Showing papers in "EconStor Open Access Articles in 2017"

The impact of stress on tournament entry

Abstract: Individual willingness to enter competitive environments predicts career choices and labor market outcomes. Meanwhile, many people experience competitive contexts as stressful. We use two laboratory experiments to investigate whether factors related to stress can help explain individual differences in tournament entry. Experiment 1 studies whether stress responses (measured as salivary cortisol) to taking part in a mandatory tournament predict individual willingness to participate in a voluntary tournament. We find that competing increases stress levels. This cortisol response does not predict tournament entry for men but is positively and significantly correlated with choosing to enter the tournament for women. In Experiment 2, we exogenously induce physiological stress using the cold-pressor task. We find a positive causal effect of stress on tournament entry for women but no effect for men. Finally, we show that although the effect of stress on tournament entry differs between the genders, stress reactions cannot explain the well-documented gender difference in willingness to compete.

The impact of racial discrimination on the health of Australian Indigenous children aged 5-10 years: analysis of national longitudinal data

Abstract: [Background:] A growing body of literature highlights that racial discrimination has negative impacts on child health, although most studies have been limited to an examination of direct forms of racism using cross-sectional data. We aim to provide further insights on the impact of early exposure to racism on child health using longitudinal data among Indigenous children in Australia and multiple indicators of racial discrimination. [Methods:] We used data on 1239 Indigenous children aged 5–10 years from Waves 1–6 (2008–2013) of Footprints in Time, a longitudinal study of Indigenous children across Australia. We examined associations between three dimensions of carer-reported racial discrimination (measuring the direct experiences of children and vicarious exposure by their primary carer and family) and a range of physical and mental health outcomes. Analysis was conducted using multivariate logistic regression within a multilevel framework. [Results:] Two-fifths (40%) of primary carers, 45% of families and 14% of Indigenous children aged 5–10 years were reported to have experienced racial discrimination at some point in time, with 28–40% of these experiencing it persistently (reported at multiple time points). Primary carer and child experiences of racial discrimination were each associated with poor child mental health status (high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties), sleep difficulties, obesity and asthma, but not with child general health or injury. Children exposed to persistent vicarious racial discrimination were more likely to have sleep difficulties and asthma in multivariate models than those with a time-limited exposure. [Conclusions:] The findings indicate that direct and persistent vicarious racial discrimination are detrimental to the physical and mental health of Indigenous children in Australia, and suggest that prolonged and more frequent exposure to racial discrimination that starts in the early lifecourse can impact on multiple domains of health in later life. Tackling and reducing racism should be an integral part of policy and intervention aimed at improving the health of Australian Indigenous children and thereby reducing health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

Organizational Excellence in Palestinian Universities of Gaza Strip

Abstract: The research aims to identify the organizational excellence in Palestinian universities of Gaza Strip, from the perspective of senior management. The questionnaires were distributed the top senior management in the Palestinian universities, and the study population was (344) employees in senior management in Palestinian universities. A stratified random sample were selected from of employees in the Palestinian universities consist of (182) employees at return rate of (69.2%). SPSS program for analyzing and processing the data was used. The study reached the following results: the senior management agrees largely on the importance of the axis of "Leadership Excellence" and "Excellence service sectors". The senior management agrees moderately about the importance of the axis of the “Knowledge excellence". The study showed that there is a weakness in the employment of scientific research to serve the community, there is weakness in the follow-up of the universities management for the performance of their graduates in the institutions in which they work. Senior management agrees on the importance of the "Organizational Excellence" moderately. The recommendations of study includes: the need to develop principles and fair criteria for the selection of the best candidates for the university and university leaders based on specialization, competence, experience, skills, integrity and not on the basis of favoritism.

