Power in the Multinational Corporation in Industry Equilibrium

Recent theories of the multinational corporation introduce the property rights model of the firm and examine whether to integrate our outsource firm activities locally or to a foreign country. This paper focus instead on the internal organization of the multinational corporation by examining the power allocation between headquarters and subsidiaries. We provide a framework to analyse the interaction between the decision to serve the local market by exporting or FDI, market acces and the optimal mode of organization of the multinational corporation. We find that subsidiary managers are given most autonomy in their decision how to run the firm at intermediate levels of local competition. We then provide comparative statics for changes in fixed FDI entry costs and trade costs, information technology, the number of local competitors, and in the size of the local market

Corporate Hierarchies and the Size of Nations: Theory and Evidence

Corporate organization varies within a country and across countries with country size. The paper starts by establishing some facts about corporate organization based on unique data of 660 Austrian and German corporations. The larger country (Germany) has larger firms with flatter more decentral corporate hierarchies compared to the smaller country (Austria). Firms in the larger country change their organization less fast than firms in the smaller country. Over time firms have been introducing less hierarchical organizations by delegating power to lower levels of the corporation. We develop a theory which explains these facts and which links these features to the trade environment that countries and firms face. We introduce firms with internal hierarchies in a Krugman (1980) model of trade. We show that international trade and the toughness of competition in international markets induce a power struggle in firms which eventually leads to decentralized corporate hierarchies. We offer econometric evidence which is consistent with the models predictions

Heat Fluctuations in Brownian Transducers

Heat fluctuation probability distribution function in Brownian transducers operating between two heat reservoirs is studied. We find, both analytically and numerically, that the recently proposed Fluctuation Theorem for Heat Exchange [C. Jarzynski and D. K. Wojcik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 230602 (2004)] has to be modified when the coupling mechanism between both baths is considered. We also extend such relation when external work is present. Our work fixes the domain of applicability of the theorem in more realistic operating systems.Comment: Comments are welcom

Convergence of adaptive mixtures of importance sampling schemes

In the design of efficient simulation algorithms, one is often beset with a poor choice of proposal distributions. Although the performance of a given simulation kernel can clarify a posteriori how adequate this kernel is for the problem at hand, a permanent on-line modification of kernels causes concerns about the validity of the resulting algorithm. While the issue is most often intractable for MCMC algorithms, the equivalent version for importance sampling algorithms can be validated quite precisely. We derive sufficient convergence conditions for adaptive mixtures of population Monte Carlo algorithms and show that Rao--Blackwellized versions asymptotically achieve an optimum in terms of a Kullback divergence criterion, while more rudimentary versions do not benefit from repeated updating.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053606000001154 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Symmetric Brownian motor

In this paper we present a model of a symmetric Brownian motor (SBM) which changes the sign of its velocity when the temperature gradient is inverted. The velocity, external work and efficiency are studied as a function of the temperatures of the baths and other relevant parameters. The motor shows a current reversal when another parameter (a phase shift) is varied. Analytical predictions and results from numerical simulations are performed and agree very well. Generic properties of this type of motors are discussed.Comment: 8 pages and 10 figure

Tight coupling in thermal Brownian motors

We study analytically a thermal Brownian motor model and calculate exactly the Onsager coefficients. We show how the reciprocity relation holds and that the determinant of the Onsager matrix vanishes. Such condition implies that the device is built with tight coupling. This explains why Carnot's efficiency can be achieved in the limit of infinitely slow velocities. We also prove that the efficiency at maximum power has the maximum possible value, which corresponds to the Curzon-Alhborn bound. Finally, we discuss the model acting as a Brownian refrigerator

Strain-gradient mediated local conduction in strained bismuth ferrite films

It has been recently shown that the strain gradient is able to separate the light-excited electron-hole pairs in semiconductors, but how it affects the photoelectric properties of the photo-active materials remains an open question. Here, we demonstrate the critical role of the strain gradient in mediating local photoelectric properties in the strained BiFeO3 thin films by systematically characterizing the local conduction with nanometre lateral resolution in both dark and illuminated conditions. Due to the giant strain gradient manifested at the morphotropic phase boundaries, the associated flexo-photovoltaic effect induces on one side an enhanced photoconduction in the R-phase, and on the other side a negative photoconductivity in the morphotropic [Formula: see text]-phase. This work offers insight and implication of the strain gradient on the electronic properties in both optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices