Is there a minimum wage biting in Puerto Rico? Updating the debate

This research evaluates the repercussions on employment in Puerto Rico of the latest increases in the minimum wage (made between 2007 and 2009). We find that the increases in the minimum wage to $7.25 had a negative impact on employment in a few small sectors only, and that employment was significantly more affected by output.     

East–West migration and gender: Is there a differential effect for migrant women?

This paper examines whether female East–West migrants in Germany face a differential effect on their labor market outcomes after they move compared to both males and stayers. It builds on a “difference-in-difference-in-difference” approach, employs a matching procedure to define the corresponding before and after periods for movers and stayers and uses panel data techniques to difference away time-invariant unobservable confounders. I find that migrant women after migration do not experience significantly different earnings or employment prospects, compared to migrant males and female stayers. They do, however, face an additional negative effect on hours worked and on annual income. The results also suggest that for them, the income effect seems to dominate the substitution effect and they substitute some market work in the West with home production, in particular, with childcare.     

Is there one safe-haven for various turbulences? The evidence from gold,Bitcoin and Ether

This paper aims to investigate the safe-haven properties of gold and two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether. Safe havens are the financial assets that allow investors to protect their portfolios within the market turmoil. The research sample covers five years and includes several downturns on the financial markets, starting from the Chinese stock market turbulences in 2015/2016 and ending up with the recent pandemic outbreak in 2020. We find that only gold used to be a strong safe-haven against the stock market indices. Yet, this property evaporated during the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. Occasionally, cryptocurrencies could have been considered weak safe-havens against the examined instruments. Ether acted more often as a weak safe-haven against DAX or S&P500, while Bitcoin played this role against FTSE250, STOXX600 and S&P500.     

Is there a case for higher inflation targets?

In recent years several observers have suggested that higher inflation targets might be economically beneficial. We examine the case for this, but find it unconvincing. There has been a large fall in the risk premia embedded in government bond yields over the past 25 years. Higher inflation targets would risk reversing some of these gains. We also doubt that higher inflation targets would yield the additional policy flexibility that is sometimes claimed. Nevertheless, we do detect a shift by central banks over recent years towards more tolerance of inflation risks at the margin – as seen in the adoption of ‘forward guidance’ and more ‘flexible’ inflation targeting.     

Is there a diversification “cost” of Shari’ah compliance? Empirical evidence from Malaysian equities

Islamic equity portfolios work with a smaller investment universe given the filtering of non-Shari’ah compliant stocks. It has been theoretically argued that this culminates in suboptimal portfolio diversification, which in turn adversely affects risk-adjusted returns. We offer empirical evidence that such a conceived portfolio diversification “penalty” is far from a foregone conclusion, at least empirically. Our results tend to indicate that Islamic portfolios are not invariably handicapped in terms of portfolio diversification. We also explored dimensions that may account for differences in the relative investment performance between Islamic and conventional portfolios, such as portfolio constraints, short selling and market conditions. We believe this paper is among the first to apply substantial empirical analysis specifically with respect to the portfolio diversification perspective on Islamic equity investments.     

Is there convergence amongst shadow economies? International evidence

This paper examines convergence among cross-country shadow economies. Using the Phillips-Sul (2007, 2009) club convergence approach and data for over 150 countries from 1991 to 2017, the results show evidence against absolute convergence for all shadow economies; however, we find evidence of multiple convergence clubs. In particular, we find evidence for seven distinct convergence clubs and six divergent shadow economies. Each club is characterised by an increasingly larger shadow economy with the countries in club 1 having the largest shadow economy and those in club 7 having the smallest shadow economy. Using a two-way fixed effects approach, we also find that the determinants of the shadow economy are somewhat conditional on the convergence club. The existence of multiple equilibria suggests that policy makers in their attempt to combat the shadow economy would benefit by considering the different transitional paths associated with the different convergence clubs.     

When is there a Kuznets curve? Some evidence from the ex-socialist countries

This paper investigates when there is a Kuznets curve, that is, under which conditions income inequality eventually declines with economic growth. The analysis was performed on a sample of 26 ex-socialist countries from the former Eastern Bloc, during the post-socialist years. These countries had very similar characteristics when socialism collapsed, but very different experiences with transition afterwards, which makes them a suitable group for analysing the relationship between GDP and inequality. We focus on four factors that may shape this relationship – labour market institutions, the market power of companies, social benefits and taxes. Our findings suggest that the Kuznets curve is present only when control of companies’ market power is effective and taxes are high.     

