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The scope of financial products has recently extended to include investments in infrastructure assets that were previously community owned. While private investment in infrastructure is not new, the rise of institutional investors searching for infrastructure investments to match long-term liabilities is a recent phenomenon. Most cannot hire the necessary expertise or take on the relatively large risks that accompany undertaking such endeavors in-house, with many opting to place capital in specialised infrastructure funds. While there is a plethora of studies on various aspects of public and corporate governance, this paper concentrates on the governance of relationships between institutional investors and their infrastructure fund managers, contributing to the growing body of literature on financial geographies through a focus on the decision-making of financial actors at the micro level, where the origins and destination of capital into geographies are determined. This private governance is defined as the “regulation” by private agents, insofar as they must anticipate and deal with potential or inherent conflicts of interest. Even as the “embedded” argument stresses the role of concrete personal relations and networks in generating trust, when interests need to be safeguarded in new and unfamiliar settings such as in infrastructure equity investing, the scope of private governance plays a central role in creating the financial relationship. This is supported through a discussion of four problems in private infrastructure governance, which are affected by but also have an impact upon the development of trust and long-term relationships. Despite differing constraints and various degrees of negotiating leverage, innovative economic action is structured through anticipating and aligning diverging interests of (new) social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three positions concerning the economic effects of human rights discussed among economists. Some economists argue that only property rights matter for economic growth and basic human rights can even make the legal system less efficient. Others argue that negative rights are generally welfare increasing while positive rights tend to reduce income and growth over time. Yet a third group of economists argues that elements of all groups of human rights are a precondition for making productive use of one's resources and are thus efficiency-enhancing. Based on a cross-country analysis, the effects of different groups of human rights on economic growth are estimated in this paper. The transmission channels through which the different rights affect growth are identified by estimating their effects on investment and overall productivity. Basic human rights have indeed a positive effect on investment, but do not seem to contribute to productivity. Social rights, in turn, are not conducive to investment in physical capital but do contribute to productivity improvements. None of the four groups of rights covered in this analysis ever has a significant negative effect on any of the economic variables included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the profile and motivation of over 1,300 academics employed on part-time, fixed term or temporary contracts at 10 post-1992 UK universities, whom it categorises as ‘non-standard academics’. Based on a questionnaire survey, it investigates their demographic background, including age, gender and ethnic background, as well as the factors behind acceptance of their current employment status. It reveals that six out of ten chose their status and correspond in some ways to the profile of ‘portfolio worker’ (high level of qualifications, multiple job holding and sense of independence). This tends to correct the perception of them as mainly ‘casual’. However, commitment to their current employment status is less clear, with over one-third stating that they would accept a permanent job on their current hours. There are, therefore, signs of adaptation to certain forms of non-standard status (hours) but not to others (impermanence). Such uncertainty illustrates the hazy boundaries between casual and portfolio status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes and discusses the outcomes of the cross-border and international co-operation (CIC) of Polish local governments in the years 1990–2004 (before Polish accession to the European Union), indicated by local government officers in a questionnaire survey, and finally it gives some general conclusions as to future CIC support policy. In 2004, nearly half of all existing 2,500 Polish municipalities participated in CIC. They achieved most frequently non-material local effects of co-operation in euroregions and in town-twinning (citizen and professional exchange, etc.). The economic effects such as investments, equipment purchases, innovative management, etc. were achieved to a lower degree, but they were important in improving local public services in dozens of urban municipalities. In general, CIC enhanced mainly European integration in creating links between communities and helping to overcome negative national prejudices, but to a lesser degree integration interpreted as levelling economic differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we stimulate investment and growth in Africa? This paper focuses on low-income countries that are ‘good performers’ and not especially endowed with natural resources. Many of these countries have undertaken a set of economic reforms, and have recorded growth rates in per capita GDP of around 5 percent over the past 10 years. But some constraints to growth persist. We look at three things — how business environments create ‘external costs’ for firms and inhibit performance, how investors perceive the constraints to doing business, and the role of political economy factors especially in those countries with lagging indigenous business sectors. Our analysis of investment climate and other data leads us to several recommendations for governments, donors and the private sector itself, including the following: deepen macro reforms; build a strong, unified business forum; create incentives for more responsive governments; and improve risk mitigation and broaden this to domestic investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population-based