Why in rugby union does “Toulouse” mean “to win”? Estimation of a production function of sports results (2011–2016)

The objective of this article is to understand more fully the determinants of sports performance. To do this, we estimate a production function of sports results that explains the results of the Toulouse rugby union team's matches expressed as the gap in points between it and its opponents. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a production function has been estimated in rugby union. In addition, it is one of the few production functions specified at the match level. The study confirms the relevance of some variables already identified in the literature, such as home advantage, ranking, the role of the referee, and in‐match statistics. It also shows the influence of new variables, such as weather conditions and the relative strength of fielded teams measured by comparing the teams selected on match day to the ideal teams defined at the beginning of the season.     

Why do some hospital leaders “speak no evil” about their organizations' medical errors?

Sentinel events, preventable medical errors resulting in serious disability or death, are a significant problem for hospital leaders. Accreditation agencies, such as the Joint Commission, urge hospitals to voluntarily disclose information about medical errors. However, some healthcare leaders “speak no evil” by choosing not to release sentinel‐event data. In an effort to increase the reporting of medical errors, several states passed laws mandating disclosure of sentinel events to the government. The state‐reported medical error rates of Indiana hospitals were compared with their leaders' perceptions of quality of care. Regardless of the number of sentinel events occurring at their hospitals, leaders consistently claimed their organizations provided high‐quality care. Two theories, rationalization and gaming, are presented to explain why leaders do not acknowledge the presence of serious quality‐management problems in their organizations.     

Carbon risk management and corporate competitive advantages: “Differential promotion” or “cost hindrance”?

Given the strengthening of carbon regulations and the launch of emission trading scheme in China, companies are facing tremendous pressure to reduce carbon emissions, suggesting the necessity of understanding whether carbon risk management may affect corporate financial benefits. Therefore, this paper empirically demonstrates the influence of carbon risk management on corporate competitive advantages. We find that the relationship between carbon risk management and corporate competitive advantages is a “kuznets curve” that exists only among firms with weak product competition. And this relationship tends to be weakened in firms with a distant administrative hierarchy. We conclude that the influence of low carbon management on corporate competitive advantages is complicated and subject to the firm's political relevance.     

Preventing the “Abuses” of Democracy: Hayek,the “Military Usurper” and Transitional Dictatorship in Chile?

Hayek famously claimed that he would prefer a “liberal” dictator to “democratic government lacking in liberalism.” While Hayek's views of the Pinochet regime have generated much controversy, surprisingly little has been written about Hayek's defense of transitional dictatorship. Making use of previously un‐translated foreign language archival material, this paper helps shed light on Hayek's views of authoritarianism, totalitarianism, transitional dictatorship, and the Pinochet regime as well as helping to separate Hayekian ‘fact’ from Hayekian ‘fiction’.     

Does doing “good” always translate into doing “well”? An eco‐efficiency perspective

Does doing “good” always translate into doing “well”? Debate over the “value” of corporate social responsibility is high on the agenda of corporate finance research. Deeper understanding is required on managers' incentives to pursue and implement corporate social responsibility related strategies, as is more thorough comprehension of the effect of these strategies to firms' performance levels as well as shareholder and wider stakeholder valuations of the firm. This paper provides a new lens by approaching the subject from a different methodological paradigm, grounded in the performance benchmarking methods more commonly applied in operational research. In so doing, we provide novel evidence of the effect of corporate choices on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategic investment compliance (i.e., doing good) to firms' eco‐efficiency levels (doing well). In brief, our empirical findings suggest that ESG and firm's eco‐performance are nonlinearly related. Specifically, advanced ESG policies and disclosure levels are associated with a positive affect to firms' eco‐efficiency levels, but only up to a point, after which the effect becomes “neutral,” that is, ESG demonstrates a visible pattern of diminishing marginal returns. Thus, we may humbly conclude that a firm may “do well” by doing good, but it is not clear they should ever expect to “do great” just by “doing good.” The threshold at which this “neutrality” appears varies systematically with the characteristics of the sector in which the firm is operating, as well as dimensions of board diversity. Finally, it is evident that ESG implementation choices can be a source of managerial agency problems.     

Predicting crude oil prices: Replication of the empirical results in “What do we learn from the price of crude oil?”

In addition to their theoretical analysis of the joint determination of oil futures prices and oil spot prices, Alquist and Kilian (Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2010, 25(4), 539–573) compare the out‐of‐sample accuracy of the random walk forecast with that of forecasts based on oil futures prices and other predictors. The results of my replication exercise are very similar to the original forecast accuracy results, but the relative accuracy of the random walk forecast and the futures‐based forecast changes when the sample is extended to August 2016, consistent with the results of several other recent studies by Kilian and co‐authors.     

Use and abuse of regulated prices in electricity markets: “How to regulate regulated prices?”

We consider the regulation of the tariffs charged by a public utility in the electricity sector. Consumers differ in terms of their privately known demands. When regulating a firm's tariffs, the government is concerned by the redistribution across consumer classes. A conflict between redistribution and screening induces pricing distortions when the firm is a monopoly. Introducing competition with an unregulated fringe improves efficiency but jeopardizes redistribution. In response to this problem, the government may now want to manipulate information about the incumbent's cost to restrict entry and better promote its own redistributive objective. To prevent such obstacle to entry, the government's discretion in fixing the incumbent's regulated tariffs should be restricted by imposing floors or caps on those tariffs and/or by controlling the market share left to the competitive fringe. We highlight the determinants of such limits on discretion and unveil to what extent they depend on the government's redistributive concerns.     

The Problem of Epistemic Cost: Why Do Economists Not Change Their Minds (About the “Coase Theorem”)?

Errors in the history of economic analysis often remain uncorrected for long periods due to positive epistemic costs (PEC) involved in allocating time to going back over what older generations wrote. In order to demonstrate this in a case study, economists' practice of the “Coase Theorem” is reconsidered from a PEC point of view.     

“When Should Manufacturers Want Fair Trade?”: New Insights from Asymmetric Information when Supply Chains Compete

We study a model of competing manufacturer/retailer pairs where adverse selection and moral hazard are coupled with promotional externalities at the downstream level. In contrast to earlier models mainly focusing on a bilateral monopoly setting, we show that with competing brands a ‘laissez‐faire’ approach towards vertical price control might not always promote productive efficiency. Giving manufacturers freedom to control retail prices is more likely to harm consumers when retailers impose positive promotional externalities on each other, and the converse is true otherwise. Our simple model also suggests that, with competing supply chains, consumers and manufacturers might prefer different contractual modes if promotional externalities have substantial effects on demands.     

Can governance help in making an IPO “successful”? New evidence from Europe

This paper investigates the determinants of a “successful” IPO from a corporate governance perspective upon a representative sample of European listings from 2000 to 2015. We use an extensive dataset of market performance, financial data, and corporate governance characteristics to run the investigation. Differently from previous studies, our analysis embraces both a short‐term perspective and a medium–long‐term perspective, where the board of directors seems to perform different tasks, moving from a value creation to a value protection strategy. Among the others, we find that board size, board independence, and their qualifications, together with their experience in other boards, are associated with a positive performance of the IPO in a short‐term horizon and in the medium–long‐term period, although significant differences emerge among those time perspectives.     

Can green behaviors really be increased for all employees? Trade‐offs for “deep greens” in a goal‐oriented green human resource management intervention

This study explores the complex interaction between psychological and goal‐relevant boundary conditions that influence levels of individual engagement in a green human resource management (HRM) intervention designed to encourage employee green behavior (EGB). Data were collected from 1,112 employees in an automobile manufacturing plant. Consistent with goal‐setting theory, the level of feedback received predicts EGB. However, a three‐way interaction demonstrates how employees with high levels of autonomous motivation do not gain the expected benefits of high feedback and high goal commitment in the enactment of EGB. Instead, only those with weak autonomous motivation are affected by these goal‐related constructs. Findings suggest that both goal‐setting and self‐determination theories are relevant to green HRM interventions. Managers should consider that interventions that are effective for employees who do not have strong autonomous motivation towards the environment may not be effective for those who do.     

Jevons and Menger Re-homogenized: Who Is the Real “Odd Man Out”?A Comment on Peart

Abstract . Response to Sandra J. Peart, “Jevons and Menger Re-homogenized?: Jaffé After 20 Years,” 1998. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 57(July): 307–325.     