Is there an equilibrating relationship between house prices and replacement cost? Empirical evidence from Berlin

It is a feature of competitive markets with forward-looking participants that a good’s benefit and its production cost are equalized in equilibrium and that no resources are wasted during the adjustment process. For housing markets, there is mixed evidence whether they meet this standard of allocative efficiency. Based on a unique data set with rich information on prices and cost, we examine the market for single-family houses in Germany’s capital Berlin. At the aggregate market level, we find that prices and cost tend to equalize in the long run. Short-run adjustment appears to be sufficiently fast and properly anticipated to prevent systematic excess profit opportunities. At the cross sectional level of individual houses, we find support that resources are allocated efficiently between different market segments. Taken together, our results provide sufficient evidence that the market in Berlin is efficient.     

Is there a third way to EMU for the EU accession countries?

The actual mainstream view of academics emphasizes the so-called “two-corner solution” with either completely fixed or independently floating exchange rates. We will argue in this paper that the requirements for fixed rates are rather too restrictive to be successful. On the other hand, the advantage of an independent float is only valid for small open economies under the assumption of exchange rate movements closely related to movements in the fundamentals. We suggest as a “third way”, a strategy of flexible exchange rate targeting where central banks simultaneously manage interest rates and exchange rates in a way that guarantees both the achievement of domestic macroeconomic objectives and an equilibrium on the international financial markets.     

Is there a marriage between productivity and quality?

What we have been reviewing is a workplace ethic of excellence, a management philosophy that has at its core a creative orientation that encourages diversity of vision that drives risk taking, participation, and collaborative employee endeavors within the context of shared rewards. To achieve this ethic of excellence in an industry battered by socio-eco-political and ethical hurricanes, we need to be genuflecting at the altar of opportunity and engaging in brainstorming, not only about the future, but also how we are going to get there. We need to abandon the reflex of engaging in crisis management. Health care management must assume the role of coach, mentor, and visionary, thus shedding the inane propensity to move along the comfortable road of bureaucracy, cynicism, redundancy, and control. Our future lies in a proactive, organizationally integrated, customer-oriented, and enabling environment that delivers high quality standards that maximize productivity. Therefore, in a world of change, there must be a marriage between quality improvement and productivity through implementation of QIPP processes and culture.     

Is there a J-curve effect in Turkish services?

This paper explores the existence of the J-curve effect in Turkish services. The model of Bahmani-Oskooee (Rev Econ Stat 67:500–504, 1985), one of the most commonly employed model in the j-curve literature, is adopted. Using quarterly data from 1986: I to 1998: III, we find that, as a result of real depreciation of Turkish currency, YTL, services trade balance initially improves, then worsens and improves again in the short run. This is a pattern indicating that J-curve effect does not exist in Turkish services sector. We also find that depreciation of Turkish Lira improves the trade balance of the sector in the long run, a result consistent with earlier findings for the whole Turkish economy.     

Is literacy shared within households? Theory and evidence for Bangladesh

A member of a collective-action households may or may not share the benefits of literacy with others in that household; the shared gains from doing so may well be offset by a shift in the balance of power within the family. Using household survey data for Bangladesh, we find strong external effects of education on individual earnings. Holding a range of personal attributes constant, an illiterate adult earns significantly more in the non-farm economy when living in a family with at least one literate member. These effects are strongest, and most robust, for women. Omitted-variable bias cannot be ruled out but would also be consistent with an intra-household externality of literacy.     

Is there a unit root in the inflation rate? Evidence from sequential break and panel data models

Using sequential trend break and panel data models, we investigate the unit root hypothesis for the inflation rates of thirteen OECD countries. With individual country tests, we find evidence of stationarity in only four of the thirteen countries. The results are more striking with the panel data model. We can strongly reject the unit root hypothesis both for a panel of all thirteen countries and for a number of smaller panels consisting of as few as three countries. The non-rejection of the unit root hypothesis for inflation is very fragile to even a small amount of cross-section variation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is There a Winning Formula for Union Organizing?

