Abstract. Using a behavioral approach, this study identifies and delineates components of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process. Three hypotheses are developed and tested. They center around the lack of knowledge in the areas of foreign business, foreign institutions and firm internationalization, as well as the effect that this lack of knowledge has on managers ' perceived cost in the internationalization process. With the help of a LISREL-based structural model, the three hypotheses are tested on a sample of 362 service firms. The analysis shows that lack of internationalization knowledge has a strong impact on the lack of both business and institutional knowledge which, in turn, influence the perceived cost of internationalization. But there is no direct effect of lack of internationalization knowledge on perceived cost of internationalization.

Abstract: This article presents a new fuzzy multiple criteria decision making model for the evaluation of airline competitiveness over a period. The evaluation problem is formulated as a fuzzy multiple criteria decision making problem and solved by our strength-weakness based approach. For finding out the strength and weakness of an airline over another airline, we present a preference function based on the extended fuzzy preference relation. The strength and weakness matrices are then calculated based on the preference function. We propose a method to aggregate the weights of criteria, strength matrix and weakness matrix into the strength indices and the weakness indices of airlines, by which each airline can identify its own strength and weakness. The strength and weakness indices can be further integrated into an overall performance indices, by which airlines can identify their competitiveness ranking. Key Words: fuzzy multiple criteria decision making, airline competitiveness Airline competitiveness can be measure by a range of efficiency and effectiveness performance measures across a number of distinct dimensions that can reflect the capabilities and offerings of airlines in serving their customers. The performance evaluation of airlines can

Abstract: The boll weevil is America’s most celebrated agricultural pest. We assemble new county-level panel data on the insect’s geographic spread and on farm activity to investigate the weevil’s effects on the southern economy between 1892 and 1932. Our study provides sharp estimates of the full time path of the pest’s local impacts. We find that instead of diversifying away from cotton in anticipation of the weevil’s appearance, farmers attempted to squeeze one last large crop out of their land just prior to contact. Upon arrival, the weevil had a large negative impact on production which required up to five years to be fully manifest and which did not disappear within our study period. Cotton yields fell substantially; acreage declined by less. In response, farmers did not take land out of agricultural use instead shifting to other crops. We also find striking effects on land values and population movements, indicating the pest’s spread redistributed economic activity within the South. 1

This paper extends the analysis of natural monopoly by considering the effects of multilateral rivalry and other-party costs that are not reflected in market transactions. A monopoly firm should be considered a natural monopoly if and only if its production economies dominate those offered by alternative market structures. The monopoly’s production economies are dominant if breaking up the monopoly increases overall production costs for the economy. The natural monopoly must have strict and global cost subadditivity as shown by William J. Baumol (1977), but this is not a sufficient condition. Also, the natural monopoly may not represent the lowest-cost means of producing its products if breaking up the monopoly increases production costs for products that the monopoly does not produce. The other-party costs (such as regulatory costs) or cost savings (such as one-stop shopping) that are not reflected market transactions should be subtracted from or added to the monopoly’s economies of joint production when examining the efficiency of the monopoly market structure.

Australia has had unfortunate experience in industrial cluster development, and despite widespread government action remains below OECD averages in terms of cluster contribution to economic wealth. We use Porter’s cluster theory to examine the contrary case: the highly successful Tasmanian Light Ships Cluster, to determine the roles of government, chance and local culture in cluster success. We conclude that cluster development is a dynamic process. Governments should only provide infrastructure support and only this for new ideas that fall within the scope of local knowledge, and existing chance related entrepreneurial activity.

specifically designed for high-school leavers entering technikon and university in South Africa. The ‘true–false–don’t know ’ scientific literacy test-items are based on a pool of 472 items developed previously from selected literacy goals recommended by the AAAS in Science for all Americans. Test-items were pilot-tested on 625 technikon and university students and were included in the 110-item TBSL on the basis of item discrimination, item difficulty and student feedback. The TBSL consists of three subtests based on Jon Miller’s three constitutive

Institution building and variation in the formation

The world sugar market has long been characterized by volatile prices and widespread intervention. Controls on domestic prices, demand, and supply have created an inefficient pattern of world production, consumption, and trade. Without government controls, production would shift from the coun-tries with higher-cost, subsidized production (especially the European Commu-nity, Japan, and the United States) to the countries with lower costs (such as Australia, Brazil, and Thailand). The resources saved could then be directed to other activities. Sugar policies in countries with high costs reduce world sugar prices quite substantially in the long run and increase price variability significantly; produc-tion controls in countries with low costs increase world prices somewhat and also increase their variability. What would happen if all interventions ceased? Average world sugar prices would probably—but not definitely—rise. World prices would definitely vary less, and economic conditions would definitely improve, especially in developing countries that depend heavily on sugar exports. But the prospects for substantial reform of the sugar market are not promising, even though the GAIT Uruguay Round continues. This article puts forward some modest proposals for changing the existing interventions to lessen economic distortions and reduce costs. Volatility in world agricultural commodity markets compels farmers todemand political action to remedy the problems caused by priceinstability. Consumers and taxpayers may also respond politically to unstable prices, although their incentives differ from those of farmers and may

Union density and industry output, dynamic and long run responses: the case of the Australian building and construction industry

Government rail asset sales, and return to the public sector, in New