Showing papers by "London School of Economics and Political Science published in 2012"

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value: The Role of Customer Awareness

Abstract: This paper shows that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value are positively related for firms with high customer awareness, as proxied by advertising expenditures. For firms with low customer awareness, the relation is either negative or insignificant. In addition, we find that the effect of awareness on the value-CSR relation is reversed for firms with a poor prior reputation as corporate citizens. This evidence is consistent with the view that CSR activities can add value to the firm but only under certain conditions.

World Development Report 2012: Gender equality and development

Abstract: World Development Report 2012: Gender equality and development Washington, DC: The World Bank 2011, 426 pp., ISBN: 978-0821388259 Since the 1970s, Gender in development has emerged as an issue of c...

The case for regional development intervention: place-based versus place-neutral approaches*

Abstract: The paper examines the debates regarding place-neutral versus place-based policies for economic development. The analysis is set in the context of how development policy thinking on the part of both scholars and international organizations has evolved over several decades. Many of the previously accepted arguments have been called into question by the impacts of globalization and a new response to these issues has emerged, a response both to these global changes and also to nonspatial development approaches. The debates are highlighted in the context of a series of major reports recently published on the topic. The cases of the developing world and the European Union are used as examples of how in this changing context development intervention should increasingly focus on efficiency and social inclusion at the expense of an emphasis on territorial convergence and how strategies should consider economic, social, political, and institutional diversity in order to maximize both the local and the aggregate potential for economic development.

Rethinking the Effect of Immigration on Wages

Abstract: This paper calculates the effects of immigration on the wages of native US workers of various skill levels in two steps. In the first step we use labor demand functions to estimate the elasticity of substitution across different groups of workers. Second, we use the underlying production structure and the estimated elasticities to calculate the total wage effects of immigration in the long run. We emphasize that a production function framework is needed to combine own-group effects with cross-group effects in order to obtain the total wage effects for each native group. In order to obtain a parsimonious representation of elasticities that can be estimated with available data, we adopt alternative nested-CES models and let the data select the preferred specification. New to this paper is the estimate of the substitutability between natives and immigrants of similar education and experience levels. In the data-preferred model, there is a small but significant degree of imperfect substitutability between natives and immigrants which, when combined with the other estimated elasticities, implies that in the period from 1990 to 2006 immigration had a small effect on the wages of native workers with no high school degree (between 0.6% and +1.7%). It also had a small positive effect on average native wages (+0.6%) and a substantial negative effect (−6.7%) on wages of previous immigrants in the long run.

The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times

Abstract: Introduction 1. The empire of liberty: American ideology and foreign interventions 2. The empire of justice: Soviet ideology and foreign interventions 3. The revolutionaries: anti-colonial politics and transformations 4. Creating the Third World: the United States confronts revolution 5. The Cuban and Vietnamese challenges 6. The crisis of decolonization: Southern Africa 7. The prospects of socialism: Ethiopia and the Horn 8. The Islamist defiance 9. The 1980s: the Reagan offensive 10. The Gorbachev withdrawal and the end of the Cold War Conclusion: Revolutions, interventions and Great Power collapse.

Why Do People Comply with the Law? Legitimacy and the Influence of Legal Institutions

Abstract: This paper extends Tyler’s procedural justice model of public compliance with the law. Analysing data from a national probability sample of adults in England and Wales, we present a new conceptualisation of legitimacy based not just on the recognition of power but also the justification of power. We find that people accept the police’s right to dictate appropriate behaviour, not only when they feel a duty to obey officers, but also when they believe that the institution acts according to a shared moral purpose with citizens. Highlighting a number of different routes by which institutions can influence citizen behaviour, our broader normative model provides a better framework for explaining why people are willing to comply with the law.

Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial

Abstract: Objective To assess the effect of home based telehealth interventions on the use of secondary healthcare and mortality. Design Pragmatic, multisite, cluster randomised trial comparing telehealth with usual care, using data from routine administrative datasets. General practice was the unit of randomisation. We allocated practices using a minimisation algorithm, and did analyses by intention to treat. Setting 179 general practices in three areas in England. Participants 3230 people with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure recruited from practices between May 2008 and November 2009. Interventions Telehealth involved remote exchange of data between patients and healthcare professionals as part of patients’ diagnosis and management. Usual care reflected the range of services available in the trial sites, excluding telehealth. Main outcome measure Proportion of patients admitted to hospital during 12 month trial period. Results Patient characteristics were similar at baseline. Compared with controls, the intervention group had a lower admission proportion within 12 month follow-up (odds ratio 0.82, 95% confidence interval 0.70 to 0.97, P=0.017). Mortality at 12 months was also lower for intervention patients than for controls (4.6% v 8.3%; odds ratio 0.54, 0.39 to 0.75, P Conclusions Telehealth is associated with lower mortality and emergency admission rates. The reasons for the short term increases in admissions for the control group are not clear, but the trial recruitment processes could have had an effect. Trial registration number International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register ISRCTN43002091.

Critical reflections on the benefits of ICT in education

Abstract: In both schools and homes, information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely seen as enhancing learning, this hope fuelling their rapid diffusion and adoption throughout developed societies. But they are not yet so embedded in the social practices of everyday life as to be taken for granted, with schools proving slower to change their lesson plans than they were to fit computers in the classroom. This article examines two possible explanations – first, that convincing evidence of improved learning outcomes remains surprisingly elusive, and second, the unresolved debate over whether ICT should be conceived of as supporting delivery of a traditional or a radically different vision of pedagogy based on soft skills and new digital literacies. The difficulty in establishing traditional benefits, and the uncertainty over pursuing alternative benefits, raises fundamental questions over whether society really desires a transformed, technologically-mediated relation between teacher and learner.

Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

Abstract: For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across twenty countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the heterogeneity in the spread of performance in these sectors. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government, family, and founder owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with improvements in incentive management practices such as performance based promotion.

The impact of immigration on the structure of wages: theory and evidence from britain

Abstract: Immigration to the UK, particularly among more educated workers, has risen appreciably over the past 30 years and as such has raised labor supply. However studies of the impact of immigration have failed to find any significant effect on the wages of native-born workers in the UK. This is potentially puzzling since there is evidence that changes in the supply of educated natives have had significant effects on their wages. Using a pooled time series of British cross-sectional micro data on male wages and employment from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, this paper offers one possible resolution to this puzzle, namely that in the UK natives and foreign born workers are imperfect substitutes. We show that immigration has primarily reduced the wages of immigrants—and in particular of university educated immigrants—with little discernable effect on the wages of the native-born.

Revolving Door Lobbyists

Abstract: We study how ex-government ocials benet from the personal connections acquired during public service. Lobbyists with experience in the oce of a US Senator suer a 24% drop in generated revenue when that Senator leaves oce. The eect is immediate, discontinuous around the exit period, and long-lasting. Consistent with the notion that lobbyists sell access to powerful politicians, the drop in revenue is increasing in the committee assignments power held by the exiting politician.

Exploring barriers to participation and adoption of telehealth and telecare within the Whole System Demonstrator trial: A qualitative study

Abstract: Background: Telehealth (TH) and telecare (TC) interventions are increasingly valued for supporting self-care in ageing populations; however, evaluation studies often report high rates of non-participation that are not well understood. This paper reports from a qualitative study nested within a large randomised controlled trial in the UK: the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) project. It explores barriers to participation and adoption of TH and TC from the perspective of people who declined to participate or withdrew from the trial. Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 people who declined to participate in the trial following explanations of the intervention (n=19), or who withdrew from the intervention arm (n=3). Participants were recruited from the four trial groups (with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, or social care needs); and all came from the three trial areas (Cornwall, Kent, east London). Observations of home visits where the trial and interventions were first explained were also conducted by shadowing 8 members of health and social care staff visiting 23 people at home. Field notes were made of observational visits and explored alongside interview transcripts to elicit key themes. Results: Barriers to adoption of TH and TC associated with non-participation and withdrawal from the trial were identified within the following themes: requirements for technical competence and operation of equipment; threats to identity, independence and self-care; expectations and experiences of disruption to services. Respondents held concerns that special skills were needed to operate equipment but these were often based on misunderstandings. Respondents’ views were often explained in terms of potential threats to identity associated with positive ageing and self-reliance, and views that interventions could undermine self-care and coping. Finally, participants were reluctant to risk potentially disruptive changes to existing services that were often highly valued. Conclusions: These findings regarding perceptions of potential disruption of interventions to identity and services go beyond more common expectations that concerns about privacy and dislike of technology deter uptake. These insights have implications for health and social care staff indicating that more detailed information and time for discussion could be valuable especially on introduction. It seems especially important for potential recipients to have the opportunity to discuss their expectations and such views might usefully feed back into design and implementation.

PRIME: A Programme to Reduce the Treatment Gap for Mental Disorders in Five Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract: Crick Lund and colleagues describe their plans for the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME), which aims to generate evidence on implementing and scaling up integrated packages of care for priority mental disorders in primary and maternal health care contexts in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda.

Mostly pointless spatial econometrics

Abstract: We argue that identification problems bedevil applied spatial economic research. Spatial econometrics usually solves these problems by deriving estimators assuming that functional forms are known and by using model comparison techniques to let the data choose between competing specifications. We argue that in many situations of interest this achieves, at best, only very weak identification. Worse, in many cases, such an approach will be uninformative about the causal economic processes at work, rendering much applied spatial econometric research “pointless,” unless the main aim is description of the data. We advocate an alternative approach based on the “experimentalist paradigm” which puts issues of identification and causality at center stage.

Quantitative Easing and Unconventional Monetary Policy – an Introduction

Abstract: This article assesses the impact of Quantitative Easing and other unconventional monetary policies followed by central banks in the wake of the financial crisis that began in 2007. We consider the implications of theoretical models for the effectiveness of asset purchases and look at the evidence from a range of empirical studies. We also provide an overview of the contributions of the other articles in this Feature.

Affective solidarity: Feminist reflexivity and political transformation

Abstract: This article seeks to intervene in what I perceive to be a problematic opposition in feminist theory between ontological and epistemological accounts of existence and politics, by proposing an approach that weaves together Elspeth Probyn’s conceptualisation of ‘feminist reflexivity’ with a re-reading of feminist standpoint through affect. In so doing, I develop the concept of affective solidarity as necessary for sustainable feminist politics of transformation. This approach is proposed as a way of moving away from rooting feminist transformation in the politics of identity and towards modes of engagement that start from the affective dissonance experience can produce. Moving beyond empathy as a privileged way of connecting with others, I argue that the difference between ‘womanhood’ and ‘feminism’ is critical for a universal yet non-essential understanding of what motivates gendered change.

Health damages from air pollution in China

Abstract: A B S T R A C T This study evaluates air pollution-related health impacts on the Chinese economy by using an expanded version of the Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis model. We estimated that marginal welfare impact to the Chinese economy of ozone and particulate-matter concentrations above background levels increased from 1997 US$22 billion in 1975 to 1997 US$112 billion in 2005, despite improvements in overall air quality. This increase is a result of the growing urban population and rising wages that thus increased the value of lost labor and leisure. In relative terms, however, welfare losses from air pollution decreased from 14% of the historical welfare level to 5% during the same period because the total size of the economy grew much faster than the absolute air pollution damages. In addition, we estimated that particulate-matter pollution alone led to a gross domestic product loss of 1997 US$64 billion in 1995. Given that the World Bank’s comparable estimate drawn from a static approach was only 1997 US$34 billion, this result suggests that conventional static methods neglecting the cumulative impact of pollution-caused welfare damage are likely to underestimate pollution-health costs substantially. However, our analysis of uncertainty involved in exposure–response functions suggests that our central estimates are susceptible to significantly large error bars of around � 80%.

A critical review of cloud computing: researching desires and realities

Abstract: Cloud computing has become central to current discussions about corporate information technology. To assess the impact that cloud may have on enterprises, it is important to evaluate the claims made in the existing literature and critically review these claims against empirical evidence from the field. To this end, this paper provides a framework within which to locate existing and future research on cloud computing. This framework is structured around a series of technological and service ‘desires’, that is, characteristics of cloud that are important for cloud users. The existing literature on cloud computing is located within this framework and is supplemented with empirical evidence from interviews with cloud providers and cloud users that were undertaken between 2010 and 2012. The paper identifies a range of research questions that arise from the analysis.

