attitudes toward risk and the risk return paradox prospect theory explanations this study attempted to explain bowman s risk return paradox in terms of recent research in behavioral decision theory and prospect theory the research emphasized the role of reference or target

introduction imperfect information and rural credit markets puzzles and policy perspectives rural credit markets have been at the center of policy intervention in developing countries over the past forty years many governments supported by multilateral and bilateral aid agencies have devoted considerable resources to supplying cheap credit to farmers in a myriad of institutional settings the results of many of these interventions have been disappointing and one explanation for this must be that they were based on an inadequate understanding of the workings of rural credit markets the articles in this symposium issue are devoted to empirical and theoretical investigations of rural credit markets in the framework of the imperfect information paradigm the authors show how this framework is useful not only in explaining puzzling features of these markets but also in providing a policy perspective to assess the successes and failures of specific interventions

indonesian agricultural development in comparative perspective abstract in both the late colonial and the early post independence periods most observers of the indonesian economy were pessimistic about the prospects for agricultural and especially foodcrop growth but over the last 15 years food production growth in indonesia has been among the fastest in the world this paper examines the reasons for the accelerated growth and reviews some of the literature on its distributive consequences comparisons are made with other episodes of accelerated agricultural growth in recent asian history especially that of meiji japan it is shown that there are remarkable similarities between agricultural development indicators in indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s and those in meiji japan the challenge for indonesian policy makers in the future will be to build on the agricultural successes of the past two decades in order to create a more diversified economy and ensure sustained economic development

does recognition of climate change related risks and opportunities determine sustainability performance abstract climate change has continued to dominate both the political and business agenda for many years now this research aims to provide empirical evidence on the determinants of sustainability performance it draws upon prospect theory and resource based view framework to understand whether sustainability performance is driven by corporate recognition and framing of climate change issues i e as risks and or opportunities recognising the wide visibility and strong economic impact of large corporations the world s largest 500 companies top500 is the focus in this study to facilitate the investigation the top500 list is merged with corporate knights list of the global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world climate change data are taken from the carbon disclosure project survey findings confirm that recognition of climate change as a net risk is significant and negatively correlated to sustainability performance supporting prospect theory predictions the five year average profitability of firms and their recognition anticipation of climate change opportunities are also found to be significant and positively related to sustainability performance these imply in a manner consistent with the resource based view argument that proactivity is determined by a firm s commitment to look for opportunities that while necessitating deployment of substantial resources creates unique competitive edge

the economic theory of agrarian institutions introduction alternative approaches to the theory of institutions in economic development pranab bardhan rational peasants efficient institutions and a theory of rural organization methodological remarks for development economics joseph e stiglitz part 1 land and labour theories of sharecropping nirvikar singh a comparison of principal agent and bargaining solutions the case of tenancy contracts clive bell contracts with eviction in infinitely repeated principal agent relationships bhaskar dutta et al production relations in semi arid african agriculture hans binswanger et al part 2 credit and interlinked transactions rural credit markets the structure of interest rates exploitation and efficiency kaushik basu credit and agrarian class structure mukesh eswaran and ashok kotwal credit rationing tenancy productivity and the dynamics of inequality avishay braverman and joseph e stiglitz on choice among creditors and bonded labour contracts t n srinivasan some aspects of linked product and credit market contracts among risk neutral agents clive bell and t n srinivasan a note on interlinked rural economic arrangements pranab bardhan interlinkages and the pattern of competition debraj ray and kunal sengupta part 3 marketing and insurance agricultural institutions for insurance and stabilization david m newbery peasants risk aversion and the choice of marketing intermediaries and contracts a bargaining theory of equilibrium marketing contracts pinhas zusman part 4 co operatives technology and the state agricultural producer co operatives louis putterman institutional analysis of credit co operatives avishay braverman and j luis guasch agrarian structure technological innovations and the state alain de janvry et al

legal pluralism and decentralization natural resource management in mali summary much recent work on decentralized natural resource management has focused on the institutional arrangements that shape the balance of powers between central and local governments it has given comparatively less attention to relationships between local government and community level institutions in mali decentralization has superimposed modern legal institutions on community institutions the ambiguous relationships between them can undermine both the authority of nascent local governments and the performance of customary institutions legal pluralism the coexistence and interaction of multiple normative orders with different sources of legitimacy and authority helps explain the dynamic nature of local institutions under decentralization this article examines the experiences of three malian communities with decentralized natural resource management one maintains autonomy from government another engaged its local government and a third negotiated a multi stakeholder agreement a local convention they demonstrate that crafting workable relationships between communities and local government requires a pragmatic approach to negotiating and institutionalizing political space for innovation in self governance

impacts of access and benefit sharing on livelihoods and forest case of participatory forest management in ethiopia the introduction of participatory forest management pfm may involve the exclusion of previous forest users from accessing forest resources this is the case for pfm in the two ethiopian pioneer sites dodola and chilimo that represent two distinct pfm approaches in ethiopia this paper analyses how pfm after controlling pre pfm differences affects members of forest user groups fugs and non members total annual incomes forest incomes expenditures and livestock asset holdings income and asset data were collected from 635 randomly selected households data were analysed using propensity score matching models results show that in dodola where commercial timber harvest is allowed the introduction of pfm means that fugs have higher livestock assets and forest income than non members the average total income and the expenditure for members and nonmembers however were not significantly different in chilimo site the result is the opposite the introduction of pfm means that fug members have lower total incomes and assets than non members based on our findings we recommend that the pfm scaling up approaches in ethiopia which currently allow fugs only subsistence use from forest resources need to be revised

declining share of small firms in u s output causes and consequences jang ting guo i introduction according to the small business administration s sba calculations as shown in table 1 the contribution of small firms to u s national income was 58 in 1958 which then declined steadily to 51 in 1982 and stabilized around this value until 1992 the latest year for which the figures are available 1 this decline is quite puzzling in light of recent changes in technological factors market competition and government policies that were supposed to benefit small businesses 2 in this article we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with two production sectors representing large and small firms to examine possible causes and welfare implications of this declining trend of small firms output contribution in the u s economy moreover this study brings into focus the role of government policies such as the justice department s anti trust efforts and the tiering programs whereby many regulations impose lighter requirements on smaller firms in order to maintain their viability 3 recently there have been several developments that can be considered beneficial towards the emergence of small firms shephard 1982 has estimated that since 1958 government deregulatory efforts have raised the level of competition in the u s economy by eliminating entry barriers and lowering transaction costs these factors in turn have contributed to the viability of small firms in the marketplace furthermore the emergence of new computer based technologies in the last two decades has improved the quality and flexibility of small scale production relative to standardized mass production techniques since they reduce the fixed capital or fixed cost requirements see shephard 1982 piore and sable 1984 carlsson 1989b and carlsson audretsch and acs 1994 4 another factor that improves the viability of small firms is their higher innovation rate as documented by acs and audretsch 1990 the shift of consumers taste from standardized mass produced goods towards stylized and personalized prod ucts also promotes small firm growth given their flexible production structure small firms have become important suppliers for these new goods and services see carlsson 1989a in light of these favorable developments one would expect to observe the number of small firms as well as their share in national income to rise in the u s economy however this has not been borne out by the data regarding small firms output share this article examines this issue in a dynamic general equilibrium framework extending romer s 1987 model of specialization we develop an infinite horizon representative agent model with two production sectors that are made up of large and small firms respectively the two sectors differ from each other with respect to the level of fixed set up costs and returns to scale parameters of their production functions each sector has an intermediate good segment in which monopolistically competitive firms operate using fully mobile capital and labor inputs the number of these intermediate firms is determined endogenously from the condition of free entry and exit a final good is produced in each sector from the set of available intermediate goods in a perfec tly competitive environment these two final goods are then aggregated into a single output gdp that can be consumed or invested by the representative household in a symmetric perfect foresight equilibrium these features result in an unequal number of large and small firms which can then be used to analyze the effects of technological changes and government policies the sectoral structure of our model in which gdp is produced by combining outputs of large and small firms is different from a typical two sector model with distinct consumption and investment goods in fact our two sector economy with identical factor intensities behaves exactly like a standard one sector model in which the representative household allocates resources across the two sectors to equate marginal products to factor prices

impact of plant size and focus on productivity an empirical study recent popular business literature has suggested that there is a significant trend in the united states for firms to decrease the size and increase the focus of manufacturing plants they operate and that this leads to higher productivity this paper tests empirically the validity of these claims we analyze data on virtually the entire population of manufacturing plants in the united states and find that contrary to the popular business literature the average size of plants increased during the period 1972 1984 however consistent with the popular notion the rate of growth in plant size slowed considerably and even turned negative for a category of large plants plant focus did increase during this period we then investigate the relationship between productivity and plant characteristics including plant size and plant focus overall our results do not support the popular argument that reduction in plant size results in productivity gains however we do find support for this argument in some two digit sic industries also scale economies in the entire population decreased over the period 1972 1982 we also find only limited support for the popular argument that plant focus increases productivity

the latte revolution regulation markets and consumption in the global coffee chain abstract coffee is a truly global commodity and a major foreign exchange earner in many developing countries the global coffee chain has changed dramatically as a result of deregulation new consumption patterns and evolving corporate strategies from a balanced contest between producing and consuming countries within the politics of international coffee agreements power relations shifted to the advantage of transnational corporations a relatively stable institutional environment where proportions of generated income were fairly distributed between producing and consuming countries turned into one that is more informal unstable and unequal through the lenses of global commodity chain analysis this paper examines how these transformations affect developing countries and what policy instruments are available to address the emerging imbalances

rescaling governance and the impacts of political and environmental decentralization an introduction summary this article introduces a collection of papers that provide empirical studies of the impacts that result from changes to established modes of governance in particular decentralizing the scale at which state institutions operate or the privatization of service delivery we critically assess the claims made for good governance reforms in the light of these studies altering the scale and the style of governance has inevitable consequences for power structures institutions livelihoods and physical landscapes we offer a framework for analyzing these consequences focusing on the temporal and scale dimensions of political and environmental decentralization and changes to established modes of governance

causes of increased competition in the u s economy 1939 1980 examines the sources of increased competition in the united states u s between 1939 to 1980 in this paper authors consider the review of related literature trends and patterns of competitive structure in the u s economy influence of antirust actions on competition

fair trade organic coffee rural livelihoods and the agrarian question southern mexican coffee families in transition summary we use a random sample of coffee producing households in southern mexico to compare opportunities associated with government subsidies and migration to the role of fair trade organic coffee in household livelihoods although land and labor returns among fair trade organic coffee growers are higher than for conventional growers differences in yields are more important than price premiums moreover investment in education and labor opportunities outside coffee dominate those in fair trade organic coffee the results highlight the value of an integrated approach to the agrarian question that improves productivity and prices and supports other pathways for improving incomes

decentralization institutional ambiguity and mineral resource conflict in mindanao philippines based on an analytical framework that builds on theories of incremental institutional change this article interrogates the relationship between decentralization and mineral resource conflict in the philippines here efforts to decentralize control over mineral resource wealth have resulted in a highly ambiguous institutional arena wherein heterogeneous actor coalitions are attempting to influence trajectories of institutional change and the associated distribution of mineral wealth on the ground this institutional renegotiation produces a diverse range of conflicts emerging on top of these institutional struggles are local elected politicians which raises important concerns over elite capture of the decentralization process

the role of small firms in the industrial development and transformation of czechoslovakia this article presents an analysis of the role of small firms in the formation and reform of the czechoslovak manufacturing sector it attempts to give an understanding of the industrial structure formed under the past regime within the framework of the mass production paradigm as manufacturing productivity gradually declined over the past 25 years and small firms have been virtually eliminated systemic preference has been given to the development of large monopolies consequently a monolithic coalition structure of enterprise managers state bureaucrats and political nomenklatura has arisen and continues to present itself as a serious hindrance to economic transformation while small firms have the potential to play a critical role in the democratic marketization of czechoslovakia current government preoccupation with the rapid privatization of the state sector risks damaging the development of a balanced distribution of firm size and in turn the revitalization of the society

governance institutions resource rights regimes and the informal mining sector regulatory complexities in indonesia summary this study examines how shifting resource governance regimes affect labor inequities in the small scale mining sector in indonesia it focuses on the implications of governance decentralization processes and mining regulation reforms for indigenous and migrant populations who rely on informal unlicensed mining for income in central kalimantan while the findings illustrate the territorially uneven impacts of recent reforms they highlight how dominant paradigms that prioritize the enforcement of property rights schemes have contributed to problems of livelihood insecurity and poor environmental governance the article urges for more nuanced attention to contested articulations of power as well as local resource rights and institutional arrangements to assist rural communities in reversing marginalization

small business dynamics in europe this paper examines how the firm size distribution has shifted over the last two decades across a broad spectrum of european countries the evidence suggests that a shift away from large firms and towards small business has taken place particularly is the southern regions and in the high technology indutries

strength of protection for geographical indications promotion incentives and welfare effects we address the question of how the strength of protection for geographical indications gis affects the gi industry s promotion incentives equilibrium market outcomes and the distribution of welfare geographical indication producers engage in informative advertising by associating their true quality premium relative to a substitute product with a specific label emphasizing the gi s geographic origin the extent to which the names words of the gi label can be used and or imitated by competing products which depends on the strength of gi protection determines how informative the gi promotion messages can be consumers heterogeneous preferences vis a vis the gi quality premium are modeled in a vertically differentiated framework both the gi industry and the substitute product industry are assumed to be competitive with free entry the model is calibrated and solved for alternative parameter values results show that producers of the gi and of the lower quality substitute good have divergent interests gi producers are better off with full protection whereas the substitute good s producers prefer intermediate levels of protection but they never prefer zero protection because they benefit indirectly if the gi producers incentives to promote are preserved for consumers and aggregate welfare the preferred level of protection depends on the model s parameters with an intermediate level of protection being optimal in many circumstances

small businesses as a research subject some reflections on knowledge of small businesses and its effects on economic theory most economists agree in their view of small and medium sized enterprises or small businesses smes as a marginal scientific subject they may go so far as to ignore them either because they think these economic units do not lend themselves to conventional economic studies studies which for instance take into account the sacred cow theory of economies of scale or because they see them as being not really different from big businesses

