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on Economics of Strategic Management |
| By: | Beck, Jonathan; Grajek, Michal; Wey, Christian |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a set of panel data to study the diffusion of retail checkout barcode scanning in ten European countries over the period 1981-1996. Estimates from a standard diffusion model suggest that countries differ most in the long-run diffusion level of barcode scanning and less in timing or diffusion speed. We present evidence that the emergence of hypermarkets raises competitive intensity and use hypermarket data, among other variables, in a pooled estimation. Results suggest that hypermarket competition reduces the long-run adoption level in retailing. In particular, the emergence of hypermarkets seems to deepen retail segmentation by inducing potential adopters (e.g. supermarkets) to exit the market and/or by discouraging adoption by other retail formats. Consistent with expectations, scale and income effects spur IT diffusion and there is a classic substitution effect: when wages rise, diffusion of a labour-saving technology such as barcode-scanning is more intense. We do not find a significant impact of employment protection legislation. |
| Keywords: | hypermarkets; IT diffusion; retail competition |
| JEL: | L5 L81 O33 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5386&r=cse |
| By: | B.M. Sadowski. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); G.M. Duysters (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); G.Sadowski-Rasters (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | alliances, technology |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0512&r=cse |
| By: | Nathan Nunn (University of British Columbia) |
| Abstract: | When relationship-specific investments are necessary for production, under-investment occurs if contracts cannot be enforced. The efficiency loss from under-investment will differ across industries depending on the importance of relationship-specific investments in the production process. As a consequence, a country's contracting environment may be an important determinant of comparative advantage. To test for this, I construct measures of the efficiency of contract enforcement across countries and the importance of relationship-specific investments across industries. I find that countries with better contract enforcement specialize in industries that rely heavily on relationshipspecific investments. This is true even after controlling for traditional determinants of comparative advantage such as endowments of capital and skilled labor. |
| Keywords: | International trade; Comparative advantage; Relationship- specific investments; Contract enforcement. |
| JEL: | O P |
| Date: | 2005–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0512018&r=cse |
| By: | Dijk van, M. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven); Szirmai, A. (Ecis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) |
| Keywords: | technology diffusion, Indonesia |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:tuecis:0515&r=cse |
| By: | Marc Isabelle (IMRI (Institut pour le Management de la Recherche et de l’Innovation), Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | Two major and complementary transformations have occurred in the world of public research organisations in the past two decades. Instruments of intellectual property (first and foremost the patent) have disseminated in many domains of research while collaborations with industrial firms have grown substantially. Strategies have been designed in PROs to accompany and stimulate the researchers in their new mission: the transfer of knowledge and technologies to firms. This paper investigates on an empirical basis the fact that researchers’ inventiveness could to a certain extent be independent from private economic incentives. It concludes by opening some analytical perspectives about the pros and cons of PROs’ knowledge and technology transfer strategies and by suggesting that the dominant model could well look inappropriate in some respects. |
| Keywords: | public research organisations, invention, patent, knowledge and technology transfer, science and technology policy |
| JEL: | D83 H4 L3 O3 |
| Date: | 2004–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imr:wpaper:wp05_07&r=cse |
| By: | Calzada, Joan; Valletti, Tommaso |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of logit demand that extends to a multi-firm industry the traditional duopoly framework of network competition with access charges. Firstly, we show that, when incumbents do not face the threat of entry and compete in prices, they inefficiently establish the reciprocal access charge below cost. This inefficiency disappears if incumbents compete in utilities instead of prices. Secondly, we study how incumbents change their choices under the threat of entry when they determine an industry-wide (non-discriminatory) access charge. We show how incumbents may accommodate all possible entrants, only a group of them, or may completely deter entry. When entry deterrence is the preferred option, incumbents distort upwards the access charges. |
| Keywords: | entry deterrence; interconnection; telecommunications |
| JEL: | L41 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5381&r=cse |
