Beliefs,Economic Volatility,and Redistributive Preferences Across Developing Countries

Beliefs about social competition affect redistributive demands and the responsibility assigned to government regarding public provisions. Given the strong link between beliefs and the extent of support for social protection, it is important to explain the cross‐country differences. The paper analyzes the factors that are crucial in explaining redistributive demands across developing countries with a special emphasis on beliefs about social competition. While ideas about luck versus effort in determining economic prospects are explanatory in every country, our findings also suggest that in societies with high economic volatility the role of beliefs is amplified. Vast fluctuations in economic performance fuel the opinion that economic failure is a result of systemic characteristics, and individuals are not necessarily held fully responsible for their material faiths in such settings. Therefore, government is assigned a greater role in basic provisioning.     

Gaining legitimacy through CSR: an analysis of Turkey's 30 largest corporations

Grounded in institutional theory, this study provides an overview of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Turkey's 30 largest corporations through a thematic content analysis. The study focuses on the G‐20 member Turkey and investigates the influence of isomorphism mechanisms on the adoption of CSR initiatives in a developing country context. The aim of this study is to integrate Carroll's CSR dimensions, the type of CSR engagement and coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism mechanisms proposed by institutional theory. Through this integration the study makes a unique contribution to the literature by providing a different perspective. Findings reveal industry characteristics do not influence the selection of CSR initiatives. While business‐to‐business companies focus on CSR activities linked to their core business functions, business‐to‐consumer companies focus on CSR initiatives that are more discretionary, varied and philanthropic. In addition, findings show that multinational corporations implement CSR initiatives at the global level rather than focusing on local needs.     

The Evolution of the Distribution of Plant Size: Evidence from Luxemburg

In a recent paper, [Cabral, L. M. B. and J. Mata, 2003, American Economic Review, 93, 1075–1090] using Portuguese manufacturing data have shown for the first time that the plant size distribution is significantly right-skewed at the early part of the life cycle and then changes to become more log-normal. Using a similar proxy for plant age we compare this stylised fact for both Luxembourg manufacturing and services. Use of plants’ true age, however, reveals that the size distribution reverses back towards right-skewness for very old plants. We confirm the finding that the right-skewness is likely driven by financial constraints. The first author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Research Fund of Luxembourg. We are grateful for comments by an anonymous referee.     

An extension to the classical mean–variance portfolio optimization model

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find a portfolio that maximizes the risk-adjusted returns subject to constraints frequently faced during portfolio management by extending the classical Markowitz mean–variance portfolio optimization model. We propose a new two-step heuristic approach, GRASP & SOLVER, that evaluates the desirability of an asset by combining several properties about it into a single parameter. Using a real-life data set, we conduct a simulation study to compare our solution to a benchmark (S&P 500 index). We find that our method generates solutions satisfying nearly all of the constraints within reasonable computational time (under an hour), at the expense of a 13% reduction in the annual return of the portfolio, highlighting the effect of introducing these practice-based constraints.     

Wage bargaining and employment revisited: separability and efficiency in collective bargaining*

We analyse the two-dimensional Nash bargaining solution (NBS) by deploying the standard labour market negotiations model of McDonald and Solow. We show that the two-dimensional bargaining problem can be decomposed into two one-dimensional problems, such that the two solutions together replicate the solution of the two-dimensional problem if the NBS is applied. The axiom of “independence of irrelevant alternatives” is shown to be crucial for this type of decomposability. This result has significant implications for actual negotiations because it allows for the decomposition of a multi-dimensional bargaining problem into one-dimensional problems – and thus helps to facilitate real-world negotiations.     

Family Members and Vacation Satisfaction: Proposal of a Conceptual Framework

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the other family members (spouse and/or child/ren) in a family influence the vacationers' overall vacation satisfaction and future behavioural intentions. As part of the study, a conceptual framework was proposed where overall vacation satisfaction mediates the relationships between spouses' and child/ren's vacation evaluations and respondents' return and recommending intentions. The methodology included self‐administered surveys of 445 families from the UK, which were completed at a Turkish resort airport in August 2007. The results indicate that the respondents' vacation satisfaction is influenced more strongly by spouses. Furthermore, the results show that respondents' return intentions are determined by their and their spouses' vacation satisfaction, whereas respondents' recommending intentions are determined by their and their child/ren's vacation satisfaction. These results bring new insights into the post‐purchase vacation behaviour for both theory and practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.