Fixed-Term Contracts and Labor Market Duality in France

The French labor market is segmented between permanent and temporary workers. The second category has difficulty in getting an open-ended contract. This paper aims at depicting workers on short-term contracts and shows the consequences on their professional career are negative and significant. A large part of the wage gap between permanent and temporary workers remains unexplained by observable characteristics. They receive less on-the-job training and their likelihood of obtaining a stable job is lower than 30% after 1 year and a half. They have also a higher probability of being the adjustment variable in case of an economic negative shock. These different findings show the importance of using public policies to encourage transitions from fixed-term to permanent employment and reducing labor-market duality.     

Move fast,travel slow: the influence of high-speed rail on tourism in Taiwan

High-speed rail (HSR) and tourism are closely related economic activities because improved mobility is perceived to facilitate tourist behavioral changes. This study examines the influence of HSR on the travel patterns of individual tourists in Taiwan in relation to time, space and carbon emissions. A framework is first provided to discuss how changes in the speed of intercity transportation will affect visitors’ choice of the journey, behavior at destinations and trip quality. In addition, HSR is expected to influence five general aspects of travel decisions relating to mobility and trip emissions, including mode selection, travel distance, length of stay per trip, annual travel frequency and total travel days. In the example of Taiwan, information by onsite sampling of 400 domestic travelers found that HSR had a weak influence on travel distance and length of stay per trip, but was observed to facilitate extended time at each stop, a deeper engagement with the locality, and an approximate 10% reduction in transport carbon emissions through intermodal substitution. These phenomena are in line with the slow travel concept of sustainable tourism consumption.     

National information and euro area monetary policy: a generalized ordered choice approach

We empirically analyze the influence of inflationary pressure originating from persistent national misalignments on the ECB’s interest rate decisions between 2000 and mid-2010. To do so, we introduce an indicator that summarizes the threat to euro area price stability originating from self-reinforcing expected inflation differentials. The indicator is computed based on persistent deviations of national expected inflation and GDP growth rates from the corresponding euro area aggregate. It thereby captures area-wide excess demand pressure on the euro area inflation rate. In order to determine the information content of this indicator, we add it to an empirical monetary policy reaction function. We then analyze this reaction function in the framework of a generalized ordered choice model that fits the data a lot better than its commonly used, more restricted counterpart. Within this empirical framework, we find that after controlling for several area-wide aggregates, national information does not provide additional information that is indicative of the ECB’s policy rate decision.     

The U-shaped relationship between happiness and age: evidence using world values survey data

The paper retests the U-shaped relationship between happiness and age using the cross-classified multilevel regression procedure and the World Values Survey data. The analysis accounts for period and cohort effects. The results reconfirm the pattern that happiness is U-shaped in the life course. That is, happiness decreases from a high-point in young adulthood, reaches a low-point in midlife, and thereafter increases to arrive at another high-point in old age. The results show that the high-point of happiness in old age is lower than the high-point of happiness in young adulthood. That happiness does not return to its initial high-point after it drops to a low-point in midlife is perhaps another stylized fact in the relationship between happiness and age.     

Net foreign asset positions and appreciation expectations on the Swiss franc and the Japanese Yen

The paper shows that currencies of countries with persistent current account surpluses and high foreign-currency denominated assets, such as the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen, are under persistent appreciation pressure, particularly when the centres of the world monetary system follow expansionary monetary policies. This limits the choice of exchange rate regime. Given flexible exchange rates, a negative risk premium on the domestic interest rate can emerge. Empirical estimations provide mixed evidence for a negative impact of net foreign asset positions and exchange rate uncertainty on interest rates of international creditor countries at the periphery of the world monetary system.     

On the implied market price of risk under the stochastic numéraire

This papers addresses the stock option pricing problem in a continuous time market model where there are two stochastic tradable assets, and one of them is selected as a numéraire. An equivalent martingale measure is not unique for this market, and there are non-replicable claims. Some rational choices of the equivalent martingale measures are suggested and discussed, including implied measures calculated from bond prices constructed as a risk-free investment with deterministic payoff at the terminal time. This leads to possibility to infer a implied market price of risk process from observed historical bond prices.     

Systemic Cooperative Actions among Competitors: the Case of a Furniture Cluster in Brazil

The purpose of this article is to describe cooperation practices observed in competitors companies in a furniture cluster in Brazil. The literature refers to it as coopetition. The research method was the multiple case study. The main research technique was the semi-structured interviews with practitioners of the cluster. The study created a theoretical framework for cooperative practices in industrial clusters formed by four types of practices: logistics, marketing and sales, formation of the workforce, and innovation and technology. The study investigates these four types of cooperation in five large companies that compete in the same market, the anchor companies of the cluster. The only entirely complied type of collaboration is the formation of the workforce of the cluster. In the other practices, cooperation involving competitors is lower than reported in the literature. The main reason for this low cooperation is excessive rivalry and mutual distrust in the cluster, and competition by differentiation, which partially prevent the gain of scale provided by cooperative actions.     

衡水市农户土地资源转出意愿的影响因素与行政干预

[目的]通过了解河北省衡水市农户土地转出的意愿状况,分析影响农户土地资源转出意愿的关键因素,并制定正确的战略决策,为构建农地适度规模化经营奠定理论基础,促进衡水市农民的现代化发展。[方法]文章结合调研情况,对样本区农户土地使用权流转行为进行了统计描述和分析研究,并运用Logistic模型对农户土地使用权转出意愿的影响因素进行了分析,找到了影响衡水市土地流转的关键性因素。[结果]研究表明,户主年龄、从事职业和文化程度、农户家庭非农收入以及农户家庭兼业人数等与农户土地转出意愿呈显著正相关关系,显著性数值分别为0. 018、0. 000、0. 010、0. 000、0. 028,而农户家庭农用机械数量则与农户土地转出意愿呈显著负相关关系,显著性数值为0. 033。此外农户社会保障程度和农户对政府土地流转的相关政策了解程度等因素也影响着农户土地流转的意愿。[结论]影响农户土地转出意愿的显著性因素包括家庭非农收入、户主年龄和职业;另外,户主的年龄、职业、文化程度、非农收入、家庭兼业人数和农用机械数量均是影响农户土地转出意愿的重要内容。     

A study of the relationships among sensory experience,emotion, and buying behavior in coffeehouse chains

Studies that simultaneously explore the effects of sensory experience on consumer emotions and behavior are rare. This paper builds a model of buying behavior based on sensory experience, 570 valid questionnaires were obtained from coffeehouse customers. Using structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis, this paper validates the concept model and verifies that sensory experience is a significant antecedent to buying behavior. This study indicates that certain sensory experiences significantly influence emotion. Emotion also plays a mediating role in the relationship between sensory experience and behavioral intentions. The findings are theoretically and practically profound as they address the relationships among sensory experience, consumer emotions, behavioral intentions, and buying behavior, as well as explore how the five senses affect emotions and buying behavior. This paper concludes by indicating managerial implications and research limitations.