Offering a unifying theoretical perspective not readily available in any other text, this innovative guide to econometrics uses simple geometrical arguments to develop students' intuitive understanding of basic and advanced topics, emphasizing throughout the practical applications of modern theory and nonlinear techniques of estimation. One theme of the text is the use of artificial regressions for estimation, reference, and specification testing of nonlinear models, including diagnostic tests for parameter constancy, serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, and other types of mis-specification. Explaining how estimates can be obtained and tests can be carried out, the authors go beyond a mere algebraic description to one that can be easily translated into the commands of a standard econometric software package. Covering an unprecedented range of problems with a consistent emphasis on those that arise in applied work, this accessible and coherent guide to the most vital topics in econometrics today is indispensable for advanced students of econometrics and students of statistics interested in regression and related topics. It will also suit practising econometricians who want to update their skills. Flexibly designed to accommodate a variety of course levels, it offers both complete coverage of the basic material and separate chapters on areas of specialized interest.

Estimation and Inference in Econometrics

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

This chapter reviews the empirical results of this study. Section 6.2 presents an international comparison of long-term supply relationships between the United States, Japan and Europe. The empirical evidence indicates that there are strong similarities between the three regions. We do find differences but these differences seem small, particularly relative to the expectations one may have on the basis of received view on systemic differences between “Japanese” and “Western” contracting. Thus, if indeed there were large differences between the Triad’s regions, there now appears to be considerable convergence towards a common underlying logic’ of long-term supply relationships. However, the underlying causal structures have not completely converged into one overall system, and section 6.3 discusses this. Despite all similarities, our results also show remaining differences between the regions. Each of the differences by itself do not explain much; however, when connecting the differences they provide new insights. Section 6.3 concludes that in the US perhaps a “Third Way” has been found. Section 6.4 presents an interpretation of the results. Our empirical results confirm the interactive nature of firm- and relation-specific characteristics. As we conclude, the interactions hint at a dynamic process and we identify various causal loops. These causal loops may lie at the heart of the working of long-term supply relationships. Section 6.5 presents a final review of this study. Among others, it provides several arguments beyond this study that may explain the strong similarities between the Triad’s regions.

An International Comparison

This chapter builds the theoretical model that will be used for the empirical analysis of long-term supply relationships. The theoretical model incorporates fifteen theoretical constructs which are derived from transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1985), the generalized transaction cost theory (Nooteboom, 1992a), and studies that focus on the relational nature of interorganizational exchange (Helper, 1987; Nooteboom, 1996; Sako, 1992). Section 3.2 provides the definitions of these constructs and relates them to empirical studies on interorganizational exchange. Section 3.3 combines the fifteen theoretical constructs by means of twenty-five hypotheses in one theoretical model. Section 3.4 concludes the chapter. The reason for such a multitude of variables is that long-term supply relationships are complex and that due to the interaction of variables none can be omitted without causing a bias due to omitted variables.

The Theoretical Model

This article investigates whether bribery in emerging economies matters and whether such bribery has a diminishing return to performance. Bribery allows entrepreneurs to develop and foster a network of informal relationships with public officials, and reap the accompanying benefits; but it may also have disadvantages, such as an inefficient allocation of resources. The relationship between bribery and performance was estimated using unique data derived from a survey of 606 Vietnamese entrepreneurs. We controlled for various entrepreneurial, organizational, and industrial characteristics. The exploratory results provide support for a hill-shaped non-monotonic relationship between bribery and revenues.

Which Entrepreneurs Bribe and What Do They Get From It? Exploratory Evidence From Vietnam

The impact of dynamic capabilities on the sustainability performance of SMEs

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Gjalt de Jong

Papers

An International Comparison

The Theoretical Model

Which Entrepreneurs Bribe and What Do They Get From It? Exploratory Evidence From Vietnam

The impact of dynamic capabilities on the sustainability performance of SMEs

An International Comparison of Real Output and Labour Productivity in Manufacturing in Ecuador and the United States