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We investigate the transmission of monetary policy to investment using Norwegian administrative data. We have two main findings. First, financially constrained firms are more responsive to monetary policy, but the effect is modest; suggesting that firm heterogeneity plays a minor role in monetary transmission. Second, we disentangle the investment channel of monetary policy into direct effects from interest rate changes and indirect general equilibrium effects. We find that the investment channel of monetary policy is due almost exclusively to direct effects. The two results imply that a representative firm framework with investment adjustment frictions in most cases provides a sufficiently detailed description of the investment channel of monetary policy.

Using comprehensive data on bank lending and establishment-level outcomes from 1997–2010, this paper finds that small business lending is an unimportant determinant of small business and overall economic activity. A shift-share style research design is implemented to predict county-level lending shocks using variation in preexisting bank market shares and bank supply shifts. Counties with negative predicted lending shocks experienced declines in small business loan originations, indicating that it is costly to switch lenders. However, small business loan originations have an economically insignificant and generally statistically insignificant impact on both small firm and overall employment during the Great Recession and normal times. (JEL E32, E44, E52, G21, G32, L25)

We propose an econometric model for predicting the share of bank debt held by bankrupt firms by combining a novel set of firm-level financial variables and macroeconomic indicators. Our firm-level data include payment remarks in the form of debt collections from private agencies and attachments from private and public agencies and cover all Norwegian limited liability companies for the period 2010–2021. We use logistic Lasso regressions to select bankruptcy predictors from a large set of potential predictors, comparing a highly sparse variable selection criterion (“the one standard error rule”) with the minimum cross validation error (CVE) criterion. Moreover, we examine the implications of using debt shares as weights in the estimation and find that weighting has a large impact on variable selection and predictions and, generally, leads to lower out-of-sample prediction errors than alternative approaches. Debt weighting combined with sparse variable selection gives the best predictions of the risk of bankruptcy in firms holding high shares of the bank debt.

We use detailed micro data to document a causal response of local retail prices to changes in local house prices, with elasticities of 15%-20% across housing booms and busts. Notably, these price responses are largest in zip codes with many homeowners, and non-existent in zip codes with mostly renters. We provide evidence that these retail price responses are driven by changes in markups rather than by changes in local costs. We then argue that markups rise with house prices, particularly in high homeownership locations, because greater housing wealth reduces homeowners' demand elasticity, and firms raise markups in response. Consistent with this explanation, shopping data confirms that house price changes affect the price sensitivity of homeowners, but not that of renters. Our evidence suggests a new source of markup variation in business cycle models.

We empirically investigate the relationship between corruption and growth using a firm-level data set that is unique in scale, covering almost 88,000 firms across 141 economies in 2006-2020, with wide-ranging corruption experiences. The scale and detail of our data allow us to explore the corruption-growth relationship at a very local level, within industries in a relatively narrow geography. We report three empirical regularities. First, firms that make zero informal payments tend to grow slower than bribers. Second, this result is driven by non-bribers in high-corruption countries. Third, among bribers growth is decreasing in the amount of informal payments in both high- and low-corruption countries. We suggest that this set of results may be reconciled with a simple model in which endogenously determined higher bribe rates lead to lower growth, while non-bribers are often excluded entirely from growth opportunities in high-corruption settings.

We exploit historically determined variation in local credit markets to identify the impact of bank lending on innovation across Russian firms. We find that deeper credit markets increase firms’ use of bank credit, their adoption of new products and technologies, and their productivity growth. This relationship is more pronounced in industries farther from the technological frontier, more exposed to import competition, and that export more. These impacts are also stronger for firms near historical R&D centers or railways and in regions with supportive institutions. Consistent with these results, credit markets contribute to economic growth in such regions.Authors have furnished a data set, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

In this paper we investigate how rms adjust markups across products in response to uctuations in the real exchange rate. In a theoretical framework, we show that rms increase their markups and producer prices following a real depreciation and that this increase is greater for products with higher productivity, a consequence of local distribution costs. We estimate markups at the market-product-plant level using detailed panel production and cost data from Mexican manufacturing between 1994 and 2007. Exploiting variation in the real exchange rate in the aftermath of the peso crisis in December 1994, we provide robust empirical evidence that plants increase their markups and producer prices in response to a real depreciation and that within-rm heterogeneity is a key determinant of plants’ response to exchange rate shocks. Our model and empirical methodology allow us to decompose the producer price response to exchange rate shocks into a markup and a marginal cost component using our markup estimates.

This paper examines the relation between competitive pressure and financial constraints\ud using firm-level survey data from 27 emerging economies of Eastern Europe and Central\ud Asia for the years 2005 and 2009. In the empirical analysis, we disentangle the impact of\ud product market competition on the demand and supply of credit. Our results support the\ud hypothesis that competitive pressure on borrowers affects both sides of the credit market. We\ud find that in industries with greater competitive pressure firms’ demand for credit is typically\ud higher but a greater proportion of firms are discouraged from loan application due to greater\ud cost of credit. Interestingly, we find the detrimental effect of competitive pressure on credit\ud access breaks down when firms are audited, when they can pledge collateral and when they\ud engage in export activities. These results point to the role of competitive pressure in the\ud lenders’ information set when limited information is available

Selling internationally requires products that resonate with an international customer base and therefore an approach to markets that is in keeping with diverse cultures (i.e., relational capital). As emphasized by international business studies, this relational capital is in turn related to the successful teaming of a diverse workforce, as this process teaches employees to operate in multicultural environments. This knowledge becomes like an intangible asset to which firms can resort, also when engaging in international transactions. We explore this channel empirically, investigating the impact of workforce diversity on firms' exporting performances and find that ethnic diversity further justifies firms' different presence in international markets. Since hiring is not a random practice, and firms ultimately select into ethnically different labor forces, we exploit the EU enlargement of 2004 to instrument for the diversity of the pool of workers locally recruitable. Because migrants tend to settle where the attitude toward them is most favorable, we use the median voter's political ideology at firm's location to measure the hostility at time of settlement. This gives our instrument spatial variation besides time variation.

