adapting prices or quantities in the presence of adjustment costs it is often hypothesized that costs of adjusting both price and quantities may have important implications for the macroeconomic adjustment process not least to nominal shocks we analyse this in an explicit intertemporal general equilibrium model considering the empirically relevant case of fixed costs of adjusting prices and fixed and variable costs of adjusting quantities we find that the presence of both price and quantity adjustment costs changes the response to shocks significantly it is an implication that small shocks do not support the menu cost case but rather both fixed prices and quantities rationing a numerical analysis based on available evidence on adjustment costs is used to illustrate the likelihood that the various adjustment patterns actually arise

demographic pressure and natural resources conservation abstract a field survey was carried out in the villages of nlobesse e at the western periphery of the dja biosphere reserve south cameroon to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40 00 00 per annum with 61 54 of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country despite the rapid population growth the population of the kaka and baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ecofac ecosysteme forestiere d afrique centrale for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture were decreasing at a rate of 6 2 probably they sought better hunting gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of nlobesse e demands 44 4 kg of bush meat per day it was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve hunting and fishing activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15 2 and 11 2 respectively of the total income of the households other sources of income included wages earned from the agro plantation that contributed 40 3 farming 24 2 commerce 3 and others 4 58 merchant middlemen also referred to as buyam sellam and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of nlobesse e it would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region per capita income of 225 fcfa or 0 3 per day would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources however this was not the case because of an agro plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas to maintain this trend it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves

tariff jumping antidumping duties abstract this paper examines the tariff jumping response of all firm and product combinations subject to us antidumping investigations from 1980 to 1990 using a newly constructed database previous studies have focused only on japanese fdi responses to antidumping protection and found large tariff jumping responses in contrast this paper finds quite modest tariff jumping responses and the evidence suggests that tariff jumping is only a realistic option for multinational firms from industrialized countries this may partially explain developing countries concerns about addressing ad protection in the wto despite high tariff jumping responses there is no evidence of a japanese specific propensity to tariff jump holding other economic factors constant

coordination problems in local level resource management starting from the observation of important returns to scale effects in conservation of common property resources we identify some of the factors that impinge upon the chances of success of a decentralized group based management of local natural resources particular attention is paid to the influence of asset inequality among resource users in particular it is shown that by redistributing incentives among landowners land reform has an ambiguous impact on the latter s willingness to undertake conservation investments

platform investments and volatile exchange rates direct investment in the u s by japanese electronic companies this study examines the effects of previous entry on the subsequent decisions of japanese electronics companies to invest in the united states by gathering data at the firm level the empirical analysis provides a fine grain sorting out of firm and industry effects on foreign direct investment decisions the findings show that investment behavior is highly heterogeneous across firms and reflects their individual technological capabilities and their history of previous investments in the united states real exchange rate levels are also important the results suggest that initial investments serve as platforms for subsequent entry with the timing of entry triggered by movements in real exchange rates copyright 1996 by mit press

foreign direct investment and the political economy of protection this paper makes the point that an import competing industry may not want maximal protection the reason is that a high level of protection encourages inward foreign direct investment which could be even less desirable than import competition a government captured by the domestic import competing industry consequently will set the level of protection low enough to limit direct foreign entry this paper also establishes results regarding the form of protection voluntary export restraints are shown to be the domestic industry s desired means of protection because leaving export rents with foreigners inhibits foreign direct investment

collateral constraints in a monetary economy this paper reviews the role of collateral constraints in transforming small monetary shocks into large persistent output fluctuations we do this by introducing money in the heterogeneous agent real economy of kiyotaki and moore 1997 money enters in a cash in advance constraint and money supply is managed via open market operations we find that a monetary shock generates persistent movements in aggregate output the amplitude of which depends upon whether or not debt contracts are indexed if only nominal contracts are traded money shocks can trigger large output fluctuations in this case a money expansion triggers a boom whereas money contractions generate recessions in contrast if contracts are indexed then amplification is not only smaller it can also generate the reverse results when the possibility of default and renegotiation is considered the model can generate asymmetric business cycles with recessions milder than booms finally monetary shocks generate a highly persistent dampening cycle rather than a smoothly declining deviation jel e32 e43 e44 e52

