Individual and place-based drivers of self-employment in Chile

This paper analyzes the importance of individual and place characteristics on the selection into self-employment in Chile. Following a structural and multilevel empirical approach, we test whether both sets of variables explain the variation of individual wages, self-employed earnings, and the propensity of being in independent work. The results indicate that while most of the variation in these three outcomes is explained by individuals’ traits, place-related variables account for a non-negligible share of spatial variation. Second, as suggested by occupational choice theories, the propensity of being in self-employment positively correlates with larger expected earning differentials, but only in the case of employers. This, along with other results, suggests that while employers seem to choose their occupational status, own accounts in Chile seem to respond to factors pushing them into self-employment.     

Labor market differentials and the expected gain from search

Several recent empirical studies have used the residuals from estimated earnings equations as explanatory variables in models of on-the-job search and quit behavior. It has often been argued that the coefficients on these “market differential” variables are biased downward because estimated residuals overstate the “true” quasi-rent or disincentive to search for alternative employment. This argument—that observed wages include implicit payments for workplace and person-specific characteristics not fully specified in earnings models— ignores an opposing bias associated with the value of being able to reject unattractive wage offers. As a consequence, there is no unambiguous a priori relationship between estimated wage residuals and the theoretical expected gain from search. Some evidence bearing on the relative magnitudes of the two biases is discussed.     

Economic determinants of default risks and their impacts on credit derivative pricing

This study constructs a credit derivative pricing model using economic fundamentals to evaluate CDX indices and quantify the relationship between credit conditions and the economic environment. Instead of selecting specific economic variables, numerous economic and financial variables have been condensed into a few explanatory factors to summarize the noisy economic system. The impacts on default intensity processes are then examined based on no‐arbitrage pricing constraints. The approximated results show that economic factors indicated credit problems even before the recent subprime mortgage crisis, and economic fundamentals strongly influenced credit conditions. Testing of out‐of‐sample data shows that credit evolution can be identified by dynamic explanatory factors. Consequently, the factor‐based pricing model can either facilitate the evaluation of default probabilities or manage default risks more effectively by quantifying the relationship between economic environment and credit conditions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

Location choice of academic entrepreneurs: Evidence from the US biotechnology industry

Where knowledge-based firms are located is important because entrepreneurship, firm creation and innovation are typically associated with regional economic development, wealth creation and increased employment. In this paper we examine where academic entrepreneurs locate their firms. We begin by developing a theoretical model that examines the location choice of the academic entrepreneur within the standard utility maximization theory. Academic entrepreneurs are assumed to maximize their utility by allocating their efforts between academic and entrepreneurial pursuits which, in turn, determine their future streams of income and end-period wealth. Optimal allocation turns out to be a function of both personal and external factors that condition the relevant payoffs and such factors can be empirically observed. We then use several candidate explanatory variables to examine those factors that may influence the firm location choice for 187 biopharmaceutical firms started by 275 academic entrepreneurs in the US. From our empirical analysis we find that location-specific factors such as proximity to certain knowledge assets and to the funding venture capital firms, affect the firm location choice of academic entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, entrepreneur-specific characteristics, such as their age, seem to dominate the choice of firm location.     

The cyclical effect of default risk on industrial bond yields

This paper examines the determinants of default-risk premiums and the ways in which they change over the business cycle. Seven default-risk factors are constructed from a large number of financial ratio/accounting variables. Factor scores summarizing these variables for a sample of industrial corporations are regressed with bond risk premiums for all years from 1971 to 1977—a complete business cycle. A second sample covering the years 1975 to 1977 is also examined. The main conclusion is that the cyclical movement of business conditions influences investors' assessments of default risk. Bonds issued in periods of economic normalcy have premiums that are significantly associated with earnings instability in addition to sales and size factors. By contrast, firms issuing bonds during recessionary climates must have relatively greater size and profitability to obtain funding at lower-interest costs. Firms with higher sales turnover ratios and, therefore, greater earnings instability with respect to economic downswings, are less likely to issue debt securities during depressed business conditions.     