This paper analyzes the patent propensity as an outcome of innovative activities of regional SMEs. To achieve the aims, we apply robust regression analysis to estimate the models to test 5 research hypotheses using 263 firm level data located at Gwangju region in Korea. Our empirical results show that a firm’s industry characteristics, such as machinery and automotive parts industry, is negatively related with propensity to patent innovation. Also, unlike expectations, the InnoBiz firms designated as innovative SMEs by the government are not performing differently than general firms. Only the CEO’s academic credentials are positively related with propensity to patent. From the findings, we can conclude that patenting propensity is not directly related with a firm’s characteristics but mainly to CEO’s managerial strategy. Also, we cannot find evidence for policy effectiveness from public support given to InnoBiz firms as part of the state policy to nurture photonic industry to boost regional economic development. Given the lack of strong policy effects, a new industry policy should be considered to actively promote SMEs innovativeness.

Стан інноваційної діяльності в будь-якій державі є найважливішим показником розвитку суспільства і його економіки. Рівень розвитку транспортної системи держави – є однією з характерних ознак технологічного прогресу країни. Організація перевезень пасажирів міським транспортом має велике значення в розвитку і функціонуванні будь-якого міста. Автотранспорт є важливою складовою господарства країни, ця галузь забезпечує виробництво продукції сільського господарства та промисловості , безпосередній розвиток туризму, сферу будівництва, задовольняє потреби населення в перевезеннях, а також сприяє зміцненню оборони України, що на даний момент є важливою складовою внутрішньої політики. Інноваційні технології дозволяють покращити якість виконаної роботи та оптимізувати процес виробництва. Однією з таких інноваційних технологій у автотранспортній сфері є автомобілі з електричним двигуном. Електромобіль — автомобіль, що приводиться в рух одним або декількома електродвигунами з живленням від акумуляторів або паливних елементів тощо, а не двигуном внутрішнього згоряння. Метою даної роботі є моделювання ситуації переобладнання транспортних засобів підприємства, яке займається регулярними пасажирськими перевезеннями. В даний момент весь рухомий склад в автопарку працює за допомогою двигунів внутрішнього згорання. Предметом вивчення виступає модель заміни обладнання. Моделювання інноваційної діяльності АТП – це динамічний процес формування цілісного образу, якому характерна висока невизначеність. Це в свою чергу значно збільшує імовірність припущення помилки при виборі варіантів. Процес формування цілісного образу відображає характеристики модельованої інноваційної ідеї, що в майбутньому повинна стати реальністю. інноваційного розвитку підприємства. Структурна і організаційна специфіка інноваційного процесу при його здійсненні в значній мірі характеризується невизначеністю всіх рівнів. Невизначеності в інноваційному процесі призводять до обмеження використання традиційних оптимізаційних методів. З огляду на цей аспект, можна зробити висновок про те, що проблема управління інноваційним процесом в умовах економічної невизначеності може вирішуватися за допомогою використання економіко-математичних моделей і методів, теоретичною основою яких є теорія ігор. The state of innovation in any state is the most important indicator of the development of society and its economy. The level of development of the transport system of the state - is one of the characteristic signs of technological progress of the country. The organization of transportation of passengers by city transport is of great importance in the development and operation of any city. Motor transport is an important component of the economy of the country, this branch provides agricultural production and industry, the direct development of tourism, construction the needs of the population in transportation, and contributes to strengthening the defence of Ukraine, which at present is an important component of domestic policy. One of the innovative technologies in the automotive industry is electric motors with electric motors. Electric car - a car driven by one or more electric motors powered by batteries or fuel cells, etc. The electric car (a car driven by one or more electric motors powered by batteries or fuel cells) should be distinguished from cars with an internal combustion engine and an electric transmission and from trolleybuses. The purpose of this work is to simulate the situation of the re-equipment of vehicles of the enterprise engaged in regular passenger transportation. Now, all the rolling stock in the fleet works with the help of internal combustion engines. The subject of study is the model of equipment replacement. Modelling of innovation activity of enterprise is a dynamic process of formation of a holistic image, which is characterized by high uncertainty. This greatly increases the probability of error assumptions when choosing options. The process of forming a holistic image reflects the characteristics of a simulated innovative idea, which in the future should become a reality. innovative development of the enterprise. Structural and organizational specificity of the innovation process in its implementation is largely characterized by uncertainty at all levels. Uncertainties in the innovation process lead to limited use of traditional optimization methods. In view of this aspect, one can conclude that the problem of managing an innovation process in conditions of economic uncertainty can be solved by using economic and mathematical models and methods, the theoretical basis of which is the theory of games.

