Some well-known two-sector models of industrial countries exhibit a crowding out effect between the main sectors of the economy. This is true of the Small Open Economy, traded-non-traded good model without nominal wage rigidity, and for the model of the Dutch Disease. In contrast, important models of semi-industrialized countries, or even emerging markets, such as the Bose Model, portray a complementary relation between the various sectors. This paper discusses a possible synthesis between these differing model specifications, and tests the applicability of these models for a large sample of industrial countries, emerging markets and developing economies by analyzing the inter-linkages in their sector growth patterns.

Using an international panel data set of the European pulp and paper industry, we address the issue of a possible home-bias effect for real investments in plants with foreign and domestic locations. We find that there is no effect after controlling for firm effects and plant and firm size. These findings are rubust to a number of different econometric specifications, including a difference-in-difference approach. Our findings appear to be relevant for the debate on the effect of foreign takeovers. As far as we are aware, home-bias effects in real investments within multinational firms have not been studied previously.

Using a combination of public and internal information, this paper compares and contrasts European Union (EU) and United States (US) merger policies. Common economic analysis leads both authorities to subject remarkably comparable portfolios of mergers to close scrutiny. Vertical mergers account for less than 10%, and potential competition matters for around 5%, of in-depth merger investigations in both jurisdictions, while purely conglomerate mergers are extremely rare or non-existent. The share of collusion investigations falls over time in both jurisdictions. However, the US relies on collusion theory more than three times as often as the EU, where over 80% of the horizontal cases address dominance. Across both regimes, roughly one eighth of all recent horizontal investigations have been analysed as non-dominance unilateral-effects cases. Only minor differences in the average probability of a merger being challenged are observed when controlling for market share. The 2004 EU reforms seem to be leading towards at least some convergence of enforcement policy.

Many quality dimensions are hard to contract upon and are at risk of degradation when the service is procured rather than produced in-house. On the other hand, procurement may foster performance-improving innovation. We assemble a large data set on elderly care services in Sweden for the 1990-2009 period, including survival rates, our measure of non-contractible quality, and indicators of subjectively perceived quality of service. We estimate the effects of municipalities’ decision to procure rather than produce in-house on non-contractible quality using a difference-in-difference approach and controlling for a number of other potential determinants. The results indicate that procurement significantly increases non-contractible quality as measured by survival rate, reduces the cost per resident but does not affect subjectively perceived quality.

In this paper we analyze the use of numerical information in the context of job evaluation. The analysis is based on the job evaluation system Steps to Pay Equity, which is recommended by the European Project on Equal Pay supported by the European commission. The main findings can be summarized as follows. Firstly, in Steps to Pay Equity no method is suggested that can be used in order to construct stronger scales than ordinal scales. This implies that rankings of jobs are based on the addition of ordinal scales, which means that the rankings are very unstable for admissible transformations. Secondly, there is no explicit definition or explanation how the weights should be interpreted, something that hampers an assessment about the reasonability of the assigned weights. Thirdly, the convention to classify jobs on predefined levels can give rise to heavy deformations of relevant differences between jobs, which means that received rankings of jobs are unjustified guidance for impartial pay setting. We suggest a possible remedy by illustrating the use of a specific multi-attribute evaluation model.

In this paper we analyze a number of assumptions and conceptual issues that arise in applications of conventional job evaluations, which are used in order to implement the principle “Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value” according to the Equal Pay Acts.

The main findings of the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1) A lack of a distinction between subjective and objective criteria as well as between descriptive and evaluative criteria, 2) A defective interpretation of independency conditions that are necessary in order to represent evaluation of jobs by weighted sums of scores, 3) An incorrect diagnosis and subsequently incorrect remedies of defects in job evaluation methods, 4) An incorrect interpretation of the meaning of key concepts such as “Jobs of Equal Value”, 5) Unwarranted assumptions about formal features of relations defined by the concept “Jobs of Equal Value”.

In this paper we test the usefulness of imprecise value judgments in evaluating employee performance. The test is based on two experiments which evaluate the performance of college lecturers. The experiments are carried out by applying the PRIME model (Preference Ratios in Multi-attribute Evaluation), a specific multi-attribute value model that supports the use of imprecise value judgments. The test shows that the use of imprecise value judgments, as synthesized by the PRIME model, can remedy a number of defects that are identified in conventional evaluation models in regard to job requirements and employee performance.

