising cost of the policy of minimum income due to the 
increasing number of beneficiaries. By focusing on simple 
indicators of efficiency and using econometric methods, the 
analysis appears more restrictive but it led to policy decisions 
which deeply modified the minimum income policy.
 
Keywords: Evaluation, minimum income, public policy, 
          quantitative methods, qualitative methods
JEL:      I3 I32 I38
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05038&r=all



60. Exploration and exploitation strategies. What kind of 
    analytical models ?
  
    Nadia Jacoby (MATISSE)

This paper gives some insights related to the combination of 
exploration and exploitation behaviors. A recurrent question for 
firms deals with this blend of exploration and exploitation 
mechanisms. Firms are engaged in new activities like research and 
at the same time in more routine ones like development and 
production. Thus, they should find a satisfying arrangement 
between exploitation. But in order to do that, they should better 
understand their working. This paper analyzes adaptive systems 
through exploration and exploitation behaviors of firms. In order 
to better understand the temporal articulation of those behaviors,
we refer to a mapping representation of search processes using 
NK models (Kauffman, 1993).
 
Keywords: Evolutionary approaches of firms, exploration and 
          exploitation behaviors, NK models
JEL:      C63 L21
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05040&r=all



61. Evolutionary analysis of the firm and internal selection
  
    Nadia Jacoby (MATISSE)

Evolutionary approaches of the firm devote a part of their 
analysis to firm behavior and to some processes acting inside the 
firm , however the internal workings of firms are, most of the 
time, not deeply analyzed. In this perspective, this paper 
attemps to investigate whether C we can drop internal selection 
in the evolutionary analysis of the firm E. In ordre to answer 
this question, we propose a micro-simulation model of internal 
selection where firms are engaged in production and R&D 
activities. They carry out two kinds of R&D and do not run any 
imitation process. Internal selection acts on R&D projects and we 
measure the impact of the selection mechanism on the firm's 
performances. The model generates persistent differences between 
firms according to their internal selection process.
 
Keywords: Innovation, internal selection, market dynamics, R&D, 
          technological performance
JEL:      C63 L11 L21 O32
Date:     2005-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05042&r=all



62. Entre gouvernance et leadership : la palabre et le chef
  
    Juliette Arnal (LESSOR - UniversitZ Rennes II et MATISSE)
    Jean-Pierre Galavielle (MATISSE)

The question concerning the domain covered by entreprise 
governance has not been definitely settled and neither has the 
question of the dividing line between governance and leadership. 
Thus, the real issue is the interpretation of governance to-day. 
Does it have to be confronted with that other mode of management 
which is leadership ? Actually, the dividing line does not seem 
to be definitive. This remark appears to be all the more 
realistic as the decisions taken daily by entreprise refer 
simultaneously to social and societal dimensions. Furthermore, 
embedded in those two logics, the government of material objects 
is frequently opposed to the government of people. Thus, it seems 
adequate to juxtapose the "law of the market" and a possible 
responsibility of leading employees. Finally, it appears that 
confidence plays the part of mediator between governance and 
leadership, which explains the emergence of a certain number of 
instruments of ethical codifications, codes of conduct and norms.
 
Keywords: Economic ethics, governance, leadership, social and 
          societal responsibility, enterprise citizenship, 
          confidence, codes, deontology.
JEL:      D2 D6 I3 K3 M14
Date:     2004-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:r05043&r=all



63. Towards sustainable lignite consumption in Turkey and a 
    welfare analysis
  
    Olfa Jaballi (EUREQua)
    Sebnem Sahin (EUREQua & OECD)

Sustainable consumption is at the center of sustainable 
development that every country seems to want. One of the great 
challenges of this century must be to understand what drives the 
consumption and how we can reduce consumption through increased 
efficiency. However consumption is not simply determined by 
population growth, which is commonly assumed to be a key cause of 
unsustainable consumption, but also by economic activity, 
technology choices, social values, institutions and policies. In 
this paper, we focus our analysis on lignite consumption in 
Turkey as an exhaustible natural resource and we assume that the 
consumption is only the ultimate end of the economic activity. 
Some improvments of the Weitzman model (1976) are proposed by 
introducing an environmental preference parameter into the model 
to complement his interpretation of welfare. Our aim is to pass 
from theory to practical applications by presenting some modest 
empirical results. Our model is constructed under GAMS for the 
period 1980-2080 using Turkish data and leads to the interesting 
result that an environmental taxation policy can lead to a social 
welfare increase in Turkey.
 