A unique legal reform in 2004 in Sweden redistributed collateral rights from banks holding floating liens to unsecured creditors without changing the value of assets on firms’ balance sheets. Using a country-wide panel of all incorporated firms, we document that a zero-sum redistribution of collateral rights and the resulting reduction in collateral capacity towards banks contracts the amount and maturity of corporate debt and leads firms to slow investment and forego growth. Altering their allocation of assets, firms reduce particularly those assets with a low collateralizable value for banks and also hoard more cash. However, the reform has no impact on corporate capital intensity or efficiency, suggesting that under these newly binding credit constraints firms simply shrink their operations.

This article analyzes co-regulation as a policy instrument that makes it possible to achieve synergy between public support and private efforts in the food sector to improve the nutritional quality of the food offer. Our objective is to demonstrate the interest and the limits, as well as the conditions of the efficiency of this instrument, through the empirical analysis of the French voluntary agreements for nutritional improvements (charters) implemented in the framework of the French National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS). We propose an interpretative model of the policy action on the nutritional quality of the food offer set out in the PNNS and we carry out new indicators of success to assess the efficiency of voluntary agreements in the food sector., Cet article analyse la co-régulation en tant qu’instrument politique permettant de réaliser une synergie entre les initiatives publiques et les efforts privés dans le secteur alimentaire pour améliorer la qualité nutritionnelle de l’offre alimentaire. Notre objectif est de démontrer l’intérêt et les limites, ainsi que les conditions d’efficience de cet instrument, à travers l’analyse empirique des accords volontaires français d’amélioration nutritionnelle (chartes) mis en place dans le cadre du Programme National Nutrition et Santé. (PNNS). Nous proposons un modèle interprétatif de l’action politique sur la qualité nutritionnelle de l’offre alimentaire définie dans le PNNS et nous présentons de nouveaux indicateurs de succès pour évaluer l’efficience des accords volontaires dans le secteur alimentaire.

This paper examines the factors that give rise to intermediaries in exporting and explores the implications for trade volumes. Export intermediaries such as wholesalers serve different markets and export different products than manufacturing exporters do. Wholesalers are more prevalent in markets with higher destination-specific fixed costs and focus on products that are less differentiated, have lower contract intensity, and have large sunk entry costs. Aggregate exports to destinations with high shares of indirect exports are less responsive to changes in the real exchange rate than are exports to markets served primarily by direct exporters.

This paper studies a market where soda is sold in both refillable and nonrefillable bottles. Purchasing refillables is inconvenient but cheaper. Using a discrete choice model, I find that price-sensitive customers put less weight on the inconveniences of purchasing refillables. This implies that a retailer can target lower prices to price-sensitive customers using the refillable segment. I evaluate the overall welfare consequences of this market segmentation and find that both customer welfare and profits would decrease (by 12.61 and 4.21 percent, respectively) if the refillables were removed, as there would be an important market-shrinkage effect. (JEL D22, L13, L25, L81)

Researchers typically invoke theoretical assumptions to estimate mark-ups. Instead, we directly obtain mark-ups by surveying Pakistani soccer-ball producers. We document six facts: (i) Mark-ups are more dispersed than costs; (ii) Mark-ups and costs increase with firm size; (iii) The mark-up elasticity with respect to size exceeds the cost elasticity; (iv) Costs increase with size because larger firms use higher-quality inputs; (v) Larger firms charge higher mark-ups because they have higher production shares of high-quality balls that carry higher mark-ups, and because they charge higher mark-ups conditional on ball type; (vi) Correlations suggest marketing efforts are important for generating higher mark-ups.

Banks are important cells in the economy as they have a significant role by maintaining and encouraging the development of economic sectors. They refocus the resources from those who have surplus to those which have a deficit. Therefore, as any other enterprises, performance is highly desirable for banks and, then, it is crucial to discover what the main factors that influence this objective are. So, this paper analyzes the microeconomic factors affecting bank’s financial performance focusing on 11 entities for the period between 2003 and 2013. The performance is measured by return on assets. The independent variables used are bank’s size, financial leverage,loans to assets ratio, deposits to assets ratio, number of employees, liquidity, net result and monetary policy rate. The results show that bank’s size, loans to assets ratio and liquidity have not a significant impact on performance. Financial leverage has a negative impact, meanwhile the number of employees, deposits to assets ratio and net result have a positive effect.

This study seeks to analyze a) if the frequency with which group choose to use a certain strategy is associated with the type of conflict represented in a given situation and b) if, for different types of conflict, different conflict handling patterns (the frequency of their use) could be considered significant predictors of group effectiveness, measured through group performance and satisfaction. We developed a correlational empirical study with a sample composed of 73 work groups, taken from 14 organizations in the industrial and service sectors. The results showed that groups in task conflict situations choose integrative strategies more often than when in relational conflict situations. Moreover, avoiding strategies were more likely to be used in relational conflict situations than in task conflict situations. On the other hand, our results showed that the frequency with which a group uses an integrative strategy can be considered a significant (positive) predictor of group satisfaction for both types of conflict situations (task and relationship). Our results are discussed and compared with our previous literature review, as well as the implications and limitations of the study, along with some thoughts on further investigation.