Resultatet av en arbetsvärdering är att varje arbete tillordnas en viktad summa av poäng. Poängsumman kan tolkas som ett mått på en sammantagen värdering av krav och svårigheter som förknippas med arbetenas utförande. Måttet används för att bedöma vilka arbeten som är likvärdiga. En viktig fråga är i vilken mån detta mått utgör en tillförlitlig grund för att bedöma vilka arbeten som är likvärdiga. I arbetsvärderingssystemet Analys Lönelots, som rekommenderas av JämO, finns ett förslag på hur måttet kan användas på ett tillförlitligt sätt. I uppsatsen visas att förslaget har uppenbara brister. Vidare visas att problemet med tillförlitlighet hos måttet kan överföras på problemet med tillförlitlighet av precist angivna vikter och skalor, som avser att representera en beslutsfattares värderingar av relevanta egenskaper hos arbeten. Det finns uppenbara skäl att betvivla att en beslutsfattare kan motivera sådana precisa värderingar som följer av en precist angiven numerisk representation. I uppsatsen presenteras också ett alternativt sätt att numeriskt representera en beslutsfattares värderingar av arbeten. Denna typ av numeriska representation kan beakta att värderingar av arbeten är osäkra.

Sambandet mellan korruption och direktinvesteringar har uppmärksammats allt mer efter en stor ökning av direktinvesteringar sedan slutet på 1980-talet. Denna studie undersöker därför empiriskt hur mycket korruptionsgraden i ett land påverkar direktinvesteringar. Detta har gjorts genom att utgå från två hypoteser: 

H1: Sveriges beslut att direktinvestera påverkas negativt av korruptionsgraden i värdlandet. 

H2: Korruptionsgraden har en negativ inverkan på storleken på inåtgående direktinvesteringar i världen. 

Utöver detta undersöks hur variablerna BNP, population, export och arbetslöshet i värdlandet, samt avståndet mellan investeraren och värdlandet, påverkar direktinvesteringar. 

Studien har genomförts med OLI-paradigmet2 samt gravitationsmodellen som teoretisk grund. Två olika regressionsmodeller har sedan skapats; två tvärsnittsstudier för år 2001 och 2008 samt en studie på medelvärden för åren 2004-2010. Vi finner att beslutet att direktinvestera påverkas av korruption. Dock har vi inte kunnat fastställa huruvida korruption påverkar storleken på direktinvesteringar efter att beslutet om att investera väl har fattats. 

According to Schumpeter, money is a clearing device, a social institution rather than a commodity, and money supply constitutes a critical figure that determines the price level.Schumpeter argues that the value of money is independent of its metal content, but also finds a legally defined ticket inappropriate.He pointsout that the purchasing power of money cannot bea matter of exchange value, nor of use value, butthe purchasing power of a unit of income.According to Mises, Schumpeter tries to build a catallactic ticket theory, which requires a comparison of available tickets and opportunity space, using the sum of money incomes and the product of prices and consumption goods. He finds that the commodities relate only to circulating money, while money relates to production goods as well as consumption goods, more commonly tothe turnover of production goods to production goodsthan to the exchange of production goods for consumption goods. For Mises, the value of money must be based upon utility, but the objective exchange value of money reflects subjective individual valuations. Money is an emergent order and the intangible money emerging today represents an institutional form of money with an accounting system of exchange, moving towards Wicksell’s pure credit economy, in itself making monetary separation suitable. According to Wicksell, a pure credit economy requires that the value of money is made independent of its commodity function. Credit is a remedy to scarcity of money, while bills of exchange increase virtual velocity. He argues that the unit of value should be independent of material thingsand thatthe inconvertible paper coinis used as credit medium, implying an abstract medium of account. The New Monetary Economics involves a functional separation of monetary functions making units and media of account distinct from media of exchange. In the Black-Fama-Hall (BFH) system, developed by Yeager and Greenfield, the unit of account is physically defined by the state as a non-convertible nearly comprehensive commodity bundle, which constitutes the critical figure in such a system, while the media of exchange are privately issued.This is contrasted to separation of the functions of media of account from media of exchange, where the media of account are abstract, such as Meulen’s banknote pound.These two approachesto the media of account are analyzed from the perspective of Schumpeter, Wicksell, and Mises.

