The phantom of the opera: Cultural amenities, human capital, and regional economic growth

We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasi-natural experiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution of baroque opera houses built as a part of rulers' competition for prestigious cultural sights. Robustness tests confirm our strategy and strengthen the finding that proximity to a baroque opera house significantly affects the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. A cross-region growth regression shows that these employees induce local knowledge spillovers and shift a location to a higher growth path.     

Severity of material deprivation in Spanish regions and the role of the European Structural Funds

Material deprivation has recently affected households with worrying pressure. In order to evaluate the degree of this affliction, we build categories of deprivation with increasing intensity, using the 2014–2018 EU-SILC cross-sectional data for households in Spanish regions. We explore household characteristics and regional heterogeneity associated with the relative risk ratios of falling into such categories. Moreover, the paper assesses whether two axes of the European Structural and Investment Funds (specifically, those allocated to the objective of social inclusion and sustainable and quality employment) matter at weakening such risks. Only social inclusion funds are strongly associated with a lower relative risk of material deprivation. This might be due to a regional misalignment and/or to an inefficient use of the funds.     

Economic cohesion and development of the European Union's regions and member states - A methodological proposal to measure and identify the degree of regional economic cohesion

The EU cohesion policy seeks to mitigate imbalances between countries and regions and enhance greater economic development of the whole Union. However, notwithstanding its efforts and certain progress on this issue, territorial disparities still represent an open challenge for the European Union, which requires improving the cohesion policy, particularly regarding its measurement, in order to allocate resources more efficiently.This article aims to propose an innovative methodology to measure and identify the degree of cohesion of both EU NUTS-2 regions and member states in economic terms. To this end we first selected the main indicators which would better explain GDP per capita growth by applying factor analysis; and second, we measure the degree of cohesion as the relationship between economic development and its potential attributable to the inequalities detected in the selected set of indicators. To ensure the robustness of this research, we compared the results obtained by applying the Gini, Atkinson, and Theil indexes. Finally, the Economic Cohesion Index (ECI) has been elaborated in order to identify regions that, regardless of their economic development, still present a very low level of cohesion within the group in which it is compared.The main findings indicate that the 27 EU countries are quite cohesive. On the contrary, from the regional perspective, the study shows important imbalances between economic development and its potential that mainly affect the regions of Greece, Spain, and Italy, where Greece is the leading country among less developed regions and Spain and Italy among more developed.     

The role of human capital after the crisis in Italy: A regional analysis

In the years of the prolonged post-crisis recession, the well-known North-South divide in Italy has significantly worsened. Several structural weaknesses limit both post-crisis recovery and socioeconomic convergence. A greater understanding of the economic contribution of workers' human capital, which is not fully exploited in Italy, could address the two issues. We analyze the effects of human capital on local economic performance and productivity, along with other socioeconomic variables, controlling for the endogeneity problem. Workers with a better education can promote economic recovery through productivity enhancement in the South, while traditional aspects related to industrialization are significant in the “wealthy North”. However, structural aspects, such as the local financial systems, must be developed to start a path to convergence for the North and the South.     

Transport infrastructure and economic performance: An evaluation of the Milan-Bologna high-speed rail corridor

This paper evaluates the impact of high-speed rail on the economic performance of the Milan-Bologna corridor in Northern Italy in terms of gross value added, distinguishing between services and manufacturing. The evidence-based impact assessment is carried out through propensity score matching difference-in-differences, event study, and synthetic control methods using NUTS 3 provincial panel data 2000–2018. The results suggest overall positive effects for the NUTS 3 provinces directly exposed to the programme. Still, sectoral heterogeneities arise depending on the specialization of the place hosting a high-speed railway stop. Moreover, different magnitudes occur depending on whether or not a high-speed station is located in a central place.     