Martin Stuart ("Marty") Feldstein, currently George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. (NBER), is an American economist who has made important contributions to public finance, macroeconomics, international economics, social insurance, health economics, the economics of national security, and many other fields of economics, trained a large number of prominent economists, served as President of the National Bureau of Economic Research for some thirty years, and served as President Ronald Reagan's chief economic advisor.

In the policy debate, intellectual property is often justified by what seems to be a straightforward argument: if innovators are not protected against others appropriating their ideas, incentives for innovation are suboptimally low. Now, in most industries and for most potential users, appropriating a foreign innovation is itself an investment decision fraught with cost and risk. Nonetheless, standard theory predicts too little innovation. Arguably the problem is exacerbated by the sensitivity of innovators to fairness; imitators do get a free lunch, after all. We model the situation as a game and test it in the lab. We find more appropriation, but also more innovation than predicted by standard theory. In the lab, the prospect of giving imitators a free lunch does not have a chilling effect on innovation. This even holds if innovation automatically spills over to an outsider and if successful imitation reduces the innovator's profit. Beliefs and the analysis of experiences in the repeated game demonstrate that participants are sensitive to the fairness problem. But this concern is not strong enough to outweigh the robust propensity to invest even more in innovation than predicted by standard theory. The data suggest that this behavior results from the intention not to be outperformed by one's peers.

Spillovers can arise when multinational …rms (MNEs) train local employees who later join domestic …rms, bringing with them part of the technological, marketing and man- agerial knowledge that they have acquired. Theoretical models by Fosfuri et al (2001) and Glass and Saggi (2002) suggest that the direction and the intensity of the mobility of trained workers is aected by market conditions including the degree of product market competition. This, in turn, details an additional channel through which competition is likely to aect total factor productivity. In this paper, we take this hypothesis to the data for the …rst time by using the Finnish longitudinal employeer-employee data. We …rst quantify the importance of spillovers via worker mobility by estimating augmented production functions. Second, we estimate several competing risks models to assess the impact of product market competition and absorptive capacity on worker mobility. We …nd that productivity spillovers arise only when workers move from domestic-owned multi- national …rms to domestic local …rms. The spillover eects are economically important. Further, our results point out that competition aects the productivity spillovers of purely domestic plants adversely by reducing worker mobility.

The sphere of economic modelling has continuously evolved, revealing new issues to be considered for a more grounded analysis of the features specific to a real economy. Based on the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium class of models and including increasingly important elements, like the price and wage stickiness, the capital utilisation rate or the investment adjustment costs and, last but not least, the financial frictions, this study is dedicated to the estimation of several key parameters of the Romanian economy, outlining the general characteristics of the latter and indicating the direction towards which it is moving. The estimation outcomes, arising on the basis of the Bayesian approach, herein presented and construed, prove to be compliant, to a large extent, with own previous results, as well as with the related specialty literature.

This paper provides a microeconometric analysis of the distinctive characteristics of springboard subsidiaries that have a positive impact on the subsidiaries’ performance. Based on panel data estimations for subsidiaries of European multinational companies with a presence in Spain, the authors found that if the subsidiary is located in the springboard country, then the performance improvement (increase in profit margin) of the subsidiary is about 49 percentage points. When the Spanish subsidiary is considered a springboard subsidiary, its performance is 7.7 percentage points higher than the performance of other subsidiaries that are not springboard subsidiaries. If the subsidiary has a technological relationship with another subsidiary, its performance is 6.7 percentage points higher than the performance of other subsidiaries that do not have a technological relationship. Finally, when the firm has low autonomy, the performance of the subsidiary is 6.2 percentage points lower than that of firms that are independent or have a high level of autonomy.

Die Vorstände großer Unternehmen in Deutschland befinden sich nach wie vor fest in Männerhand: Ende 2014 lag der Frauenanteil in den Vorständen der Top-200-Unternehmen in Deutschland bei gut fünf Prozent. Das entspricht einem Plus von einem Prozentpunkt gegenüber dem Vorjahr und damit einer sehr geringen Dynamik. Die DAX-30-Unternehmen konnten mit gut sieben Prozent den höchsten Frauenanteil verzeichnen, am geringsten war er mit noch nicht einmal drei Prozent bei den MDAX-Unternehmen. Häufiger sind Frauen in den Aufsichtsräten vertreten: In den Top-200-Unternehmen waren Ende des Jahres 2014 gut 18 Prozent Frauen; die DAX-30-Unternehmen schnitten mit einem Frauenanteil von knapp 25 Prozent überdurchschnittlich ab. Die SDAX-Unternehmen wiesen mit knapp 14 Prozent nicht nur den kleinsten Frauenanteil auf, sondern mit 0,6 Prozentpunkten auch den geringsten Zuwachs gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Wie in den Vorständen haben Frauen auch in Aufsichtsräten nur in Ausnahmefällen den Vorsitz inne. Mit dem vom Bundeskabinett im vergangenen Jahr verabschiedeten Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst dürfte sich die Besetzung zumindest von Aufsichtsratsposten durch Frauen beschleunigen. Die Quotenregelung soll ab 1. Januar 2016 gelten. Vom Gesetz betroffen wären auch Unternehmen mit Bundesbeteiligung. Hier lag der Frauenanteil im Aufsichtsrat Ende 2014 bei knapp 24 Prozent und in den Vorständen bei knapp 15 Prozent. The executive boards of large corporations in Germany continue to be in men's hands: at the close of 2014, a good five percent of executive board members at the top 200 companies in Germany were women. This is equivalent to an increase of one percentage point over 2013, which is evidence of the rather sluggish development in this area. DAX 30 companies recorded the largest proportion of female board members at a good seven percent, while the lowest share was recorded for MDAX companies (less than three percent). The representation of women on supervisory boards was better: at the end of 2014, a good 18 percent of board members were women in the top 200 companies; DAX 30 companies displayed above-average results for female board members at just below 25 percent. At a little under 14 percent, SDAX companies displayed not only the lowest percentage of women, but also the lowest increase over 2013 (0.6 percentage points). Both on executive and supervisory boards, female chairpersons remain the exception. Following the law passed by the federal government cabinet last year on equality for women and men in managerial positions, both at private companies and in the civil service, female representation, at least on supervisory boards, is likely to improve. The gender quota introduced in this legislation will come into effect on January 1, 2016. Companies with government-owned shares will also be affected by the quota regulation. Here, female representation on the supervisory boards and executive boards at the end of 2014 was just under 24 and just under 15 percent, respectively.