the potential of environmental regulation to change managerial perception environmental management competitiveness and financial performance abstract this research presents an overview of where the gaps in the literature exist in relation to the link between environmental regulation and proactive environmental management and competitiveness and incorporates them in a whole model different papers have highlighted only partial aspects of these relationships specifically this research evaluates the relationship between managerial perception and the different styles of environmental regulations command and control versus voluntary norms the mediator role of environmental management in the link between environmental regulations and competitiveness the effect of competitiveness on financial performance and the two way relationship between proactive environmental management and financial performance finally this paper uses statistical evidence to test and estimate causal relationships through a structural equation modelling of 208 firms affected by ippc law in spain there is a lack of systematic statistical evidence on this topic in the literature which mainly focuses on case studies the results show that when environmental regulation stems from command and control legislation its influence on managerial perception and proactive environmental management is not significant however when environmental regulation stems from voluntary norms its effects are positive moreover investment in proactive environmental management contributes to increasing the competitiveness of the firm cost and differentiation competitive advantage have a positive impact on financial performance finally the link between proactive environmental management and financial performance may follow different paths 1 neither direct nor single because it can depend on competitive advantage and 2 direct because there is a significant two way relationship between these variables proactive environmental management influences financial performance and financial performance influences proactive environmental management

innovation in rural finance indonesia s badan kredit kecamatan program abstract donor agencies and governments are committing increasing resources to microenterprise credit programs much as they earlier funded rural credit yet few programs embody the lessons from this earlier experience central java s badan kredit kecamatan program shows considerable promise in providing the access convenience and flexibility desired by poor borrowers while assuring the financial viability of the credit institution by minimizing administrative costs and imposing interest rates sufficient to cover costs and prevent capital erosion recent progress has also been made in mobilizing voluntary savings strong political support from the government has been crucial to the program s success

collective marketing arrangements for geographically differentiated agricultural products welfare impacts and policy implications this paper examines the incentive of atomistic agricultural producers within a specific geographical region to differentiate and collectively market products we develop a model that allows us to analyze the market and welfare effects of the main types of real world producer organizations using it to derive economic insights regarding the circumstances under which these organizations will evolve and describing implications of the results obtained in the context of an ongoing debate between the european union and united states as the anticipated fixed costs of development and marketing increase and the anticipated size of the market falls it becomes essential to increase the ability of the producer organization to control supply in order to ensure the coverage of fixed costs whenever a collective organization allows a market with a new product to exist that otherwise would not have existed there is an increase in societal welfare counterintuitively stronger property right protection for producer organizations may be welfare enhancing even after a differentiated product has been developed the reason for this somewhat paradoxical result is that legislation aimed at curtailing the market power of producer organizations may induce large technological distortions

the role of small firms in east germany this paper examines the role which small firms in east germany have played under the system of combines and the important contribution they can make in the current reform process the evolution of a striking trend towards the centralization of economic power in the gdr during the last three decades is documented not only has the share of economic activity accounted for by the combines greatly increased but the number of establishments and particularly small establishments has drastically decreased it is concluded that the establishment of a vital entrepreneurial sector is essential if east germany is to succeed in its process of economic reform and the transition to the market economy

conceptual model for corporate climate change strategy development empirical evidence from the energy sector abstract this paper proposes a conceptual model for corporate climate change strategy development it reflects the dynamic influence of climate change risks and stakeholder pressures on carbon management practices adopted and the performance perception of managers we draw our model on resource dependence theory to explain how managers apply carbon management practices to reduce ecological uncertainty caused by firms direct dependence on nature using institutional theory we describe how stakeholders influence firm reactions to climate change we test a structural equation model and run a cluster analysis of 105 brazilian energy firms the results show that companies undertake one of four different strategies ranging from a minimalist approach to the regulation shaper pressure manager or greenhouse gas emission avoiders the proposed model contributes to an understanding of the importance of embedding climate change in a business model in emerging markets

changing to gray decentralization and the emergence of volatile socio legal configurations in central kalimantan indonesia decentralization policy narratives articulated by donor agencies tend to describe decentralization as a technical process of policy design and implementation advocating decentralization as a solution to particular problems drawing on research carried out in the indonesian province of central kalimantan following the inception of a decentralization program this article examines how political processes at the national district and village levels have led to highly volatile socio legal configurations that create insecurity and heighten resource conflicts it concludes that while the politics surrounding decentralization in different domains have ensured that the patterns of governance inherited from the past remain precariously distant from the objectives of good governance decentralization has also opened up space for positive changes

which way is up in upgrading trajectories of change in the value chain for south african wine summary global value chain gvc analysis uses the concept of upgrading to highlight paths for developing country firms to move up the value chain usually through the lenses of four categories product process functional and inter sectoral upgrading the implicit normative expectation is that these firms move toward producing higher value added products and or take on more sophisticated functions along a value chain in this article upgrading is approached more broadly as reaching a better deal including a balance between rewards and risk the case study of south african wine shows that better product quality improved processes and some functional upgrading have co existed with processes of downgrading higher risks and limited rewards especially in traditional export markets a reflection on further conceptual development and directions for empirical research is also provided

sharing the shared value a transaction cost perspective on strategic csr policies in global value chains this paper explores the conditions favouring or inhibiting the implementation of strategic corporate social responsibility csr policies in the context of global value chains gvcs using transaction cost theory tct we specify the economic and behavioural issues raised by strategic csr policies we show that the existence of market rewards for such policies does not constitute a solution per se but tends to increase the difficulties that value chain members face bringing tct into the analysis of the diffusion of strategic csr policies in gvcs helps us to make different contributions we first theoretically identify some limiting conditions of strategic csr policies in gvcs we also contribute to developing a more robust theoretical perspective for csr in gvc research which remains underdeveloped and mostly driven by empirical case studies finally we shed light on new research questions and topics that could guide major theoretical and empirical investigations in the capacity of gvcs members to bypass the numerous difficulties involved in the implementation of strategic csr policies

stepping into formal politics women s engagement in formal political processes in irrigation in rural india summary gender quotas decentralization of irrigation management and reliance on mgnrega for labor provision challenge the traditional patriarchal canal management system by institutionalizing women as formal decision makers and members of the irrigation labor force in northern india based on a survey of 592 women in rural himachal pradesh this paper quantitatively analyses how these policies affect women s engagement in formal political processes results indicate that factors from the private and individual domains influence female participation in formal political processes most importantly india s gender inclusive policies provide women with the opportunity to legitimately engage in formal political processes governing resource management

recentralizing while decentralizing how national governments reappropriate forest resources summary decentralization initiatives have been launched in the majority of developing countries but these rarely lay the foundations necessary to reach decentralization s purported efficiency and equity benefits this paper uses a comparative empirical approach to show how central governments in six countries senegal uganda nepal indonesia bolivia and nicaragua use a variety of strategies to obstruct the democratic decentralization of resource management and hence retain central control effective decentralization requires the construction of accountable institutions at all levels of government and a secure domain of autonomous decision making at the local level

