Employer and Employee Ignorance in Developing Countries: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago

The authors examine the degree of employer and employee ignorance about reservation and offer wages in Trinidad and Tobago and find this to be considerable. On average employers pay more than 26% above workers' reservation wages, while employees earn 22% less than the maximum wage on offer, ceteris paribus. However, there are some differences across sub-groups of jobs, particularly with regard to individuals' lack of information about the best wage offers. Some differences are also found compared to previous results for developed nations, although the level of ignorance does not appear to be higher in Trinidad and Tobago. Copyright � 2008 The Authors.

Effects of trade liberalization on domestic prices: Some evidence from Tunisian manufacturing

dynamic model, domestic prices, trade liberalization, panel data, speed of adjustment, Tunisia,

Bimodality in the firm size distributions: a kinetic exchange model approach

Firm growth process in the developing economies is known to produce divergence in their growth path giving rise to bimodality in the size distribution. Similar bimodality has been observed in wealth distribution as well. Here, we introduce a modified kinetic exchange model which can reproduce such features. In particular, we will show numerically that a nonlinear retention rate (or savings propensity) causes this bimodality. This model can accommodate binary trading as well as the whole system-side trading thus making it more suitable to explain the non-standard features of wealth distribution as well as firm size distribution.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Entry costs and cross-country differences in productivity and output

Entry costs, Entry regulation, Entry barriers, Institutions, Productivity, TFP, O11, O17,

Fuzzy promises: explicative definitions of brand promise delivery

This article clarifies the commonplace assumption that brands make promises by developing definitions of brand promise delivery. Distinguishing between clear and fuzzy brand promises, we develop definitions of what it is for a brand to deliver on fuzzy functional, symbolic, and experiential promises. We argue (a) that brands deliver fuzzy functional promises through encouraging and facilitating courses of actions that are conducive to the promised functionality, whereas (b) brands deliver fuzzy symbolic promises through encouraging and facilitating ways in which consumers can use brands as narrative material to communicate self-identity. Finally, (c) we propose that brands deliver fuzzy experiential promises through effectively motivating consumers to adopt and play a social role implicitly suggested and facilitated by the brand. A promise is an inherently ethical concept and the article finishes off with an in-depth discussion of fuzzy brand promises as two-way ethical commitments that put requirements on both brands and consumers

Determinants of the Low SME Loan Approval Rate in Croatia

commercial banks, credit rationing, latent variable models, loan assessment, small and medium enterprises., C31, C51, C52, G21, H81,