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Experimental studies of social dilemmas have shown that while the existence of a sanctioning institution improves cooperation within groups, it also has a detrimental impact on group earnings in the short-run. Could the introduction of pre-play threats to punish have enough of a beneficial impact on cooperation, while not incurring the cost associated with actual punishment, so that they increase overall welfare ? We report an experiment in which players can issue non-binding threats to punish others based on their contribution levels to a public good. After observing others' actual contributions, they choose their actual punishment level. We find that threats increase the level of contributions significantly. Efficiency is improved, but only in the long run. However, the possibility of sanctioning differences between threatened and actual punishment leads to lower threats, cooperation and welfare, restoring them to levels equal to or below the levels attained in the absence of threats.

Hospitals logistic is well-known through its activities of catering, laundry, supplying, transport, mail, etc. Reforms of the French hospitals management generated poles decentralized management and activity related pricing, forcing hospitals to work on their structure and their operating costs. This paper lists hospital logistic practices according to their organizational aspect (positioning inside the poles, implementation of logistic referent...) or management control aspect (calculated cost kind, benchmarking, outsourcing, rationalization, re-engineering...), leading to define the place, La logistique hospitalière est connue au travers de ses activités de restauration, blanchisserie, approvisionnement, transport, courrier, etc. Des réformes du management hospitalier français ont introduit une gestion décentralisée des hôpitaux en pôles, et une tarification à l'activité (T2A), obligeant les établissements à se restructurer et à réfléchir à leurs coûts de fonctionnement. Cet article recense les pratiques de logistique hospitalière selon des aspects organisationnels (positionnement dans les pôles, mise en place de référents logistiques...) et de contrôle de gestion (types de coûts, formes de benchmarking, externalisation, rationalisation, remise à plat des flux logistiques...), aboutissant à définir la place qu'occupe aujourd'hui la logistique dans les hôpitaux français.

Existing research argues that convertible bonds mitigate issuers’ external financing costs offinancial distress, agency conflicts and informational asymmetry. The purpose of this paper is totest whether callable convertible bonds are designed in response to costly debt- and equityrelatedfinancing problems. We identify the design (debt-, mixed- and equity-like) of callableconvertible bonds using a measure of conversion probability which accounts for callability.Indeed, most of the existing empirical financial literature on convertible debt design does notpay much attention to the call feature in spite of its important repercussions on the securitydesign. The empirical study provides evidence from 213 French callable convertible bonds overthe period 1990-2010 that the issuer features, and hence the offering motives vary with thedesign of callable convertible debt., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We examine the relation between corporate social performance and stock portfolios performances. Based on Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini social performance ratings, the study constructs and evaluates different sets of equity portfolios that differ in social performance. The high-ranked portfolios provide, in most cases, higher average returns than their low-ranked counterparts over the 1995-2006 period. In addition, we observe that the relation social-financial performance depends also on the economic cycle and consequently, on the market performance. Socially responsible investments seem to be more popular during bearish market periods and less popular during bullish market periods. Finally, our results suggest that in some industries, the differences of performances are more significant than in others. In other words, the relation social-financial performance seems to be considerably affected by the nature of firms’ activities. Therefore, our empirical results suggest that industry is an important factor that should be taken in consideration in studies on the relation between social and financial performance

International audience; In this paper we propose an original model of competition for effective political power between majority and opposition coalitions. The model indicates that the electoral margin of the majority and the fragmentation of both coalitions are key variables that determine their effective political power. We estimate the model in the case of the French départements. Our econometric results support the model and show that the per capita social expenditures in the French départements depend on the effective political power of the majority.

International audience; This article presents a model of private vertical contracting with a capacity constrained monopolistic supplier. I consider 'full capacity beliefs' that are consistent with an upstream capacity constraint and are 'wary' when the constraint is tight or production is costless. I show that, facing a capacity constraint, the supplier may preserve its monopoly power in equilibrium. This result stands in sharp contrast to the standard result that the supplier cannot preserve its monopoly power, which holds under the usual implicit assumption of an infinite production capacity.

