What influences continuous employee development decisions?

Organizational changes have created a need for adaptable pre-trained workers and for employees to have more “protean” career paths and be involved in self-directed ongoing development [Hall & Mirvis, 1995. The new career contract: Developing the whole person at midlife and beyond. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 47(3), 269–289]. To help understand the processes involved in this development, a model of continuous employee development is proposed. This model integrates prior work from career development, training, and education literatures and builds on it by proposing factors that affect the occurrence of future development. Research supporting the model is reviewed and specific testable propositions derived from the variables in the model are given. Recommendations for scale usage in testing the model are also provided. Finally, the novel contributions of the model are highlighted, the practical implications of the model for organizations are outlined, and the role of the education system in these processes is discussed.     

DO MARKETS PENALIZE AGENCY CONFLICTS BETWEEN CONTROLLING AND MINORITY SHAREHOLDERS? EVIDENCE FROM CHILE

Using a sample of Chilean listed firms with widespread presence of economic conglomerates that use pyramid structures to control affiliated companies, we find that firms where controlling shareholders have higher coincidence between cash and control rights are persistently more valued by the market. We carefully check that our results are not driven by omitted variable biases and control for reverse causation using a feature of Chilean Corporations Law that provides an exogenous instrument for ownership concentration.     

Urban Poverty,Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo and Salvador,Brazil

General consensus exists concerning the relevance of networks and space in poverty situations, despite a considerable dispute on the prominence of each element. While social‐support and poverty debates highlight the joint importance of space and networks, the research agenda on contemporary communities suggests that networks have recently started replacing space in social integration. These debates mainly consider networks and ties normatively and are restricted to the global North, hampering the formulation of comparative interpretations and more theoretical conclusions. This article discusses the relationship between space, sociability and poverty, based on research results on networks of poor individuals in two major Brazilian metropolises—Salvador and São Paulo. Research indicates the existence of great heterogeneity in the networks of poor individuals, although with substantial differences, on average, to middle‐class individuals. Certain types of networks and sociability are systematically associated with better living conditions, employment and income. Additionally, network mobilization by individuals presents important regularities associated with social mechanisms, understood as regular patterns that trigger or cause certain results. These mechanisms explain to a great extent the heterogeneity of networks, and mediate the individual's access to opportunities and everyday assistance. They therefore contribute decisively to the production (and reproduction) of urban poverty.     

Joan Robinson on Population Growth

Joan Robinson’s views on population growth have received scant attention. The aim of this article is to summarize and evaluate aspects of Robinson’s perspectives on population. The population question is considered in terms of four specific topics: the problem of growth, the labor market, effective demand and economic development. The article also interprets Robinson’s approach in light of the endogenous theory of economic growth in order to more explicitly elucidate Robinson’s own statements. It is concluded that an economic interpretation of population growth based on Robinson’s approach requires some specific adaptations if it is to be feasible. It is hoped that this line of approach is useful to scholars of the history of economic thought, economic development or theory of economic growth.     

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN MEXICO,CRIME, AND ECONOMIC FORCES

This paper re‐examines inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the 32 subnational Mexican states based on quarterly data from 2005 to 2015, which includes rising drug‐related crimes. We estimate our models using panel data methods by type of crime, state‐level indicators (real wages and electricity consumption), macroeconomic forces (the real exchange rate and interest rate), and a dummy variable for the financial crisis of 2008–2009. We employ a flexible lag‐length method and find that homicides and thefts have negative and statistically significant effects on FDI, while other crimes have no effects. Subsample work suggests higher negative effects in the most violent states. (JEL F15, F21, F23, F36)     

Institutional Constraints,Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Environmental Reporting Policies

Within the theoretical framework of socio‐political economics, and more specifically of stakeholder theory, this work examines whether companies operating under different institutional constraints and stakeholder pressure tend to emphasize different models of corporate environmental reporting. Furthermore, the paper tests whether different corporate environmental reporting policies are driven by the countries' corporate governance systems. A sample of 3931 international companies was examined through a logistic biplot and conditional mean linear regression models. The main results reveal that companies follow two distinct environmental reporting approaches, which depend on specific stakeholders and institutional requirements. The first model, which is followed by firms within codified law countries, mostly focuses on water and emissions. The second approach, mainly followed by companies operating in common law countries, emphasizes materials and energy issues. This finding reveals that companies gradually modify their environmental strategies to make themselves more compatible with the characteristics of the social and institutional environment, which will result in several corporate benefits. The paper provides several outstanding implications for companies' strategic managers, national institutions and firms' stakeholders, especially for investors and customers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Evaluating the Technical Provisions for Traditional Brazilian Annuity Plans: Continuous-Time Stochastic Approach Based on Solvency Principles

This article presents an approach for evaluating the liabilities of traditional Brazilian annuity plans, using a continuous-time stochastic approach based on modern solvency principles. The technical provisions are obtained by means of conditional expectation, under a real-world measure and considering the peculiar characteristics of each plan and the financial guarantees and profit participations (bonus and dividend plans) embedded in the annuity plans. We assume that policyholder behavior is not optimal, but we also illustrate a calculation of provision assuming optimal policyholder behavior to show the differences between both assumptions. In this article all explicit provisions formulas are derived, and several relevant conclusions about the values of these provisions are discussed.     

On the index tracking and the statistical arbitrage choosing the stocks by means of cointegration: the role of stock picking

In this paper, we propose a new methology for Index Tracking (IT) by means of cointegration which provides some significant improvements on that field. As the quality of the tracking portfolio (TP) depends highly on the stock selection procedure, we propose picking the stocks using a model selection technique based on optimizing the cointegration level of the TP and the benchmark index instead of selecting, as in previous papers the assets by ad hoc decisions. To illustrate an empirical application of these techniques we use daily closing prices in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index over two different periods; one period which goes from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2001 previously used by other authors, and the bear and a turmoil period, which goes from January 2007 to May 2012, inside the current financial crisis. Using only five assets we are able to successfully track the DJIA index and our results improve the IT technique based on cointegration that chooses stocks with maximum capitalization level. We also have compared our results with a more traditional procedure based on correlation and again our results reveal superiority. The empirical illustration not only has been focused on the TP itself, but has also been extended to tracking the index with an added profitability of 5, 10, 15 or 20% and to long-short strategies, producing profitable results.     

Inference on factor structures in heterogeneous panels

This paper develops an estimation and testing framework for a stationary large panel model with observable regressors and unobservable common factors. We allow for slope heterogeneity and for correlation between the common factors and the regressors. We propose a two stage estimation procedure for the unobservable common factors and their loadings, based on Common Correlated Effects estimator and the Principal Component estimator. We also develop two tests for the null of no factor structure: one for the null that loadings are cross sectionally homogeneous, and one for the null that common factors are homogeneous over time. Our tests are based on using extremes of the estimated loadings and common factors. The test statistics have an asymptotic Gumbel distribution under the null, and have power versus alternatives where only one loading or common factor differs from the others. Monte Carlo evidence shows that the tests have the correct size and good power.