bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Capital and Labour Movements in the European Community
Authors: Mayes David G.
Published: September 2022

Most of the emphasis and interest in negotiations and assessments concerning integration tends to concentrate on products rather than inputs. However, freedom of movement of products within the EC does not necessarily entail the absence of protection or completely free competition if there are still constraints on inputs. In the case of imported produced inputs, intermediate goods and services, the subject has been extensively explored with the measurement of effective protection. The differences between nominal rates and effective rates can be quite striking. If the EC’s Common External Tariff were 5% on a particular product while the CET on the main produced inputs, which form 50% of the production costs, is zero then the effective rate of protection is double the nominal rate (all other influences such as differential transport costs for the finished and intermediate products being ignored). Effective protection is thus the rate of protection of the value added in the production of the final product.
Equity Rates of Return in the UK — Evidence From Panel Data
Authors: Mayer Colin , Meadowcroft Shirley
Published: September 2022

There are few issues in the economics of the firm that have generated as much controversy and discussion as the measurement of profitability. Accountants remain sharply divided about the appropriate techniques for adjusting for inflation while in the background economists question the fundamental principles of accounting and fail to agree on whether informative indicators can be constructed at all (see Kay (1976), Fisher and McGowan (1983), Harcourt (1965), Kay and Mayer (1984) for a taste of this debate). Much of this discussion has been highly misconceived and it is a basic contention of this paper, as described in section I, that accounting figures are indeed relevant for answering a range of economically interesting questions and a desirable method of adjusting for inflation is both well defined and simple to apply in practice.
Le salaire des jeunes est-il flexible?
Authors: Leroy R.
Published: September 2022

La crise paraissant interminable—jusqu’à mettre en cause le terme même de crise—et le chômage s’étant stabilisé autour d’un taux de 13% qui devrait persister au moins jusqu’en 1990 (d’après les Perspectives 1987 du Bureau du Plan), l’attention tend à se concentrer sur le marché du travail des jeunes. Si les pré-pensions sont venues apporter un palliatif du côté des âgés, si le développement du travail à temps partiel a assuré une certaine croissance de l’emploi féminin^), par contre des génération successives de jeunes viennent se heurter au verrouillage persistant de l’embauche dans les emplois réguliers. Malgré la mise en œuvre d’emplois de remplacement (CST, TCT, …) et l’obligation (sauf dispenses…) d’embaucher des stagiaires, leurs possibilités d’emploi se sont contractées de 31 % en 10 ans (LEROY et GODANO, 1986).

Leur taux de chômage atteint 19% du côté masculin et 28 % pour les jeunes filles (15–24 ans, en 1983), contre 8% parmi les hommes adultes (25–49 ans). Cette montée du chômage ne correspond pas à un élargissement de la population active (de l’offre de travail) : une baisse des taux d’activité, liée vraisemblablement au développement de la scolarité, a plus que compensé une certaine poussée démographique. C’est le volume des emplois (la demande de travail) qui a fondu : sa contraction (− 170.000 unités) dépasse même le gonflement du chômage des jeunes (+ 160.000 unités).
Strike Costs, Ability to Win and the Determination of Wage Settlements
Authors: Petith Howard C.
Published: September 2022

Hicks (1932) introduced the idea that the outcome of successful wage negotiations depends on the costs that would have been incurred had a strike taken place. Hick’s profound insight attracted attempts by many authors to construct formal bargaining models of this type. However these attempts, the most notable of which were by Bishop (1964) and Foldes (1964), must be considered to have failed, primarily because no adequate general bargaining theory was then available. The model pioneered by Ståhl (1972) and developed by Rubinstein (1982) using Selten’s (1975) concept of perfect equilibrium has now filled this lacuna. The present paper conbines this Ståhl-Rubinstein approach with the special characteristics of union-management negotiations to provide a simple yet far reaching account of how wage settlements are determined.

Two aspects of union-management negotiations distinguish them from general bargaining. In the latter it is usually assumed that the costs of delay are constant and that failure to agree causes the parties to forgo what would have been their share in the surplus. However in the former, the costs borne by a party rise steeply as it runs out of resources and, when agreement is not reached, the winner of the strike receives the entire surplus. The model developed below shows how, when there is no strike, costs and ability to win jointly determine the wage settlement. The paper closes with a discussion of the broader implications of the cost rise phenomenon.
The Role of Information in a Duopoly Setting : Some Experimental Results
Authors: Veugelers Reinhilde
Published: September 2022

Experiments have been conducted to analyze the influence of information on cooperative behavior in a duopoly setting. The results only qualitatively support the hypothesis that increasing information tends to facilitate cooperation. Individual signalling behavior shows the difficulties to reach a cooperative solution. These results however should be handled with caution in view of the limitations of the experimental setting.
Academic presentation of Professor Amartya Sen
Authors: Van Parijs Philippe
Published: September 2022

I was still a student when I first read some of Amartya Sen’s work. I had come across by chance his little book On Economic Inequality, which I read at once from start to finish. It was for me what we call in French a coup de foudre — love at first sight, or at least at first reading. Never before had I encountered such a combination of a comprehensive and lucid survey of the literature; a sober and effective use of formal tools; a delightfully clear presentation of mathematical results; an unflinching critical attention to the presuppositions of what was being claimed; and a pervasive concern with the victims of the economic inequalities which the book sought to conceptualize.

Since reading Amartya Sen’s little book, I have had some time to read widely. And for each of the features I just mentioned, I have probably come across some other writing by some other author that matched or came close to matching On Economic Inequality. But with one major exception, I have never since encountered anything like the same combination of features I had found so extraordinary in that book. I have to say “with one major exception”, because I was unable to resist the temptation to read much more of Professor Sen’s work, and thus underwent again and again the same gratifying experience I had gone through the first time I read him.
A Welfarist Proof of Arrow’s Theorem
Authors: Blackorby Charles , Donaldson David , Weymark John A.
Published: September 2022

This article presents a proof of Arrow’s Theorem which highlights the theorem’s relationship to welfarism and which emphasizes its underlying geometric structure. In addition, this method of proof is adapted to provide a proof of a single-preference-profile version of Arrow’s Theorem. The relationship between Arrovian social choice theory and Bergson-Samuelson welfare economics is also considered.
Poverty Measures and Anti-Poverty Policy
Authors: Bourguignon François , Fields Gary S.
Published: September 2022

This paper analyzes the optimal allocation of a given antipoverty budget consistent with various usual measures of poverty. It is shown that it is generally optimal to give all the budget either to the poorest or to the richest of the poor. It is only with the Sen index of poverty that it is sometimes optimal to combine both types of allocation. This property may be related to the normalization rule used in the derivation of that measure and sheds some new light on the axiomatics of poverty measurement.
Income, Uncertainty and the Probability of Self-Employment
Authors: Pfeiffer Friedhelm , Pohlmeier Winfried
Published: September 2022

This paper aims at investigating the determinants of self- employment within a structural model of discrete choice under uncertainty. The basic idea of our approach centres around Knight's (1921) famous view of entrepreneurs receiving risk-adjusted income that has to exceed the income of employees because of the greater variance of the income stream. Unlike previous econometric approaches, which use reduced form specifications that are more or less based on ad-hoc reasoning, we derive a choice equation of which the parameters have a clear interpretation in terms of the parameters of the underlying von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function. The specification allows to identify how the difference in income risk between wage-employment and self- employment enters the choice equation without approximating the risk difference via a reduced form specification. The model is estimated using a random effects panel probit estimator with unrestricted autocorrelation structure. Estimates are based on a balanced panel of 1,926 working men selected from the West German Socio-Economic Panel 1984 to 1989.
The “Public Capital Hypothesis”: The Case of Germany
Authors: Conrad Klaus , Seitz Helmut
Published: September 2022

According to the “public capital hypothesis” public investment crowds in private investment by increasing the rate of return to private capital. The present paper uses an extended cost function with public capital included as an unpaid fixed factor of production to examine the impact public capital has on the private economy. Using a panel of four highly aggregated sectors of the West German Economy, it is shown, that the provision of public capital raises the demand for private capital, as suggested by the public capital hypothesis. In addition, it is shown that public infrastructure capital contributes to the productivity of the private economy.
The Importance of Rationing in International Trade: An Econometric Analysis for Germany
Authors: Franz Wolfgang , Heidbrink Gustav
Published: September 2022

Within the context of a macroeconometric rationing model the importance of rationing for international trade flows is investigated. The model describes rationing barriers on domestic and foreign markets which lead to spillover effects on domestic imports and exports. The novelties of this study are the more detailed analysis of the dynamics of international trade flows and the use of business survey data as proxies for rationing barriers. The model is estimated for Germany. As a result rationing does influence trade flows to a non-negligible extent. Moreover, business survey data are a useful indicator for rationing but they do not outperform other proxies such as the degree of capacity utilization.
L’integration monétaire en Europe: Introduction
Authors: Aglietto Michel , Ghymers Christian
Published: September 2022

Avant de présenter comme il se doit une synthèse des contributions que nous avons rassemblées sur l’intégration monétaire européenne, il nous est apparu nécessaire, à la lumière des développements récents, d’introduire ce numéro spécial par un bref commentaire sur les conditions de réalisation d’une union monétaire viable.

