Suchergebnisse

A key feature of the EU harmonization of technical barriers to trade (TBT's) is that exporting firms may entail a compliance costs. This paper provides theoretical and empirical work. In a simple Cournot duopoly with trade, we pursue the idea that process R&D has a positive spillover effect (with different intensities) in lowering the compliance cost and investigate the impact of an R&D subsidy. Using a self-constructed database, which specifically identifies sectors where the EU has sought to introduce harmonized environmental regulations, we find evidence that support this prediction of the theory.

PurposeWe aim to elucidate the relationship between fixed-term employment and firm productivity by examining workers' skills and considering how firm-level conversion rates influence this relationship.Design/methodology/approachWe use longitudinal employer-employee data between 2011 and 2017 in the Netherlands to estimate a nonlinear regression derived from a production function proposed by Addessi (2014) and Castellani et al. (2020).FindingsThe contribution of fixed-term contracts to firm-level productivity is less than that of permanent contracts. However, this contribution is greater when firms exhibit a high conversion rate from fixed-term to permanent positions. The effect of the conversion rate is more substantial for high-skilled fixed-term workers than for low-skilled ones.Originality/valueOur results suggest the extent to which firms benefit from fixed-term contracts when these are used for screening high-skilled workers for permanent employment.

This article examines the role of the interaction between product market and labor market imperfections in determining total factor productivity growth (TFPG). Embedding Dobbelaere and Mairesse's (2009) generalization of Hall's (1990) approach, allowing for the possibility that wages are determined according to an efficient bargaining process between employers and employees, we correct estimated TFPG for possible biases arising from labor market imperfections. Our analysis contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, we propose a new empirical measure of TFPG which takes into account possible biases coming from imperfect competition on both labor and output markets, whereas Dobbelaere and Mairesse (2009) focus on the decomposition of the Solow residual. Second, in contrast to most of the literature following Hall's approach, we estimate market power including the user cost of capital stock. Third, we measure the sensitivity of TFPG to an alternative specification of competition based on relative profits. Using a large Dutch firm-level panel database over the period 1989-2005, we find that workers' unions power, and in general rigidities of the labor market, affect firms' marginal cost, and, consequently, the markups. Moreover, taking into account variable returns to scale and imperfect competition in the output market translate into increased TFPG, while accounting for labor market bargaining power leads to lower TFPG. Next, the investigation of our empirical relationship between the price-cost margin and an alternative specification of imperfect competition of the output market (profit elasticity) as a sensitivity analysis of the TFPG shows that adding more structure to the competition measure does not affect the level of productivity change.

Traditionally, agricultural economists employ farm level modeling for a variety of purposes. Central to these modeling techniques is the behavioral assumption of farm profit maximization, or, when risk preferences are put into play (risk aversion), utility maximization. However, there is abundant literature, from different (sub)disciplines such as farming systems research, rural sociology, rural development and rural economic geography that views farm household activities in the wider economic context (e.g. Gasson et al., 1988, Dries et al., 2011, Bessant, 2006). In such view, farm households are considered pluriactive and may distribute assets between agricultural and non-agricultural purposes to accomplish their goals. Hence, according to this view, a more realistic behavioral assumption than profit maximization at the farm level would be the optimization of farm household risk (i.e. the chance of falling below a certain threshold level of household cash flow). Focusing on farm household level risk is a natural transition from farm-level risk analysis since the largest proportion of farms in the EU are family farms and many farmers already implement risk management strategies at the household level. Although the income maximization assumption is being contested in literature (e.g. Freshwater and Jette-Nantel, 2011) and more concern is being given about the welfare and well-being of households instead of focusing on the level of income (e.g. Boisvert, 2002), to the best of our knowledge, it is very uncommon in the agricultural economics literature on risk analysis to include a measure of household risk or consider the household as the entity of interest. This paper develops a farm household simulation model that describes the potential implications of considering the optimizing of farm household level risk as a behavioral response. It starts from conceptual descriptions of operational -, financial -, farm - and farm household risk. It then models the behavior of a typical dairy farm household as one optimizing farm household risk and derives the implications of alternative risk management strategies. ; IWT