This paper aims to contribute to the identification of the key parameters of cluster life cycles. We assume that clusters are embedded in larger technological fields, so that the search for these parameters focuses on the way by which clusters could disconnect their cycle from the cycle of technologies, in order to insure their long term viability. For that, we set out 6 propositions concerning (i) the nature of location decision externalities that prevail in the co-location process; (ii) the particular diffusion process of composite technologies and the positioning of clusters along this process; (iii) the structural properties of clusters and the particular role and position some organizations play in their evolution. Through a cross-synthesis of the whole of these propositions, we discuss 4 basic scenarios of the structural and evolutionary pathways of clusters.We show that clusters succeed in disconnecting their cycle from the cycle of technologies if and only if they display resilience properties. Key-words : cluster, cycle, location externalities, knowledge, structural properties, resilience

Bayoumi and Eichengreen’s (BE, 1994) article has been very influent in the empirics of the core-periphery view of fixed exchange rate agreements. They rely on the basic AS-AD macroeconomic model in order to identify supply and demand shocks through long-run restrictions in vector autoregressions. Doing this should enable one to assess the size of such disturbances and the asymmetry between countries. While reference is usually made to Blanchard and Quah (BQ, 1989), it is shown here how this factorization has been modified by BE and how the two resulting decomposition schemes can be linked. Contrary to BE’s premise, relaxing the assumption of shocks of equal size is not just a matter of scale. The empirical properties of the exchange regime are modified, especially as regards the correlation of shocks. Given the VAR setting used in the related studies, it is also established that zero-constraints on either instantaneous or long-run impulse responses provide identical results. An empirical assessment he euro currency area over 1996-2008 illustrate these points. The recorded evidence suggests that non-zero restrictions imply slope coefficients of the AS and AD curves close to values derived from New-Keynesian models.

Fiscal packages usually capitalize into house prices. But if enough land for construction is available, housing developers can supply new houses and capitalization may disappear. We provide a theoretical model in which income taxes and public services capitalize at lower rates when housing supply elasticity increases. Using an empirical linear interaction model, we estimate the impact of available land for construction on capitalization rates with a panel of Swiss communities. Results indicate that fiscal variables do not capitalize differently in communities where housing supply is constrained by land availability. Thus, land availability is not sufficient for capitalization to disappear.

This paper aims to contribute to the identification of the key parameters of cluster life cycles. We assume that clusters are embedded in larger technological fields, so that the search for these parameters focuses on the way by which clusters could disconnect their cycle from the cycle of technologies, in order to insure their long term viability. For that, we set out 6 propositions concerning (i) the nature of location decision externalities that prevail in the co-location process; (ii) the particular diffusion process of composite technologies and the positioning of clusters along this process; (iii) the structural properties of clusters and the particular role and position some organizations play in their evolution. Through a cross-synthesis of the whole of these propositions, we discuss 4 basic scenarios of the structural and evolutionary pathways of clusters. We show that clusters succeed in disconnecting their cycle from the cycle of technologies if and only if they display resilience properties. Key-words : cluster, cycle, location externalities, knowledge, structural properties, resilience JEL code: D85, L14, O31, R12

This paper investigates the impact of alternative monetary policy regimes on the creation of new varieties in open economies. Using a dynamic two-country model incorporating nominal rigidities, international trade and firm entries we compare an independent monetary policy regime to a monetary union regime. We find that a common monetary policy defined by a nominal interest rate rule reactive to inflation increases extensive margin of trade volatility. Simulations based on business cycle frequencies indicate that on average this increase reaches 3%. Although monetary policy interdependence is found to be a key ingredient in generating this effect, we stress that those parameters affecting international trade structures are crucial in determining its magnitude.

This paper examines empirically the determinants of financial market development in Africa with an emphasis on banking systems and stock markets. The results show that income level, creditor rights protection, financial repression, and political risk are the main determinants of banking sector development in Africa, and that stock market liquidity, domestic savings, banking sector development, and political risk are the main determinants of stock market development. We also find that liberalizing the capital account promotes financial market development only in countries with high incomes, well- developed institutions, or both. The powerful impacts of political risk on both banking sector and stock market development suggest that resolution of political risk may be important to the development of African financial markets.

International audience; One of the most convincing explanations papers generally provide concerning clusters in knowledge-based economies refers to the geographically bounded dimension of knowledge spillovers. Here, we shall underline that location decision externalities precede local knowledge spillovers in the explanation of cluster aggregate efficiency, which thus requires us to focus on the sequential process of location and the nature of interdependences in location decision-making. To that end, we mean to associate cluster emergence with the formation of locational norms, and to study the critical parameters of their stability. These parameters relate to the type of decision externalities among more or less cognitively distant firms, which influences the weight and the resulting ambivalent role of knowledge spillovers at the aggregate level of clusters. We suggest two theoretical propositions which we test within a simple and general norm location dynamics modeling framework. We then proceed to discuss the results so obtained by comparing them with an emerging related literature based on the life cycle and viability of clusters.