stochastic optimization technique, inspired by the social behavior of birds (flocking) or fish (schooling), which is applied to various problems in the optimization of nonlinear systems. The inertia weights approach (IWA) and the constriction factor approach (CFA) are improved methods in PSO. The IWA searches the problem space globally in the early steps, and finally searches locally near the optimal solution. CFA is a method that introduces a new parameter into velocity update equation. This paper proposes a combination of IWA and CFA (the Inertia Weights Constriction Factor Approach: IWCFA), and PSOrank, whose objective is the ranking of individuals in the population. These two proposed methods are applied to function optimizations and to the portfolio selection problem, which is a typical mathematical problem in securities finance. The results show that the original PSO finds better solutions than the GA, and the proposed method finds better solutions than the original PSO. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 90(3): 13–25, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.20263 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the possible effects of the US reform of the international settlement rate system on telecommunications investment in Africa. We estimate a telecommunications investment equation using a panel data of 51 African countries during the 1991–2003 period and find that settlement payments have significantly positive effects on telecommunications investment in African countries. A 10 percent increase in settlement payment, on average, increases the telecommunications investment expenditure to GDP ratio by 3.4 percent over a three-year period. Using previously calculated revenue loss from the US reform, our estimates suggest that African countries stand to lose between 4.4 to 11 percentage points of their telecommunications investment in the medium run and with it, possible decreases in income growth rate. However, we argue that African countries can counter the effects of this revenue loss by increasing the efficiency of telecommunications investment through appropriate market restructuring, including the promotion of competition and privatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of leukemia is expensive. In the developing world where there are significant resource constraints, how does the physician manage leukemia? Government health budgets need to put their money into areas where a small investment is likely to benefit a large proportion of its people and these would include immunization, sanitation, family planning and treatment of communicable diseases and the cost of expensive treatments would have to be borne by the patient and family. However, in many of the emerging economies in the developing world, society is three-tiered in terms of resources with a small proportion being able to afford the best treatment, the middle class with the ability to meet a significant proportion of the healthcare costs on their own and the poor who depend wholly on what the Government health budget can afford. Providing an accurate diagnosis is possible even with limited resources and this must be made available to all. Sometimes a precise diagnosis even at the molecular level is more important in the developing world so that resources are not wasted on inappropriate treatments. Choosing a protocol for management based on resources available for the individual patient would appear ethically unacceptable, but is probably the only solution when wealth is unevenly distributed in society. This paper illustrates an approach to the management of leukemia in the developing world that has evolved with experience over two decades in a tertiary referral hospital in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a semi-parametric approach to estimating a generalised model of investments in heating installations. The results suggest that marginal costs of investments in heating installations increase quickly at small investment levels, whereas the increase slows down at higher investment levels. Therefore, standard parametric adjustment cost models are probably biased such that they underestimate the costs of small investments and overestimate the costs of large investments. Results also show that investments in heating installations are very responsive to changes in energy prices. Therefore, an energy lax may be an effective instrument to encourage investments in new energy-saving healing installations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several major petroleum-exporting countries opened their upstream petroleum sectors to investment by international oil companies via various types of agreement, such as royalty/tax systems, production-sharing agreements and/or risk service agreements. This article evaluates upstream petroleum agreements and examines exploration and production (E&P) costs in major petroleum-exporting countries, with the intention of determining the relationship between the type of upstream petroleum agreement and E&P costs. It uses data obtained from experts and then splits the available data into three categories: low E&P cost countries (costs equal to or below $4.65 per barrel), medium E&P cost countries (between $4.65/b and $8.50/b) and high E&P cost countries (more than $8.50/b). The paper includes specific outlooks for selected countries to examine this relationship. Finally, the article ascertains that total E&P costs are one of the main factors that determine the type of upstream petroleum agreement host countries are willing to adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore whether broadband investment by municipalities has an effect on economic growth. To do so, we employ an econometric model to compare economic growth between counties in the State of Florida. Our econometric model shows that Lake County – a small county in central Florida – has experienced significantly greater growth in economic activity relative to comparable Florida counties since making its municipal fiber-optic network generally available to businesses and municipal institutions in the county. Our findings are consistent with other analyses that postulate that broadband infrastructure can be a significant contributor to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of public investment on the