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Policy PointsThe commercial determinants of health (CDoH) concept, which currently focuses on markets that harm health, should be expanded to refer to the interface between commerce and health, which can sometimes have positive public health consequences.The regulatory stances framework helps us classify public health preferences for regulating specific markets related to CDoH, based on the intended effects of regulations on market size. The regulatory stances a jurisdiction can adopt can be classified as ranging from prohibitionist through contractionist, permissive, and expansionist, to universalist.The regulatory stances framework increases the usefulness of the CDoH concept by expanding the conversation beyond negative determinants of health and providing a fuller view of the tools at the disposal of society to alter markets and improve health. Context: The effects of commerce on the public health are omnipresent. The commercial determinants of health (CDoH) represent a burgeoning area of scholarly debate and activist policymaking to redress markets that adversely affect public health. The CDoH debate is a logical extension of the tobacco control movement, but, to its detriment, the CDoH conversation remains primarily focused policies and proposals that are analogous to historical tobacco control strategies. Methods: This paper argues that for the CDoH to develop further and broaden its appeal, it should expand to cover markets with conditional and positive impacts on health. To explain and order this conversation, a comparative framework for regulatory policy is introduced: the regulatory stances. The regulatory stances classify a regulatory policy based on the intended effect of policy on the size of a market in the future relative to the present. Findings: Some markets that interface between commerce and health do not inherently harm health. Regulatory policy toward these markets should be different in intent than regulatory policy for markets with negative health effects. Conclusions: By using the regulatory stances framework to encompass markets that have positive or conditional effects on health as well as those that have adverse health effects, the CDoH conversation can shift away from the exclusive focus on strategies to shrink markets with adverse health impacts to consider a wider array of policy options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Public health policy development is subject to a range of stakeholders presenting their arguments to influence opinion on the best options for policy action. This paper compares stakeholders' positions in the discourse networks of two pricing policy debates in the United Kingdom: minimum unit pricing for alcohol (MUP) and the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL). Design Discourse analysis was combined with network visualization to create representations of stakeholders' positions across the two policy debates as they were represented in 11 national UK newspapers. Setting: United Kingdom. Observations: For the MUP debate 1924 statements by 152 people from 87 organizations were coded from 348 articles. For the SDIL debate 3883 statements by 214 people from 175 organizations were coded from 511 articles. Measurements Network analysis techniques were used to identify robust argumentative similarities and maximize the identification of network structures. Network measures of size, connectedness and cohesion were used to compare discourse networks. Findings The networks for both pricing debates involve a similar range of stakeholder types and form clusters representing policy discourse coalitions. The SDIL network is larger than the MUP network, particularly the proponents' cluster, with more than three times as many stakeholders. Both networks have tight clusters of manufacturers, think‐tanks and commercial analysts in the opponents' coalition. Public health stakeholders appear in both networks, but no health charity or advocacy group is common to both. Conclusion: A comparison of the discourse in the UK press during the policy development processes for minimum unit pricing for alcohol and the soft drinks industry levy suggests greater cross‐sector collaboration among policy opponents than proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of the firm raise conflicting arguments about how complementarities between two or more components affect firms' knowledge and production boundaries. Traditional arguments in the boundaries of the firm literature suggest that firms will tend to produce sets of complementary components internally, while more recent modularity studies argue that firms can outsource to gain flexibility. We resolve these views by examining concurrent sourcing, which arises when firms both make and buy the same components. We argue that concurrent sourcing of complementary components becomes more common in two cases: when firms have relevant knowledge about the components in conjunction with suppliers (interfirm expertise) and, perhaps more surprisingly, within the firm (within-firm shared expertise). The results suggest that firms often need to make in order to know, but can partially outsource if they possess sufficient expertise. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost economics, neoclassical economics, and the firm capabilities literatures propose theories of the firm that typically depict firm boundaries determined by a dichotomous choice: the make or buy decision. However, none of these theories presents a satisfying explanation as to why firms would concurrently source, i.e., simultaneously make and buy the same good. This study combines these organizational economics theories and compares when firms make, buy, and concurrently source through surveying small manufacturing firms. Support was shown for aspects of all three theories, with evidence indicating that concurrent sourcing is a distinctly different choice, rather existing along a make/buy continuum. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To understand the extent of the alcohol industry's financial dependence on drinking above government low‐risk guidelines in England. Design Scenario modelling using descriptive analyses of pooled data from the 2013 and 2014 waves of two nationally representative surveys: the Health Survey for England (HSE) and the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF). We estimated the proportion of alcohol sales revenue accounted for by drinkers above guideline levels, and how this varies between different beverage and retailer types. We then estimated the impact on sales revenue if the entire population reduced their drinking to within guideline levels, as well as the average price increases necessary to compensate for such a loss of revenue. Setting England. Participants: A total of 16 872 individual (HSE) and 9975 household (LCF) survey respondents. Measurements Transaction‐level estimates of volume of alcohol purchased and price paid by beverage type and trade sector. Findings Those drinking above guideline levels are estimated to account for 68% of total alcohol sales revenue in 2013/14: 81% of off‐trade revenue and 60% of on‐trade revenue. This represents 77% of beer, 70% of cider, 66% of wine and 50% of spirits sales value. The heaviest drinking 4% of the population account for 30% of all consumption and 23% of all industry revenue. If all consumers reduced their drinking to within guideline levels, alcohol sales revenue could decline by 38% (£13 billion). To mitigate this loss, average prices paid would have to rise substantially—for example, by £2.64 for a pint of on‐trade beer or £12.25 for a 70 cl bottle of off‐trade spirits. Conclusions: In England, the alcohol industry appears to be highly financially dependent upon heavy drinking, and might face significant financial losses were consumers to drink within guideline levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding what drives the capital flows has important policy implications for countries in managing the direction and magnitude of such flows. This paper empirically investigates the main drivers of capital flows into the fast‐growing BRICS countries, in the backdrop of their growing inward capital flows. Employing a fully balanced panel for the period 1995–2015, we focus on, among others, the hitherto commonly untested variables: sovereign credit ratings, economic freedom and ease of doing business ranking of these countries. In searching for the relevant interaction and causality among the drivers of capital flows, we employ the panel Granger causality test to arrive at the policy implications. The results suggest that market size is a significant driver of capital flows. In addition to infrastructure, economic freedom in the host countries, ease of doing business ranking and sovereign credit ratings are the main drivers in the long‐run growth of capital flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, there has been growing concern that multinational enterprises (MNEs) engage in strategic tax planning in order to shift profits to low‐tax jurisdictions. This common perception is generally confirmed by empirical evidence, which is foremost provided for countries with high corporate taxes and relatively complex tax systems. We investigate whether multinational firms in a country with a comparatively more competitive tax system undertake profit shifting. We do this using detailed census data from corporate income statements and balance sheets filed by Swedish manufacturing firms between 1997 and 2007. We detect profit shifting by comparing MNEs with (purely) domestic firms. In particular, we identify systematic differences in tax payments, earnings (before interest and taxes) and equity ratios between multinational and comparable domestic firms based on propensity score matching. In addition, we examine the tax behavioural impact of acquiring multinational status using difference‐in‐differences estimations and/or propensity score matching. Our results reveal that the extent to which multinational firms have lower tax payments than their domestic counterparts depends on their production characteristics and foreign market outreach. In particular, we find evidence indicating that firms operating in few foreign markets and firms that become multinational engage in profit shifting from Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the potential output of the South African economy using several filters. We demonstrate that potential output measures are very sensitive to the different methodologies. We also provide estimates of South Africa's potential growth rate over the 1960-2015 period. Current estimates of the potential growth rate fall in the 1.9%-2.3% range. However, the evidence suggests that the rate is under considerable downward pressure. South African potential growth may be headed toward the 1% range. The strongest decline is in the real sectors of the economy (Manufacturing, Mining), the greatest resilience in the service sectors (financial in particular). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I build a model of technology adoption to study the quantitative effect of entry barriers on total factor productivity ( TFP). In my model, incumbent firms choose technologies that are sufficiently productive to deter entry from a potential competitor. I show that higher entry barriers help to deter entry and lead to the choice of less productive technologies. A novelty of my work is that I use a direct measure of entry barriers. I find that reducing entry barriers from their average level in the poorest 30% of countries to their U.S. level leads to a sizeable increase in aggregate TFP of 12%. ( JEL O11, O43) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The root of the Baumol cost disease is higher productivity increases for manufactured goods than for services. The implied increase in relative costs of service production is widely claimed to have devastating implications for the public sector as a provider of tax-financed services such as health, education, and care. To match the increasing costs it appears inevitable that tax rates would be ever increasing. It is shown that this inference does not follow under standard assumptions when accounting explicitly for service provision from both the private and public sectors. Strikingly under assumptions often made in the literature, the welfare maximizing tax rate for a utilitarian policy maker would remain constant despite the Baumol cost disease, and by implication the share of public employment in total employment will remain constant. ( JEL H5, H11, O41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a uniquely designed analytical framework based on technological learning and capability development to examine the extent of multinational company spillover occurrence in the Kenyan manufacturing industry. Using a firm-level survey data, we examined the kind of spillovers occurring, extent of occurrence as well as the channels through which such spillovers occurred. The results obtained showed that the main kinds of spillovers occurring were product and process spillovers followed by marketing, management and organisation. Results of t-tests analysis showed significant differences between competition and demonstration, and linkage and labour mobility implying that the first two mechanisms were extremely important in spillover occurrence compared with the latter two in the Kenyan context. These have implications that linkage and labour mobility have weaker learning effects, hence weak in stimulating capability building. T-test analysis showed that more spillovers occurred from foreign firms than from locally owned firms. The results also showed that spillovers were likely to occur due to foreign presence, firm and machine age, skill level, research and development, training and participation in imports. Based on the results generated, the paper portends that foreign direct investment can play an important role in the country's manufacturing industry by stimulating learning and capability development via spillover occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last year the emergers led the global recovery with the advanced economies lagging, but in recent months there has been a range of positive indicators across the advanced economies, most notably the PMI surveys, with the US non-manufacturing index reaching an eight-year high in August and the UK composite index recording its highest ever reading in the same month. By contrast, the indicators from emerging economies have been more mixed and while some of the Chinese data have been better in recent months, the PMI surveys point to stagnation or contraction across a number of other emergers. While emerging economies will continue to make a large contribution to world growth, the global upturn is now being driven by strengthening domestic demand in the advanced economies.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies have suggested that countries (or regions) with access to larger markets have higher wages. In this paper, we examine whether access to larger markets affects skilled and unskilled workers differently. We develop a model relating two key measures of market size, market and supplier access, to industry value added prices. We then estimate the effects of growth in these measures on factor returns in U.S. manufacturing industries between 1984 and 1996. We find that growth in these measures can explain around 5% of the rise in the skill premium over the sample period. ( JEL F12, F16, L60) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial markets were volatile in the first quarter of 2016, with steep declines to mid-February followed by a significant rally by end-March. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1251) Paul Kamau with Dorothy McCormick and Nicolas Pinaud Kenya has enjoyed a relatively diversified economy (at least by SSA standards), with light manufacturing industries in particular playing a significant growing role. The rise of Asian competition (locally, regionally and on third-country markets), partly due to the erosion of trade preferences for clothing and footwear, has raised fresh policy challenges. The specific relevance of the clothing industry in the analysis of China’s and India’s impact on Africa is manifold: this is a low-skilled labour-intensive industry, and hence an avenue for African economies’ diversification; the competition from Asian producers vis-à-vis the SSA clothing industry is felt at the local, regional and global level (on third-country markets): it is therefore direct and indirect; also, the Asian Drivers’ impact on African clothing industries has both a trade and investment dimension while being competitive and complementary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable empirical evidence that energy prices had a large effect on the U.S. economy between World War II and the 1980s. This paper argues that linkages between manufacturing industries amplify the effect of an energy price shock and help explain the large effect. In particular, energy-intensive industries are important input suppliers to other industries. When the price of energy increases, energy-intensive industries contract, raising materials prices for other industries. Because of the reduction in materials supply, the downstream industries also contract, which I refer to as the supply effect. Using data from the Census of Manufactures, I find that the supply effect accounted for about one half of the sensitivity of value added to the price of energy. I use plant-level census data to show that the supply effect caused similar changes in value added per plant as in value added per industry. A price increase caused a small, although statistically significant, decrease in entry and had no effect on exit. Finally, the supply effect reduced plant-level labor demand. ( JEL E32, Q43) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the linkages between the manufacturing and services sectors, and between each of them and the rest of the domestic economy, based on analysis of input-output tables and employment trends. This reveals that manufacturing is particularly important as a source of demand for the services sector as well as the rest of the economy through its strong backward linkages, which suggests that in this respect a decline in manufacturing could negatively affect future growth. Services are especially important in terms of employment creation, both direct and indirect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some local governments face fiscal challenges due to mismanagement and declining economies. In particular, manufacturing states like Michigan and Ohio have been hard hit by the effects of international competition. To prevent fiscal distress from becoming a crisis, states exercise oversight over local government fiscal management. The three bond rating agencies consider the North Carolina oversight system a model. This paper discusses the North Carolina oversight system, including audit review, technical assistance, debt issuance, and power to take over the financial operations of distressed local units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research develops a conceptual framework for computing new weighted composite indexes for the U.S. non-manufacturing sector using a two-step sequential approach — a correlation analysis, followed by a principal components analysis. The results suggest that different weights (i.e., the highest weight to New orders and the lowest weight to Supply deliveries) be assigned if all diffusion indexes in the initial set of six are retained. It also turns out that a simpler index based on two (New orders and Supply deliveries) of the six diffusion indexes, with equal weights, can be computed with little information loss. The new indexes are shown to correlate highly with many key business/economic indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In a previous paper, Delgado, Fariñas and Ruano (2002) report TFP differences between exporters and non-exporters on the basis of a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. In this paper, we extend the previous analysis in three directions using a similar data set. First, we investigate additional economic performance differences between exporters and non-exporters. Second, we measure TFP differences estimating production functions that control for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity bias. Third, we explore the self-selection and learning-by-exporting hypothesis as explanations for the greater performance of exporters. With respect to the results, we confirm that many indicators of economic performance such as productivity, size, wages and innovation are greater in exporting firms. Furthermore, TFP differences between exporters and non-exporters estimated with parametric methods are remarkably similar to those estimated using index numbers. Finally, performance differences and transition patterns between the export market and the domestic market indicate higher performance for entering exporters with respect to non-exporters at the moment of entry. We find evidence of selection in the entry and the exit side of the export market. One of the basic results that we obtain indicates that after controlling for self-selection, the productivity growth of entering exporters does not significantly change with respect to non-exporters. As the evidence we find indicates no systematic changes in performance between non-exporters and exporters after entry takes place, we do not confirm the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The process of economic evolution from agriculture to manufacturing to services is nearing its end in the U.S. and other developed economies. Another major evolution along a different dimension is now underway: it is from a material-based economy to an information-based economy. In the past, the product–service dichotomy has proved useful as an organizing principle for the study of operations management. Today, however, a material–information categorization of products and services appears to be equally important and useful. The information sector now comprises