The Costs of Simplicity: Why Multilevel Models May Benefit from Accounting for Cross-Cluster Differences in the Effects of Controls

Abstract: Context effects, where a characteristic of an upper-level unit or cluster (e.g., a country) affects outcomes and relationships at a lower level (e.g., that of the individual), are a primary object of sociological inquiry. In recent years, sociologists have increasingly analyzed such effects using quantitative multilevel modeling. Our review of multilevel studies in leading sociology journals shows that most assume the effects of lower-level control variables to be invariant across clusters, an assumption that is often implausible. Comparing mixed-effects (random-intercept and slope) models, cluster-robust pooled OLS, and two-step approaches, we find that erroneously assuming invariant coefficients reduces the precision of estimated context effects. Semi-formal reasoning and Monte Carlo simulations indicate that loss of precision is largest when there is pronounced cross-cluster heterogeneity in the magnitude of coefficients, when there are marked compositional differences among clusters, and when the number of clusters is small. Although these findings suggest that practitioners should fit more flexible models, illustrative analyses of European Social Survey data indicate that maximally flexible mixed-effects models do not perform well in real-life settings. We discuss the need to balance parsimony and flexibility, and we demonstrate the encouraging performance of one prominent approach for reducing model complexity.

The effectiveness of capacity markets in the presence of a high portfolio share of renewable energy sources

Abstract: The effectiveness of a capacity market is analyzed by simulating three conditions that may cause suboptimal investment in the electricity generation: imperfect information and uncertainty; declining demand shocks resulting in load loss; and a growing share of renewable energy sources in the generation portfolio. Implementation of a capacity market can improve supply adequacy and reduce consumer costs. It mainly leads to more investment in low-cost peak generation units. If the administratively determined reserve margin is high enough, the security of supply is not significantly affected by uncertainties or demand shocks. A capacity market is found to be more effective than a strategic reserve for ensuring reliability.

From never partnered to serial cohabitors: union trajectories to childlessness

Abstract: [Background:] Childlessness has increased in many European countries. Partnerships and parenthood are obviously closely related, but there is relatively little knowledge on how childlessness is linked to contemporary union dynamics that involve high rates of separation and unmarried cohabitation. [Objective:] To situate (biological) childlessness in longitudinal dynamics of union formation and stability, we take a life-course approach to union trajectories that consist of states entered via the formation and dissolution of cohabitations and marriages. Concretely, we identify groups of similar union trajectories of individuals between the ages of 18 and 39 who are childless at age 42. [Methods: We analyse register data on Finnish men and women born in 1969 and 1970 (childless N=3,241) with sequence, cluster, and multinomial logistic regression methods. [Results:] Four clusters of typical union trajectories were identified among the childless and assigned these labels: 1) Never Partnered (45%), characterized by never having entered a coresidential partnership, or just having entered a cohabitation near age 40; 2) Briefly Cohabited (25%), characterized by mostly living single after a brief cohabitation spell; 3) Cohabitors, Often Serial (19%), marked by typically discontinuous cohabitation; and 4) Married (11%). The Never-Partnered cluster is male-dominated. Men with a rural background and less-educated men and women are overrepresented among the Never-Partnered childless. [Conclusions:] For the great majority of the childless in our study cohorts, union trajectories are marked by either the (almost) complete absence of coresidential unions or fragmentary cohabitation histories. [Contribution:] The study contributes to the literature by showing that union histories, including never partnering as well as cohabitation instability, are key for understanding contemporary childlessness.

Poverty and child behavioral problems: the mediating role of parenting and parental well-being

Abstract: The detrimental impact of poverty on child behavioral problems is well-established, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are less well-known. Using data from the Families in Germany Study on parents and their children at ages 9–10 (middle childhood), this study extends previous research by examining whether or not and to what extent different parenting styles and parents’ subjective well-being explain the relationship between poverty and child behavior problems. The results show that certain parenting styles, such as psychological control, as well as mothers’ life satisfaction partially mediate the correlation between poverty and child behavioral problems.

The populism of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): an extended Essex School perspective

Abstract: This paper seeks to draw on the tools of Ernesto Laclau’s theory of discourse, hegemony and populism as well as recent Essex School work on populism to examine the discourse of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and, in the process, come closer to a more systematic understanding of nature and limits of 'right-wing' populism as well as the interplay and distinction between populist and non-populist discursive logics more generally. The paper situates itself in the context of existing Essex School work that has distinguished populism from institutionalism - and, more recently, from nationalism - in terms of either the length of the equivalential chain or the centrality of “the people” as nodal point in addition to the degree of antagonistic division between “people” and “power.” Building on this latter strand in the recent work of Yannis Stavrakakis and others, this paper proposes a formal distinction between 'populism' and 'reductionism' as internal to Laclau’s theory of populism. Reductionism, it is argued, tends to reduce “the people” onto a differential particularity that sets 'a priori' limits on the equivalential chain as opposed to constructing it as a 'tendentially empty signifier' attached to an 'open-ended' chain - producing a tendential 'closure' of the equivalential chain and thus undercutting the primacy of the logic of equivalence that is fundamental to Laclau’s understanding of populism and subsequent Essex School applications of it. It is argued that predominantly ethno-, cultural- or nativist-reductionist discourses may nonetheless deploy a populist logic of 'partial openings' in the equivalential chain, especially through the selective equivalential incorporation of sexual or ethno-linguistic minorities against a common (often “Islamic”) constitutive outside. This is demonstrated empirically in a discourse analysis of the AfD and its development from a “competition populism” into an ethno-culturally reductionist conception of “the people” coexisting with partial openings in relation to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and Russian-Germans in the Berlin context in particular.

