Make-or-Buy Decisions in Patent Related Services

Among the most prominent theoretical frameworks dealing with the economic underlyings of firms’ make-or-buy decisions are Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the Resourced Based View (RBV). Relying on panel data covering 107 European firms over eight years I test predictions from both TCE and RBV with regard to the outsourcing of patent related services simultaneously. Modelling the share of outsourced patent applications in a Negative Binomial Panel Regression Model I find joint explanatory power of both approaches. My findings support previous literature arguing for an integration of TCE and RBV to a comprehensive theoretical framework of firms make-or-buy decisions

House price volatility metamodel for managing house price volatility knowledge

A change in house price is a situation that is very dynamic and unpredictable. The study found that changes in house price volatility are more dynamic than the changes in the price of goods or household income. Demographic changes, market forces and the rise of speculation are among the factors that influence the volatility in house prices. Through this research all the determining factors associated with changes in house price volatility were identified because the changes on the determinant factors have an impact on the pattern of the house price market. For the purposes of showing a comprehensive relationship between the determinants of house price with house price volatility, the methods in modelling the concept in software engineering known as metamodelling has been adapted. Through metamodelling, an artifact known as 'metamodel' is produced. Specifically for this study, the metamodel is known as House Price Volatility Metamodel (HPVM). By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the development of HPVM implemented using 8 Step Metamodelling Creation process, where HPVM is capable of modeling the determinant factors that determine the volatility in house prices in three major categories: i) Socio-Economic view, ii) Economic view and iii) HPV Significant Value view. Three types of validation technique, Expert Review (Face to Face Validation), Frequency-Base Selection and Tracing (Case Study) in three states in Malaysia, namely Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur have been used to assess the effectiveness of the metamodel. Metamodel development is believed to be beneficial to various stakeholders in the domain of property market such as the government like from Ministry of Finance, real estate investors, economists, buyers and real estate practitioners where they are able to get a variety of views and considerations in assessing house price market and house price volatility. These considerations are very important in evaluating the real estate market, as it will be an input in decisionmaking basis for this field

Towards a Strategy for Economic Growth in Uruguay

The Uruguayan economy is recovering from the 2002 financial crisis that disrupted its banking system, caused a collapse of its currency and seriously affected its fiscal solvency. The crisis was clearly associated with the collapse of the Argentine economy and its concomitant currency, banking and debt crises. Both were also related to the sudden stop that followed the Russian crisis of 1998, which prompted an important realignment of the real in January 1999, a fact that had exerted enormous pressure on bilateral exchange rates within Mercosur. In this post-crisis period, Uruguay now faces several challenges to attain a sustainable growth path. This report proposes a series of recommendations towards this end. Implementing a strategy to accelerate growth inevitably involves interventions at both the macro and the micro level. The macro level involves the maintenance of a stable and competitive real exchange rate, so as to create a stable and encouraging environment for export growth. The authors take up each of these elements of the growth strategy. They first focus on the design of incentive policies for economic diversification and promotion. Then they discuss next the macroeconomic complements, with special emphasis on maintaining a competitive and stable real exchange rate.Economic Development & Growth

Determinants of Multi-period Forecast Uncertainty Using a Panel of Density Forecasts

This paper examines the determinants of inflation forecast uncertainty using a panel of density forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF). We show that previous studies based on aggregate data are biased due to heterogeneity of individual forecasts. Instead, we estimate a dynamic heterogeneous panel data model. We find that, although past forecast uncertainty is important, it is not as important as previously thought. In addition, the strong link between past squared forecast errors and the current forecast uncertainty, as often is found in the GARCH literature, is largely lost in the multi-period context with varying forecast horizons. Forecasters are found to pay more attention to recent “news†about inflation than the out-dated past squared forecast errors. We propose a novel way to estimating uncertainty of “news†using Kullback-Leibler Information, and show that it is an important determinant of the current inflation forecast uncertainty. Our results also support Friedman (1977)’s conjecture that higher inflation rate leads to higher inflation uncertaintyForecast uncertainty; Heterogeneity of forecasts; Panel data; Survey of professional forecasters; Dynamic panels

Do Major Currency Trading Volumes Explain the Rise of Bitcoin’s Price?

We examine the determinants of the Bitcoin price over the period from September 2012 to September 2017.  Unlike conventional currency demand models, trading volume is negatively related to the Bitcoin price and the frequency of Internet searches for the term Bitcoin is positively associated with the price.  We find strong and significant time trends in the Bitcoin price. These results suggest that the rise in Bitcoin’s price during our observation period was driven largely by speculation

Make-or-Buy Decisions in Patent Related Services

Among the most prominent theoretical frameworks dealing with the economic underlyings of firms’ make-or-buy decisions are Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the Resourced Based View (RBV). Relying on panel data covering 107 European firms over eight years I test predictions from both TCE and RBV with regard to the outsourcing of patent related services simultaneously. Modelling the share of outsourced patent applications in a Negative Binomial Panel Regression Model I find joint explanatory power of both approaches. My findings support previous literature arguing for an integration of TCE and RBV to a comprehensive theoretical framework of firms make-or-buy decisions.outsourcing; patent attorney; make-or-buy; negative binomial panel regression

'Rules of Thumb' for Sovereign Debt Crises

Sovereign Default, Debt Crises