regional economies of postwar Japan. It evaluates the effects of efficiency-verses-equity-oriented allocation policies by estimating the aggregate regional production function and calculating the marginal productivity of public capital for each region, using panel data covering the 47 prefectures over the period from 1955 to 2000. The empirical results show that public capital investment has alternated between an allocation policy based on efficiency and one that is based on equity, and, in fact, such investment was used as a policy tool for adjusting income distribution and accelerating economic growth. Numerical simulations are used to analyze the trade-offs between economic efficiency and inter-prefectural equity. The results indicate that in the case of income-elastic labor mobility, an efficiency-oriented allocation policy leads to larger aggregate gross domestic product by promoting both growth and equity simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a farm sector comparison of levels of capital input for 17 OECD countries. The estimates of capital input are derived by representing capital stock as a weighted sum of past investments. The weights correspond to the relative efficiencies of capital goods of different ages, so that the weighted components of capital stock have the same efficiency. We convert estimates of capital stock into estimates of capital services by means of capital rental prices. Comparisons of levels of capital input among countries require data on relative prices of capital input. We obtain relative price levels for capital input among countries via relative investment goods prices, taking into account the flow of capital input per unit of capital stock in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the research in the area of expert finding focuses on creating and maintaining centralized directories of experts' profiles, which users can search on demand. However, in a distributed multiagent-based software environment, the autonomous agents are free to develop expert models or model fragments for their own purposes and from their viewpoints. Therefore, the focus of expert finding is shifting from the collection at one place as much data about a expert as possible to accessing on demand from various agents whatever user information is available at the moment and interpreting it for a particular purpose. This paper outlines purpose-based expert modeling as an approach for finding an expert in a multiagent portfolio management system in which autonomous agents develop expert agent models independently and do not adhere to a common representation scheme. This approach aims to develop taxonomy of purposes that define a variety of context-dependent user modeling processes, which are used by the users' personal agents to find appropriate expert agents to advise users on investing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the effect of remittances on employment performance for Central and East European (CEE) economies. We show that the impact of remittances on unemployment depends on its effect on productivity growth and investment. In order to empirically analyse the impact of remittances we estimate a productivity equation using a set of 11 transition countries during the 1990 to 1999 period. Our results show support for the view that remittances have a positive impact on productivity and employment both directly and indirectly through its effect on investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the licensing provisions in the Electricity Ordinance of Tanganyika that are believed to influence private sector investment. There were three main strands to the analytical methodology— textual analysis, actual practice and perceptions of key stakeholders. The findings suggest that there is sufficient evidence to support the belief that the existing licensing laws in Tanzania do not provide the necessary features for attracting private investment, namely clarity, efficiency and transparency. More specifically the Electricity Ordinance of 1931 is so much outdated that it is not fit for amendment; instead it should be considered for revocation and a new law be enacted. The new law should:(a) provide for a clear licensing procedure in the sense that it should specifywhatactivities need licence;whocan apply for licence;whereone can apply for licence;whatdocuments to fill;(b) provide for efficiency-enforcing provisions such as stipulating the time frame for the regulator to finish processing an application;(c) provide for a transparent licensing procedure in the sense that it should prescribe a large amount of openness— publishing of applications and that minutes be on open display as required in Uganda and Zimbabwe. The proposed multi-sector regulator for utilities is a step in the right direction for it reduces the chances for regulatory capture, thus reinforcing transparency in the dealings of the regulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, those advocating for arts funding have shifted their arguments. When the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) was created in 1965, its supporters praised arts and culture for their uplifting qualities, and for their ability to counterbalance trends toward materialism and militarism. By the 1990s, arts advocates were far more likely to use instrumentalist arguments, showing that investment in arts and culture produce other desirable benefits, most notably economic development advances. This article reviews the changing discourse of arts advocacy in several ways: (1) by reviewing and coding Congressional debates on arts funding from 1965–2000, (2) reviewing arts coverage in the New York Times and selected arts periodicals during this same time period. Comparing this case to others in the literature on policy redefinition, the paper argues that cultural advocates have consciously reframed their arguments to broaden their appeal in the face new and more threatening opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at mapping and analyzing the determinants of industrial activity in Greek regions in order to assess current investment patterns. For this purpose, we estimate a conditional logit model of 226 new established firms for 1996 and 1997. Results give interesting insights that are likely of particular importance to regional policy makers. Noteworthy is the spatial concentration of firms in different prefectures while the large metropolitan cities, Athens and Thessalonica, although with declining shares, prevail as the dominant hosts. European regional policy seems to enhance firms’entry via its effect on economic development variables, in contrast with the Greek Development Law, which turns out non-influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates a social discount rate in India for the purpose of economic evaluation of investment projects, such as those aimed at improving the nation's agricultural performance. The component parameters of this rate are: the growth rate of per capita consumption in real terms, the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption and the mortality-based discount rate. Based upon time series data, the overall figure turns out to be 5.2 percent. This, it is contended, is reasonable and may be used in cost benefit analysis in that country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a dynamic model of investment under rational expectations, assuming farm-specific production technologies and adjustment cost structures. The model distinguishes regimes of negative, zero and positive investments and maintains that it is optimal for a farmer not to invest for a range of shadow prices, depending on thresholds for positive and negative investments. The model is applied to a rotating sample of Dutch pig farms over the period 1980-1996. Farm-specific parameters of the adjustment cost function and production technology are obtained using Generalised Maximum Entropy estimation. Cluster analysis using the farm-specific adjustment cost parameters indicates that five groups of farms with distinct adjustment cost structures can be identified. A tobit regression analysis is used to explain the impact of different socio-economic factors on the size of the threshold between positive and negative investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the effects of public financing on private investment in R & D has been the object of numerous applied studies without it having been possible to arrive at a definite conclusion. In this paper the results of a meta-regression of econometric evidence on the relationship between public funding of R & D and private R & D expenditures is presented. After the creation of a data-base including all relevant studies and their results and characteristics, a meta-analysis was carried out to examine whether the characteristics of the applied analysis influence the results and explain the differences in the empirical literature on this subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the comprehensive efficiency of flood disaster prevention investment from 1955 to 1999 by developing and applying an integrated evaluation model. Our analysis results have clarified some important issues currently being discussed in Japan. Firstly, the average values of normalized flood losses decreased greatly between the 1955-1961 period and the 1984-1999 period. Secondly, the ratio of human loss to total loss caused by floods in Japan may be less than 10%, based on the concept of the value of statistical life (VOSL) and values estimated from the risk-money tradeoff. The proportion of intangible effect to total loss increased from less than 10% before the 1970s to approximately 20% after that period. Finally, flood prevention investment in Japan effectively reduced losses caused by flooding before the 1960s; however, since the 1980s, investment has changed from an efficient mode to an inefficient mode, not only from the economic standpoint, but also from that of total flood loss saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retail competition in the electric power market was introduced in Japan in March 2000. Although the liberalization is limited to a part of the retail power market having about 30% of the total electricity demand, the liberalized customer segment is now subject to competition among the utilities and new entrants. This paper examines the profitability of competitive pricing for eligible segmented customers through a scenario-based model analysis focusing on the demand characteristics of segmented customers. The model includes the utility's investment in power generation for segmented customers, considering long-term rather than short-term profitability. Load leveling is not always achieved under profit-maximizing behavior of the utility because the profitability of competitive pricing depends on load patterns of bypassed customers and price differentials among power suppliers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 144(4): 43–52, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.10111 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of venture capital in economic development increasingly is recognized as central to the development of an entrepreneurial economy. However, the supply of venture capital is not distributed evenly across the space economy. In the UK, evidence for the 1980s demonstrated that venture capital investments were highly concentrated in Greater London and the South East, reinforcing the existing patterns of regional concentration of economic activity. This paper reviews the regional distribution of venture capital investments in the UK in the 1990s, a period of massive growth in venture capital investment activity. It concludes that the regional concentration of venture capital investment has been considerably reduced since the 1980s. However, more detailed analysis of the data demonstrates that this shift towards a less unequal regional distribution has been driven by so–called ‘merchant’ venture capital – investments in large–scale management buy–outs and buy–ins which facilitate corporate restructuring through ownership change and often have adverse consequences for employment. ‘Classic’ venture capital – investments in young entrepreneurial companies with high growth potential – remains highly concentrated in London and the South East, and also in Scotland. This reflects both supply– and demand–side factors. The Government’s new regional venture capital funds are unlikely to be effective in closing this regional finance gap. An alternative approach to intervention, in the context of the increasing globalization of venture capital investments, is to seek to attract venture capital money and