Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessing Efficiency In The Pharmaceutical Sector Of Nigeria, Efayena O. Obukohwo, Enoh H. Olele, Patricia N. Buzugbe

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The study analyses, empirically, the efficiency of the Pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria. Employing a balanced panel of 20 pharmaceutical firms between 2012 and 2016, the paper uses a non-parametric technique (Data Envelopment Analysis) to analyze the firms’ efficiency under the constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS) assumptions. The results obtained shows inefficiency in the pharmaceutical sector as it operates under a decreasing return to scale. This calls for an appropriate policy mix to stimulate the efficiency of the pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria by enhancing research and development (R&D) as ell as regulations within the sector.

Female Vs. Male Top Manager Of Private Firms In Developing Countries: Implications For Country And Firm Characteristics, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Gender disparity in various economic dimensions has prompted policy measures aimed at providing greater employment opportunities for women. However, greater employment may not solve the problem much if this is concentrated in low paying and vulnerable jobs such as jobs in informal sector. Hence, it becomes important to understand how women vs. men compare in high paying formal sector jobs such as top managers of private firms. Using data on private firms in 86 developing countries, this paper analyzes how firms with female vs. male managers differ in their structure and performance. Relationship between various country characteristics and the proportion …

Use Of Foreign Intermediate Inputs In Developing Countries: Determinants And Effects (Short Note), Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam, Po Yin Wong

Mohammad Amin

Theory suggests a number of channels through which use of foreign inputs could contribute to overall economic development and firm performance. However, empirical work on the use of foreign inputs, its determinants and effects is lacking. Using firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys on developing countries, this note highlights the extent to which firms rely on foreign inputs, how the reliance varies with country and firm characteristics and the impact of foreign inputs on firm productivity. Results show that the use of foreign inputs is common among private firms and especially so among the relatively large firms and firms in countries …

The Firm As Cartel Manager, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Christopher R. Leslie

All Faculty Scholarship

Antitrust law is the primary legal obstacle to price fixing, which is condemned by Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Firms that engage in price fixing may try to reduce their probability of antitrust liability in a number of ways. First, members of a price-fixing conspiracy go to great lengths to conceal their illegal activities from antitrust enforcers. Second, because Section 1 condemns only concerted action, firms may structure their relationship to appear to be the action of a single entity that is beyond the reach of Section One.

In its American Needle decision the Supreme Court held that the …

Economic Transition, Higher Education And Worker Productivity In China, Belton Fleisher, Yifan Yu, Haizheng Li, Seonghoon Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate the role of education on worker productivity and firms' total factor productivity using a panel of firm-level data from China. We estimate the returns to education by calculating the marginal productivity of workers of different education levels based on estimates of the firm-level production function. We also estimate how the education level of workers and CEO contributes to firms' total factor productivity. Estimated marginal products are much higher than wages, and the gap is larger for highly educated workers. Our estimate shows that an additional year of schooling raises marginal product by 30.1%, and that CEO's education increases …

American Needle And The Boundaries Of The Firm In Antitrust Law, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

In American Needle the Supreme Court unanimously held that for the practice at issue the NFL should be treated as a “combination” of its teams rather than a single entity. However, the arrangement must be assessed under the rule of reason. The opinion, written by Justice Stevens, was almost certainly his last opinion for the Court in an antitrust case; Justice Stevens had been a dissenter in the Supreme Court’s Copperweld decision 25 years earlier, which held that a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary constituted a single “firm” for antitrust purposes. The Sherman Act speaks to this issue …

American Needle: The Sherman Act, Conspiracy, And Exclusion, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay, part of a colloquium in the CPI Antitrust Journal, explores the meaning and significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in American Needle v. NFL. The Supreme Court held that for purposes of the dispute at hand the NFL should be treated as a collaboration of its member teams rather than a single entity. The factors that the Supreme Court considered most important were, first, that the NFL’s member teams are individually owned profit making entities who compete with each other in at least some economic markets, such as that for the sale of apparel bearing NFL symbols. …

Crime Against Informal Businesses In Africa: Natives Vs. Immigrants, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

The literature on crime seeks to identify groups of agents based on their socio-economic-demographic characteristics that are more likely to be victims of crime than others. The present paper contributes to this literature by focusing on crime against informal businesses in Africa and highlighting how victimization rates vary between businesses owned by natives and immigrants. We find that immigrant-owned businesses are significantly more likely to be targeted by criminals than native-owned businesses. However, much of this difference is due to higher victimization rates for businesses owned by recent immigrants to the city. Businesses owned by immigrants that have spent about …

Do Profit Maximisers Take Cold Showers? Another Look At Protection And Technical Efficiency, Neil Campbell, Jeffrey Kline

Neil Campbell

In this paper we consider whether a 'cold shower' is possible if the firm we are analysing is a conventional neoclassical profit-maximising firm facing competitively determined prices. In the context of this analysis, the term 'cold shower' refers to a situation where the removal of a protective subsidy induces investment in a cost-reducing technology. First we show that if the investment lowers marginal cost everywhere, then our firm will never respond to the removal of the subsidy by making the investment. We then use this result to carefully construct examples where the investment does not lower marginal cost everywhere. These …

Cultural Variation In The Theory Of The Firm, Donald W. Katzner

Economics Department Working Paper Series

This paper presents a model of the firm that includes the possibility of firm and employee-on-the-job decision making based on alternatives to profit and utility maximization. Such alternatives are relevant and significant when explaining firm activity in cultural environments in which self interest is not considered to be a primary force driving human behavior. Three types of firms are defined and their properties compared: the Western firm, the Japanese firm, and the clan. The third is a combination of the first two.