| By: | Heinz Hollenstein (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)); Martin Woerter (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research (KOF), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH)) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims at explaining empirically the diffusion of E-commerce based on two largescale sample surveys conducted in the Swiss economy. The paper adds to previous work in two ways: firstly, we estimate separate models for E-selling and E-purchasing, and, secondly, we distinguish between inter-firm diffusion (i.e. technology adoption) and intra-firm diffusion (i.e. intensity of technology use). It turns out that the pattern of explanation strongly differs between the two types of E-commerce as well as the two types of diffusion. Therefore, further studies dealing with the diffusion of E-commerce should differentiate along these two dimensions. Besides, it is shown that institutional, technological and economic uncertainty as well as adjustment costs, which are neglected in most studies of diffusion, are important explanatory variables. Moreover, it turned out that “rank effects” are clearly more important drivers of adoption and intra-firm diffusion of the two types of E-commerce than “epidemic effects”, which are of some importance only in case of adoption. |
| Keywords: | Technology diffusion; Inter- vs. intra-firm diffusion; E-commerce; E-selling vs. E-purchasing; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); Rank and epidemic effects of diffusion |
| JEL: | L2 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:04-89&r=cse |
| By: | Austin, David |
| Abstract: | I perform an event study on 600+ patents awarded primarily to 20 leading biotechnology firms and find significant changes in market values at the time of the awards. Adjusting for partial anticipation of events, I estimate that core technology patents in highly contested research areas are expected to generate between $13 and $21 million of economic value. They also generate spillover benefits for the patentee’s rivals—presumably including knowledge transfers—valued at $3 to $6 million per firm. Awardees may appropriate only half of private benefits, although I observe negative spillovers for some high-profile awards. Most patents have no significant market impact. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-00-53&r=cse |
| By: | Jakob Roland Munch (University of Copenhagen and CEBR); Jan Rose Skaksen (Copenhagen Business School, CEBR and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of outsourcing on individual wages. In contrast to the standard approach in the literature, we focus on domestic outsourcing as well as foreign outsourcing. By using a simple theoretical model, we argue that, if outsourcing is associated with specialization gains arising from an increase in the division of labor, domestic outsourcing tends to increase wages for both unskilled and skilled labor. We use a panel data set of workers in Danish manufacturing industries to show that domestic and foreign outsourcing affect wages as predicted by the theory. |
| Keywords: | outsourcing, comparative advantage, specialization, wages |
| JEL: | F16 J31 C23 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1907&r=cse |
| By: | A. Marciano |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to analyse the way economists interested in social and economic evolution cite, mention or refer to Darwin. We focus on the attitude of economists towards Darwin’s theory of social evolution – an issue he considered as central to his theory. We show that economists refer to and mention Darwin as a biologist and neglect or ignore his theory of social and cultural evolution. Three types of reference are identified: first, economists view and quote Darwin as having borrowed concepts from classical political economists, Malthus and Smith. Darwin is then mentioned to emphasize the existence of economic theories of social evolution. Second, economists refer to and cite Darwin from the perspective of the use of biological concepts in social sciences. Darwin's biological theories are then equated with those of Spencer. From these two perspectives, Darwin's theory of social evolution is ignored and Darwin considered as a biologist exclusively. Third, economists acknowledge the existence of Darwin's general (biological and social) theory of evolution. Darwin is then considered and quoted as a biologist and a social evolutionist. |
| Keywords: | Darwin, social evolution, evolutionary economics, bioeconomics |
| JEL: | A11 B52 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2005-21&r=cse |
| By: | Fischer, Carolyn (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Abstract Economic models of trade in endangered species products often do not incorporate four focal arguments in the policy debate over trade bans- 1) law-abiding consumers may operate in another market, separate from illegal consumers, that trade would bring online; 2) legal trade reduces stigma, which affects demand of law-abiding consumers; 3) laundering may bring illegal goods to legal markets when trade is allowed; 4) legal sales may affect illegal supply costs. This paper analyzes systematically which aspects of these complicated markets, separately or in combination, are important for determining whether limited legalized trade in otherwise illegal goods can be helpful for achieving policy goals like reducing poaching. |
| Keywords: | endangered species, black markets, CITES, poaching, stigma |
| JEL: | K42 Q21 D11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-21&r=cse |
| By: | Manacorda, Marco; Goicoechea, Ana; Estache, Antonio |
| Abstract: | The authors assess the effects of private capital and independent regulatory agencies on telecommunications performance by using cross-country panel data from 1990 to 2003. In general, they find that having independent regulatory agencies positively affects affordability and labor productivity, but negatively affects quality. Having private capital positively affects access, quality, and labor productivity, but negatively affects affordability. However, reform policies affect industrial and developing countries differently in some cases. The authors also find that governance plays an important role as it affects performance and interacts with reform policies. |