expertise from elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the short- and long-run relationship between economic growth, exports, real investments and labour force for Cô d’Ivoire for the period 1961–97, using cointegration and error correction techniques. The results indicate that there is one long-run equilibrium relationship among the four variables, and the causal relationship flows from the growth in exports to the growth in GDP both in the short and long run, providing support for the export-led growth hypothesis. This finding suggests that the recent trade reforms aimed at promoting domestic investment and restoring international competitiveness to expand and diversify exports have the potential of increasing economic growth in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests for spatial spillover effects of state-level telecommunications infrastructure investment on state output, using panel data for 48 U.S. states from 1970 through 1997. As information and communication technologies support more industrial locational freedom, states may use telecommunications infrastructure investment as a competitive tool for attracting factors of production. In a production-function framework, this effect would manifest itself as a negative output spillover effect from telecommunications infrastructure investment. Findings indicate that a state benefits from its own telecommunications infrastructure, but telecommunications investment by other states has a negative impact on its output growth path, and proximity amplifies this negative spillover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of regional income disparity on the allocation of investments using a dynamic multiregional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) model. The optimal shares of total investments required to achieve the most balanced regional growth under the constraint of a 5% fixed annual economic growth rate were 37.74% for the Capital region, 18.83% for the Southeast region, 15.92% for the Central region, 13.90% for the East region and 13.61% for the West region. This policy requires an additional investment of 1.37% of the GDP, bringing about a 52.2% reduction in regional income disparity in terms of the Atkinson index. This implies that the decentralization of investment expenditures to less developed regions would lead to a substantial gain in regional income equity, on the one hand, and to the loss of cost effectiveness in investments, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many universities successfully accomplish their primary mission of teaching and/or research, and yet have not established or nurtured a tradition of new venture creation based on those teaching and research successes. This lack of entrepreneurial tradition (or culture) means not only that there are few local new venture firms to act as role models for potential entrepreneurs in the academic community, but also that many community members with exciting new concepts never even consider that their concepts could result in a commercialized product. In order to establish such a culture of new venture creation within a university, decisions must be made to either spend limited resources to nurture early "model ventures," or to spend the resources to create an infrastructure that will nurture many new ventures. As a result of such decisions being made and implemented over the last decade at the University of Arkansas (in partnership with governmental and private entities), the University is on the edge of becoming a center of entrepreneurial activity in the state of Arkansas. This paper will discuss the decisions that have been implemented at the University of Arkansas as a case study in establishing an entrepreneurial culture at a land grant institution of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usually engineers try to achieve the required reliability level with minimal cost. The problem of total investment cost minimization, subject to reliability constraints, is well known as the reliability optimization problem. When applied to multi-state systems (MSS), the system has many performance levels, and reliability is considered as a measure of the ability of the system to meet the demand (required performance). In this case, the outage effect will be essentially different for units with different performance rate. Therefore, the performance of system components, as well as the demand, should be taken into account. In this paper, we present a technique for solving a family of MSS reliability optimization problems, such as structure optimization, optimal expansion, maintenance optimization and optimal multistage modernization. This technique combines a universal generating function (UGF) method used for fast reliability estimation of MSS and a genetic algorithm (GA) used as an optimization engine. The UGF method provides the ability to estimate relatively quickly different MSS reliability indices for series-parallel and bridge structures. It can be applied to MSS with different physical nature of system performance measure. The GA is a robust, universal optimization tool that uses only estimates of solution quality to determine the direction of search. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conlon and Garland (1993) demonstrated that information about the degree of project completion, as compared with information about sunk costs, seemed to be the driving force behind continued investment in an R&D project. In the present paper, we replicate and extend this work. In studies with experienced bank managers, Chinese graduate students, and advanced-level MBA students, we find overwhelming support for the importance of project completion on investment intentions, with no indication of typical sunk cost effects. We argue that our results support a goal substitution explanation for many escalation phenomena wherfe, as progress moves forward on a project, completion of the project itself takes increasing precedence over other goals (e.g., economic profit) that may have been more salient at the time the project was initiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a framework for making decisions on what type of infrastructure to build and where to build. The basic intuition is that by deriving the marginal physical products of installed infrastructure, we can prioritize