As tourism is becoming one of the most important sectors of the world economy, the number of small islands trying to develop a competitive tourist activity is increasing and this strategy appears as growth enhancing. In most cases, it relies on the environmental quality of the destination, but also on lodging infrastructures and related services that tourists deserve in order to enjoy a good experience. This paper explores the intertemporal trade-off between investments and environmental quality preservation needed to ensure tourism profitability in the long run. It highlights the possible cyclical evolution of environmental quality, tourist infrastructures, investments and visitor numbers, considering both the central planner and the market solutions.

A factor-price difference scenario has recently been used by Krugman and Venables and by Puga to explain why, in the absence of labor migrations, economic integration should first produce and then dissolve regional income inequalities. The authors question this scenario in a dynamic analysis framework that extends the Baldwin, Martin, and Ottaviano ones to allow for regional wage differences. In this context, wage flexibility is no more a sufficient condition to induce long-run convergence. Indeed, when regions are equally sized, the innovative capability advantage of the "core" outweighs the wage cost advantage of the "periphery" even for very low transport costs, and regional wage gaps are likely to persist in the long run. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.

In this article, a method to map the knowledge base (KB) of firms is developed and applied to the study of strategic changes, mergers and acquisitions. The empirical data are related to three firms, Hoechst, Rhone-Poulenc and Aventis, which resulted from the merger of the first two. Our study shows how the KB of both Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc changed gradually reflecting their strategic reorientation away from chemistry and towards the life sciences. While the previous transition produced a segmented KB with the chemistry and biology subsets largely separated, the merger led a more closely integrated KB. The KB of some Aventis subsidiaries have been studied as well.Knowledge base, Lexicographic analysis, Patents, Mergers, Strategy,

Nombreuses sont les petites économies insulaires en développement à avoir choisi la spécialisation touristique comme principale voie de développement. Cette option semble amplement justifiée si l’on considère, d’une part, les handicaps structurels de ces économies en matière d’activités manufacturières traditionnelles et, d’autre part, leur forte dotation naturelle en ressources touristiques. Cette stratégie est-elle en mesure de leur garantir une croissance durable ? Cette interrogation est au cœur de notre examen des travaux, tant théoriques qu’empiriques, consacrés à la question. Il montre que si, à court terme, la spécialisation touristique est un facteur remarquable de croissance, à long terme ses effets restent ambigus en termes de croissance durable. Les travaux doivent donc se poursuivre pour répondre aux nombreuses interrogations encore demeurées sans réponse.