In the social sciences, the label Darwinian often means a biological explanation of social phenomena. Both Hayek and Boulding adopt a Lamarckian approach to social evolution. Hayek shows that coordination of groups larger than hunting and gathering bands requires a cultural evolution of learnt rules. Boulding uses the notion of noosphere of human knowledge, where learning transmits the noogenetic structure. Hayek's and Boulding's Lamarckian theories are compared with Darwin's theory of social evolution to explore how the latter may be extended to explain the links between human knowledge, rules, and evolution of society, outlining a Darwinian social/cultural approach.

In order to theoretically analyze, from the perspective of new monetary economics and social learning, the evolution of monetary arrangements with functional separation of money, this paper develops a method to study this phenomenon in the history of monetary arrangements of the North and Baltic Seas region, from the Hanseatic League onwards. The aim is to do historical economics, analyzing history from the perspective of the economic theorist, while the approach is topic-oriented rather than discipline-oriented, involving economics, history, and cognitive science. The focus will be on the cognitive aspect of money as social institution. This implies multiple methods. The evolution of units of account and media of exchange are adaptive responses by human minds. The focus will be on the heuristics of long-distance traders in the Baltic and North Seas region, expressed in the form of units of account and media of exchange they used and their success in the contemporary trading environments. Lessons for monetary separation with an abstract unit of account compared with one based on a commodity bundle will be developed. This involves the identification of the unit of account in which contracts and calculations were made and what media of exchange were used to make the payments. From a cognitive perspective, the medium of account provides a script that translates the unit of account into a particular worth. When the value of the underlying commodity bundle changes from the original worth, market agents observe a script deviation of that bundle, attributing thatto changes in the commodity space, and adjust the bundle accordingly. This method will be developed to be able to study four historical cases: Hanseatic monetary arrangements, seventeenth century banking, the gold standard and the unification of monetary functionsand nineteenth century monetary unions,and interwar monetary fragmentation.

We examine the effects of foreign entry on productive efficiency during the Polish investment liberalisation. The performance of foreign acquisitions is compared to foreign firms entering the market through greenfield entry, as well as domestic acquisitions of privatised firms, domestic greenfields and remaining state-owned (non-privatised) firms during the period 1995-2000. We find that foreign privatised firms have realised larger productivity gains than all types of domestic firms and that this is not due to higher price-cost margins, which is consistent with the idea that foreign firms bring in firm-specific knowledge. Foreign greenfields have the highest average labour productivity, while foreign privatisations show the largest productivity increase.

Regeringen har högt ställda ambitioner vad gäller produktivitetsutveckling och nytänkande i offentlig sektor. Man vill bland annat stärka innovationsbenägenheten för att få ut mer av de resurser som idag förbrukas och den vägen möta en del av de krav på ökade resurser som ställs. Genom att granska styrningen i offentlig sektor visar vi i denna uppsats att dagens myndigheter har mycket svaga incitament att bidra till en sådan vidareutveckling av verksamheten. Den omvandling som offentlig sektor genomgått under de senaste 30 åren, med en successivt ökad användning av kommersiella företag för tjänsteleverans, ger emellertid goda möjligheter att förändra detta förhållande. Eftersom det av flera skäl är svårt att tro att sådana förändringar kan tillkomma i en nerifrån-och-uppprocess menar vi att man måste ta politiskt ansvar för att få till stånd en förändring. En central komponent i detta är att komplettera dagens ekonomiska uppföljning, som i stor utsträckning säkerställer att aggregerade anslag används på det sätt som riksdagen avsett, med en uppföljning baserad på de projekt och andra verksamheter som upphandlas. De avtal som tecknas och de utbetalningar som görs mot dessa avtal ger mycket goda förutsättningar för att förbättra förståelsen av kostnadsutvecklingen och att förbättra styrningen i riktning mot att pröva nya lösningar