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Copyright of Külgazdaság is the property of KOPINT Konjunktura Kutatasi Alapitvany and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The traditional focus of corporate law is on aligning managers' preferences with the interests of shareholders. We show that this view is premised on two assumptions that are no longer true: first, the idea that all shareholders want to maximize the net present value of the firm's earnings per dollar invested and, second, the view that microeconomic shocks do not produce macroeconomic consequences. The rise of institutional investors undermines the first assumption: large asset managers hold the entire market and have been shown to display a preference for maximizing the value of their portfolio as a whole rather than the performance of individual companies. That is, they are portfolio, rather than firm, value maximizers. At the same time, the increasing interconnectedness of the economy, and society more broadly, undermines the second assumption. There is ample empirical evidence that microeconomic shocks to a well-identified subset of "central" firms can propagate through the existing interconnections and generate catastrophic consequences. We argue that corporate law should reflect these features of contemporary economies. On the one hand, it should aim to ensure that noncentral firms maximize their own value, despite the rise of portfolio value maximizers. On the other hand, central firms' corporate law should harness the preferences of portfolio value maximizing shareholders with the goal of minimizing the risk of catastrophic externalities like climate change or financial crises. We develop a framework to guide policymakers in the pursuit of this new, fundamental conception of corporate law and illustrate how this rewiring of corporate law could work out by taking ownership disclosure rules as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activation policies are widely adopted to encourage labour market participation of unemployed youth, and yet they are poorly understood and monitored with regard to the causal mechanisms unfolding through their implementation. Activation schemes are often based on the carrot-and-stick logic informed by microeconomic job search theory, but activation occurs through processes which are far more complex and comprises elements of career identity and capability development, among others. This paper is the first to provide an in-depth exploration of the processes of attitudinal and behavioural change experienced by unemployed youth over the course of their participation in different activation programmes. Seven phases of change emerged from the analysis, namely vocational availability, self-testing, self-knowledge, self-confidence, goal-orientation, vocational activity and perseverance. For each of these phases, we identify drivers of change from both within and outside the intervention sphere, and discuss them in their implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to study the current problems of investment processes in the conditions of transformation of the Ukrainian economy. The relevance of the research was due to significant changes in political, economic and social processes of Ukraine. The research was conducted using general scientific and special methods and methods of research, such as theoretical analysis and synthesis, methods of grouping, modeling, comparison, as well as methods of systematization and scientific synthesis, in particular on materials: Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, research conducted by the Doing Business Group of the World Bank, rating of Moody’s Investors Service, rating of Global Competitiveness Index 2017/2018 and of European Business Association. The most actual factors of influence of political, economic, criminal and legislative processes on investment potential of Ukraine were analyzed. It was defined that the economic of Ukraine is characterized by the deficiency of capital, progressive technologies, mutual integration of scientific and industrial spheres, developed management and high-tech production and the recommendations to create favorable conditions for investment were made. Positive changes were noted in creating a legal framework for the promotion, protection of investments and intensification of investment activity in Ukraine.

What and how we eat have once again become prominent in debates on the fight for global justice. Proponents of alterglobalism consider experiments with food sovereignty a prefigurative practice that anticipates broader ecocultural change. Critics, however, remain skeptical about its capacity to enhance social change. In social movement research, the practical implications of these prefigurative politics have rarely been investigated empirically. Based on an ethnographic analysis, this article illustrates the multifaceted dynamics of a continuously evolving experiment with Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in a neorural microeconomic network, a cornerstone of food sovereignty activism. An ethnographic perspective can grasp the shifting terrain of the political mobilization, frictions and unintended consequences of these types of politics. The article demonstrates the importance of understanding the complexities of prefiguration as not a simple linear, coherent process. Also, the case study allows a critique of re-emerging neorural populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is methodological bases improving and forming of practical tools for enterprise competitiveness management under the crisis. The specific features of the competitive environment of enterprises in Ukraine under the global and national crisis are researched in the article. From this it is concluded that any enterprise must have a greater degree of flexibility than in periods of stability or economic growth for obtaining and maintaining of competitive advantages in the current period of global instability. Flexibility and adaptability of the economic system is the main prerequisite for obtaining and developing of enterprise competitive advantages and stem component of competitiveness. We identified and characterized the methodological components of adaptive management process on the base of systematic approach and with taking into account views of scientists. The obtained scientific results are the basis for conceptual model of integrated system of enterprise adaptive management in terms of dynamic and uncertainty environment. We propose to implement this kind of control on three levels: strategic (preventive) management, functionality (tactical) management and operational (symptomatic) management on the base of analyzing economically grounded views and existing positions. It all together will ensure effective adaptation at the macroeconomic, meso and micro levels of management. The main purpose of the proposed integrated management system is ensuring the stability and integrity of enterprises activity in terms of variability and uncertainty of the environment. The implementation of such management system provides the enterprise with certain competitive advantages. It will allow to Ukrainian enterprises maintaining the competitive position in unfavorable external conditions, but also maintaining and improving the competitiveness.

Although the literature on evaluation has theorized about the distinction between internal and external evaluation, hardly any research has compared them empirically. This article examines whether the lessons of internal evaluations differed from those of external evaluations in the case of international development aid. It analyzes internal evaluations of the Asian Development Bank for nearly 1000 sovereign interventions across 38 countries in the Asia-Pacific during 1996–2016, using computational text analysis or text mining techniques. The results show that internal evaluations focused more on micro- and meso-level characteristics, while external evaluations laid more emphasis on meso- and macro-level constructs, such as dimensions of policy and the institutional environment in the recipient country, or its level and rate of economic growth. The article concludes that internal and external evaluations can be combined to create a multilevel evaluation framework that integrates micro-, meso-, and macro-level lessons to facilitate better learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses causal inference techniques for social scientists through the lens of applied microeconomics. We frame causal inference using the standard of the ideal experiment, emphasizing problems of omitted variable bias and reverse causality. We explore how laboratory and field experiments can succeed and fail to meet this ideal in practice. We then outline how different methods and the statistical assumptions behind them can lead to causal inference in nonexperimental contexts. We explain when problems with omitted variable bias can and cannot be addressed using observed controls. We consider tools for studying natural experiments, including difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity techniques. Finally, we discuss additional concerns that may arise such as weighting, clustering, multiple inference, and external validity. We include Stata code for implementing each of these methods as well as a series of checklists for researchers detailing important robustness and design checks. Throughout, we emphasize the importance of understanding the context of a study and implementing analyses in a way that acknowledges strengths and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a highly disaggregated demand system to estimate the degree of substitutability among monetary assets and to address the issue of optimal monetary aggregation in the United States. We address the problems of dimensionality and nonlinearity, estimating a very detailed monetary asset demand system encompassing the full range of assets based on the locally flexible normalized quadratic expenditure function. We treat the concavity property as a maintained hypothesis and provide evidence consistent with neoclassical microeconomic theory. Statistical tests reject the appropriateness of the aggregation assumptions for all the money measures published by the Federal Reserve as well as for a large number of groupings suggested by earlier studies. This supports and reinforces Barnett's (2016) assertion that we should employ the broadest M4 monetary aggregate published by the Center for Financial Stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a considerable evidence showing that many states in the Global South are very weak, and therefore struggle to carry out basic responsibilities of statehood. While a handful of studies have examined problems associated with state weakness, there is a paucity of scholarly literature that thoroughly explores its empirical implications on regional security. It is on this note that this article draws on the contemporary developments in the Lake Chad region to elucidate the nodes that connect state weakness and regional security instability. It argues that any state that cannot efficaciously control its borders, promptly respond to security emergencies and demonstrate substantial institutional capacity in addressing citizens' needs is vulnerable to create regional insecurity, especially when the neighbouring states share similar attributes. The article concludes that an alternative approach to ensuring lasting regional security in such regions, especially in the present Lake Chad region, is deliberate commitment to statebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is consensus that the best way for reducing insolvency situations in financial institutions is through good risk management, which involves a good client selection process. In the market, there are methodologies for credit scoring, each analyzing a large number of microeconomic and/or macroeconomic variables selected mostly depending on the type of credit to be granted. Since these variables are heterogeneous, the review process carried out by credit analysts takes time. The objective of this article is to propose a solution for this problem by applying fuzzy logic to the creation of classification rules for credit granting. To achieve this, linguistic variables were used to help the analyst interpret the information available from the credit officer. The method proposed here combines the use of fuzzy logic with a neural network and a variable population optimization technique to obtain fuzzy classification rules. It was tested with three databases from financial entities in Ecuador — one credit and savings cooperative and two banks that grant various types of credits. To measure its performance, three benchmarks were used: accuracy, number of classification rules generated, and antecedent length. The results obtained indicate that the hybrid model that is proposed performs better than its previous versions due to the addition of fuzzy logic. At the end of the article, our conclusions are discussed and future research lines are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines Argentine exports at the firm level between 2003 and 2011, a period of exceptional and sustained export growth. While at the product level, the pattern of specialisation barely changed, exporters exhibit new dynamics in international markets: firms not only expanded sales abroad by increasing their exports in existing markets, but also by entering into new destinations and adding new products. That is, new export strategies allowed exporters achieve greater resistance to the variations in the macroeconomic environment. We find that the importance of the different export margins changes overtime: while the currency is depreciated, the intensive margin explains most of export growth, whereas the subextensive and extensive margins become the main source of export growth once the currency appreciates. We also uncover a strong complementarity between import and export growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Oeconomia is the property of