WILL THE “TRUE” LABOR SHARE STAND UP? AN APPLIED SURVEY ON LABOR SHARE MEASURES

Labor's share of income is a key variable in economics. It plays a leading role in analysis of (in)equality, globalization, technical change, growth theories, etc. Notwithstanding this broad application, there are many different definitions of the labor share. Understanding and synthesizing those differences is the purpose of this applied survey. Empirical measures may vary reflecting the allocation of income components that cannot be directly ascribed to capital or labor. We examine the alternative assumptions made in the literature in this regard and quantify and motivate the resulting discrepancies. Focusing (mostly) on US data, we show that different measures can have very distinct properties in terms of the observed stochastic trends, shares of short‐, medium‐, and long‐run variation and volatilities, persistence and mean‐reversion properties, and susceptibility to structural breaks. For instance, while “short‐run” properties of the surveyed labor share measures are relatively consistent across all definitions (and countercyclical), their “medium‐” and “long‐run” trends may diverge substantially (and are procyclical). To substantiate our analysis, we document the implications of discrepancies in the empirical labor share definition for growth accounting, analyzing the effect of technology shocks, and for estimating inflation dynamics.     

“So Much Technology,So Little Talent”? Skills for Harnessing Technology for Leadership Outcomes

Advanced information and communication technologies are impacting the ways groups and individuals collaborate, communicate, and engage. Such changes also have impacts on the leadership process. By reviewing the literature on e‐leadership and technology‐centered fields, the current article provides recommendations and implications for leading in online environments.     

A “quota silo” or positive equality reach? The equality impact of gender quotas on corporate boards in Norway

10 years after its implementation, we explore the equality reach of the 40% Norwegian gender quota regulation for boards of public limited companies (PLCs) using a multi‐strategy approach (administrative data and interviews with women directors) to capture interrelated macro and meso changes. We employ Acker's (2006) inequality regimes as our analytical framework, augmented by the “equality reach” concept. We found strong compliance with the 40% Quota. However, there was little evidence of voluntary spillover to limited companies as envisaged by Quota proponents; instead Quota coverage reduced as some PLCs changed status to avoid the Quota requirement. We reveal that positive equality reach in one of the most equal countries in the world is confined to a PLC “quota silo,” which has shrunk over the life of the Quota. Moreover, we suggest that PLC high levels of compliance may be a defensive strategy seen as necessary in the regulatory/high sanction context of the Quota. We demonstrate the need for further political and organisational interventions to improve equality reach beyond the quota silo. We also show the value of the equality reach concept for research on equality interventions and warn of the dangers of an intervention leading to an equality silo.     

Product Differentiation through Exclusivity: Is there a One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem?

In systems industries, combinations of components are consumed together to generate user benefits. Arrangements among component providers sometimes limit consumers’ ability to mix‐and‐match components, and such exclusive arrangements have been highly controversial. We examine the competitive and welfare effects of exclusive arrangements among system components in a model of relatively differentiated applications that run on relatively undifferentiated platforms. We show that there is no “One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem.” Specifically, exclusive deals with providers of differentiated applications can raise platforms’ margins without reducing applications’ margins, so that overall industry profits rise. Hence, for a given set of components and prices, exclusive arrangements can reduce consumer welfare by limiting consumer choice and raising equilibrium prices. In some cases, however, exclusivity can raise consumer welfare by increasing the equilibrium number of platforms, which leads to lower prices relative to the monopoly outcome that would prevail absent exclusivity.     

The introduction of the 5‐year impact factor: does it benefit statistics journals?

In this paper, we investigate the effects of the introduction of 5-year impact factors. We collect impact factor data for all disciplines available in the Journal Citation Reports. For all these categories, we give insights into the relationship between the traditional 2-year impact factor and the new 5-year impact factor. Our main focus is to investigate whether the traditionally low impact factors for statistics journals improve with this new measure. The results show that the statistics discipline indeed benefits from the 5-year window, that is, the impact factor increases. This appears to be true for most disciplines, although the statistics discipline ranks among the top 15 (out of 171) disciplines in this respect.