trade restraints and japanese direct investment flows abstract this paper analyses the factors determining the scale and location of japanese foreign direct investment fdi over the 1980s we use a pooled cross section time series annual data set covering investment in the individual ec countries and the united states our results suggest that controlling for market size and relative labour costs investment was significantly influenced by trade protection measures and in particular by the level of anti dumping actions initiated in the last decade an additional effect from the cost of finance in japan is found suggesting that the tightening of monetary policy in japan in 1989 90 contributed significantly to the observed slowdown in fdi in the early 1990s

foreign direct investment with unemployment and endogenous taxes and tariffs it is well known that high tariffs can induce foreign direct investment or tariff jumping this paper analyzes tariff jumping in the context of a host government which can set specific tariffs and taxes subject to the credibility constraint that the chosen levels be optimal once capital is irreversibly in place the foreign multinational is assumed to choose its location and level of investment strategically taking into account the induced tax and tariff levels in the presence of unemployment the optimal tariff exceeds the optimal tax for any given level of capital investment leading to foreign direct investment

liquidity effects monetary policy and the business cycle this paper presents a flexible price quantitative general equilibrium model with the property that a positive money supply shock drives the nominal interest rate down and aggregate employment output and the real wage up these implications are broadly consistent with postwar u s data the two key features of the model that are responsible for its properties are 1 money shocks have a heterogeneous impact on agents and 2 ex post inflexibilities in production give rise to a very low short run interest elasticity of money demand in our model the extent of the drop in the interest rate after a positive money supply shock depends on the degree to which production is ex post inflexible given sufficient ex post inflexibility the model conforms well with the view widely held within the u s federal system that the short run interest rate elasticity for total reserves is very close to zero copyright 1995 by ohio state university press

monetary policy rules and business cycles basic features of business cycle properties under both exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules are examined in calibrated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with nominal rigidities the nominal wage contract model the monopolistic competition model with price adjustment costs and a combination of these models the experiments show that the difference in business cycle features under exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules is as large as the change generated by introducing nominal rigidities and monetary disturbances this result suggests that for monetary business cycle research developing a proper way to incorporate endogenous monetary policy rules may be as important as developing new transmission mechanisms of monetary policy disturbances

the innovative performance of in house and contracted r d in terms of patents and utility models abstract the standard empirical framework for analysing the r d patents relationship is widened both by examining the different role of in house and contracted r d in the innovative performance of firms and by considering patents and utility models counts as measures of innovation output patents and utility models are considered to approximate for significant and incremental innovations respectively applying count data econometrics to a panel data set of spanish manufacturing firms surveyed in the period 1990 1996 a transcendental production function is estimated which allows for non constant elasticities of the r d inputs the results indicate that significant innovations are mainly gestated in house whereas contracted r d seems more orientated towards innovations of incremental nature

industrial groupings and foreign direct investment we explore worldwide foreign direct investment location decisions by japanese manufacturing firms from 1985 through 1991 our conditional logit estimates provide evidence that firms location decisions are affected by membership in either vertical or horizontal keiretsu consistent with previous studies that stress agglomeration effects on firms location decisions we find that the stock of investment in a region by a firm s vertical keiretsu partners increases the probability of location further we find that the recent flow of investment into a region by a firm s horizontal keiretsu partners increases the probability of investment to the region providing evidence of networking effects

asymmetric demand information and foreign direct investment we examine the fdi versus exports decision of firms competing in an oligopolistic quantitysetting market under demand uncertainty and asymmetric information compared to a firm that chooses to export a firm that chooses to set up a plant in the host market has superior information about local market demand in addition to the well known tension between the fixed set up costs of investment the additional variable costs of exports and oligopoly sizes the incentive to invest abroad is explained by the strategic learning effect fdi may be observed even if trade costs are zero the analysis is robust to price competition and to the possibility that a foreign firm can engage in both fdi and exports

indivisible labor lotteries and equilibrium abstract this paper considers an economy where labor is indivisible and agents are identical although the discontinuity in labor supply at the individual level disappears as a result of aggregation it is shown that indivisible labor has strong consequences for the aggregate bahavior of the economy it is also shown that optimal allocations involve lotteries over employment and consumption

strategic trade policy when firms can invest abroad when are tariffs and quotas equivalent abstract this paper investigates the equivalence of tariffs and quotas when the market in question is imperfectly competitive and open to direct foreign investment the absence of a foreign supply response under a quota so critical to the analysis of the differential impact of tariffs and quotas under imperfect competition is called into question by the potential occurence of direct foreign investment the paper proves the equivalence of optimal tariffs and quotas when the markets are oligopolistic and open to direct foreign investment