infrastructure investment of the same type between regions, and of different types within a region. The methodology is to estimate a panel of regional production functions that allows the intercepts to capture individual differences ('the fixed effects') but uses interactive dummies to capture the effect of individual differences on marginal productivity. This framework could be a useful tool for the management of public capital in an economy subject to fiscal federalism, particularly where the interaction of interest-group struggle and the politics of center-state grants may involve difficult trade-offs. Ce document établit un cadre de prise de décision concernant le type d'infrastructures à construire et l'endroit où les construire. L'idée de base est qu'en déterminant le produit matériel marginal des infrastructures installées, nous pouvons classer par ordre de priorités l'investissement dans les infrastructures de même type entre régions et de types différents au sein d'une région. La méthode consiste à définir un panel de fonctions de production régionale dont les coordonnées permettent de saisir les différences individuelles ("les effets fixes"), mais qui recourt à des variables muettes pour obtenir l'effet des différences individuelles sur la productivité marginale. Ce cadre pourrait se révéler utile pour la gestion des investissements publics dans une économie sujette au fédéralisme fiscal, en particulier lorsque l'interaction entre les revendications de groupes d'intérêts et la politique de subvention du gouvernement cent [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we put to trial the alleged role of investment in transport and communications infrastructure in economic growth in the Netherlands in the second half of the nineteenth century. To do so, we combine a new data set with data-oriented econometric techniques. Testing of the main hypothesis by applying Granger's concept of causation in a vector auto-regression model reveals that the development of infrastructure 'caused' Dutch economic growth. In order to investigate the underlying mechanisms, we enhance the basic model with impulse-response analysis. This leads to a clear response pattern of GDP to a change in transport infrastructure investment. The response of GDP is explained as being induced by three underlying mechanisms: 1. Positive forward linkage effects (mainly through reductions in the costs of transport and communications). 2. Positive backward linkage effects (mainly through expenditure and income effects). 3. Negative transitional dynamics (mainly through changes in the spatial setting of the economy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extended family's role in economic improvement has been extensively debated. From a modernization theory perspective, the extended faintly is viewed as an institutional obstacle to economic progress. while a soda! capital perspective suggests that it is an engines insular as ii permits individuals to activate networks and pool resources beyond their own. This paper examines, from these perspectives, extended family influences on the use of remittances front transnational migrants. The research asks whether family influences are positive or negative and are more or less important titan other factors in determining business investments. The research draws on interviews with 170 family heads in a small community in Pakistan. The results show that relatively little remittance income from family members working in the Middle East was channeled into business investments, despite government incentives offered to migrant households. Most of the extended family measures used in be research arc statistically unimportant in explaining level of business investment. There thus appears to he little support for either modernization theory or social capital arguments on the role of the extended family. Of the five operationalized extended family dimensions only one was related to business investment, and that positively. However, "family" considerations are not irrelevant. The best predictors of business investment were a preexisting level of business exposure/experience within the family and whether or not the family head was aware of business investment opportunities. The results raise questions about the need to reconceptualize family influences beyond the formal dimensions of extended family structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As globalization weakens the rote of the nation state, increased theoretical and practical attention is being focused on community level action, especially on the role of social capital. Proponents of social capital have placed primary emphasis on voluntary associations. This paper looks at the role the state can play in building social capital. The historical nature of social capital in the community, the organizational structure of governmental intermediaries, and the design of specific program interventions condition social capital building. Hierarchical governmental intermediaries are contrasted with participatory community based initiatives. Three key factors: autonomy, linkage and returns on investment for both intermediaries and participating residents, are shown to affect social capital construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1960's financial institutions (pension funds and insurance companies) have steadily purchased the freehold to agricultural land in Great Britain. With lower inflation and an uncertain economic future for farming, this investment has largely ceased to be replaced by a period of portfolio rationalization. Previously, such institutions only provided landowners with loan or mortgage capital, opting not to buy land, and the paper seeks to assess the significance of this change of policy for British agriculture. The direct impact on landowning and productive relations has been small as they still own only 1.9% of the agricultural area of Great Britain. They do, however, represent the most active area of agrarian landlordism today and have encouraged new forms of lease, and sale and leaseback arrangement. The latter are highly selective and only of benefit to efficient occupiers with large, well-equipped farms on good land. Evidence that institutional landlords exploit their tenants, or employ fanning practices unused by progressive family farmers, is limited. The main