| Keywords: | Country Strategy & Performance,Economic Theory & Research,Infrastructure Regulation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Investment and Investment Climate |
| Date: | 2006–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3822&r=cse |
| By: | Stephen Martin (Department of Economics, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University) |
| Abstract: | The earliest U.S. antitrust laws were adopted after technological changes — most importantly, the development of a national railway network — made the U.S. political union a single economic market. They were adopted with the stated, and no doubt largely sincere, purposes of preventing collusion and strategic entry-deterring behavior. Early application of the antitrust laws relied on a rule of competition to determine whether business conduct was or was not permitted. This has evolved into an explicit evaluation of the impact of businesses practices on consumer welfare, conceived of and measured in an economic sense. EU competition policy was adopted in advance of economic integration. It differed sharply from the traditional policies of the original EC6 member states toward business behavior. It was adopted with the stated, and most likely sincere, purpose of furthering economic integration, and to this end prohibited practices that were seen as distorting competition. Early applications of competition policy, particularly in the European Coal and Steel Community, may have had perverse effects. There are indications of an evolution towards an economic performance standard in the European Union as well. |
| Keywords: | US antitrust policy, EU competition policy, European Union, Economic governance, regulation |
| JEL: | L40 L41 L42 L51 L97 L98 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ave:wpaper:272005&r=cse |
| By: | Jean-Bernard LAYAN (e3i, IFReDE-GRES & GERPISA) |
| Abstract: | Since 30 years new automotive countries develop in immediate periphery of the large regional blocks as Spain, Mexico, Czech Republic or Turkey. The products assembled in these new spaces are usually very innovative and originate in pioneering process from the organisational point of view. The existence of such organisational innovations in periphery tallies badly with the traditional theories of the international specialization. It is on the other hand more comprehensible if we take the insurancial aspects of manufacturers’ territorial strategies into consideration. Those find in periphery the favourable terms to the radical organisational changes which, by attacking the professional statutes and by scrambling the institutional reference frame of the employees, would clash with the resistance of central factories workforce. |
| Keywords: | automotive industry, emerging countries, innovation, uncertainty, organisational change, strategy |
| JEL: | L1 L62 F23 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grs:wpegrs:2006-01&r=cse |
| By: | Robert E. Prasch |
| Abstract: | Economic theory, of necessity, presents an abstraction to the reader. Abstraction is required to achieve the perspective that allows for theory, that is to say, understanding and interpretation, to occur. If the abstraction is done well only inessential details are set aside -- details that would otherwise divert the theorist from grasping the essential or fundamental elements of the process under examination. For example a study of the mechanisms that cause a moving automobile to stop can reasonably abstract from the vehicle's color scheme. For this process to be valid it is critical that the theorist distinguish between "simplifying" and "substantive" assumptions. The former clears away the inessential. The latter elevates or prioritizes the inessential -- thereby contributing to a distorted understanding. The difficulty is that distinguishing between simplifying and substantial assumptions remains, and will always remain, something of an art. Fifty years ago the siren of "Positive Economics" proposed that this critical distinction could be reliably made by adhering to a set of clear and simple rules. While some economists and empirical psychologists maintain a nostalgic commitment to that eclipsed understanding of science, today most thinking practitioners are aware that such an epistemological stance, with its triumphant dismissal of the need for defensible assumptions, was naive -- even misguided. Out of this epistemological vacuum economists have retreated to several crude "fixes" to guide their selection of abstractions. Occasional assertions to the contrary, these methods are conventions. Innocent of any knowledge of these issues, many economists instinctively deploy the abstractions used by their graduate advisor, or rely on those that most frequently appear in what are held to be the profession's premier journals. Economics, perhaps more than ever, is now defined by what economists do. Ideally, the distinction between substantive and simplifying assumptions could be grounded in something more meaningful. Such a ground does exist -- it is called judgment. Unfortunately judgment, like "beauty" or "goodness," is difficult to define without invoking specific cases. The reason is that good judgment requires a sense of context. Context is most readily gained through direct experience, a study of history, or the comparative method. Once acquired, this knowledge enables the researcher to "compare and contrast" one situation with another, to learn from previous efforts to interpret the subject at hand, or to benefit from multiple approaches to a single question. In short, judgment requires the kind of broad-ranging knowledge that is largely absent, even disdained, in the training of the economists of our era ("training" is the appropriate term in this context -- to be contrasted with "education"). To appreciate the implications and importance of the distinction between "simplifying" and "substantive" assumptions, consider the conventional assumption of "Free Entry and Exit." |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0530&r=cse |