Data sharing as social dilemma: Influence of the researcher’s personality

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that data sharing has great potential for scientific progress. However, so far making data available has little impact on a researcher’s reputation. Thus, data sharing can be conceptualized as a social dilemma. In the presented study we investigated the influence of the researcher's personality within the social dilemma of data sharing. The theoretical background was the appropriateness framework. We conducted a survey among 1564 researchers about data sharing, which also included standardized questions on selected personality factors, namely the so-called Big Five, Machiavellianism and social desirability. Using regression analysis, we investigated how these personality domains relate to four groups of dependent variables: attitudes towards data sharing, the importance of factors that might foster or hinder data sharing, the willingness to share data, and actual data sharing. Our analyses showed the predictive value of personality for all four groups of dependent variables. However, there was not a global consistent pattern of influence, but rather different compositions of effects. Our results indicate that the implications of data sharing are dependent on age, gender, and personality. In order to foster data sharing, it seems advantageous to provide more personal incentives and to address the researchers’ individual responsibility.

Microfinance for poverty alleviation: do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation?

Abstract: Numerous microfinance initiatives around the world aim to alleviate poverty in developing countries. However, debate persists about their effectiveness and sustainability – a concern for transnational corporations and the international business community, which contribute about $9.4 billion to microfinance funding. In this policy-oriented article we aggregate findings from two studies in Indonesia that help explain why moneylending can still thrive when low-interest microfinance is widely available and why the poorest borrowers benefit less than the less-poor. To avoid methodological debates about validity, we interview market participants and triangulate the perspectives of borrowers with those of formal and informal lenders. Importantly, our research includes current and past borrowing from formal and informal sources, prompting participants to draw comparisons. We find that the importance to borrowers of key characteristics of informal lending is insufficiently recognized and that inappropriate human resource management and informal intermediation are significant problems. The latter can be an unintended consequence of formal microfinance: The availability of formal low-interest microfinance creates informal intermediation opportunities for entrepreneurs, often developing from casual intermediation into systematic deception. We discuss implications for microfinance policy with reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and offer suggestions for further research.

Requirements for Applying Decision Support Systems in Palestinian Higher Education Institutions - Applied Study on Al - Aqsa University in Gaza

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to explain the requirements of applying decision support systems in Palestinian higher education institutions- an applied study on Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. The researchers used the descriptive and analytical methods. The study population is the staff members of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. The researchers used the random sample method. 150 questionnaires were distributed to the study population and 126 responses were obtained back with a recovery rate (84%). The results of the study showed the followings: There was an approval by the sample members of the requirements of the application of decision support systems in general. The approval of "Support of senior management for the use of decision support systems" reached (62.60%). While the level of approval for "the possibilities for using decision support systems" (69.03%). Finally, the level of approval for the type of decision support systems used was 69.73%. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the responses of respondents on the requirements of applying decision support systems due to the demographic variables (gender, age, qualification, and years of service). The study also concluded with a number of recommendations, the most important of which are the need to keep abreast of developments in the field of business, including the adoption of modern organizations on decision support systems, which represent the true value of organizations. It is a good for the university to rely entirely on decision support systems because it provides the management with the good information that the university needs. It is good for the university to increase attention and rely on modern systems because it works to develop performance and achieve the objectives of planning

Free research in fearful times: conceptualizing an index to monitor academic freedom

Abstract: Scholars across the globe are increasingly victims of repression due to their crucial involvement in critical knowledge production. Studies have pointed to the connection between this worrying trend and processes of global authoritarian regression, illustrating how the curtailment of academic freedom is often a harbinger of broader human rights violations. Less work, however, has gone into systematising, categorising and comparing the ways spaces for critical inquiry are curtailed. Concise catalogues that map out the defining features of academic freedom in an exhaustive way and that could thus provide the basis for systematic comparative investigation are conspicuously absent from the literature. This article intends to fill this gap by outlining the conceptual architecture of a comprehensive Academic Freedom Index (AFI). Spelling out a methodological path towards reliable parameters for assessing the regulation and restriction of research autonomy over time and on a cross-country level, it hopes to stir methodological debate and introduce a powerful instrument for advocacy.

