Not just surviving,but thriving: perceived strengths of successful US‐based travel agencies

In‐depth interviews with owners of 19 exceptionally successful US‐based travel agencies were analyzed using a ground theory approach to reveal customer service excellence, employee enrichment and effective networking as three core perceived strengths that comprise a theme of ‘relationship building’. The latter is supported by a theme of ‘facilitation’ entailing diligent client selection, a culture of learning, high adaptability (related to technology and product realignment), scale, adherence to business basics, and owner optimism. Together, both themes suggest a macro‐theme of ‘deep commitment’. The results provide guidelines for aspiring travel agency owners. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nonlinear dynamics in economic modelling

Decisions in Economics and Finance -     

Estimating global bank network connectedness

We use LASSO methods to shrink, select, and estimate the high‐dimensional network linking the publicly traded subset of the world's top 150 banks, 2003–2014. We characterize static network connectedness using full‐sample estimation and dynamic network connectedness using rolling‐window estimation. Statically, we find that global bank equity connectedness has a strong geographic component, whereas country sovereign bond connectedness does not. Dynamically, we find that equity connectedness increases during crises, with clear peaks during the Great Financial Crisis and each wave of the subsequent European Debt Crisis, and with movements coming mostly from changes in cross‐country as opposed to within‐country bank linkages.     

Business,Aging, and Socioemotional Selectivity: A Qualitative Study of Gray Entrepreneurship

This three‐stage qualitative paper explores the motivations and experiences of gray entrepreneurship through age‐related lenses outlined in behavioral psychology literature. In contrast to economic approaches that presuppose financial drivers, findings reveal that intrinsic drivers such as achievement, fulfillment, and relationships had primacy among the participants in this research. Entrepreneurship enabled the older people in this study to construct their social environments in a way that maximizes the potential for positive affect, and minimizes the potential for negative affect, both in and out of work.     

The effect of a tax training program on tax compliance and business outcomes of starting entrepreneurs: Evidence from a field experiment

This paper estimates the long-term impact of a short, partly personalized, mandatory tax training program on tax compliance and business outcomes of first-time entrepreneurs. To this end, we combine survey data, audit data and unique register data from the Netherlands' Tax and Customs Administration with a three year long randomized experiment. The results show that the training affects specific domains of tax compliant behavior. Moreover, it has no impact on business survival, but treated entrepreneurs have significantly higher profits compared to the control group due to lower business costs. These outcomes are partially supportive of our hypotheses developed from theories on tax compliance and mental accounting.     

Does data matter? Statewide longitudinal data systems and student performance in the U.S.

Although many industries have benefited from advances in data-driven technology, education is making small steps in capitalizing on the huge potential of data systems. Since 2005, the U.S. Federal Government has been making large grants to help states build statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) with the goal of improving programme and teacher evaluation and engage in data-driven decision-making. We analyse whether the introduction of SLDSs improved student performance, measured using test scores for math and reading tests for 4th and 8th graders, as well as high school graduation rates. We find no effects of SLDSs on student performance up to 10 years from implementation. However, we find suggestive evidence that these systems may have long-run effects, emphasizing the long-run nature of educational data collection and policy analysis.     

A piecewise linear model of credit traps and credit cycles: a complete characterization

We reconsider a regime-switching model of credit frictions which has been proposed in a general framework by Matsuyama for the case of Cobb–Douglas production functions. This results in a piecewise linear map with two discontinuity points and all three branches having the same slope. We offer a complete characterization of the bifurcation structure in the parameter space, as well as of the attracting sets and related basins of attraction in the phase space. We also discuss parameter regions associated with overshooting, leapfrogging, poverty traps, reversal of fortune and growth miracle, as well as cycles with any kind of switching between the expansionary and contractionary phases.     

Tourism competitiveness of Italian municipalities

Quality & Quantity - The purpose of the paper is the study of tourism competitiveness and its determinants for the almost 8000 Italian municipalities. The partial least squares method...