foreign direct investment and employment home country experience in the united states and sweden we compare the relation between foreign affiliate production and parent employment in us manufacturing multinationals with that in swedish firms us multinationals appear to have allocated some of their more labour intensive operations selling in world markets to affiliates in developing countries reducing the labour intensity in their home production swedish multinationals produce relatively little in developing countries and most of that has been for sale within host countries with import substituting trade regimes the great majority of swedish affiliate production is in high income countries the united states and europe and is associated with more employment particularly blue collar employment in the parent companies the small swedish owned production that does take place in developing countries is also associated with more white collar employment at home the effects on white collar employment within the swedish firms have grown smaller and weaker over time

private food safety and quality standards for fresh produce exporters the case of hortico agrisystems zimbabwe abstract there is evidence that the challenges of complying with stricter food safety and quality standards are acting to exclude small scale producers from export supply chains for high value agricultural products the case of hortico agrisystems illustrates the considerable challenges and costs faced by supermarket suppliers in sourcing from a broad base of small scale producers in the context of evolving food safety and quality standards while small scale producers are able to achieve levels of compliance at least equal to those of large scale producers multi tiered and dynamic systems of control are required to maintain control these need to include measures that facilitate compliance incentives to reward good performance and penalties to punish non compliance in establishing a sustainable supply system in this context both exporters and small scale producers face a steep learning curve in adjusting to new requirements further emphasising the need for supply chains to be responsive to change

the uk regional distribution of foreign direct investment analysis and determinants hill s and munday m 1992 the uk regional distribution of foreign direct investment analysis and determinants reg studies 26 535 544 this paper analyses the regional distribution of foreign direct investment fdi within the uk following an examination of those regions that have been successful in winning new inward investment the paper goes on to consider hypotheses that can be used to explain relative regional success in attracting new fdi projects and jobs empirical testing of these hypotheses suggests that both financial incentives and access to markets are important determinants of the regional distribution of new fdi projects and jobs hill c et munday m 1992 la distribution regionale de l investissement direct etranger au royaume uni analyse et determinants reg studies 26 535 544 cet article cherche a analyser la distribution regionale de l investissement direct etranger au sein du royaume uni suite a une examination des regions qui ont reussi a attirer de nouvel investissement

japanese and u s firms as foreign investors do they march to the same tune during the 1980s u s and japanese multinationals were attracted by some similar country characteristics low wage inflation low country risk good infrastructure and an educated work force both groups of investors displayed a persistence being strongly attracted to locations with significant past investment japanese firms started the decade as somewhat more fluid but as their investment levels surged they became much more persistent overall u s firms were more influenced by domestic market conditions and moved contrary to changes in host country trade intensity japanese investment had a somewhat greater affinity for trade reflecting their long standing interest in east asia some limited evidence suggests that factors driving the two groups of investors converged in the second half of the 1980s

employability adaptability and flexibility changing labour market prospects 2000 employability adaptability and flexibility changing labour market prospects regional studies vol 34 no 7 pp 599 600

agroindustrialization globalization and international development an overview of issues patterns and determinants this paper offers an overview for a special issue on agroindustrialization globalization and international development it sets out a conceptual framework for understanding the links among these three broad phenomena and then discusses emerging issues and evidence concerning the factors conditioning agroindustrialization in developing countries and the subsequent effects on employment poverty and the natural environment we conclude with a research agenda

agrifood grades and standards in the extended mercosur their role in the changing agrifood system is among the most important in terms of trade volumes in the developing world it contains global powerhouses of agroindustry and agriculture such as brazil ranked fourth worldwide and argentina and chile among the global frontrunners in meat and cereals and fruit respectively income growth and rapid urbanization are changing diets increasing the importance of processed foods and nonstaples as bennett s law predicts the most important nonstaples dairy vegetablesfruit meat and coffee have stringent export requirements with respect to g s in organization for economic cooperation and development oecd countries and mercosur domestic markets are themselves becoming more demanding in this regard the paper proceeds as follows section 2 presents definitions and theoretical hypotheses section 3 discusses policy and market determinants of changes in g s and highlights the importance of the emergence of privatized g s section 4 hypothesizes that the changes in g s are adding fuel to the forces of agrifood system concentration in the area section 5 concludes

assessing the impact of crop diversification on farm poverty in india summary crop diversification into high value crops hvcs can be a strategy to improve livelihood outcomes for farmers using data from a nationally representative survey we establish that households diversifying toward hvcs are less likely to be poor the biggest impact being for smallholders furthermore using continuous treatment matching we establish the relationship between degree of diversification share of area dedicated to hvc and poverty growers of hvcs need to allocate at least 50 area to hvcs to escape poverty effect of diversification on poverty is in general positive but it withers after a threshold probably because of constraints i e capital on smaller farms and labor on larger ones

the location of foreign direct investment an empirical analysis in this piece of research those factors are analysed which determine the choice of location for fdi the analysis is conducted using two models a multicountry model containing seven industrializ

agricultural marketing by smallholders in kenya a comparison of maize kale and dairy abstract research has demonstrated that commercializing smallholder agricultural production is one of the effective ways to boost farmer incomes employ labor and stimulate rural economies in sub saharan africa but this differs by commodity we use panel data covering over a decade to estimate output supply functions for smallholder farmers in kenya and compare these among three commodities with distinctive product attributes maize kale and milk we find that despite improved market access over the decade there is little discernible growth in market participation except in the case of milk a minority of households consistently sell from year to year and market concentration remains high across all the commodities indicating that production is largely subsistence nevertheless there is greater market orientation and less market concentration in kale and milk than in maize for all the commodities market participation is strongly associated with access to land productive assets technology use expected prices and rainfall amount and reliability we argue that broad based smallholder market participation can only be realized through interventions that raise smallholder production of marketable surpluses through raising productivity and this cuts across even the high value sub sectors such as horticulture and dairy also essential alongside such interventions are strategies to improving market access by reducing transaction costs

grim down south the determinants of unemployment increases in british cities in the 2008 2009 recession lee n grim down south the determinants of unemployment increases in british cities in the 2008 2009 recession regional studies this paper investigates the impact of the 2008 2009 recession on unemployment in the sixty largest cities in great britain the key determinant of changes in unemployment was the skills of the population with highly skilled cities experiencing smaller increases cities with employment in financial services or manufacturing sectors experienced larger increases in unemployment whether a city has a specialized or a diverse economy appears less important than the industries in which the city is specialized the results highlight a problem as the largest unemployment increases were in cities seen as having least potential for future growth

