Intra-family succession is the transfer of management, leadership and/or control of the business from one family member to another, and has been a core topic in family business research (Debicki, Matherne, Kellermanns, and Chrisman, 2009). Family firm researchers have suggested that family firms have a strong desire toward economic and non-economic goals (Kotlar and De Massis, 2013). However, how these goals fit into the strategic management decision of intra-family succession has not been explored by researchers (Chrisman, Kellermanns, Chan, and Liano, 2010). The purpose of this study is to identify and explain the importance of the goals that small private family firms expect to achieve through intra-family succession that cannot be achieved through non-family succession as “success in strategic management, including the management of intra-family succession, must be measured in terms of goal achievement” (De Massis, Sharma, Chua, and Chrisman, 2012, p. 30). To examine why intra-family succession goals (IFSGs) are important, this study relies on the psychological personality constructs of generativity (concern for guiding and establishing the next generation) and narcissism (an individual’s self-assurance, self-esteem and satisfaction with oneself). The respondents of this study are those family members who make up the dominant coalition (founders, incumbents, and potential successors) of the family firm. Only those firms where the family has the ability to influence firm behavior, and the intention (willingness) for intra-family succession, are included in this study. Qualitative data was collected to identify IFSGs, and these IFSGs are used in the development of the structured questionnaire. Fourteen IFSGs were identified from the qualitative phase of the study. The data collected from the structured questionnaire was subject to various statistical methods. The results suggest that the dominant coalition of small private family firms considered each IFSG as important, and that generativity and narcissism partially explain why these goals are important. The findings suggest that gender and the individual’s role within the dominant coalition influence the hypothesized relationship between IFSGs and generativity, and the IFSG of legacy and narcissism. This research provides several analytical, methodological and theoretical contributions and paves the way for further theoretical and empirical enquiry into intra-family succession of small private family firms.

For more than two decades, monetary policy of countries around the world has undergone significant transformation. The long-term stabilization and lowering of inflation is the primary target of central banks founded on the principles of transparency and credibility. The achievement of inflation targeting and control is ultimately judged by the public’s expectations about future inflation. This objective has focused central bank policy making on modern monetary principles and the adoption of one of its core principles, the monetary policy rule. The central bank of the United Kingdom officially adopted an explicit inflating targeting monetary policy in October 1992 following its operational independence in May 1997. In this study, we attempt to investigate the behaviour of the Central Bank of England under an inflation targeting framework. In other words, whether Taylor-type policy rules can be used to describe the behaviour of the Central Bank of England. We specifically attempt to shed light on the question does Taylor's rule (Taylor, 1993) adequately describes central bank behaviour? And whether the existence of formal targets has induced nonlinearity in this behaviour, beginning in October 1992 until December 2014. The study uses time series estimations of Taylor-type reactions functions to characterise monetary policy conduct in the UK, we use time series data, because all the other studies in this area are using the time series method and recommended it, Osterholm (2005), Nelson (2000), Adam et al (2003), Clarida et al (2000) amongst others. In addition, this study uses a long database which is useful for time series analysis. The analysis uses a modified cointegration and error correction model that is robust to the stationary properties of the data as well as vector autoregression techniques; therefore, our methodology in this study employed three types of econometric tests namely: unit root tests, cointegration tests and error correction models. We used monthly data for the UK over the period October 1992 to December 2014, and we estimate Taylor-type policy rules for the UK in order to find answers to these questions. Our results indicate that the Central Bank of England has not been following the Taylor rule. In other words, the regression results clearly indicated that the Central Bank of England did not follow the Taylor rule in the period 1992-2014. This is because all coefficients of inflation gap and the output gap were statistically insignificant. In addition, we conclude these results link with the New Consensus Macroeconomics, criticism of inflation targeting and endogenous money theory. The main contribution in this study is an up-to-date analysis, and evidence that Bank of England policy does not work with Taylor rules. In addition, on the methodological level most previous studies reviewed in the literature have measured the interest rate, inflation and the output gap using one dependent variable, to measure the behaviour of the Central Bank of England, to assess whether the Taylor rule is effective or not. However, this study fills this gap by using two measure for interest rate, three measure for inflation and two variables to measure the output gap, using The Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter and moving averages, to assess whether the Taylor rule is effective or not effective by using more than one dependent variable.

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This Thesis contains four original essays that have been devoted to the study of different elements of the hypothesis of endogeneity of the natural rate of growth. The theoretical framework of the Thesis is presented in Chapter 1. In it, we explore various elements that are of utmost importance in order to understand the hypothesis of endogeneity and that have been generally overlooked by the literature. The four empirical essays presented in Chapters 2 to 5 explore different aspects of the endogeneity of the natural rate of growth in a sample of thirteen Latin American countries during the period 1981-2011. The first two empirical essays test the hypothesis of endogeneity using new specifications and various econometric techniques. The results indicate that the natural rate of growth is endogenous to the actual rate of growth, so that the long-run economic growth rate presents sensitivity both in the upward and downward directions in the majority of countries of study. We also find evidence that suggests that expansions are more important than recessions in the sample of Latin American countries. Chapter 4 tries to: 1) estimate a time-varying natural rate of growth; and 2) measure the sensitivity of the latter with respect to its individual components: the rate of growth of labour productivity and the rate of growth of labour force. The results show that the natural rate of growth is more sensitive to labour force growth in the sample of Latin American countries. Finally, the fifth essay studies the interactions between the individual components of the natural rate of growth and the individual components of the rate of growth of aggregate demand. The empirical results show that the rate of growth of labour productivity is more sensitive to the different components of the rate of growth of aggregate demand. However, we find mixed evidence regarding which component of the rate of growth of aggregate demand is more relevant, so that it is not possible to derive a single conclusion that encompasses all the Latin American countries of study. All in all, the present research finds both theoretical elements and empirical evidence that support the hypothesis of endogeneity of the natural rate of growth in Latin America during the period 1981-2011.

