Firm level data from financial statements for nearly 8,000 listed companies in 22 emerging and 22 developed countries over the period 1994-00 are examined. Capital structure, asset structure, rates of return and financing patterns are compared across countries and over time. Generally, there are...

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive...

This paper provides a rigorous analysis of the impact of training upon the employment growth characteristics of small and medium sized firms. Using appropriate statistical techniques to cope with sample selection biases and heterogenerous employment growth patterns it reveals that training is...

This paper examines the role of competition policy in emerging markets from a developmental and international perspective. Its main conclusion include: contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence suggests that the intensity of competition in leading emerging markets is certainly no less than that...

There is growing evidence of the importance of co-operation between managers and workers for improving industrial performance. One manifestation of this is the growing use of human resource management (HRM) strategies to increase the involvement of employees. The survey of small and medium sized...

Notwithstanding their remarkable recent growth, surprisingly little research has hitherto been conducted on the evolving geography of professional and business services in Britain. This paper analyses the results of a detailed survey of 300 small and medium-sized management and engineering...

The paper introduces the three articles in this Policy Feature, concerned respectively with competition, corporate governance and selection in emerging markets. Apart from being important in their own right, it is shown how these topics have recently acquired urgent domestic and international...

This paper critically examines the trade and technology theories which dominate the large and growing literature on the determinants of changes in income inequality in advanced industrial countries during the 1980s and 1990s. Both theories, despite their rather different approaches to the...

The paper examines the economic rationale for "public-private partnerships" to promote technological progress and growth in the new "knowledge-driven" economy. Three main arguments are advanced: First, the present policy agenda is caught up in a mismatch between micro-economic science and...

This empirical paper investigates the impact of different sources of increasing returns on firm innovative behaviour in different regions of the uk. Of the different sources of increasing returns, the impact of intermediation and the emergence of specialised markets on the probability of...