does entry size matter the impact of the life cycle and technology on firm survival a wave of empirical studies has recently emerged showing that smaller scale entry is confronted with a lower likelihood of survival than their larger counterparts the purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relationship between size of a firm when entering an industry and the likelihood of survival holds under different technological conditions and across the different stages of the industry life cycle the empirical evidence suggests that the relationship between firm size and the likelihood of survival is shaped by technology and the stage of the industry life cycle while the likelihood of survival confronting small entrants is generally less than that confronting their larger counterparts the relationship does not hold for mature stages of the product life cycle or in technologically intensive products in mature industries that are still technologically intensive entry may be less about radical innovation and possibly more about filling strategic niches thus negating the impact of entry size on the likelihood of survival

the locational determinants of direct investments among industrialized countries abstract market size and growth rate as well as tariff barriers have already been shown to influence u s direct investments in the eec the present paper enlarges the field of observation to all bilateral flows of direct investments among six industrialized countries the united states germany france the united kingdom the netherlands and belgium over the years 1969 1982 it also tests the impact of two other would be locational determinants of foreign direct investments namely unit labour costs and export flows moreover a new and alternative specification is put forward and tested which assumes that in the investment decision process foreign locations are in competition not only with each other but also with the home country of the investor

the resurgence of sharecropping historical anomaly or political strategy although traditional economic theories regard sharecropping as inefficient and likely to dwindle in systems of capitalist commodity production sharecropping has exhibited remarkable persistence under a range of historical conditions this article explores the reasons for the unexpected tenacity of share farming and considers its implications for the analysis of rural class structure and agrarian change using the example of the resurgence of sharecropping in the california strawberry industry the paper demonstrates that political constraints on agricultural production are key determinants of the contemporary adoption of sharecropping establishing a context in which sharecropping not only facilitates but is recreated by capitalist accumulation

grain versus food a hidden issue in china s food policy debate abstract the paper examines the likely pattern of china s food trade in the future should china s food trade policy be adjusted to accommodate its comparative advantage differing from the common perception that china s overall food sector will follow the path of grain trade and face an ever growing trend of net imports this study has found an evolving pattern of exchanging food for food in china over the last 15 years the pattern is in part characterized by strong export expansion of selected food products such as vegetables and fruits aquatic products etc the economic rationale behind the pattern is examined through a comparison of relative costs among alternative food products in china the policy implications of the study are discussed

the globalization of organic agro food networks summary this article analyzes the booming world trade in organic agro foods such as tropical products counterseasonal fresh produce and processed foods research focuses on expanding south north networks linking major us and european markets with major production regions particularly in latin america employing a commodity network approach i analyze organic production distribution and consumption patterns and the roles of social political and economic actors in consolidating international trade organic certification proves central to network governance shaping product specifications production parameters and enterprise participation my analysis identifies key contradictions between mainstream agro industrial and alternative movement conventions in global organic networks 2004 published by elsevier ltd

the internationalization of production by italian industrial districts firms structural and behavioural determinants mariotti s mutinelli m and piscitello l the internationalization of production by italian industrial districts firms structural and behavioural determinants regional studies the paper argues that structural and behavioural determinants combine to influence internationalization of production through foreign direct investment fdi by industrial districts firms as far as the former leadership effects represented by the presence of large firms within the district and porterian effects denoted by the intensity of domestic rivalry positively influence the likelihood that district firms will start internationalize through fdi moreover spillovers induced by the presence of foreign owned multinational corporations positively impact on the district s degree of internationalization provided it has already autonomously developed the ability to grow internationally as far as behavioural features previous export relationships increase the district firms likelihood of undertaking fdi while innovat

redundancy in an expanding labour market a case study of displaced workers from two manufacturing plants in southampton previous studies of redundancy have been derived from a restricted geographical base they have been predominantly concerned with workers made redundant by manufacturing firms in older industrial regions and have largely ignored redundancies in more buoyant labour market areas this paper examines the post redundancy experience of workers made redundant by two large manufacturing firms in southampton in the mid 1980s comparison with previous studies of redundancy in less prosperous labour markets in northern regions of the uk highlights contrasts in the proportions of workers finding alternative employment and in rates of pay working conditions and levels of job satisfaction the study also highlights the importance of gender in post redundancy experience another factor that has been neglected in previous studies

the founder s self assessed competence and venture performance abstract a large body of recent research seeks to understand organizational founding and the performance of emerging businesses although much of this research has focused on the characteristics of the business founder there is only mixed support for relationships between founders characteristics and venture performance begley and boyd 1987 gartner 1988 low and macmillan 1988 sexton and bowman 1984 this study is based on research that identifies the entrepreneurial managerial and technical functional functions as three roles that founders must competently enact in order to be successful hofer and sandberg 1987 mintzberg and waters 1982 pavett and lau 1983 schein 1987 effective performance in the entrepreneurial role requires the founder to have the ability to recognize business opportunities and the drive to see firm creation through to fruition hofer and sandberg 1987 timmons et al 1987 effective execution of the managerial role requires conceptual interpersonal and political competence pavett and lau 1983 to be competent in the technical functional role founders must be able to use the tools or procedures required in their specialized field pavett and lau 1983 to measure the competencies necessary for effectiveness in the entrepreneurial managerial and technical functional roles we developed a questionnaire to allow founders to provide self evaluations of their competencies the results provide strong evidence for the reliability of measurement and the validity of the constructs the relationships revealed in this study suggest some preliminary recommendations for potential entrepreneurs career counselors and educators the number of businesses previously initiated and the years spent as an owner manager do not appear to be strongly related to the performance of the venture however the most successful entrepreneurs are strongly convinced of their ability to recognize business opportunity they believe that they have the drive to see the venture through to fruition and report that they subjugate outside interests to the demands of their businesses thus although self assessed proficiency in the entrepreneurial function does not appear to be contingent on the length of previous experience as a founder it does appear to be a necessary component in the development of high performance companies founders of the most successful firms also gave themselves high ratings on the abilities associated with effective performance in the managerial role they had high self evaluation scores on the items measuring organizational and interpersonal skills competence in the managerial role appears to be enhanced by business education and the years of general managerial experience the founders of highly successful firms also evaluated their technical skills highly they believed they were experts in their fields and could use the specialized tools and procedures to produce high quality products and services thus the results indicate that the most successful founders those whose firms show higher levels of growth and earnings rate themselves as competent in the entrepreneurial managerial and technical functional roles they see themselves as competent generalists and in a result that is most gratifying for those in higher education it appears that a business education and experience in general managerial positions lays the ground work for a successful entrepreneurial career