Between 1995 and 2004, Kate Bronfenbrenner wrote several studies arguing that union organizing would be more successful if certain tactics were used. Bronfenbrenner’s methodology seemed unassailable and her opinions were influential among union leaders, but organizing outcomes did not improve. To understand why, this study asked highly successful union organizers for their views. Their responses point to an entirely different conceptualization of the organizing process. Rather than follow a certain recipe, respondents saw their first priority as building relationships of trust with workers. Then, organizers and workers together could develop tactics tailored to the particular situation. If organizing success most requires relation-building skills and creativity, then it is more important for unions to hire the right organizers than to employ a given tactical formula.     

Public versus private provision of liquidity: Is there a trade-off?

To what extent is public debt private liquidity? Much policy advice given in the aftermath of the financial crisis rests on the assumption that increasing public debt relaxes borrowing constraints of private households. This is the case for ad-hoc debt limits, which are exogenous to public policy. Instead, if debt limits are fully endogenous, as e.g. in the case of the natural borrowing limit, public debt has no impact. We assume that borrowing limits arise because of limited contract enforceability and are therefore determined as equilibrium outcomes. Using an incomplete markets economy in which households are subject to uninsurable earnings shocks, we show that public debt provides some liquidity, but less so than it would if constraints were imposed ad-hoc. We show that generating borrowing constraints as an equilibrium outcome substantially alters the answers to other important questions, such as for the welfare effects of government debt or its impact on real economic activity.     

Is competition really bad news for cooperatives? Some empirical evidence for Italian producers’ cooperatives

In this paper, we analyse the nature of the relationship between market power and technical efficiency for producers’ cooperatives. More specifically we test two hypotheses: first, we evaluate the extent to which increasing market pressure may help producers’ cooperatives to improve technical efficiency to guarantee positive profits; second, we test whether higher technical efficiency induces producers’ cooperatives to have a larger market share. These hypotheses are tested on a sample of Italian conventional and cooperative firms for the Wine Production and Processing sector, using both frontier analysis and dynamic panel techniques. The results support the hypothesis that increasing market pressure can affect positively the cooperatives′ efficiency, while gains in technical efficiency do not seem to have any impact on the cooperatives’ market share.

Is bitcoin a safe haven or a hedging asset? Evidence from China

Based on daily data about Bitcoin and six other major financial assets (stocks, commodity futures (commodities), gold, foreign exchange (FX), monetary assets, and bonds) in China from 2013 to 2017, we use a VAR-GARCH-BEKK model to investigate mean and volatility spillover effects between Bitcoin and other major assets and explore whether Bitcoin can be used either as a hedging asset or a safe haven. Our empirical results show that (i) only the monetary market, i.e., the Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (SHIIBOR) has a mean spillover effect on Bitcoin and (ii) gold, monetary, and bond markets have volatility spillover effects on Bitcoin, while Bitcoin has a volatility spillover effect only on the gold market. We further find that Bitcoin can be hedged against stocks, bonds and SHIBOR and is a safe haven when extreme price changes occur in the monetary market. Our findings provide useful information for investors and portfolio risk managers who have invested or hedged with Bitcoin.     

Is corruption bad for economic growth? Evidence from Asia-Pacific countries

This study utilizes the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach, which incorporates both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity across countries, to investigate whether corruption negatively impacts economic growth in thirteen Asia-Pacific countries over the 1997–2013 period. The empirical results show that there is a significantly positive causality running from corruption to economic growth in South Korea, a significantly positive causality running from economic growth to corruption in China and no significant causality between corruption and economic growth for the remaining countries. According to the empirical results, we do not support the common perception that corruption is bad for economic growth for all thirteen Asia-Pacific. On the contrary, results of this study suggest that the “grease the wheels” hypothesis is supported for South Korea. Additionally, results of this study indicate that for most Asia-Pacific countries, policy makers’ use of anti-corruption policies to promote a country's economic development may not be effective. Finally, results of this study also suggest that for China, increase in economic growth leads to an increase in corruption.     

Disciplinary sanctions in English Premiership Football: Is there a racial dimension?

This paper assesses the evidence for a racial difference in both the dispensation of formal disciplinary sanctions and in the number of fouls called by referees in professional football. The study uses a unique dataset comprising player match-level information drawn from five recent seasons of the English Premiership. These data were merged with data from other sources to identify, among other things, the racial affiliation of the player across four separate categories (viz., white, black, mixed race, and Asian). No systematic evidence of an unfair treatment of players from the non-white minority groups in respect of either the receipt of disciplinary cards or in the number of penalised fouls called by referees was detected.