Marcelo Resende

Quality certification and performance of Brazilian firms: An empirical study

Abstract The paper studies the relationship between quality certification, as indicated by the ISO 9001 and 9002 certificates, and the performance of Brazilian firms since 1992. The comparison between the group of certified firms and an especially constructed control group indicated that, as a rule, one cannot discern differential levels of performance across the two groups for different indicators.

Relative efficiency measurement and prospects for yardstick competition in Brazilian electricity distribution

Abstract The paper considers the non-parametric methodology of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the context of efficiency measurement for Brazilian electricity distribution in 1997/98, indicating the existence of firms operating substantially below the efficiency frontier. The potential and difficulties associated with the implementation of yardstick competition schemes are then discussed, stressing in particular the role of relative efficiency scores obtained from the DEA approach.

Productivity growth and regulation in U.S. local telephony

Abstract The paper assesses the impact of alternative forms of regulation (price caps and incentive regulation) that are gradually substituting traditional rate-of-return regulation. A total factor productivity (TFP) growth decomposition exercise is undertaken for the period 1989–1994. A flexible translog cost function provides evidence of a non-homothetic cost function with slight diseconomies of scale and indicates labor saving technical change, corroborating previous stylized facts of the industry. The cost function estimation provided the necessary adjustment factors for the TFP growth decomposition. The evidence does not indicate differential efficiency levels accruing from alternative forms of regulation.

Mergers and acquisitions waves in the UK: a Markov-switching approach

This article further investigated wave behaviours for mergers and acquisitions – M&A in the UK during the 1969Q1/2004Q1 period by means of Markov-Switching models. Previous analysis had focussed on traditional models that incorporate the potentially limiting assumption of constant transition probabilities across regimes. The consideration of more general models with time-varying transition probabilities across regimes along the lines of Diebold et al. (1994) provide a useful route for assessing to what extent M&A waves are driven by economic variables usually considered in the related literature. The empirical implementation considered lagged conditioning variables referring to real output growth, real growth in money supply and real stock market returns. The evidence indicated that one should reject the constant transition probability model in favour of the time-varying transition probability model and therefore the usual aggregate variables considered in the empirical literature on M&A indeed appear to play some role in determining the wave behaviour of M&A in the UK, though the effects are asymmetric across the different regimes.

Structure, conduct and performance: a simultaneous equations investigation for the Brazilian manufacturing industry

The article investigated structure–conduct–performance (SCP) relationships in the context of the Brazilian manufacturing industry in 1996. For that purpose, it considered a system with four equations pertaining concentration, advertising, R&D and profitability that was estimated with simultaneous equation models. In addition to the usual explanatory variables proxying barriers to entry and demand conditions, the article considered organizational practices and incentive schemes variables. The evidence indicated an important role for variables related to barriers to entry in affecting market structure, an important and nonlinear effect of concentration on advertising, a relevant impact of firm-size on the propensity to exert R&D effort and finally a significant positive impact of concentration on profitability, and were similar to the previous evidence for developed countries. Additionally, no important roles were detected for organizational practices and incentive schemes on the SCP relationships.

Price-cap regulation and service-quality in telecommunications: an empirical study ☆

Abstract The paper investigates the service-quality performance of distinct regulatory regimes in US local telephony for the period 1996–1998. It concentrates, in particular, in the assessment of quality performance under price-cap regulation (PCR) taking as reference a variety of quality indicators available from the Federal Communications Commission. The paper identifies quality efficiency frontiers for the firms under the different regulatory regimes by using Data Envelopment Analysis subsidized by a prior application of Principal Components Analysis. The efficiency scores thus obtained serve as basis for a nonparametric statistical test on the frontier uniqueness across regimes. The evidence provides some support to conjectures of inferior quality performance under PCR.

Privatization and efficiency in Brazilian telecommunications: an empirical study

This article evaluates the technical efficiency in Brazilian telecommunications after privatization by comparing the relative efficiency scores for July 1998 and December 1999, obtained by means of Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. The main result indicated that no differential levels of efficiency could be detected across the two periods. Moreover there was evidence of a decreasing returns to scale pattern in 1999.

Profit margins and business cycles in the Brazilian industry: a panel data study

The paper investigates the relationship between profit margins and business cycle in the Brazilian industry during the 1992–1998 period, taking as reference a dynamic panel data model founded around a conjectural variation framework. The empirical results indicate procyclical behaviour of profit margins for the aggregate business cycle but is less clear in the case of sector-specific business cycle variables. Among the most robust results, one can highlight the roles of lagged profitability and import intensity and the negligible role of union density. Schmalensee in 1985 (American Economic Review 75, pp. 341–51) outlined three theoretical interpretations associated with the empirical model (classical, revisionist and managerial). Econometric tests on the related restrictions do not allow one to exclusively legitimate any of the three interpretations.

Skill enhancement efforts and firm performance in the Brazilian chemical industry: An exploratory canonical correlation analysis--research note

Abstract The paper aims at investigating the relationship between a group of variables portraying skill enhancement efforts and a second group of performance related variables. The results show the existence of a positive relationship between R&D and training intensities and the performance of previously ISO-certified firms, whereas that for the initially non-certified firms such result does not hold.

Permanent structural changes in the Brazilian economy and long memory: a stock market perspective

The paper assesses long memory patterns in the Brazilian stock market index (Ibovespa) for sub-periods before and after the Real Stabilization Plan. Evidence favours the existence of short memory for both periods despite the so-called reforms the Brazilian economy went through in the 1990s and, in particular, after the Real Plan.