The interaction effect of gender and ethnicity in loan approval: A Bayesian estimation with data from a laboratory field experiment

Microfinance targets women and uses loan provision as a tool for empowerment, which translates into better household nutrition, improved education, and a scale down of domestic violence. However, ethnic discrimination in microfinance may exist in countries with a segregated indigenous population. We assessed this possibility with a field experiment in Bolivia. The controlled laboratory experiment evaluated whether credit officers rejected microloan applications based on the interaction effect of ethnicity and gender of potential borrowers. Point estimates of a Bayesian mixed‐effects logistic regression, estimated with the experimental data, indicate that nonindigenous women have double the chance of loan approval, but indigenous women have only 1.5 times the chance of loan approval when compared with men. While the findings about gender are limited, the evidence for the interaction of gender and ethnicity is more robust and suggests the existence of positive taste‐based discrimination favorable for nonethnic women in Bolivia. We conclude that the affirmative actions towards women promoted by development agencies and microfinance institutions must not overlook ethnicity as an important factor for financial policies of sustainable development. In practice, these policies should be aimed at identifying and reducing both social desirability bias and the structural barriers to financial inclusion that indigenous women may face when trying to obtain access to a loan.     

Trade shocks,product mix adjustment and productivity growth in Italian manufacturing

In this paper, we use firm-level data on the universe of Italian manufacturing multi-product exporters to test whether demand shocks in export markets lead multi-product exporters to increase their productivity. The main mechanism behind the documented productivity gains is the reallocation of resources across products within firms (American Economic Review, 104, 2014 and 495; National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 22433, 2016). Intuitively, the increased demand stemming from foreign markets will induce firms to adjust their product mix by moving inputs from low to high productive/profitable uses. We find that these productivity gains are significant and can explain between 1/10 and 1/2 of aggregate productivity growth in the manufacturing sector.     

The effects of integration agreements in Western Hemisphere trade, 1970–2014

The paper analyzes the effects of four regional integration agreements (Common Market of the South [MERCOSUR], Andean Community [ANCOM], Central American Common Market [CACM] and North America Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]) on bilateral trade in 19 countries from the Western Hemisphere for the period 1970–2014. For this purpose we estimate different gravity models to control for trade creation and diversion, export diversification and intra-industry trade using OLS log-linearized gravity model and Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood panel data estimators that allow controlling for zero-value trade flows. We find trade creation for ANCOM, MERCOSUR and CACM and trade diversion for NAFTA and MERCOSUR countries. Export diversification negatively affects bilateral trade in all American agreements, while intra-industry trade has contributed to trade expansion in ANCOM and the opposite for NAFTA, MERCOSUR and CACM. Global supply chains may help us explain these results. Finally, we find anticipatory effects on trade several years before the signing of the agreements, but only NAFTA countries seem to be natural trading partners in the region while the rest of Latin American regional agreements have not resulted in a comprehensive, profound and consolidated common market.     

On the peer effects of star students

We estimate the effect that star students have on their siblings’ learning outcomes, measured by their high school grade point average (GPA) and their math grades. To this end, we couple administrative school data on grades with an unusual natural experiment in Peru that generates exogenous variation in the presence of star students at home. We find that star students increase their siblings’ GPA by 0.33 SDs and their math grades by 0.22 SDs. The effect size is inversely related to number of siblings, suggesting that the remaining siblings act as substitutes for the star student.     

In and out of everyday life through film experiences: an analysis of two social spaces as leisure frames

The new information and communication technologies have made it possible to view films in different spaces. Using the symbolic interactionist framework as a frame of analysis, we interpret the meaning of the two experiences of viewing technology-mediated films in the home and in the cinema. We conducted field research during the first half of 2009, digitally recording 16 interviews with research participants living in Barcelona (Spain). The interviews were transcribed verbatim with the help of voice-recognition software. Reports from our research participants indicate that individuals considered only the cinema experience to be a true leisure activity, while the home experience was interpreted as a routine recreational activity. Therefore, the meanings of the film-viewing activity were associated with the symbolic properties of the frames of interpretation. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the home as a unified centre where shared meanings are co-produced by family members.     