A Corresponding Fields Model for the Links Between Social and Digital Exclusion

Abstract: The notion of digital exclusion has become important in communications research but remains undertheorized. This article proposes a theoretical model that hypothesizes how specific areas of digital and social exclusion influence each other. In this corresponding fields model, it is argued that they relate mostly for similar (economic, cultural, social, personal) fields of resources. The model further proposes that the influence of offline exclusion fields on digital exclusion fields is mediated by access, skills, and attitudinal or motivational aspects. On the other hand, the relevance, quality, ownership, and sustainability of engagement with different digital resources is said to mediate the influence of engagement on offline exclusion. Research supporting this model and possible operationalizations in empirical research and interventions are presented.

Innovation and Foreign Ownership

Abstract: 1 Many have argued that this is because multinationals transfer superior technologies and organizational practices—in the form of new product and process innovation—to their foreign subsidiaries. 2 However, since the most prevalent form of multinational entry is through acquisition (89 percent of FDI flows in developed countries—Barba Navaretti and Venables 2004), rather than through greenfield investment, their superior performance could be due to the selection of higher-performing domestic firms. To date, little is known about the economic determinants of which domestic firms are selected to become foreign subsidiaries and the extent to which newly acquired subsidiaries increase their productivity by innovating—introducing technologies that are new to that firm. In this article, we use a unique panel dataset to analyze both the selection and innovation decisions of multinational firms. We propose a new mechanism to explain how these decisions are jointly determined, highlighting how the market access provided by multinationals creates incentives for subsidiary innovation and, hence, acquisition. We argue that one cannot fully understand the relationship between for

Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

Abstract: Executive Overview For the past decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on more than 10,000 organizations across 20 countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing American, Japanese, and German firms are the best managed. Firms in developing countries, such as Brazil, China, and India, tend to be poorly managed. American retail firms and hospitals are also well managed by international standards, although American schools are worse managed than those in several other developed countries. We also find substantial variation in management practices across organizations in every country and every sector, mirroring the wide spread of productivity and profitability within industries. One factor linked to this variation is ownership. Government and founder-owned firms are usually poorly managed, while multinational, dispersed shareholder, and private-equity-owned firms are typically well managed. Family-owned firms are badly managed if r...

The World in the Model: How Economists Work and Think

Abstract: During the last two centuries, the way economic science is done has changed radically: it has become a social science based on mathematical models in place of words This book describes and analyses that change - both historically and philosophically - using a series of case studies to illuminate the nature and the implications of these changes It is not a technical book; it is written for the intelligent person who wants to understand how economics works from the inside out This book will be of interest to economists and science studies scholars (historians, sociologists and philosophers of science) But it also aims at a wider readership in the public intellectual sphere, building on the current interest in all things economic and on the recent failure of the so-called economic model, which has shaped our beliefs and the world we live in

Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments

Abstract: Governments around the world are now beginning to seriously consider the use of measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) – ratings of thoughts and feelings about life – for monitoring progress and for informing and appraising public policy. The mental state account of wellbeing upon which SWB measures are based can provide useful additional information about who is doing well and badly in life when compared to that provided by the objective list and preference satisfaction accounts. It may be particularly useful when deciding how best to allocate scarce resources, where it is desirable to express the benefits of intervention in a single metric that can be compared to the costs of intervention. There are three main concepts of SWB in the literature – evaluation (life satisfaction), experience (momentary mood) and eudemonia (purpose) – and policy-makers should seek to measure all three, at least for the purposes of monitoring progress. There are some major challenges to the use of SWB measures. Two related and well-rehearsed issues are the effects of expectations and adaptation on ratings. The degree to which we should allow wellbeing to vary according to expectations and adaptation are vexing moral problems but information on SWB can highlight what difference allowing for these considerations would have in practice (e.g. in informing prioiritisation decisions), which can then be fed into the normative debate. There are also questions about precisely what attention should be drawn to in SWB questions and how to capture the ratings of those least inclined to take part in surveys, but these can be addressed through more widespread use of SWB. We also provide some concrete recommendations about precisely what questions should be asked in large-scale surveys, and these recommendations have been taken up by the Office of National Statistics in the UK and are being looked at closely by the OECD.