The Impact of the Availability of Technological Infrastructure on the Success of the Electronic Document Management System of the Palestinian Pension Authority

Abstract: The aim of the study is to identify the impact of the technological infrastructure on the success of the electronic document management system of the Palestinian Pension Authority. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used the analytical descriptive method in which it tries to describe the phenomenon studied, analyze its data, the relationship between its components and the opinions that are raised around it, and use the method of Complete Census due to the small size of the study community and accessibility to the target group. The researchers distributed (108) questionnaires to the community of this study, consisting of (65) employees in the Gaza Strip and (43) employees in the West Bank, and all the questionnaires were retrieved. The results of the study reached the following results: The study community agreed on the availability of the infrastructure of the Authority, where the ratios ranged from good to very good. Generally, the average mean of the axes was 4.09 and a relative weight of 82.0%. This result confirms the Authority's ability to provide suitable infrastructure and its ability to adapt to the electronic document management system, divided into: the employment of the latest computers to work in the Authority, and a relative weight of (83.5%). And provide the latest software and databases to work in the Authority, and a relative weight of (85.5%). The provision of computer network linking all the departments of the Authority with a relative weight of (77.0%). Members of the study community agreed that the electronic document system requires special technical skills and resistance from some of the jobs and specialties of the Authority who do not want to deal with the computer. Furthermore, the electronic documentation system would reduce the cost of the current system and would reduce the tasks assigned to staff members of different jobs. The study has reached a number of recommendations, the most important of which is: The Authority should endeavor to increase and develop its services for retirees, especially after the incorporation of private sector institutions and universities and opening the door to all sectors of society in Gaza and the West Bank and enhance its competitiveness among the international social security institutions. The need to hold training sessions and workshops for senior administrative levels to raise awareness of the culture and concepts of electronic document management system, including the general managers and managers as a first stage, which then extends to the lower administrative levels. Enhance the interest in the existence of a central computer network linking the main office in Gaza with the rest of the branches in the West Bank in order to ensure the implementation of the electronic document management system and the ability to hold meetings via videoconferencing and the ability to exchange electronic data copies. Promote the attention to the website of the Authority and activate it to be able to provide electronic services; by linking to an interactive database, dissemination of plans, policies, decisions, generalizations, objectives, the latest activities, news, and create an email to all employees in order to allow them to e-mail by automating all transactions with the electronic management documents system.

A New Agenda for Immigration and Citizenship Policy Research

Abstract: Given the widespread interest in political solutions to the current problems associated with immigration, we need to have an accurate understanding of existing policies in a cross-national perspective. To explain the coming into being and effectiveness of these policies, researchers have recently started to quantify immigration and citizenship policies and built databases across time and a large number of countries. These indices are likely to reconnect political science research with a field from which it has long been disconnected in terms of theories and methodology—the sub-field of migration and citizenship research. This special issue brings together scholars from North America and Europe who have been at the forefront of index-building and have started to employ these indices in empirical research.

Social responsibility in Ukrainian agriculture: the regional issue

Abstract: The social responsibility of agribusiness is currently one of the highly debated issues. Factors such as the globalization of agri-food supply chains, increasing competition, further integration of Ukraine in Europe and the world market, developments of Ukrainian large scale farms as well as public pressure on farms make the analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) highly relevant to Ukrainian agribusiness. The paper provides insights on the understanding of CSR by the Ukrainian agricultural enterprises, CSR activities implemented by farms and main drivers encouraging the implementation of CSR initiatives. The analysis is based on literature reviews and questionnaires of Ukrainian agricultural enterprises and representatives of the local community in Oblasts Zhytomyr, carried out in spring 2016.

