Labour demand adjustment : Does foreign ownership matter ?

This paper examines whether multinational companies differ in their employment adjustment from domestic firms, on the basis of a panel of Belgian firms for the period 1997-2007. We focus on incumbent firms as, in general, they account for the largest fraction of net employment creation, especially among multinational firms (MNFs). We obtain structural estimates of adjustment cost parameters for blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, domestic firms, and MNFs. We find evidence of convex, asymmetric (in the sense that it is more expensive to downsize than to upsize) and cross adjustment costs (indicating costly substitution between workers). To adjust white-collar employment seems to be around half as costly for MNFs as for domestic firms. There is no difference between Belgian MNFs and foreign MNFs. A small fraction of the gap between the adjustment costs of MNFs and domestic firms may be explained by the use of fixed-term contracts and early retirement. Controlling for firm size does not yield robust conclusions; the cost advantage of MNFs may diminish, vanish or turn into a disadvantage.

A double network approach to international production.

This paper discusses some key implications of the view, emerged in the literature, that multinational firms organise their activities by connecting internal networks of subsidiaries with external networks of contractual relationships. It is argued that this view provides some useful elements for a more comprehensive theory of multinational change and for the analysis of the impact of internationalisation on economic systems of origin and destination. A “double network approach” to international production implies a fundamental change of focus from the “center” of multinationals – the headquarters – to the “periphery” of transnational organisations, and from individual decision making units to collective choices involving a variety of inter-linked actors. Moreover, it highlights the complexities of decision making processes associated to the increasing number and interdependencies of internal and external actors involved in international production.Foreign Investment, Multinational Firm.

The Dilemma of Tax Competition: How (not) to attract (Inefficient) Firms?

We consider a tax competition game between asymmetrically un-informed governments. Two governments simultaneously propose tax arrangements to attract a multinational firm (MNF) which has an ex-ante preference to operate in both countries, and governments anticipate that once the MNF accepts their offer, each host will know the marginal cost of local production, but not the marginal cost in the other country. We show that when the multinational prefers to operate in both countries or not operate at all, then the tax competition game features two equilibria. In one equilibrium, efficient MNFs are attracted in the two countries, while in the other equilibrium, inefficient MNFs are attracted. The equilibrium in which only efficient firms are attracted may occur as the unique outcome if the MNFs can ultimately decide to settle in one country only. Our results suggest that, the existence of (small) countries who are aggressive in attracting MNFs by offering substantial tax advantages allows competing governments to keep inefficient firms away from their territories.Common Agency;Adverse Selection;tax competition;Multinationals

PeerHunter: Detecting Peer-to-Peer Botnets through Community Behavior Analysis

Peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets have become one of the major threats in network security for serving as the infrastructure that responsible for various of cyber-crimes. Though a few existing work claimed to detect traditional botnets effectively, the problem of detecting P2P botnets involves more challenges. In this paper, we present PeerHunter, a community behavior analysis based method, which is capable of detecting botnets that communicate via a P2P structure. PeerHunter starts from a P2P hosts detection component. Then, it uses mutual contacts as the main feature to cluster bots into communities. Finally, it uses community behavior analysis to detect potential botnet communities and further identify bot candidates. Through extensive experiments with real and simulated network traces, PeerHunter can achieve very high detection rate and low false positives.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 11 tables, 2017 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computin

The micro processes underlying small firms'integration into territorial innovation dynamics - a knowledge based perspective

The paper is concerned with the process of SMEs' insertion into innovation projects within regional clusters. The objective is to contribute to a better understanding of this process by examining the underlying mechanisms of territorial innovation dynamics. A particular attention is given to the interplay between the features of territorial dynamics of innovation identified, and SMEs' capacity to participate to collaborative innovation projects. In this perspective, the article analyse the front-end process of territorial inter-organizational innovation, the early stage during which partners negotiate and establish collaborative innovation projects. Rather than investigating how clusters facilitate the access to new resources and knowledge, the crucial question here is how clusters allow the combination of different component of knowledge among heterogeneous actors. First, our findings reveal the key underlying role of architectural knowledge in local innovation processes. Second, they suggest that the nature of architectural knowledge inside the cluster influences the capacity and the motivation of SMEs to participate to local innovation projects. These findings contribute to theory by developing a grounded model of territorial dynamics of innovation and of SMEs integration into localised innovation projectsclusters; SMEs; architectural innovation; knowledge; local innovation projects

Neutrino Masses from Non-minimal Gravitational Interactions of Massive Neutral Fermions

A new mechanism is proposed for generating neutrino masses radiatively through a non-minimal coupling to gravity of fermionic bilinears involving massive neutral fermions. Such coupling terms can arise in theories where the gravity sector is augmented by a scalar field. They necessarily violate the principle of equivalence, but such violations are not ruled out by present experiments. It is shown that the proposed mechanism is realised most convincingly in theories of the Randall- Sundrum type, where gravity couples strongly in the TeV range. The mechanism has the potential for solving both the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. The smallness of neutrino masses in this scenario is due to the fact that the interaction of the massive neutral fermions arises entirely from higher-dimensional operators in the effective Lagrangian.Comment: 7 page Latex 2e file, axodraw needed. Discussion and references added. Version to appear in MPL

Location choices of multinational firms in Europe: the role of EU cohesion policy

In this paper we examine the determinants of location choices of multinational firms in Europe. In particular, we focus on the role of EU Cohesion Policy in attracting foreign investors from both within and outside Europe. Using data on 5,509 foreign subsidiaries established in 50 regions in 8 EU countries over the period 1991-1999, we estimate a mixed logit model of the determinants of MNFs’ location choices. We find that, after controlling for the role of agglomeration economies as well as a number of other regional and country characteristics and allowing for a very flexible correlation pattern among choices, Structural and Cohesion funds allocated by the EU to laggard regions have indeed contributed to attracting multinationals. These policies as well as other determinants play a different role in the case of European investors as opposed to non European ones.Europe; Foreign Direct Investments; Location Choice; Mixed Logit Models

Energy market liberalisation in the FSU - simulations with the GTAP model

This work considers effects of energy market liberalisation in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Our analysis is based on a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model called the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP). This specialised model makes it possible to evaluate effects in a general equilibrium set-up. Energy market reforms are widely discussed in the literature, but the use of CGE models has been limited. In the main part of the paper, we perform two experiments. The first is a benchmark liberalisation experiment in which all government taxes and subsidies are removed. The second is an attempt to simulate an increase in the export capacity of energy commodities into the European markets. In general, we find that liberalisation of FSU energy markets would increase welfare in the EU countries, while in the FSU welfare would decrease. This result is mainly due to the terms of trade effect, as export prices of FSU countries decrease.energy, computable general equilibrium models, former Soviet Union, welfare analysis