Academics in manufacturing companies: Empirical analysis of publication activity and export quality

This paper shows, for the first time in empirical literature, that the presence of employees from academia in the firm, regardless of their participation in the firm’s research activities, reflects the skills of the firm to learn and acquire new knowledge or, put differently, its absorptive capacity. It is assumed that the higher absorptive capacity act as a mechanism that determines the impact of scientists on the productivity of the firm. The hypothesis that there is an inter-firm diffusion of knowledge in the commodity space is also being tested: firms with similar commodity structures are more likely to hire scientists. Hypotheses are tested on the example of a sample of small and medium-sized Russian firms-exporters, for which absorptive capacity is particularly important.

A Commodity Space

This chapter describes a concept of value that will be used to formulate a model in which the decisions of agents are reconciled in a competitive equilibrium. It describes a commodity space in which quantities and prices both will reside. The stochastic Lagrange multipliers of Chapter 4 are closely related to equilibrium prices and live in the same mathematical space. The planning problem studied in Chapter 4 produces an outcome in which the process for consumption {ct} is an n-dimensional stochastic process that belongs to L2 0. The chapter presents a heuristic justification for the representation of the value of {ct}. It proceeds by reviewing several examples of commodity spaces and valuation functions.

Calculation Method of Spatial Value Added for Commodity to Transport

To make commodity play its spatial function and achieve the optimal allocation of resources effectively, it analyzes the influence factors of co spatial value added for commodity to transport. It begins with the relationship between different region's disposable income, economic level and commodity prices to search for computation spatial value added for commodity to transport. Then it analyzes calculation method of spatial value added for commodity to transport and establishing the space added value-price model to reflect commodity space added value. Last it raises commodity space value-added effective method. It gives full use of goods value and promotes commodity reasonable space layout.

Production with Decreasing Returns

This chapter is devoted to the theory of the firm. Production consists in the transformation of goods known as inputs into other goods, the outputs. The firm is the center of productive activity. Its activity is represented by a vector in the commodity space. The chapter starts with the definition of the firm's production set, which consists of the activities that are technologically feasible for the firm. It then examines the maximization of the firm's profit subject to the feasibility constraint. The properties of the solution of this maximization problem depend on the structure of the production set. For efficient boundaries of strictly convex sets, the problem of profit maximization has a unique solution. This solution is a function of the price vector and defines the firm's net supply function. Next, the chapter takes the firm's net supply function as a primitive concept and introduces a set of properties that are to be satisfied by these net supply functions.

Developing Policy Relevant Agrifood Models

The opportunities and challenges of incorporating accurate policy representations into institutional partial equilibrium commodity models were investigated. Six issues are raised: commodity space definition, vertical linkages, assessing market power, the changing nature of government support, trade policy, and data requirements. The importance of product attributes and different approaches to modeling product differentiation are considered. A case study of food safety is used to bring together the major issues. Although institutional commodity models still have a role to play, we advocate the use of smaller idiosyncratic models to address many of the relevant policy questions in a rapidly changing sector.