Focus on cash transfer programs: assessing the eligibility of the Bolsa Família program in Brazil

Quality & Quantity - Income transfer programs are important public policies in fighting poverty and reducing inequality. However, such a strategy is often criticised as being ineffective, as...     

The wealth effects of takeover bids regulation in the European Union

We investigate the wealth effects of the Takeover Bids Directive, enacted by the European Union (EU), on mergers and acquisitions. The directive aims at protecting target minority shareholders by restricting antitakeovers provisions and preventing managerial entrenchment. We test the regulation impact using a treatment sample of EU public acquisitions and a control sample from outside the EU. Our results suggest diverse effects of the regulation across treatment countries: acquirers from countries with better shareholder protection engage in more value-enhancing acquisitions postregulation that could otherwise be too costly. The regulation also increases the likelihood of firms becoming targets and raises market value.     

Multifunctional risk in the adoption of innovative technological products

This study analyses whether the perceived risk of purchasing technological products is less influential on the process of technological adoption when this effect is moderated by the product's multifunctional category (hedonic vs. utilitarian product characteristics). Four experiments were developed according to scenarios related to the multifunctional content (level of complexity according to the product category) of the technology and the number of functionalities in the products. The perception of risk has less effect on adoption when the product characteristics are manipulated to be more utilitarian or heighten the consumer's social value. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of which categories are less influenced by the perceived multifunctional risk of purchasing and adopting a new technology, as well as of when individual values overlap with consumers' risk perceptions. It also contributes managerially by identifying the profile of individuals who are more likely to consume innovations characterized by high complexity and functionality, and by providing guidance for the development of innovative products that prioritize utilitarian, rather than hedonic, characteristics.     

Green technology co-patenting networks: international dynamics

The present study examined how the multi-country green technology co-patenting network structure evolved from 1997 to 2016. For that purpose, we used Social Network Analysis tools, which allowed us to assess the network structure from a visual and quantitative perspective. The results indicate that the network expanded as the number of participating countries and ties increased. In all periods, the network grew significantly centralized around a small group of countries, in which the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, France, and Canada had paramount weight. Emerging countries like India and China also stood out due to their growth over time, as they eventually managed to gain central positions in the network. Other developing countries remained marginal, such as Brazil.

     

Antecedents of brand loyalty in South African retail banking

With new banks entering the South African market and consumers generally not satisfied with their current bank, brand loyalty in the banking sector is receiving greater attention. A gap in the literature exists regarding the issues of bank loyalty and their antecedents in South African retail banking because of the few studies available in the South African context, the new competitive environment in the banking sector, the multi-cultural nature of the market, and the likely switching behaviour by customers. The South African context is a multi-cultural environment and therefore offers a unique background as most previous brand loyalty studies have been in mono-cultural contexts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents of brand loyalty, including satisfaction, brand relationship quality, customer advocacy, and brand trust in retail banking. We report on a survey of 351 banking customers through SEM using AMOS. While the findings are generally supportive of previous studies, some surprising results are discussed and implications for both theory and practice are highlighted.

     

Place-Based Policies and Nowcasting

There is a growing need to gauge local economic activity in real time. Localised economic challenges have been emphasised in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Real-time trackers (such as OECD trackers) and other nowcasting applications typically correspond to national or highly aggregated regions. In this discussion paper, we briefly explore how unconventional data might be used to produce nowcasts of local economies. We argue that in the absence of traditional nowcasting metrics, efforts to nowcast local economies need a local perspective, with data capture tailored to address heterogeneity across three domains: (1) resources, (2) people and (3) life.