a reestimation of the evans jovanovic entrepreneurial choice model abstract the evans jovanovic finding that entrepreneurial ability and wealth are negatively correlated is puzzling we show that this may result from a downward bias in their wealth data using less biased wealth data we find a positive correlation which is theoretically more justifiable

determining factors for the adoption of e business the case of smes in korea this study investigates the determining factors of the successful adoption of e business by small and medium enterprises smes in korea using survey data after the major determining factors were identified from the innovation adoption literature and were extracted by applying the principal component analysis to the survey data and by adding the country specific characteristics of korea we conducted empirical analyses to determine the critical success factors for the adoption of e business by korean firms the empirical results which are based on t tests of the differences between adopters and non adopters the linear probability model and the logit model all suggest that the important determinants of the successful adoption of e business by smes in korea are the ceo s knowledge of information technology it e business relative advantages and benefits from implementing e business governmental support globalization strategy and the north korean factor business size the cost of e business adoptio

in search of substitution between foreign production and exports abstract are foreign production and exports substitutes or complements standard theory of the multinational corporation mnc assumes substitution while previous empirical work examining the relationship has generally found strong evidence of complementarity this study examines product level data which more closely fits the assumption of a single product firm often used in mnc theory and finds substantial evidence for both a substitution and a complementarity effect between affiliate production and exports with japanese automobile parts for the us market i also test for and find evidence of substitution using product level data on a set of japanese produced final consumer goods

embedding the multinationals institutions and the development of overseas manufacturing affiliates in wales and north east england phelps n a mackinnon d stone i and braidford p 2003 embedding the multinationals institutions and the development of overseas manufacturing affiliates in wales and north east england reg studies 37 27 40 the impact of foreign direct investment fdi upon host regions is a topic of perennial interest within the fields of regional economics industrial geography and regional development much of the early literature here draws negative conclusions regarding the wider indirect impacts of fdi on host regions pointing to the branch plant syndrome in light of significant processes of corporate restructuring and the build up of host region institutional capacities however recent literature has claimed that the plants of multinational enterprises mnes are becoming increasingly embedded in regional economies against this backdrop this paper aims to provide a critical assessment of the regional embeddedness of fdi in wales and the north east of england based upon an extensive survey of o

job queues and the union status of workers this paper develops a model of the determination of the union status of workers that allows for the possibility of queuing for union jobs the empirical results derived using a sample from the university of michigan panel study of income dynamics are supportive of the queuing hypothesis the no queue model can be rejected using a likelihood ratio test this suggests that a simple probit or logit model for union status is misspecified because it is not based on any consistent behavioral theory an important implication of the model is that because most new entrants to the labor market prefer union jobs but cannot get them and because accrual of nonunion seniority makes workers progressively less likely to desire union jobs the union status of workers is largely determined by their success in being selected from the queue early in their working life

does service fdi locate differently to manufacturing fdi a regional analysis for great britain jones j and wren c does service fdi locate differently to manufacturing fdi a regional analysis for great britain regional studies this paper analyses the location of foreign direct investment fdi in services at the nuts 2 region level for great britain over 1996 2005 covering the period of growth in fdi it finds strong differences in service fdi location compared with manufacturing fdi unlike manufacturing service fdi location is determined at no higher than the nuts 2 region level while it is more dynamic and converging to the larger markets a similar pattern is found for the services that are most forward linked to manufacturing industries the paper concludes that access to final consumer demand is important for service fdi with implications for uk regional policy

employment change in independent owner managed high technology firms in great britain there is a growing volume of literature that points to the potential for small technology based firms to achieve substantial employment growth as a direct consequence of such work this sector of any economy has attracted increasing attention from national and local governments concerned with finding ways of revitalising economically deprived localities and creating employment opportunities this paper provides up to date empirical evidence surrounding the ability of small high technology firms to create additional jobs in great britain in addition key founder and business characteristics are isolated which are significantly associated with employment change in growing high technology firms over the 1986 to 1992 period with respect to factors influencing these high levels of employment growth a high firm size in 1986 was found to act positively on employment growth as was a graduate level education for the key founder on the finance side firms which had access to and used a multiplicity of sources of start up finance tended to grow faster futher on the basis of our results we would suggest and recommend a government policy which at the firm level actively encourages high technology firm start ups who record higher rates of survival than firms in more conventional sectors as well as providing support for existing high technology firms who have already demonstrated the inclination and ability to grow in employment size

three decades of italian comparative advantages he structure of italian exports its characteristics its changes over time its causes and implications in terms of income and growth employment and fragility with respect to domestic and international shocks has been the issue around which at least three generations of italian economists have discussed and disagreed over the last 30 years if one has to attribute to one single cause the origin of this multi faceted debate that very cause would be the perplexity associated with the evidence of italy being on the one hand a large industrialised country with per capita income comparable to the top high income oecd members world bank 2004 and on the other hand being characterised by an export composition where traditional low skilled labour intensive sectors oecd 2001 and peneder 2003 such as textiles wearing apparel leather products furniture and footwear still play a relevant role this anomaly in the italian trade structure with respect to one of its fellow members of the g7 and its high level of persistence is what makes of italy a case in the international trading system this paper describes the primary feature giving rise to this debate the italian export composition and its evolution over time the analysis makes use of the revealed comparative advantage rca index associated with the name of bela balassa and through non parametric statistical techniques estimates the empirical the author is very grateful to miur prin pie 2003 and jetro for the financial support and to giancarlo spagnolo for his encouragement discussions with matteo bugamelli giuliano conti davide castellani sergio de nardis paolo guerrieri fabrizio onida and lucia tajoli are gratefully acknowledged the author thanks riccardo faini for sharing his work on the topic and lucia piscitello for making her districts taxonomy available he also benefited from the comments of two anonymous referees that largely influenced the restructuring of the paper many of the arguments of this paper come from the inspiring discussions the author had over the years with massimo tamberi all remaining errors and omissions are the author s own responsibility the data sets and the rscript used in the paper can be downloaded from the webpage http www economiamc org debenedictis

