The purpose of the study is to characterize different styles of work organization in French firms and their current changes and to link them to the use of specific technologies and to firms ...performance. The data which are used arc of two kinds: a labor force survey (1 470 blue collar) and a business survey (7 089 firms). We show that two main variables create differences among firms' organization devices: the intensity of communication within the workshop and the level of autonomy of workers (facing technological and hierarchical constraints). The use of advanced technologies and the skill of the labor force are positively linked to both organizational variables. Therefore. 'Communicating organization' and organizational innovation seem to aim at creating conditions for individual and collective learning on new technologies. They also enhance the ability of the firm to adapt to changing market conditions through technological innovation and inventory reduction, These views are supported by econometric estimation.
Cet article montre en quoi une politique commerciale peut aller à rencontre de la politique de la concurrence et de la politique industrielle. L'utilisation des plaintes antidumping par les ...producteurs sidérurgiques européens de 1986 à 1990 constitue à cet égard un exemple intéressant. Les exportations yougoslaves, principalement visées, ont chuté sur la même période. La fermeture du marché a ainsi permis aux producteurs domestiques de discipliner le cartel intérieur ainsi que le cartel d'exportateurs soumis à contingents. À moyen terme, en supposant une parfaite homogénéité des produits, les plaintes antidumping ne doivent pas masquer la nécessité d'une spécialisation à moyen terme pour les producteurs européens, sous peine de se substituer à la politique industrielle.
The aim of this paper is to analyse how antidumping policy may circumvent competition policy and even may be a substitute to industrial policy. The European steel organization is particularly illustrative. From 1986 to 1990, many antidumping cases were initiated by European steel producers. Yugoslavian exports, mainly concerned, fall at the same time. Market's protection meant for European producers the survival of the domestic cartel and the discipline of the export restricted foreign producers. Moreover, steel producers must be aware of the need of furter specialization if we admit products' homogeneity.
The expected future change of the exchange rate within its currency band and the expected realignment rate are estimated using the Regime–Switching Model. There exists an unobserved variable
s
t
, ...which characterises the equilibrium state of the expected future change of the exchange rate within its currency band at any time
t with certain probabilities. Different values of
s
t
correspond to states with high and low risk of realignment, respectively. The probabilities of switching between one regime and another depend on central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market. Daily data on intervention by Norges Bank are used. The data contain relatively few actual realignments, and the sample distribution of realignments may not be representative enough to capture the discrete changes in the exchange rate caused by a non-zero subjective probability of realignment (even when no realignment has in fact taken place). This causes the very well known peso problem in the estimation.
By about 1988, the consensus among leading health economists was that no meaningful differences existed among hospitals of differences owernership form, and this position was embraced by the ...Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. But behavioural differences among hospitals of different among hospitals of different owernership has continued to be a matter of both academic and judicial interest. Recent empirical studies have concluded that real differences do exist, while many earlier studies reached the opposite conclusion. This contradiction in finding over time, as competition intensified, is exactly opposite to what expense-preference theory would predict. We examine this apparent paradox, using a very general test of behavioural differences by hospital ownership. We find that the omission of location-specific variables can lead to biased estimates of ownership effects, and that no significant behavioural differences exist among private California hospitals in 1986-90, when this source of ownership endogeneity is eliminated.
This paper adopts a components of employment change methodology and examines the process of job generation in the late 1980s for three contrasting regions of the United Kingdom. The emphasis in the ...analysis is on the contribution of new and small firms to regional manufacturing employment growth. The results indicate the important role of new and small indigenous firms in the job generation process, particularly in Northern Ireland, in the period 1986-90. However, the level of displacement associated with these job creations is sufficiently high to cause concern about the longterm sustainability of these trends. The paper concludes by arguing that policies designed to stimulate new firm formation and small firm growth are not in themselves sufficient to promote growth.
A study examines the intraday efficiency of US futures prices (Eurodollars and T-bonds) to the news content of US macroeconomic releases in which news is determined using MMS expectations data. Since ...the latter data are available to the market at the 8:30 a.m. relapse time for various macroeconomic series investigated in the analysis, the news associated with the expectational errors should be impounded in market prices quickly, if market are efficient. The pricing behavior of each instrument in 2 futures markets is examined. Furthermore, macroeconomic releases for which the corresponding MMS expectations exhibit bias over the sample period are deleted from the regression analysis. The findings indicate that the prices of the Eurodollar and T-bond contracts behave anomalously over the course of the trading day. In the case of news about the merchandise trade balance, the market's response appears to be delayed; while in the case of CPI and nonfarm payroll news shocks, the markets tend to underreact initially.
School choice is an increasingly popular education reform. Proponents of choice argue that market forces can improve education through the mechanism of competition - the schools that best satisfy the ...demands of parents and students will attract clientele and prosper and those that do not will close. A key assumption of choice theorists is that the engine driving an education marketplace will be a demand for a higher quality education. This demand for quality assumption rests heavily on comparisons between public and private schools. This paper empirically tests the demand for quality education assumption and finds it wanting. Supplying a demand for religious services and racial segregation are found to be the more likely outcomes of an education marketplace.
Empirical work regarding the impact of environmental regulations on firm behavior has been developed under the assumption that emissions of pollutants are deterministic. The implication is that the ...regulation is effective only when the constraint is exactly satisfied. In real life, however, it is seldom the case that emission constraints are exactly satisfied. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether regulation schemes are ineffective, or whether the structure is an optimal reaction to random fluctuations in emissions. The Swedish pulp and paper industry is used as an empirical illustration.
This study examines the effects of poison put/call covenants on the reoffering yields of corporate bonds issued during 1986 through 1990. The analysis controls for possible biases due to the ...endogeneity of the decision to issue the bond and the decision to include a poison covenant. The findings indicate that the presence of a single poison call provision has a positive effect on the yield differential, increasing the yield by up to 54 basis points. This is consistent with the managerial entrenchment hypothesis. On the other hand, the inclusion of a poison put provision reduces the yield by 58 to 78 basis points. Furthermore, we find that the imposition of an additional stringent provision to transfer a simple poison put to a super poison put does not significantly decrease the yields further.