flexibility and the theory of the firm abstract the object of this paper is 1 to bring together and integrate the various concepts of flexibility found in the economic literature 2 to flesh out the meaning of various aspects of flexibility and their implications thereby bridging the gap between the existing highly abstract theories and the empirical facts and 3 in the process to give a rich and comprehensive enough description of an industry to stimulate further theoretical as well as empirical work the study tries to combine inductive and deductive reasoning using empirical observations based on indepth interviews with manufacturers in the metalworking industry in the united states and sweden

a resource based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability drawing on the resource based view of the firm we posited that environmental performance and economic performance are positively linked and that industry growth moderates the relationship with the returns to environmental performance higher in high growth industries we tested these hypotheses with an analysis of 243 finns over two years using independently developed environmental ratings results indicate that it pays to be green and that this relationship strengthens with industry growth we conclude by highlighting the study s academic and managerial implications making special reference to the social issues in management literature

natural resources and decentralization in nicaragua are local governments up to the job abstract both decentralization and natural resource management literature suggest that natural resources could benefit from the redistribution of centralized management authority yet neither has sufficiently examined the processes already underway in numerous developing countries to decentralize resource management from central to municipal government authorities this study reviews the role of 21 local governments in forest management in nicaragua it finds that most interventions are economically motivated and that three key factors are needed for local governments to be good resource managers capacity incentive and long term commitment these three factors are part of a process in which civil society can play a critical role

complexities of decentralization in a globalizing world in many developing countries decentralization programmes for natural resource management aim to induce incentives for sustainable resource management at the local level the effectiveness of such programmes has however suffered from weak property rights to the resource and by the presence of externalities growing economic integration among countries has exacerbated these problems by increasing the exposure of local user groups to commercial actors interested in resource extraction in this paper the interplay of decentralization and globalization in affecting environmental outcomes and community welfare is analysed through a game theoretic model of community firm interactions the results highlight the complexities of policy design first by raising the extractive value of the resource globalization may lead to communities negotiating resource extraction agreements with firms second with a lack of effective state enforcement of community resource rights communities may be unable to assume de facto ownership over the resource while commercial actors succeed in exploiting resources without community consent no single policy option provides a panacea to counteracting these negative effects instead a mix of policies combining incentive payments along with the provision of more secure property rights and poverty alleviation is shown to have the potential to improve both environmental outcomes and community welfare

the forbidden fuel charcoal urban woodfuel demand and supply dynamics community forest management and woodfuel policy in malawi abstract this article examines woodfuel policy challenges and opportunities in malawi two decades after woodfuel crisis narratives and counter narratives a nuanced examination of woodfuel supply demand use and markets illuminated options to turn stagnant policies based on charcoal bans and fuel substitution into proactive realistic ones acknowledging woodfuel dominance and its socio economic importance findings revealed growing spatially differentiated woodfuel deficits in southern and central malawi and around blantyre zomba and lilongwe cities poverty limited electricity access reliability and generation exacerbated by tariff subsidies and complex fuel allocation decisions restricted energy ladder transitions from woodfuels to electricity producing an enduring urban energy mix dominated by charcoal thereby increasing wood consumption diverse socio political interests prevented lifting of the charcoal ban despite progressive forest laws despite implementation challenges lessons already learnt efficiency and poverty reduction arguments limited government capacity growing illegal production of charcoal in forest reserves and its staying power make targeted community based forest management cbfm approaches more practical for regulated commercial production of woodfuels than the status quo new differentiated policies should include commercial woodfuel production and licensing for revenue and ecological sustainability under cbfm or concessions within and outside selected reserves an enterprise based approaches for poverty reduction smallholder private tree growing woodfuel energy conserving technologies improved electricity supply and agricultural productivity

the development and use of machine tools in historical perspective abstract improvements and diffusion of machine tools have had a major impact on productivity in manufacturing industry since the industrial revolution the impact has been both direct and indirect the direct impact consists of rising labor productivity through the use of faster more accurate more mechanized machines and of the higher capital productivity through higher operating rates greater reliability and higher utilization rates the indirect impact arises as the use of new or improved machine tools has necessitated or facilitated organizational changes affecting both labor capital raw materials and energy the magnitude of these impacts has varied over the years with the areas of application as new production methods have made possible entirely new products or lowered the cost of existing products sufficiently to create new markets the first part of the paper contains a review of the historical development of machine tool technology since the industrial revolution paying particular attention to the role of interaction between producers and users of machine tools the second part focuses on the way in which recent development differs from that in earlier periods in particular it is found that the major changes in machine tool technology from the so called american system of manufactures in the early 19th century to the development of detroit automation in the 1950s have tended to improve mass production methods by contrast the development of numerical control beginning in 1948 has opened up the possibility of extending industrial production methods and automation to areas previously characterized more by handicraft methods even though this technology is not yet fully utilized it is clear that the economics of industrial production has been revolutionized by the cost reduction of small scale production relative to large scale and the degree of flexibility offered by the technology the third section of the paper deals with the present development trends particularly discussing the increasing importance of flexibility and the shifting emphasis from development of individual pieces of machinery to integration and control of entire manufacturing processes i a through the use of industrial robots the reasons for the need for greater flexibility in manufacturing are also identified

the economics of change in rural america communities perceptions of economic development prospects and alternatives are conditioned by previous experiences and anecdotal success stories thus small towns in traditionally agricultural regions equate economic development with prosperity in agriculture and the agricultural development program of the day sustainable agriculture value added enhancement alternative crops prosperity in nonmetro manufacturing centers is linked with industrial retention and recruitment and small business development and rural areas with natural historic or climatic amenities associate development with expanded tourism activity and the attraction of retirees

environmental entitlements dynamics and institutions in community based natural resource management abstract while community based natural resource management cbnrm now attracts widespread international attention its practical implementation frequently falls short of expectations this paper contributes to emerging critiques by focusing on the implications of intracommunity dynamics and ecological heterogeneity it builds a conceptual framework highlighting the central role of institutions regularized patterns of behavior between individuals and groups in society in mediating environment society relationships grounded in an extended form of entitlements analysis the framework explores how differently positioned social actors command environmental goods and services that are instrumental to their well being further insights are drawn from analyses of social difference new dynamic ecology new institutional economics structuration theory and landscape history the theoretical argument is illustrated with case material from india south africa and ghana

participatory processes in the soy conflicts in paraguay and argentina abstract within emerging environmental conflicts different participatory processes have developed as alternatives to the top down models that have dominated policy making in this paper we focus on conflicts over the expansion of soy production we analyze three issues related to top down vs bottom up participatory processes and how they affect the proposals coming out of these processes who counts as stakeholder the role of social movements what counts as participation the role of mobilization and who has power to select stakeholders and issues make decisions and influence preferences to explore these issues we present a case study of two parallel participatory processes in rural areas of paraguay and argentina one of these the roundtable on responsible soy is top down created by large agri business multinationals and international conservation ngos with the support of the governments in the region and has focused on establishing criteria for responsible soy the other is bottom up self organized by peasant and civil society organizations and focused on stopping soy expansion and promoting food sovereignty the findings highlight the potential of bottom up processes to promote true agricultural sustainability while at the same time emphasizing the need for more research on grassroots participatory processes and their potential and limitations in different contexts

