Technology: Measuring the socioeconomic impact of manufacturing automation

In this report the potential savings of computer-directed manufacturing systems are hypothesized. It is contended that computer-directed automation of manufacturing is a continuation of the ongoing technological progress that the United States has been experiencing. Technological progress has significantly contributed to the growth of the GNP, permitting a high rate of return on investment. It is our contention that the development of computer-based automation will yield benefits greater than those produced by conventional technological progress. However, this present paper examines cost savings rather than contribution to growth. The reduction in the production costs of the discrete manufacturing sector made possible by computer-based automation is hypothesized by assuming the existence of an automated factory, although such a factory is in reality perhaps several decades away. Many assumptions are made about costs, their components and relationships. Case studies, literature references, opinions of consultants, and other informed but conjectural judgments provide the basis for the hypothesis.The impacts of computer-directed manufacturing automation upon environment, employment, general price level, urban/rural mix, and international trade are also conjectured. A number of definitions and distinctions are made with respect to automation, productivity, technology, and related points.     

Predicting business unit performance using employee surveys: monitoring HRM-related changes

Organisations are increasingly using strategy tools such as workforce scorecards to keep track of human resource management related change processes that have been implemented and the effects of these on business unit performance. However, in this area, the challenge of finding appropriate indicators, establishing temporal relationships and providing useful management information still remains. Using longitudinal archival data from 171 branches of a large financial service organisation, this study examines to what extent employee surveys can serve as a predictor of better financial performance at the branch level. Results from a series of models in AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) showed that a significant part of branch profits could be predicted using employee surveys after correcting for prior profits. Based on extrapolation to all branches of this organisation, the changes in employee survey scores predict higher yearly profits of 178 million euros (17.9 per cent of the total yearly profits) across the entire company. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Spatially blind trade and fiscal impact policies and their impact on regional economies

The evidence for the US suggests that spatially blind policies often generate greater impacts on regional economic growth and development than policies specifically targeted at regions on regional issues generally. In this presentation, attention will be directed to two sets of national policies that have been promulgated without due consideration of their specific spatial (regional) impacts – trade policy and fiscal policy.Drawing on research conducted for the US, Japan and Brazil, an examination of trade policies will be presented, using the experience of NAFTA in North America and MERCOSUR in Brazil. Some further analysis of experience in Colombia will also provide insights into the role of national trade policy and, in the case of Colombia, fiscal decentralization policies. The second part of the presentation will examine fiscal policy impacts mediated through regional business cycles; the experience of Japan and the US will be examined.The results affirm the important implications that national (spatially blind) policies can have on regional economies; in the case of Brazil, trade policies have exacerbated already wide differentials in per capita income across states.     

Measuring and testing Granger causality over the spectrum: An application to European production expectation surveys

Decomposing Granger causality over the spectrum allows us to disentangle potentially different Granger causality relationships over different frequencies. This may yield new and complementary insights compared to traditional versions of Granger causality. In this paper, we compare two existing approaches in the frequency domain, proposed originally by Pierce [Pierce, D. A. (1979). R-squared measures for time series. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74, 901–910] and Geweke [Geweke, J. (1982). Measurement of linear dependence and feedback between multiple time series. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 77, 304–324], and introduce a new testing procedure for the Pierce spectral Granger causality measure. To provide insights into the relative performance of this test, we study its power properties by means of Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, we apply the methodology in the context of the predictive value of the European production expectation surveys. This predictive content is found to vary widely with the frequency considered, illustrating the usefulness of not restricting oneself to a single overall test statistic.     

The impact of citizens' groups on urban policies: towards a contextual analysis

Book reviewed in this article: Castells, M., Cherki, E., Godard, F. and Mehl, D. 1978: Crise du logement et mouvements sociaux urbains; enquěte sur la région parisienne. Godbout, J. and Collin, J.-P. 1977: Les organismes populaires en milieu urbain: contre-pouvoir ou nouvelle pratique professionnelle? Abu Lughod, J. and Hay, J. R. 1977: Third world urbanization. Costello, V. G. 1977: Urbanization in the Middle East. Aubin, H. 1977: City for sale.     

