Explaining Product Price Differences Across Countries

A substantial part of international differences in prices of individual products, both goods and services, can be explained by differences in per capita income, wage compression, or low wage dispersion among low-wage workers, and short-term exchange rate fluctuations. Higher per capita income is associated with higher prices and higher wage dispersion with lower prices. The effects of higher income and wage dispersion are moderated for the more tradable products. The effects of wage dispersion, on the other hand, are magnified for the more labor-intensive products, particularly low-skill services. The differences in prices across countries are reflected in differences in the composition of consumption. Countries in which prices of labor-intensive services are very high, such as the Nordic countries, consume much less of them. For some services, the shares of GDP consumed in high-price countries are less than 20 percent of the shares in low-price countries. Since these are services of very low tradability, the low consumption levels of these services imply low employment in them.

The EC and the Locational Choice of Swedish Multinational Companies

In a world with multinational companies (MNC's) changes such as those implied by the realization of EC's internal market will affect the locational choice made by geographically mobile MNC's outside the EC. The reason is that any change which affects the competitive advantage of EC producers relative to non-EC producers will alter the choice between MNC exports to and local production in the EC. This paper presents an empirical analysis of this issue. It uses comprehensive micro data on Swedish MNC production and trade for the period 1965-86 to test hypotheses regarding the effects of European trade policy on the locational choice of Swedish MNC's in that period. The results show that being part of a trade liberalization area strongly stimulates exporting relative to producing abroad by MNC's. It is suggested that this should be relevant to an evaluation of the effects of the EC internal market on non-EC members like Sweden

Effects of Nitrogen Fertilization on Monoterpenes of Jack Pine Seedlings and Weight Gain of Jack Pine Budworm (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Nine-month old jack pine (Pinus banksiana) seedlings were grown in a greenhouse under four nitrogen fertilization regimes. Levels of total nitrogen and five monoterpenes in new foliage were measured. Fertilization resulted in four significantly different levels of foliar nitrogen; means ranged from 1.8-4.5 percent dry weight. Contrary to predictions of resource availability theory, seedlings grown under the highest fertilization regime had higher foliar monoterpene levels than seedlings in the other treatments. Newly molted, sixth-instar female jack pine budworm (Choristoneura pinus pinus [Lepidoptera: Tortricidae]) larvae were allowed to feed for four days on new foliage of the seedlings. Larvae that fed on low-nitrogen seedling gained less weight and process more vegetation than did larvae on high- nitrogen seedlings. Larval weight gain was positively related to foliar nitrogen

Foreign Takeovers of Swedish Firms

The examination of foreign takeovers is a way of distinguishing between the characteristics of f inns and industries that encourage takeovers and the effects of foreignness or of takeovers per se. Foreigners have tended to take over Swedish firms that are of above average size within each industry. 'Very .few takeovers are of the smallest groups of firms: those with fewer than 20 employees or even those with fewer than 200. However, the firms taken over are not large compared to Swedish companies of 200 employees or more. In fact, they are well below average size within that group. The firms taken over are more skill-oriented or technology-oriented than Swedish-owned firms in the same industries. However, takeovers are not particularly prevalent in industries in which firms in general are large or skill-oriented or technology-oriented. Thus the select ion of firms for takeover is based on f inn characteristics, not industry characteristics. After takeover by foreigners, firms grow somewhat faster than Swedish-owned firms in the same industries. The technological characteristics of the firms, by the crude measurements we have been able to apply so far, do not seem to be affected in any consistent way by takeover.

The EC and the Locational Choice of Swedish Multinational Companies

In a world with multinational companies (MNC's) changes such as those implied by the realization of EC's internal market will affect the locational choice made by geographically mobile MNC's. The reason is that the reduction of trade barriers within the EC puts non-EC members at a competitive disadvantage relative to EC members, thereby increasing the incentive to produce within the common market. This is true even though there may be no absolute increase in trade barriers for non-members. This (highly preliminary) paper suggests how the effects of the internal market on the location of production can be analyzed in a partial equilibrium framework of a firm serving many national markets and able to produce in different countries. It uses unique survey data on Swedish MNC production and trade for the period 1965-86 and draws on previous analysis of the earlier part of that data to indicate how important these effects may be empirically