Search results for "Macroeconomics"
showing 10 items of 477 documents
Efficiency of wastewater treatment facilities: The influence of scale economies.
2018
The water cycle, from catchment to discharge, is a sector that involves an important investment and operation and maintenance costs. In particular, sewage treatment is a challenge for governments because they are having to consider economic, environmental, and social aspects. Within the European Union, implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC is responsible for the location of wastewater treatment facilities in the territory, due to the requirement that all urban areas must have this infrastructure to reduce the environmental impact of treated water in water bodies. Different sizes of municipalities affect the design of each wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and cause variations in the operat…
Essays in Macroeconomics: Growth, Macroeconomic Volatility and Currency Unions
2011
Essays in Macroeconomics: Growth, Macroeconomic Volatility and Currency Unions Essays in Macroeconomics: Growth, Macroeconomic Volatility and Currency Unions
Human Capital Inequality and Economic Growth: Some New Evidence
2002
This paper provides new measures of human capital inequality for a broad panel of countries. Taking attainment levels from Barro and Lee (2001), we compute Gini coefficients and the distribution of education by quintiles for 108 countries over five-year intervals from 1960 to 2000. Using this new cross-country data on human capital inequality two main conclusions are obtained. First, most countries in the world have tended to reduce the inequality in human capital distribution. Second, human capital inequality measures provide more robust results than income inequality measures in the estimation of standard growth and investment equations.
Foreign capital, credit constraints and continuity of firms’ R&D
2015
ABSTRACTIn this article, we investigate the role of foreign capital participation as a means for firms to overcome the obstacle posed by credit constraints to sustain R&D investments. Using data for Spanish manufacturing firms in the period 1990–2006, we show that firms with foreign capital are significantly less likely to stop already initiated R&D projects and also more likely to sustain R&D investment when facing credit constraints. Our results are robust to positive selection into foreign capital participation, which we control through a set of variables chosen from a propensity score estimation, and to firms’ fixed-effects.
Infant mortality gap in the Baltic region - Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania - in relation to macroeconomic factors in 1996-2010.
2013
Background and Objective. A constant gap has appeared in infant mortality among the 3 Baltic States - Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – since the restoration of independence in 1991. The aim of the study was to compare infant mortality rates in all the 3 Baltic countries and examine some of the macro- and socioeconomic factors associated with infant mortality. Material and Methods. The data were obtained from international databases, such as World Health Organization and EUROSTAT, and the national statistical databases of the Baltic States. The time series data sets (1996–2010) were used in the regression and correlation analysis. Results. In all the 3 Baltic States, a strong and significant…
R&D Offshoring and the Productivity Growth of European Regions
2013
The recent increase in R&D offshoring have raised fears that knowledge and competitiveness in advanced countries may be at risk of `hollowing out\'. At the same time, economic research has stressed that this process is also likely to allow some reverse technology transfer and foster growth at home. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the extent to which R&D offshoring is associated with productivity dynamics of European regions. We find that offshoring regions have higher productivity growth, but this positive effect fades down with the number of investment projects carried out abroad. A large and positive correlation emerge between the extent of R&D offshoring and the home reg…
Expansion of private secondary education : lessons from recent experience in Tanzania
2000
International audience; The private sector's role in education has been the subject of much analysis and policy debate in recent years. In developing countries, public resources for education are limited and governments have traditionnally relied on private education, particularly at the post-basic levels, to meet the excess demand for education. Even when excess demand is not a major issue, advocates of private education note that private schools can be more efficient than their public sector counterparts, delivering more value in terms of student achievement per investment of resources. In this article we explore Tanzania's experience with private education during the early 1990s, a perio…
Software Startup Practices -- Software Development in Startups through the Lens of the Essence Theory of Software Engineering
2020
Software startups continue to be important drivers of economy globally. As the initial investment required to found a new software company becomes smaller and smaller resulting from technological advances such as cloud technology, increasing numbers of new software startups are born. Typically, the main argument for studying software startups is that they differ from mature software organizations in various ways, thus making the findings of many existing studies not directly applicable to them. How, exactly, software startups really differ from other types of software organizations as an on-going debate. In this paper, we seek to better understand how software startups differ from mature so…
PRODUCTION FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTING TO MARKET CHANGES
2007
Abstract This paper describes those situations when a company, an organization, in its search for minimum costs, including those involved by investment, and production flexibility, manages to adapt to those changes that ensure survival on the market. Economies of scale are an attraction for any firm and thus globalized, huge firms emerge, conquering continuously developing markets. However, smaller firms face market changes that are usually dangerous in terms of sustainability. The paper highlights those market components that provide information on adapting production through flexibility.
Warren Buffett versus Zvi Bodie: Should You Buy Or Sell Put Options?
2021
Academics and investment professionals often disagree when it comes to investment advice. Legendary investor Warren Buffett is a proponent of time diversification and firmly believes that stocks are less risky in the long run. Therefore, he often sells long-term put options instead of buying them for portfolio protection. By contrast, the famous finance professor Zvi Bodie argues that time diversification is a fallacy and, therefore, his advice to fund managers is to buy long-term portfolio insurance. In this article, we consider the optimal portfolio choice problem for a loss-averse investor. First, we demonstrate that our loss-averse investor subscribes to the principle of time diversific…