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The tax laws of most developed countries are debt biased since firms can deduct interest on debt but not on equity. This bias is known to distort investment decisions. However, less is known about how the debt tax shield affects the ownership of assets when bidders differ financial expertise and thus in optimal use of leverage. We show that the debt tax shield need not always distort ownership efficiency. Assets end up with the socially preferred owner when differences in financial and productive expertise between bidders are small and better financial expertise reduces expected bankruptcy costs.

International audience; This paper disentangles resource management skills of candidates from the electoral circumstances that help them getting (re-)elected. It is first made use of the DEA method to measure candidates’ resource management abilities. Second, determinants of these scores are estimated. The paper uses a database detailing the different sources of campaign funding for French members of Parliament to analyze their relative performance. Results show a large variance in campaign resource management ability, particularly between political parties, and incumbents and newcomers. They also reveal an important role of constituencies’ characteristics and of politicians' experience in explaining differences between politicians' efforts. Thus, public policies could promote virtuous regulations to reduce disparities among candidates with different financial backgrounds and access to resources, to foster a fairer democracy.

The objective of this paper is to show that part of the fixed cost of a firm’s trade expansion is due to the acquisition of new internal capabilities (e.g., technology, production processes or skills), which implies a costly change in the firm’s internal labor organization. We investigate the relationship between a firm’s labor structure, in terms of the relative number of managers, and the scope of its export portfolio, in terms of its product-destination varieties. The empirical analysis is based on a matched employer-employee dataset covering the population of French firms from tradable sectors over the period 2009-2015. Our analysis suggests that market ex- pansion, both through export entry and export diversification, is associated with a change in the firm’s workforce composition, namely an increase in the number of managerial layers. These results are generally confirmed with the use of an instrumental variable approach to control for reverse causality. We show how these results are consistent with a simple model, where the complexity of a firm’s operations increases with the number of product-destination couples ex- ported and the manager’s role is to address the unsolved problems arising from such increased operational complexity.

This article examines the efficiency of wind energy production. Using non-convex efficiency analysis, we quantify production losses for 19 wind turbines in four wind parks across Germany. In a second stage regression, we adapt the linear regression results of Kneip, Simar, and Wilson (2015) to explain electricity losses by means of a bias-corrected truncated regression analysis. The results show that electricity losses amount to 27% of the maximal producible electricity. Most of these losses are from changing wind conditions, while 6% are from turbine errors.

Outsourcing is rather a new way of doing business and optimising a company's processes. The paper offers an overview of the definitions of the term, which are the benefits and the risks of the choice of outsourcing and how should this decision be made. Using various sources, we tried to create a proper image of this industry and explain what it will be still growing in the future. The study aims to address the global landscape and then focus on Romania's position on the market by using data provided by the National Bank of Romania and the International Monetary Fund, as well as consultancy companies.

By operationalizing the notion of creative destruction, Schumpeterian growth theory generates distinctive predictions on important microeconomic aspects of the growth process (competition, firm dynamics, firm size distribution, cross-firm and cross-sector reallocation) which can be confronted using rich micro data. In this process the theory helps reconcile growth with industrial organization and development economics.

Majoritatea studenţilor şi a personalului administrativ din Universitatea “Vasile Alecsandri din Bacău” utilizează aplicaţia UMS pentru gestionarea situaţiei şcolare. Este aplicaţia software special creată şi adresată managementului universitar. În acest studiu se analizează calitatea aplicaţiei UMS prin aplicarea unui chestionar şi analiza factorilor care conduc la o funcţionare eficientă a softului. Asftel prin analiza factorilor şi a subfactorilor care intervin în interacţiunea dintre utilizator şi aplicaţie vom puteam analiza calitatea aplicaţiei. Concluzia temei de cercetare se va concretiza, după modelarea statistică a rezultatelor chestionarului, prin prezentarea unei metode de îmbunătăţire a aplicaţiei.

This paper examines the role of credit and the macroeconomy in small and medium enterprise (SME) distress during a prolonged economic downturn. Specifically, we estimate the determinants of SME distress in Ireland during the severe financial and economic crisis which began in 2007/2008. We use a measure of distress, insolvencies, which captures both bank and non-bank forms of credit. We conduct a survival analysis of insolvent liquidations and find that, controlling for firm location and economic activity, both variables capturing a build-up of stress in the macroeconomy and those capturing bank credit standards and availability throughout the cycle are determinants of firm survival.

We extend the Tauer (2001) and Fare et al. (2004) analyses of aggregation bias in technical efficiency measurement to multiple criteria decision analysis. We show input aggregation conditions consistent with multiple criteria evaluation of overall efficiency in conjunction with the variation in aggregation bias.

The article is devoted to the assessment of the state and detection of problems of information support of operation of the enterprises. Despite the fact that in recent years there has been the shift from manual to automated process of collecting and processing information, information support in the enterprises remains underdeveloped. This is particularly due to the problem of creating a system of information support and the issue of usefulness of analytical information. The first problem is related to the lack of understanding of the need for and the functioning of information systems. To solve this problem, the author proposed incremental algorithm for constructing the system information support of the analysis, which involves the development of regulatory documents and setting up the process of receiving, processing, transmission and storage of information by technical means and form the informational database. The second problem is related to a large number of requirements for quality of information, which are practically impossible to comply with. The author has identified five main qualitative characteristics of usefulness of analytical information (reliability, relevance, materiality, clarity, profitability), following which maximizes the value of information.

A közgazdaságtanban általában a cégekre olyan szereplőkként gondolunk, amelyek csak anonim piaci mechanizmuson keresztül érintkeznek egymással. Ezzel szemben a valóságban a cégek életében fontos szerepet játszanak a gazdaság más, konkrét szereplőivel meglévő kapcsolataik. Tanulmányunkban a vállalati hálózatok közgazdaságtanának elméleti és empirikus irodalmát összegezzük. Az áttekintett művek szerint a vállalati kapcsolatok hálózati jellege pozitív és negatív hatást egyaránt gyakorol a gazdaság egészére. A mikroszintű adatok újszerű vizsgálataiból pedig gazdag kép bontakozik ki a vállalatok viselkedéséről, például a technológiai fejlődés, a hitelezés, az ellátási láncok vagy akár a korrupció szempontjából. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: L14, D20, F10, G10, G20., Economic theory mainly models firms as interacting through anonymous market mechanisms. In practice, however, the connections of these firms to other specific actors play an important role. The paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on such economic networks, which finds that the networked nature of firm connections has both positive and negative effects on the economy as a whole. Novel analyses of micro-level datasets paint a rich picture of firm behaviour in a number of domains, including technological progress, borrowing and lending, supply chains, and corruption.

The paper aims to characterize the multicultural personality (behavior dimensions) in the case of two groups of students in order to identify ways for their multicultural skills development. The research sample allowed the results comparison between a witness group consists of Romanian students from the second year of study in engineering (educational program developed in Romanian language, 70 students) and an experimental group of students of different cultures, from the second year of study in the same engineering specialization (educational program developed in English language, 68 students). The research tool used was the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ).The behaviors dimensions considered and analyzedwere: cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. The findings have underlined that members of the experimental group have high level of multicultural skills and also, their educational performances (shown by their partial transcript of records for the first and second year of study) are higher than for the witness group

En este trabajo se analiza la sustentabilidad de las organizaciones que realizan actividades de explotación del tule Thypha spp en la Laguna de Zapotlán y su impacto en el desarrollo socioeconómico y ambiental de los municipios de Gómez Farías y Zapotlán el Grande. La hipótesis inicial delimita con la consideración de que el escaso capital social de las organizaciones limita la sustentabilidad del desarrollo. El método de investigación empleado es el etnográfico, complementado con trabajo de campo apoyado con entrevistas informales, investigación documental y bibliográfica. La principal conclusión es que no existe un equilibrio entre la sustentabilidad de las organizaciones debido al escaso capital social y la sustentabilidad del desarrollo ambiental y económico.

The genuine problem of governance is one that pays equal attention to both incentive and knowledge issues in private and public contexts. This work brings together Austrian, Public Choice and theory of the firm insights to address such problem. By taking into account incentives and knowledge, it proposes a framework that accommodates comparisons not just of kind (firm or market), but also of degree (e.g., among different types of internal organization). Moreover, although the suggested framework derives from considerations about private governance, it equally accommodates public and private settings. (89 words.)

The accession of Poland to the Euro Zone is a necessary, strategic condition, causing far-reaching consequences for the economy as a whole, but also for individual market participants. The purpose of this article is to show the nature of the commercial activity of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in the context of the impact of Polish accession to the euro zone trade with third countries and EU Member State. The analysis goal is to indicate if the introduction of common currency affects the size of SMEs’ trade with the countries of the European Union, the Schengen area and the euro area.

The paper enumerates the factors that determine the production potential of the company, points out the references to the opinions of economic experts in terms of productive investment. The criteria are "inferred" and economically interpreted. Decision making is based on initial information, on a number of criteria that must be led by the manager of the company. Productive potential of the enterprise can be determined only conditionally. Business potential depends on a number of exogenous and endogenous factors including professional qualities of the entrepreneur. In this context, the potential success of the company is determined by the entrepreneur, which is the "motoric" force of the enterprise and needs to possess certain professional, psychological and analytical qualities.

The current essay focuses on the need for formal education in the area of intercultural communication and training of intercultural competences. It builds on cultural identity and diversity literature, on the experiment conducted in the Low Countries in introducing a new topic for students from social sciences referring to intercultural communication and on reports and papers of international companies, organizations and agencies. The argument of globalization which should give equal opportunities to each and every world’s citizen adds pressure on managers dealing with multicultural teams. Intercultural competences gain importance in recruiting, while turning cultural diversity in team performance requires skills, knowledge and experience. Managing cultural diversity presupposes that people are aware, recognize, understand and deal with differences. Thus intercultural communication should be studied as a stand-alone topic or imbedded in other subjects in different forms of education or training, so people are prepared for intercultural, social and professional relationships.

The paper enumeratesthe factors that determinethe production potentialof the company, points out the referencesto theopinionsofeconomicexpertsin terms of productive investment. The criteria are"inferred" and economically interpreted. Decision making isbased oninitial information,ona number ofcriteriathat must beledby the manager ofthe company.Productive potential ofthe enterprise can bedeterminedonlyconditionally.Business potentialdepends ona number ofexogenous and endogenousfactors includingprofessionalqualitiesof the entrepreneur. In this context,the potential success ofthe companyis determined by theentrepreneur, which is the "motoric" force of the enterprise and needs to possesscertain professional, psychological and analytical qualities.

Dans ce papier, nous proposons d’évaluer les scores d’efficience productive de vingt banques commerciales tunisiennes tout au long de la période s’étalant de 1990 à 2009. Le paysage bancaire local a été marqué, au cours de la période étudiée, par des changements importants suite à l’adoption, par le gouvernement Tunisien, de différentes mesures de libéralisation financière. En vu d’étudier les niveaux d’efficience coût réalisés par les banques commerciales Tunisiennes, nous proposons une méthode paramétrique, à savoir l’approche de frontière stochastique «SFA», d’une part, et la détermination des variables expliquant le niveau d’inefficience (d’efficience) d’autre part. Nos résultats permettent de conclure que les banques qui ont obtenu les meilleurs scores d’efficience moyenne sont la BT (99,5%), la BH (98,5%) suivies de l’AB (94,9%) et de l’ATB (94,5%).

This paper estimates the effect of FDI and remittances on economic growth in South Asia using an aggregate production function model. Time series data from 1976 to 2010 for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is used to create the panel data. Time series properties of the panel data are diagnosed using panel unit root and panel cointegration tests and an error correction model is developed. The model is estimated using fixed effects estimator. The findings suggest that FDI has a positive effect on economic growth but remittances have a negative effect. A decrease in exports due to the Dutch Disease, a decrease in the labor force participation of the remittance receiving family, and public moral hazard problems could be possible reasons for the negative effect of remittances on economic growth. - Questo studio stima l’effetto degli Investimenti Diretti Esteri e delle rimesse di denaro sulla crescita economica in Sud Africa utilizzando un modello di funzione di produzione aggregata con serie di dati panel del periodo 1976-2010 relativi a India, Pakistan, Bangladesh e Sri Lanka. Le proprietà dei dati di serie temporali sono analizzate tramite test di radice unitaria e di cointegrazione e viene sviluppato un modello error correction, per la stima del quale si utilizza uno stimatore a effetti fissi. I risultati suggeriscono che solo gli Investimenti Diretti Esteri hanno un effetto positivo sulla crescita economica. Una diminuzione nell’export dovuta al “morbo dell’olandese”, una diminuzione nella partecipazione alla forza lavoro delle famiglie che ricevono rimesse e il problema dell’azzardo morale possono essere le ragioni dell’effetto negativo di queste ultime sulla crescita economica.

Entry of commercial enterprises play an important role by maintaining active competition for existing businesses and development of innovation and long-term growth. Rules and regulations often restrict the entry have only a negative effect on competition. Moreover there are numerous papers providing evidence that the ability of firms to enter the market and develop normally depends on the ability to attract external funding for new projects to be undertaken

Economic development implies that the efficiency of firms in developing countries is approaching that of firms in advanced economies. We examine the extent of this convergence in the Czech Republic and Russia, economies that represent alternative models of implementing development policies, often referred to as the Washington Consensus, that have promoted privatization, competition and foreign investment. We also test hypotheses positing that only firms near the efficiency frontier benefit from these policies and catch up. Using 1992-2000 panel data on virtually all industrial firms in each country, we find that privatization to domestic owners did not markedly improve the efficiency of firms; domestic firms are not catching up to the (world) efficiency standard given by foreign-owned firms; and the distance of the Russian firms to the efficiency frontier is much larger than that of the Czech firms and continued to grow for most firms beyond 1997 while remaining constant in the Czech Republic. Domestic firms closer to the frontier are not more likely to catch up than firms further from the frontier although foreign firms do exhibit this behaviour. Foreign-owned firms are increasingly displacing domestic firms in the top deciles of the overall distribution of efficiency, due in part to slower ‘learning’ by domestic firms, higher efficiency of foreign startups, and foreigners’ acquisitions of more efficient domestic firms. The two alternative implementations of the Washington Consensus policies have thus not enabled domestic firms to start catching up to the world standard although the Central European model.

We argue analytically that many commonly used models of pollution-generating technologies, which treat pollution as a freely disposable input or as a weakly disposable and null-joint output, may generate unacceptable implications for the trade-offs among inputs, outputs, and pollution. We show that the correct trade-offs in production are best captured if a pollution-generating technology is modeled as an intersection of an intended-production technology of the firm and nature's residual-generation set. The former satisfies standard disposability properties, while the latter violates free (strong) disposability of pollution and pollution-causing inputs. As a result, the intersection—which we call a by-production technology—violates standard free disposability of pollution and pollution-causing inputs. Employing data envelopment analysis on an electric-power-plant database, we illustrate shortcomings, under by-production, of two popular efficiency indexes: the hyperbolic and directional-distance-function indexes. We propose and implement an alternative index with superior properties. Under by-production, most efficiency indexes decompose very naturally into intended-production and environmental efficiency indexes. This decomposition is difficult to find under alternative specifications of pollution-generating technologies.

Diversity matters, both at the firm and at the macro-economic level. This is the driving mission of JEOD. While the importance of diversity is already quite well recognized in other disciplines as a major source of wellbeing and quality of life, an open discussion on diversity in economics (meaning both diversity of enterprise types and diversity in the possible combinations of public and private sector roles in different economic systems) has long been taboo. JEOD wants to remove this anomaly.

At present belt conveyors have an important role in the mines of lignite quarries because they contribute decisively to achieving an optimum production. From this point of view the management of mines should be constantly preoccupied with ensuring, in optimal conditions, the operation of these elements of fixed capital and, if it is necessary they should maintain constant reliability. In this context, this paper has as theme the relation between the reliability of conveyors and the productivity within lignite quarries.

The effects of the economic crisis appeared in the services sector registering a wide spread. The services sector has been entirely affected by the crisis, but especially the field of tourism had a significant decline in 2008 and 2009. The following period offered a surprise regarding the return of tourism to the values recorded before the onset of the crisis. SC Ambassador Tours & Travels SRL managed to obtain surprising results due to the adopted decisions so that we can characterize it by the triad: availability - adaptability - dynamism.

Different regions, countries or areas have identified the development of the tourism industry as a strategic objective in their policies, at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. These regions, obviously, expect the tourism industry to generate economic effects to residents (both households and local businesses.) Over time, our country was considered an important tourist destination for the market in South-East Europe, supporting and promoting Romania's image and especially coastal tourism, spas, cultural programs and monasteries in Bucovina. The Romanian tourist offer did not do profound changes in relation to the tourism demand and to the requirements of comparative tourism products on the international market, requirements that, over time, proved to be increasingly demanding. There are several approaches that aim at diagnosing the business of accomodation industries but a method commonly used for this is the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), i.e. the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks or threats of a company.

