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322. Divergence and dispersion in the Russian economy
- Author:
- Per Botolf Maurseth
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In the Soviet Union, one result of central planning was geographical decentralisation of economic activity to a large set of remote peripheral regions. For Russian post-Soviet regions an important question is whether centripetal market forces may alter the pre-existing industrial location. This paper addresses some aspects of regional economic development in Russia. The Russian economic landscape differs from what is common in market economies. Peripheral regions are generally richer than the average. During the 1990s, differences in gross regional product increased. These developments have also meant less spatial concentration of economic activity. During the last half of the 1990s, economic growth was higher in central regions than in the peripheries. If these trends continue, the Russian economic landscape will alter significantly in the future, with income per capita, total income and population being concentrated in economic central regions.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Soviet Union
323. International R Spillovers and the Effect of Absorptive Capacity
- Author:
- Leo A. Grünfeld
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- We study the productivity effects of R spillovers through imports, foreign direct investment and domestic intermediates, using a highly disaggregated data set for Norwegian business sectors. As opposed to the large body of similar studies, we explicitly analyse the importance of absorptive capacity effects, claiming that the positive contribution from R spillovers is an increasing function of the R activities of the economic units that receive the spillovers. We find strong support for the existence of R spillovers through imports and domestic intermediates, but no sign of such spillovers through foreign ownership. Surprisingly, we identify absorptive capacity effects relating to spillovers from imports, but no such effects with respect to domestic intermediates. One possible explanation is that the cost of learning from international R sources is larger than from domestic R sources, implying that own R investments can counteract the negative effect of geographical and cultural distance on R spillovers.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Norway
324. International — Auto Consolidation
- Publication Date:
- 06-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxford Analytica
- Abstract:
- Fiat announced a sharp fall in May car sales in Italy on June 5 and its debt is under review for a possible ratings downgrade. The world's sixth-largest car maker is one of many manufacturers facing difficult profitability conditions. Global sales volumes in the industry have remained high, but profits have not followed suit. Mergers, the most rational panacea, are confounded by bitter experience.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
325. International — Steel Glut
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxford Analytica
- Abstract:
- OECD members meet in Paris today and tomorrow in the fourth high-level forum on reducing global steel production capacity. The world steel trade is more unsettled than at any time in the last twenty years. Surplus capacity is holding prices down and harming otherwise competitive manufacturers.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
326. The Role of Effort Advantage in Consumer Response to Loyalty Programs: The Idiosyncratic Fit Heuristic
- Author:
- Ran Kivetz and Itamar Simpson
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Over the past few years, customer relationship management and loyalty programs (LPs) have been widely adopted by companies and have received a great deal of attention from marketers, consultants, and, to a lesser degree, academics. In this research, we examine the effect of the level of effort required to obtain a LP's reward on consumers' perception of the LP's attractiveness. We propose that, under certain conditions, increasing the program requirements can enhance consumers' likelihood of joining the program, thus leading consumers to prefer a dominated option. Specifically, we hypothesize that consumer s often evaluate LPs based on their individual effort to obtain the reward relative to the relevant reference effort (e.g., the effort of typical other consumers). When consumers believe they have an effort advantage relative to typical others (i.e., an idiosyncratic fit with the LP), higher program requirements manify this perception of advantage and can therefore increase the overall perceived value of the program. This proposition was supported in a series of studies in which the perceived idiosyncratic fit was manipulated either by reducing the individual effort or by raising the reference effort. The findings also indicate that (a) idiosyncratic fit considerations are elicited spontaneously, (b) idiosyncratic fit mediates the effect of effort on consumer response to LPs, and (c) an alternative account for the results based on signaling is not supported. We conclude that these findings are part of a broader phenomenon, which we term the idiosyncratic fit heuristic, whereby a key factor that affects consumers' response to marketing programs and promotional offers is the perceived relative advantage or fit with the individual's idiosyncratic conditions and preferences.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Industrial Policy
327. Permanently Beta: Responsive Organization in the Internet Era
- Author:
- Gina Neff and David Strark
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- How has the Internet influenced economic organization? Many approach this question strictly economically by examining the productivity gains from particular technological advances or the roles that dot-coms and other Internet-based organizations play with the economy. We approach this question differently—we move away from a macro-social analysis to consider the co-evolution of new technologies and organizational forms. In other words, how has the process of technological change in the Internet era influenced the way we organize economic activities? In this chapter we discuss how information technologies foster the emergent design and user-driven design of websites and other online media, as well as products and organizations off-line. We also consider how to mitigate the social costs of these changes.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
328. Link, Search, Interact: The Co-Evolution of NGOs and Interactive Technology
- Author:
- Jonathan Bach and David Strark
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Interactive technology is a key factor used to explain the recent growth and prominence of NGOs, who today are engaged in the transformation of national, international and transnational political space. Yet technology cannot explain NGOs' rise, for technology is but a context which afford opportunities. We ask what it is that allows NGOs to take advantage of new circumstances, and focus our discussion on the co-evolution of NGOs with interactive technology. Our approach is part of a growing body of social science research that seeks to overcome the artificial divide between “society” and “technology” by viewing the social as consisting of humans and non-humans (objects, things, artifacts). Viewing technology not as a tool but as part of a co-evolutionary process that shapes organizational forms and practices will help us understand why NGOs have, given the opportunities provided by the retrenchment of the welfare state and the end of the cold war, been able to assume a more powerful and controversial role as co-constituents of global transformation.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, Non-Governmental Organization, and Science and Technology
329. Substitutability Cross-Stream Between Oriented Markets: Conventions in the Wine Sector of France
- Author:
- Harrison C. White
- Publication Date:
- 03-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- I explicitly model the social mechanism that constructs markets. Producers array along a market profile along which buyers trade off quality for volume. Outcome features can be predicted from two ratios of parameters, yielding a MAP. Five distinct families of market cultures correspond to its regions. As previous work showed, Supply equaling Demand is transmuted into matchings across local variabilities of valuation with volume and with quality. Such matching is vulnerable to unraveling, but it can be achieved with market oriented either upstream or downstream.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France
330. Economic Action Does Not Take Place in a Vacuum: Understanding Cisco's Acquisition and Development Strategy
- Author:
- Martin Kenney and David Mayer
- Publication Date:
- 08-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- Typically, economists and finance researchers have considered corporate acquisitions as arm's length transactions consummated in a relatively perfect market for corporate control, an appealing story no doubt, but it consigns the real world difficulties of managing the acquisition process into a black box. The key to making a successful acquisition does not begin with strategy and end with integration, rather it begins with understanding and participating in the external ecosystem and ends with managing the internal dynamics by which the newly acquired firm will be integrated. This paper finds that traditional "economistic" perspectives ignore the social and organizational dimensions within which the acquisition process is embedded. In tandem with the economist's erasure of the social; the temporal and processual dimensions were ignored. Put differently, acquisitions are treated as point-in-time events occurring in an environment that operates like the stock market in which corporate control, organizational knowledge, and employee fealty is transferred as seamlessly as stock shares. These assumptions ignore the social, temporal, and processual dimensions so critical for explaining acquisition success and failure.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology