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The author examines the argument elaborated by Pigou in his Employment and Equilibrium. A Theoretical Discussion which was the first comprehensive answer Pigou gave to the analysis put forward by Keynes in his General Theory. The chapter consists of seven sections. In the first, the motivation of the chapter is outlined. In the second, third, and fourth sections, the author will concentrate on how Pigou elucidates the conditions necessary for an economic system to attain a short period flow equilibrium. In this context, the author elaborates an “open” macro model which can be “closed” in two different ways. The chapter will also present a diagrammatic analysis of Pigou’s theory in the two cases elucidating the structure and the working of the model. Differences with the author’s previous book (TU) related to (real/monetary) wage inflexibility and the importance of monetary factors are also described and discussed. Pigou however does not limit himself to deal with the short period but engages in an interesting discussion of the long period centered on the notion of stationary state that is the object of section five. In this way, he admits that Keynes’s theory is not limited, to the short run. In arguing along these lines, he comes close to describe what will be recognized later as the Pigou effect. A short comparison with the renewed stagnationist theory is sketched. The sixth section includes a brief discussion of the comparative statics and dynamic analyzes elaborated by Pigou. A final section including a few conclusions completes the chapter.

The chapter examines the core framework of A. C. Pigou’s Theory of Unemployment (TU) with the aim of providing a rational reconstruction of his analysis of the determinants of unemployment in the short period. This is accomplished without any comparison with Keynes’s criticism of TU, as often found in the previous literature.

I reconstruct Pigou’s two-sector model, which only accounted for output in the wage good sector but not in the non-wage good sector, as a complete two-sector model to reveal his implicit assumptions about the passive behaviour of non-wage earners in the non-wage good sector. I also find classical elements, most notably the wage fund doctrine and the hypothesis on profits, in Pigou’s approach, which partly explains why the model is incomplete when viewed in terms of its neoclassical elements. In the “A Rational Reconstruction of the Two-Sector Model” section, I sketch a mathematical model to make Pigou’s analysis consistent.

The chapter shows how unemployment is determined and how economic policy to deal with it is conceived in the work of a major exponent of the pre-Keynesian approach.

Highlights the theory of competition advanced by da Empoli in the late 1920s. The main point is the existence of discontinuities in industrial concerns. This leads to the possibility that prices exceed marginal costs and depend also on ultramarginal costs, a new concept elaborated by da Empoli. They are costs that are incurred when the firm is producing beyond the marginal production. Also reviews the various implications of this approach. Stresses the innovative character of his approach and evaluates this in relation to contemporary and successive literature.

Emphasizes some aspects of ultra‐marginality in Attilio da Empoli’s main contributions and argues that those concepts could have provided a prelude to a wider reconsideration of dynamic theory in political economy.

This paper looks at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from the angle of the market for corporate control and analyzes in detail the reported rationales of a sample of 355 mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals performed by SOEs as acquirers over the period 2002-2012. The purpose of this paper, after having created a taxonomy of deal motivations, is to empirically test two alternative hypotheses: deviation vs convergence of M&A deal rationales between state-owned and private enterprises.

The data set is obtained by combining firm-level information from two sources, Zephyr and Orbis (Bureau Van Dijk). A recursive algorithm is developed to infer the ownership nature of the enterprises at the time the deal took place and then the authors double-checked the identity of the global ultimate owner by visual inspection of all the available information. Motivations are analyzed through a case-by-case analysis and classified into several categories, thereby providing a taxonomy of rationales behind SOE M&As and discussing their differences and similarities relative to private firms.

More than 60 percent of the deals performed by SOEs as acquirers are driven by “shareholder value maximization” motives, similarly to private enterprise acquirers. The other 40 percent of deals are almost equally spread among three rationales that specifically relate to the role of modern state capitalism in the economy. “Financial distress” motivation, which is the only one clearly deviating from the objectives of profit maximization typical of private ownership, is far less important than the others.

The paper does not analyze the case studies in detail. Neither does it correlate the evidence with the quality of corporate governance or the quality of institutions in the country. This would be interesting in order to discover whether the alignment of objectives between public and private enterprises is enhanced by certain features of public sector management, as suggested by the OECD (2015) Guidelines.