Wydawnictwo SGGW and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This contribution reviews developments in the microeconomic analysis applied to three fields that are rarely considered in combination – energy, insurance, and health – focusing on four themes. First, it finds that stocks are crucial not only in energy but also motivate (in the guise of assets) demand for insurance coverage, as well as healthcare services designed to maintain one’s stock of health. Second, however, the three fields strongly diverge in terms of their industry structure. While oil and, until recently, electricity are vertically integrated, healthcare has been the leading example of a cottage industry, with private insurance in between. Third, the structure of innovation also differs. In energy and private insurance, process and organizational innovation prevail; in healthcare, it is product innovation, meaning new characteristics at higher cost, facilitated by health insurance. Finally, government regulation impinges on all three industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how the presence of multinational enterprises affects the export performance of Bulgarian manufacturing firms-export spillovers from FDI. Using export data at the firm/product/destination level for the period 2004-2006, it finds positive forward spillover on export value and quantity, related to quality upgrading. Conversely, it finds negative (or insignificant) backward and horizontal spillover on export flows, related to quality downgrading. When aggregating data at the firm level and considering that a firm can operate in several sectors, the paper shows that the presence of foreign input suppliers allows domestic firms to export additional varieties of lower quality and upgrade the average quality of existing varieties, whereas the presence of foreign customers generates the opposite effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses aspects of the economic case for housing policies with an integrated microeconomic, governance and spatial frameworks. Topics mentioned include the distribution of new housing supply by market segments, impact of house prices on pre- and post-GFC consumption and the effect of housing debt on the rental investors.

Clean energy dominant and electricity centric is the inevitable trend of the future energy development. Electric power industry has entered into an increasingly competitive era in recent years due to the deregulation of power systems. However, power market should not be fully competitive and need to be regulated strictly to satisfy the safe and reliable operation of power systems. Base on the market equilibrium principle in microeconomics, a novel power market clearing model with limited competition was put forward, in which the limited competition power satisfies the power flow adjustment and the network losses distribution. Further, the free transaction ratio which can be regarded as the measurement of the degree of power market deregulation was analyzed according to the formulated market clearing model. Finally, three case studies were made on the IEEE-30 test system to verify the practicality and efficiency of the method. The results show that different transaction ratio has significant influence on the operation of power systems and the optimal transaction ratio can be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document a large and persistent anomaly in the UK car insurance market over the period 2012-13: insurance companies charged a higher premium for third-party (liability) insurance than comprehensive insurance (which includes third party). Furthermore, some companies charged higher premiums for comprehensive policies with larger deductibles. In contrast to current theories of adverse or propitious selection, our evidence suggests both that consumers are too confused or too poorly informed to arbitrage between policy types and that sellers of car insurance do not implement the incentive-compatibility constraints at the heart of consumer demand theory. This particular insurance market is much less sophisticated than that characterized by modern microeconomic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyse, for men and women, the microeconomic determinants of life insurance purchases. Indeed, only a few papers have tried to justify rigorously the gender-based differences in life insurance ownership. On the basis of survey data collected by the Bank of Italy in 2012 (the Survey on Income and Households), we estimate the propensity to buy and the willingness to pay for a life insurance contract. We examine the differences between two types of contracts, that is, traditional life and term life insurance and show that, in all cases, women are less likely to be insured than are men. The demand for insurance is highly correlated with income, family structure and employment status. Geographical variables within Italy significantly affect the demand too. We introduce novel variables that measure the financial status of households and their proximity to the financial market or, similarly, their familiarity with financial market opportunities. These determinants turn out to be significant and affect demand almost as much as traditional variables. To study policy implications, we calculate the probabilities of having either traditional life or term insurance, under several scenarios for the determinants of demand. Again, financial market proximity plays a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate microeconomic foundations of mobility are decisive for successful policy design in transportation and, in particular, for the challenge of climate change mitigation. Recent research suggests that behavior in transportation cannot be adequately represented by the standard approach of revealed preferences. Moreover, mobility choices are influenced by factors widely regarded as normatively irrelevant. Here we draw on insights from behavioral economics, psychology and welfare theory to examine how transport users make mobility decisions and when it is desirable to modify them through policy interventions. First, we explore systematically which preferences, heuristics and decision processes are relevant for mobility-specific behavior, such as mode choice. We highlight the influence of infrastructure on the formation of travel preferences. Second, we argue that the behavioral account of decision-making requires policy-makers to take a position on whether transport policies should be justified by appealing to preference satisfaction or to raising subjective well-being. This distinction matters because of the (i) influence of infrastructure on preference formation, (ii) health benefits from non-motorized mobility, (iii) negative impact of commuting on happiness and (iv) status-seeking behavior of individuals. The orthodox approach of only internalizing externalities is insufficient because it does not allow for the evaluation of these effects. Instead, our analysis suggests that transport demand modeling should consider behavioral effects explicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the aggregate demand for electricity, natural gas, and light fuel oil in Canada as a whole and six of its provinces-Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia-in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. We employ the locally flexible normalized quadratic (NQ) expenditure function (in the case of the residential sector) and the NQ cost function (in the case of the commercial and industrial sectors), treat the curvature property as a maintained hypothesis, and provide evidence consistent with neoclassical microeconomic theory. We find that the Morishima interfuel elasticities of substitution are in general positive and statistically significant. Our results indicate limited substitutability between electricity and natural gas, but strong substitutability between light fuel oil and each of electricity and natural gas in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of margarine in Australia was for a long time the subject of strict quotas designed to limit the output of the industry in order to protect the dairy industry. The industry was effectively deregulated by the Whitlam, Dunstan (South Australia) and Wran (New South Wales) governments in the years 1975 and 1976. This move was effectively the first measure designed to deregulate an industry in modern Australian economic history and aimed to promote competition in order to improve efficiency and community welfare. It also began the long process of eliminating government intervention in the Australian dairy industry, which was not to be completed until 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite favourable external circumstances, in the last decade the Portuguese economy developed a model of imbalance and dependence based on the disparity between production and consumption, which was financed from the outside and led to anaemic growth, severe deficits and explosive debt, much similar to the Latin American populist models of the past. The restrictions related to the adoption of the euro and inadequate economic policies are the determinants of this process, and, simultaneously, the barriers that need to be overcome. The internal devaluation/recessionary policy, wrongly presented as a close replacement for external devaluation/expansionary policy, underestimates the recessive effects on demand and the way it gets aggravated amidst strong indebtedness, fostering a deflationary spiral that tends to undermine the policy of austerity that is essential to reduce the imbalances. Doubts about the benefits of the abatement of all obstacles (including those of a monetary nature) to free trade among countries of very unequal development, long expressed by Friedrich List, are intensifying. In the absence of own currency, sovereignty and discretionary budgetary policy will be reduced in favour of prescribed rules, limiting economic policies to microeconomic and mesoeconomic frameworks. Due to the lack of an independent exchange rate mechanism, the exports sector sets the pace for the growth of the economy and of wages in the long term, while the impossibility to devaluate tends to lead to cumulative imbalances that are only offset by the occurrence of crises. Avoiding the latter requires paced wage and social policies, and increasing the rate of growth of the product and wages requires the development of an exports sector with high added value. This is the policy and strategy narrow path that Portuguese economy needs to tread.

Copyright of Econometrics / Ekonometria is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite favourable external circumstances, in the last decade the Portuguese economy developed a model of imbalance and dependence based on the disparity between production and consumption, which was financed from the outside and led to anaemic growth, severe deficits and explosive debt, much similar to the Latin American populist models of the past. The restrictions related to the adoption of the euro and inadequate economic policies are the determinants of this process, and, simultaneously, the barriers that need to be overcome. The internal devaluation/recessionary policy, wrongly presented as a close replacement for external devaluation/expansionary policy, underestimates the recessive effects on demand and the way it gets aggravated amidst strong indebtedness, fostering a deflationary spiral that tends to undermine the policy of austerity that is essential to reduce the imbalances. Doubts about the benefits of the abatement of all obstacles (including those of a monetary nature) to free trade among countries of very unequal development, long expressed by Friedrich List, are intensifying. In the absence of own currency, sovereignty and discretionary budgetary policy will be reduced in favour of prescribed rules, limiting economic policies to microeconomic and mesoeconomic frameworks. Due to the lack of an independent exchange rate mechanism, the exports sector sets the pace for the growth of the economy and of wages in the long term, while the impossibility to devaluate tends to lead to cumulative imbalances that are only offset by the occurrence of crises. Avoiding the latter requires paced wage and social policies, and increasing the rate of growth of the product and wages requires the development of an exports sector with high added value. This is the policy and strategy narrow path that Portuguese economy needs to tread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our model, firms choose when to set cost-reducing investment and the government, which only has short-run commitment power, sets an output subsidy. We show that firms that delay investment without government intervention have an incentive to invest early under policy activism, strategically underinvesting or overinvesting to obtain larger subsidies. The policy scheme thus creates a new, potentially more harmful, distortion. Under oligopoly, a firm has a weaker incentive to manipulate policy than under monopoly, which makes policy intervention less harmful. We investigate when the government may do better by adhering to laissez-faire than by engaging in active policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the link between microeconomic activity (measured by privatization), macroeconomic evaluations, and voting. Applies the multivariate analysis method to data collected during the 1983 and 1987 general elections, and shows that privatization stimulates positive judgments about the country's economy.