the major share of the U.S. private economy and includes many of the largest industrial sectors and firms. We discuss the implications of this evolution for research and teaching in operations management (OM). The basic questions addressed here are: In what ways are information products, services, processes and chains similar to, or different from, those in the material world? To what extent is it possible to manage operations in information industries using the existing operations management concepts and techniques? The conclusions are mixed. To a great extent, traditional concepts are indeed applicable and useful. However, there are significant differences. For example, quantification and measurement pose a fundamental problem in the study of information industries. As a result, there are difficulties in analyzing some of the most basic OM issues related to productivity, cost, value, and transformation. Nevertheless, the process-centric methods of operations management can be quite effective in analyzing firms and industries that produce information goods and services. An understanding of process economics and information chains is also central to the analysis of competition given the impact of new technologies on processes, firms, information chains and information industries. We conclude that while there is much in the information sector that can be addressed with our current toolkit, some very interesting and challenging issues still remain open for research. From the perspective of management education too, operations management in the information economy is an area of growing importance, with some easy wins and some significant challenges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is a survey of recent contributions to, and developments of, the relationship between outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in manufacturing and services. The objective is to provide a thorough and up–to–date survey that provides a significant discussion on data, as well as on the core methods of measuring efficiency and productivity. First, the readers are introduced to the measurement of partial and total factor productivity growth. Different parametric and non–parametric approaches to the productivity measurement in the context of static, dynamic and firm–specific modelling are discussed. Second, we survey the econometric approach to efficiency analysis. The issues of modelling, distributional assumptions and estimation methods are discussed assuming that cross–sectional or panel data are available. Third, the relationship between outsourcing and productivity growth in manufacturing and services is discussed. The correspondence between a number of hypotheses and empirical findings are examined. Examples of varieties of relevant empirical applications, their findings and implications are presented. Fourth, measurement of inputs and outputs in manufacturing and services are discussed. Finally, to promote useful research, a number of factors important to the analysis of outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in the service sector are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual production specifications derived under certainty are typically randomized for econometric purposes with ad hoc error specifications. This article shows that such approaches can cause integrability conditions to fail. In particular, if errors in input demands represent errors in optimization that affect output, then typical dual approaches do not yield congruent supplies and demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from an exploratory study into the content and impact of product innovation charters (PICs) in 86 North American corporations. The findings demonstrate that managers have some distinct preferences in terms of the items that they choose to include in a PIC and that certain components seem to be more important to mention than others. The findings also make evident the relationship that PICs have with selected performance measures. The results suggest that product innovation charters, like their mission statement ‘cousins’, may be of more value than most managers realize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the procyclical productivity and returns-to-scale in Philippine manufacturing industry. Estimation of the returns to scale of the economy; Reasons for the weak economy of the Philippines; Discussion of the Philippine short-run macro-economic dynamics.

The article comments on the lecture given by the author in the memory of the macroeconomist Michal Kalecki regarding the political economy of full employment in modern Great Britain. The lecture is about unemployment. Kalecki believed that unemployment in advanced capitalist economies can often be reduced by creating demand through deficit-financed government expenditure. Kalecki considers how capitalism might be reformed so that it can function without unemployment. The authoritarian solution is fascism, which replaces the discipline of unemployment by the direct repression of the working class by force. The democratic solution, which he favors, is a new settlement between capital and labor, in which powerful trade unions co-operate with the employers in return for income redistribution and other egalitarian measures. Kalecki also recognized that structural factors might limit the scope for demand-stimulating measures. In his 1944 paper, "Three Ways to Full Employment," he argues that inflation will result if demand increases so much that a general scarcity of productive capacity emerges.