Au seuil de l’échéance symbolique de l’« Europe 1992 » et de son marché unique, les événements monétaires de septembre 1992 sont venus rappeler que la Communauté de monnaie, qui devrait venir accomplir le marché unique en supprimant la dernière source de fractionnements nationaux, requiert le strict respect de préalables dont la réalisation semble encore loin d’être assurée. C’est en tous cas l’opinion des marchés, dont les soubresauts récents ont mis en lumière deux principes essentiels : d’abord la primauté de la convergence des performances et des politiques économiques pour fonder une union monétaire, ensuite la validité du «théorème d’incompatibilité», c’est à dire le caractère instable d’un SME qui serait fondé sur des capitaux parfaitement libres, des changes fixes, et une absence de progrès tangible de la coopération monétaire ou d’engagement politique ferme envers ITJEM tel que la ratification sans bavure du Traité de Maastricht.
Economic Convergence in the Integrating Community Economy and the Role of Economic Policies
Authors: Connolly Bernard , Kröger Jürgen
Published: September 2022

The present paper shows that with increasing economic integration the notion of nominal convergence is changing with price convergence more easily achievable, convergence of cost trends becoming more important and convergence of current account balances less essential. Convergence in supply conditions will crucially determine future employment opportunities. The issue of credibility of the supply performance seems to be just as important as the more conventionally accepted issue of macro-economic credibility. Policies which, enhance the supply-side flexibility of EC economies would reduce the temptation to use discretionary policies to influence regional output and employment. Flexibility of relative price and wages would also by itself temper the need for demand management, facilitate adjustment to both temporary and permanent shocks and reduce the need for an intra-EC transfer mechanism. However, the reform of economic structures so as to increase flexibility will itself constitute a shock. Structural reforms may thus themselves be a source of short-term déstabilisation of aggregate demand, prices and employment. Deciding whether or not anticyclical fiscal responses (which may be equivalent to capital controls) are appropriate in such circumstances is not straightforward.
National Insurance against Unevenly Distributed Shocks in a European Monetary Union
Authors: Mélitz Jacques , Vori Silvia
Published: September 2022

We examine proposals to introduce national insurance against unevenly distributed shocks in the European Community. This insurance would operate differently from tax and government spending activities that now yield regional insurance within countries, since these activities are mainly designed for other purpose such as income redistribution and general revenue-raising. According to our evidence, the appeal of such insurance is very limited because the risks are too highly correlated and there is an excessive chance that a country in difficulty would not receive aid. The costs of a continuing programme are likely to exceed the benefits.
From Here to EMU: The Role of the Ecu after Maastricht
Authors: Steinherr Alfred
Published: September 2022

The Maasstricht Treaty on EMU has generally been hailed as “a victory for the Ecu”. This is a misinterpretation. Maastricht is a victory for the EMU. EMU does not require the actual Ecu, and the actual Ecu did not receive a boost from the decision to call the future single currency “Ecu” rather than “Euromark”. Maasstricht has not nailed down the actual Ecu’s future and has left some uncertainties. Finally, it is not certain that the future Ecu will be at least as “hard” as the Deutschemark. The Maastricht Treaty went as far as practically possible in anchoring the Ecu’s stability. But performance will depend on factors outside of the Treaty’s scope.
Analytical solutions to an RBC model with imperfect competition, increasing returns and underemployment
Authors: Bénassy Jean-Pascal
Published: September 2022

We construct in this paper a “benchmark” model of fluctuations withoptimizing households and firms. The economy is a monetary one, withimperfect competition in goods and labor markets, as well as increasingreturns to scale and specialization. This economy is subject totechnological and monetary shocks. Analytical solutions are derived, whichallow to understand the respective roles of imperfect competition andincreasing returns in generating underemployment of resources and potentialpersistence effects.
Participation, unemployment and wage bargaining in a real business cycle model
Authors: Langot François , Pucci Muriel
Published: September 2022

The objective of this article is to evaluate quantitative implications of the hypothesis of matching, with endogenous participation, in the framework of a real cycle model. The choice of participation results from a trade off between domestic production and search for a job. Thus, fluctuations of the unemployment summarise the flows in and out of the labour force. Moreover, in this model, unemployment fluctuations are not Pareto optimal as in Andolfatto [1966] and Merz [1995]. Results of the simulations show how it is possible to explain some stylised facts of the American labour market when flows on this market are so clarified.
Fiscal policies, public deficit restraints and European stabilization
Authors: Bec Frédérique , Hairault Jean-Olivier
Published: September 2022

The ability of fiscal policies to smooth macroeconomic fluctuations under the constraints imposed by the Maastricht Treaty is at the heart of the current policy debate in Europe. A two-country intertemporal stochastic general equilibrium model is used in order to evaluate the efficiency of fiscal policy. First, it reveals the importance of the nature of the shocks hitting European countries : asymmetrical shocks actually strengthen the national fluctuations. Then, constraints on public deficit imposed by the Maastricht Treaty limit the ability of national governements to stabilize their économies. Furthermore, they can lead the european countries to adopt pro-cyclical budget rules.
Big shock, slow growth and the dynamics of aggregate labour demand with firing costs
Authors: Chambin Marianne , Portier Franck
Published: September 2022

This paper studies the dynamic properties of the labour demand model with non convex adjustment costs proposed by Bentolila and Bertola [1990]. With this model we evaluate the importance of the firing costs, following a great shock, for the dynamics of adjustment of the aggregated labour demand of a stationary state to an other. The model is calibrated on the French economy, and studies the transition following the shock of 1973-74,–i.e. a shock on the price of oil as well as the transition from a rapid and stable growth to a slow and uncertain one. We show that in this case, a drastic reduction of the firing costs when the shock occurs does not allow to modify substantially the path of the economy.
Can animal spirits explain the dynamics of European unemployment?
Authors: Fève Patrick , Langot François
Published: September 2022