The paper suggests some policy implications in terms of reforms of the corporate governance of the SOEs and accountability of their management against clearly stated public missions. It also calls for the need for citizens to be informed in a transparent way about the rationales of major M&A deals when a SOE is on the acquirer side, and the consistency of such rationales with the mission assigned by governments to the enterprises they own. Finally, it underlines that regulatory concerns raised in many countries by the rise of cross-border SOE M&As are in most of the cases unfounded.

Existing literature has mainly focused on private corporate M&A deals or has just disregarded the ownership status of the acquiring firm. This paper focuses on the motivations for SOE deals in order to elaborate a taxonomy of SOE deal rationales and to identify the differences and similarities between private corporate firms.

The development of adaptable and intelligent educational systems is widely considered one of the great challenges in scientific research. Among key elements for building advanced training systems, an important role is played by methodologies chosen for knowledge representation. In this scenario, the introduction of ontology formalism can improve the quality of formative process, allowing the introduction of new and effective services. Ontology can lead to important improvements in the definition of courses knowledge domain, in the generation of adapted learning path and in the assessment phase. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial discussion of the role of ontology in the context of e‐learning. It seeks to discuss the improvements related to the introduction of ontology formalism in the e‐learning field and to show a novel algorithm for ontology building through the use of Bayesian networks. Finally, it aims to illustrate its application in the assessment process and some experimental results.

A novel method for learning ontology for e‐learning is illustrated, using an approach based on Bayesian networks. Thanks to their characteristics, these networks can be used to model and evaluate the conditional dependencies among the nodes of ontology on the basis of the data obtained from student tests. An experimental evaluation of the proposed method was performed using real student data.

The proposed method was integrated in a tool for the assessment of students during a learning process. This tool is based on the use of ontology and Bayesian network. In particular through the matching between ontology and Bayesian network, it was found that our tool allows an effective tutoring and a better adaptation of learning process to demands of students. The assessment based on Bayesian approach allows a deeper analysis of student's knowledge.

The proposed approach needs more experimentation with other domains and with more complex ontology.

This paper provides an initial discussion of the role of ontology in the context of e‐learning. The improvements related to the introduction of ontology formalism in the e‐learning field are discussed and a novel algorithm for ontology building through the use of Bayesian Networks is showed. Finally, its application in the assessment process and some experimental results are illustrated.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich country of origin (COO) effect in international marketing theory by adding the understanding of temporal dynamism into COO research.

Utilizing a qualitative and interdisciplinary phenomenological approach, this paper analyses historical and contemporary sources triangulated with contemporary primary interview data. The example of how perceptions of Italians about the values typical of the British Sixties varied over time periods is presented.

COO perceptions are both malleable and in evolution. Results show that values from earlier peak periods of appeal can be combined and recombined differently over time due to the varying historical and contemporary resonances of COO values.

This study focuses on COO applied to two product areas, fashion and music, over a limited time period, in a two-country study and so the findings are not fully generalizable, but rather are transferable to similar contexts.

The fact that COO is neither static nor atemporal facilitates a segmented approach for international marketing managers to review and renew international brands. This enriched COO theory provides a rich and variable resource for developing and revitalizing brands.

The major contribution of this paper is that temporal dynamism, never before discussed in international marketing theory, renders COO theory more timeless; this addresses some critiques recently made about its relevance and practicality. The second contribution is the original research design that models interdisciplinary scholarship, enabling a thorough historical look at international marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and encourage consideration of the ethical and in some instances legal implications of managerial change in the English Premier League (EPL) which often gets overlooked and sidestepped by clubs.

Extant literature relating to managerial change is identified and discussed to provide the foundations of the discussion of whether managerial change in the EPL which is primarily focused on performance outcome, is neglecting ethical and legal issues.

The loophole that exists in the Employment Rights Act (1996) allows clubs to instantly dismiss a manager and consequently not see out their notice period as agreed in their contract or the statutory notice period. Whilst legally clubs are at will to act in this manner, the instability of EPL management evident today appears to have taken away the rights of an employee.

Greater consideration of the current managerial change practices in EPL from an ethical and legal perspective appears warranted. The incomparable rights that a player and a manger have relating to their tenure at a club seem somewhat unfair.

Presents thought-provoking information relating to managerial change in the EPL which appears to have been overlooked in the literature to date which primarily focuses on the impact of change on performance.