全球外商直接投资周期波动因素的实证分析

文章结合外商直接投资的有关理论,选择全球GDP,世界经济自由度指数以及全球跨国公司经营业绩三个变量作为全球外商直接投资波动的解释变量,建立跨度为23年的全球外商直接投资非常定模型。模型表明这三个因素对全球外商直接投资的影响每年都在发生变化,且遵循一定规律,模型在总体上也很好地解释全球FDI的周期波动。     

An Explanation of the Life Span of New French Firms

In contrast to previous studies on firm survival which tend to focus on features related to the structure of the firms and their area of activity, our aim here is to widen the perspective usually adopted in the field, taking into account a larger and more qualitative set of variables. Among these variables, features related to the individual characteristics of the entrepreneur, to the context of entrepreneurship and to the insertion in entrepreneurial networks are significant to explain the life span of new firms. The empirical material is drawn from two surveys, which provide detailed data about a group of new firms created in France in 1994 and closed down before 1997 or still running in 1997. Our empirical approach on qualitative data is based on data analysis methods (linear discriminant analysis, barycentric discriminant analysis, analysis of variance). According to the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the main explanatory factors for the survival of new firms are the fact that they are entrepreneurs who have taken over firms, that they have acquired during their previous occupational activity an experience in the same branch of activity and that they experience a successful integration into the entrepreneurial networks. These three factors show that the survival of young firms is indirectly conditioned by the existence of an initial custom, by the mastery of a job and by the know-how in the entrepreneurial function.     

Trade liberalization and the evolution of skill earnings differentials in Brazil

Skilled labor earnings differentials decreased during the trade liberalization implemented in Brazil from 1988 to 1995. This paper investigates the role of trade liberalization in explaining these relative earnings movements. We perform several independent empirical exercises that check the traditional trade transmission mechanism, using disaggregated data on tariffs, prices, earnings, employment and skill intensity. We find that: i) employment shifted from skilled to unskilled intensive sectors, and each sector increased its relative share of skilled labor; ii) relative prices fell in skill-intensive sectors; iii) tariff changes across sectors were not related to skill intensities, but the pass-through from tariffs to prices was larger in skill-intensive sectors; iv) the decline in skilled earnings differentials mandated by the price variation predicted by trade was even larger than the observed one. The results are compatible with trade liberalization accounting for the observed relative earnings changes in Brazil. They also highlight the importance of considering the effects of differentiated pass-through from tariffs to prices.     

The birth of new enterprises

This paper deals with the birth of new enterprises both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. In the first part of the work, the conventional economic wisdom is compared with some alternative approaches leading to multicausal frameworks. The author tests their relative explanatory features in the second part of the paper. Elaborating the results of 720 questionnaires filled by new Italian entrepreneurs, the importance of economic variables as income expectations and barriers to entry in shaping the diffusion of new enterprises is confirmed. On the other hand, personal backgrounds and motivations as well as environment factors turn out to have a crucial role, too.     

Fundamental dimensions of U.S. trade policy

How many dimensions adequately characterize voting on U.S. trade policy? How are these dimensions to be interpreted? This paper seeks those answers in the context of voting on the landmark 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act. The paper takes steps beyond the existing literature. First, using a factor analytic approach, the dimension issue is examined to determine whether subsets of roll call votes on trade policy are correlated. A factor-analytic result allows the use of a limited number of votes for this purpose. Second, a structural model with latent variables is used to find what economic and political factors comprise these dimensions. The study yields two main findings. More than one dimension determines voting in the Senate, with the main dimension driven by economic interest, not ideology. Although two dimensions are required to fully account for House voting, one dimension dominates. That dimension is driven primarily by party. Based on reported evidence, and a growing consensus in the congressional studies literature, this finding is attributed to interest-based leadership that evolves in order to solve collective action problems faced by individual legislators.     