We estimate a model with equilibrium unemployment explained by a search process on the labor market. We find that the matching function has increasing returns to scale and we show that this model may display fluctuations at business cycle frequencies even when there are no shocks to the fundamentals of the economy. In particular, self-fulfilling beliefs, or “animal spirits”, can explain the fluctuations around the Beveridge curve observed in the French, German and U.K. economies.
Régulation multidimensionnelle d'un monopole polluant et majorité politique aléatoire
Authors: Boisson Hélène
Published: September 2022

Le contrat de régulation optimale d'un monopole avec deux paramètres d'information privée et d'antisélection (productivité et niveau d'émissions polluantes) est caractérisé. Dans ce contexte de screening bidimension-nel, un aspect d'économie politique est introduit en considérant l'objectif du régulateur comme le résultat d'un processus électoral majoritaire. En fonction du régime politique, deux types de contrats apparaissent : l'un est séparateur, l'autre mélangeant. Leur occurrence dépend de la confrontation des incitations sociales et privées qui résultent de l'arbitrage effectuépar le régulateur entre l'extraction de la rente informationnelle et le gain d'efficacité allocative.
Incertitude scientifique et décision publique : le recours au
Principe de précaution
Authors: Bouglet Tania , Lanzi Thomas , Vergnaud J.-C.
Published: September 2022

Dans cet article, nous formalisons deux critères de décisions qui tentent de
rendre compte de deux logiques différentes d'interprétation du Principe de
précaution. Le premier critère correspond à la maximisation du minimum de
l'espérance d'utilité alors que le second critère correspond à la
minimisation du maximum de l'espérance de regret. Les deux critères de
décisions sont appliqués à un problème économique où l'incertitude est
mesurée par une famille de probabilités. Nous montrons qu'il existe un
intervalle de probabilités sur lequel les choix relatifs aux deux critères
divergent. Plus particulièrement, nous montrons que sur cet intervalle, le
second critère à la différence du premier, conduit toujours à retenir la
décision la plus précautionneuse, les décisions étant identiques sur les
autres intervalles.
La conjoncture économique de la Belgique
Authors: Dupriez Léon H.
Published: September 2022

Comme la conjoncture des pays du Marché commun s’aligne et s’unifie
considérablement en ce moment, il est préférable d’analyser d’abord avec
précision la conjoncture belge et d’élargir ensuite le jugement.
Les recherches de démographie historique en Hongrie depuis 1945
Authors: Deprez Paul
Published: September 2022

La Hongrie a derrière elle une longue tradition en matière de recherche statistique et démographique. Tandis que dans de nombreux pays les recherches de démographie historique faisaient partie des activités scientifiques des géographes ou des historiens, elles étaient en Hongrie — et ceci dès la fin du siècle dernier — le domaine presque exclusif des statisticiens. Cette tradition fut respectée tout au long du XXe siècle et après la seconde guerre mondiale. Il faut, par conséquent, ne pas s'étonner du fait qu'après la guerre le centre principal des recherches de démographie historique fut l'Office Central Hongrois de Statistique.
L'histoire d'une génération avec ses enfants et ses petits-enfants
Authors: Schwarz Karl
Published: September 2022

L'Office de Statistique de la République Fédérale d'Allemagne a rassemblé un grand nombre de tables statistiques portant sur la période centrée sur le recensement du 6 juin 1961. Citons avant tout les tables de mortalité générale 1960-1962 et de mortalité d'après l'état civil, ainsi que les tables de nuptialité des célibataires, des veufs et des divorcés. On a relevé, par ailleurs, pour l'année du recensement de 1961 des donndes très précises sur la fréquence des naissances chez les femmes mariées et non mariées, sur la fréquence des divorces et sur la rupture d'union par veuvage. Enfin, le recensement de 1961 présente des données sur la participation à la vie économique des hommes selon l’âge et des femmes célibataires, mariées, veuves et divorcées.
Problèmes de l'étude du déclin de la fécondité européenne
Authors: Walle Etienne van de
Published: September 2022

Sil'on classe les pays du monde d'après leurs taux bruts de natalité, c'est-à-dire d'après le nombre de naissances par mille habitants, ils se regroupent en gros en deux catégories : les pays dont la natalité n'atteint pas 20 pour mille, et ceux où elle excède 40 pour mille. II y a très peu de taux nationaux entre ces deux chiffres. La premiére catégorie comprend le bloc des pays de civilisation occidentale et le Japon, tous fortement industrialisés et urbanisés. Le reste du monde appartient à la seconde catégorie. Si les pays du Tiers Monde avaient pu être observés vers 1800, ils auraient probablement révélé à peu près les mêmes taux de natalité qu'aujourd'hui. Les pays du groupe occidental par contre avaient alors une natalité au moins du double de ce qu'elle est aujourd'hui. C'est le déclin rapide dans l'entretemps qui forme le sujet de cet article.
Le remariage en pays industrialisés. Approche transversale et longitudinale
Authors: van houte-Minet Michèle
Published: September 2022

