What makes the clock tick? Time,populations, voters,and votes for the president in the United States

Our present analysis expands on the number of theoretical disciplines involved in the explanation of votes to presidential races in the United States. We do so by replacing the theoretically thin trend variable, previous studies have used, with the demographic factor.The demographic factor, which is obviously highly statistically correlated with the non-theoretical time trend, was hypothesized to have a significant impact upon partisan popularity and presidential races. As the demographic growth is due mostly to immigration and naturalization, and natural growth, especially among the poor, one would expect the growth to be beneficial to Democrats.     

What does money and credit tell us about real activity in the United States?

We analyse the forecasting power of different monetary aggregates and credit variables for US GDP. Special attention is paid to the influence of the recent financial market crisis. For that purpose, in the first step we use a three-variable single-equation framework with real GDP, an interest rate spread and a monetary or credit variable, in forecasting horizons of one to eight quarters. This first stage thus serves to pre-select the variables with the highest forecasting content. In a second step, we use the selected monetary and credit variables within different VAR models, and compare their forecasting properties against a benchmark VAR model with GDP and the term spread (and univariate AR models). Our findings suggest that narrow monetary aggregates, as well as different credit variables, comprise useful predictive information for economic dynamics beyond that contained in the term spread. However, this finding only holds true in a sample that includes the most recent financial crisis. Looking forward, an open question is whether this change in the relationship between money, credit, the term spread and economic activity has been the result of a permanent structural break or whether we might return to the previous relationships.     

What drives herding in oil-rich,developing stock markets? Relative roles of own volatility and global factors

The main goal of this paper is to formally establish the volatility-herding link in the developing stock markets of the oil-rich GCC countries by examining how market volatility affects herd behavior after controlling for global factors. Using a regime-switching, smooth transition regression model (STR), we find significant evidence of herding in all Gulf Arab stock markets, with the market volatility being the more paramount factor governing the switches between the extreme states of non-herding and herding. The global variables comprised of the U.S. stock market performance, the price of oil and the US interest rate as well as the risk indexes including the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) and the St. Louis Fed's Financial Stress Index (FSI) are found to be significant factors governing the transition to herding states. The findings stress the effect of contagion in financial markets, despite the restrictions established by the GCC policymakers in order to protect their markets.     

How are social origin,destination and mobility linked to physical,mental, and self-rated health? Evidence from the United States

Quality & Quantity - For decades, scholars have been exploring persistent inequalities in health by studying the roles of origin and destination socioeconomic positions (SEP), and the...     

How do stock prices respond to fundamental shocks in the case of the United States? Evidence from NASDAQ and DJIA

In this paper, we use both the Dow Jones and NASDAQ indices to test the robustness of Binswanger's (2004c) finding that US stock market dynamics are governed mostly by nonfundamental shocks or speculative bubbles after the 1982 debt crisis. We estimate a total of 72 SVAR models and 36 SVECM models. We determine that the findings are robust indeed and that fundamental shocks have become less and less important over the years, irrespective of which US stock market index is considered.     

What if the supervisor has a different gender? The roles of value fit,identification, and beliefs in gender equality

In the past decades, the number of female employees and managers has strongly increased in most developed countries. This demographic development emphasizes the importance to investigate gender dissimilarity between employees and their supervisor and how it can be managed to elicit beneficial gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ attitudes and interpersonal interactions. Past gender dissimilarity research often assumes women and men to have different values. Due to these value differences, women and men should be less satisfied with a supervisor who has a different gender. However, past research reported inconsistent gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction and other work-related satisfaction variables. To clarify gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction with their supervisor, we analyze the moderating role of an employee’s beliefs in gender equality. We further draw on social identity theory and investigate value fit with the supervisor and identification with the supervisor as underlying mechanisms of gender dissimilarity effects. To test our research model, we conducted a three-wave survey study with 463 employees. Value fit and identification with the supervisor mediated the relationship between gender dissimilarity and employees’ satisfaction with supervisor. This indirect relationship was only significant for employees with low beliefs in gender equality. This means high beliefs in gender equality can offset dysfunctional gender dissimilarity effects.     

‘What Happens when the Phone goes Wild?’: Staff,Stress and Spaces for Escape in a BPR Telephone Banking Work Regime

This paper explores the experiences of staff working under a business process re-engineering (BPR) work regime. We examine the nature of work within a team-based, multi-skilled and empowered environment within financial services. Despite mixed responses our case study indicates that for those employees who remain in employment after ‘re-engineering’, working conditions may become more stressful and intensive. Although some staff may welcome those elements of a BPR work regime that facilitate a more varied work experience, the possibilities for satisfaction are often curtailed due to management$apos; preoccupation with productivity and ‘bottom line’ results. In practice BPR is neither as simple to implement nor as ‘rational’ in its content as the gurus would have us believe. Partly for these reasons it is also not as coercive in its control over labour as some critics fear. While managers may only want to encourage employee autonomy that is productive to its ends, we identify a number of occasions where autonomy is disruptive of corporate goals. The paper seeks to add to our understanding of ‘stress’, ‘resistance’ and management ‘control’ by considering the ways in which staff engage in the operation of BPR so as to maintain and reproduce these conditions. This dynamic cannot be understood, however, outside of the relations of power and inequality that characterize society and employment.