Intra-Firm Human Capital Externalities in Tunisia

In this case-study, we use matched worker-firm Tunisian data to elicit the roles of intra-firm human capital and modern firm features in worker remunerations. We show that the estimated return to education in wage equations is not modified when replacing in the list of regressors the firm dummies, representing observed and unobserved firm heterogeneity, by the first three factors of a Principal Component Analysis of the observed firm characteristics. These factors can be interpreted as: the activity sector, the intra-firm human capital density and the modernity of the firm. These results constitute an interesting argument in favour of the presence of intra-firm human capital externalities. Moreover, the estimated education coefficient does not change when the three factors are replaced by three surrogate variables, respectively: the textile industry dummy, the intra-firm mean education, and the firm’s age.economic development, rate of returns, human capital, wage differentials, intra-firm knowledge externalities, Tunisia.

Firm development as an integrated process: with evidence from the General Motors-Fisher Body case

This paper argues that an adequate approach to the firm should be able to accommodate the complexities of actual firm development. The latter is conceptualized in terms of three general stages: prime movers or drivers of change, change processes, and change attractors. Furthermore, any "real-world" firm is both a technical and an institutional unit. To emphasize the importance of "real firm" analysis, the discussion presented here revolves around an understanding of the much considered case of General Motors and Fisher Body integration has developed over time. Generalization from this case suggests that an integrated view of the firm is necessary that combines the three stages and the two bases (technical and institutional). Six general perspectives on the firm are identified as having technical or institutional bases that are relevant in each of the three stages. This integrated approach to the firm is explored in terms of the general topic of firm development. It is concluded that, without an integrated approach to firm development, a potentially biased or incomplete analysis can result

Assessing competitiveness: how firm-level data can help

As policymakers refocus on growth, the ability to take a firm-level view is key to disentangling the various factors at the root of competitiveness, and thus to designing appropriate policies. â?¢ Firm-level data provides critical information for the design of appropriate competitiveness measures that complement traditional macro analysis. â?¢ More work remains to be done assembling firm-level information, but the variance of the distribution of firm characteristics already conveys important information in addition to standard averages. â?¢ New indicators should be developed to translate the distribution of firm characteristics into indicators of competitiveness designed to capture not only average performance but also the heterogeneity of firm performance. This Policy Contribution builds on ongoing research within EFIGE (www.efige.org), a project to help identify the internal policies needed to improve the external competitiveness of the European Union.

The Effect of Dividend Policy, Liquidity, Profitability and Firm Size on Firm Value in Financial Service Sector Industries Listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange 2015-2018 Period

Firms that go public have a target to increase the value of their firm, because the value of the firm is an attractive factor for investors to call their capital. Firm value is a financial indicator because high corporate value can prove prosperity for shareholders. This study attempts to analyze the dividend, liquidity, profitability and size of the firm policy on the value of the firm. This research was conducted on financial services companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2015-2018, including 12 companies that met the sample requirements by using purposive sampling from 99 financial service companies for the 2015-2018 period. This study uses multiple linear regression data analysis received with the SPSS program which contains the classic assumption test, partial test (t-test). The results of this study indicate that dividend policy has a negative and significant effect on firm value, liquidity and firm size partially influence positively and significantly on firm value while profitability is not appropriate and not significant to firm value

Doing Business in Malaysia

[Excerpt] Malaysia is a federation of thirteen states and two federal territories in West (Peninsular) Malaysia and East Malaysia with a population of over 20 million. It is rich in natural resources (including oil and natural gas) and is a major producer of palm oil, natural rubber, tin and tropical hardwoods. The Government encourages industry and foreign investment, particularly in high technology and resource-based export-oriented industries. Malaysia has attracted much interest from multi-national companies due to its economic growth and future potential

Quantity-setting games with a dominant firm

We consider a possible game-theoretic foundation of Forchheimer's model of dominant-firm price leadership based on quantity-setting games with one large firm and many small firms. If the large firm is the exogenously given first mover, we obtain Forchheimer's model. We also investigate whether the large firm can emerge as a first mover of a timing game

The effect of acquisition synergy on firm performance moderated by firm reputation

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the impact of the operating synergy, financial synergy and firm reputation toward firm performance in merger and acquisition processes. This study also examines how firm reputation moderates the impact of operating synergy and financial synergy toward firm performance. The object of this research are companies involved in mergers and acquisitions between 2010 and 2016. Design/methodology/approach: The purposive sampling method is used to select the research sample. The descriptive statistical test, outlier test and hypothesis test is used to analyze the data using e-eviews program. The study assumed Buy and Hold Abnormal Return (BHAR) as the performance to measure a successful acquisition, and the factors that have an impact on acquisition performance are taken as being operating synergy, financial synergy and firm reputation. Findings: The results of this study show that by maximizing the operating synergy and firm reputation, this can improve the BHAR of an acquisition event, and a firm will a weak reputation can strengthen the BHAR by maximizing the operating synergy. Practical implications: These findings will be very helpful to management to maximize their firm performance using merger and acquisition as their strategy and firm reputation as their intangible resources. Originality/value: This article provides a new insight of acquisition research as to how firm reputation moderates the impact of acquisition synergy to achieve firm performance.peer-reviewe

Doing Business in the Philippines

[Excerpt] The Philippines which lies at the heart of Southeast Asia is a viable place for doing business.The country’s economy continues to grow despite the unabated political noise. The Philippine Peso ended 2005 as the best performer in Asia, with a 6.01 percent gain for the year, boosted by hefty inflows of remittances from Filipinos working overseas and optimism about the government’s fiscal reform program and lower yields at the regular treasury bill auction. The Philippine Stock Exchange, on the other hand, registered the second fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia in 2005. The Philippine Composite Index (Phisix) went up by 14.99 percent last year, trailing the Jakarta Composite Index of Indonesia which went up 16.24 percent. The Filipino workforce is another key advantage of the Philippines.The literacy rate in the country is among the highest in the region and around 350,000 highly trainable graduates add to the professional pool every year. On the political front, the Philippine government has been working on the proposal to change the present presidential system to a parliamentary-federal form of government through a charter change, in order to fast track the enactment of legislative measures and the delivery of public services to the provinces. The 1987 Constitution provides for a presidential system of government with a bicameral Congress

Using simple neural networks to analyse firm activity

Characteristically, in economics, the analysis of firm activity is based on a production function that defines a deterministic relationship between factor inputs and firm output. The analysis of the firm as an organisation takes a somewhat different approach. For instance, behavioural economics (for example Simon, 1955; March and Simon, 1958; Cyert and March, 1963), transaction cost theory (Williamson, 1975, 1985) and capabilities approaches (for example Foss and Loasby, 1998; Foss, 2005) emphasise that economic agents have inevitably incomplete information and knowledge and are at most boundedly or limitedly rational. The implication here is that while general principles governing intra-firm interaction can be specified, detailed organisational processes inside the firm are, for practical academic purposes, effectively unobservable. Hence, the usual analytical tools designed to analyse firm behaviour, based on production functions and optimising principles with full information, are in practice an oversimplification of firm activity (Loasby, 1999)