Keywords: Dynamic welfare, exhaustible resource, sustainable 
          consumption
JEL:      D90 Q01 Q30
Date:     2005-04
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:v05039&r=all



64. Discrete choice models of labour supply, behavioural 
    microsimulation and the Spanish tax reform.
  
    Jose M. Labeaga
    Xisco Oliver
    Amedeo Spadaro

In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of behavioural 
microsimulation models as powerful tools for the ex ante 
evaluation of public policies. The subject of our analysis is the 
impact of recent Spanish Income Tax reforms on efficiency and 
household and social welfare. We also analyze the likely effects 
of some basic income - flat tax and vital minimum - flat tax 
schemes. The analysis is carried out using a microsimulation 
model in which labour supply is explicitly taken into account. 
Instead of following the traditional continuous approach (Hausman 
1981, 1985a, and 1985b), we estimate the direct utility function 
using the methodology proposed by Van Soest (1995). Our data come 
from a sample of Spanish individuals in the 1995 wave of the EC 
Household Panel. We show that in the Spanish case, the 
redistribution policies considered have only little impact on the 
efficiency of the economy. On the contrary, they strongly affect 
social welfare.
 
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2005-13&r=all



65. Ambition and Jealousy. Income Interactions in the "Old" 
    Europe Versus the "New" Europe and the United States.
  
    Claudia Senik

This paper asks how income distribution affects individual well-
being and tries to explore the idea that this relation depends on 
the degree of mobility and uncertainty in the economy. It mostly 
concentrates on the relation between satisfaction and reference 
income (defined as the income of one's professional peers), and 
hinges on the micro-econometric analysis of household survey data 
mostly panel), including subjective attitudinal questions. Using 
over one million observations, it uncovers a divide, in the 
perception of income inequality, between "old" -low mobility- 
European countries on the one hand, and "new" European post-
Transition countries and the United States, on the other hand. 
Whereas "jealousy" is dominant in the former, "ambition" is even 
stronger in the latter.
 
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2005-14&r=all



66. Combining Revealed and Stated Preference Data to Estimate 
    the Nonmarket Value of Ecological Services: An Assessment of 
    the State of the Science
  
    John C. Whitehead (Appalachian State University)
    Subhrendu K. Pattanayak
    George L. Van Houtven

This paper reviews the marketing, transportation, and 
environmental economics literature on the joint estimation of 
revealed and stated preference data. The revealed preference and 
stated preference approaches are first described with a focus on 
the strengths and weaknesses of each. Recognizing these strengths 
and weaknesses, the potential gains from combining data are 
described. A classification system for combined data that 
emphasizes the type of data combination and the econometric 
models used is proposed. A methodological review of the 
literature is pursued based on this classification system. 
Examples from the environmental economics literature are 
highlighted. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of 
each type of jointly estimated model is then presented. 
Suggestions for future research, in particular opportunities for 
application of these models to environmental quality valuation, 
are presented.
 
Date:     2003
Date:     2005
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:05-15&r=all



67. Market Efficiency and International Linkage of Stock Prices: 
    An Analysis with High-Frequency Data
  
    Yoshiro Tsutsui (Institute of Social and Economic Research, 
      Osaka University)
    Kenjiro Hirayama (School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin 
      University)

This paper uses one-minute returns on the TOPIX and S&P500 to 
examine the efficiency of the Tokyo and New York Stock Exchanges. 
Our major finding is that Tokyo completes reactions to New York 
within six minutes, but New York reacts within fourteen minutes. 
Dividing the sample period into three subperiods, we found that 
the efficiency has improved and the magnitude of reaction has 
become larger over the period in both markets. The magnitude of 
response in New York to a fall in Tokyo is roughly double that of 
a rise.
 
Keywords: international linkage, stock prices, market efficiency,
          high frequency data
JEL:      G14 G15 F36
Date:     2003-01
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0304r&r=all



68. Measuring Education Levels of Farmers: Evidence from 
    Innovation Adoption in Bangladesh
  
    Masakazu Hojo (Osaka School of International Public Policy, 
      Osaka University)

Education levels of farmers have been measured in a variety of 
ways in preceding studies. In order to examine whether or not 
different measures of education have different effects on the 
behavior of farmers, I first summarize the measures of education 
and then perform an empirical analysis. Although education 
measures examined in this paper have been used in many studies, 
their effects are shown to differ significantly in my empirical 
analysis: some variables have positive impacts on farmerfs 
behavior while others do not. This result suggests we have to pay 
more attention to selecting measures of education in empirical 
investigations.
 
Keywords: Education; Agriculture; Technology adoption; Bangladesh
JEL:      I20 Q12 Q16
Date:     2004-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-06&r=all



69. Rational Addiction, Tax Revenues and Tobacco Control
  
    Junmin Wan (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka 
      University)

The hypotheses of non-addiction, myopia and rational addiction 
are tested using annual, quarterly and monthly data. Changes in 
the prices of Japanese cigarettes can be viewed as natural 
experiments from the point of view of consumer behavior, because 
the Japanese government controls cigarette prices. The empirical 
results of this paper support the addiction hypothesis. The short-
run and long-run price elasticities range from - 0.338to -0.421, 
and from -0.679 to -0.686, respectively; thus, increases in tax 
revenues in the long-run are likely to be smaller than those in 
the short-run. As a result, tax increases would be an effective 
means of curbing smoking and reducing its social cost. 
Furthermore, the debt compensation programs for the Japan Railway 
and the National Forestry will not go according to plan, unless 
revenues are increased in the future.
 
Keywords: smoking, rational addiction, tax revenues
JEL:      D12 E21 H29
Date:     2002-08
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-11&r=all



70. Response to Health Information: Evidence from Cigarette 
    Consumption and Intake of Nicotine and Tar in Japan
  
    Junmin Wan (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka 
      University)

This paper introduces a new way to examine the effects of 
mandatory information disclosure on inter-brand cigarette demands 
and the behavior of a monopolistic firm in Japan. I estimated 
inter-brand demands by including nicotine, tar content, and 
policy event information in the model and by using cigarette 
brand sales data. I found that the mandatory disclosure of 
nicotine and tar content information decreased the intake of 
nicotine and tar per capita and per smoker; thus mandatory 
disclosure is likely to increase consumersf welfare, if we 
suppose that they always choose their favorite cigarette. 
Furthermore, I found that the monopolistic firm supplied more, 
new, and better quality products, discontinued the production of 
poorer quality goods, and conducted more R & D, in response to 
disclosure mandates.
 
Keywords: Rational addiction; Smoking; Health information; 
          Tobacco control
JEL:      I18 D11 D12
Date:     2002-09
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-12&r=all



71. Responses of Consumers to the Mandatory Disclosure of 
    Information: Evidence from Japanese Inter-brand Cigarette 
    Sales
  
    Junmin Wan (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka 
      University)

This paper introduces a new way to examine the effects of 
mandatory information disclosure on inter-brand cigarette demands 
and the behavior of a monopolistic firm in Japan. I estimated 
inter-brand demands by including nicotine, tar content, and 
policy event information in the model and by using cigarette 
brand sales data. I found that the mandatory disclosure of 
nicotine and tar content information decreased the intake of 
nicotine and tar per capita and per smoker; thus mandatory 
disclosure is likely to increase consumersf welfare, if we 
suppose that they always choose their favorite cigarette. 
Furthermore, I found that the monopolistic firm supplied more, 
new, and better quality products, discontinued the production of 
poorer quality goods, and conducted more R & D, in response to 
disclosure mandates.
 
Keywords: inter-brand cigarette, nicotine, tar, mandatory 
          disclosure
JEL:      I18 D12 D82
Date:     2004-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-13&r=all



72. Welfare Analysis of Debt Policy during Recessions
  
    Takayuki Ogawa (Institute of Social and Economic Research, 
      Osaka University)

This paper develops an overlapping-generations model with 
nominal wage rigidities and examines the welfare effects of debt 
policy during recessions. Issues of public debt stimulate 
aggregate consumption demand and create employment. Future 
generations then face both increased wage incomes and higher 
taxes. If the amount of outstanding bonds is already large, debt 
policy deteriorates the welfare of future generations by levying 
heavy taxes. By contrast, if the outstanding bond issue is 
relatively small, debt policy can be Pareto improving by creating 
more employment. Therefore, the welfare implications of debt 
policy during recessions can be discriminated from those during 
booms.
 
Keywords: debt policy, overlapping generations, welfare effects.
JEL:      E12 E24 H63
Date:     2004-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-14&r=all



73. Who Benefits from a Better Education Environment?
  
    Akiomi Kitagawa (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)
    Ryo Horii (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)
    Koichi Futagami (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)

Using an overlapping generations model, this note shows that an 
improvement in the efficiency of human capital production 
decreases the net income of the young household while increasing 
that of the old. Without compensating redistribution, it 
deteriorates lifetime utilities of all generations except for the 
initial old households.
 