indivisible labor and the business cycle abstract a growth model with shocks to technology is studied labor is indivisible so all variability in hours worked is due to fluctuations in the number employed we find that unlike previous equilibrium models of the business cycle this economy displays large fluctuations in hours worked and relatively small fluctuations in productivity this finding is independent of individuals willingness to substitute leisure across time this and other findings are the result of studying and comparing summary statistics describing this economy an economy with divisible labor and post war u s time series

ec members fighting about surplus vers fdi and japanese cars the distribution of consumer and producer surplus among ec members of three different trade regimes free trade a voluntary export restraint ver and a ver in conjunction with foreign direct inv

the role of monetary shocks in equilibrium business cycle theory three examples abstract we study three equilibrium business cycle models that differ according to the mechanism through which monetary growth shocks affect the economy these include models with inflation tax effects with staggered nominal wage contracts and with unanticipated inflation effects we review some monetary features of business cycles in postwar us data and compare these with the same properties computed for the artificial economies our goal is to identify the features of the business cycle that these mechanisms help to explain the features that remain puzzling and how the form of the mechanism matters

making the commons work conservation and cooperation in ireland commonage represents land held under common property that incorporates a system of local cooperative arrangements and rules to conserve and manage the irish uplands we analyze the institutional and economic factors that influence the behavior of commonage farmers under a common property regime using a recursive bivariate probit model results show that 1 cooperation has a positive and important impact on commonage conservation 2 agricultural policies by way of livestock premia increase the level of degradation while 3 farm financial support through agrienvironment measures positively affects commonage conservation and encourages cooperation between farmers

heterogeneity and collective management evidence from common forests in himachal pradesh india summary this paper conducts a statistical investigation into the impact of differences in economic benefits wealth and social classes within the community on collective management of forests there are two key results first social parochialism is not a pre requisite for collective management of forests moderate levels of social diversity are associated with low collective management but at high levels of social diversity collective management is high second moderate wealth heterogeneity is beneficial however at high levels and in the presence of benefit heterogeneity it decreases collective management similarly benefit heterogeneity reduces collective management if wealth heterogeneity also exists these results run counter to the dominant understanding of heterogeneity but may be seen as alternate explanations under a specific socioeconomic context

welfare costs of the u s antidumping and countervailing duty laws abstract the antidumping ad and countervailing duty cvd laws in the united states have become the most pervasive form of import relief sought by domestic producers this paper estimates the collective economic effect of the hundreds of active u s ad cvd orders using a computable general equilibrium model we estimate that the collective net economic welfare cost in 1993 of these orders to be 4 billion this welfare estimate is sensitive to various modeling assumptions which are explored in the paper with the implementation of the uruguay round agreements the ad cvd laws remain one of the costliest programs restraining u s trade

sticky price and limited participation models of money a comparison abstract we provide new evidence that models of the monetary transmission mechanism should be consistent with at least the following facts after a contractionary monetary policy shock the aggregate price level responds very little aggregate output falls interest rates initially rise real wages decline by a modest amount and profits fall we compare the ability of sticky price and limited participation models with frictionless labor markets to account for these facts the key failing of the sticky price model lies in its counterfactual implications for profits the limited participation model can account for all the above facts but only if one is willing to assume a high labor supply elasticity 2 percent and a high markup 40 percent the shortcomings of both models reflect the absence of labor market frictions such as wage contracts or factor hoarding which dampen movements in the marginal cost of production after a monetary policy shock 1997 elsevier science b v

the effects of well management and the nature of the aquifer on groundwater resources we compare groundwater use under collective well management in china where village leaders allocate water among households and under private well management where farmers either pump from their own wells or buy water from wells owned by other farmers villages are divided into connected or isolated groups depending on whether there are lateral groundwater flows between aquifers underlying a village and neighboring ones in rural china households under collective well management use less water even under collective management households located in connected villages use more water indicating that the connectedness of the aquifers may undermine leaders incentives to conserve water

endogenous protection foreign direct investment and protection building trade abstract we introduce the possibility of foreign direct investment fdi in a strategic oligopolistic setting with endogenous protection and find that a number of unique subgame perfect equilibria may arise including a new result we call protection building trade this phenomenon occurs in our model when foreign firms locating production in the home country try to increase protectionist pressures in the home country through increased exports to provide larger barriers against other foreign competitors in future periods we discuss how the foreign firm behavior surrounding significant u s protectionist actions including the vers on japanese automobiles may be consistent with protection building trade behavior