The Impact of Regional Factors on the Start‐Up Ratio in Japan*

We analyze regional factors of the start‐up ratio in Japan using two datasets with different regional aggregation levels. The explanatory variables represent demand, cost, human resource, financial, industry agglomeration and industrial structure, and other factors. The empirical results demonstrate that even though all these factors significantly affect the start‐up ratio at the municipality level, some of these factors are not significant at a larger economic area level. In particular, we obtained evidence that human resource factors, together with the average wage and average size of establishments, are important determinants of the regional start‐up ratio in both the samples.     

Factors impacting on whether and how businesses respond to early warning signs of financial and economic turmoil: Jamaican firms in the global crisis

Much of the debate surrounding the recent global crisis is focused on respective governments’ policy responses to the financial and economic downturn. Much less attention has been placed on the manner in which private sector businesses responded to the crisis. This study analyses the results of a survey of 284 Jamaican businesses conducted in the first quarter of 2009. It identifies the responses to the crisis that were viewed as most likely at that stage, and uses logistic regression techniques to analyse the factors most likely to precipitate different types of responses. International transmission mechanisms, basic business characteristics, and managers’ experiences with and expectations of changing conditions in the finance, output and input markets were investigated as explanatory variables. The results presented are important, as the early response of businesses to economic and financial crisis often determines the extent of the ultimate outcome on the livelihoods of individuals in a country.     

Explanatory factors for efficiency in the use of social networking sites—The case of organic food products

In some markets, organic foods face problems such as consumer misinformation and confusion, high prices compared to conventional equivalents, or few points of sale. The answers to these problems include information and communication technologies, particularly social networking sites (SNS), given their potential for conveying information and connecting customers and suppliers at less cost. It would be useful to ascertain the psychology of social media use and which factors determine SNS efficiency among organic producers. This study of the efficiency of SNS use in two strategic sectors for Spain—olive oil and wine—used data envelopment analysis and, in a second stage, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to detect the contextual variables that explain the highest efficiency indices. The results showed that the more market‐oriented sector (wine) has a higher average efficiency of SNS use and pointed to the following explanatory factors: SNSs mentioned on corporate websites, number of employees, the manager's educational background, and length of SNS use.     

城市空间结构与零售业销售额之间的关系——基于新经济地理学潜力模型的分析

城市空间结构与城市内各区域商业活动特别是零售业的关系十分密切。文章运用新经济地理学潜力模型构建了一个同时考虑影响零售额的需求因素和供给因素的模型,以零售额作为被解释变量,利用各区域人口、零售店从业人数、零售店卖场面积等相关数据,计算模型中各解释变量的系数,并利用推导出来的模型,通过改变模型中空间结构的系数,对各区域零售额的变化进行模拟分析,有助于弄清城市空间结构变化与城市各区域零售业零售额变化之间的关系,得出城市空间结构变化对各区域零售额变化所产生的影响,为城市空间规划提供参考。     

Does Job Function Influence Ethical Reasoning? An Adapted Wason Task Application

A review of extent business ethics research uncovered well over 200 published articles that investigated the role of job functions within a business organization as an explanatory factor of ethical or unethical behavior. While an important body of work, ethical breaches are often found to cut across job functions and involve multiple disciplines embedded in a business organization. This research seeks to explore a cross-functional explanation for ethical reasoning by using an instrument new to business ethics research, the Wason selection task, but well-grounded and validated in cognitive research and evolutionary psychology, to assess an individual’s ability to detect rule-based social contract violations. A sample of 276 full-time business practitioners, enrolled in part-time M.B.A. programs, from the accounting, finance, information technology, marketing, supply chain, and human resource management job functions were compared on their ability to detect rule violators across a series of production scenarios in the Wason selection task. Rates of cheater detection were calculated to determine if substantive differences existed across job functions. This was followed by a series of pair-wise comparisons of percentages of cheater detection across the job functions using z-tests for assessing statistical significance. The data analysis showed differences in cheater detection, with most of the variance due to the marketing job function group. Insights from this study for scholars, educators, and practitioners in the business ethics field are discussed.     

