The paper reports the principal findings of a long term research project on the description and explanation of business cycles. The research strongly confirmed the older view that business cycles have large systematic components that take the form of investment cycles. These quasi-periodic movements can be represented as low order, stochastic, dynamic processes with complex eigenvalues. Specifi...

The paper describes the evolution of focused demand chains over an extended period of time as a major UK lighting manufacturer has sought to remain an international player in a fast changing business environment. Analysis and design procedures make use of the concepts of Wickham Skinner and Marshall Fisher to answer the strategic questions “what facilities are required and how should they be la...

We use a randomized controlled trial to demonstrate that inexperienced female microenterprise owners in a Kenyan slum benefit from mentorship by an experienced entrepreneur in the same community. Using seven rounds of surveys, we find that mentorship increased profits by 20% relative to control. We conduct a formal business education intervention, which has no effect on profits despite changes ...

background: development of an effective vaccine is highly needed in order to restrict the aids pandemic. dna vaccines initiate both arms of immunity without the potential of causing disease. hiv-1 p24 and gp41 (gag and env) proteins play important roles in viral pathogenesis and are effective candidates for immune induction and vaccine design. objective: in this study, new dna vaccine candidate...

â â â  â  â  abstract â  this paper aims to identify key challenges facing iran and south korea in their bilateral trade and investment relations. in particular, it is concerned with the policy implications which can be useful for policy makers and business people of both countries. for this purpose, we review and analyze the recent developments of the iranian economy and bilateral trade and in...

This paper studies the relationship between export activities and firm-level productivity. Unique matching of German and Austrian micro data from 1994 to 2003 suggests that exporters are more productive by around 40 percent compared with non-exporters. Moreover, beside other analysis techniques, instrumental variable estimations suggest that exporting causes a rise in firm-level productivity. T...

This paper reviews trends in capital flows in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2003 and mid-2008 and its implications for monetary policy and financial stability. The financing structure that emerged during this period was more benign than in the past, due to a greater share of foreign direct investment and reduced reliance on foreign financing. Although traditional monetary policy trade...

This paper reports a preliminary laboratory experiment in which traders make investments to increase the reliability of tradable instruments that represent greenhouse gas emissions allowances. In one half of the sessions these investments are unobservable, while in the other half traders can invite costless and accurate inspections that make reliability investments public. We implement a buyer ...

Frustration of purpose remains one of the most ill-defined concepts in the English law of contracts. The same problem has recently attracted also the attention of the French legislature in its modernization of the Code Civil. The French reform entitles courts with broad powers to adjust the contract when unforeseen contingencies have made the bargain unduly costly. This article argues that the ...

This paper studies the relationship between export activities and firm-level productivity. Unique matching of German and Austrian micro data from 1994 to 2003 suggests that exporters are more productive by around 40 percent compared with non-exporters. Moreover, beside other analysis techniques, instrumental variable estimations suggest that exporting causes a rise in firm-level productivity. T...