The article summarises the main lessons of the Bank’s 2010 conference which focused on international trade and foreign direct investment. The research is based on a microeconomic approach to the behaviour of Belgian firms, with reference to developments in the scientific literature on the subject. Firms active internationally have specific characteristics : they are larger and more productive than firms concentrating on the home market. The costs of entering international markets determine their globalisation strategies, be it in terms of timing, the number of markets canvassed, or the choice between exporting and foreign direct investment. Information technologies have a key role in the development of trade in services, especially for analytical work. It is also shown that, in the face of increased competition from Asian products, firms are tending to concentrate their exports on their leading products and to upgrade quality. The international activities of some firms also have positive repercussions on the productivity and globalisation decisions of firms active solely on the home market. Finally, the impact of globalisation on employment is analysed from various angles. In general, trade with low-wage countries tends to increase demand for skilled labour in Belgium and to reduce demand for unskilled labour. The effects of offshoring are comparable. Finally, while multinationals manage their workforce more flexibly than domestic firms, they have nevertheless been the source of substantial job creation, particularly where the subsidiaries of foreign multinationals are concerned.

Bu çalışmanın amacı Gibrat Yasası ’nın Doğu ve Batı Avrupa karbonatlı alkosüz içecekler piyasası için doğru olup olmadığıdır. Gibrat yasası, firma büyüklük artışının firma büyüklüğüne bağlı olmadığı, ama gelişi güzel bir nedene bağlı olduğunu anlamına gelmektedir. Bu yüzden, firmaların ilk büyüklükleriyle büyüme oranları arasındaki ilişkinin varlığı, statik yöntem GMM ve dinamik yöntem Arellano Bond Paneli kullanılarak, çalışılmaktadır. Statik GMM’de, Batı Avrupa karbonatlı içecek firmaları için anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmazken Doğu Avrupa için bulunmaktadır. Doğu Avrupada büyüklük ve büyüklük artış oranı arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olsa da, bu Gibrat Yasasından farklıdır. Küçük büyüklükteki firmalar büyümede geniş büyüklükteki firmalara göre daha dinamiktir, gelişigüzel değildir. Dinamik Arellano Bond modelinde Gibrat yasasını testi anlamlı değildir. Çalışmada firmanın büyüklüğü kavramı her bir firmanın toplam ABD dolarıyla değerlendirilen toplam satışlarla sınırlıdır.

Company performance varies among economic sectors, countries and regions. It is influenced by a very large number of factors. This study aims at identifying and analyzing the determinants that must be considered by company's management presently in order to face competition and achieve superior financial performance. The research methodology used is specific for the theoretic nature of the article and includes literature review, comparative analysis and synthesis. Results validate and argue as relevant modern factors that influence the performance of contemporary companies: organizational culture, corporate social responsibility, innovation, knowledge spillovers. Study limits refer to the fact that these four factors are not entirely responsible for modern business performance and future research should be done to develop an integrative point of view on overall performance determinants. This paper is a dissemination of the results obtained by the author in the doctoral program "The financial performance of EU member states' companies", coordinator: Professor Carmen Corduneanu, PhD, carried out within West University of Timişoara, Romania, in the period October 2010- July 2012.

Consider the following contractual hierarchy: a principal who contracts with a contractor below her who then contracts with a subcontractor. The principal requires goods made from both firms in equal proportions. The question we study is whether, at zero cost, the principal would wish to monitor the contract between the subcontractor and contractor. Without monitoring the contractor will determine the type of the subcontractor. Hence, when contracting with the principal he can extract an information rent on this knowledge. Monitoring would reveal the subcontractor type and so lower the principal's bill. However, if the principal monitors the contract between contractor and subcontractor then he may prefer to not screen the subcontractor. So, the contractor must be offered an incentive to screen below. The paper shows that the second of these costs is smaller for a range of parameter values, so that monitoring and incentivizing screening is cheaper than not monitoring. Copyright 2011 Oxford University Press 2011 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

El presente trabajo analiza la relación entre demandantes y oferentes de insumos intermedios en la economía boliviana, con el fin de determinar qué actividades tienen un impacto importante sobre el resto de la economía y cuáles están menos integradas a la misma. Para esto se utilizan los índices de Rasmussen, que permiten clasificar las actividades como independientes, estratégicas, de arrastre o actividades clave; esto a partir de la matriz insumoproducto. Los resultados para el año 2008 muestran una economía poco integrada entre sí; de las 35 actividades en las que se clasifica la economía nacional, no existen sectores clave, solo el comercio es un sector de arrastre y existen ocho sectores estratégicos. Algo peculiar del comercio es que genera gran dinamismo en el resto de las actividades económicas a través de sus efectos indirectos sobre el sector transporte, más que por su demanda directa de insumos.