Does Job Function Influence Ethical Reasoning? An Adapted Wason Task Application

A review of extent business ethics research uncovered well over 200 published articles that investigated the role of job functions within a business organization as an explanatory factor of ethical or unethical behavior. While an important body of work, ethical breaches are often found to cut across job functions and involve multiple disciplines embedded in a business organization. This research seeks to explore a cross-functional explanation for ethical reasoning by using an instrument new to business ethics research, the Wason selection task, but well-grounded and validated in cognitive research and evolutionary psychology, to assess an individual’s ability to detect rule-based social contract violations. A sample of 276 full-time business practitioners, enrolled in part-time M.B.A. programs, from the accounting, finance, information technology, marketing, supply chain, and human resource management job functions were compared on their ability to detect rule violators across a series of production scenarios in the Wason selection task. Rates of cheater detection were calculated to determine if substantive differences existed across job functions. This was followed by a series of pair-wise comparisons of percentages of cheater detection across the job functions using z-tests for assessing statistical significance. The data analysis showed differences in cheater detection, with most of the variance due to the marketing job function group. Insights from this study for scholars, educators, and practitioners in the business ethics field are discussed.     

Re-examination of price level differentials using economic freedom index

Findings reported in this paper provide improved explanation as to what factors are correlated with price levels across a large sample of 152 countries. The results are obtained from using a new set of variables called economic freedom indices, covering 19 years. Prior studies used income, trade openness, and productivity, which led to results with much less explanatory power compared to findings reported in this paper. We apply advanced panel data econometrics to obtain robust estimates of parameters, which, in our view, led to results with substantially high coefficient of variations close to 90%. The findings show that all the nine dimensions of economic freedom used in this study significantly account for the variations in national price levels.     

The effects of social networks on the flow of international students

International study provides many benefits to the countries that host students, to the students’ home countries and to the students themselves. We extend the empirical knowledge regarding flows of international students, using a panel of data that spans 17 years, 26 host countries and 85 countries of origin. We examine the hypothesis that social networks are an important factor motivating study abroad by including lagged variables of the levels and shares of enrolment in the analysis. The analysis shows that they are significant factors: a 1% rise in a host country's share of an origin country's international student “diaspora” is associated with a 0.09%–0.12% rise in the number of students studying in that host from that origin, 5 years later. This is consistent with the literature on the economics of immigration, which finds social networks to be important, and transitory, in inducing immigration. These effects are found in models that control for other factors as well: earnings differentials, quality of higher education system, distance, common language and colonial relationship. The results suggest that one‐off policies to better recruit or attract international students will have ongoing benefits, in terms of follow‐on recruitment of further students by the initial students.     

浙江省上市公司董事会组成与公司绩效研究

利用浙江省上市公司的数据,应用SPSS统计软件,选择净资产收益率和每股收益作为被解释变量,选择董事会规模、独立董事比例、董事长与总经理的两职是否分离和控股股东担任董事比例四个指标作为解释变量,建立回归模型,对浙江省上市公司董事会组成与公司绩效关系进行实证分析。结果显示,控股股东成员担任的董事比例与浙江省上市公司业绩正相关,而且,董事长与总经理分设是现代公司治理的发展趋势。     

我国地方财政策略性行为研究及空间溢出效应估计

本文基于财政学视角,利用中国省际时空面板数据实证分析了中国地方财政策略性行为的结构性特征,空间外溢性。研究显示,我国地区间财政政策相互影响,地方政府在政策选择上存在策略性博弈行为,税收竞争选择物理空间相邻的地区为对象,而支出竞争选择经济发展水平相近的地区为对象,地区政府主动进行税收竞争和基本建设支出竞争,被动接收民生竞争。地区环境与社会等难以观测因素的变化会对临近地区的财政决策产生冲击,同时本文进一步估计了相关解释变量的空间溢出效应,量化了财政外部性。