Resale of recalled children’s products online: an examination of the world's largest yard sale
Source: Injury Prevention
* A variety of previously recalled children’s products were found for sale on the internet’s most popular auction site.
* Mechanisms to prevent the resale of unsafe children’s products via online auctions appear to be largely unsuccessful, with recalled items resold most of the time.
* Several of the products observed for sale were recalled more than 5 years ago, thus increased manufacturer efforts to decrease the shelf-life of recalled children’s products are needed.
* Auction sites should require additional product information that would aid in the identification and removal of unsafe children’s products and toys.

...

Product innovation by incumbent firms in developing economies : the roles of research and development expenditures, trade policy, and the investment climate
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
A model of firm innovation illustrates the effects of the threat of imitation and product varieties on a representative firm’s decision to invest in research and development to produce new product varieties. The model motivates two empirical questions: (1) Is research and development partially correlated with firms’ propensity to introduce new products or product innovation in developing countries? (2) Do trade policies and the national investment climate affect firms’ propensity for product innovation? The econometric evidence suggests that the answers are yes and yes, but the investment climate affects product innovation in a manner that is consistent with the presence of market failures and state capture. National trade-policy distortions appear to reduce the probability of product innovation, and the density of exporting firms at the national level also seems to positively affect the propensity to introduce new products by individual firms. The paper discusses some policy implications.

Texte intégral

...

Strengthening the governance and performance of state-owned financial institutions
Source: World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
Corporate governance arrangements define the responsibilities, authorities and accountabilities of owners, boards of directors, and executive managers of a company. Good corporate governance is as important for state financial institutions as for private sector companies. Many of the problems that commonly afflict state financial institutions can be associated with, if not attributed directly to, weaknesses in corporate governance. This note draws on guidelines recently published by the OECD and the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision to compile a comprehensive corporate governance evaluation framework relevant to state-owned commercial and development finance institutions. It highlights aspects of this framework that are considered to be of particular importance to state financial institutions by citing innovative practices in a number of countries. Finally, it presents a detailed case study of the governance arrangements in place at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Texte intégral

...

Two Decades of American News Preferences
Source: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Although the size and scope of the American news media have changed dramatically since the 1980s, audience news interests and preferences have remained surprisingly static. Of the two major indices of interest that are the focus of this report — overall level of interest in news and preferences for various types of news — neither has changed very much. This has been especially true for news preferences; Americans continue to follow — or to ignore — the same types of stories now as they did two decades ago. News “tastes,” measured among 19 separate categories of news, have barely shifted at all: Disaster News and Money News continue to be of greatest interest to the U.S. public; Tabloid News and Foreign News remain the least interesting.

Les quatre précédentes via Docuticker

...

Investopedia: 20 Investments
Source: Forbes
Brief discussions of the strengths, weaknesses, and uses of 20 investment options. Topics include annuity, common stock, corporate bond, life insurance, money market, mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, mutual funds, real estate and property, treasuries, and zero-coupon securities.

Via LII