S'ils ne représented à l'heure actuelle qu'un faible pourcentage du total des unions conclues en pays industrialisés les remariages méritent néanmoins de retenir l'attention du démographe par l'influence qu'ils peuvent avoir sur la fécondité et à travers celle-ci sur le mouvement de la population. Tel paraît être le fondement théorique d'une étude du remariage en pays occidentaux et c'est dans cette optique que se placera cette note. Dans la perspective adoptée, seuls les remariages conclus dans les limites de la période de procréation méritent de faire l'objet d'une analyse démographique bien que l'intérêt sociologique des remariages aux âges élevés demeure indéniable.
Industrial Investment in the European Community
Authors: Weiserbs Daniel
Published: September 2022

Since 1973 European Economies have faced a period of slow growth aggravated by a new recession in 1980 which has dramatically increased unemployment. It has also particularly affected investment whose volume declined in absolute terms between 1979 and 1983.

Whilst in the period of rapid growth, exports and investment were the driving forces of expansion, however in the mid 70’s growth was sustained rather by public and private consumption. But since then public deficits have constrained governments to adopt austerity policies reducing their expenditures and slowing down as much as possible transfers to households.

Simultaneously, the weakening of firms’ financial situation has led governments to endeavour to render the distribution of value added more favorable to profits, which has brought pressure on real wages. This, together with limitation on the volume of transfer payments, has eroded consumer’s purchasing power.

These policies have been quite effective in terms of inflation rates and external deficits. However, the medium term prospects for unemployment remain around 10%, if not more, of the active population.
Comment on «Industrial Investment in the European Community»
Authors: Boyd Chris
Published: September 2022

Daniel Weiserbs has produced a very interesting model of investment behaviour in the six major countries of the EEC. As is usual in econometric studies he has had to steer a careful course between what is feasible and what is desirable. In particular for this study the data constraints are severe, since the data are annual and only for a 21 year period. In view of such constraints it is very important to have a clear economic interpretation of the coefficients to be estimated and in this paper we are supplied in most cases with a convincing story.

The model is however derived in a fairly ad hoc manner and this can sometimes have the disadvantage of hiding the full implications of the assumptions made. For example we know from work by Lucas (1967), Gould (1968) and others that if we assume that an industry or sector acts, as a whole, like a representative profit-maximizing firm with costs of adjusting its capital stock, then the use of a partial adjustment mechanism as specified in equation (6) implies that the representative firm has static expectations – that is future growth, as seen from a point in time, is expected to remain constant for all time into the future. Now since the expectation of growth one period ahead is in fact specified to be equal to growth this period, the model is implicitly assuming that, at each period, firms expect growth to continue at its present rate for ever – which must have been a depressing thought in 1981.
Investment, Output and Labor Constraints, and Financial Constraints: The Estimation of A Model With Several Regimes
Authors: Artus Patrick , Muet Pierre-Alain
Published: September 2022

Usual approaches to the investment decision of the firm consider either that the firm is always constrained on its output sales or that it never faces any constraint at all. The paper is an attempt to enlarge this traditional framework in two directions. First by combining the two previous standpoints and by considering that the firm is sometimes constrained on its output (effective demand) and sometimes not constrained at all (notional demand); next by including other kinds of constraints as well, like a credit or a labor constraint. The outcome is a distinction between five possible «regimes», corresponding each to a different explanation of observed investment.
Comment on «Investment, Output and Labor Constraints, and Financial Constraints: the Estimation of a Model with Several Regimes»
Authors: Plasmans Joseph
Published: September 2022

Irrespective of Malinvaud’s theoretical considerations about profitability (see Malinvaud (1980 and 1982)), this paper is, together with a companion article of Gérard and Vanden Berghe (1984), the second paper I am aware of dealing with investment in disequilibrium situations.

The first paper is one of Nishimizu, Quandt and Rosen of Princeton University, entitled; «The Demand and Supply for Investment Goods: Does the Market Clear?», (1980) (not yet published), in which they apply the popular Maddala-Nelson Maximum – Likelihood Procedure (see Maddala and Nelson (1974)) to estimate the model parameters for a postwar quarterly model on Japanese manufacturing data. They specified and estimated a model of the market for investment goods alone, that explicitly incorporated a supply side and that allowed for the possibility that this market might not clear instantaneously. The most striking results were that the long run Japanese supply curve of investment goods is virtually horizontal, and that the Japanese investment market appears to be characterized by equilibrium.