Industrial revolutions, the progress in IT industry, the growth rate of developing new technologies, global competition, liberalization of markets, continue to demand change, globalization of market, economic and financial crisis are just some of the causes that have contributed to the restoration of a new global economic with direct impact on business entrepreneur. Changes socio-economic level paradigm is reflected both in changes to management and organization paradigms enterprise activity in the product market, at work, at the performance that follows the entrepreneur. In this article we tried a summary of mutations in these paradigms, mutations that will rearrange and reposition the business entrepreneur in the current context of a sustainable economy, based on knowledge, so-called \"new economy\".

Company competitiveness and financial performance are two terms often used in literature but they usually appear distinctly and the relationship between them is not examined. This article provides a reasonable clarification regarding the concept of company competitiveness and theoretically argues for the positive influence it has on financial performance. Theoretical arguments are supported by an empirical investigation based on a linear regression model applied to a sample of 62 non-financial companies listed at Bucharest Stock Exchange. Results confirm the proposed hypothesis, showing that the two variables are positively correlated.

In this study, we attempt to quantify the effect of improved population health on technical efficiency in agricultural production. Using data for over 260 districts in 15 Indian states, we employ the random-coefficients technique to estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function, computing overall and input specific technical efficiencies for each district. We then model health (the district infant mortality rate) as a determinant of (in) efficiency in a second stage, controlling for a range of other socioeconomic variables. We find that decreases in the infant mortality rate, as well as increases in the literacy rate and level of irrigation, are associated with significant increases in overall technical efficiency, and that a good portion of healths effect is probably due to improvements in the efficiency of labor use. While efficiency increases from improvements in irrigation and literacy are larger, the potential gains from health are still fairly substantial.

Este trabajo contrasta la hipótesis de que, en la ciudad de Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), las empresas continúan concentradas de forma monocéntrica. Para ello se estima un modelo estadístico que compara densidades locales para contrastar la hipótesis monocéntrica. Los índices de concentración y diversificación de actividades encontrados basados en datos empíricos de 2007, dan la pauta de patrones de concentración relevantes según anillos y posibles subcentros.

The authors, using the export sector companies’ data, attempt to study influence of internal organizational factors (such as structure, culture, political and power/authority issues of the decision making) on a company performance.

Technology roadmapping (TRM) is a technique for exploring the evolution of markets, products, technologies, and their linkages. During our Hungarian TRM-applications we found important a clear business need; senior level ownership; effective communication; information and knowledge sharing; spending considerable time at the beginning; preferring less frequent but longer workshops than more frequent shorter ones; involving all related functions, active participation of senior managers; having a TRM-champion inside the company; a case-study-based training to teach TRM; and calling TRM a different name at the beginning.

In this paper the extent of international fragmentation of production in Italian manufacturing industries for the years 1985, 1995 and 2000 is assessed with different indicators. The objective is to determine where fragmentation is most prevalent and to provide a description of the key characteristics of those sectors. The paper first presents a survey of global value chain indicators and how these have been used in the economic literature. The second part supplies empirical evidence on the global linkages of Italian firms. The results obtained show that the degree of fragmentation of production is more closely linked to the characteristics of industrial sectors than to specialisation. Regarding imports of intermediates, high and medium-high industries and basic industries that make considerable use of primary materials lead international integration, all sectors where Italy has a comparative disadvantage. In the industries where Italy has a comparative advantage, on the other hand, such as textiles, leather, footwear, machinery and equipment, both offshoring and vertical specialisation indicators are below the manufacturing value. - Questo lavoro analizza la frammentazione internazionale della produzione nei settori dell’industria manifatturiera italiana negli anni 1985, 1995 e 2000 attraverso l’utilizzo di diversi indicatori. L’obiettivo è di determinare in quali settori la frammentazione internazionale della produzione risulta più rilevante e le principali caratteristiche di questi settori. L’articolo in primo luogo presenta una rassegna degli indicatori della global value chain e di come questi sono stati utilizzati nella letteratura economica. La seconda parte offre un’analisi empirica dell’integrazione internazionale delle imprese italiane. I risultati evidenziano come il grado di frammentazione della produzione sia collegato più strettamente alle caratteristiche dei settori industriali piuttosto che alla specializzazione internazionale. I settori a media e mediaalta tecnologia e i settori di base, in cui l’Italia presenta uno svantaggio comparato, sono i settori in cui l’integrazione internazionale è più spinta. Nei settori in cui l’Italia presenta un vantaggio comparato, quali il tessileabbigliamento, il cuoio-calzature e la meccanica, sia l’indicatore di offshoring che di specializzazione verticale presentano valori al di sotto di quello del settore manifatturiero.