From constitutional rule to loosely coupled spheres of liquid authority: a reflexive approach

Abstract: This article develops a reason-based social foundation of new forms of authority, which often are liquid and sectorally limited. The recognition of authority hinges, in this view, on reflexive actors who are aware of their own limits of rationality regarding the lack of either information or a perspective that allows for the pursuit of common goods. In such a reflexive concept of authority, authority takers tend to monitor the authorities closely, and the internalization of the subordinate role is not a necessary part of it. Reflexive authority is embedded in the acceptance of a knowledge order that reproduces the authority relationship. In spite of a tendency toward institutionalization, reflexive authority often comes in a liquid state of aggregation, and almost always with a restricted functional scope. Moreover, this new set-up of authority creates social dynamics that add to liquidity. First, the encompassing constitutionalized rule with majoritarian decision making as major source of legitimacy is increasingly undermined by loosely coupled spheres of specialized authorities, which are most often justified on the basis of expertise. We can observe both the rise of international authorities in the absence of coordination between them, and the rise of similar authorities within the nation state that escape control of the democratic core institutions. As a result, authority gets fragmented and different authorities need to adjust to each other. The second implication of the argument is that democratic legitimation narratives become rare, leading to an ongoing legitimatory contestation of authorities. Both these processes make authority even more liquid.

Why Do States Extend Rights to Immigrants? Institutional Settings and Historical Legacies Across 44 Countries Worldwide

Abstract: In this article, we first test theories on immigrant rights across 29 countries from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, using our Indicators of Citizenship Rights for Immigrants (ICRI) data set. We focus on trajectories of nationhood and current institutional features to explain cross-national difference. We find that former colonial powers, former colonies that developed as settler countries, as well as democracies have been more likely to extend rights to immigrants. Strikingly, once we account for involvement in colonialism, we find no difference between supposedly “civic-nationalist” early nation-states and supposedly “ethnic-nationalist” latecomer nations, refuting a widely held belief in the literature on citizenship. We find no effect of a country’s degree of political globalization. We replicate these findings on a sample of 35 mainly European countries, using the migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX).

The Efficiency of Information Technology and its Role of e-HRM in the Palestinian Universities

Abstract: The research aims to identify the efficiency of information technology and its role in human resources management electronically at universities in the Gaza Strip, and the population of the study consists of IT staff centers, where the number reached 35 employees working in universities in the Gaza Strip,. The researchers used the questionnaire as a tool for the study, descriptive and analytical approach was used to achieve the objectives of the study, (SPSS) program has been used to analyze the study data. The results of the study showed that there is agreement from the sample of the study on the availability of infrastructure in the IT center, which is statistically significant at (0.05), where the relative weight reached (73.97%) and the arithmetic mean (7.4). The results showed that the sample was highly agreeable, as all the results were statistically acceptable and above the arithmetic mean (6). The study stressed that the cooperation of information technology centers of private sector institutions is few and limited. The results confirmed the availability of management information systems for all administrative systems in a medium way, and that these systems are moderately adequate to build an electronic management system. The study reached several recommendations, the most important of which is the need to provide financial support to IT centers for their importance in the process of change to electronic management. The need to develop computerized management information systems to cover all administrative aspects. The need to develop e-HRM in universities, because they have a key role in the success of the process of transition to electronic management. The importance of the adoption of internal electronic correspondence instead of paper, which contributes significantly to reduce administrative financial expenses, and the speed of completion of work. The need to integrate computerized management information systems and work to link what is currently fully present as a beginning to a gradual transition to electronic management.

Effects of Mobile Technology on Human Relationships

Abstract: Technology plays an essential and important role in industrial and developing countries. Technology has affected almost all walk of human life such as education and social life. It has drastically changed the cultural norms and behavior of individuals. This study aims to find out the relation between mobile technology and its effects on face- to- face communications at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. The major objectives of this research are to examine the relationship between mobile technology use and the ability of people to communicate face- to- face and to find out whether mobile usage is weakening the quantity and quality of face- to- face interactions. This study found out that the use of mobile technology have negative impact on both the quality and the quantity of face- to- face communications. The study concludes that mobile use by individuals has reduced the time they spend engaging in face- to- face communications with each other because of the time spent on the mobile.

So What Do You Do? Experimenting with Space for Social Creativity

Abstract: This chapter investigates the relationship between physical space and processes of creative thinking and action. The authors build on organizational and sociological literature about social space and aesthetics, then illustrate how the latter two aspects influenced each other in five action experiments. Small mixed groups explored how they would use a studio to facilitate social innovation and to strengthen the link between the Max Stern Jezreel Valley College in Israel and the surrounding communities. Analysis of the video recordings identified seven configurations of social space that changed over time as the participants engaged in the task. The authors suggest that the undifferentiated and unencrusted nature of the space was both a source of uncertainty and potential for the participants. Some groups generated more innovative processes and products than others. The study also offers insights into the importance of embodied action and verbal discourse in innovative processes.

Compressing instruction time into fewer years of schooling and the impact on student performance

Abstract: Is it possible to compress instruction time into fewer school years without lowering education levels? A fundamental reform in Germany reduced the length of academic track schooling by one year, while increasing instruction hours in the remaining school years to provide students with a very similar core curriculum and the same overall instruction time. Using aggregated administrative data on the full population of students, we find that the reform increases grade repetition rates and lowers final grade point averages, without affecting graduation rates. The results suggest adverse reform effects on student performance, but the economic significance of the effects appears moderate.

Influence of exposure to perinatal risk factors and parental mental health related hospital admission on adolescent deliberate self-harm risk

Abstract: Adolescent deliberate self-harm (DSH) has been found to be associated with a range of bio-psycho-social factors. Simultaneous investigations of these factors enable more robust estimation of the independent effect of a specific risk factor by adjusting for a more complete set of covariates. However, few studies have had the ability to examine all of these factors together. This study used the linkage of population-level de-identified data collections from government agencies to investigate a range of biological, psychological, and social risk factors and their effects on adolescent risk of DSH (with or without suicidal intent). The investigation was undertaken by progressively adjusting for plausible covariates, including fetal growth status and birth order, early familial social factors, parental hospital admissions due to psychiatric disorders or DSH, and parental all-cause death. Conditional logistic regression was used for data analysis. Children’s psychiatric history was analysed to examine the extent to which it may account for the link between the risk factors and adolescent DSH risk. This study identified significant biological and perinatal social risk factors for adolescent DSH risk, including overdue birth, high birth order (≥2), single or teen/young motherhood, high neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage, and parental psychiatric and/or DSH-related hospital admissions. Further, parental psychiatric and/or DSH-related admissions, and children’s psychiatric admissions in particular, largely attenuated the effects of the perinatal social risk factors but not the biological factors on adolescent DSH risk. These results highlight the importance of taking joint actions involving both health and social services in the prevention of adolescent DSH.

When Top Management Leadership Matters: Insights From Artistic Interventions

Abstract: This article addresses how top management leadership behaviors matter in innovative interventions in organizations. A comparison of six cases of artistic interventions in four countries reveals that lack of visible top management support and sense-making orientation during and after the process resulted in little added value for the organization in three cases. Three other cases show various ways in which top management can legitimize such experimentation, from which more positive outcomes flowed at the individual and collective levels. The implications are counter-intuitive because top management faces two sets of tensions in innovative processes: presence/absence and providing orientation/being open to learning. The article suggests ways that top managers can address these tensions, including by engaging in constellations of distributed leadership, for which this article proposes a new definition.

Comparison of Error Correction Models and First-Difference Models in CCAR Deposits Modeling

Abstract: A well-known issue associated with linear time-series models is the so-called spurious regression problem when the variables are non-stationary. To cure this issue, one usually differences the data first, tests the stationarity of the first differences, and then runs regressions on the revised data. Alternatively, error correction models (ECMs) can be used if the dependent and independent variables are co-integrated. In this paper, we investigate forecasting performance between first-difference models and ECMs through four different simulation designs: (i) non-correlated I(1) processes; (ii) correlated near-stationary I(0) processes; (iii) correlated but un-cointegrated I(1) processes; and (iv) cointegrated I(1) processes. Our results show that ECMs have more robust performance than first-difference models in terms of coefficients estimation and out-of-sample forecasting under the CCAR framework. A simple application for models constructed for banks’ Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) exercises is exhibited.

