competitive storage rational expectations and short run food price determination this paper demonstrates that lags between retail and wholesale food prices can be explained by inventory behavior of retailers theoretical considerations indicate that the markup model should be modified to include a jorgenson type user cost variable which depends on expected future wholesale price the rational expectations hypothesis is used to derive price expectations the retail price specification therefore depends on the stochastic process generating expected wholesale price the econometric methodology employing both causality testing and nonlinear estimation is illustrated by estimating monthly price relationships for beef the results are consistent with the theory and indicate rejection of the markup model

examining the link between energy consumption carbon dioxide emission and economic growth in latin america and the caribbean abstract this study aims at exploring the bi directional long run relationship between energy consumption carbon dioxide emission and economic growth in the latin american and caribbean countries the canonical cointegrating regression ccr is used to achieve the goal of this study taking the period of 1980 2008 the study arrived at different results while 60 of the countries have a positive bi directional long run relationship between energy consumption carbon dioxide emission and economic growth the others have mixed results the results of the study motivated the researcher to recommend that these countries should increase their energy efficiency increase the share of green energy from their total energy use and increase energy conservation in order to reduce unnecessary waste of energy

agricultural price instability a survey of competing explanations and remedies there are two explanations for agricultural price dynamics one follows cobweb logic and models fluctuations driven by expectation errors but emphasises that these expectations create complex dynamics and possibly chaos the other stems from the rational expectations tradition of dynamics driven by real shocks the empirical evidence tends to support the latter but is not conclusive the rational expectations model generates an optimal dynamic path from which no improvement can be expected from public intervention however if we take account of all the potential market failures in agricultural markets and especially in developing countries this conclusion might require some qualifications although an appropriate policy design for stability has still to be achieved this paper surveys the positive and normative literature on agricultural prices highlighting empirical evidence and identifying remaining unresolved issues

how much does country matter an analysis of firms growth options recent international strategy research emphasizes the importance of understanding the effects of geographic location on firms strategies and performance outcomes we contribute to this research by providing empirical evidence that the interplay of country and industry effects matters substantially in explaining the variation in the value of growth options of firms based in different countries our results show that country industry effects are the second largest source of variation following firm effects while industry and country effects are relatively small when considered in their own right that valuable growth options are tied to country and industry interactions has important implications for international strategy research and practice

standardization preferences a function of national culture work interdependence and local embeddedness both theoretical and empirical studies of professional service employee standardization preferences are relatively scarce using responses from 398 employees of an international public relations firm this study finds that employees from high power distance high uncertainty avoidance and high context cultures prefer greater standardization whereas employees from high individualism cultures prefer less standardization additionally work interdependence is positively associated with standardization preferences whereas local embeddedness is negatively associated with standardization preferences

the relationship between gdp and electricity consumption in 10 asian countries the purpose of this study is to estimate the relationships between gdp and electricity consumption in 10 newly industrializing and developing asian countries using both single data sets and panel data procedures the empirical results from single data set indicate that the causality directions in the 10 asian countries are mixed while there is a uni directional short run causality running from economic growth to electricity consumption and a bi directional long run causality between electricity consumption and economic growth if the panel data procedure is implemented these empirical findings imply that electricity conservation policies through both rationalizing the electricity supply efficiency improvement to avoid the wastage of electricity and managing demand side to reduce the electricity consumption without affecting the end user benefits could be initiated without adverse effect on economic growth the findings on the long run relationship indicate that a sufficiently large supply of electricity can ensure that a higher level of economic growth

markets transportation infrastructure and food prices in nepal we study transportation infrastructure and food markets in nepal over the period 2002 to 2010 combining monthly price data from thirty seven local and regional markets and seven indian border markets we use a series of autoregressive models to study price determination spatial and temporal price transmission and price variance we account for district level agricultural production correcting for bi directional causality between output and prices using ground station rainfall data in addition to test hypotheses regarding the importance of transportation infrastructure we incorporate information on road and bridge density and fuel costs for both rice and wheat we find strong evidence of local price intertemporal carryover and very weak evidence of price transmission from regional central and border markets to local markets suggesting very low degrees of market integration fuel costs are positively correlated with food prices and road and bridge density are negatively correlated with prices we find evidence of asymmetric effects positive price shocks are correlated with higher subsequent price volatility compared with negative price shocks of similar magnitude roads and bridges are important for moderating price levels and price volatility in nepal s rice and wheat markets which explains roughly half of the spatial and temporal variation in price mark ups between regional and local markets

option values to conservation and agricultural price policy application to terrace construction in kenya policy reforms to liberalize agricultural markets in developing countries are likely to influence both the level and the variability of prices while considerable attention has been given to the impact of changes in price level on soil and water conservation there has been relatively little analysis of the role of price variability in conservation decisions we present a model of investment under uncertainty to analyze the effect of both level and variability of prices on the decision to invest in conservation the model is applied to adoption of fanya juu terraces in eastern kenya

