IE University

About: IE University is a education organization based out in Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Corporate governance & Supply chain. The organization has 527 authors who have published 1709 publications receiving 64682 citations.

Can Parents' Right to Work Part-Time Hurt Childbearing-Aged Women? A Natural Experiment with Administrative Data

Abstract: Using a differences-in-differences approach and controlling for individual unobserved heterogeneity, we evaluate the impact of a 1999 law that granted all workers with children younger than 7 years old protection against a layoff if the worker had previously asked for a work-week reduction due to family responsibilities. As only mothers took advantage of these arrangements, we find that after the law, employers were: (i) more likely to let childbearing-aged working women "go" relative to their male counterparts; (ii) less likely to promote childbearing-aged women into good jobs; and (iii) less likely to hire childbearing-aged women. In addition, employers were able to pass at least part of the cost to childbearing-aged women through lower wages, and the amount passed to workers increased with the precariousness of the job. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect on employment transitions is mainly driven by low-skilled workers and those in blue-collar jobs, while the effect on wages holds across all groups. Evidence that the substitution away from (good) jobs widens over time suggests employer learning. These results are robust to the use of different specifications and placebo tests.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Parasite Infection is Associated with Entrepreneurial Initiation, Engagement, and Performance:

Abstract: There is growing evidence that human biology and behavior are influenced by infectious microorganisms. One such microorganism is the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (TG). Using longitudinal data coveri...

The effect of import competition on product diversification revisited

Abstract: Research summary Bowen and Wiersema, Strategic Management Journal, 2005, 26, 1153-1171, provide empirical evidence that U.S. firms decreased their degree of product diversification as a response to the increase in import competition in their 1985-1994 study. After replicating their study, we expand it with alternative econometric analyses and a larger data set. While we obtain nearly identical results using their Tobit regressions, the negative impact of imports on diversification disappears when we control for firm fixed-effects. Furthermore, using tariffs as instrument for imports, we find that import competition may even lead domestic firms to increase their diversification. The negative relationship between import penetration and diversification seems to result from the endogeneity of imports, which grew more in industries dominated by firms with low diversification at the turn of the previous century. Managerial summary Previous research by Bowen and Wiersema, Strategic Management Journal, 2005, 26, 1153-1171 showed that when import penetration grew in the 1985-1994 period in the U.S., firms seemed to reduce their diversification across industries and refocus on their core business, presumably to increase their competitiveness against foreign imports. We replicate their study and reach the opposite conclusion regarding firms' response to greater pressure from imports, using enhanced statistical methods and also a larger database. We conclude that diversified firms are more likely to switch their focus to other industries when import competition increases in their main line of business, and this greater flexibility of switching industries seems to give them an advantage over specialized firms.

Keeping the euro at any cost? Explaining attitudes toward the euro-austerity trade-off in Greece:

Abstract: Despite years of crisis, the euro has enjoyed strong popular support across the Eurozone periphery In light of the high costs of internal devaluation strategies, this begs the question why the pub

Specialization, Firms and Markets: The Division of Labour Between and Within Law Firms

Abstract: What is the role of firms and markets in mediating the division of labour? This Paper uses confidential microdata from the Census of Services to examine law firms' boundaries. We first examine how the specialization of lawyers and firms increases as lawyers' returns to specialization increase. In fields where lawyers increasingly specialize with market size, the relationship between the share of lawyers who work in a field-specialized firm and market size indicates whether firms or markets more efficiently mediate relationships between lawyers in this and other fields. We then examine which pairs of specialists tend to work in the same versus different firms; this provides evidence on the scope of firms that are not field-specialized. We find that whether firms or markets mediate the division of labour varies across fields in a way that corresponds to differences in the value of cross-field referrals, consistent with Garicano and Santos' (2001) proposition that firms facilitate specialization by mediating exchanges of economic opportunities more efficiently than markets.