And now comes this second paper, but also allowing for possible rationing on the output, labour and credit markets.
A Unified Framework for Firms’ Decisions Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Application to Italy 1970–1980
Authors: Faini Riccardo , Schiantarelli Fabio
Published: September 2022

During the last twenty years there has been an increasing tendency to derive firms’ decision rules from explicit inter-temporal optimizing models. Such quests for choice-theoretical foundations has been regarded both as logically necessary and empirically fruitful in specifying the equations describing input demand, production, pricing and inventory accumulation. In the more recent past the research in this area has followed different directions. A group of studies has relied on the introduction of convex adjustment costs to justify the forward-looking nature of input demand decisions and has analyzed the implications of the rational expectations assumption in this context. The papers by Sargent (1978), and Nickell (1984) on employment, by Abel (1980) on investment, and by Meese (1980) on both are representative of this approach. The papers by Pindyck and Rotemberg (1983a), (1983b) proceed from the same assumption but differ from the rest because the first order conditions of the maximization problems are estimated directly without obtaining a closed form solution for the firm’s decision rules. Another set of studies has instead developed the implications of the dual approach for factor demand, usually adopting the assumption of a cost-minimizing firm facing a putty-putty technology. The contributions by Jorgenson and Fraumeni (1980), and Berndt and Wood (1979), (1975), to mention just a few, belong to this category. A third group of studies has concentrated on prices and output decisions, disregarding the input demand aspect of the problem. Rotemberg (1982), (1983) and Maccini (1977), (1978) are good examples of this line of research. Finally, in Maccini (1981) and (1984) there is an attempt at analyzing investment in fixed capital and inventories together with prices and output decisions in the presence of convex costs in adjusting the capital stock.
Comment on «Econometric Analysis of Sectoral Investment in Belgium (1956–1982)»
Authors: Westaway A.J.
Published: September 2022

The authors derive some interesting conclusions about the relative importance of the cost of capital and output during periods of economic crisis and relative prosperity. In essence as a result of output constraints during periods of economic recession the level of output is seen to dominate the demand for capital goods with real cost of capital playing a minor role. These conclusion result from a theoretical development of investment behaviour that allows for the introduction of rationing when a sector is operating under an output constraint. The following points arise from a detailed study of the paper.

Initial experiments with standard investment functions of the Jorgenson & Eisner-Nadiri type give the familiar result that they are unstable. If attention is turned to the results presented in Tables 2 and 3 it can be clearly seen that elasticities and mean lags are very sensitive to small changes in the data set. This can be interpreted as indicating the severe problems of mispecification that are present but may also result from severe multicollinearity between the explanatory variables or the presence of an outlier in the data set. If the values of σ and μ are used to calculate v, the degree of homogeneity of the production function, it is worrying to find that it takes unrealistic values with a large number of estimates exceeding 2 and several exceeding 20. In addition, the interpretation of the mean lag should be treated with caution. The mean lag is meaningless if, as for some sectors appear likely from the information given, the value of βj alternate in sign. The use of the median lag may however overcome these problems.
Comment on «Aggregate Investment and Output in the U.K.»
Authors: Ingham A.
Published: September 2022

The conclusions of this paper are interesting and controversial. Its conclusions that the promotion of investment can only come about by means of reducing real wages, and, the public sector borrowing requirement means that Keynesian policies being recommended for the reduction of unemployment are inconsistent, in that increases in these two variables will lead according to the results of this model to a reduced level of investment, and hence a lower rate of growth of output, and a lower rate of job creation. These results being true in the short run as well as in the long run. In my view it has not been conclusively shown that these results are true for the British Economy, and I intend in the rest of my comments to explain my reservation about the model and its results.

As these results are derived solely from a view of the data obtained from their model, a first approach is to examine their model critically. At first the model seems unexceptable. In fact in many ways it embodies a degree of structure unusual in such a study. However, the structure is not complete, one could not expect it to be, and it is here that some problems may arise.

The investment equation is determined as one from a set of factor demand equations derived from profit maximisation subject to a KLEM technology. Output is somewhat curiously defined but for the moment let us pass over that and concentrate on the problem max
Investment or Employment Subsidies for Rapid Employment Creation in the European Economic Community?
Authors: Steinherr Alfred
Published: September 2022

Current unemployment is at unacceptably high levels for both the segment of the population concerned and policy-makers in most industrialised countries. The causes of the rise in world-wide unemployment are usually attributed to the severe supply shocks in the 1970s (the sharp increase in oil and other raw material prices), the associated redistribution of income from countries with high propensities to spend to countries with low propensities to spend, inadequate policy responses and rigidities in industrial economies responsible for slow adjustment to a different environment(‘)• Rigidities seem to be more severe for the countries of the EEC than for Japan and the US and unemployment consequently has risen more sharply in the EEC. The main rigidity can be seen in the high growth of real wage costs. Instead of attenuating the supply shocks through moderate wage increases the effects of these shocks have been accentuated in the EEC by the wage cost explosion of the 1970s. An approximate empirical measure for these effects is provided by the sharp increase of the real wage cost gap in EEC countries which, however, is an underestimate since firms have responded by reducing employment to improve productivity.
Un modèle économétrique de la balance des paiements de l’U. E. B. L.
Authors: Gazon J. , Langaskens Y.
Published: September 2022

Cette étude a pour objet d’élaborer un premier modèle économétrique annuel des principaux postes de la balance des paiements de 1’U.E.B.L.

Dans une perspective structurelle, nous nous sommes limités à l’explication du niveau des variables bien que l’équilibre de la balance des paiements relève également des objectifs à court terme de la politique économique. En conséquence, les variables endogènes et exogènes peuvent être influencées par un “trend” commun dont bénéficie le coefficient de détermination (1).
Forces économiques, flux de transports et infrastructure dans
l’Europe des Six Essai de synthèse
Authors: Paelinck Jean , Overbeke John van
Published: September 2022

La présente étude résulte d’une mise en commun de réflexions portant sur
deux aspects des activités économiques dans l’Europe des Six : l’existence
d’un potentiel de production et de consommation d’une part, la nécessité de
transporter d’un lieu à l’autre les produits mis sur le marché dans des
conditions de spécialisation interrégionale, d’autre part.

L’étude comporte trois chapitres. Le premier analyse, à l’aide des
techniques quantitatives du barycentre, de l’écart-type et du coefficient de
concentration, les tendances au déplacement des forces économiques de
l’Europe de l’Ouest. Le second chapitre dégage les caractéristiques récentes
en matière de flux et débits de transports, et présente, dans cette optique,
les projets d’infrastructure d’avenir de la Communauté Économique
Européenne.

Un troisième chapitre fait la synthèse des deux premiers, et essaie de
dégager la complexion géo-économique de l’Europe vers 1970, à l’aide des
tendances constatées.

Afin de ne pas alourdir la présentation de l’étude, la plupart des cartes et
tableaux, figurant dans une première version, ont été supprimés; seuls ont
été conservés les aperçus chiffrés ou cartographiques strictement
nécessaires à la poursuite du raisonnement.
Facteurs déterminants de l’accroissement de la productivité dans
l’industrie textile
Authors: Loir Pierre
Published: September 2022

L’accroissement de la productivité intervenu dans l’industrie textile belge
surprend quelquefois: l’indice passe de 100 en 1948 à 152 en 1957, pourtant
le coefficient de capital dans cette industrie serait apparemment en baisse,
l’intensité de capital s’accroîtrait moins que dans l’industrie de la
construction électrique, où les performances relatives de la productivité
sont moins importantes.

Dans cet article consacré à l’explication de l’accroissement de la
productivité dans l’industrie textile, on voudrait illustrer le rôle
déterminant qu’ont joué, spécialement dans cette industrie, le progrès
technique dans les prestations des machines, l’économie de main-d’œuvre et
le rajeunissement de l’âge du capital qui en ont été le résultat, étant
donné un contexte spécifique de prix et de coût.
La dévaluation de la livre sterling
Authors: Dupriez Léon H.
Published: September 2022

Un accident survenant à la livre sterling est, pour l'économie mondiale, un événement majeur : d'abord, parce qu'il est l'aboutissement de tensions graves qui s'exacerbent et se dénouent dans une crise; ensuite, parce qu'il crée des rapports nouveaux dans le système international des prix et dans les relations financières. Ceux-ci requièrent des processus d'ajustement.

Certes, la crise du sterling se préparait depuis de longues années et seules la date et les modalités restaient problématiques. Elle était, d'autre part, de plus en plus imbriquée dans la crise de liquidité internationale dont les éléments ont apparu clairement dès 1958.
Hauts taux d'intérêt: explication et perspectives
Authors: Bernard Luc-D.
Published: September 2022

Que les taux d'intérêts aient atteint récemment, en Europe et aux États-Unis, des sommets véritablement historiques retient notre attention pour plusieurs motifs. Le moindre n'est pas que ce phénomène se place dans un climat monétaire particulier : celui engendré par les appréhensions d'abord et les conséquences ensuite de la dévaluation britannique.

Que la récente tentative anglo-saxonne de repli des taux d'intérêt ait échoué dès l'été 1967, moment à partir duquel le loyer de l'argent, tant aux États-Unis qu'en Grande-Bretagne, fut à nouveau entraîné vers le haut, renforce d'ailleurs notre attention.
Economic reform in the U.S.S.R.
Authors: Fedorenko Nikolay P.
Published: September 2022

The comprehensive and allround economic reform currently under way in the Soviet Union embraces all the sectors of the national economy - industry, construction, farming, transport, trade, science, etc.: it extends to all levels in the organizational structure of the management of social production - work-shops, enterprises, associations, industrial chief administrations, and ministries. The reform is bringing many changes to the traditional forms and methods of activity of the central planning, economic and financial-credit agencies of the state.

The socialist enterprises have been now endowed with wide rights in managing the economic resourses, regulating their interrelations with the raw material suppliers and the consumers of the finished products. In this connection, the question sometimes is voiced in the foreign press: is not the economic reform currently under way in the Soviet Union a renouncement of the basic principles of socialist production management, does it not herald a weakness of the planned nature of the Soviet economy?
L'insatisfaction actuelle des besoins: une analyse en termes de valeur-travail
Authors: Gouverneur Jacques
Published: September 2022

L'élévation des salaires réels dans les pays capitalistes avancés au cours du 20e siècle est un fait incontestable. Cette tendance soutenue a permis l'avènement, après la seconde guerre mondiale, de “sociétés de consommation”. Non moins contestable, semble-t-il, est le sentiment diffus d'insatisfaction qui règne dans ces sociétés en dépit de la hausse du niveau de vie moyen. C'est comme si - paraphrasant Malthus - les besoins s'accroissaient en progression “géométrique”, et les moyens de les satisfaire en progression “arithmétique” seulement.