on the economics of labels how their introduction affects the functioning of markets and the welfare of all participants are labels good or bad for consumers and firms the answer may seem straightforward since labels improve information yet economic theory reveals situations where their introduction reduces the welfare of at least some market participants this essay reviews the theoretical literature on labels in order to identify and explain the main reasons that may cause labeling to produce undesirable side effects in contrast to earlier reviews that either concentrate on narrow topics or treat the subject in a more or less informal way we bring together the main results from all the relevant topics by presenting and discussing the assumptions and model building techniques that underpin them the advantage of this approach is that it identifies the origin of the differences between results thus allowing the synthesis of results that sometimes appear even to be contradictory we focus on quality labels and examine the impact of labeling on market structure the side effects of costly certification issues related to the label s trustworthiness the rationale for mandatory vs voluntary labeling the level at which the label s standard is set according to the agency that selects it the political economy of labels that is pro or anti label lobbying lobbying to affect the label s standard and lobbying in favor or against the label s mandatory imposition these topics cover a wide range of applications including genetically modified organism gmos organic produce geographic indicators controlled origin eco labels etc we conclude by identifying topics that require further research

multi stakeholder regulation privatizing or socializing global labor standards summary this paper evaluates leading non governmental labor regulation initiatives in the united states and europe it comparatively assesses the codes of conduct and monitoring systems within these initiatives discusses their different models of regulation and proposes criteria for evaluating their effectiveness it identifies critical factors which appear to support more effective non governmental regulation such as substantive participation of local stakeholders public transparency of methods and findings and mechanisms that bring market pressures to bear on multi national corporations and simultaneously support processes of multi stakeholder problem solving within factories and global supply chains

corporate takeovers the efficiency arguments in recent years the tender offer takeover has been praised and damned with a ferocity suggesting that the survival of capitalism is at stake the truth as in most disputes with substantial metaphysical content is more prosaic some takeovers enhance economic efficiency some degrade it and the balance of effects though not fully known is most likely a close one in this essay i try to lay bare the debate s foundations and bring it back to earth with an injection of evidence

firm size efficiency and employment a review article s j s book contains much careful and interesting discussion of small firm employment data and related issues and will be read by all workers in the field however it also contains too much detailed quantification and international comparison of doubtful relevance at least for most economists and misses much background material of direct importance for evaluating the role of small firms as a result the authors seriously under estimate the contribution of small business to both employment and efficiency of modern economies as well as the importance of policy to correct the traditional and still pervasive bias towards large organizations

in the market but not of it fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification as market based social change summary this paper discusses two well known market based social change initiatives fair trade coffee and forest stewardship council certification which harness market forces to pursue social and environmental objectives a serious challenge for both is to operate in the conventional market without undermining their original objectives a global commodity chain analysis approach is combined with insights from economic sociology embeddedness theory to explore the social cultural and organizational factors shaping the initiatives governance structures both initiatives are seen to move along opposite organizational trajectories but face similar pressures from conventional market logics practices and dominant actors a preliminary framework is proposed for comparative assessment focusing on distribution of benefits how conventional market institutions may be questioned and how internal governance manages diverse stakeholder interests and influence

local government fiscal reform in developing countries lessons from kenya abstract local government fiscal reform is emerging clearly as a major development issue of the 1990s as central governments of developing countries cut back their budget growth in response to economic reality and donor pressure many are attempting to tap the underutilized potential of local authorities to help meet rising service demands drawing on a case study of the local finance system in kenya and that country s attempts at reform the challenging economic institutional and political issues that must often be confronted in such reform efforts are highlighted

flexible technology and industrial structure in the u s this paper analyzes the development over the postwar period of output employment and the number of plants in manufacturing in the united states it is shown that the distribution of flexible technology in the form of machine tools ncmts shifted markedly toward small plants during the 1980s it is found that the probability of adoption and the penetration rate of ncmts are higher in large than in small plants even though the number of ncmts per worker is much higher in small plants this apparent paradox is explained it is also suggested that the shift of output towards smaller plants is correlated with the increased use of flexible technology and that this reflects changes in the division of labor among plants of various sizes as well as changes in the composition and organization of production in large plants

voter response to conservation policies in madagascar summary international conservation groups pour millions of dollars into developing countries to help preserve resources and set conservation priorities but critics argue that affected populations are often excluded from the decision making process in 2003 many in the international community praised the president of madagascar for his pledge to more than triple the area under protection this paper examines how voting patterns in the president s re election bid differed in communities affected by these policies the results suggest less support for the president in regions with new protected areas but that these policies would be unlikely to change the outcome of an election

power struggle dispute and alliance over local resources analyzing democratic decentralization of natural resources through the lenses of africa inland fisheries summary this paper is based on a global review of fisheries decentralization programs co management in sub saharan africa partly challenging the current narrative but in line with experience in other sectors e g forestry the review shows that the outcomes of these decentralizations have not been systematically positive in most cases fisheries co management failed to improve governance but simply altered the distribution of power and responsibility amongst the different stakeholders in this new political landscape poorly designed reforms have enabled a variety of usual and new local actors to advance their own agendas often at the detriment of the direct end users fisherfolk

property rights regimes and natural resources a conceptual analysis revisited summary more than two decades ago schlager and ostrom 1992 developed a conceptual schema for arraying property rights regimes that distinguishes among diverse bundles of rights the conceptual framework has profoundly influenced research on natural resource governance common property and community resource management however currently natural resource governance has changed dramatically challenging the applicability of the conceptual schema there are now many more social actors involved in resource management than the local communities at the focus of original analysis additionally resource management increasingly provides access to various kinds of benefits from outside the immediate context including indirect benefits such as payments for environmental services and results based payments for redd these changes demand addition of new property rights to the original framework this paper updates the conceptual schema in reaction to changes in natural resource governance proposing three specific modifications on the focus of use rights control rights and authoritative rights to come up with a framework that distinguishes eight types of property rights we apply the framework to three purposefully selected governance interventions in china and laos that include the provision of indirect benefits in addition to the direct benefits derived by local people from natural resources the empirical application shows how contemporary governance changes may not lead to local people s outright dispossession since they continue to possess direct use rights to natural resources however local people may be excluded from control and authoritative rights which are exercised exclusively by state agencies and international actors the latter make available indirect benefits to local people which may or may not translate into use rights in the sense of policy based entitlements the empirical insights suggest the possibility of a wider trend of compensated exclusions in natural resource governance

flexible specialisation the new competition and industrial districts flexible specialisation the new competition and industrial districts are concepts reviewed in this article to determine whether they can provide an alternative for the description of the industrial sector as a system of mass production the concepts mentioned are discussed and criticized in this article all three concepts stress the importance of a certain division of labour of interfirm relations of cooperation versus competition of technological development and innovation diffusion of flexibility the role of small enterprises and a local value system however a number of differences between the concepts are also highlighted as well as the problems to use them in empirical research it is concluded that the three terms are complementary and could be used in combination the flexible competitive districts would provide an alternative type of industrial organization somewhere between the large scale integrated enterprise and the atomized self contained individual firm the challenge lies in turning the positive theory into a normative one how can industrial development in eastern europe and third world countries be turned into the development of flexible competitive district which contribute significantly to the development of these countries and allow for an important role for micro small and medium enterprises it is argued that this can be done in the framework of urban and regional development policies but this requires a different role for the government and the provision of an adequate infrastructure