One of the main concerns in the European Union (EU) is to improving educational achievements and the efficiency of the educational systems. In this work we analyse the educational efficiency in 18 European countries through a methodology that employs the pupil as decision making unit using PISA database. We calculate a whole frontier using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the analysed pupils faced up to their own education. Efficiency scores are explained taking into account pupil, school, and country factors affecting the productive process. Results show that simply belonging to a country, repeating grade or even to be educated in a good managed school explains a high proportion of European pupils’ efficiency.

From marketing and advertising to political campaigning and court proceedings, contending parties expend resources to persuade an audience of the correctness of their view. We examine how the probability of persuading the audience depends on the resources expended by the parties, so that persuasion can be modelled as a contest. We use a Bayesian approach whereby the audience makes inferences solely based on the evidence presented to them. The evidence is produced by the resources expended by the contending parties. We find conditions on evidence production and likelihood functions that yield the well-known additive contest success functions, including the logit function as well as the one used in all-pay auctions. We also find conditions that produce a "difference" functional form. In all cases, there are three main determinants of which side the audience chooses: (i) the truth and other objective parameters of the environment; (ii) the biases of the audience as distilled in their priors and the likelihood function employed ; and (iii) the resources expended by the parties interested in persuading the audience.

Este articulo analiza el impacto de la competencia de mercado sobre los retornos a la escolaridad en Mexico, un pais que se encuentra rezagado en indicadores de competencia y con un mercado laboral complejo. Utilizando microdatos de las encuestas de empleo, primero separamos el premio por nivel educativo en diferentes industrias, despues las pegamos en un panel para relacionarlos con datos de competencia de mercado a nivel industria. Los resultados muestran que podria existir un efecto positivo de una mayor competencia sobre el premio salarial de trabajadores mas calificados, mientras que no hay evidencia para los niveles bajos.

A thought experiment is designed to investigate whether the structure of risk aversion (i.e., the changes in absolute or relative risk aversion associated with changes in wealth) can be estimated with reasonable precision from agricultural production data. Findings strongly suggest that typical production data are unlikely to allow identification of the structure of risk aversion. A flexible-utility parameterization is found to slightly worsen technology parameter estimates. Results also indicate that even under a restricted-utility specification, utility parameter estimates are biased. Further, their quality is much worse when shocks are not large or samples are small. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

Along with the implementation of reform and open up policy in China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, two provinces have got rapid economic development and greatly contributed to China¡¯s market transition. Jiangsu, Zhejiang together with Shanghai, have shaped China¡¯s economic heartland¡ªthe Yangtze River Delta Economic Region. Undoubtedly, the private sector is the driving force for the tremendous economic development in the Yangtze River Delta, particularly for facilitating institutional transition and economic development. Fortunately, this kind of economic development driven by the private sector was not only restricted in the Yangtze River Delta Region, but also across the country as it has been gradually extended nationwide. This paper is to look at the development of the private sector in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas and particularly trace its fantastic effects on nationwide economic development and market transition.

We propose a stylized model of a problem-solving organization whose internal communication structure is given by a fixed network. Problems arrive randomly anywhere in this network and must find their way to their respective “specialized solvers” by relying on local information alone. The organization handles multiple problems simultaneously. For this reason, the process may be subject to congestion. We provide a characterization of the threshold of collapse of the network and of the stock of floating problems (or average delay) that prevails below that threshold. We build upon this characterization to address a design problem: the determination of what kind of network architecture optimizes performance for any given problem arrival rate. We conclude that, for low arrival rates, the optimal network is very polarized (i.e. star-like or “centralized”), whereas it is largely homogenous (or “decentralized”) for high arrival rates. We also show that, if an auxiliary assumption holds, the transition between these two opposite structures is sharp and they are the only ones to ever qualify as optimal. Keywords: Networks, information transmission, search, organization design.

Increasing interaction (in numbers, patterns and uncertain intensity) in innovation processes point at new and different methodologies of researching reality including complexity views of modern production. In post-modern era, where (informational) networks are evolving, learning can not be understood through the lens of organization, but through learning individuals. Such approach can be attained by Interaction analysis which gives typical pattern of connections among attributes describing phenomena. Interaction analysis is the first step to functional modeling as a method of multidimensional optimization for chosen criteria. Functional modeling satisfies processing approach which treats surroundings as complex, uncertain, full of changes and emergent phenomenon. Empirical analysis indicates that companies in Slovenia in the year 2003 are not characterized with category of Learning organization.