lesson for farmers and landowners of recent investment is that in a capitalist economy, which most of them endorse, they cannot expect the state to protect them from the periodic incursions of finance capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese regional policy has undergone several decades of trials, adjustments and readjustments. The debates and shifts of Chinese regional policy are a product of politics as well as the prevailing philosophies and theories of development. This paper emphasizes the latter. While most existing studies focus on policy and outcome, a better understanding of the logic behind Chinese regional policy and its shifts requires scrutiny of prevailing and influential ideas. The best source of these ideas is the Chinese literature on regional development. This is especially so because many Chinese researchers are also planners or advisors of regional policies and projects. The Chinese literature on post-Mao regional development is rich and diverse, but is also confusing and is muddled by a multiplicity of theories, models and schools of thought. Export-led growth in the eastern region has been greatly facilitated by the designation of open zones. Opening of these zones means that a favorable environment would be created for promoting foreign trade, including state funding for infrastructure development and various financial and legal inducements for attracting foreign investments.

The objective of this paper is to present the empirical results of an investigation into the links between investment stability and industrial structure in U.K. manufacturing industry. First, the alternative theoretical propositions concerning the influence of industrial structure on the stability of capital investment over the business cycle are discussed. This is followed by a description of the data and the specification of the variables used. Subsequently, the empirical results obtained from multivariate regression equations are analysed. The influence of industrial structure and diversification on the adjustment of capital stock and on the convergence of dynamic systems to equilibrium is then examined. Finally, the main conclusions drawn from the analysis are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we intend to take issue with several of the basic assumptions of postwar model builders. Three important strands running through much of current dynamic theory are rejected:
(a) that the DOMAR effect leads to a razor's edge; (b) that constraints or ceilings must be destabilizing and (c) that it is a proper or enlightening procedure in dynamic analysis to assume away all problems of effective demand[3].
The general idea of the dual role of investment is here retained. Indeed, we stress the likelihood of investment leading to unequal effects on output and capital at different periods of the cycle; in other words, a 'variable DOMAR effect'. It is further argued that constraints do operate in the normal functioning of a capitalist system in such a way as to limit the movements of investment and demand, but the meaning of a constraint or ceiling is modified. What is argued is that it does not help to think in terms of an absolute ceiling on, say, output of capital goods that operates during the normal course of the boom. Rather, it is proper to think of 'relative' ceilings; i.e., of increasing inelasticities of supply during the mid and late stages of the boom[4]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In markets where sellers have customer-specific investments, and buyers can make credible, but costly, commitments to switch suppliers, buyers' strategies attenuate the market power of sellers. Furthermore, since current prices and a buyer's decision to switch suppliers are related, limit pricing becomes an equilibrium. Limit prices increase with the time it takes a buyer to switch suppliers, and with buyers' switching costs, but fall with the level of sunk investments. Thus, sunk investments may restrain the sellers' ability to exert market power. The paper questions, then, the standard inverse relationship between market performance and sunk investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a historically contingent understanding of patterns of uneven economic development in the U.S. South. We conceptualize spatial variation in economic development and its consequences for inequality to be embedded in both local and international dynamics. The character of local economic development, it is argued, reflects the organizational base and heterogeneity of local elites, the divisions and relative power of nonelites, and the embeddedness of the local political economy in national and world systems of politics and production. These ideas are developed and made historically and spatially specific through an analysis of uneven development in one Southern state, North Carolina. Our findings suggest that contemporary patterns of uneven development and the resulting income deprivations and inequality reflect conditional interactions between elite economic projects and racial divisions within the working class. We find that outside investment seems to reproduce rather than disrupt local patterns of inequality and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates theoretically a factor that impacts the institutional and structural environment of initiating small investments in Taiwan, namely personal relationship networks. A potential investor needs market opportunities in order to earn profit, business organization to exploit the opportunity, and capital to initiate the business. In Taiwan's network economy, the solidarity provided by “family” networks makes small initial business organizations possible. Subcontracting systems, both horizontal and vertical, make the entry-level investment low, and the decentralized production/marketing processes provide numerous market opportunities for small investments. Taiwanese entrepreneurs opt to start their business ventures primarily through the use of network financing, since bank loans fall under the dominion of government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a paper discussing the traditional method of constructing regional capital stocks using investment and depreciation data. Method used to estimate annual capital stocks for manufacturing industries; Shift in manufacturing capacity.

This paper investigates whether or not floating exchange rates add an undesirable level of risk to international investment positions. For investors holding currencies, we find that fixed exchange rates are preferred to floating exchange rates, which supports the often-argued case that floating exchange rates do excessively increase the riskiness of investment. However, in the more realistic case of investors holding foreign securities, we find that floating exchange rates are preferred to fixed exchange rates; that is, we find that floating exchange rates have not added an undesirable level of risk to international investment positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A risk-averse man will invest in his sister's children if he cares about his genetic relatedness to future generations and if he is unsure about being the father of his wife's children. The model in this paper is an advance over the earlier expected-relatedness models in that it permits mixed investment in both sister's and wife's children and also permits investment in sister's children at higher levels of paternity probability. Estimates from ordered logits suggest that paternity probability is an important determinant of investment in sister's children and that some investment in sister's children occurs even at high levels of paternity probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the impact of imposing a constraint on the probability of bankruptcy for the pricing and investment choices of firms. Two models are presented in which a firm faces stochastic demand; in one costs are known with certainty, and in the other costs of production are probabilistic. In both cases the constraint induces a reduction in optimal price if demand is elastic. For less elastic demand, price increases may be indicated. With constant costs, the constraint lowers optimal investment. The results are applicable to the analysis of rating agencies' behavior, or to the design of bond covenants, especially for public utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives have been applied in a wide set of organisations including very small entities (VSE). In fact, this kind of organisations is facing several hurdles when overarching a SPI initiative. In this context, the ISO/IEC 29110 has been used as a lightweight reference model for steering VSEs in their SPI initiatives. The inherent uncertainty behind the SPI curtains blocks the organisations in their investments. Due to these reasons, we need to identify relationships and similarities in order to predict whether a SPI will succeed or not. We propose the use of Self‐Organising Maps for identifying patterns from these SPI studies. The aim of this paper is to identify correlations among SPI studies and to discover patterns from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research note is two-fold, firstly, to clarify the growing interaction between regional science and Austrian economics and their awareness of each other. We elucidate the Austrian methodology, called praxeology, which is especially misunderstood in regional science. Secondly, we tentatively sketch a possible contribution of Austrian economics to regional science. The core of the new economic geography is the idea of external economies of scale. Agglomeration of firms often leads to lower costs of existing products, and is a stimulating environment for the invention of new products and the development of new ideas. Austrian economics, which places discovery at the centre of its analysis of the market process, should be able to explain why (public) regional investments may be unsuccessful and why they can be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses regional integration, trade and investment in the Asia Pacific, and introduces several articles that address the important aspects of trade as well as direct investment in the region. Economic growth in East Asia; Information on regional economic integration in East Asia and the Asia Pacific; Background on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

There is an increasing awareness of the potentials of nonlinear modeling in regional science. This can be explained partly by the recognition of the limitations of conventional equilibrium models in complex situations, and also by the easy availability and accessibility of sophisticated computational techniques. Among the class of nonlinear models, dynamic variants based on, for example, chaos theory stand out as an interesting approach. However, the operational significance of such approaches is still rather limited and a rigorous statistical-econometric treatment of nonlinear dynamic modeling experiments is lacking. Against this background this paper is concerned with a methodological and empirical analysis of a general misspecification test for spatial regression models that is expected to have power against nonlinearity, spatial dependence, and heteroskedasticity. The paper seeks to break new research ground by linking the classical diagnostic tools developed in spatial econometrics to a misspecification test derived directly from chaos theory-the BDS test, developed by Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman (1987). A spatial variant of the BDS test is introduced and applied in the context of two examples of spatial process models, one of which is concerned with the spatial distribution of regional investments in The Netherlands, the other with spatial crime patterns in Columbus, Ohio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]