the subcontracting behavior of single vs multiplant enterprises in us manufacturing implications for economic development abstract in this paper we explore the factors shaping the production subcontracting make buy decisions of managers in the plants of both small and large firms in 21 industries that constitute the us metalworking and machinery manufacturing sector descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses of original survey data collected in 1986 1987 lead us to infer that a regional economic development strategy that promotes those manufacturing firms with a single relatively large plant making a diverse range of products and having close ties to customers but limited internal machining capacity has the greatest potential for generating local backward linkages in this respect we find empirical if nuanced support for certain normative aspects of the industrial district or networking approach to economic development policy

life after takeover economic consequences of takeovers are investigated by analyzing profitability of enterprises acquired a s a direct or indirect white knight consequence of tender offer s target companies pre tender profitability averaged 0 97 percentag e points below peer industry norms nine years after takeover acquir ed lines of business had operating income assets percentages 3 10 poi nts below those of non tender lines with similar industry bases mark et shares and merger accounting methods most of the targets postta keover profit decline stemmed from asset value writeups there is no indication that on average the acquirers raised their targets operat ing profitability net of merger related accounting adjustments copyright 1987 by blackwell publishing ltd

can geographical indications modernize indonesian and vietnamese agriculture analyzing the role of national and local governments and producers strategies summary this paper investigates the way geographical indications gis are implemented by national and local governments in indonesia and vietnam the two states are active at all stages of gi development from the selection of the products candidates for gi registration to the supervision of the gi implementation thanks to the involvement of national experts from public agencies in the establishment of the codes of practices cop they are able to push for the substitution of traditional local techniques with good practices i e mostly those recommended by research centers worldwide thus they put gis at the service of agricultural modernization when gis apply more conventionally to specific products based on traditional know how however the implementation of the cops and thus the achievement of this objective of modernization depend on the perceived interest of producers in the whole gi dynamic indeed the cases studied in indonesia and vietnam highlight the variable level of participation of local producers in the gi in the four studied cases the cops are mainly based on expert knowledge which differs from the actual practices of farmers and processors moreover gis are implemented in order to create or reinforce reputations rather than legally protecting preexisting ones for these two reasons producers motivation to invest in gi certification is weak which makes difficult the necessary collective involvement in both countries the involvement of local governments in gi construction and management modifies the situation thanks to their knowledge of local situations and stakes they are more likely than national experts to identify the most strategic supply chains at local level enable participatory approaches in gi construction and facilitate the involvement of local producers in the gi managing group but if competences have been given to local governments in the indonesian and vietnamese legal frameworks the distribution of roles between central and provincial governments in gis are not clearly enough specified the nature and the importance of local public intervention differ from one case to another finally this paper recognizes the legitimacy of state intervention in gi development at least as long as producers awareness of gis is still low however this state intervention should not only let enough space for producers in gi governance but also design a frame for arousing their interest and adhesion and for facilitating their collective involvement that may be facilitated by a concrete and clearly established decentralization of competences in national policies

engaging simplifications community based resource management market processes and state agendas in upland southeast asia abstract in the struggle to secure resource rights for rural populations who gain their livelihoods from state claimed lands advocacy agendas highlight community interest in and capacity for sustainable resource management in the uplands of southeast asia the strategic simplifications of community based natural resource management cbnrm advocacy are being translated into legal frameworks and program initiatives which make rights conditional upon particular forms of social organization and livelihood as well as conservation outcomes when set in the context of agricultural intensification among both indigenous and migrant populations and the desire of many upland dwellers to claim the benefits of a fuller citizenship cbnrm offers a problematic basis for justice

firm size and employment determination in dutch manufacturing industries this paper examines whether the determination of employment differs between large and small firms an employment equation is estimated on panel data of 67 35 three digit industries in dutch manufacturing 1974 1986 the conclusions are as follows firstly employment adjustment appears to be faster in small firms than in large ones secondly the elasticity of factor substitution and the real wage elasticity at constant output are nearly the same for large and small firms thirdly the estimated output elasticities suggest constant returns to scale in large firms and increasing returns in small ones finally the number of working hours has less impact on employment in small firms than in large ones

re election incentives and deforestation cycles in the brazilian amazon abstract despite expansive research on amazonian deforestation and its drivers the role of local politics is not well understood using a panel data set that combines municipal level deforestation and election data from 2002 to 2012 i estimate the effect of an incumbent mayor running for re election on deforestation rates in election periods i find that deforestation rates increase 8 10 in election years when an incumbent mayor runs for re election an amount equivalent to four percent of the total forest lost since the 2004 elections electoral deforestation cycles do not appear to be driven by changes in agricultural policy implementation and activity but are linked to corruption and campaign finance suggesting that weak institutional constraints facilitate electoral manipulation of forest resources this phenomenon is not likely limited to amazonian forests re election incentives could very well lead to misallocation of other natural resources in alternate geographies

the evolution of manufacturing technology and its impact on industrial structure an international study this paper shows that plant and firm size in manufacturing and especially in engineering industry in several western industrial countries has declined since the early 1970s two hypotheses explaining the decline are advanced one is de glomeration or specialization the divestiture of non core businesses in order to free up scarce resources particularly management time to defend and nurture core business activities the second hypothesis is that the emergence of new computer based technology has improved the quality and productivity of small and medium scale production relative to standardized mass production techniques which dominated previously

global private regulation and value chain restructuring in indonesian smallholder coffee systems summary consumer concerns over the environmental and social conditions of coffee production have led to the proliferation of sustainability codes certification schemes and labeling claims in the sector this paper addresses how the global private regulation of ethical and environmental standards is having several implications for value chain structures and institutions in the smallholder coffee systems of indonesia global private regulation is driving structural changes in modes of farmer organization trader farmer relationships and is resulting in the increased upstream penetration of multinational trading companies into coffee producing areas across indonesia an unintended consequence of these changes in the future may be to increase transaction costs along the value chain and to exert an overall downward pressure on farm gate prices

higher growth through the blue ocean strategy implications for economic policy a b s t r a c t higher growth is a key goal of companies governments and societies economic policies often attempt to attain this goal by targeting companies of certain sizes that operate in specific industries and focus on a specific business activity this approach to policy making has considerable shortcomings and seems to be less than fully effective in increasing economic growth we suggest a new approach to policy making that stems directly from the entrepreneurial perspective this approach examines a successful business strategy framework the blue ocean strategy to discover conditions for high growth we test the propositions on empirical data for two cases of successful high growth business namely slovenian gazelles and amazon com the results reveal a gap between the macro level of economic policy making to achieve higher growth and the micro level of business growth the findings call for a change in the focus of economic policies on specific size companies industries and business activities to intraindus try cooperation collaboration between companies of different sizes value innovation and creation of uncontested markets

in search of alternatives pro poor entrepreneurship in community forestry abstract community forestry is quite likely the most prominent form of development intervention in the present era it has gained momentum since the 1970s and now covers more than 25 per cent of the total forestlands globally however the introduction of commercialisation into community forestry controlled by private capital has not only undermined the livelihood requirements of poor people but also swiftly deteriorated forest conditions by unfolding the nature of commercialisation in community forestry in nepal this article argues that pro poor entrepreneurship models of producing forest resources through a partnership between poor people and community groups could be an appropriate alternative to develop economic opportunities and forest conservation

the ambivalent impact of coffee certification on farmers welfare a matched panel approach for cooperatives in central kenya certification is promoted to improve rural welfare through better market access and improved agricultural practices we compare net effects of fairtrade and utz certified coffee production in central kenya using a matched panel from 218 farm households that belong to three cooperatives and were visited twice in 2009 and 2013 we distinguish between effects at field farm household cooperative community and market levels both certification regimes improved coffee returns but fairtrade was more effective in coffee processing whereas utz contributed to productivity under stagnating coffee prices fairtrade farmers increased their coffee specialization while utz farmers reduced coffee areas but increased yield

reassessing the effectiveness of industrial policy in indonesia can the neoliberals be wrong abstract the neoliberal interpretation of the indonesian state suggests that industrial policy was incoherent subject to rent seeking and irrelevant to indonesia s post 1966 development success a more nuanced micro historical analysis of the state s interventions demonstrates that this oversimplification misses political elite objectives to overcome the ekonomi kolonial by using the power of the state and selective intervention to create a strong integrated diversified and outward oriented industrial economy ekonomi nasional empirical analysis presented here suggests that indonesia has largely achieved this objective it also suggests that industrial policy has been more important than the neoliberal argument permits

making corporate self regulation effective in developing countries summary self regulation by multinational corporations of social environmental impacts has been advocated as a solution to the regulatory capacity problems faced by developing states market pressures can provide incentives for firms to implement codes and standards and also rely on widely available information about corporate behavior voluntary schemes attempt to provide reliable standardized reporting of information but government action in the north and south remains vital to effective regulation by setting social goals and upholding the freedom of civil society actors to organize and mobilize international organizations and legal instruments may be able to assist developing country governments in fulfilling these roles

from exclusion to participation turning senegal s forestry policy around abstract a century of centralized forestry policies has excluded senegal s forest villagers from charcoal production and marketing policies have given access to marketing and labor opportunities to urbanbased merchants who hire guinean migrant laborers while forest villagers neither produce nor consume charcoal commercial production is cutting forests on which villagers rely in 1993 progressive forestry agents ushered in a new participatory forestry code but this new policy may not be equitable nor beneficial and it risks adding control over village labor for forest management to the long list of forest service controls locally accountable representation local decision making powers and simple local management enabling policies could diminish these risks

decoupling standards from practice the impact of in house certifications on coffee farms environmental and social conduct in this paper we investigate whether coffee farms that have been granted in house socio environmental certification from a global buyer display better social and environmental conduct compared to non certified farms we perform an econometric analysis using data from an original cross country survey covering 575 farms in various regions of brazil colombia costa rica guatemala and mexico we find that farms that have been granted in house certification demonstrate better environmental but not better social conduct than non certified farms we find also that the positive relationship between in house certification and environmental conduct is stronger if the farm sells to a cooperative and if it is located in an institutionally weak country finally we find that the institutional strength of the farm s home country has a positive influence on its social conduct we discuss how our analysis contributes to the literature on the social and environmental impacts of certifications and to scholarship in global value chains social and environmental upgrading

are more innovative firms less vulnerable to new environmental regulation compliance with pollution limits and standards requires firms to implement adaptation processes that are not only costly themselves but also affect future profits in as much as they modify production systems and methods this paper attempts to respond to the question of how technological knowledge moderates the effect that the implementation of a new environmental regulation has on the results of affected firms the regulation selected for this study is the integrated pollution prevention and control act ippc a multivariate regression model mvrm has been applied to the regulatory event the most important implication of this paper is that technological knowledge prepares a firm for adapting to a greater environmental demand such as may be derived from a new regulation

beyond good governance the multi level politics of health insurance for the poor in indonesia recent decentralization reforms in low and middle income countries have revived a long standing debate on the benefits and drawbacks of empowering local governments while some scholars highlight advances in local democratic accountability others emphasize the dangers of decentralized governance when democratic practices are poorly institutionalized this paper studies the case of health politics in indonesian local government to contend that the focus on democratic accountability and good governance may be insufficient to explain major policy outcomes associated with decentralization i show that the quality of local democracy affects health insurance policy during the first stages of the decentralization process however to understand policy trajectories over a longer time frame relations between politicians at different levels of government become the crucial factor using original qualitative and quantitative data from nearly 400 indonesian districts and provinces i find that regions in which cooperation between provincial and district authorities has emerged display systematically higher levels of health insurance coverage i explain why multi level cooperation improves local policy outcomes and i show that the positive effect of cooperation does not depend exclusively on patronage networks these findings contribute to the literature on decentralization and development by showing that policy cooperation across levels of government is crucial for the implementation of complex social policies and that multi level cooperation can have beneficial effects even when local democratic institutions are weak

corporate climate risk management are european companies prepared abstract in recent years scholars have published numerous studies dealing with the consequences of climate change for businesses activity however a more holistic understanding of companies perceptions of and responses to physical regulatory and market related climate risks across a wider range of sectors is still missing to address this gap this paper provides an empirical analysis of corporate climate risk perception and countermeasures for companies in industries regulated and not regulated by climate policy drawing on data from the carbon disclosure project of a size matched sample of 126 european based companies it is shown that most firms feel less exposed to physical and market risks than to regulatory risks this is because physical risks are expected to materialize in the more distant future and the realization of market risks is considered rather unlikely moreover the results indicate that firms in regulated industries implement more regulatory response measures than firms that are part of non regulated industries while interestingly there are no significant differences between the two groups in exposure and responses to physical and market risks by discussing climate related risks and highlighting the significant role of regulation in spurring corporate action in the context of climate change this paper holds important implications for corporate managers and policy makers

geographical indications public goods and sustainable development the roles of actors strategies and public policies summary the protection of geographical indications gis is being explored more and more worldwide as a tool for supporting local sustainable development focusing on wine and coffee value chains this paper will set out in what way gi protection schemes can contribute to the provision of public goods and illustrate how this contribution is being threatened by different failures that may occur within both valorization strategies and legal protection policies by examining how private collective and public interventions front these failures this paper will put forward economic arguments supporting a more comprehensive policy approach to ensure gis contribution to sustainable development

has recovery begun africa s adjustment in the 1980s revisited this article reviews the 1989 debate between the world bank and the economic commission for africa over africa s adjustment and on the basis of most recent statistics concludes that there is little evidence that the region is in throes of a recovery some countries however did relatively better than others in the 1980s and an attempt is made to account for differences in performance it is concluded that success in adjustment results not from world bank international monetary fund programs as such but rather from policy coherence accompanied by healthy movement in key variables namely the real exchange rate and public development expenditure