Koopmans gyakorlati problémák megoldása során szerzett tapasztalatait általánosítva fogott hozzá a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell kidolgozásához. Meglepődve tapasztalta, hogy a korabeli közgazdaságtan nem rendelkezett egységes, kellően egzakt termeléselmélettel és fogalomrendszerrel. Úttörő dolgozatában ezért - mintegy a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell elméleti kereteként - lerakta a technológiai halmazok fogalmán nyugvó axiomatikus termeléselmélet alapjait is. Nevéhez fűződik a termelési hatékonyság és a hatékonysági árak fogalmának egzakt definíciója, s az egymást kölcsönösen feltételező viszonyuk igazolása a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell keretében. A hatékonyság manapság használatos, pusztán műszaki szempontból értelmezett definícióját Koopmans csak sajátos esetként tárgyalta, célja a gazdasági hatékonyság fogalmának a bevezetése és elemzése volt. Dolgozatunkban a lineáris programozás dualitási tételei segítségével rekonstruáljuk ez utóbbira vonatkozó eredményeit. Megmutatjuk, hogy egyrészt bizonyításai egyenértékűek a lineáris programozás dualitási tételeinek igazolásával, másrészt a gazdasági hatékonysági árak voltaképpen a mai értelemben vett árnyékárak. Rámutatunk arra is, hogy a gazdasági hatékonyság értelmezéséhez megfogalmazott modellje az Arrow-Debreu-McKenzie-féle általános egyensúlyelméleti modellek közvetlen előzményének tekinthető, tartalmazta azok szinte minden lényeges elemét és fogalmát - az egyensúlyi árak nem mások, mint a Koopmans-féle hatékonysági árak. Végezetül újraértelmezzük Koopmans modelljét a vállalati technológiai mikroökonómiai leírásának lehetséges eszközeként. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: B23, B41, C61, D20, D50., Generalizing from his experience in solving practical problems, Koopmans set about devising a linear model for analysing activity. Surprisingly, he found that economics at that time possessed no uniform, sufficiently exact theory of production or system of concepts for it. He set out in a pioneering study to provide a theoretical framework for a linear model for analysing activity by expressing first the axiomatic bases of production theory, which rest on the concept of technological sets. He is associated with exact definition of the concept of production efficiency and efficiency prices, and confirmation of their relation as mutual postulates within the linear model of activity analysis. Koopmans saw the present, purely technical definition of efficiency as a special case; he aimed to introduce and analyse the concept of economic efficiency. The study uses the duality precepts of linear programming to reconstruct the results for the latter. It is shown first that evidence confirming the duality precepts of linear programming is equal in value, and secondly that efficiency prices are really shadow prices in today s sense. Furthermore, the model for the interpretation of economic efficiency can be seen as a direct predecessor of the Arrow-Debreu-McKenzie models of general equilibrium theory, as it contained almost every essential element and concept of them equilibrium prices are nothing other than Koopmans efficiency prices. Finally Koopmans model is reinterpreted as a necessary tool for microeconomic description of enterprise technology.

This paper tries to develop an original view on industrial practices in competitive capitalist economies. In particular, we question the link between prices, competition and the quality of goods and services. We try to show that it is rational for firms to try to reduce the quality and/or the identity of goods and services while still presenting theses goods and services as the same as before, in order to reduce their prices and so to improve their relative position in the competitive struggle and in order to increase their profits. By reducing quality, we mean the practice that consists of mixing inputs at the margin with cheaper ones or with alternative products that give weight. This practice reminds us of the old Seigneurs who used to mix gold with other metals to produce more coins. That’s why we propose to label this practice 'industrial seigniorage'. The article first tries to delineate the widespread existence of this practice among French firms, and then explains the fundamental elements of (Post Keynesian) consumers' behaviour which allow for this practice to exist. We especially insist on the inability of the consumer to evaluate the quality of goods and services, and his inability to distinguish a good which have been modified at the margin. In a third part, we analyze the phenomenon of industrial seigniorage in a kaleckian model. We show the impact on sectoral profit rates and on prices, as well as the global and macroeconomic consequences on growth, distribution and employment.