economic growth and energy consumption the energy environmental kuznets curve for latin america and the caribbean abstract this paper investigates the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption using the hypothesis postulated for the energy environmental kuznets curve which assumes an inverted u shape relationship between income and energy consumption panel data for 22 latin american and caribbean countries for the period 1990 2011 were used absolute energy consumption was chosen as an environmental pressure indicator because energy consumption is the major contributor of emissions pollutants the results obtained in the estimations show that the hypothesis postulated for the energy environmental kuznets curve is not supported for the region on the contrary the results show an exponential growth as gross value added grows also notable differences are shown between the analyzed economies

price transmission and trader entry in domestic commodity markets abstract using detailed data from three simultaneous surveys of producers traders and exporters this paper examines the transmission of international coffee prices through the domestic value chain in uganda we find that producer price fluctuations are inconsistent with constant transaction costs we investigate three possible explanations for this finding storage and contango marketing costs that increase with price and trader entry that raises search time we test and reject the storage and marketing costs explanation but we find some evidence of trader entry in response to a rise in export price our findings suggest that small itinerant traders enter in response to an export price increase probably taking advantage of farmers ignorance of the rise in wholesale price

the impact of energy consumption and economic development on ecological footprint and co2 emissions evidence from a markov switching equilibrium correction model abstract reducing the impact of air pollution and global environmental degradation on human health and quality of life for qatari citizens represents the most important objective of the qatar national vision 2030 with respect to this vision this study investigates the effects of economic growth energy consumption trade openness urbanization and financial development on environmental degradation by using the markov switching equilibrium correction model with shifts in both the intercept and income per capita slope for the period 1970 2015 unlike existing studies and in addition to the co 2 emissions pollutant this paper uses the total ecological footprint and ecological carbon footprint as new proxies of environmental degradation empirical results show strong evidence for cointegration with markov shifts in particular our results show that the non control for breaks can hide the true relationship among variables the results show also that when controlling for breaks the environment kuznets curve ekc hypothesis holds for the co 2 emissions and ecological carbon footprint pollutants and the u shaped behavior holds for the total ecological footprint moreover the results show that these two behaviors ekc and u shaped are regime dependent regarding the other explanatory variables the results show that trade openness and urbanization worsen ecological footprint however the electricity consumption and financial development are positively related to the ecological footprint and negatively related to ecological carbon footprint and co 2 emissions finally we found evidence for the growth hypothesis for both pollutants based on these results a detailed economic energy and environmental policy is proposed and discussed for the case of qatar

cash crop production food price volatility and rural market integration in the third world large farmers in the third world often devote to cash crops a larger share of their land than do small farmers this paper suggests a possible explanation even in the presence of food markets third world farmers food security is best assured by food self sufficiency a model of crop portfolio choice under multivariate risk is used to show that reasonable assumptions regarding risk and preferences reproduce the observed pattern simulations further indicate that food market integration reduces the need for food self sufficiency policy implications are drawn regarding domestic trade liberalization and agricultural technology

aggregate sources of relative price variability among agricultural commodities a measure of relative price variability among forty seven agricultural commodities is developed for the period 1962 to 1987 econometric models are used to explore the effects of macroeconomic instability on relative price variability within the agricultural sector the results show that these relative prices are more variable when actual and unanticipated inflation rates are higher they may also be more variable during periods when real shocks to the macroeconomy are relatively large thus monetary and fiscal events are not neutral with respect to the agricultural sector because macroeconomic instability appears to create instability and increased uncertainty in agricultural markets

spatial integration transport costs and the response of local prices to policy changes in ghana abstract this paper investigates the respective roles of spatial integration and transport costs in explaining price changes in ghana we introduce a model of price formation and market integration that incorporates the price transmission process between local and central markets and also captures the implications for volatility of local prices we explore the implications of the model for the time path of price adjustments as determined directly and indirectly through the marketing sector we show that the price adjustment process in a local market is determined by the degree of interdependence between that market and the central market in which a price shock originates and estimate the intertemporal and interspatial dynamics of the price adjustment process using data from wholesale maize markets in ghana we find that reductions in local prices and local price variance following the introduction of economic reforms in 1983 can be traced to both local and central market forces but that differences in the degree of market integration have important implications for long run changes in transport costs and the evolution of prices in outlying markets

the extent pattern and degree of market integration a multivariate approach for the brazilian rice market the extent pattern and degree of integration are analyzed in a multivariate system with cointegrating restrictions the extent of the market is found by identifying locations that are linked by trade and where prices share identicall ong run information permanent component the pattern of integration characterizes interdependence and is analyzed by estimating a vector error correction model the degree of integration is calculated with persistence profiles of the long run relations we demonstrate that bivariate models are inadequate for capturing the spatial dynamics of price adjustment the methodology is applied to the brazilian rice market and policy implications are

organizational attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder the interaction of demographic characteristics with foreignness our analysis of 4605 individual evaluations of the 60 companies in the reputation quotient annual 2000 study suggests that foreign headquartered companies are less attractive employers whereas more international companies are more attractive moreover we find that gender race respondent age and educational level significantly interact with our foreignness variables in predicting company attractiveness

analysis of south korea s economic growth carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption using the markov switching model abstract recently many countries have been making an effort to reduce their carbon dioxide co2 emission and as part of such effort the united nations framework convention on climate change unfccc adopted the kyoto protocol in 1997 south korea is very likely to be included in the second batch of countries that must reduce their greenhouse gas emission after the end of the implementation of the kyoto protocol in 2012 reducing the country s co2 emission however can have an impact on the economy therefore in this study the correlations between south korea s economic growth co2 emission and energy consumption were analyzed the analysis period was from q1 1991 to q4 2011 and the analysis methods that were used were regression analysis for the relational analysis among the various overall indices and the markov switching model for a more detailed analysis the results of the analyses showed that south korea s economic growth and co2 emission were coincidental the correlation analysis of the country s economic growth and energy consumption showed a significant correlation between economic growth and fossil fuels which emit co2 such as coal in the industrial sector petroleum products in the industrial and transportation sectors and liquefied natural gas lng in the residential commercial and industrial sectors it is expected that the results of this study will pave the way for the conduct of various researches on controlling the country s co2 emission management and for suggestions for such to be given such as policies for reducing the energy consumption in each sector using the methodology proposed in this study

probing theoretically into central and eastern europe transactions resources and institutions since the 1990s central and eastern europe cee has provided unique societal quasi experiments which represent opportunities to test the applicability of existing theories in international business and management studies and to develop new ones specifically three lines of theorising have been advanced 1 organisational economics theories 2 resource based theories and 3 institutional theories for each of these theories we discuss how they contribute to the understanding of key issues such as entry strategies of foreign investors restructuring strategies of local incumbents and entry and growth strategies of entrepreneurs on this basis we assess how cee research has influenced the overall trajectories of theory development cee research has in particular highlighted the importance of contextual influences such as institutions thus scholars have aimed at incorporating institutions into theories such as organisational economics theories and resource based theories and advancing an institution based view of business strategy as a complementary perspective we outline how future research in cee and other emerging economies may advance this research agenda further

a three stage theory of international expansion the link between multinationality and performance in the service sector it is generally assumed that the performance of a firm improves with greater multinationality yet recent empirical studies have shown both a u shaped relationship which suggests an initially negative effect of international expansion on performance before the positive returns of international expansion are realized and an inverted u shaped relationship which suggests that international expansion beyond an optimal level is again detrimental to performance and results in a negative slope this paper proposes a new unified three stage theory of international expansion that incorporates both concepts in a sigmoid hypothesis it then tests this on data from 11 service industries highlighting the difference between knowledge based and capital intensive service sectors

economic growth energy conservation and emissions reduction a comparative analysis based on panel data for 8 asian pacific countries this study was conducted to evaluate the causality between energy consumption gdp growth and carbon emissions for eight asia pacific countries from 1971 to 2005 using the panel data the results indicate that there are long run equilibrium relationships between these variables additionally causality from energy consumption to co2 emissions was observed generally but there were some opposite relationships also parameter estimations of the panel data model indicate that there are great differences in the carbon emissions the efficiencies of energy use carbon emissions of unit gdp and unit energy consumption between developed and developing countries the base carbon emissions per capita energy consumption and efficiency of energy use in developing countries are far lower than in developed countries however the co2 emissions per unit of energy use is higher although developing countries may reduce their co2 emission per unit energy use total energy consumption will rise rapidly with economic development thus developing countries must determine how to undergo economic growth while conserving energy and reducing emissions to respond to global climate change it is necessary to develop innovative technology for energy use transform the energy structure and conduct the clean development mechanism

multinational corporations vs domestic corporations financial performance and characteristics the analysis in this paper is composed of two segments first the financial performance of a sample of multinational corporations mncs is compared with that derived for a control group of domestic corporations dmcs using market based performance measures then the paper presents a comparison of selected financial characteristics of the firms in the two groups the results suggest the dmcs appear to have a significantly superior risk adjusted market based performance are significantly less capitalized and have higher total risk as well as higher systematic risk the fact that mncs are substantially larger than dmcs is not found to be a significant factor in explaining the observed difference between the two groups performance

food price variability and economic reform an arch approach for ghana changes in maize price levels and variability in ghana are investigated a model of wholesale price determination is reviewed in which grain stocks are held for speculative storage as well as export to neighboring countries in the sahel to test the model an autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic arch regression is applied to monthly maize data for two markets over the period 1978 93 the regression is used to measure changes in maize price volatility in ghana and to infer the importance of past prices domestic and regional production and commodity storage and trade in explaining these changes

causal relationship between energy consumption and gdp revisited the case of korea 1970 1999 abstract causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth is investigated applying a multivariate model of capital labor energy and gdp usual btu energy aggregate is substituted with a divisia aggregate in an attempt to mitigate aggregation bias to test for granger causality in the presence of cointegration among the variables we employ a vector error correction model rather than a vector autoregressive model empirical results for korea over the period 1970 1999 suggest a long run bidirectional causal relationship between energy and gdp and short run unidirectional causality running from energy to gdp the source of causation in the long run is found to be the error correction terms in both directions

co2 emissions energy consumption and economic growth in turkey abstract this paper examines the long run and causal relationship issues between economic growth carbon emissions energy consumption and employment ratio in turkey by using autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach of cointegration empirical results for turkey over the period 1968 2005 suggest an evidence of a long run relationship between the variables at 5 significance level in turkey the estimated income elasticity of carbon emissions per capita is 0 606 and the income elasticity of energy consumption per capita is 1 375 results for the existence and direction of granger causality show that neither carbon emissions per capita nor energy consumption per capita cause real gdp per capita but employment ratio causes real gdp per capita in the short run in addition ekc hypothesis at causal framework by using a linear logarithmic model is not valid in turkish case the overall results indicates that energy conservation policies such as rationing energy consumption and controlling carbon dioxide emissions are likely to have no adverse effect on the real output growth of turkey

the influence of real output renewable and non renewable energy trade and financial development on carbon emissions in the top renewable energy countries due to tremendous increase in the level of carbon dioxide co2 emissions in the last several decades a number of studies in the energy growth environment literature have attempted to identify the determinants of co2 emissions a major criticism related to the existing studies we realize is the selection of panel estimation techniques almost all studies use panel methods that ignore the issue of cross sectional dependence even though countries in the panel are most likely heterogeneous and cross sectionally dependent in addition the majority of existing studies use aggregate energy consumption and thus fail to identify the impacts of energy consumption by sources on the environment in order to fulfill the mentioned gaps in the literature this empirical study analyzes the influence of the real income renewable energy consumption non renewable energy consumption trade openness and financial development on co2 emissions in the ekc model for the top countries listed in the renewable energy country attractiveness index by employing heterogeneous panel estimation techniques with cross section dependence we find that the analyzed variables become stationary at their first differences by using the cadf and the cips unit root tests and the analyzed variables are cointegrated by employing the lm bootstrap cointegration test by using the fmols and the dols we also find that increases in renewable energy consumption trade openness and financial development decrease carbon emissions while increases in non renewable energy consumption contribute to the level of emissions and the ekc hypothesis is supported for the top renewable energy countries

the effects of ncpb marketing policies on maize market prices in kenya the government of kenya pursues maize marketing policy objectives through the national cereals and produce board ncpb which procures and sells maize at administratively determined prices and stores maize as a contingency against future shortages a private sector marketing channel competes with the ncpb this article estimates the effects of ncpb activities on the historical path of private sector prices in kenyan maize markets between 1989 and 2004 the analysis is carried out using a reduced form vector autoregression model var estimated with sparse data and imposing only minimal identification restrictions results show that ncpb activities have stabilized maize market prices in kenya reduced price levels in the early 1990s and raised average price levels by roughly 20 between 1995 and 2004 over the past decade the price raising activities of the ncpb have transferred income from urban consumers and a majority of small scale farm households that are net buyers of maize to a relatively small number of large and small scale farmers who are sellers of maize

economic reform and food prices evidence from markets in ghana abstract this paper investigates trends in food prices in ghana during 1970 1993 regression results confirm that real wholesale prices of food have been declining since the 1970s price trends in the 1980s are characterized by a downward shift at the beginning of the postreform period and a subsequent continuing downward trend despite falling grain prices we find that agricultural wage rates failed to provide an adequate basis for subsistence particularly during periods of large seasonal price rises many farmers hold grain for both speculation and to smooth income this view is supported by evidence regarding seasonal price spreads that have been increasing since 1984 we find no support however for conclusions of trader manipulation of marketing margins during the adjustment period

bringing institutions into performance persistence research exploring the impact of product financial and labor market institutions this study challenges the implicit assumption of homogeneity in national institutional environments made in past studies of firm performance persistence we propose that home country institutions matter we focus on the impact of formal institutions in the product financial and labor markets arguing that they affect the size of pools of exchange partners and the types of exchanges allowed and condoned ultimately these restrictions affect competitive intensity among firms and firm performance persistence using data for over 10 000 firms from 33 countries over a 10 year time frame we show that antitrust law strength a product market institution designed to prevent collusion among firms is associated with decreases in performance persistence unskilled labor market flexibility a labor market institution that reduces legal constraints imposed on residual claimants managers and owners to take necessary actions to maintain or enhance profitability is associated with increases in performance persistence product liability law effectiveness another product market institution and corporate control market development a financial market institution are positively associated with performance persistence only in the case of mnes the two remaining financial and labor market institutions public equity market development respectively skilled labor market availability have a positive respectively negative impact for domestic firms only