The impact of financial and human resources on the export performance of Russian firms

This study contributes to the literature by investigating for the first time the effects of the entrepreneurial environment on export survival in Russia. Using the continuous-time Cox model and discrete-time complementary log-log and probit models, we study the effects of the availability of human and financial resources on export survival across Russian regions between 2002 and 2010. Taking into account uncertainty and time effects reveals that these effects are falling over time and are more important for larger exporters. Thus, there is evidence of a learning curve for exporters when the latter become more efficient in dealing with regional-level resources and the regulatory environment over time.     

Work and social well-being: the impact of employment conditions on quality of life

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the impact of management practises and employment conditions in the contemporary workplace on the broader social realm. The study provides an analytic account of how these employment conditions impact on the social well-being of a representative sample of individuals and households. We assess the propensity of working arrangements that are manifested in various high performance work systems either to enhance or to diminish quality of life. The paper indicates that certain management practises and employment conditions have impacts that extend beyond the workplace and influence the broader well-being of individuals and families.     

The effects of internal locus of control on entrepreneurship: the mediating mechanisms of social capital and human capital

This paper proposes the research framework that locus of control enhances entrepreneurship through the mediating mechanisms of increased social capital in interpersonal networks and improved human capital in personal development. We adopted structural equation modeling to examine the research hypothesis. The research participants comprised managers from 14 enterprises in China; a total of 1002 valid questionnaires were collected. The results revealed that social and human capital mediate the effect that internal locus of control exerts on entrepreneurship. This study provides the following research contributions: first, the findings address the gaps in previous studies regarding the effect that a single dimension (i.e. personality traits) produces on entrepreneurship. Second, by employing the social exchange and human capital theories, we integrated interpersonal and individual perspectives into the research framework to explore factors affecting entrepreneurship, identifying that social and human capital are key-mediating mechanisms through which locus of control influences entrepreneurship.     

The geographic accessibility of child care subsidies and evidence on the impact of subsidy receipt on childhood obesity

This paper examines the impact of the spatial accessibility of public human services agencies on the likelihood of receiving a child care subsidy among disadvantaged mothers with young children. In particular, we collect data on the location of virtually every human services agency in the US and use this information to calculate the approximate distance that families must travel from home in order to reach the nearest office that administers the subsidy application process. Using data from the Kindergarten cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), our results indicate that an increase in the distance to a public human services agency reduces the likelihood that a family receives a child care subsidy. Specifically, we estimate an elasticity of subsidy receipt with respect to distance of −0.13. The final section of the paper provides an empirical application in which we use variation in families’ travel distance to identify the causal effect of child care subsidies on children’s weight outcomes. Our instrumental variables estimates suggest that subsidized child care leads to sizeable increases in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among low-income children.     

The Media's Role in Influencing Perceptions of Housing Values and the Resulting Impact on the Macroeconomy

The housing market is a major component of the economy and persistent negative media reports can adversely affect perceptions and expectations of homeowners as to the value of their home. As a result, households reduce their expenditures and increase their savings in an effort to rebuild lost wealth. In the short run the economy suffers and the recession is magnified. This paper demonstrates, through an empirical study, how negative media reports regarding the deteriorating conditions of the national housing market affects what households feel their housing is worth.     

The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on organizational commitment and the moderating role of collectivism and masculinity: evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices and their organizational commitment. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to analyze survey data on 280 employees from five export-oriented manufacturing firms in China. Employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices towards internal stakeholders were found to relate positively to their organizational commitment. In contrast, employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices to external stakeholders had a nonsignificant or marginally significant impact on organizational commitment. In addition, the collectivism and masculinity orientations of employees were found to moderate this relationship. These findings provide an insight into how corporate social responsibility practices may be utilized to motivate diverse groups of employees within China-based organizations.     

The impact of employee perceptions of organizational corporate social responsibility practices on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior: evidence from the Chinese private sector

This paper examines the impact of employee perceptions of organizational corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on their job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Hierarchical regression analysis on two-wave data from 184 supervisor/subordinate dyads from three organizations located in Zhejiang Province, South-East China, revealed that employee perceptions of CSR toward social and non-social stakeholders strongly influenced their OCB. However, employee perceptions of CSR toward employees, customers and government influenced neither their job performance nor OCB.