Conservation policies provide strong incentives to farmers to contribute to the environmental protection. One concern of such policies is to create and/or maintain a variety of valuable public goods. One main difference between creating and maintaining public good is that farmers are asked to create resources in the first policy, while in the other, they have to maintain unchanged an existing level of resources. While conservation policies indifferently aim at both creating and maintaining a variety of public goods since they provide similar incentive for both policies, it is possible that farmers behave differently in the two contexts. This paper aims at testing this framing effect. The originality of our approach is to combine both framing and threshold dimensions by comparing maintaining and creating contexts using threshold public goods experiments. First, the creating treatment corresponds to a classical Voluntary Contribution Mechanism whereas the maintaining treatment corresponds to a setting where all tokens are initially placed in the public investment and subjects can withdraw tokens. Second, we test for this hypothesis in the case of Provision Point Mechanism experiments with three different threshold levels. The results are that first, consistent with theoretical predictions, contributions rise with threshold level, with exception for the highest level. Second, individuals tend to be less cooperative in the maintaining frame rather than in the creating frame. Finally, framing effects seem to be more effective under higher threshold levels. Important consequences of these results can be found for the management of agri-environmental resources., Les mesures agri-environnementales mises en œuvre par de nombreux pays visent à rémunérer les agriculteurs pour le maintien ou même la création de ces biens. Cette distinction entre maintien et création apparaît souvent dans l'exposé des motivations de ces politiques. Par exemple, le site de la Commission Européenne indique que l'agriculture "a contribué à travers les siècles à créer et entretenir toute une gamme d'habitats semi-naturels précieux". Ce projet vise à montrer que cette distinction n'est pas anodine. Nous supposons ici que le comportement des agriculteurs vis-à-vis du maintien ou de la création d'un bien non marchand va sans doute différer. Nous nous appuyons pour cela sur des travaux d'économie expérimentale montrant le rôle du contexte quand il s'agit de contribuer à un bien public. La contribution la plus significative étant celle d'Andreoni (QJE, 1995) qui déduit de son protocole que les individus semblent contribuer plus lorsqu'il s'agit de créer un bien public que lorsqu'il s'agit de le maintenir. Les sujets se comportent comme s'ils préféraient faire du bien aux autres plutôt que de ne pas leur faire du mal. Notre premier apport consiste à vérifier ce résultat de manière directe avec un protocole modifié. Par ailleurs, nous croisons l'effet de contexte avec l'existence de non-linéarité dans la production du bien public. De nombreux auteurs se sont intéressés aux biens publics avec seuil. Néanmoins, il n'y a pas à notre connaissance de papier qui croise effet de contexte et niveau du seuil. Notre second apport consiste donc à vérifier l'hypothèse d'Andreoni (1995) en présence de non linéarités. Nous montrons (1) que conformément aux prédictions théoriques, les contributions augmentent avec le seuil, excepté pour le niveau de seuil le plus élevé, (2) que les individus sont moins coopératifs dans le maintien d'un bien public que dans sa création, et enfin, (3) que ce dernier effet augmente avec le seuil. Des implications importantes sont dérivées quant à la mise en oeuvre des mesures agri-environnementales.

The paper builds a two-country model of a monetary union with home bias and price stickiness. Incompleteness of financial asset markets is allowed. In this environment, we derive the solution for optimal behavior by the monetary policymaker and show that welfare can be higher under incomplete markets than under complete markets. The argument is a second-best one. In a monetary union with equal nominal rigidity across countries, optimal monetary policy stabilizes aggregate, union-wide inflation, but cannot fully stabilize the country-level inflation rates. Market incompleteness results in less volatility of the terms-of-trade (because part of the adjustment goes through the current account), and hence less volatile national inflation rates. Through this channel, welfare ends up being higher under incomplete markets. These results are also robust when nominal rigidity differs across countries and whenthe form of the monetary policy is modified.

This paper proposes a general framework to compare the strength of the dependence in survival models, as time changes, i.e. given remaining lifetimes , to compare the dependence of given >t, and given >s, where s>t. More precisely, analytical results will be obtained in the case the survival copula of is either Archimedean or a distorted copula. The case of a frailty based model will also be discussed in details.