Keywords: human capital; intergenerational income distribution; 
          overlapping generations.
JEL:      J24 O15 I22
Date:     2004-07
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:04-15&r=all



74. Monetary Transmissions Immediately after the Crisis in East 
    Asia
  
    Masahiro Enya (Faculty of Politics, Economics and Law Osaka 
      International University)
    Akira Kohsaka (Osaka School of International Public Policy, 
      Osaka University)

We examine dynamic patterns of macroeconomic variables in East 
Asia immediately after the Asian financial crisis. Particularly, 
focusing on East Asia, we can identify their distinctive features 
from those of aggregate cross-country results. Also, we check 
with the financial crises in East Asia in the 1980s in order to 
make sure to what extent the contrast between the aggregate cross-
country results and that of the Asian financial crisis comes from 
differences in time (external environment) or in country 
structure or both. Some distinctive features in East Asia include 
higher real interest rates in the crisis year, persistent output 
as well as investment slowdown, and different behaviors of trade 
and fiscal surpluses after the crisis. The results suggest that 
initial monetary tightening be responsible for the unexpectedly 
serious recession and that favorable external conditions and 
fiscal stimulus did contribute to the post-crisis real recovery 
even without credit recoveries.
 
Keywords: macroeconomic dynamics, East Asia, financial crisis
JEL:      E5 O11 O53
Date:     2004-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0405&r=all



75. Environmental Kuznets Curve on Country Level: Evidence from 
    China
  
    Junyi Shen (Osaka School of International Public Policy, 
      Osaka University)
    Yoshizo Hashimoto (Osaka School of International Public 
      Policy, Osaka University)

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis proposes that 
there is an inverse-U-shape relationship between environmental 
degradation and per capita income. This evidence has been 
manifested to be existed in most air pollutants and several water 
pollutants by estimating on cross-country data. Different from 
most earlier empirical studies, this paper uses the cross-
province panel data of seven pollutants from China to investigate 
whether the EKC hypothesis may even exist on a country level. The 
estimated results find out that the EKC hypothesis exists in five 
of these pollutants, while the other two show a N-shape 
relationship between pollutant emission and per capita income. 
Moreover, this paper suggests some problems of this regression as 
being remained for future study.
 
Keywords: Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), pollution emission, 
          economic growth, GDP per capita
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0409&r=all



76. The Comparative Statics on Asset Prices Based on Bull and 
    Bear Market Measure
  
    Masamitsu Ohnishi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University; Daiwa Securities Chair, Graduate School of 
      Economics, Kyoto University)
    Yusuke Osaki (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)

For single?period complete financial asset markets with 
representative investors, we introduce a bull market measure for 
uncertain state occurrence and its associated ordering between 
representative investors in markets based on their marginal rate 
of substitution between equilibrium consumption allocations among 
possible states. These concepts combine and generalize the 
likelihood?ratio?dominance relation between probability prospects 
of state occurrence and the Arrow?Pratt ordering of risk aversion 
in expected utility settings. By analyzing the comparative 
statics for bull market effects on equilibrium asset prices, we 
derive some monotone properties of the risk?free rate and 
discounted prices of dividend?monotone assets.
 
Keywords: Equilibrium Derivative Price, First-order Stochastic 
          Dominance, Noise Risk, Risk-Neutral Probability.
JEL:      C65 D51 D81 G12
Date:     2004-05
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0410&r=all



77. Pricing of a Chooser Flexible Cap and its Calibration
  
    Daisuke Ito (Sumitomo Mitsui Bank)
    Masamitsu Ohnishi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University; Daiwa Securities Chair, Graduate School of 
      Economics, Kyoto University)
    Yusuke Osaki (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)

In this paper, we deal with no-arbitrage pricing problems of a 
chooser flexible cap (floor) written on an underlying LIBOR. The 
chooser flexible cap (floor) allows a right for a buyer to 
exercise a limited and pre-determined number of the interim 
period caplets (floorlets) in a multiple-period cap (floor) 
agreement. Assuming a common diffusion short rate dynamics, e.g., 
Hull-White model, we propose a dynamic programming approach for 
their risk neutral evaluation. This framework is suited to a 
calibration from an observed initial yield curve and market price 
data of discount bonds, caplets, and floorlets.
 
Keywords: chooser exible cap, LIBOR, dynamic programming, Hull-
          White model, calibration.
JEL:      G13 G15 G21
Date:     2004-10
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0418&r=all



78. The Comparative Statics of Equilibrium Derivative Prices
  
    Masamitsu Ohnishi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University; Daiwa Securities Chair, Graduate School of 
      Economics, Kyoto University)
    Yusuke Osaki (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)

We examine the conditions for preferences and risks that 
guarantee monotonicity of equilibrium derivative prices. In a 
Lucas economy with a derivative, we derive the equilibrium 
derivative price under expectation with respect to risk-neutral 
probability, and analyze comparative statics on the equilibrium 
derivative price based on the risk-neutral probability.
 
