The evolution of the world trade web: a weighted-network analysis

This paper employs a weighted network approach to study the empirical properties of the web of trade relationships among world countries, and its evolution over time. We show that most countries are characterized by weak trade links; yet, there exists a group of countries featuring a large number of strong relationships, thus hinting to a core-periphery structure. Also, better-connected countries tend to trade with poorly-connected ones, but are also involved in highly-interconnected trade clusters. Furthermore, rich countries display more intense trade links and are more clustered. Finally, all network properties are remarkably stable across the years and do not depend on the weighting procedure.     

What is Driving Reserve Accumulation? A Dynamic Panel Data Approach

Foreign reserve accumulation is a widespread phenomenon of recent years, particularly among emerging economies. Using a panel of 136 countries for the period 1973–2003, we demonstrate the need of using both a dynamic specification of the reserve demand equation and the system GMM estimator. These improvements change the results found by previous studies. Openness, regional imitation, persistence, an inverted U-shaped relationship between reserves and income level, and financial deregulation are the factors driving reserve hoardings. In contrast, reserves yield, and both trade and financial volatility are not statistically significant. Surprisingly, we find that countries with flexible exchange rate regimes have higher ratios of reserves to GDP. This result is robust to alternative exchange rate regime classifications.     

A dynamic approach to voluntary environmental contributions in tourism

In an evolutionary game-theoretical model of tourism firms that use an endogenous natural Common Pool Resource (CPR) we show that stable equilibria with voluntary environmental initiatives may coexist with other equilibria where voluntary abatement is absent. The basins of attraction of the equilibria are identified and a bifurcation analysis is carried out producing two results with policy implications. First, there is a highly non-linear relationship between the cost of abatement required to be green and the share of green firms. Second, increases in the number of the CPR's users will ultimately dissipate the incentives to make abatement beyond regulation.     

Media visibility and corporate social responsibility investment evidence in Spain

Despite the extensive research in both the determinants and the results of corporate social responsibility (CSR), relatively few studies have considered extra-legal institutions as potential determinants of CSR. Our work fills this gap by looking at how media attention affects CSR over a long-term period in a continental European setting. Our results show that media coverage positively affects CSR. Additional scrutiny triggered by media coverage encourages dominant owners to signal their commitment to limiting self-dealing transactions and their orientation toward stakeholders' needs through CSR investments. Additionally, our results reveal that this signaling device offers greater benefits and lower costs in firms where controlling owners show a voting-cash flow wedge. Our results are relevant to different actors such as investors, auditors, and policy makers as they provide solid evidence that media coverage is an important driver of CSR orientation in a continental European setting.     

The influence of individual characteristics on getting involved in an entrepreneurial team: The contingent role of individualism

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - A traditional stereotype of the entrepreneur is that of a lone hero. However, many entrepreneurs engage in new businesses as members of...     

Board of director attributes: effects on financial performance in SMEs

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper analyses the relationship between board of director (BoD) attributes and financial performance in small and medium-sized...     

Factors that determine the degree of fulfilment of expectations for entrepreneurs from the business incubator programmes

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - The uncertain economic situation that was experienced because of the global financial crisis in 2008 and the exponential growth in the use of...