| By: | Boyd, James (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | The concept of pollution prevention, or "P2," signifies a new, proactive environmental mindset that targets the causes, rather than the consequences, of polluting activity. While anecdotal evidence suggests that P2 opportunities exist and that many have been pursued, there is also the perception that the pace of P2 is far too slow. To explore that claim—and to shed light on barriers to P2 innovation—this paper presents case studies of industrial P2 projects that were in some way unsuccessful. While based on a very limited sample, the evidence contradicts the view that firms suffer from organizational weaknesses that make them unable to appreciate the financial benefits of P2 investments. Instead, the projects foundered because of significant unresolved technical difficulties, marketing challenges, and regulatory barriers. Based on evidence from the cases, the paper concludes with a discussion of environmental policy reforms likely to promote P2 innovation.. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-30&r=cse |
| By: | Macauley, Molly (Resources For the Future); Hamilton, Bruce |
| Abstract: | We examine determinants of the nearly 30 percent increase in the average age of domestically produced, registered automobiles since the mid-1960s. We find that very little of the increase in car longevity is attributable to improvements in the inherent durability of cars. Rather, we find that the temporal pattern of longevity improvement is highly correlated with the level of market concentration in the auto industry. In particular, we argue that the arrival of competition in the industry led to an increase in longevity largely by forcing a reduction in the price of auto maintenance and repair, which in turn induced consumers to maintain their cars into older age. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-98-20&r=cse |
| By: | Nicola MATTEUCCI |
| Abstract: | Il presente case-study analizza l'evoluzione della pay-TV in Italia. Dopo aver ripercorso le fasi evolutive della sua struttura di mercato, nell'alternanza tra monopolio e duopolio, vengono esaminate le strategie competitive degli operatori, focalizzando l'attenzione sul ruolo giocato dall'accumulo dei diritti televisivi premium e sul loro potenziale di deterrenza e chiusura verticale del mercato. Successivamente vengono esaminati i principali interventi delle autorità antitrust nazionali e comunitarie nella pay-TV (Provv. AGCM n. 8386 del 2000, n. 10716 del 2002, Comm UE n. COMP/M.2876) e ne vengono discusse la logica e l'efficacia in termini di salvaguardia della contendibilità del mercato e del benessere del consumatore, anche alla luce della letteratura teorica di riferimento. Inoltre, attraverso la valutazione del welfare degli assetti di mercato positivi (realizzati) e di quelli normativi (auspicabili), si discutono i punti di maggiore problematicita' del monopolio attualmente vigente nella pay-TV italiana. In sintesi, l'intervento antitrust sin dall'inizio ha lucidamente stilizzato le fondamentali dinamiche competitive della pay-TV italiana, evidenziando il ruolo dei diritti televisivi. Tuttavia, l'analisi antitrust sembra deficitaria nella valutazione delle dinamiche economico-finanziarie degli operatori le quali, anzichŠ essere imputabili all'insostenibilita' della configurazione di mercato duopolistica, sono piuttosto la conseguenza dell'inadeguatezza dei modelli strategici degli operatori. Inoltre, le soluzioni adottate (autorizzazione del merger con condizioni di tipo comportamentale) non sembrano efficaci nel contesto italiano. In esso, per la mancanza di piattaforme di trasmissione concorrenti, il neo-monopolista satellitare fronteggia un basso grado di competizione effettiva e potenziale e la soluzione piu' appropriata sembra essere ancora quella classica e strutturale (proibizione del merger). Piu' in generale, vi Š un'elevata probabilita' che le vicende recenti della pay-TV, assieme alle irrisolte carenze normativo-regolamentari dell'intero settore radiotelevisivo, indirizzino lo sviluppo della TV digitale italiana verso traiettorie tecno-economiche subottimali e mortifichino il potenziale di pluralismo della TV digitale. |
| Keywords: | TV digitale, diritti televisivi, pay-TV satellitare, verticale forecslosure |
| JEL: | K21 L41 L42 L82 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:215&r=cse |
| By: | Tilton, John; Landsberg, Hans |
| Abstract: | Mining is widely viewed as an old industry with mature and stable technologies. Companies and countries with the best deposits are the most productive and efficient producers. As these deposits are depleted, mining shifts to countries with the next best deposits. This tendency to exploit poorer quality ores tends to push productivity down and the prices of mineral commodities up over time. Copper mining in the United States, however, calls into question this conventional view. After leading the world in output for decades, the U.S. industry lost its ability to compete and suffered a major decline during the 1970s and early 1980s. In the face of predictions of complete collapse, it staged a remarkable revival, and today mines more copper than in 1970. A handful of companies achieved this recovery, in large part through their efforts to introduce a wide range of cost-reducing innovations. These efforts, in turn, helped double labor productivity in copper mining during the 1980s. The known copper endowment of the United States hardly changed over this period, aside from the depletion arising from mining, and had little to do with either the decline or the recovery. The experience of copper mining in the United States holds a number of lessons for countries competing in global mineral markets and for countries striving to raise their labor productivity and standard of living. In particular, it highlights the stimulating influence of global competition on industry productivity and comparative advantage, even in the mining sector where mineral endowment is widely thought to be of overriding importance. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-97-41&r=cse |
