New estimates of labour supply elasticities for married women in Canada 1996–2005

In this article, we estimate income and substitution labour supply and participation elasticities for Canadian married women using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics 1996–2005. We use the Canadian Tax and Credit Simulator (CTaCS) and detailed information on the structure of income at the household level to compute the marginal tax rates faced by each individual. We then use these marginal tax rates to compute net own-wage, spouse-wage, and nonlabour income. We show how the magnitude of the estimated elasticities varies depending on whether net or gross wages and income are used in the estimation procedure, and quantify biases caused by using average tax rates instead of marginal tax rates. Finally, because marginal tax rates vary significantly over the sample, we use quantile regressions to compare elasticities at different points of the hours distribution. Overall, our results show that public policies now have, on average, less scope for influencing hours of work than 10 years ago. However, the quantile results show that wives working fewer hours per week are more sensitive to changes in their own or spouses’ wages.     

The relative impact of actual and potential rivalry on firm profitability in the pharmaceutical industry

This paper estimates the effects of actual and potential rivalry on profitability of firms in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry during the 20‐year period 1963–82. The results show that during the 1960s actual rivalry among the sampled firms did not materially affect firm profitability, but that during the 1970s competition among incumbents had an increasingly adverse effect on their profitability. The results also show that potential competition significantly reduced drug firms’ profitability during the entire 20‐year period. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Indigenous Land Rights Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Constraint on Productivity?

This article uses cross-sectional evidence from Ghana, Kenya,and Rwanda in 1987–88 to examine the question, Are indigenousland rights systems in Sub-Saharan Africa a constraint on productivity?The evidence supports the hypothesis suggested by historicalstudies, that African indigenous land rights systems have spontaneouslyevolved from systems of communal control towards individualizedrights in response to increases in commercialization and populationpressure. Cross-sectional data on the incidence of land improvementsand on land yields provide little support for the view thatlimitations under indigenous law on the right to transfer landare a constraint on productivity.     

Immigrants and Workplace Training: Evidence from Canadian Linked Employer–Employee Data

Job training is one of the most important aspects of skill formation and human capital accumulation. In this study, we use longitudinal Canadian linked employer–employee data to examine whether white/visible minority immigrants and Canadian-born emplooyees experience different opportunities in two well-defined measures of firm-sponsored training: on-the-job training and classroom training. While we find no differences in on-the-job training between different groups, our results suggest that visible minority immigrants are significantly less likely to receive classroom training, and receive fewer and shorter classroom training courses, an experience that is not shared by white immigrants. For male visible minority immigrants, these gaps are entirely driven by their differential sorting into workplaces with fewer training opportunities. For their female counterparts, however, they are mainly driven by differences that emerge within workplaces. We find no evidence that years spent in Canada or education level can appreciably reduce these gaps. Accounting for potential differences in career paths and hierarchical level also fails to explain these differences. We find, however, that these gaps are only experienced by visible minority immigrants who work in the for-profit sector, with those in the nonprofit sector experiencing positive or no gaps in training. Finally, we show that other poor labor market outcomes of visible minority immigrants, including their wages and promotion opportunities, stem in part from these training gaps.     

From organizational values to mobilization of human resources

This study examines the relationship of perceived organizational values to employee mobilization behaviours as mediated by perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment. Firstly, a scale comprising three types of perceived organizational values (interpersonal values, formal values, and individual well‐being‐centered values) was developed and validated using a sample of 580 employees. Secondly, the relationships among variables were examined using structural equations modeling on an independent sample of 260 employees. POS mediated the relationship between employees' perceptions that their organization values the individual well‐being of its members and their affective organizational commitment, which in turn mediated the relationship between POS and individual mobilization behaviours. The contributions of these findings to advancing scholarship and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“I like it,but I don't use it”: Impact of carsharing business models on usage intentions in the sharing economy

Carsharing is often promoted as a potentially environmental‐friendly alternative to individual car ownership. However, various carsharing programs have displayed limited success in the past. An initial field study of a new carsharing service is such a story of failure: The introduction of this new service at a medium‐sized German university generated unexpectedly low adoption rates so that the service was eventually scaled down and then suspended. Quantitative field study results as well as additional qualitative focus groups reveal that missing compatibility is a key barrier to adoption. Drawing on extant conceptual frameworks of user participation in sharing business models, a factorial survey identifies the importance of different dimensions of carsharing business models for their acceptance. The results reveal that a set of convenience and lifestyle dimensions influences usage intentions, including mode of drive, pickup and drop‐off mode, service level, price model, availability, and type of market mediation. In contrast, vehicle fleet does not appear to influence carsharing models' acceptance. These findings contribute to research on business model configuration as well as the attitude–behavior gap in the sharing economy by determining relevant dimensions of a carsharing business model that can bridge the gap between basically positive attitudes and usage resistance. Thereby, they also serve for concrete managerial recommendations.     

Parallel cartoons of fractal models of finance

Summary. Having been crafted to welcome a new scientific journal, this paper looks forward but requires no special prerequisite. The argument builds on a technical wrinkle (used earlier but explained here fully for the first time), namely, the authors grid-bound variant of Brownian motion B(t). While B(t) itself is additive, this variant is a multiplicative recursive process the author calls a cartoon. Reliance on this and related cartoons allows a new perspicuous exposition of the various fractal/multifractal models for the variation of financial prices. These illustrations do not claim to represent reality in its full detail, but suffice to imitate and bring out its principal features, namely, long tailedness, long dependence, and clustering. The goal is to convince the reader that the fractals/multifractals are not an exotic technical nightmare that could be avoided. In fact, the authors models arose successively as proper, natural, and even unavoidable generalization of the Brownian motion model of price variation. Considered within the context of those generalizations, the original Brownian comes out as very special and narrowly constricted, while the fractal/multifractal models come out as nearly as simple and parsimonious as the Brownian. The cartoons are stylized recursive variants of the authors fractal/multifractal models, which are even more versatile and realistic.This revised version was published online in January 2005 with corrections to the Cover date.