The hard coal mining industry in the European Union (EU) is in decline, mostly due to a lack of price competitiveness. It is maintained, to a great extent, by state aid; a key objective of the industry’s existence is to provide energy security and guarantee employment in the mining regions. In Poland, the hard coal mining industry is currently undergoing a serious crisis that threatens the two largest mining enterprises with bankruptcy. In addition, due to the European Union’s restrictions concerning the circumstances of granting state aid, these enterprises cannot count on the financial support for the repair restructuring that they used on a large scale until 2011. Therefore, in this article, the main objective is to determine the influence of state aid on the competitiveness of the hard coal mining industry in 12 countries of the EU, including Poland in specific. In order to achieve the stated objective, the article is divided into three parts. The first part consists of a literature review and legal regulations that are related to state aid for the hard coal mining industry in the EU are presented. The second part identifies the amount of state aid for the mining industry in the examined countries. Next, the influence of the state aid on the economic-financial conditions and competitiveness of the industry in the examined countries is examined. The third assesses the financial results of 24 Polish hard coal mines. The data of Eurostat and EURACOAL were used in the research. Furthermore, the primary data from the Polish mines of power hard coal were also used. The research methodology includes the indicators from the area of effectiveness and productivity assessment, as well as production quality assessment in the mining industry. The research results make it possible to extend knowledge in the range of the influence of the state on the competitiveness of the traditional industries and their restructuring.

The subject matter of this paper are companies owned by local and regional self-government units from five counties (Pozega-Slavonia, Vukovar-Srijem, Osijek-Baranja, Brod-Posavina and Istria). The research was based on business operations data from individual reports drafted in audits conducted by the National Audit Office. An analysis has been performed and conclusions had been drawn about business operations, sources of financing and efficiency of operators in five counties. This paper confirms the assumption that companies owned by local and regional self-government units differ significantly according to the sources of financing and achieved business results. Businesses were analysed according to the number of employees, total revenues, grants, total expenditures and expenditures for employees in total achieved expenditures. Conclusions had been made regarding setting business objectives, measurement of business results and achieving planned purposes for which the companies were established and regarding the options for improving business results. This paper confirms the importance of accounting information system as a basis for information on business operations through an overview of revenues in accordance with prescribed regulations.

The current paper reveals key factors that impact on investment of Russian companies in R&D. The study is based on a sample of 474 industrial enterprises in 2005–2010. The panel data structure improves the quality of the analysis and also allows to identify intertemporal changes in the specific of innovative activity. Unlike many studies on the topic, the utilized data is based on publicly-accessible objective indicators about firms.

Seit Anfang 2009 unterliegt die Energieversorgung in Deutschland der Anreizregulierung, durch die ein effizienter Betrieb von Strom- und Gasnetzen sichergestellt werden soll. Unklar ist allerdings, wie sich die veränderten regulatorischen Rahmenbedingungen auf das Investitionsverhalten der Netzbetreiber auswirken. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird in der vorliegenden Untersuchung die Investitionstätigkeit der Netzbetreiber für den Zeitraum von 2006 bis 2012 empirisch analysiert. Zentrale Fragestellungen sind, ob der Einführung der Anreizregulierung ab 2009 ein empirisch nachweisbarer Einfluss auf die Investitionstätigkeit zugeschrieben werden kann und ob dieser Einfluss auf die Einführung der Anreizregulierung per se oder auf ihre spezifische Ausgestaltung zurückgeht. Im Ergebnis kann mit Einführung der Anreizregulierung ein positiver Effekt auf die Investitionstätigkeit festgestellt werden, der insbesondere durch die spezifische Ausgestaltung der Regulierung bestimmt wird. Since early 2009, power supply in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of distribution system operators. Against this background, the present study empirically analyzes the investment activities of distribution system operators for the period from 2006 to 2012. The key questions are whether the introduction of incentive regulation from 2009 onwards can be attributed to an empirically demonstrable impact on investment and whether this effect is due to the introduction of incentive regulation per se, or to its specific design. The findings show a positive effect on investment since the introduction of incentive regulation which, in particular, is determined by the specific design of regulation.