ABSTRACT According to Harold Innis, Canada's economic history has been based on the discovery of natural resources, consequent community formation to facilitate their extraction, resource depletion, and finally, community disappearance. This model links industrial change and development in the resource sector with both community and ecological outcomes but neglects detailed exploration of the industry/ecosystem linkage. The purpose of this paper is to adapt the ecological footprint concept in order to make the ecological impact of economic and technological change in a Canadian resource industry (sawmilling) explicit. This investigation utilizes a large cohort of sawmill workers gathered in 14 British Columbia (B.C.) mills, a study that measured the ecological footprint in several of these mills, and a labor adjustment study conducted by Statistics Canada to explore the links between technological change and downsizing in this resource industry and both community and ecological sustainability. The ecological footprint concept is adapted for use in a resource-extracting industry. This allows moving the estimation of the ecological footprint from its usual place, an urban consuming population, to the site of natural capital transformation (the sawmill) thereby linking the costs and benefits of this transformation with site or region-specific ecosystem exploitation. Results demonstrate that the recession of the early 1980s eliminated over 40% of the sawmill workforce and stimulated increased replacement of labor by capital, thus increasing productivity and the ecological footprint of sawmills. The new technical infrastructure now in place in most sawmills is accelerating the pace of forest ecosystem draw-down while at the same time producing less economic benefit for the local community. Adaptation of the ecological footprint for use at the site of the transformation of natural capital makes these trade-offs more specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of localisation and urbanisation economies on regional manufacturing development in Poland 1976-96 is assessed in terms of employment and the regional convergence or divergence of the economy. Current research on the role of dynamic production externalities in regional manufacturing development is examined, starting with a review of recent literature on the nature of such externalities in manufacturing location, and how positive externalities may influence the spatial clustering of manufacturing industries. The paper shows that radical changes have occurred in patterns of Polish regional manufacturing employment, both with regard to sectors and regions. Transition is refocusing the regional economy on strong regional centres, and on sectors regarded with little favour in the planned economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts the role of product quality in the market game of supply and demand into the center of the analysis. To that purpose it provides a systematic investigation of market diagrams with quality instead of price on the ordinate. This new focus allows interesting conclusions by simple application of well-known diagrammatic methods. For instance, as far as single markets are concerned, it is shown that providing consumers with information about product quality may increase or decrease quality in the market, depending on the type of information provided. Another conclusion of practical relevance, concerning the macroeconomic activity level, is that an effective demand problem may be caused ff present product quality is too low compared with the product quality expected for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labour market consequences of trade and protection have only recently come under the scrutiny of labour economists. This paper seeks to accomplish two things - to survey the recent research and to provide estimates of the effect that reductions in effective rates of assistance afforded to Australia's manufacturing industries have had on employment. Recent labour market developments reveal a downward trend in manufacturing employment levels. The declines appear to have been associated with lower levels of assistance. However, the estimates of the effect of lower levels of protection are generally small - about a one per cent reduction in employment for each ten per cent reduction in the effective rate of industry assistance. In addition, the manufacturing employment developments appear to be only weakly linked to real wage resistance. Overall, an overriding impression from the find ings presented in this paper is the strength of the structural adjustments ongoing in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the existence of externalities in production for an endogenous growth model to explain sustained economic growth in Taiwan. The researchers used Caballero and Lyon's methodology which estimated indexes of internal returns to scale and external economies for two-digit manufacturing industries in the country to argue for the existence of externalities. The methodology factored in the log-linear approximation of the production function, share of labor in the total factor costs, growth of output, growth of labor input and the two-digit industry. It also used the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and three-stage least square (3SLS) estimating procedures with three sets of instrumental variables.

This paper investigates the strategic use of "flexible manufacturing" technology as an entry-deterring mechanism. It is shown that, when consumers' tastes fluctuate probabilistically, an incumbent threatened with potential entry installs flexible manufacturing technology for a larger set of probabilities that consumers' tastes will change, than the perfectly protected monopolist. The differential probability sets represent the intent of the monopoly incumbent strategically to use product-design flexibility for deterring entry into the potential market and maintain its dominance under fluctuating consumer tastes. This purely preemptive flexibility is shown to exist under reasonable assumptions on the firms' payoff structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the labor market in Great Britain based on the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sector. Structure of the model used; Estimates and reason for the rise of unemployment between 1975 and 1981; Extensions of the model and policy simulations.

Provides an alternative approach to measuring the vintage effects of additions to capital utilizing cross-sections of manufacturing industries at the plant level made possible by the Census LRD database. Model for measuring technical advance and definition of variables; Estimates of embodied technical change based on data for new plants; Modeling production relations for changes in inputs and outputs; More.

There is a controversy in the USA and several European countries on whether or not an increase in imports in manufacturing goods from low-wage developing countries has major effects on employment and wages in industrialized countries. This paper examines the issue for Japanese imports, paying a particular attention to the effect of manufacturing imports from Asian countries on employment and wages in Japan. It is found that the effect has not been large to date, but that there could be negative effects on employment and, in particular, wages if imports from China and India were to increase substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a reply to the comment on a study on the estimates of consumer loss due to monopoly in the food manufacturing industries in the United States. Approaches used in the study to estimate consumer loss; Flaw in the review of the national brand-private label price difference approach; Problems which exist in the frozen poultry controversy; Views on the criticism on the loss-components approach.