The utility of expectational data: Firm-level evidence using matched qualitative-quantitative UK surveys

Qualitative expectational data from business surveys are widely used to construct forecasts. However, based typically on evaluation at the macroeconomic level, doubts persist about the utility of these data. This paper evaluates the ability of the underlying firm-level expectations to anticipate subsequent outcomes. Importantly, this evaluation is not hampered by only having access to qualitative outcome data obtained from subsequent business surveys. Quantitative outcome data are also exploited. This required access to a unique panel dataset which matches firms’ responses from the qualitative business survey with the same firms’ quantitative replies to a different survey carried out by the national statistical office. Nonparametric tests then reveal an apparent paradox. Despite evidence that the qualitative and quantitative outcome data are related, we find that the expectational data offer rational forecasts of the qualitative but not the quantitative outcomes. We discuss the role of “discretisation” errors and the loss function in explaining this paradox.     

Analysis of the impact of university policies on society's environmental perception

Today's society is showing great interest in achieving sustainable development in all socio-economic facets, and higher education institutions stand out as being proactive in this regard. University campuses are successfully implementing policies to curb climate change, energy and water conservation, waste recycling and green transport. In this struggle, education plays an essential role in shaping a population that is aware of the situation and willing to stop —and if possible undo— the damage caused. This study is aimed at evaluating universities' capacity to foster society's environmental perception and commitment. The analysis, which focuses on the Spanish and Italian campuses assessed by GreenMetric during the period 2018–2022, has a twofold objective: to identify the sustainable actions that have a direct impact on students' and researchers' awareness; and to analyse the efficiency of the environmental policies implemented by those responsible for these educational centres, as well as the differences between the two countries' universities. To that end, a panel data model is estimated on a sample composed of the pillars of GreenMetric, with DEA-bootstrap and the sequential Malmquist index then used to assess the efficiency of the actions undertaken. The results reveal the importance of the waste and transport policies implemented on campuses when it comes to the arduous task of kindling society's interest in the environment. Furthermore, both countries show increasing engagement, with productivity improvements of over 36% in the case of Italy.     

Cross-sectional surveys: Inferring total eventual time in current state using only elapsed time-to-date

We focus on snapshot surveying of sub-populations whose members are in a temporary state and where one of the questions asked is the elapsed time already spent in that state. From these answers we develop probabilistic and statistical procedures to estimate the distribution of total time that will eventually be spent in that state by any random individual who enters the state. The method relies on a selection bias often found in temporal sampling, sometimes called “random incidence” or “longevity bias.” We develop results for several types of sampling, including random and fixed times of surveying, random and fixed times of entering the state, and sampling only those who have already spent some minimal specified time in the targeted state. An example with post-doc data is included to demonstrate the steps.     

Measuring the development impact of a proposed transportation system

This paper introduces a methodology of measuring economic development impact incident to a proposed transportation system and provides an empirical result of such estimation. As the methodology, a Multi-Regional Variable Input-Output (MRVIO) model is introduced, and as a case study, the proposed Coosa River Navigation project is discussed. The Coosa River project when completed is expected to reduce the cost of shipping commodities from origin to destination, and such reduction in shipping costs will stimulate the economy of the Coosa River Corridor, the Gulf-Coast Region, the Rest of Alabama, and the Remainder of the U.S. The empirical measurement was done in terms of industrial outputs, personal income, and employment of each of 31 industries in four regions in decennial years starting in 1990 and ending in 2039     

The impact of the employee-organization relationship on temporary employees' performance and attitude: testing a Singaporean sample