Analyzing the current state of knowledge with respect to the three directions, this paper aims to identify the determining factors of economic, social and environmental performance and the manner in which the indicators reflected by these factors influence the overall performance of the organization, in order to identify the most important factors and indicators that provide a durable and sustainable growth of global performance. The emergence of the sustainable development and sustainability concepts has forced companies to reassess their approach of measuring organizational performance. If sustainable development consists of three components: economic prosperity, social equity and environmental integrity, all of which being closely correlated, the performance of a component is influencing the performances of the other two. A business can be defined as sustainable, if it manages to meet stakeholders’ needs without compromising its future ability to meet its own needs.

In literature there is no single answer to the question, whether the growth of imports in industry leads to decrease or to increase the technical efficiency: possible effect of different mechanisms. In this paper we estimate the stochastic production frontier using firm-level data for food industry in 2005–2011, taking into account a possible relationship between changes in imports and firm’s technical efficiency. We use the «Ruslana» (Bureau van Dijk) database, which contains financial information on companies in Russia. Our results show that in food industry technical efficiency is reducing while import share is increasing.

Through this study, I have intended to make a synthetized analysis of the social economy sector which, in the current economic context of Romania, has a strong influence on the public policies framework in the field of employment growth in social economy. A complex, scientific and relevant material for the issue discussed here has been used, along with a series of official statistical data in the field of social economy. The scientific approach taken has dwelt upon some conceptual distinctions which should correctly position the place and the role that the entitites may have within social economy and which will generate benefits for the entire society. The scientific approach of conceptual delimitations went on to correctly position the place and the role it may have in the social economy entities which will generate benefits for society.

The executive boards of large corporations in Germany continue to be in men's hands: at the close of 2014, a good five percent of executive board members at the top 200 companies in Germany were women. This is equivalent to an increase of one percentage point over 2013, which is evidence of the rather sluggish development in this area. DAX 30 companies recorded the largest proportion of female board members at a good seven percent, while the lowest share was recorded for MDAX companies (less than three percent). The representation of women on supervisory boards was better: at the end of 2014, a good 18 percent of board members were women in the top 200 companies; DAX 30 companies displayed above-average results for female board members at just below 25 percent. At a little under 14 percent, SDAX companies displayed not only the lowest percentage of women, but also the lowest increase over 2013 (0.6 percentage points). Both on executive and supervisory boards, female chairpersons remain the exception. Following the law passed by the federal government cabinet last year on equality for women and men in managerial positions, both at private companies and in the civil service, female representation, at least on supervisory boards, is likely to improve. The gender quota introduced in this legislation will come into effect on January 1, 2016. Companies with government-owned shares will also be affected by the quota regulation. Here, female representation on the supervisory boards and executive boards at the end of 2014 was just under 24 and just under 15 percent, respectively.

Since early 2009, electricity and gas distribution in Germany has been subject to incentive regulation designed to ensure greater efficiency in electricity and gas grid operation. However, it remains to be seen how changes to the regulatory framework will affect the investment behavior of distribution system operators. Against this background, the present study empirically analyzes the investment activities of distribution system operators for the period from 2006 to 2012. The key questions are whether the introduction of incentive regulation in 2009 has had an empirically demonstrable impact on investment and whether this effect is due to the introduction of incentive regulation per se, or to its specific design. The findings show a positive effect on investment since the introduction of incentive regulation which, in particular, is determined by the specific design of regulation.

In this paper we research changes of total factor productivity (TFP) and its components in Russian plastic production sector in 2006–2012 by using DEA. We decompose TFP change into technical change, technical efficiency, scale efficiency, and mix efficiency changes. The dynamics of TFP and its components are slightly different for various quantile groups of firms. Anyway there is a significant fall for almost all indices in 2009. The results’ robustness is checked by comparison of technical efficiency estimates obtained with DEA and SFA methods.

Disclosure programs exist in many industries in which consumers are poorly informed about product quality. We study a disclosure program for airline on-time performance, which ranks airlines based on the fraction of their flights that arrive less than 15 minutes late. The program creates incentives for airlines to focus their efforts on flights close to this threshold. We find that firms in this industry are heterogeneous in how they respond to these incentives. Moreover, this heterogeneity correlates with internal firm characteristics. Our findings highlight the importance of interactions between incentives created by a disclosure program and firms' internal organizational practices. (JEL D22, L15, L25, L93)

International audience; This paper studies the links between non-renewable and intermittent renewable energy sources in the production of electricity. Using U.S. state-level data from 1998 to 2015, we find that the relationship between the price of natural gas and investments in solar and wind capacity is non-linear and can be represented by an inverted U shape. Hence, for relatively low natural gas prices, the two modes of production are substitutes. After a price threshold is reached, the two are complementary. A theoretical explanation argues that this stylized fact is the result of a trade-off between two characteristics of these modes of production: the high degree of flexibility of electricity production using natural gas as an input and the low marginal cost of renewable energy sources.

This paper evaluates the historical influence of energy prices on a series of measures of environmental and economic performance for a panel of French manufacturing establishments over the period 1997-2010. The focus on energy prices is motivated by the fact that changes in environmental and energy policies have been dominated by substantial reductions in discounts for large consumers, making the evaluation of each policy in isolation exceedingly difficult. To identify price effects, we construct a shift-share instrument that captures only the exogenous variation in establishmentspecific energy prices. Our results highlight a trade-off between environmental and economic goals: although a 10 percent increase in energy prices brings about a 6 percent reduction in energy consumption and to a 11 percent reduction in CO2 emissions, such an increase also has a modestly negative impact on employment (-2.6 percent) and very small impact on wages and productivity. The negative employment effects are mostly concentrated in energyintensive and trade-exposed sectors. Simulating the effect of a carbon tax, we show that job losses for the most exposed sectors can be quite large. However, these effects are upper bounds and we show that they are significantly mitigated in multi-plant firms by labor reallocation across establishments.