Leave saving options over the life course – only for the highly skilled? Evidence from two German best-practice companies

Abstract: Individual leave saving options provide new options to employees to improve their employability and work–life balance over the life course. They are based on a simple idea: Employees can deposit overtime hours or portions of due remuneration in a time credit account and withdraw them at a later point in time in order to take prolonged periods of leave for care, training, or leisure activities. It is the leading question of this article as to what extent and in which way these options are factually used by different categories of employees. By reviewing existing studies in the Netherlands and by analysing German employee data the article reveals constraints in the accessibility of leave saving options. On the basis of transaction cost theory hypotheses are formulated regarding different uses of leave saving options by age, gender, and occupational status. These hypotheses are tested using regression analysis and employee data from two German best-practice companies. They show evidence for significant restrictions in terms of a high degree of selectivity with regard to age, skill and income levels. Based on these findings recommendations for future research and working time policies are discussed.

A micro perspective on political competition: Electoral availability in the European electorates

Abstract: This article develops an empirical measure of electoral availability, i.e., the micro perspective of political competition. As existing research conceptualizes political competition mainly as a macro- or party-level phenomenon, the micro perspective remains underdeveloped and, therefore, an important dimension of political competition, the availability of votes, is ignored. We introduce and discuss an individualized measure of electoral competition that is based on propensities to vote as indicators of the availability of voters to different political parties. The theoretical and empirical advantages of this measure are discussed: it is not restricted to parties’ positions but is based on multidimensional party evaluations; it does not only focus on actual behavior but instead on the potential behavior of voters; the proposed measure takes all (relevant) parties into account instead of only including the two largest parties; as a continuous index it avoids arbitrary cut-off points; and the resulting individual-level results are easily summable to obtain party- and country-level values. Finally, correlations with individual, party and party system characteristics are discussed.

A Cross- country study of the effect of institutional ownership on credit ratings

Abstract: A considerable number of studies have examined the relationship between corporate governance (CG) structures and corporate performance (e.g., Yermack, 1996; Gompers et al., 2003; Beiner et al., 2006; Renders et al., 2010; Ntim et al., 2012; Kumar & Zattoni 2013; Griffin, et al., 2014). In contrast, despite its importance as demonstrated by the recent financial crisis, studies examining why and how a corporation’s CG mechanisms might influence its credit ratings are rare (e.g., Switzer and Wang, 2013;Matthies, 2013; Tran, 2014). This research, therefore, seeks to contribute to the extant literature by exploring the effects of (CG) mechanisms on corporate credit ratings. Specifically, using a sample of 200 firms from 10 OECD countries over ten years covering the pre- and post-2007/08 global financial crisis period from Anglo American (i.e., Australia, Canada, Ireland, UK, and US) and Continental European (i.e., France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain) traditions and employing a total of 200 listed companies, this paper hopes to achieve a number of objectives. First, the paper attempted to assess the levels of compliance with, and disclosure of, CG principles contained in the 2004 OECD CG Code in firms from two different traditions: Anglo America and Continental Europe. Second, the paper sought to investigate the relationship between CG mechanisms and credit ratings. These relationships will be explored by employing firm-level CG mechanisms (ownership structures measured by Institutional Ownership) by accounting for firm-level control variables (e.g., firm size, growth, profitability, and leverage) based on a multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency and legitimacy theories. The findings revealed that there was a strong negative relationship between institutional ownership and credit ratings. From the descriptive analysis, it was shown that institutional owners did not have a very high credit rating. When the control variables were assessed, it was shown that they had a negative influence on the credit ratings with sales growth and leverage and positive significant relationship with firm size, corruption index, power distance and Anglo American countries.

The impact of private sector credit on income inequalities in European Union (15 member states)

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis on the income inequalities recorded in the EU-15 in the 1995-2014 period and to estimate the impact of private sector credit on income disparities. In order to estimate the impact, I used the panel data technique with 15 cross-sections for the first 15 Member States of the European Union, applying generalized error correction model.

Aggregation with sequential indivisible and continuous labor supply decisions and an informal sector

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of non-convex labor supply decision in an economy with both discrete and continuous labor decisions. In contrast to the setup in Vasilev (2016a), here each household faces a sequential labor market choice - an indivisible labor supply choice in the market sector, and conditional on non-working in the official sector, a divisible hours choice in the informal sector. We show how lotteries as in Rogerson (1988) can again be used to convexify consumption sets, and aggregate over individual preferences. With a mix of sequential discrete and continuous labor supply decisions, aggregate disutility of non-market work becomes separable from market work, and the elasticity of the latter increases from unity to infinity.