Using the business cycle accounting (BCA) framework pioneered by Chari, Kehoe and McGratten (2007, Econometrica) we examine the causes of the 2008-09 recession in the UK. There has been much commentary on the finnancial causes of this recession, which we might expect to bring about variation in the intertemporal rate of substitution in consumption. However, the recession appears to have been mostly driven by shocks to the efficiency wedge in total production, rather than the intertemporal (asset price) consumption, labour or spending wedge. From an expenditure perspective this result is consistent with the observed large falls in both consumption and investment during the recession. To assess this result we also simulate artifcial data from a DSGE model in which asset price shocks dominate and and no strong role for the intertemporal consumption wedge using the BCA method. This result does not imply that .nancial frictions did not matter for the recent recession but that such frictions do not necessarily impact only on the intertemporal rate of substitution in consumption. We investigate the ability of three standard nowcasting methodologies, bridge equations, unrestricted Mixed Data Sampling regressions and mixed frequency VARs, to nowcast the UK GDP. All three methodologies may have advantages over the other, bridge equations are the simplest to construct and are the most transparent. The direct forecasting approach of MIDAS may reduce errors in the face of model misspecification while remaining relatively simple to estimate and forecast with. The mixed frequency VAR allows for dynamics between the variables which may help to reduce the forecast error. We evaluate these methods using a final dataset which mimics the data availability at each period in time for 5 monthly indicators. We find that the VAR on average across all forecast horizons is the most consistent, while MIDAS has the best predictive power at the 1 step ahead horizon. The bridge equations do not appear useful until the final month of the quarter. Throughout the evaluation period the predictive accuracy of the methods varies, the MFVAR performs best during the 'Great Recession' period while MIDAS is better during normal growth periods. In this paper, we apply the factor-augmented VAR of Bernanke, Boivin and Eliasz (2005) in the context of mixed frequencies for a US and a UK dataset. For the US we further extend the model to allow for regime switching dynamics, we compare the short-term predictive ability of the two models against the standard Mixed Frequency VAR of Murasawa and Mariano (2004, 2010). We find that in general, the MFVAR with factors performs slightly worse than the standard MFVAR for the US dataset, marginally so for forecast horizons greater than one and significantly worse at the single period ahead forecast. This result was broadly consistent for the UK dataset, except at the FAMFVAR performed slightly better at the single period ahead horizon. The Markov switching extension was the worst performing of all of the models. Studying the filtered probabilities for the recessionary regime indicated that only the deeper of the recessions were captured. Further work on dealing with the label switching problem may be required for better performance for the Bayesian treatment of MFVARs with regime switches.

This paper presents an empirical analysis about the position new economic geography plays in economics. In a theoretical review we discuss recent developments in economics, like new trade theory, endogenous growth theory, and new economic geography and analyze their implications for spatial structure. The paper presents the basic components of these theories and points out their commonalties. This shows that all these theories are based on assumptions that lead to spatial structure, i.e. differences in the spatial allocation of economic activities. In the empirical investigation we use the Social Science Citation Index to analyze citations of seminal contributions in various types of journals and the rate with which geographical content appears in economic journals. As we show, spatial topics still play only a marginal role in economics. Economists it seems are still reluctant to accept the spatial implications of their own theoretical models. / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

This study evaluates the effectiveness of fiscal (and monetary) policies on a set of macroeconomic objectives, giving explicit consideration to the alternative modes by which the budget deficits (or surpluses) are financed. The extent to which quantitative reductions in the share of the public sector is compatible with these objectives is also examined. The evaluation of optimal macroeconomic policies is undertaken in the context of the Greek economy, since the financial aspects of the budget have not received the necessary attention. The method of analysis is carried out within an optimization framework which employes an econometric model of the Greek economy estimated over the period 1957-75, and a quadratic objective function depicting the desires of the policy-makers. The specific characteristics of the Greek economy necessary for the construction of the econometric model and the specification of the objective function are discussed in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with the theoretical considerations of the macroeconomic model and presents the optimization approach persued in the study. Chapter 4 presents the econometric model and discusses its dynamic characteristics and structure. The specification of the objective function and the optimization results are discussed in Chapter 5. The major findings of the study are summarized in Chapter 6.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1980. / Also available in print.

The thesis examines the political influences that have shaped what is ostensibly a functional programme for the international development of the Senegal River by the three participating states of Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. Construction of the two major first phase projects began in late 1981 - a $186 million salt barrier dam in the delta and a $680 million hydro-electric storage d^m upstream in Mali. The thesis finds that the functional rationale for making use of the valuable international resource is undermined by the political concessions, compromises, and accommodations the basin states and the donors who finance the projects need to make to sustain international cooperation.

Zugl.: Göttingen, Universiẗat, Habil.-Schr., 2005 u.d.T.: Faust, Heiko: Perspektiven einer integrativen Kulturgeographie. / Zsfassung in engl. Sprache.