Comments on a study by Parker and Connor which concluded that seller concentration in food manufacturing resulted in consumer overcharges in the United States in 1975. National brand-private label price difference estimate; Loss-components estimates.

The article refers to research by T. P. Wright in 1936, which focused on a learning or improvement process in aircraft manufacturing, and explains the mathematical and statistical procedures in the manufacturing progress model. The basic concept is that as output increases, learning and progress occur. The fixed improvement rates are usually stated in terms of doubled output units. However, a formula for transforming these doubled-unit rates into other relative increments of ouput is given. The generalized learning rate formula, definition of the arc elasticity of direct labor, and formulas for calculating direct labor man-hours are discussed.

Bhattacharya and colleagues show that the alcohol industry is hugely reliant upon people drinking above guideline levels for revenue, highlighting the fundamental conflict of interest in allowing industry to self-regulate or be involved in health policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the economic welfare of the oligopolistic structure of the United States food manufacturing sector. Increases in industrial concentration and consumer welfare; Effect of the declines in industrial concentration.

The article offers news brief relating to the ports and shipping industry in Liberia and Angola as of April 1, 2014. One item discusses the expansion of the industrial and manufacturing sectors in Liberia to ensure a strong economic growth a decade after the end of the civil war. Another item reports that the captain of the Liberian-flagged oil tanker MT Kerala, which vanished from Angola and later surfaced in Nigeria, insists that the vessel was hijacked despite denial by the Angolan navy.

In this article, the author discusses the manufacturing dynamics and manufacturing growth in Indonesia. The author mentions the manufacturing growth decline apparent on the performance of the manufacturing sector. Hence, the author points out that the growth relies on the development path and political policy of the Indonesian leaders which includes the industrialization and the shift from manufacturing to agriculture, service sectors, and mining.

Presents a response on comments made on the economic welfare implications of oligopoly in the United States food manufacturing sector. Increases in industrial concentration and consumer welfare; Impact of the decreases in industrial concentration.

In this paper, we evaluate the spatial location patterns of Spanish manufacturing firms in each industry. We use a distance-based method, Ripley's K function, which allows us to treat space as continuous. With 'complete spatial randomness' as benchmark, every sector presents significant concentration whatever the distance considered. If we use the locations of all manufacturing firms as a benchmark, we find dispersion in some sectors and concentration in others, finding also differences in the spatial scale at which clustering occurs. Finally, the use of cities as a benchmark reveals that not only is 'first nature' among the location determinants of manufacturing firms but they also include the self-reinforcing advantages of 'second nature'. Resumen. En este artículo evaluamos los patrones de localización espacial de empresas de manufacturas en cada industria. Utilizamos un método basado en la distancia, la función K de Ripley, que nos permite tratar el espacio como un continuo. Tomando la 'aleatoriedad espacial completa' como cota de referencia, todos los sectores presentan una concentración significativa, independientemente de la distancia considerada. Si empleamos las localizaciones de todas las empresas manufactureras como cota de referencia, encontramos dispersión en algunos sectores y concentración en otros, así como diferencias en la escala espacial a la que ocurre la formación de conglomerados ( clusters). Finalmente, el emplear ciudades como cota de referencia revela que entre los determinantes de localización de empresas manufactureras no solo está la 'primera naturaleza' sino que también se incluyen las ventajas de retroalimentación positiva de la 'segunda naturaleza'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses a model of vertical product differentiation in which there is a primary market with two firms and a secondary market with no firms. Consumers in the secondary market incur a cost when purchasing the product from the primary market. The firms sequentially choose product quality and then simultaneously choose prices. Firm 1 always chooses the maximum quality, while firm 2''s quality and the prices depend on the cost. Also, the cost determines which firm(s), if either, serves the secondary market. It is shown that the firms and the consumers of each market prefer different levels of costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]