do firms get the financing they want measuring credit rationing experienced by small businesses in the u s this paper measures the extent to which small businesses in the united states in the late 1980s were able to access the external credit finance they desired we argue that a comprehensive definition of credit rationing must account for both a creditworthy firms that apply for and are denied financing and b creditworthy firms that decide not to apply for desired external financing given expectations about how long it may take to obtain financing and the evolution of investment opportunities

branch plants and the evolving spatial division of labour a study of material linkage change in the northern region of england phelps n a 1993 branch plants and the evolving spatial division of labour a study of material linkage change in the northern region of england reg studies 27 87 101 recent literature has suggested that manufacturing industry including that in peripheral regions is becoming more locally embedded as a result of processes of externalization and localized linkage formation this paper explores the hypothesis that branch plants have in terms of spatial patterns of material linkages become more locally embedded as a result of recent industrial restructuring evidence from a survey of manufacturing establishments in the northern region of england is used to explore hypotheses regarding the contribution of new greenfield investments and in situ restructuring to aggregate changes in spatial patterns of linkages the results suggests that despite processes of externalization northern region branch plants continue to be poorly integrated into the regional economy consequently it is argued that the cont

the relationship between firm growth size and age estimates for 100 manufacturing industries this study uses a sample of all firms operating in 100 manufacturing industries to examine some aspects of firm dynamics it finds that firm growth the variability of firm growth and the probability that a firm will fail decrease with firm age it also finds that firm growth decreases at a diminishing rate with firm size even after controlling for the exit of slow growing firms from the sample gibrat s law therefore fails although the severity of the failure decreases with firm size copyright 1987 by blackwell publishing ltd

foreign direct investment in the united states an analysis by country of origin given the large size and rapid growth of foreign direct investment in the united states this subject is a central concern of u s firms and u s government policymakers this study explores the factors that contribute to the explanation of fdi in the united states by country of origin of investment evidence from the past twelve years shows that the main significant positive influences are home country s exports to the united states and home country market size significant negative influences include the home country s imports from the united states the cultural and geographic distances of the home country from the united states and the exchange rate fx

the boundaries of multinational enterprises and the theory of international trade this paper begins with a review of empirical evidence on multinational firms conceptual underpinnings of a theory are developed relying in particular on the notion of knowledge capital as a mobile joint input into geographically separated production facilities this idea is embedded in a simple two country general equilibrium model that supports multinational production in equilibrium under conditions consistent with the empirical evidence the final section examines internalization and shows why certain properties of knowledge capital also imply a preference for transferring technologies internally within the firm rather than through arm s length markets

the failure of training in britain analysis and prescription in the last decade education and training et reform has become a major issue in many of the world s industrial powers one theme which runs throughout these reform initiatives is the need to adapt et systems to the changing economic environment these changes include the increasing integration of world markets the shift in mass manufacturing towards newly developed nations and the rapid development of new technologies most notably information technologies education and training are seen to play a crucial role in restoring or maintaining international competitiveness both on the macro level by easing the transition of the workforce into new industries and at the micro level where firms producing high quality specialized goods and services require a well qualified workforce capable of rapid adjustment in the work process and continual product innovation this paper will highlight the need for policy makers and academics to take account of the two way nature of the relationship between et and the economy

location and the multinational enterprise a neglected factor this article first traces the changing world economic scenario for international business over the past two decades and then goes on to examine its implications for the location of foreign direct investment and multinational enterprise activity it suggests that many of the explanations of the 1970s and early 1980s need to be modified as firm specific assets have become mobile across natural boundaries a final section of the article examines the dynamic interface between the value added activities of multinational enterprises in different locations

creating self sustaining high skill ecosystems geographic clusters of high technology companies are an increasingly important source of wealth and job creation in the advanced industrial countries this article provides a framework for understanding the conditions that give rise to these self sustaining high skill ecosystems hses that is based on the cases of the highly successful biomedical and computer hardware and software firms clustered in northern and southern california the framework identifies four requirements that hses share in common with natural ecosystems a catalyst to trigger the start of their development ongoing nourishment a supportive host environment and a high degree of interdependence among the actors in the system the framework is then applied to the uk identifying those policy options that are necessary for gaining greater returns from the uk s strong research base

what characterizes a fast growing firm this paper seeks to empirically identify factors that influence the probability of being a fast growing firm in eastern and western germany descriptive analyses have shown that most firms experience only small positive or negative employment growth or stagnate over time the job generation mechanism rests with a handful of firms that increase their employment significantly over time the empirical analysis shows that the probability of being a fast growing firm depends on different factors when separating eastern and western germany as well as using different definitions of fast growing firms moreover the analysis shows that technology intensive manufacturing branches and knowledge based business related services do not generate the majority of fast growing firms

internet start ups access to the bank loan market evidence from italy the analysis of the bank sector s ability to efficiently fuel the birth of new italian business ventures in internet related services is studied in particular through the specification and the estimate of a series of econometric models this paper aims at investigating which characteristics of a large sample of internet start ups and their relative founders facilitate access to the loan market more precisely the role played by founders human capital as a possible significant signal used by banks to evaluate investment projects is addressed estimation results suggest that highly qualified human resources possessed by internet founders do not represent an important driver for gaining access to bank credit and they do not affect the amount of the incurred debt

the impact of the tomato agroindustry on the rural poor in mexico this article addresses the issue of whether the tomato agroindustry tai has been an effective instrument in the reduction of rural poverty the tai is by far the most important agroindustry in mexico in terms of exports and employment creation most of the laborers employed by the tai in northwest mexico are temporary migrants coming from poverty stricken regions in southern mexico conditions of poverty induced migration are explained the characteristics and strategies of large modern tomato enterprises are analyzed the main conclusion is that migrant income earned in the tomato fields and packing plants is fundamental for the bare survival in villages in poverty stricken regions however this does not provide a solution to poverty alleviation because migrant income is not sufficient to contribute to capital formation in the migrating communities or the to create the conditions for endogenous local development

unwelcome immigrants the labor market experiences of 1980 mariel cuban and haitian refugees in south florida this article examines the situation of 2 recently arrived and disadvantaged immigrant groups in the context of 2 competing theoretical traditions classical assimilation and recent labor market segmentation theories predictions of both concerning us labor market entry of foreign minorities and determinants of subsequent mobility are tested on the basis of representative surveys most are not confirmed the analysis supports the hypothesis of heterogeneous modes of incorporation into the labor market including substantial numbers of refugees who remain outside of it sizable proportions have only managed to find fringe employment in a energing informal economy in south florida among cubans employment in the ethnic enclave is associated with positive returns comparable to those of entry into the primary labor market haitians lack an enclave option and thus cluster into secondary and informal employment although most remain without work determinants of these various situations are examined on the basis of multivariate logistic regressions implications of results for immigration theory and policy are discussed authors

determinants of the internationalization of regions the role and effectiveness of public policy measures banno m piscitello l and varum c determinants of the internationalization of regions the role and effectiveness of public policy measures regional studies this paper assesses the role of public policy measures on outward internationalization of regions by including financial and non financial incentives among the determinants of the international competitiveness of regions it is found that the former are important to enhance their active internationalization but that variables related to the knowledge and competence base of regions are even more so financial incentives related to equity participation as well as non financial incentives related to the provision of information come out highly significant in stimulating outward internationalization the empirical analysis is conducted for the twenty italian nuts 2 regions over the period 2003 2008

the role of legal status in influencing bank financing and new firm growth this paper examines the characteristics of new firm founders who use loans and overdrafts from the clearing banks to finance initially their business bank lending to new firms appears unrelated to the personal characteristics of founders but related to whether individuals provide personal savings and the legal status of the business this contrasts with the factors which influence the growth of new firms here the founder s age employment status and birthplace are associated with larger firms the only variable which appears to influence consistently both bank lending and the employment growth in firms is whether or not the business is a limited company

contract farming smallholders and rural development in latin america the organization of agroprocessing firms and the scale of outgrower production abstract this paper demonstrates how contract farming functions as an economic institution and explores the causes of the observed variation in the scale of outgrower production in latin america we outline how market imperfections and transaction costs influence the decision of agroprocessing firms to contract out vertically integrate or use spot markets to obtain raw product the paper demonstrates how market conditions are likely to be associated with particular outgrower characteristics under contract farming an analysis of the mexican frozen vegetable industry illustrates determinants of successful and unsuccessful small scale contracting and suggests alternative policies to promote contract farming with smallholders

farm size and non traditional exports determinants of participation in world markets abstract this paper examines irrigated grape production by small and large farms in the sao francisco valley bahia pernambuco of northeastern brazil it argues that while small farms have lower costs in producing these nontraditional export crops they are vulnerable because they do not have secure access to postharvest transport and marketing services the paper also argues that large grape firms have been able to maintain a dominant presence in export grape production because of the presence of a large supply of labor largely female and because of weak labor legislation which allows them to reduce the cost of labor in various ways

capital market imperfections high tech investment and new equity financing highly variable returns asymmetric information and a lack of collateral should cause small high tech firms to have poor access to debt new equity financing has several advantages over debt but may be costly compared to internal finance we examine an unbalanced panel of over 2 400 publicly traded us high tech companies over the period 1981 98 most small high tech firms obtain little debt financing new equity financing in the form of the initial public offering is very important and permits a major increase in firm size after going public comparatively few firms make heavy use of external finacing

looking beyond national boundaries regional harmonization of seed policies laws and regulations countries in west eastern and southern africa are pursuing the regional harmonization of their seed laws and regulations common regulatory frameworks are expected to reduce the costs of trading seed and encourage scale economies in seed production as a result commercial seed production is expected to expand providing farmers with improved access to new varieties and stimulating productivity growth the impact of these harmonization efforts will depend on the details of the regulatory agreements policy makers are being asked to consider a complicated series of trade offs between stricter measures for quality control and the need to encourage the multiplication and distribution of lower cost seed they are also being confronted with two possible views of sectoral development one view entails the pursuit of better linkages between distinct national seed markets the second involves the development of truly regionalized seed markets where seed can be readily produced in one country and sold in any other country this implies greater regional interdependence of seed supply the paper compares the harmonization agreements being pursued in each of the three african regions and progress in implementing the accords efforts to adapt international seed market standards to the contingencies of african markets are discussed and priorities for further policy analysis are identified

governance and trade in fresh vegetables the impact of uk supermarkets on the african horticulture industry production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries in sub saharan africa over the last decade this trade brings producers and exporters based in africa together with importers and retailers in europe large retailers in europe play a decisive role in structuring the production and processing of fresh vegetables exported from africa the requirements they specify for cost quality delivery product variety innovation food safety and quality systems help top determine what types of producers and processors are able to gain access to the fresh vegetables chain and the activities they must carry out the control over the fresh vegetables trade exercised by uk supermarkets has clear consequences for inclusion and exclusion of producers and exporters of differing types and for the long term prospects for the fresh vegetables industry in the two major exporting countries studied kenya and zimbabwe

diversification into horticulture and poverty reduction a research agenda summary horticultural produce and processed products from the developing world are becoming increasingly popular both in domestic and in international markets global production and exports are rising steadily however yield increases have been smaller than area growth and have been negligible or even negative in the least developed countries while experience shows that horticulture can offer good opportunities for poverty reduction because it increases income and generates employment care must be taken that small and poor farmers are not excluded from the opportunities in these market sectors in this article we argue that development agencies must put more emphasis on horticultural research and development especially in the following priority areas genetic improvement safe production systems commercial seed production postharvest facilities and the urban peri urban environment

new firm survival new results using a hazard function a limitation of audretsch s 1991 study of new firm survival was the level of aggregation to industries this precluded linking establishment specific characteristics such as organizational structure and size to post entry performance the purpose of this paper is to relate the post entry performance of individual establishments not only to their technological and market structure environments but also to establishment specific characteristics we do this by estimating a hazard duration function for more than 12 000 individual establishments in u s manufacturing started in 1976 by tracking their subsequent performance over a ten year period we conclude that establishment specific characteristics which audretsch was not able to capture in his earlier study play an important role in shaping the exposure to risk confronting new establishments copyright 1995 by mit press

