About Culture in Economics

The formal precision of modern economics, with its theoretical abstraction, its mathematical analytics and its reliance on disinterested scientific method in testing hypotheses about how economic system behave, might suggest that economics as a discipline does not have a cultural context, that it operates within a world that is not considered by, nor conditional upon, any cultural phenomena. But just as the radical critique described of contemporary economics has argued that the sort of economics described above cannot be value‐free, so also can it be suggested that economics as an intellectual cannot be culture‐free

Mobility of capital and external sustainability of the Portuguese economy

The Feldstein‐Horioka thesis was considered one of the greatest puzzles in economics. Proposed to be a measure of international capital mobility, has known a process of immunisation to be conformed to empirical evidence and respect econometric knowledge. We apply to the Portuguese economy the proposed tests not only to know the degree of capital mobility but also to know if this economy is external sustainable. The original ideas in the paper are our interpretation of the theoretical evolution of the F‐H thesis, the importance of analysing the random nature of the model of one equation and not only the retention coefficient and the macro view given by an appropriate VAR model with investment and saving. We conclude by the confirmation of important capital mobility in the Portuguese economy and the external unsustainability of this economy

Customer Relationship Management ‐ Competitiveness Improvement Tool*

On the global market competitiveness of Serbian companies is at a very low level. According to Global Competitiveness Report 2007‐2008 Serbia was ranked 91. Leading country is USA, whereas the UK had lost the second and fell to ninth position. The criteria on which Global Competitiveness Report ranks 131 world countries are creation of business strategies and a quality of business environment1. Competitiveness increase of local companies’ should be assessed through holistic concept which targets on core micro and macro environment indicators improvement, as well as by adopting a new business philosophy ‐ strategic management and innovation. Development of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) concept is one of the tools which significantly influence raise of competitiveness and more effective creation of business strategies

Joined‐Up Pensions Policy in the UK: An Asset‐Liability Model for Simultaneously Determining the Asset Allocation and Contribution Rate*

The trustees of funded defined benefit pension schemes must make two vital and interrelated decisions  ‐ setting the asset allocation and the contribution rate. While these decisions are usually taken separately, it is argued that they are intimately related and should be taken jointly. The objective of funded pension schemes is taken to be the minimization of both the mean and the variance of the contribution rate, where the asset allocation decision is designed to achieve this objective. This is done by splitting the problem into two main steps. First, the Markowitz mean‐variance model is generalised to include three types of pension scheme liabilities (actives, deferreds and pensioners), and this model is used to generate the efficient set of asset allocations. Second, for each point on the risk‐return efficient set of the asset‐liability portfolio model, the mathematical model of Haberman (1992) is used to compute the corresponding mean and variance of the contribution rate and funding ratio. Since the Haberman model assumes that the discount rate for computing the present value of liabilities equals the investment return, it is generalised to avoid this restriction. This generalisation removes the trade‐off between contribution rate risk and funding ratio risk for a fixed spread period. Pension schemes need to choose a spread period, and it is shown how this can be set to minimise the variance of the contribution rate. Finally, using the result that the funding ratio follows an inverted gamma distribution, shortfall risk and expected tail loss are computed for funding below the minimum funding requirement, and funding above the taxation limit. This model is then applied to one of the largest UK pension schemes ‐ the Universities Superannuation Scheme

Liderske sposobnosti žena i njihov položaj u poslovnom svetu

U članku autor iznosi najnovije rezultate istraživanja žena lidera i njihove pozicije u poslovnom svetu, tj. pokušava da odgovori na pitanje kako se u društvu gleda na njih i da li im se veruje. Ona upoređuje rezultate dobijene u Srbiji i Crnoj Gori sa najnovijim rezultatima u SAD. Autorov istraživač- ki zadatak je bio da utvrdi specifičnosti balkanskog regiona i u skladu sa tim izvede zaključke. Na kraju rada, autor daje osnovne smernice i očekivanja u vezi sa položajem žena u poslovnom svetu u budućnosti u kome tradicionalno dominiraju muškarci

Strategijske alijanse - faktor unapređenja međunarodne konkurentnosti

Kontunuirana potreba preduzeća da fleksibilno reaguje na promeneglobalne konkurencije itehnologije, afirmiše medjunarodno poslovno povezivanje, čak i u slučajevima gde su akteri direktni konkurenti. Za razliku od tradicionalnog pristupa koji se uglavnom zasnivao na samostalnoj ekspanziji, pripajanju drugih firmi (Mergers and Acquisition) ili zajedničkim poslovnim ulaganjima (Joint Ventures), u savremenim uslovima globalizacije ekonomskog okruženja, težište se pomera u pravcu afirmisanja onih oblika poslovnog povezivanja gde se zadržava samostalnost ekonomskih aktera, ali se, istovremeno, kombinovanjem snaga i interesa preduzeća maksimiziraju asimetrične prednosti, tj. favorizuju se strategijske alijane kao oblik međukompanijskog povezivanja