| By: | Nabeshima, Kaoru; Yusuf, Shahid |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1980s, China has begun gradually integrating with the global system. In doing so the country has moved toward its own unique brand of market socialism, which recognizes private ownership, and is adopting market institutions and pursuing industrial change within the framework of an urban economic environment. The process of transition has now permeated every corner of Chinese life and no organization has been left untouched. Yet industrial organization in China-especially in the state sector-has been slow to shed many of the distinctive structural characteristics of the old line Maoist era state enterprises. The main prong of the industrial strategy in support of urban change is ownership reform that transforms state-owned enterprises into corporate entities with majority state ownership or places them wholly in private hands, in the process also bolstering the incentives for and the dynamism of the private sector. While the central government spearheads the ownership reform initiative, in the majority of cases the actual implementation is in the hands of municipal, county, and prefectural governments that must coordinate their efforts with other factors influencing urban changes. This paper situates industrial change in China within the context of urban development and examines the interplay of broad reform strategy with local implementation, and its actual practice by the reformed firms. |
| Keywords: | Municipal Financial Management,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Economic Theory & Research,State Owned Enterprise Reform,Microfinance |
| Date: | 2006–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3806&r=cse |
| By: | Lalive, Rafael; Schmutzler, Armin |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of introducing competition for local passenger railway markets in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. We compare the evolution of the frequency of service on lines that were exposed to competition for the market and lines that were not. Our results suggest that the competitively procured lines enjoyed a stronger growth of the frequency of service than those that were not procured competitively, even after controlling for various line characteristics that might have an independent influence on the frequency of service. Our results further suggest that the effects of competition may depend strongly on the operator. |
| Keywords: | competition for the market; liberalization; passenger railways; procurement auctions |
| JEL: | D43 D44 R48 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5396&r=cse |
| By: | Sedjo, Roger (Resources For the Future); Bergeron, Nancy |
| Abstract: | El Niño events are likely to affect maple syrup production since it is very sensitive to weather events. A statistically significant direct correlation has not been found in our preliminary analysis, however. This may be because many other factors affect production and because weather anomalies also occur in non-El Niño years. Few defensive activities are available to maple syrup producers to alleviate the negative impacts of weather anomalies on their production. Hence, the value of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) forecasts to them is likely to be low, even if a clear correlation between productivity and ENSO events was eventually found. Overall, small welfare impacts of El Niño weather events are expected from their impact on the maple syrup industry, even if a correction is found. This is mainly because the share of maple syrup production in the economy is very small. Also, only a portion of the exploitable trees is under production and hence some excess capacity exists. Furthermore, maple syrup has numerous substitutes (albeit imperfect) as sources of sugar and luxury food items; the impact on consumer welfare is hence likely to be small. The most unique feature of maple syrup production includes cultural and amenity values provided by the springtime sugaring off parties; this appears as the least substitutable characteristic of the maple syrup industry. Indeed, few forest-based activities exist at the time of maple sap harvest. In all likelihood, even if the development of the industry is slowed down because of ENSO events, this springtime ritual will remain as it does not involve great investment like the larger, more sophisticated activities do. The welfare impact, through the lack of substitute, would be greater if this tradition were to disappear altogether. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-99-43&r=cse |
| By: | Mary Amiti; Shang-Jin Wei |
| Abstract: | The practice of sourcing service inputs from overseas suppliers has been growing in response to new technologies that have made it possible to trade in some business and computing services that were previously considered non-tradable. This paper estimates the effects of offshoring on productivity in US manufacturing industries between 1992 and 2000, using instrumental variables estimation to address the potential endogeneity and errors in measurement of offshoring. It finds that service offshoring has a significant positive effect on productivity in the US, accounting for around 11 percent of productivity growth during this period. Offshoring material inputs also has a positive effect on productivity, but the magnitude is smaller accounting for approximately 5 percent of productivity growth. |
| JEL: | F1 F2 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11926&r=cse |