agricultural commercialization impacts on income and nutrition and implications for policy abstract agricultural technology and commercialization are complementary stimulators of the rural economic growth process specialization and commercialization of farming households within a more diversified economy is part of the development process but there are concerns that the process by passes the poor this article discusses the evidence on poverty and nutritional impacts of agricultural commercialization and examines how policies can affect the outcome of the commercialization process principle driving forces of the commercialization process include a conducive macroeconomic environment non distortive trade policies and infrastructure development as well as a legal and contractual environment in which farmers and processors may operate efficiently policies related to these driving forces will very much influence the nature and speed of the agricultural commercialization process these in turn will largely determine the impacts of the process on farm household income and nutritional status

continuity and evolution in an old industrial region the labour market dynamics of the rise and fall of northern rock dawley s marshall n pike a pollard j and tomaney j continuity and evolution in an old industrial region the labour market dynamics of the rise and fall of northern rock regional studies the northern rock mortgage bank was a high profile casualty of the credit crunch in 2007 an evolutionary geographical political economy approach demonstrates that northern rock s growth and decline was shaped by its location in an old industrial region and echoes the historical position of the peripheral region in the spatial division of labour a longitudinal investigation focuses on the labour market dynamics of northern rock s rapid growth and decline on the north east of england the northern rock case highlights the enduring occupational structure of the region s labour market and shows how older industrial regions suffer from a process of occupational disadvantage that restricts their ability to adapt to economic change

levelling the uneven playing field inward investment interregional rivalry and the planning system tewdwr jones m and phelps n a 2000 levelling the uneven playing field inward investment interregional rivalry and the planning system reg studies 34 429 440 concern has been mounting recently over the increasing intensity of competition among british regions for foreign direct investment this competition has been at its fiercest in the case of a number of recent very largest inward investment projects with public concern focusing on wasteful bidding up of total incentives packages this government has been alerted to the unfair playing field across the uk in terms of the financial capital grants made to overseas companies to locate to certain regions of the uk particularly wales and have responded by developing initiatives intended to enhance the english regions however little attention has been focused to date on the other factors utilized by successful regions in the interregional rivalry for scarce inward investment these other factors comprise firstly the unique ways in whic

economic determinants of imf financial arrangements abstract we analyze factors that lead to imf approval of financial arrangements we account for both economic variables that induce a country to seek an imf arrangement demand side factors and macroeconomic policy commitments that the imf considers when deciding whether to approve it supply side factors using a pooled sample of annual observations for 91 developing countries over 1973 1991 we obtain maximum likelihood bivariate and univariate probit estimates of the approval of an imf arrangement for a given country in a given year a number of demand side and supply side variables are statistically significant determinants of the approval of an imf arrangement

new firm growth and bank financing this paper examines the extent to which lucas ideas on human capital and jovanovic theorising on learning can provide further insights into the development of small firms it focuses exclusively upon newly established independent firms our evidence from two surveys is that bank lending to new firms is unrelated to many of the personal characteristics of founders which have been argued by other researchers to relate to small firm performance instead lending appears to be more related to whether or not the founder can or chooses to use personal savings and the legal status of the business

characteristics distinguishing high growth ventures abstract the purpose of this study is to define characteristics that distinguish high growth from low growth companies in this examination particular emphasis is focused on characteristics that lend themselves to objective evalnation in previous studies great emphasis has been placed upon characteristics related to the personal capabilities of entrepreneurs although such characteristics are widely accepted as being of great importance they are subjective and evaluated only with great difficulty two pools of companies were examined in the course of this study each company responded to a comprehensive questionnaire and provided longitudinal data related to a wide variety of operating characteristics the first pool of companies the reynolds data base consisted of relatively young small companies the second pool price waterhouse clients included companies that were generally larger and more mature than those in the reynolds data base the distinction between the samples permitted us to consider how the set of growth characteristics varies at different stages in a company s development discriminant analysis of both samples yielded the following insights 1 in both pools it was important that management have substantial industry experience no other characteristic related to the experience or capability of the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team was identified as distinguishing between high and low growth 2 an interesting strategic profile became apparent based upon the examination of the two groups in the reynolds sample the high growth companies were more focused than their low growth counterparts with more revenue being generated by a single product conversely in the price waterhouse sample the high growth companies displayed a greater propensity for market and product diversification than did the slow growth companies in that pool these results seem logical in that smaller companies have fewer resources and therefore may perform better by focusing their effort conversely more mature companies need to expand growth prospects and hedge against overreliance on any particular opportunity 3 growth companies in the reynolds data base ran leaner than the low growth companies in that sample with fewer managers slimmer payrolls as a percentage of sales and more productive uses of assets growth companies in the price waterhouse sample were more likely to have balanced management teams than the price waterhouse slow growers leanness was not a discriminating variable in this group as one might expect more mature companies would require a broader array of talents and would be better able to afford balanced teams 4 rapid market growth and the ability to develop close customer contacts were identified as discriminating characteristics in the price waterhouse sample neither were identified in the reynolds data base companies in the reynolds data base were not asked to report on market growth and were probably too young to have established much in the way of customer relationships these companies did however report a greater utilization of advanced technology

competing at home to win abroad evidence from japanese industry the study explores the influence of domestic competition on international trade performance using data from a broad sample of japanese industries domestic rivalry is measured directly using market share instability rather than employing structural variables such as seller concentration we find robust evidence that domestic rivalry has a positive and significant relationship with trade performance measured by world export share particularly when r d intensity reveals opportunities for dynamic improvement and innovation conversely trade protection reduces export performance these findings support the view that local competition not monopoly collusion or a sheltered home market pressures dynamic improvement that leads to international competitiveness

smallholder participation in vegetable exports and age disaggregated labor allocation in northern tanzania modern agricultural supply chains have been playing an increasingly important role in developing countries and have had significant effects on rural labor markets this article analyses the effects of smallholder farmer participation in export vegetable supply chains in northern tanzania on both household hired labor demand and off farm labor supply using an age disaggregated approach in our sample neither separability nor exogeneity of smallholder farmer participation in export supply chains can be rejected hence we apply lognormal double hurdle models and find that participation in export supply chains positively affects households decision to hire labor from all age groups we also find that it increases the unconditional overall level of hired labor demand while the age disaggregated analysis shows that these effects mostly benefit rural youth however our sample does not allow us to establish statistically significant evidence of an effect on household off farm labor supply although the point estimates point to nonnegligible positive effect sizes