WP SMART-LERECO ; 10-12Localisation du document : UMR 1302 UMR INRA / AGROCAMPUS OUEST : Structures et Marchés Agricoles, Ressources et Territoires, Centre de recherche de Rennes, 35011 RENNES CEDEX, FRA (SMART CG 25 CB 009913); Does colonisation explain differences in trade performance across developing countries? In this paper, we analyse the differential impact of British versus French colonial legacies on the current trade of African ex-colonies. We initially find that former British colonies trade more, on average, than do their French counterparts. This difference might be the result of the relative superiority of British institutions. However, a core concern is the non-random selection of colonies by the British. Historians argue that with Britain, trade preceded colonisation. Using an instrument based on colonisation history to control for this endogeneity, we find no evidence of a systematic difference between the British and French colonial legacies with respect to trade. This finding suggests that the apparent better performance of British ex-colonies might be instead explained by pre-colonial conditions.

A complete and user-friendly directory of tails of Archimedean copulas is presented which can be used in the selection and construction of appropriate models with desired properties. The results are synthesized in the form of a decision tree: Given the values of some readily computable characteristics of the Archimedean generator, the upper and lower tails of the copula are classified into one of three classes each, one corresponding to asymptotic dependence and the other two to asymptotic independence. For a long list of single-parameter families, the relevant tail quantities are computed so that the corresponding classes in the decision tree can easily be determined. In addition, new models with tailor-made upper and lower tails can be constructed via a number of transformation methods. The frequently occurring category of asymptotic independence turns out to conceal a surprisingly rich variety of tail dependence structures., to appear in the Journal of Multivariate Analysis

The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) associated with the diffusion of new work practices since fifteen years has raised concerns about the impact of these changes on productivity. Some recent studies underline a positive impact of ICT and of new work practices on firms' productivity. But as well known in the principal-agent literature agents are predisposed to shirking, so, in order to obtain productivity gains firms need to provide workers with sufficient incentives and to encourage motivations. Our main results, obtained with data collected in Luxembourg in 2004-2005, indicate that ICT permit to create a team spirit and an enriching work environment that influences positively pure intrinsic motivations of workers. These motivations, associated with positive incentives, can be substitutes for the direct monitoring introduced usually to obtain the effort of employees, but hard to be used in a context of increasing autonomy.

Monetary policy is usually perceived as an important transmission channel in the negative relationship between oil prices and economic performance. It may also constitute a short-term explanation of the non-linearity in this relationship, since Central Bankers may be more sensitive to the potential inflationary threats entailed by high oil price increases than to small increases or decreases. In this paper, we use an extended Taylor rule to investigate the role of oil prices in the ECB monetary policy strategy. A contemporaneous reaction function is estimated using both a GMM framework and an Ordered Probit model, and several oil indicators are constructed and tested. The main results suggest that oil prices play a key role in the ECB interest-rate setting, since it appears as a relevant indicator of future inflation. However, the ECB seems to react asymmetrically: only oil price increases influence its decision setting, not oil prices decreases. Monetary policy may thus transmit and amplify the asymmetry in the relationship between oil prices and activity in the euro area. Further investigations suggest that a preference for price stability provides an important explanation of this asymmetric behaviour of the ECB.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a model that studies the impact of a tightening monetary policy on banking failure in a developing country.Design/methodology/approachThe interest rate on treasury bills is included in the model to measure monetary policy. Since the model considers developing countries with low‐income level, the paper assumes that a secondary market does not exist.FindingsThe model shows that, despite treasury bills constituting an alternative source of profit for banks in developing countries, a tightening monetary policy increases the probability of banking failure. In addition, the model shows that efficiency level explains the asymmetric effect of monetary policy on the profit of the banks.Practical implicationsThe policy implication of the results of the paper is that the central bank should take into account the adverse effect of a tightening monetary policy on banking failure, when planning policy decisions.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the linkage between monetary policy and banking failure in developing countries.

Since the revitalization of economic sociology operated in the 1980s, an interorganizational networks perspective has been widely used in the study of interfirm partnerships. This paper aims to review this literature by distinguishing successively the influence of interorganizational networks on the formation, the implementation and the evolution of interfirm partnerships., Depuis la revitalisation de la sociologie économique opérée dans les années 1980, la perspective des réseaux inter-organisationnels a fréquemment été employée dans l'étude de la mise en oeuvre des partenariats d'entreprises. Il s'agit ici de présenter une synthèse de ces travaux, en distinguant successivement l'influence des réseaux inter-organisationnels sur la formation, l'implémentation et l'évolution des partenariats d'entreprises.