This work is focused on identifying a circular pull production control system (PPCS) and make emphasis on the presence of a stability attribute. It is an introductory paper to an extended study of macroeconomic financial stability in a physically open but systemic closed system. Previous work...

In developing countries, microfinance has been the darling of the development community, and in developed countries, microfinance fits well with Third Ways ideas. What are the challenges and opportunities for the attempt to replicate microfinance in the United States? This paper attempts to...

We evaluate the impact of bank loans and start-up subsidies on the survival of the new firms. This work relies on the SINE94 survey that provides rich information on the entrepreneurs and their start-up projects. We use the propensity score matching methodology, in the case of multiple...

Amid the dynamics of the labour market in the 1990's, two growth areas stand out: self-employment (when analyzed by class of worker) and knowledge industries (when analyzed by sector). In this paper, we combine these two perspectives to explore self-employment in the Professional, Scientific and...

The economic cost of the U.S. health care system goes beyond the cost of prescription drugs, doctor office visits and surgical procedures/ medical image tests. The implicit part of the cost includes the global competitiveness that the U.S. loses being an industrialized economy. The high health...

In this paper, I examine the impact of employer-provided health benefits on job turnover. Because many employer-provided plans extend coverage to a worker's entire family, the value of an employer's employment offer to a worker depends on whether the worker's spouse provides the family with...

Although linearly interpolated series are often used in economics, little has been done to examine the effects of interpolation on time series properties and on statistical inference. We show that linear interpolation of a trend tationary series superimposes a ‘periodic’ structure on the...

The consequences of international migration for development in countries of origin and destination remain hotly debated. The immigration flows could be considered an appropriate mechanism to contribute to the de- velopment of origin countries if origin countries recognize the qualifications of...

Correct assessment of the risks associated with likely economic outcomes is vital for effective decision making. The objective of investment in the stock market is to obtain positive market returns. The risk, however, is the danger of suffering large negative market returns. A variety of...

In a presentation to the American Economics Association, McCloskey (1998) argued that "statistical significance is bankrupt" and that economists' time would be "better spent on finding out How Big Is Big". This brief survey is devoted to methods of determining "How Big Is Big". It is concerned...