processed food trade and developing countries protection and trade liberalization abstract exports of processed foods from developing countries have expanded rapidly in recent times contributing to their economic development recent published research has shown that the export policies and agricultural resource endowment of the developing country offer significant explanations for this export growth but what if developing countries further lowered their tariff barriers against imports what impact would such policy changes have on processed food exports from developing countries alternatively what if processed food trade barriers are lowered in developed countries and if trade in manufactured goods were to be further liberalised what might be the impacts on the processed food sectors of developing countries an applied general equilibrium model is used to shed light on these questions through simulations of trade policy alternatives most developing regions examined had a positive effective protection rate for processed foods in the base year this effective protection was lowered when such countries reduced their agricultural tariffs when tariff cuts were extended to manufactured goods effective protection of food processing in most developing regions increased somewhat but was still less than base period protection for the developing countries it would appear that comprehensive trade policy reforms taken by themselves are about as significant as those of the developed world in terms of contributing to growth in processed food exports from developing countries such reforms allow those developing countries with a comparative advantage in food production to expand exports and to take advantage of increased access to other developing countries with a less favourable agricultural resource endowment as well as to developed country markets

exploring the regional distribution of inbound foreign direct investment in the uk in theory and practice evidence from a five region study fallon g and cook m exploring the regional distribution of inbound foreign direct investment in the uk in theory and practice evidence from a five region study regional studies this paper examines the main factors that attract inbound foreign direct investment fdi at the uk regional level using econometric data from five sample uk regions the south east the west midlands the north west wales and scotland broadly representing the country s regional economic divide the findings indicate that regional and national but not european union level factors linked to several underlying strategic determinants help determine the regional distribution of inbound foreign direct investment and its inter regional variation the paper concludes that governmental policy makers at the national and regional levels can have an important role to play in drawing targeted foreign direct investment inflows to the uk regions fallon g et cook m examiner la distribution regionale de l ide au royaume uni en the

agricultural commercialization and diversification processes and policies abstract agricultural commercialization and diversification involve the gradual replacement of integrated farming systems by specialized enterprises for crop livestock poultry and aquaculture products changes in product mix and input uses are determined largely by the market forces during this transition commercialization of agricultural production is an endogenous process and is accompanied by economic growth urbanization and withdrawal of labor from the agricultural sector this paper provides a selective overview and synthesis of the issues involved in the commercialization and diversification process of agriculture drawing in significant part from the papers in this volume based on an assessment of the process observed in selected countries we show that the commercialization process should not be expected to be a frictionless process and significant equity and environmental consequences may occur at least in the short to medium term particularly when inappropriate policies are followed however we highlight that appropriate government policies including investment in rural infrastructure and crop improvement research and extension establishment of secure rights to land and water and development and liberalization of capital markets can help alleviate many of the possible adverse transitional consequences

supermarkets and agricultural labor demand in kenya a gendered perspective abstract many developing countries are experiencing a rapid expansion of supermarkets new supermarket procurement systems could affect farming patterns and wider rural development while previous studies have analyzed farm productivity and income effects possible employment effects have received much less attention special supermarket requirements may entail intensified farm production and post harvest handling thus potentially increasing demand for hired labor this could also have important gender implications because female and male workers are often hired for distinct farm operations building on data from a recent survey of vegetable farmers in kenya a double hurdle model of hired labor use is developed and estimated farmer participation in supermarket channels increases the likelihood of hiring labor by 20 and demand for hired labor by 61 a gender disaggregation shows that positive employment effects are especially pronounced for female laborers who often belong to the most vulnerable population groups rural employment generation can be an important vehicle for poverty reduction

the food system transformation in developing countries a disaggregate demand analysis for fruits and vegetables in vietnam abstract food systems in developing countries are currently undergoing a rapid transformation towards high value products and modern supply chains while supply side aspects of this transformation have been analyzed previously issues of consumer demand have received much less attention this article analyses demand patterns for fresh fruits and vegetables in vietnam using household survey data and a demand systems approach demand for products from modern supply chains particularly supermarkets and non traditional imports is highly income elastic and the income effect is stronger than the impact of prices and supermarket penetration this highlights the importance of considering demand side aspects when projecting future trends our results imply a continued restructuring of the food sector in the further process of economic development

are business startups debt rationed using a large random sample of u k start ups and a rich data set the paper demonstrates that human capital is the true determinant of survival and that the correlation between financial capital and survival is spurious provision of finance is demand driven with banks supplying funds elastically and business requests governing take up firms self select for funds on the basis of the human capital endowments of the proprietors with better businesses more likely to borrow a reason why others have seemingly identified start up debt gaps may be the failure to test a sufficiently rich empirical model copyright 1996 by royal economic society

the local low skills equilibrium moving from concept to policy utility it is more than three decades since the publication of finegold and soskice s 1988 influential article the failure of training in britain analysis and prescription this widely cited publicati

the survival of new plants start up conditions and post entry evolution abstract this paper examines the longevity of entrants we find size to be an important determinant of the chances of survival this being particularly relevant to de novo entrants as compared with entry by established firms current size is also found to be a better predictor of failure than initial size moreover our findings indicate that after controlling for size differences past growth matters for survival suggesting a partial adjustment process for firm size in the post entry period finally new plants are more likely to live longer if they enter growing industries or industries with little entry activity

returning to work regional determinants of re employment after major redundancies abstractusing matched employer employee data on roughly 429 000 workers made redundant from large plant closures or major downsizing in sweden between 1990 and 2005 this paper analyses the role of the regional industry mix specialization related and unrelated variety in the likelihood of returning to work the results show that a high presence of same or related industries speeds up the re employment process while high concentrations of unrelated activities do not the role of related activities is particularly evident in the short run and in regions with high unemployment consequently the prospect of successful diversification is enhanced in regions with related industries

are labour markets necessarily local spatiality segmentation and scale this paper draws on recent debates about scale to approach the geography of labour markets from a dynamic perspective sensitive to the spatiality and scale of labour market restructuring its explo