Advanced information technology: transforming service innovation and design

This research explores the role of advanced information technologies at the ‘fuzzy’ front-end of service innovation and design. Service researchers have been exploring the application of technology to services for a while, however there has been little attention paid to the use of technology at the front-end of service innovation and design. Research suggests that advanced information technologies should be useful in research and development for services; but how this may occur has not been explored. Bringing together design thinking and the technology–organization–environment framework for technology adoption this research develops propositions for research to expose how technology can advance and transform service innovation and design. Theoretical and practical research questions are offered to guide inquiry in this emerging research space.     

Suspicion and Perceptions of Price Fairness in Times of Crisis

Times of crisis bring about increased demands on businesses as shortages, or unexpected but significant, business costs are encountered. Passing on such costs to consumers is a challenge. When faced with a retail price increase, consumers may rely on cues as to the motive behind the increase. Such cues can raise suspicion of alternative motive (e.g., taking advantage of the consumer) affecting consumers’ judgments of price fairness. This research investigates two triggers of suspicion: salience of alternative motives, and behavior judged to be out-of-character for the business. Results of the two studies within crisis contexts indicate that suspicion is created when alternative motives are salient and when a retailer acts out-of-character. Multiple group analyses revealed that suspicion induced negative affect and subsequent perceptions of price fairness. When suspicion was present, more negative feelings toward the retailer and judgments of price unfairness resulted.     

Flexpatriate assignments: a neglected issue in global staffing

The demands of managing international assignments are major considerations within strategic IHRM theory and most frequently considered within long-term employment choices between parent-country expatriates or host-country nationals. Yet recent studies from the Centre for Research into the Management of Expatriation (CReME) (Harris, ; Petrovic, ) have highlighted the frequency of alternative types of international assignment, which they classify as ‘short-term’, ‘commuter’ and ‘frequent flyer’ assignments, which are now a regular part of global business life. This paper reports on a case study of one Austrian multinational organization and highlights management issues in terms of incidence, purpose, management and personal impact for assignments involving frequent travel without relocation (flexible expatriation) compared with traditional expatriate assignments. It begins by reviewing the emphasis on expatriate assignment before presenting evidence regarding the extent of alternative forms of international assignment. The research method and background to the study are then discussed before the findings are presented and discussed.     

What hinders innovation performance of services and manufacturing firms in Mexico?

Barriers to innovation are heterogeneous, of financial and non-financial nature. The importance of barriers to innovation and their actual influence on innovation depend on firms’ characteristics such as sectoral affiliation, technological behavior and their response to perceived obstacles to innovation. Firms either continue to engage in innovation, or they avoid the activity altogether. This paper explored the nature and perceived importance of the obstacles to innovation that firms confront, in a developing-country context; we build on survey data about firms in Mexico. Our findings suggest that two kinds of policy interventions should help offset a firm’s perception of barriers to innovation. On the one hand, policies should enhance the innovation capacity of firms interested in innovation; on the other hand, policies need to tackle factors that reduce the interest of firms in innovation. Policies that boost demand for locally generated innovations would assist in achieving both these goals.     

Argentina: Macroeconomic Crisis and Household Vulnerability*

Using panel data from the Argentine Permanent Household Survey, this paper analyzes which households were more vulnerable to the Argentine macroeconomic crisis during 1999–2002. Results suggest that the impact of the crisis was not uniform across households, which differed in their ability to cope with shocks. In particular, households with more children, and whose head was male, less educated, and employed in the private sector were the most vulnerable, suffering larger than average declines in income. Shocks to labor income were significant, with both unemployment rates and unemployment spells increasing throughout the period, particularly during the peak of the crisis towards the end of 2001. Individuals with low levels of human capital (proxied by education and experience), males, and self‐employed were more likely to lose their jobs. Public sector employees, in contrast, were more protected from the impact of the crisis on employment.