Sectoral employment effects of trade and productivity in Europe

The impact of trade and technology in the European case is assessed. A framework is developed which incorporates employment effects of (i) export expansion (ii) import competition and (iii) labour-saving productivity improvements. In this context, evidence is found for the hypothesis that international trade induces adjustments in technology.     

Cultural variation in the use of leisure time: Foreign tourists at the Grand Canyon

Abstract

Though time has often been treated as a sociological variable in the study of leisure, common assumptions about cultural variation in the use of leisure time remain largely untested. This study examined the time‐budgets of foreign visitors on organized tours at Grand Canyon National Park. Using over 1,400 observations of 40 tours, we examined the time‐budgets of Japanese, French, and other European tour groups. Significant differences in the allocation of time were found among the Japanese and European groups. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and of time‐budget studies in general for research and leisure behavior.     

Women and Land Deals in Africa and Asia: Weighing the Implications and Changing the Game

Large-scale land deals have attracted much attention from media and policymakers, and several international initiatives are attempting to regulate and address the impacts of such deals. Little attention has been paid to the gendered implications of such deals in the literature, and most regulatory initiatives do not address gender adequately. To fill this gap, this contribution identifies implications of land deals for women and recommends measures to mitigate negative impacts. It reviews evidence from four case studies commissioned for the International Land Coalition (ILC) Global Study of Commercial Pressures on Land conducted in 2010. The evidence is analyzed within a framework that posits women's vulnerability to land deals as due to four dimensions of underlying discrimination. This study analyzes three of these dimensions in depth, arguing that women are likely to be affected differently by land deals and disproportionately more likely to be negatively affected than men.     

Ethical Perspectives in Work Disability Prevention and Return to Work: Toward a Common Vocabulary for Analyzing Stakeholders’ Actions and Interactions

Many studies have emphasized the importance of medical, insurance, and workplace systems treating individuals fairly in work disability prevention (WDP) and return-to-work (RTW). However, ethical theories and perspectives from these different systems are rarely discussed in relation to each other, even though in practice these systems constantly interact. This paper explores ethical theories and perspectives that may apply to the WDP–RTW field, and discusses these in relation to perspectives attributed to dominant stakeholders in this field, and to potential differences in different jurisdictional contexts. Literature was sought primarily in biomedical ethics, business ethics, and public administration ethics. In biomedical ethics, four ethical principles are dominant: autonomy, beneficence, nonmalevolence, and justice. Business ethics involve theories on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), social contracts, and organizational justice. Public administration ethics focus on constitutional theory, citizenship, social equity, virtue, and public interest. Several concepts were identified as relevant for ethical analyses in the WDP–RTW field, including justice; individual autonomy; nonmalevolence; economic and social responsibility; and social contracts. These concepts provide a vocabulary that may be used to analyze stakeholders’ actions and interactions in RTW processes. It was also noted how the power balance between stakeholders will influence which ethical perspectives will influence RTW. Jurisdictional differences that influence RTW processes with regard to stakeholder responsibilities were identified, as well as varying beliefs as to who is the client in different compensation systems. A social contractual approach may inform an analysis of cultural and legal differences.     

Using flexible schedules in the managerial world: The power of peers

Reports indicate that managers fail to take advantage of flexible work schedules to integrate work and life demands. A survey was conducted of approximately 1,000 managers who had three alternative schedule options: flextime, part‐time work, and leave of absence. Managers who were women or who had work group peers who were schedule users were more likely to use each schedule. Managers' productivity concerns were highest for flextime, then leaves, and least for part‐time work. Organizational cultural change can occur if managers take the lead in their work groups to use flexible schedules in order to remove social barriers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Relationship marketing effectiveness: The role of involvement

The term relationship marketing has been used to describe a wide range of marketing tactics. In this article, three dimensions that may be used to categorize these tactics are identified: personalization, individualization, and continuity. Research is presented demonstrating that the effectiveness of each type of tactic is influenced by buyer involvement in the product category, although the nature of this influence differs by country and gender. This suggests that managers contemplating relationship marketing programs should consider buyer involvement levels, and that researchers studying relationship marketing effectiveness should control for this variable. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Gender differences in recollections of economic socialization,financial self-efficacy,and financial literacy

The OECD/INFE international surveys of adult financial literacy (OECD/INFE 2016, 2020) show gender differences in financial literacy in developed countries in Europe. In this study, we examine whether these differences can be explained by gender differences in parental economic socialization using the Dutch 2018 DHS household survey. We investigate whether respondents' recollection of economic socialization when young predict their adult economic behavior and self-assessed financial knowledge. The results from ordinal logit and logistic regressions and for nonlinear equations decompositions reveal gender differences in the recollection of economic socialization and in how socialization practices are related to economic behavior and self-assessed financial knowledge. Men have to a greater degree than women been socialized in terms of having paid work outside the home, while women more often than men report that their parents controlled their spending. Moreover, we find gender differences in how men and women benefitted from the same socialization practices.     

Socio-Technical Scenarios as a Tool to Improve Farm Advisory Services

This article examines the use of the socio-technical scenarios (STSc) method to explore the future needs of farmers in the adoption of more sustainable farming practices. It also examines the changes needed for advisory services to meet those identified needs. It presents the results from four STSc workshops organised as part of the H2020 AgriLink project. Workshop participants (farmers, advisors, policymakers, researchers), jointly explored future changes towards more sustainable agricultural systems paying special attention to the role of advisory services in these transitions. Despite the diversity of national contexts, common results emerged concerning both the shortcomings of the current advisory systems and directions for improvement. Participants agreed that advising on single aspects would not achieve the required systemic changes; these would require more integrated advisory systems at different levels (improved cooperation and knowledge flow), supported by more consistent policies. We indeed identified discrepancies between policy expectations and the broader innovation context. Policies should facilitate the role of advisors in supporting farmers to adopt sustainable innovations, but more often they also create barriers for such innovations. Participants’ concrete recommendations for more farmer-centered advisory services illustrate the usefulness of the STSc to explore potential solutions to key problems in contemporary farm advisory systems.     

Economic freedom at metropolitan statistical area borders

This paper applies a variation on differences-in-differences to the effects of economic freedom in matched bordering metropolitan statistical areas using the Metropolitan Economic Freedom Index. While a great deal of research has explored the relationship between economic freedom and economic performance, less has been done at the local level. We find that economic freedom has a positive effect on several measures of economic performance, but no effect on population.