common property and collective action in economic development abstract a fundamental issue in many ldcs is the degree to which natural resource mismanagement is caused by common property arrangements this view has led to widespread attempts to privatize forests rangelands and water resources many of these efforts have failed to stop overuse and have contributed to inequality in resource distribution this paper seriously questions this approach and describes a number of reasons why common property may continue to be both efficient and equitable complementing and combining with private rights in a way consistent with the resource endowments of village economies a theoretical approach is outlined showing that the tragedy of the commons is an unsatisfactory model of common property an alternative model is presented together with a call for research into institutional alternatives in resource management

community industry contracting over natural resource use in a context of weak property rights the case of indonesia decentralization in indonesia has resulted in an increased influence of local communities over the terms of logging agreements with timber companies the outcomes of such community company negotiations vary significantly across communities what are the conditions that cause this variation and how can the outcomes be more effectively and efficiently influenced by third party actors such as the local government or ngos this paper addresses these questions by developing a game theoretic model to illustrate the strategic interactions between communities and companies the model allows for endogeneity of de facto property rights and bargaining positions we show that third party actions to improve the community s bargaining position by raising its reservation utility may result in an increase in the area logged and thereby harm the environment our results indicate that the strategy of intervention matters in particular strategies that raise the sensitivity of interventions to local logging threats are likely to be more cost effective in supporting communities and reducing forest degradation than more indiscriminatory strategies the model will be relevant to other situations where communities negotiate contracts over natural resource use with outside actors in a context of weak property rights a situation increasingly observed in other developing countries

the price effects of monetary shocks in a network economy abstract empirical evidence shows monetary shocks have two temporary effects on the distribution of prices one the dispersion of cross section of prices increases in response to monetary shocks two some prices change in the wrong direction some prices decrease in response to positive monetary shocks and increase in response to negative monetary shocks we present a model that generates the two effects of monetary shocks on the distribution of prices as an out of equilibrium phenomena firms are related to each other through a production network monetary shocks change the working capital of a subset of firms and percolate to other firms through buyer seller linkages price dispersion increases because the percolation of a monetary shock through the production network causes prices to differentially deviate from their steady state values some prices change in the wrong direction because a shift in one firm s demand causes a shift in another firm s supply and vice versa thereby generating complicated chains of bi directional price changes monetary shocks can significantly disturb relative prices even when all prices are fully flexible

choosing among alternative technological strategies an empirical analysis of formal sources of innovation abstract this work aims to offer a detailed conceptual and empirical analysis of the inter firm differences in deciding the composition of their technological efforts using data for spanish firms in the period 1990 1996 the study begins with the standard analysis of the determinants of innovative investment then moves on to the less analysed question of the determinants of the generate versus import alternative and ends with a novel analysis of the characteristics which lead firms to organise research internally as compared to the possibility of contracting r d services externally in contrast to standard practice the econometric approach takes into account the existence of non linearities in the used data the results obtained support the conceptual ideas on which they are based

aggregation and stabilization policy in a multi contract economy abstract this paper presents a model of a multi sector economy in which each sector is characterized by a different type of wage or price stickness the various sectors experience the same exogenous shocks and have the same money supply the analysis shows that demand shocks pose no serious problems for stabilization policy in contrast supply shocks may force the policymaker to choose between stability in one sector and stability in another the analysis also shows that the economist as to the economy s underlying structure and obscures the tradeoffs the policymaker must confront in particular a feedback rule chosen on the basis of an aggregate model could be either better or worse than a passive policy

the effects of real and monetary shocks in a business cycle model with some sticky prices an established characteristic of macroeconomic fluctuations is the strong positive correlation between variations in the money stock and variations in production income and employment at business cycle frequencies this finding has motivated an enormous literature that has studied the effects of monetary policy disturbances on the real economy and in particular the role of money in business cycles several classes of monetary business cycle models have been developed that feature different channels through which monetary policy can have real effects one model that has been used widely is the keynesian model in which monetary shocks can have important effects on allocations because there are nominal rigidities in prices and or wages the keynesian assumption of sticky nominal prices is often motivated by reference to studies that have analyzed the frequency of nominal price changes the broad conclusion that emerges from this literature is that there are a number of goods that have prices that appear to change infrequently for example carlton 1989 has reported slow changes in nominal transactions prices for producers goods even without long term relationships between buyers and sellers and has documented that delivery lags and other product characteristics frequently change before nominal prces change similarly blinder s survey 1991 of firms shows that prices for many goods change only about once per year while this evidence