Globalization with Labor Market Frictions and Non-Scale Growth

We analyze the interaction between globalization and labor market frictions in a dynamic general equilibrium North-South non-scale growth model with endogenous Northern innovation and endogenous Southern imitation. The employment, growth and relative-wage effects of globalization are shown to depend qualitatively on the degree of Northern labor market frictions. We demonstrate that Northern countries with particular severe labor market frictions benefit from globalization in terms of employment and growth. We also analyze whether stricter intellectual property rights protection in the South, rising R&D subsidies in the North or an increase in Northern labor market flexibility alleviate or aggravate globalization effects.Globalization, Quality-Ladder Model, Non-Scale Growth, Frictional Unemployment, Firing Costs

Globalization, Labor Market Rigidities and Multiple Equilibria

This paper analyses the effects of globalization, stricter intellectual property rights protection and different labor market policies in a dynamic North-South general equilibrium model with non-scale growth. To this aim, we generalize the Schumpeterian product-lifecycle model of Dinopoulos and Segerstrtom (2003) by adding frictional unemployment and firing costs to their framework. We find that the effects on North-South wage inequality, employment and growth depend qualitatively on the level of Northern firing costs. Contrary to the special case of perfect labor market flexibility studied by Dinopoulos and Segerstrom, globalization may not benefit anymore both the South in terms of a relative-wage catch up and the North in terms of a temporary innovation and growth push.Economic Growth, North-South Trade, Globalization, Frictional Unemployment, Firing Costs

On the Myth of a General National Culture. Making Visible Specific Cultural Characteristics of Learners in Different\ud Educational Contexts

The concept of a few values that can characteristically explain all units of culture (Schneider, 1968, pp.1-2) within any national context generally sounds promising. In order to take design-oriented decisions on culture-specific research questions, such characteristic values, particularly if already determined for many countries, would allow a massive reduction of effort. However, we were unsure if the contexts of academic and professional education allowed the adoption of such values without loosing the characteristic information, which are crucial for designing context sensitive e-Learning contents. In both educational scenarios we investigated the subcultures ‘faculty’, ‘university’, ‘enterprise’, and ‘nation’. In this paper, we exemplarily discuss our study’s results regarding one selected topic\ud from our questionnaire, i.e. the ‘role of the lecturer’. Actually, we found major differences between the investigated scenarios. Thus, we came to the conclusion\ud that in our context, adapting, e. g. Hofstede’s national values, would not lead to a learning design that takes the context-specific cultural differences into consideration

Pricing methods for American options

Bibliography: leaves 89-94.This thesis is about the comparison of Pricing models for the valuation of American Options. Three classes of numerical approaches are considered. These are Lattice Methods, Analytic Approximations and Monte Carlo Simulation. Methods will be contrasted in terms of accuracy and speed of the computed American option price. One particular method utilises regression when estimating the American option price. For this approach the impact of outliers and multicollinearity is examined and alternative regression models fitted. Monte Carlo Simulation is implemented to calculate early exercise probabilities of American options in the South African market. Results are compared for both call and put options. A test set of 3550 options is simulated with parameters mirroring the South African economy. On this set, the accuracy of all methods is assessed relative to a benchmark price, which is computed by a convergent lattice approach. Finally, American Symmetry is used to evaluate both put and call options

Open innovation in high-technology companies : Case study of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies

Companies innovation process is an important way to both achieve and sustain competitive advantage in today’s business world. The innovation happens in companies within a process consisting from three processes: the front-end innovation process, the new product development process, and commercialization process. The innovation strategy of companies is comprised from different attributes that the company’s emphasis and values in their decision-making process. The theoretical framework of this thesis is built on the principles on open innovation, aggressiveness strategy of the companies, and holistic analytical model developed to evaluate companies’ strategic priorities. The open innovation is scoped by selected strategic attributes in the companies, from which the overall innovation strategy of the company is formed. This study tries to analytically model the open innovation strategy of the case companies within biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. This study uses several critical factors index-based methods to evaluate the past experiences and future expectations of the companies’ top management personnel around the open innovation. In addition, an analytical hierarchy process method is used to specify and evaluate the case companies’ overall innovation strategy around open innovation parameters. This study evaluates the different innovation strategy types used in high technology companies. This study was able to quantitatively determine the innovation strategy types of the case companies using the innovation strategy index method, which was originally derived from manufacturing strategy index method. However, no correlation around the resource allocation index and innovation strategy index was not found

The Conundrum of Recovery Policies: Growth or Jobs?

This paper adopts a Neo-Schumpeterian approach to macroeconomics, by proposing a model which includes fully-endogenous growth, involuntary search-based unemployment, and financial frictions. The model analyzes the effects of several recovery policies used by governments to fight unemployment or/and enhance growth. Employment protection legislation reduces growth and unemployment. Policies that reduce the cost of job vacancies decrease unemployment and raise growth. Industrial policies in the form of production subsidies to young small firms, production taxes to adult large firms, and R&D subsidies increase growth and unemployment. Policies that reduce financial frictions accelerate growth but exert an ambiguous effect on unemployment.fully- endogenous growth, Schumpeterian unemployment, financial frictions, recovery policies, vacancy creation