In this paper we study how the use of resources in the public sector affects industrial structure, the size and the productivity in knowledge-intensive clusters in local communities. We also discuss how these considerations should be implemented in costbenefit assessments of local public goods...

This paper studies the effect of credit constraints on the expansion and survival of firms in foreign markets. It develops a model in which, lower access to external finance, or reduced internal liquidity, hampers the firm ability to finance the recurrent costs to serve foreign markets and...

China has significantly expanded its dairy cow numbers and increased its dairy processing capacity over the last five year in an attempt to meet increased demand for dairy products. China’s net imports of dairy products, however, has expanded at a growth rate in excess of 30% during the same...

We measure cost efficiency of 202 Czech municipalities of extended scope in period 2003-2008. The study is the first application of overall efficiency measurement of the local governments in the new EU member states, and the second in post-communist countries. We measure government efficiency...

To date, empirical investigations of trade liberalization under the conditions of increasing returns to scale (IRS) and imperfect competition (IC) have either assumed or imposed the market and productive structures necessary for such a model. However, of the recent IRS/IC models used to simulate...

Short-term increasing returns to production factors are usually found in empirical studies. We argue they can be due to omitted variables, particularly the intensity of factor utilisation. Thanks to original French firm-level data (1992-2008), we show how increasing returns to scale disappear...

Consider a stochastic frontier model with one-sided inefficiency u, and suppose that the scale of u depends on some variables (firm characteristics) z. A one-step model specifies both the stochastic frontier and the way in which u depends on z, and can be estimated in a single step, for example...

Top-down models usually include piecewise-smooth functions to describe marginal cost curves, while bottom-up models describe those curves with a step function. When a bottom-up cost curve is available, we can explicitly represent this curve with a top-down model in order to replicate its shape...

Labour costs, tax burden and competitiveness in Austria compared with selected CEEs Summary The study analyses in an international comparison the key characteristics and recent developments of labour costs, taxation and productivity in Austria and selected CEEs (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech...