Unemployment insurance and job turnover in Spain

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the potential relationships between the unemployment insurance system and labour market turnover. This study assumes the incentives embedded in the unemployment insurance system have a heterogeneous impact, depending on the type of labour market transition (quits versus layoffs and recalls versus new job entrances) and on a worker's attachment to the labour market (gender and type of contract). The layoff hazard rate increases as workers qualify for unemployment benefits, whilst the quit hazard rate remains stable. Similarly, employment inflow increases sharply after the exhaustion of unemployment benefits. The timing and importance of the exit differ between recalls and new job entry and depend on a worker's attachment to the labour market. The results show that unemployment benefits appear to favour job turnover and both firms' and workers' decisions seem to matter.     

Julia Adams. The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. xi + 235 pp. ISBN 0-8014-3308-8, $35.00 (paper).

This book is an ambitious attempt to reinterpret state creationin Early Modern Europe, from a theoretical point of view andalso because of the choice of the case study that centers theattention of the empirical research on the Dutch state. To begin with theory, Julia Adams goes back to Weberian theoriesabout the ideal type of patriarchal patrimonialism. Patrimonialpractices were traditional, but Max Weber stated that they couldset in motion fundamental     

The riches of relevance

This paper looks at the reality of joined-up communications in the financial sector, taking into account new developments in variable printing and insertion that allow a far greater degree of personalisation than ever before. Personalised reporting on financial products used to be very much a service only for the highest value customers. Now, the economics offered by high-speed variable colour printing mean that even the low-value customers can receive such a service. Next, the paper looks at the emerging practice of using bills and statements as a medium for targeted advertising, known as transpromo (transpromotional) advertising. The available advertising value of unused white space on bills and statements stands at £502?807?600 in the UK alone and represents a huge, as yet, fully unexploited opportunity. The issue of personalised web content is also explored in order to demonstrate its ability to improve customer retention, satisfaction, cross-sales and ultimately profitability. How to measure the outcomes of such targeted activity is tackled in the penultimate section, which examines the key underlying business measurement that should result from efficient and effective database marketing. Finally, the paper addresses the issue of managing customer retention post-mergers and acquisitions, particularly in respect of one-to-one communications challenges.     

Applications of general equilibrium models to the 1986 tax reform act in the United States

Summary This paper examines the structure and predictions of six applied general equilibrium models used to evaluate the 1986 Tax Reform Act in the United States. The models agree that the effects on national income will be fairly small. They disagree on the size of the improvement in economic efficiency from more neutral taxation of different capital assets, and on the size of the intertemporal inefficiency when capital formation is discouraged through a higher rate of taxation. This new application of general equilibrium models to an actual reform highlights the need to test predictions against empirical evidence.The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System. The author is grateful to J. von Sinderen, Laus Bovenberg, Lawrence Goulder, and other participants at the conference for their helpful comments, and to the authors of the studies reviewed in this paper for instructive discussions.Prepared for The Netherlands Central Planning Bureau Symposium on Applied General Equilibrium Models, Noordwijk, December 4–5, 1989.     

Does increased hedging lead to decreased price efficiency? The case of VIX ETPs and VIX futures

We examine the impact of the introduction of VIX exchange‐traded products (ETPs) on the information content and pricing efficiency of VIX futures. We document that trades in VIX futures have become less informative and that pricing errors exhibit more persistence after the introduction of VIX ETPs. In addition, we observe that the price process of the VIX futures has become noisier over time. These findings suggest that the introduction of the VIX ETPs had a prominent effect on the properties and dynamics of the VIX futures.     

Growth machines and social movements in mature tourist destinations Costa del Sol-Málaga

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the new processes of tourism growth and its conflicts from the perspective of social movements. First, the urban growth machine analysis model is applied by the systematisation of six projects. Second, the resistance movements against those projects and whether this resistance could be the start of local tourism degrowth policies are examined. The methodology is qualitative, based on documentary analysis, participatory observation, discussion groups and interviews. The case study is the destination of Costa del Sol-Málaga. The results enable the development of the urban growth machine model in tourist destinations. Meanwhile, social movements demystify the argument based on neoclassical economic progress. The social movements condemn the effects of large-scale top-down projects, and implement alternative bottom-up proposals. Although the social movements do not reject tourism, they call for greater control over its impact, denounce unlimited growth, overtourism and the loss of urban quality of life. These movements advocate a lifestyle linked to the everyday space, which they believe is threatened by excessive urban-tourism growth. They are a symptom of the need to devise a proposal using the principles of degrowth.     

Commodities and Macroeconomic Factors: Unconditional Volatility Measures

Abstract:

This study focuses on the measurement of spillover effects from macroeconomic factors to commodity volatility. It argues that such measurement is sensitive to volatility computation and to causality testing. To this end, I analyze two commodity data sets-gold and the Continuous Commodity Index (1969-2011), and twenty-four Dow Jones futures indexes (1991-2011)-and various macroeconomic indicators. I conclude that the macroeconomic factors that influence volatility generally depend on the commodity under consideration. I also explore whether commodities of the same class experience volatility shifts around the same dates, and find that this is not the case except for energy commodities.     

Market Structure And The Adoption Of Innovations: The Case Of The Spanish Banking Sector ‡

This paper is an empirical study of the determinants of adoption time for the teleprocess terminal by Spanish commercial and savings banks. The explanatory variables include the characteristics of the adopting firms, size, and in the case of the savings banks, the structure of the market and concentration. The results indicate that the speed of adoption is maximized at intermediate levels of size and market concentration, confirming one theoretical prediction of models of diffusion: namely, that adoption time is minimized at intermediate levels of market concentration.     

International Executives,Identity Strategies and Mobility in France and China

The strategies of multinational firms increasingly rely in Asia Pacific Region on processes of socialising their employees, who are seeking to develop and reinforce a “global” company culture, without endangering the cultures of local subsidiaries. Specialists have coined the term “cross-cultural management”. A role of “company ambassador” is allocated to a new generation of international executives in Asia whose mission will be to play an effective role as interface between head office its the subsidiaries – and between the subsidiaries themselves – once they have been suitably “impregnated” with the company culture and the particular features of different markets.

The repeated experience of international mobility that executives live through means that the individual may well be living in conflict with previous identities. It is true to say that nobody stays long in an internationally mobile situation without running the risk of there being strong divergence between the domestic and residential worlds, the life of the community and the world of the company. This article has been written as a result of in-depth research into the way executives of a large French oil company built up their identities and as a result of a study examines intercultural learning based on French expatriates' experience in China. We consider how French expatriates experience China and what imaginary underlies their perception. Analysis of daily socialization and interaction processes shows intercultural competence develops along distinct immersion stages: immersion–adjustment, immersion–comprehension, and immersion–integration. Individually, adjustment and comprehension support intercultural practice. The ultimate immersion stage leads to enlightened pragmatism stemming from “nomadic intelligence”. Where a researcher in the social sciences or a business man might have expected to have found an homogenous international elite, international executives building an “international system”, the heterogeneous nature of the identity strategies of international executives give the lie to the myth of the large company as a space for the irreversible assimilation of its members. At an individual level, being an international executive is a unique way of living the experience abroad, or rather, several different ways of experiencing identity strategies linked to the manipulation of one's ethnicity in a context of significant geographical and functional mobility.     

Participation in Community Leisure Programs: Experiences and Perspectives of Children with Developmental Difficulties and Their Parents

Children with developmental disabilities participate in more solitary, sedentary, and home-based leisure activities than active physical pursuits or community-based activities. Clinical experience suggests that children with less well-recognized developmental difficulties also have compromised leisure experiences; however, this has not been fully investigated. This study engaged 20 school-age children with developmental difficulties in a community-based circus program, designed in collaboration with occupational therapists. The program included activities such as trampolining, trapeze, and acrobatics. Semi-structured interviews with children and parents explored children's leisure experiences both at circus and more broadly. Qualitative content analysis revealed that friendships, having fun, and being physically active were highly valued aspects of leisure. The coaching style and “just right” level of challenge within programs were identified as central to children's engagement and sense of competence. Participating in a supported leisure program such as circus appeared to promote children's engagement in community leisure, at least in the short term.