uncertainty entrepreneurship and sharecropping in india this study attempts to explain the coexistence of different farm lease arrangements in terms of the varying significance of entrepreneurial functions in india crop sharing arrangements are common in areas of relative economic certainty with very little scope for decision making for example for product and factor substitution and where the entrepreneurial profit is low fixed cash rents are common in situations of high uncertainty where the scope for decision making is significant or where the crops are highly profitable efficiency considerations predominate in areas of sharecropping favoring a smaller farm size whereas under high uncertainty large size is favored for reducing risk

financing technology based small firms in europe what do we know this paper reviews the evidence on financing technology based small firms tbsfs in europe european tbsfs finance new investments by relying primarily on internal funds due to capital market failures induced by asymmetric information european venture capital has caught up with us venture capital but this is mainly because of the growth in uk venture investments it is unclear whether european venture capital has been able to certify the quality and enhance the growth of funded companies compared with the nasdaq there is little development of trading in high tech stocks in europe the so called new markets established in the 1990s collapsed in the wake of the internet bubble crash public venture capital and research and development r d tax incentives seem to have positively affected high tech firms

international investment location decisions abstract in international location tournaments governments compete for foreign investment with tax and other short run incentives such tournaments can be won if agglomeration economies are sufficiently powerful to overcome investors desire to spread investments as a hedge against risk we focus on manufacturing investments by u s multinationals in the 1980s our econometric results suggest that agglomeration economies are indeed the dominant influence on investor calculations paradoxically short run incentives have limited apparent impact on location choice we conclude that high cost tournament play is unnecessary for countries with good infrastructure development specialized input suppliers and an expanding domestic market

credit rationing or entrepreneurial risk aversion an alternative explanation for the evans and jovanovic finding abstract evans and jovanovic ej evans d jovanovic b 1989 an estimated model of entrepreneurial choice under liquidity constraints journal of political economy 97 4 808 827 claimed that in a credit market with collateral based lending credit rationing occurs if more collateral increases startups adjusting the model to incorporate uncertainty and decreasing absolute risk aversion this relationship can be explained as a risk averter s response to the lowered riskiness of self over wage employment

the spread of sharecropping in tuscany the political economy of transaction costs land tenure is central to many agricultural transformations the author examines one of these transformations the spread of sharecropping in late medieval and early modern tuscany previous research suggested that sharecropping spread as agricultural relations were refeudalized in contrast the author s analyses of fixed term and share term leasing sharecropping show that landlords used sharecropping when it lowered their overall costs of labor supervision and land management however to explain the spread of sharecropping the florentine political economy which created particular patterns of land management costs and labor supervision costs must also be considered florence was a well developed center for urban manufacturing landlords were frequently urban merchants and they resided in florence these factors were crucial in shaping agricultural relations landlords use of sharecropping to reduce the overall costs of land management and labor supervision increased as the distance from florence the site of landlords principal activities increased as the size of farms increased and when crops had high costs of labor supervision and land management thus the use of sharecropping to lower costs associated with agricultural production must be considered in the context of the tuscan political economy

a theory of discouraged borrowers this paper examines the implications for the sme financing market of application costs that vary between firms and of imperfect screening of applicants by banks under these conditions discouraged borrowers can exist these are good borrowers who do not apply for a bank loan because they feel they will be rejected the paper shows that under a range of assumptions the scale of discouragement in an economy depends upon the screening error of the banks the scale of application costs and the extent to which the bank interest rate differs from that charged by the moneylender discouragement is shown to be at a maximum where there is some but not perfect information

empirical regularities in the poverty environment relationship of rural households evidence from zimbabwe abstract analysis of rural households and environmental resources is beset by inadequate data especially in africa using purpose collected panel data from zimbabwe we demonstrate seven empirical regularities in the rural poverty environment relationship most important environmental resources make a significant contribution to average rural incomes poorer households also depend heavily on these resources which contribute c 40 to their incomes richer households however use greater quantities of environmental resources in total finally considerable differentiation exists in the economic characteristics of environmental goods these results demonstrate the considerable economic significance of environmental resources to rural households surveys which ignore them miscalculate rural incomes and welfare

ambivalence of class subjectivity the sharecroppers of the post bellum southern usa the paper argues that the economic literature on sharecropping uses a modernist notion of subjectivity that fails to explain the complexity of economic behaviour or the social context in which agency is formed i look at the case of economic subjectivity of southern sharecropping tenants in the post bellum usa using non determinist marxist class analysis together with the concept of subjectivity drawing from postcolonial theory in particular the work of homi bhabha i argue that this alternative approach to economic subjectivity which posits an ambivalent or contradictory subjectivity provides us with a better analytical grasp of economic agency and a better explanation of the perpetuation or demise of a productive form such as sharecropping copyright the author 2008 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press

food safety issues and fresh food product exports from ldcs fresh food products have a high income elasticity of demand and few traditional trade barriers in high income markets as such they represent an important opportunity for less developed country ldc exporters fresh food product exports account for half of all food and agricultural exports from ldcs to high income countries but these products may be subject to greater food safety risks and potential trade barriers arising from sanitary regulation this paper reviews the challenges and issues facing ldcs in meeting food safety standards for export these issues include a the importance of fresh food product trade by region and the kinds of issues that arise from those products b the role of farm to table approaches and hazard analysis critical control points haccp in ensuring safety c the role of the public sector in ldcs in facilitating trade d the potential role of the sps agreement in resolving disputes and determining equivalency of standards between high and low income countries

what determines the survival of internet ipos this article examines whether the variables that are significant in noninternet initial public offering ipos play a similar role for internet ipos to this end we analyse the determinants of survival of internet firms that have gone public at the nasdaq stock exchange from december 1996 through february 2001 financial and nonfinancial data published in the ipo prospectuses are examined for our analysis we use the semiparametric cox proportional hazard model and estimate the effect of these variables on the trading survival time using the parametric log logistic survival model it appears that the average operating history of internet ipos is remarkably small compared to noninternet ipos namely 2 4 and 10 years respectively furthermore we find that the average number of risk factors for internet ipos is four times higher than the number reported for noninternet ipos the results of the parametric analysis correspond to the semiparametric results our findings hold under a number of different mo