Production Externalities in the Wood Furniture Industry in Central Java

This paper exploits micro firm level data to examine the impact of spatial clustering and links to foreign buyer networks on firm performance in the wood furniture industry in Central Java, Indonesia. The analysis is based on an annual manufacturing survey. We identify the impact of specialization of the cluster, diversification, and links to foreign buyer networks. For this purpose, a production function framework is developed. The results lend support to the view that clustering of large and medium scale specialized firms improves firm performance, while clustering of small scale specialized firms and clustering of diverse firms are not conducive to firm performance. We also find a clear positive association between involvement in exporting activities and firm performance

Reciprocity as a foundation of financial economics

This paper argues that the subsistence of the fundamental theorem of contemporary financial mathematics is the ethical concept ‘reciprocity’. The argument is based on identifying an equivalence between the contemporary, and ostensibly ‘value neutral’, Fundamental Theory of Asset Pricing with theories of mathematical probability that emerged in the seventeenth century in the context of the ethical assessment of commercial contracts in a framework of Aristotelian ethics. This observation, the main claim of the paper, is justified on the basis of results from the Ultimatum Game and is analysed within a framework of Pragmatic philosophy. The analysis leads to the explanatory hypothesis that markets are centres of communicative action with reciprocity as a rule of discourse. The purpose of the paper is to reorientate financial economics to emphasise the objectives of cooperation and social cohesion and to this end, we offer specific policy advice

Are Public and Private R&D Investments Complements or Substitutes?

We develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms à la Melitz (2003), where both the government and firms can invest into R&D to improve the country's technological potential. A higher technological potential raises the average productivity of firms, thus implying lower consumer prices, and eventually leads to a welfare gain. The government's public and firms' private investments are modelled in a three-stage game, in which the government in the first stage invests into a basic research level, and then firms conduct private R&D building on this publicly provided 'technology' in the second stage. We find that private R&D investments are hump-shaped with respect to the basic research level. For lower levels public and private investments are complements, while for higher levels they are substitutes.Der Artikel untersucht in einem allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodell den Zusammenhang zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Investitionen in Forschung und Entwicklung. Öffentliche Investitionen des Staates sowie private Investitionen von Firmen verbessern gemeinsam die durchschnittliche Produktivität der Firmen. Die höhere durchschnittliche Produktivität führt zu sinkenden Konsumentenpreisen und daraus resultierend zu Wohlfahrtsgewinnen. In einem dreistufigen Spiel investiert in der ersten Stufe der Staat in eine zugrunde liegende 'Technologie'. In der zweiten Stufe treffen Firmen ihre Investitionsentscheidung, basierend auf den öffentlichen Investitionen und der bereitgestellten Technologie. Für die Beziehung zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Investitionen in Forschung und Entwicklung finden wir einen umgekehrt u?förmigen Zusammenhang. Für öffentliche Investitionen unterhalb eines bestimmten Schwellenwertes besteht ein komplementärer Zusammenhang, während bei öffentlichen Investitionen, die diesen Schwellenwert überschreiten, ein substitutiver Zusammenhang zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Investitionen existiert

The Early Literacy Project: Final milestone report

The main purpose of this longitudinal research project was to provide professional learning and development (PLD) workshops and associated materials for teachers of New Entrant/Year 1 students, and to assess the impact of the workshops on the literacy learning outcomes of students in Year 1 and beyond. The workshops focussed on providing teachers with the knowledge and skills to adopt explicit and systematic word-decoding teaching strategies in their literacy instruction. Effective word decoding skills are a necessary requirement for success in learning to read. The project commenced in February 2015 and concluded in July 2017. A total of 729 students from 39 schools in the lower North Island participated in the project. Schools were randomly allocated to either an “intervention” group or a “comparison” group. Attrition, the withdrawal of one school, and incomplete data reduced the number of students included in the various analyses. Teachers who had some involvement with students in the project, either as a participating project teacher, a comparison school teacher, or as a classroom teacher in following years, numbered 288

Producing contexts for young children's digital technology use: Web searching during adult-child interactions at home and preschool

This chapter examines a young child's use of digital technologies to search the Web at home and at preschool. Conversation analysis of social interactions that occurred during the Web searching informs our consideration of similarities and differences evident between the child's digital activities in the two settings. The comparison establishes that the child's social interaction with adults at home and at preschool situated him rather differently and, consequently, that different opportunities for digital technology use were produced. Our findings highlight the necessity for young children to participate effectively in the varying practices with digital technology that homes and preschools may provide

Learning-by-Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence

Two non-mutually exclusive hypotheses can explain the empirically established export premium: self-selection of more productive firms into export markets and learning-by-exporting. This paper focuses on how the temporal dimension of firms' exporting activities and the intensity of exports influence the scope of learning effects. Using a panel of Swedish firms and dynamic generalized method of moments estimation, we find a learning effect among persistent exporters with high export intensity, but not among temporary exporters or persistent exporters with low export intensity. For small firms, exports boost productivity among persistent exporters with both high and low export intensity, but the effect is stronger for persistent export-intensive small firms. Copyright The editors of the "Scandinavian Journal of Economics" 2009 .