economic growth energy consumption financial development international trade and co2 emissions in indonesia this study examines the linkages among economic growth energy consumption financial development trade openness and co2 emissions over the period of 1975q1 2011q4 in the case of indonesia the stationary analysis is performed by using zivot andrews structural break unit root test and the ardl bounds testing approach for a long run relationship between the series in the presence of structural breaks the causal relation between the concerned variable is examined by the vecm granger causality technique and robustness of causal analysis is tested by innovative accounting approach iaa our results confirm that the variables are cointegrated it means that the long run relationship exists in the presence of structural break stemming in the series the empirical findings indicate that economic growth and energy consumption increases co2 emissions while financial development and trade openness compact it the vecm causality analysis has shown the feedback hypothesis between energy consumption and co2 emissions economic growth and co2 emissions are also interrelated i e bidirectional causality financial development granger causes co2 emissions the study opens up a new policy insights to control the environment from degradation by using energy efficient technologies financial development and trade openness can also play their role in improving the environmental quality

estimating the performance effects of business groups in emerging markets business groups confederations of legally independent firms are ubiquitous in emerging economies yet very little is known about their effects on the performance of affiliated firms we conceive of business groups as responses to market failures and high transaction costs in doing so we develop hypotheses about the effects of group affiliation on firm profitability affiliation could either boost or depress firm profitability and members of a group are likely to earn rates of return similar to other members of the same group using a unique data set compiled largely from local sources we test for these effects in 14 emerging markets argentina brazil chile india indonesia israel mexico peru the philippines south africa south korea taiwan thailand and turkey we find evidence that business groups indeed affect the broad patterns of economic performance in 12 of the markets we examine group affiliation appears to have as profound an effect on profitability as does industry membership yet strategy scholars have a much clearer grasp of industries than of groups moreover membership in a group raises the profitability of the average group member in several of the markets we examine this runs contrary to the wisdom conventional in advanced economies that unrelated diversification depresses profitability overall our findings suggest that the roots of sustained differences in profitability may vary across institutional contexts conclusions drawn in one context may well not apply to another copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

firm strategy and economic exposure to foreign exchange rate movements this study examines the implications of differences in strategy and industry structure for firms economic exposures to foreign exchange rate movements in contrast with previous research using a single currency proxy this study estimates firms exposures using a multiple currency model the empirical evidence from u s manufacturing firms indicates that 13 to 17 percent of firms are exposed to foreign exchange rate movements results from cross sectional analyses reveal that foreign direct investment reduces economic exposure to foreign exchange rate movements

effects of financial development indicators on energy consumption and co2 emission of european east asian and oceania countries the financial crisis is considered a major economic issue and energy consumption and pollution are believed to be one of the most important environmental concerns in the new millennium the review on investigation of the nexus among energy consumption gdp growth financial development and co2 emission has shown no definitive conclusion apart from that the effects of financial development on energy consumption are not yet understood properly thus this article investigates the effects of financial indicator shocks i e credit market and stock market shocks on energy consumption and carbon dioxide co2 emissions and vice versa panel vector auto regression pvar models were employed to investigate the relationships in 13 european and 12 east asia and oceania countries from 1989 to 2011 findings emphasize the important role of co2 emission and energy consumption on explaining each other s deviation with only the degree of effect differing although energy consumption and co2 emission shocks on financial indicators such as private sector credit is not very pronounced in both groups of countries but the strength of energy consumption shock on stock return rate in european countries is greater than east asian and oceania countries conversely shocks to stock return rate influence energy consumption especially in long horizon in case of east asia and oceania countries

electricity consumption and economic growth evidence from korea abstract this paper investigates the short and long run causality issues between electricity consumption and economic growth in korea by using the co integration and error correction models it employs annual data covering the period 1970 2002 the overall results show that there exists bi directional causality between electricity consumption and economic growth this means that an increase in electricity consumption directly affects economic growth and that economic growth also stimulates further electricity consumption

transforming disadvantages into advantages developing country mnes in the least developed countries we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of developing country multinational enterprises mnes in comparison with developed country mnes developing country mnes tend to be less competitive than their developed country counterparts partly because they suffer the disadvantage of operating in home countries with underdeveloped institutions we argue that this disadvantage can become an advantage when both types of mne operate in countries with difficult governance conditions because developing country mnes are used to operating in such conditions the empirical analysis shows that although developing country mnes rarely appear among the largest mnes in the world they are more prevalent among the largest foreign firms in the least developed countries ldcs especially in ldcs with poorer regulatory quality and lower control of corruption

rational expectations econometric analysis of changes in regime an investigation of the term structure of interest rates abstract this paper is of interest both for its methodological contribution of new tools for analyzing rational expectations models and for its substantive conclusions concerning the term structure of interest rates during the monetary experiment of october 1979 the paper studies systems subject to changes in regime interpreted here as occasional discrete shifts in the parameters governing the time series behavior of exogenous economic variables the specification is shown to be quite tractable both theoretically and empirically the technique is used to analyze yields on three month treasury bills and ten year treasury bonds during 1962 to 1987 a constant parameter linear model for short term rates is shown to be inconsistent both with the univariate time series properties of short rates and with the observed bivariate relation between long and short rates under the expectations hypothesis of the term structure an alternative nonlinear model that admits the possibility of changes in regime affords a much better description of the univariate process for short rates moreover the cross equation restrictions implied by the expectations hypothesis of the term structure are consistent with the nonlinear specification indeed the residuals of the restricted relation have a standard error of only 0 8 basis points this is a third less than that of a completely unrestricted linear regression of long rates on short rates and compares with an unconditional standard deviation of long rates of 142 basis points i conclude that once the recognition by bond traders of changes in regime is taken into account the expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates holds up fairly well for these data

spatial price transmission and asymmetry in the ghanaian maize market abstract this paper utilizes recently developed threshold cointegration tests that allow for asymmetric adjustment toward a long run equilibrium relationship to examine price linkages between principal maize markets in ghana unlike previous studies the approach employed here assumes that economic agents only act to move the system back to equilibrium when the deviation from equilibrium exceeds a critical threshold whereby the benefits of this adjustment exceed the costs the findings indicate that major maize markets in ghana are well integrated both the threshold cointegration and asymmetric error correction models reveal that wholesale maize prices in local markets accra and bolgatanga respond more swiftly to increases than to decreases in central market techiman prices accra prices are found to react faster than bolgatanga prices to changes in techiman market prices

a model for determining the optimal lease payment in the solar lease business for residences and third party companies with focus on the region and on multi family housing complexes abstract the solar lease business is a recent market trend that has been introduced in many countries an example is the u s solar lease payment lp business which is a payment facility for leasing the solar pv system where the customers pay a certain amount to a third party company in the solar lease business the profit obtained by residences and third party companies depends on the solar lp several impact factors should be simultaneously considered when estimating the solar lp that guarantees the profitability of the business for both sides this study aimed to develop a model for determining the optimal solar lp in the solar lease business for residences and third party companies a genetic algorithm was utilized to solve the trade off problem among the many factors involved the optimal solar lp was provided according to two categories i the electricity generation rate by region and ii the electricity consumption rates of multi family housing complexes in terms of the region the optimal solar lp depended on the electricity generation rate and the difference between the highest and lowest monthly solar lps per unit was us 0 30 in terms of the electricity consumption rate the optimal solar lp depended on the electricity consumption rate and the number of units and the difference between the highest and lowest monthly solar lps per unit was us 3 14 the developed model makes it possible for the government to suggest the optimal solar lp for promoting the solar lease business and to develop a solar pv system

the relationship between co2 emissions and economic growth the case of korea with nonlinear evidence abstract using star models we investigate the nonlinear dynamic properties and the interdependence of co2 emissions and economic growth for korea the estimation results indicate that the growth rate of both co2 emissions and industrial production exhibit a significant nonlinear asymmetric dynamics while the linear granger causality test finds no causality in any direction the results of the nonlinear granger causality tests show a two way causality between co2 emissions and economic growth the strong mutual causation between co2 emissions and economic activities indicates that the economic impact from co2 mitigation is expected to be higher in korea this suggests that the appropriate energy and environmental policy be to mitigate co2 emissions while having less impact on the economy

the impact of collusion on price behavior empirical results from two recent cases abstract we use extended arch and garch models to examine the differences in the behavior of the first two moments of the price distribution during collusive and competitive phases of two recently discovered conspiracies citric acid and lysine according to our results the conspirators managed to raise prices by 9 and 25 cents per pound in the short run relative to non collusive periods also the variance of prices during the lysine conspiracy was lower and the variance of prices during the citric acid conspiracy was higher than during more competitive periods the proposed methodology may be used for antitrust screening and prosecution purposes

carbon dioxide co2 emissions during urbanization a comparative study between china and japan as the world s largest emitter of co2 china is facing increasing domestic and international pressures on emissions mitigation considering japan s leading position in energy conservation this paper conducts a comparative study between china and japan at the urbanization stages to analyze the similarities as well as differences of influencing factors of co2 emissions results indicate that although co2 emissions in japan and china showed the similar characteristics of rigid growth during the urbanization processes significant differences exist in factors such as co2 emissions per capita energy structure and energy intensity between the two countries which are the determinants for co2 emissions growth a cointegration model is constructed to examine the long run equilibrium relationship between co2 emissions and factors including gdp urbanization level energy intensity and cement manufacture empirical results show that there is a quadratic relationship between income growth and co2 emissions granger causality test is then adopted to explore the causal relationships among the variables the future co2 emissions and emission reduction potentials in china are estimated based on scenario analysis finally japan s valuable experience of reducing energy intensity and optimizing energy structure is concluded to provide important policy implications for china s strategic low carbon planning and low carbon transition

a review on energy systems and ghg emissions reduction plan and policy of the republic of korea past present and future abstract the primary objectives of this study were to understand the energy plans and policies of the republic of korea rok and outline its development in the energy sector both qualitative and quantitative information were gathered and evaluated in the context of the defined objectives the study has outlined that the primary motivational factor for achieving the current improved energy status of the rok was to support the rapid industrial growth and socio economic development of the country the major steps taken were to manage the country s escalating energy demand and to minimize the greenhouse emissions in energy sector along its progressive economic development the economic growth of the country had good correlation with the escalating fossil fuel consumption this is however among the great concerns in the country in today s global agenda of sustainable energy managements the country has been primarily relying on the imported energy sources which averaged to 84 including nuclear generation of the total primary energy supply tpes during the period of 2000 2014 oil has been the main source of energy supply in the country followed by coal and natural gas penetration of renewable energy technologies was primarily motivated to meet the country s strategic goals including the downscaling of ghg emission by 37 by 2030 compared to the business as usual bau situation despite the different initiations in the energy management renewable energy sources covered only 4 5 of the tpes in 2014 in addition the country s urgent need now is also towards the management of the available natural resources to support the growing demand of bio economy at this particular interest the country needs to identify the sustainable availability of resources to balance the multi fold sectors this demands comprehensive energy system analysis along with identifying the avenues of the utilization of biomass resources

why does on farm storage fail to mitigate price volatility we analyze the role of farm stock management on price volatility under liquidity constraints and heterogeneous price expectations in commodity markets speculative behaviors by stockholders tend to reduce price volatility but this is not the case in certain agricultural markets where speculation by farmers regarding decisions to sell or store grain are subject to liquidity constraints and heterogeneous price expectations like stockholders most farmers sell grain if they expect a price drop in the near future but unlike stockholders they are not necessarily able to purchase grain if they expect a price increase in the next period heterogeneous price expectations can also lead to suboptimal storage decisions further increasing price volatility for these reasons the storage management behavior of farmers often fails to mitigate price drops in the way that speculation by stockholders does we merge historical data on maize prices and household storage collected in burkina faso in order to build a dynamic panel over the 2005 2012 period we show that carry over from one season to the next is associated with unexpected price drops during the preceding lean season and that carry over is associated with more frequent unexpected price drops following the subsequent post harvest season this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

industry differences in the persistence of firm specific returns some firms such as kellogg nestle hewlett packard and boeing have consistently earned significantly higher returns than their immediate competitors why do intraindustry rents persist for these firms competition typically erodes these rents as evidenced by the strong convergence of firm profitability to the industry mean illustrated in figure 1 i claim that the persistence of these firmspecific rents depends at least partly on industry economic structure similar to richard e caves and michael e porter s 1977 mobility barriers so the rents are more persistent in some industries than others in this paper i test which of the theoretical industry factors are significant to support my claim i also show that the persistence of abnormal returns differs widely and systematically across industries for example an industry with highly persistent profitability differences is the american automobile industry in the 1970 s as illustrated by figure 2 which graphs differences in returns on assets roa s over time throughout the 1970 s general motors maintained a persistent significant profitability advantage over ford while ford held a persistent advantage over chrysler this situation did change later but it is still true that during the 1970 s there was no apparent convergence of profitability differences among the big three auto makers a comparison of figures 1 and 2 suggests that the economy wide result of figure 1 is merely an average over very different industries with convergence rates ranging from almost zero as in automobiles in the 1970 s to very rapid my methods for estimating persistence of above average returns improve on previous studies in several ways first i only consider the persistence of returns around the industry mean the persistence of this intra industry or firm specific rent rather than total rent has not been previously investigated yet the factors affecting firm specific rents need not be the same as those affecting industry rents second i estimate persistence in several ways finally i use a wider range of explanatory variables than earlier studies this study is structured as follows section i explains the concept of persistent firmspecific rents later sections specify the empirical model and estimate persistence by industry section ii theoretically relate industry factors to these varying persistence estimates section iii discuss cross sectional regression estimates section iv and provide conclusions section v

modelling price transmission and volatility spillover in the slovenian wheat market abstractinterdependence between first and second moments of producer and consumer wheat prices in slovenia is assessed in light of the recent major historical events that the country has undergone as well as the recent rumours of cartel agreements between millers causing a decline in farm gate prices while leaving consumer prices untouched a threshold vector error correction and multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model with exogenous variables is applied results indicate that price level adjustments mainly favour retailers by increasing their marketing margins important second moment interactions are also identified increases in international wheat stocks reduce producer prices while higher interest rates increase their instability

modeling regime dependent agricultural commodity price volatilities in stark contrast to financial markets relatively little attention has been given to modeling agricultural commodity price volatility in recent years numerous methodologies with various strengths have been proposed for modeling price volatility in financial markets we propose using a mixture of normals with unique garch processes in each component for modeling agricultural commodity prices while a normal mixture model is quite flexible and allows for time varying skewness and kurtosis its biggest strength is that each component can be viewed as a different market regime and thus estimated parameters are more readily interpreted we apply the proposed model to ten different agricultural commodity weekly cash prices both in sample fit and out of sample forecasting tests confirm that the two state nm garch approach performs better than the traditional normal garch model a significant and state dependent inverse leverage effect is detected only for pork in the regime where the price is expected to drop indicating the volatility in this regime tends to increase more following a realized price rise than a realized price drop