the nature and importance of economic competence this chapter takes on three tasks 1 to survey the study of economic competence as it appears in economic literature 2 to give a meaningful and operational definition of economic competence as one of the factors contributing to macroeconomic growth and 3 to suggest a methodology pursued in greater depth elsewhere to generalize and link economic competence as defined at the micro firm individual level to macroeconomic growth through simulation on the micro based macroeconomic model of the swedish economic system moses by introducing knowledge in the micro setting of firm organizational competence we arrive at a very different interpretation measured at the macro industry level from that of standard neoclassical theory

integrated environmental product innovation in the region of munich and its impact on company competitiveness abstract this paper examines the impact of environmental innovations on company competitiveness of both the environment industry and related sectors in the region of munich the focus is on the drivers of these innovations and their respective effects on innovating companies not only innovations in the area of end of pipe technologies but also the development of integrated products and production methods are examined in a regional case study approach a sample of 14 manufacturing and service companies in munich southern germany was interviewed essentially environmental innovation is driven by a mixture of factors internal and external to the firm not only regulatory pressure but also cost pressure competitive advantages technological lead and customer pressure are important drivers regulatory pushed innovations contribute to the competitive performance of sample companies in a similar way as environmental innovations which are carried out voluntarily that would yield proof for the so called porter hypothesis which assumes that environmental legislation stimulates innovation and leads to win win opportunities where simultaneously pollution is reduced and productivity increased

promoting entrepreneurship in eastern europe the past decade has seen a revival of entrepreneurship in the modern industrial economies characterized by a wave of enterprise restructuring and of new developments in business and technology in this paper we argue that market transitions of the post socialist economies of eastern europe cannot be successful without similar entrepreneurial restructuring to address the massive structural distortions that still plague the post reform economies the governments of the region must promote entrepreneurship through policies that 1 make use of all possible sources of entrepreneurship including in particular the former state and social sectors and 2 establish a macroeconomic environment and property rights framework conducive to entrepreneurship a successful promotion strategy will need to operate on several fronts by 1 redirecting entrepreneurial activities into legal productive activities 2 increasing the supply and effectiveness of entrepreneurs 3 developing markets for complementary inputs and 4 increasing the demand for entrepreneurship an unsuccessful approach we argue will be one that regards the pre reform small private sector as the only source of entrepreneurship and as the only arena for its productive use

nigeria during and after the oil boom a policy comparison with indonesia nigeria and indonesia provide an interesting contrast with regard to performance and policy during and after the oil boom roughly a decade after the first oil shock nigeria is faced with several economic problems including a serious decline in its agricultural sector and a deteriorating external debt situation while some decline in the nonoil traded goods sector reflects efficient adjustment to the oil boom policy with regard to public expenditure exchange rates pricing and the trade regime could exacerbate such decline and impede readjustment as the boom subsides the links between oil prices deficits inflation and real exchange rate appreciation are analyzed and nigerian and indonesian fiscal and exchange rate and agricultural and foreign borrowing strategies are compared it is concluded that with the exception of cuts in the deficit since 1984 nigerian policy following the boom has not been conducive to adjustment to the current period of low oil prices and high real interest rates corrective measures and policy options are discussed

business responses to climate change regulation in canada and germany lessons for mncs from emerging economies this article proposes a novel mapping of the complex relationship between business ethics and regulation by suggesting five distinct ways in which business ethics and regulation may intersect the framework is applied to a comparative case study of business responses to climate change regulation in canada and germany both signatories to the kyoto protocol both countries represent distinctly different approaches which yield significant lessons for emerging economies we also analyze the specific role of large multinational corporations in this process

mapping research topics and theories in private regulation for sustainability in global value chains the globalization of production and trade has contributed to the rise in complex global value chains where the reach of state regulation is limited as an alternative private regulation developed and administered by companies industry associations and nongovernmental organizations has emerged to safeguard economic environmental and social sustainability in producer countries and along the value chain the academic literature on private regulation in global value chains has grown over the last decade but currently few major reviews of the research have been undertaken this paper examines peer reviewed research in the relevant disciplines published in academic journals up to december 2011 our goal is to identify and classify the topics and theories in the global value chain literature we conclude that the number of articles explicitly examining private regulation in a global value chain context is relatively small when considering the importance and growth of these chains in the world s economy we also conclude that agriculture forestry and apparel manufacturing are the most often studied economic sectors in contrast other sectors such as the information communication and technology with their complex global value chains and often problematic environmental and social conditions are understudied

geographical indications and the competitive provision of quality in agricultural markets the economics of geographical indications gis is assessed within a vertical product differentiation framework that is consistent with the competitive structure of agriculture it is assumed that certification costs are needed for gis to serve as collective credible quality certification devices and production of high quality product is endogenously determined we find that gis can support a competitive provision of quality and lead to clear welfare gains although they fall short of delivering the constrained first best the main beneficiaries are consumers producers may also accrue some benefit if production of the high quality products draws on scarce factors that they own copyright 2008 oxford university press

standards as a new form of social contract sustainability initiatives in the coffee industry abstract in the former age of national capitalism the achievement of market fairness was embedded in a normative framework generated by government labor unions and perhaps religious authority in the current age of global capitalism new actors such as ngos industry associations and public private partnerships provide the normative framework that corporations use for social legitimacy in this context standard setting processes operate as new forms of social contract where the state rather than being directly involved between the parties provides a form of basic guarantee while more or less accountable ngos and firms are in charge of hammering out the bargains this article examines the dynamics of this new configuration through the case study of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector it addresses four questions 1 are these standards effective in communicating information and creating new markets 2 to what extent do they embed elements of collective and private interests 3 is sustainability content actually delivered to their intended beneficiaries and 4 what is the role of public policy in addressing their shortcomings

an ampirical assessment of the contribution of small business employment to u s state economic performance small business proponents regularly couple their arguments for favorable government policies and reduced tax and regulatory burdens to the presumed benefits of increased proportions of small versus large sector employment though regularly espoused at both the state and national level these presumptions regarding the benefits of small business employment remain an empirical issue are the presumed benefits a reality a panel analysis of 48 u s states for a ten year period was used to evaluate the contribution of small businesses to growth in productivity growth in gross state product gsp unemployment and wage inflation at the state level the system of simultaneous equations revealed that states with higher proportions of very small business employment do indeed experience higher levels of productivity growth and gross state product growth while having less wage inflation and lower unemployment rates

confronting the coffee crisis can fair trade organic and specialty coffees reduce small scale farmer vulnerability in northern nicaragua summary this paper links changing global coffee markets to opportunities and vulnerabilities for sustaining small scale farmer livelihoods in northern nicaragua changing governance structures corporate concentration oversupply interchangeable commodity grade beans and low farm gate prices characterize the crisis in conventional coffee markets in contrast certified fair trade and organic are two alternative forms of specialty coffee trade and production that may offer opportunities for small scale producers a research team surveyed 228 farmers to measure the impact of sales on organic and fair trade markets the results suggest that participation in organic and fair trade networks reduces farmers livelihood vulnerability 2004 elsevier ltd all rights reserved