Keywords: Equilibrium Derivative Price, First-order Stochastic 
          Dominance, Noise Risk, Risk-Neutral Probability.
JEL:      C65 D51 D81 G12
Date:     2004-11
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0419&r=all



79. Various Features of the Chooser Flexible Cap
  
    Masamitsu Ohnishi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)
    Yasuhiro Tamba (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)

In this paper, we theoretically look into various features of a 
chooser flexible cap. The chooser flexible cap is a financial 
instrument written on an underlying market interest rate index, 
LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offer Rate). The chooser flexible cap 
allows a right for a buyer to exercise a limited and pre-
determined number of the interim period caplets in a multiple-
period cap agreement. While the chooser flexible cap is more 
flexible and cheaper instrument than the normal cap, its pricing 
is more complicated than the cap's because of its flexibility. So 
it may take long time for its price calculation. We can use the 
features to cut down the calculation time. At the same time the 
option holder can use the features for exercise strategies.
 
Keywords: chooser exible cap, LIBOR, dynamic programming, 
          exercise strategy.
JEL:      G13 G15 G21
Date:     2004-12
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0420&r=all



80. Finance, PROMETHEE Multicriteria Analysis for Evaluation of 
    Recycling Strategies in Malaysia
  
    Santha Chenayah (Faculty of Economics and Administration, 
      University of Malaya)
    Eiji Takeda (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)

At present, the per capita generation of solid waste in Malaysia 
varies from 0.45 to 2kg/day depending on the economic status of 
an area. In general, the per capita generation rate is about 
1kg/day. Even though 17,000 tonnes/day of solid waste is being 
generated, only 5% is being recycled. If this particular scenario 
continues without appropriate mitigation, Malaysia will be facing 
a serious problem in municipal solid waste management. Hence, 
government has targeted 22% of waste to be recycled by 2020. 
Various strategies have been formulated in achieving this figure. 
In Malaysia, research is being done vastly on recycling but very 
few related to multicriteria. As a first step, we propose here an 
evaluation of various recycling strategies and ranking them based 
on multicriteria to provide an insight on increasing the 
recycling activities among residents. Since values of 
alternatives are imprecise, ambiguous and/or uncertain, the 
multicriteria outranking analysis is particularly useful in order 
to facilitate further detailed consideration. The problem of the 
selection or the ranking of alternatives submitted to a 
multicriteria evaluation is not an easy problem economically or 
mathematically. We propose a modified PROMETHEE analysis for 
treating multicriteria problems.
 
Keywords: solid waste management, recycling, multicriteria 
          decision-aid (MCDA), PROMETHEE, outrank-ing relations.
JEL:      C44 C61 Q53
Date:     2005-02
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0501&r=all



81. Pricing a Bermudan Swaption with a Short Rate Lattice Method
  
    Yasuhiro Tamba (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka 
      University)

This paper presents the tree construction approach to pricing a 
Bermudan swaption. The Bermudan swaption is an option, which at 
each date in a schedule of exercise dates gives the holder the 
right to enter an interest swap, provided that this right has not 
been exercised at any previous time in the schedule. Assuming a 
common diffusion short rate dynamics, the Hull-White model, we 
propose a dynamic programming approach for their risk neutral 
evaluation. This framework is suited to a calibration from an 
observed initial yield curve and market price data of discount 
bonds and European swaptions.
 
Keywords: Bermudan swaption, swap rate, risk neutral evaluation, 
          dynamic programming, Hull-White model, calibration.
JEL:      G13 G15 G21
Date:     2005-03
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0503&r=all



82. Reward Programs and Entry Deterrence
  
    Lester M.K. Kwong (Department of Economics, Brock University)

This paper seeks to endogenize consumer switching costs by 
considering simple reward programs in the form of a price 
discount on future purchases for current consumers to a firm. In 
a two period model with a more cost efficient potential entrant, 
we show that for sufficiently low entry costs, the introduction 
of a reward program by an incumbent is never optimal. For 
intermediate values of the entry cost, there exists a bounded 
interval of rewards under which entry can be successfully 
deterred. Nevertheless, the desirability for the incumbent to 
preclude entry is solely contingent on the relative cost 
efficiency of the entrant.
 
Keywords: Reward and Loyalty programs, Barrier to Entry, Entry 
          deterrence, Switching Costs
JEL:      D4 L13
Date:     2004-08
Date:     2005-06
URL:      http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brk:wpaper:0501&r=all