Following the framework proposed by Tsui et al . (1997), this research paper examines the impact of the employee-organization relationship on temporary employees' job performance, turnover intention, overall job satisfaction, affective commitment, perception of fairness and perception of work options. Data were collected from 191 temporary employees from seven employment agencies in Singapore. Analyses conducted revealed that employee responses do vary under the four types of relationship (quasi-spot contract, under-investment, mutual investment and over-investment). In general, both mutual investment and over-investment relationships were associated with higher levels of performance and more favourable attitudes than either the under-investment or quasi-spot contract. Specifically, temporary employees under the mutual investment and over-investment relationships have better job performance, a higher level of affective commitment to the agency, improved overall job satisfaction, higher perception of fairness, higher perception of work options and lower turnover intentions. Furthermore, these finding were obtained even after controlling for the effects of company tenure and job level on employee performance and attitudes. The results highlight the importance of employee-organization relationships in eliciting the desired temporary employee outcomes. Practical implications were drawn for human resource practitioners and employment agencies on how best to manage temporary employees. Some limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed.     

福利满意度对员工工作态度的影响机理分析

福利满意度作为员工对企业福利制度和措施的一种感受和评价,对员工的工作态度和行为产生很重要的影响。文章分析了福利满意度对企业员工工作态度及行为的影响机理,并指出人力资源管理者在提高员工福利满意度,端正员工的工作态度,减少员工离职行为的过程中应当注意的问题。     

On possibilities and limitations of using self-anchoring scales in web surveys

Self-anchoring scales were first mentioned by Kilpatrick and Cantril (J Indiv Psychol 16:158–170, 1960) and Cantril (The pattern of human concerns, 1965) as rating instruments in which the end anchors are defined by the respondent himself, basing on his own assumptions, perceptions, goals and values. The uses of these scales are legion and they have shown to be very useful in reducing measurement bias in cross-cultural research (Cantril, The pattern of human concerns, 1965; Bernheim et al. J. Happiness Stud. 7:227–250, 2006). The first part of the current study investigates whether context effects can be lessened or eliminated by using self-anchoring scales. For this purpose, an experiment similar to the ones by Couper et al. (Public Opin Q 71:623–634, 2004, Public Opin Q 68:255–266, 2007), in which they manipulated images that figured in a web survey, was conducted. The hypothesis that self-anchoring scales can reduce contextual bias, is not supported by our data. The second part of the study investigates if and how self-anchoring scales affect drop-out during the filling-out of questionnaires. It is found that, compared to a regular rating scale, a larger proportion of respondents drop-out. Moreover, subjective preferences for the one or the other scale do not seem to differ.     

The impact of fiscal centralization policies on education expenditure among Chinese local governments

Quality & Quantity - In 1994, the education policy goal for the Chinese government was that the education expenditure as a share of GDP should be at least 4% of GDP. However, this educational...     

The impact of adjustment and stabilization policies on infrastructure spending in Central America

During the 1980s and 1990s the countries of Central America experienced protracted fiscal crises and debt repayment problems which resulted in the implementation of structural adjustment agreements. Apart from attempting to reestablish fiscal balance and to control inflation, the proponents of adjustment policies sought to enhance growth by de-emphasizing the wasteful aspects of state spending while maintaining public expenditures on physical and human capital, which were believed to promote private sector productivity. By comparing a pre-debt crisis period with the period given by debt crisis and adjustment, the study reveals that the shares of government spending on human and, particularly, physical infrastructure dropped precipitously during the adjustment period. At the same time, the shares devoted to defense and subsidy categories—as well as interest payments on external debt—generally registered notable gains. The experience of adjustment policies in Central America indicated that substantial discrepancies existed between the idea and the reality.     

Civil regulation and HRM: the impact of civil society organisations on the policies and practices of employers

While the concept of civil regulation has begun to feature in the business and management literature, it has yet to be applied to the management of people at work. Data from a study of how civil society organisations try to influence directly the policies and practices of employers are used to examine how civil regulation operates in the field of HRM. An approach to conceptualising regulatory systems is used as a framework for demonstrating the main characteristics of civil regulation. The development of civil regulation attests to the complex regulatory environment governing HRM, highlighting the continued importance of institutions in an original and distinctive manner.