We examine the global operations of multi-product firms. We present a flexible heterogeneous-firm trade model with either limited or strong scope for quality differentiation. Using customs data for China during 2002-2006, we empirically establish that firms allocate activity across products in line with a product hierarchy based on quality. Firms vary output quality across their products by using inputs of different quality levels. Their core competence is in varieties of superior quality that command higher prices but nevertheless generate higher sales. In markets where they offer fewer products, firms concentrate on their core varieties by dropping low-quality peripheral goods on the extensive margin and by shifting sales towards top-quality products on the intensive margin. The product quality ladder also governs firms ’ export dynamics, both in general and in response to the exogenous removal of MFA quotas on textiles and apparel. Our results inform the drivers and measurement of firm performance, the effects of trade reforms, and the design of development policies.

This paper uses customs transaction data covering all Chinese exporters and the World Bank's antidumping database to investigate how they responded to Latin-American and Caribbean (LAC) antidumping measures during 2000-2012 period. The paper uses the difference-in-differences identification strategy, and finds a substantial trade-dampening effect of these measures at the product level which operates through the intensive margin (i.e., a decrease in export volume per exporter) rather than the extensive margin (i.e., a decrease in the number of exporters) on average. Although we do not find a significant extensive margin effect, we still observe a positive number of exporters exited the LAC market after antidumping measures, specifically, less productive firms and trade intermediaries are more likely to exit the market. The pattern of Chinese exporters exiting the protected market was the same in ARG, BRA, MEX and COL. The antidumping measures taken by different countries had different impacts on Chinese exporters. MEX and BRA antidumping measures not only had an intensive margin but also an extensive margin effect on Chinese exports. ARG antidumping measures only had an intensive margin effect. COL antidumping measures had no effect. The paper also finds that MEX antidumping measures caused a significant increase in the export prices of the affected Chinese products, but no significant increase in the export prices for the other three countries. The paper does not find any shift in the destinations of the affected Chinese exports.

In-firm training is a crucial innovative activity in modern knowledge-based economies which face increasing global competition and rapidly changing technology. Nevertheless, there are few studies which look at in-firm training in the Caribbean. This study uses the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) 2010 and Compete Caribbean's Productivity Technology Innovation Survey (PROTEqIN) 2014 to provide empirical evidence on in-firm training in the region. The results suggest that there is a relatively low incidence of training in the region, although there are significant differences across countries and this may be because of heterogeneities in public support and barriers to in-firm training. Also, various firm characteristics affect in-firm training, including size, ownership, whether the firm exports, whether the firm is part of a larger organization, innovative activity and workforce structure and educational level. Lastly, the findings suggest that in-firm training in the region may play a relatively small role and may not even matter for innovation and productivity.

The main aim of this paper is to present the methodology of research, carried out in the framework of the project The role of foreign trade in the convergence process. Trading companies - opportunities and risks in the euro zone. The research was conducted in 2013 by a group of researchers representing Bialystok University of Technology, Faculty of Management. The article focuses on the description of the quantitative on-line survey, conducted using CAWI technique on a sample companies from Podlaskie region. In addition, the synthetic characteristics of socio-economic specificity of Podlaskie region was presented, which provides a background for the research. The quantitative research methodology presented in this paper was based on a standardized research tool (on-line questionnaire). It enabled authors to make a thorough analysis of the surveyed companies in three key areas of research: the euro zone and entrepreneurship; convergence – the adjustment process, and the regulation of international trade. Such approach, in which the knowledge and experience of different groups of researchers was successfully combined, gave an immeasurable added value to the project.

A body of literature suggests that ethnic heterogeneity limits economic growth. This article provides microeconometric evidence on the direct effect of ethnic divisions on productivity. In team production at a plant in Kenya, an upstream worker supplies and distributes flowers to two downstream workers, who assemble them into bunches. The plant uses an essentially random rotation process to assign workers to positions, leading to three types of teams: (i) ethnically homogeneous teams, and teams in which (ii) one or (iii) both downstream workers belong to a tribe in rivalry with the upstream worker’s tribe. I find strong evidence that upstream workers undersupply non-coethnic downstream workers (vertical discrimination) and shift flowers from non-coethnic to coethnic downstream workers (horizontal discrimination), at the cost of lower own pay and total output. A period of ethnic conflict following Kenya’s 2007 election led to a sharp increase in discrimination. In response, the plant began paying the two downstream workers for their combined output (team pay). This led to a modest output reduction in (i) and (iii) teams—as predicted by standard incentive models—but an increase in output in (ii) teams, and overall. Workers’ behavior before conflict, during conflict, and under team pay is predicted by a model of taste-based discrimination. My findings suggest that interethnic rivalries lower allocative efficiency in the private sector, that the economic costs of ethnic diversity vary with the political environment, and that in high-cost environments firms are forced to adopt “second best” policies to limit discrimination distortions.

