The most common assumption in evolutionary game theory is that players should adopt a strategy that warrants the highest payoff. However, recent studies indicate that the spatial selection for cooperation is enhanced if an appropriate fraction of the population chooses the most common rather than the most profitable strategy within the interaction range. Such conformity might be due to herding instincts or crowd behavior in humans and social animals. In a heterogeneous population where individuals differ in their degree, collective influence, or other traits, an unanswered question remains who should conform. Selecting conformists randomly is the simplest choice, but it is neither a realistic nor the optimal one. We show that, regardless of the source of heterogeneity and game parametrization, socially the most favorable outcomes emerge if the masses conform. On the other hand, forcing leaders to conform significantly hinders the constructive interplay between heterogeneity and coordination, leading to evolutionary outcomes that are worse still than if conformists were chosen randomly. We conclude that leaders must be able to create a following for network reciprocity to be optimally augmented by conformity. In the opposite case, when leaders are castrated and made to follow, the failure of coordination impairs the evolution of cooperation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22051080
In the empirical literature there is a prevalent view that real exchange rates tend to converge towards levels predicted by the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) only in the long-run and that short-run deviations from the PPP relationship are frequently sizable. The progressing of European monetary integration and the forming of monetary union spurred the interest of researchers to assess the relevance of the PPP theory also in the case of single European currency. Our paper therefore examines this exchange rate theory by testing a dataset of monthly real exchange rates for a sample of eleven eurozone members with respect to different benchmark currencies. Because of the documented drawbacks of linear specifications in examining this exchange rate theory, we utilize a nonlinear unit root test based on the ESTAR model proposed by Kapetanios et al. (2003). The results of unit root tests for the US dollar-based real exchange rate series as well as for Japanese yen-based series suggest that the PPP proposition does not hold in the case of eurozone countries. The absence of real exchange rates nonlinear reversion reported in this study thus confirms the thesis of Wu and Lin (2011) regarding the PPP relationship since the inception of the euro.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12349724
The aim of this empirical study is to evaluate the influence of the interdependence of cross-border mergers and acquisitions and the quality of the institutional setting on GDP per capita using dynamic panel data analysis for 22 European transition countries from 2000 to 2014. Our empirical results suggest that current cross-border mergers and acquisitions have a negative effect on GDP per capita in the year of merger or acquisition, but the influence of their lagged level has a strong positive effect one year later. All governance indicators are found to have a significant effect on GDP per capita.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12673308
The paper presents the analysis of the degree of convergence within two groups of countries analyzing Eurostatʼs Service Confidence Indicator - SCI indicator. In that matter we analyzed sigma and beta convergences among the five European countries which accessed the European Union in 2004 and among five old EU member countries. In the context of analyzing services confidence convergence, and as a subdivision of services, we put a special focus on convergence in Tourism sector. By analyzing [beta] convergence we tested the volume of tourist arrivals and nights spent by tourists. Time series data for all selected variables covers the period between the years 2003 and 2011. Our results confirm that convergence of Service Confidence Indicator occurred in the service sector at the rate of 0,6 % during the whole analyzed period between the years 2003 and 2011 and 2,2 % and 0,9 % during the sub periods between the years 2003 and 2007 as well as in the sub period 2009 and 2011, respectively. We also found out that the group of EU%5 economies is converging towards the group of CEE%5 economies. Regarding the results of testing [beta] convergence for both selected variables in Tourism sector, no convergence was found, meaning that the initial volume of tourist arrivals and nights spent by tourists did not influence its growth rate over the period between the years 2003 and 2011.
COBISS.SI-ID: 5121323
The paper examines pre and post performance of acquired companies in Slovenia. The focus is on analysis of the median values on different financial rates. In this paper our aim was to look at merger and acquisitions (M&A) activity in Slovenia in recent years. Usually research of M&A is done for financial performance of the stock, but given the relative small size of the economy and limited number of companies that trade on stock exchange, we decided to focus on the operating performance to gain some insight of performance of companies engaging in M&A activities. First, our goal was to empirically test the difference in long-term operating performance of selected financial ratios before and after the transaction of acquired firms between 2005 and 2008 in Slovenia. We collected a sample of 29 companies that were encountered in takeovers. The data are collected for all sample units for four years before the transaction and for four years after the acquisition. The results of this study suggests that increasing trend of indebtedness is present, which points to the typical characteristic of transition M&A deals, where burdens of takeovers are brought on the target company. Our study confirms this attitude by indicating higher DFR and DER ratios.
COBISS.SI-ID: 12405532