the crossvergence perspective reflections and projections in this retrospective i chronicle the development of the crossvergence theory of values evolution which states it is the dynamic interaction of the sociocultural influences with the business ideology influences that provides the driving force to precipitate the development of new and unique values systems in societies crossvergence theory was introduced in our 1993 jibs paper and was the focus of our 1997 decade award paper as well as of a series of subsequent papers thus i discuss the purpose and findings for six papers that have contributed to our present level of knowledge concerning crossvergence theory i conclude my comments with a discussion of the relevance of longitudinal and multilevel research measures found to be useful and methodologies to consider as well as identifying research topics in need of exploration

behavioural and material determinants of production relations in agriculture in this essay we develop a framework for analysing the major institutions governing the production and exchange of output and the primary factors of production in rural areas the analysis incorporates general considerations of risk and information constraints jointly with the principal material attributes of agriculture and of agricultural production factors the framework is used to analyse barriers to the existence of the major intertemporal and factor markets it is applied specifically to land scarce environments for which it provides an internally consistent explanation for many of the well documented institutional features of such settings in addition the analysis provides new implications for among other phenomena the inter relationships among ownership holdings operational scale family size and factor productivity for the scarcity of animal rental markets and use of animals as collateral for the renting out of land by small landowners and for the existence of plantations for certain crops

market reforms and commodity price volatility the case of east african coffee market the goal of this paper is to examine the impact of commodity market reforms on producer price volatility using evidence from the east african coffee market the results based on time varying volatility models and key summary statistics show that coffee market reforms in the east african community eac are associated with changes in producer price volatility and volatility persistence at both country and regional levels however reforms were not the only cause of changes in price volatility the study further shows that reforms had different effects on prices volatilities of arabica and robusta varieties of coffee grown in individual eac countries these findings have wider implication for commodity market reforms and producer price stabilisation policies in the eac and coffee producing countries in sub sahara africa

econometric analysis of trade exports imports energy consumption and co2 emission in six regions abstract the aim of this study is to explore the bi directional long run relationship between trade energy consumption trade co 2 emission exports energy consumption exports co 2 emission imports energy consumption and imports co 2 emission 189 countries from six different regions namely asia pacific eastern europe the americas middle east and north africa mena sub saharan africa ssa and western europe were selected the panel fully modified ols fmols was utilized taking the period of 1990 2011 the panel results show that all the regions excluding eastern europe show a long run positive relationship between the trade variables energy consumption and between the trade variable co 2 emission however at the country level the results reveal that the feedback long run positive relationship between the trade variables energy consumption and co 2 emission takes place in most cases when the share of trade of goods and services to gdp is significant and the level of the countries development is high however the negative or the non significant long run relationship between the variables takes place generally in countries when the trade variables do not play a large share in their gdp and when these countries are in early development stages

does human resource management matter in a transitional economy china as an example this paper investigates the significance of how firms manage their human resources hrs within the confines of powerful social institutions in a transitional economy the people s republic of china china we propose that two dimensions the role of human resource management rhr and followers perception of the leader top are important contributors to firm performance as are the influences of the regional economy and firm ownership we tested our hypotheses with a survey of 180 firms from nine cities in china we found that both role of hrm rhr and follower s perception of top level management top are important to firm performance the study confirms that while social institutions remain powerful in a transitional economy effective hrm is important to firm performance

hidden regimes and the demand for carbon dioxide from motor gasoline abstract perhaps the most tactile source of anthropogenic carbon dioxide co2 emissions stem from vehicle use because consumers are well aware of their price and quantity decisions it is likely that consumer demand for co2 emissions from motor gasoline are quite responsive to the overall state of the economy using a structurally identified markov switching demand model i find that co2 emissions respond asymmetrically to changes in income and the price of gasoline in expansionary and contracting states of the economy the findings of this paper indicate that flexible policy instruments have the potential to mitigate undue burden on consumers and producers compared to their static counterparts

renewable energy policies and contradictions in causality a case of next 11 countries abstract numerous studies on the causal relationship between economic growth energy consumption and carbon dioxide co2 emissions have shown divergence in policy recommendations which arises mainly due to the choice of methodology and the period of study this inconclusiveness in policy prescriptions might turn out to be critical when the renewable energy policies of the developing nations are considered our study analyses the causal relationship between economic growth carbon emissions fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption in next 11 countries during the period of 1990 2016 along with conducting parametric and non parametric causality tests together introducing the geweke 1982 causality test in the literature of energy economics we attempt to establish a wholesome aspect of policy design by comparing and complementing results of different causality analysis and how the causality directions should comply with the context setting our empirical evidence confirms that robust renewable energy policy can be designed by complementing the various causality test results rather than focusing on one particular causality test

international diversification and firm performance the s curve hypothesis a proposed theoretical framework for the study of multinationality and performance includes both benefits and costs of geographic expansion over different phases of internationalization data on 1 489 japanese firms over 12 years show a consistent horizontal x s shaped x relationship between multinationality and performance further firms investing more heavily in intangible assets such as technology and advertising achieved greater profitability gains from growth in foreign direct investment our framework and findings highlight complexity and temporal dynamics