This paper is concerned with the interaction between fully and boundedly rational agents in situations where their interests are perfectly aligned. The cognitive limitations of the boundedly rational agent do not allow him to fully understand the market conditions and lead him to take non-optimal decisions in some situations. Using categorization to model bounded rationality, we show that the fully rational agent can nudge, i.e., he can manipulate the information he sends and decrease the expected loss caused by the boundedly rational agent. Assuming different types for the boundedly rational agent, who differ only in the categories used, we show that the fully rational agent may learn the type of the boundedly rational agent along their interaction. Using this additional information, the outcome can be improved and the amount of manipulated information can be decreased. Furthermore, as the length of the interaction increases the probability that the fully rational agent learns the type of the boundedly rational agent grows. Classification-JEL: C92, D21, D22, D23 Keywords: bounded rationality; categorization; nudging; learning., International Journal of Economic Behavior, Vol 4, No 1 (2014): International Journal of Economic Behavior

Using Dutch transaction-level data on international trade we find that the intensive margin drives Dutch trade growth year by year. After 6 years, new trade relations cover about 50 percent of Dutch exports. Each year 40 percent of the relations are new, but only 25 percent survives after two years. We distinguish several firm-country-product (FCP) relations characterised by the export familiarity of the firm, country or product to identify differences in survival rates. The estimates show that the hazard rates of trade relations with new exporting firms or incumbent firms to new countries are about 15 percent lower. EU membership decreases the hazard rate by 40 percent. Initial sales are also important. Relations with an initial export value of about 50 thousand euro do not survive, while those with an initial value of 200 thousand euro exist after a few years. Exports with homogeneous goods tend to have higher initial trade values and the hazard is about 10 percent lower than those with heterogeneous goods. Read also: De economist, juni 2015, Volume 163, Issue 2, pp 155-176

Although there is a large and rapidly growing literature on the determinants of regional variation in new firm formation, relatively little is known about the interrelation between the characteristics of start-up firms and urban structure. It is only recently that scholars of urban economics have suggested a theoretical link between the thickness of regional input markets and the complexity of feasible start-ups. The current paper classifies start-ups in different industry groups according to their complexity and analyzes the impact of regional input market thickness on the frequency of start-ups with different degrees of complexity. We find that thicker input markets do indeed foster more complex start-ups, but that some inputs are more important than others

In this article, we introduce an empirical framework to analyze how firm performance is affected by increased globalization. Using this framework, we discuss recent work on measuring the impact of various shocks firms face in the global marketplace, such as reductions in trade costs (through lowering tariffs and abolishing quotas). Our analytical framework nests most empirical approaches to estimating the impact of trade and industrial policies on firms active in international markets. We identify outstanding issues surrounding the identification of the underlying mechanisms and conclude with suggestions for future research.

Making use of an original firm-product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, we dissect the role of importing, exporting and the joint involvement in both activities on the firm product scope and new product introduction. Within the bulk of overall exports, we identify and focus on foreign sales of own produced goods. From the comparison between a single and a multiple treatment approach, it emerges that the simultaneous entry in the import and export markets delivers the highest innovation rate. Even if we disclose the existence of important complementarities between the two trade activities, starting to export appears as the real driver of firm product innovation. On the contrary and differently from previous evidence, when moving to a multi-treatment setting, the impact of importing fades away.

In this paper, I examined what conditions affected the entry of Swedish limited liability firms 2000–2008, while making a distinction between regular entrants and those that survive for at least 2 years. I used a dataset that makes it possible to trace entry geographically as well as in what industry it occurs down to the 5-digit NACE level. Results suggest that the conditions influencing regular entry were similar to those influencing surviving entry. Political variables, e.g., municipal tax rate and the ideology of local rule, were of limited importance. Meanwhile, municipalities with industries with high minimum efficient scale of production or high market concentration rates were considerably less likely to see new firm formation. Substantially, more entry occurred in municipalities with high-income and a well-educated population. The importance of the level of education appears stronger for surviving entrants than for regular entrants, pointing to the importance of human capital.

Reference price systems for prescription drugs constitute widely adopted cost containment tools. Under these regimes, patients co-pay a fraction of the difference between a drug's pharmacy retail price and a reference price that is set by the government. Reference prices are either externally (based on drug prices in other countries) or internally (based on domestic drug prices) determined. We study the effects of a change from external to internal reference pricing in Denmark in 2005. We find that the reform led to substantial reductions in retail prices, reference prices and patient co-payments as well as to sizable decreases in overall producer revenues and health care expenditures. The reform induced consumers to substitute away from branded drugs for which we estimate strong preferences. The increase in consumer welfare due to the reform therefore depends on whether or not we take perceived quality differences into account in its calculation., Reference prices constitute a main determinant of patient health care reimbursement in many countries. We study the effects of a change from an "external" (based on a basket of prices in other countries) to an "internal" (based on comparable domestic products) reference price system. We find that while our estimated consumer compensating variation is small, the reform led to substantial reductions in list and reference prices as well as co-payments, and to sizeable decreases in overall producer revenues, health care expenditures, and co-payments. These effects differ markedly between branded drugs, generics, and parallel imports with health care expenditures and producer revenues decreasing and co-payments increasing most for branded drugs. The reform also induced consumers to substitute from branded drugs – for which they have strong preferences – to generics and parallel imports. This substitution also explains the small increase in consumer welfare despite a substantial decrease in expenditures.