S'agit-il là d'un phénomène fortuit et passager ? Le problème n'est-il pas simplement d'ordre psychologique ? Nous limitant au cadre des pays capitalistes avancés, nous tenterons de montrer que l'insatisfaction notée repose sur une base objective réelle et stable, le développement même du capitalisme monopoliste impliquant un écart croissant entre ressources et besoins.
A Macro Disequilibrium Model for Switzerland
Authors: Stalder Peter
Published: September 2022

This paper presents a disequilibrium model for Switzerland, focusing on the production sector and the associated spillover effects. Firms' decisions on output supply, labor demand and investment are analysed on basis of a vintage approach, involving pressure of demand, profitability and relative prices as determinants. Macro relationships are derived by aggregating over micro markets on which regimes are allowed to differ. In the resulting nonlinear macro structure the response of output and employment to demand-side and supply-side factors varies through the cycle, depending on the regime-mix (measured by survey data). Inventories and unfilled orders act as buffer stocks, modifying the dynamic link between current demand and output.
On the possibility of a perverse effect of intra-industry trade
Authors: Cordella Tito
Published: September 2022

One of the most usual claims in the debate on economic Integration is that trade liberalization and a fortiori free trade agreements are at the greater advantage of consumers of all countries. In this paper we show that this statement should be temperated if the countries differ considerably with respect to per capita income. If this is the case it can happen that only the consumers of the richest countries gain from the creation of a common market; while, in the poorest countries, the firms gain but the consumers are worse off. The analysis confirms some worries about the short run effects and the distributive problems induced by the economic integration of heterogeneous areas.
Les implications macroéconomiques extérieures d’une monnaie unique en Europe
Authors: Kébabdjian Gérard
Published: September 2022

L’article analyse la coopération monétaire en Europe comme une coalition (au sens de la théorie des jeux) au sein de l’économie mondiale. Le modèle de Canzoneri et Henderson sert de point de départ; il est enrichi, notamment par la prise en compte d’une fonction de création de la monnaie internationale, pour répondre à trois questions: La coordination des politiques monétaires européennes contribuera-t-elle à améliorer l’équilibre mondial, spécialement du point de vue de l’emploi? Quelles implications associer au refus d’accorder à l’objectif d’emploi une place explicite dans la formulation de la politique monétaire européenne conformément au traité de Maastricht? Quelles implications associer à la promotion de l’euro comme une monnaie internationale concurrente du dollar?
Equivalence scales based on Subjective Income Evaluations: Are children really cheap?
Authors: Van den Bosch Karel
Published: September 2022

Answers of sample survey respondents to questions like the following one: “In the circumstances of your household, what income would you regard as the minimum (or good/bad/sufficient, etc.) for your household?” can be used to estimate equivalence scales. It is sometimes claimed that this is a simple and cheap method to obtain “true” equivalence scales. Typically, these scales are much flatter than those derived from consumption behaviour data, or those incorporated in official poverty lines. A number of possible reasons have been advanced for this result. Yet, using subjective data does not necessarily result in a flat equivalence scale. Equivalence scales can also be estimated from answers to direct survey questions on how satisfied the respondent is with his or her household income, and these scales are often quite steep. In this paper, an application of both methods is reported. A number of possible reasons for the discrepancy are explored. In particular, the effects of a wide range of exogenous variables are examined. Data are from the 1985 and 1988 waves of the Belgian Socio-Economic Panel, a household income survey. The conclusion is that the discrepancy between the equivalence scales persists, even when controlling for a large number of possibly intervening factors.
A Class of All-pay Auctions with Affiliated Information
Authors: Albano Gian Luigi
Published: September 2022

We study an auction mechanism combining the war of attrition and the all-pay auction under the assumption that buyers’ signals are affiliated. We provide a sufficient condition which guarantees the existence of a symmetric, increasing equilibrium bidding strategy, but rules out full extraction of buyers’ surplus by the seller. We develop revenue comparison between the combined mechanism, the war of attrition and the all-pay auction.
Migration temporaire et mobilité intergénérationnelle
Authors: Mesnard Alice
Published: September 2022

L’article étudie l’effet de l’émigration des travailleurs sur la distribution de la richesse d’une petite économie où les travailleurs sont confrontés à des difficultés d’accès au marché du crédit. Les migrants s’enrichissent en travaillant à l’étranger puis lèguent leur richesse à leurs descendants en revenant dans leur pays d’origine. Une plus grande proportion de travailleurs de la génération suivante deviennent entrepreneurs. Si l’émigration n’est pas trop restreinte, le salaire augmente et la structure du marché du travail est modifiée. L’accumulation de richesse est tirée vers le haut. Ainsi l’émigration temporaire peut conduire un pays en voie de développement hors d’un «piège de la pauvreté».