Dynastic Inequality Compared: Multigenerational Mobility in the United States,the United Kingdom,and Germany

Using harmonized household survey data, we analyze long‐run social mobility in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and test recent theories of multigenerational persistence of socioeconomic status. In this country comparison setting, we find evidence against a universal law of social mobility. Our results show that the long‐run persistence of socioeconomic status and the validity of a first‐order Markov chain in the intergenerational transmission of human capital is country‐specific. Furthermore, we find that the direct and independent effect of grandparents' social status on grandchildren's status tends to vary by gender and institutional context.     

CONTROLLING INFLATION WITH TIMID MONETARY–FISCAL REGIME CHANGES

Can monetary policy control inflation when both monetary and fiscal policies change over time? When monetary policy is active, a long-run fiscal principle entails flexibility in fiscal policy that preserves determinacy even when deviating from passive fiscal, substantially for brief periods or timidly for prolonged periods. In order to guarantee a unique equilibrium, monetary and fiscal policies must coordinate not only within but also across regimes, and not simply on being active or passive, but also on their extent. The amplitude of deviations from the active monetary/passive fiscal benchmark determines whether a regime is Ricardian: Timid deviations do not imply wealth effects.     

Objective methods for graphical structural learning

Graphical models are used for expressing conditional independence relationships among variables by the means of graphs, whose structure is typically unknown and must be inferred by the data at hand. We propose a theoretically sound Objective Bayes procedure for graphical model selection. Our method is based on the Expected-Posterior Prior and on the Power-Expected-Posterior Prior. We use as input of the proposed methodology a default improper prior and suggest computationally efficient approximations of Bayes factors and posterior odds. In a variety of simulated scenarios with varying number of nodes and sample sizes, we show that our method is highly competitive with, or better than, current benchmarks. We also discuss an application to protein-signaling data, which wieldy confirms existing results in the scientific literature.     

The European debt crisis and fiscal reactions in Europe 2000–2014

After the outbreak of the global financial crisis, some governments in the EU experienced serious fiscal problems, while others were less affected. This paper seeks to shed light on the divergent fiscal performance in the EU countries before and after the outbreak of the crisis. Fiscal reaction functions of the primary balance are estimated for different groups of EU countries using quarterly data for the pre-crisis period 2001–2008 and for the crisis period 2009–2014. The pre-crisis estimations reveal some differences in persistence and cyclical reaction between different groups of countries, but in most cases little feedback from the debt stock to the primary balance. The fiscal reaction functions of the countries that eventually developed fiscal problems do not stand out. The estimations on data from the crisis period show largely unchanged persistence and counter-cyclicality but much more feedback from the debt stock, and this applies both to the crisis countries and those less affected. In spite of large deficits and accumulation of debt, the underlying fiscal reaction has become more prudent after the outbreak of the European debt crisis.     

Growth factors of store brands in different store formats in Italy

Since the beginning of the consumer crisis, which in Italy can be traced back to the second half of 2008, there has been a significant development of store brands? market share which has reached close to 25% in some leader groups (for example Coop, Conad, Esselunga). The acceleration of the rate of penetration of store brands differs by category and store format. The main reason for this result is the different consumer purchase behavior. In this framework, this work aims at analyzing the elements that have determined the store brands success in the main store format (hypermarket, supermarket, convenience store), through analysis of single retail mix levers management. The factors that have mostly influenced the growth in store brands, in each store format, are investigated throughout a complete informative retail database. The aim of this study is to verify whether the management of the individual retail mix levers produces the same results in different store formats. Additional enhancement to the understanding of store brands management and further support to modern distribution management policies are also provided. A relevant finding is that the performance of store formats depends on the use of specific retail mix levers.     

Deindustrialisierung: Eine neue „britische Krankheit“?

In vielen EU-L?ndern ist ein Rückgang der Besch?ftigung im gewerblichen Bereich zu beobachten. Besonders ausgepr?gt ist die „Deindustrialisierung“ jedoch in Gro?britannien—bei gleichzeitiger Ausweitung des Dienstleistungsbereichs. Welches sind die Ursachen dieser Entwicklung? Ist dieser Prozess als neue „britische Krankheit“ zu bezeichnen oder Ausdruck einer relativ dynamischen und flexiblen Wirtschaft? Ist in Deutschland eine ?hnliche Entwicklung zu erwarten? Die Autoren vertreten hier ihre pers?nliche Meinung und nicht notwendigerweise die der Deutschen Bundesbank.     

Small local firms inside the supply chain: Challenges and perspectives

The authors provide the results of an empirical research carried out in north-east Italy and completed in 1992, which was aimed at investigating the rapport between large manufacturers operating on the multidomestic and global markets and the small local supplying concerns. This research identifies that the globalization process has had a strong impact in the relations with suppliers. The purchasing firms have adopted a particular approach when selecting the suppliers. This has involved widening their previous geographic areas of contact, even making use of foreign sources. Consequently, the local micro units either will become excluded from future business relations with the purchasing organizations, or will be relegated into lower levels of the supply chain. Today small and very small units working as suppliers with direct link with large-scale clients, face many challenges: they should now renew their know-how and skills, develop a new managerial and organizational sense, and recognise the need to invest in new forms other than machinery and processes. The empirical study clearly showed both the limits and the structural weakness of such small units and provided some indications for growth in their technical-productive potential.     

Preserving Knowledge on IS Business Value

The economic relevance of information systems has been studied for many years and has attracted an abundance of research papers. However, the “productivity paradoxon” of the 1990s, Carr’s widely recognized paper “IT doesn’t matter”, and several studies that do not find a positive correlation between IS investments and economic performance reveal long-lasting difficulties for IS researchers to explain “IS business value”. Business executives and researchers also continue to question the value of IS investments. This raises the question of whether literature reviews have tapped their potential to address the concerns by covering key research areas of IS business value and preserving their key findings. In order to address this question, this paper identifies and describes 12 key research areas, and synthesizes what literature reviews published in pertinent academic outlets have done to preserve knowledge. The analysis of 22 literature reviews shows that some crucial areas have not been (sufficiently) covered. They provide fertile areas for future literature reviews. As this work is based on the results of more than 200 research papers, it is capable of drawing a comprehensive picture of the current state-of-the-art in IS business value research.