Union Wage Effects in Nevada's Hotel and Casino Industry

I use the significant union presence in Las Vegas's hotel, gaming, andrecreation (HGR) industry juxtaposed to the near absence of unions in Reno's HGR sector to study union wage effects. I find wages of highly unionized occupations in Las Vegas's HGR industry to be significantly higher than wages of identical occupations in Reno. Furthermore, I detect little impact from Las Vegas's HGR unions on wages in the wholesale and retail trade (WRT) industry, a much less unionized sector.     

From the outside in: Consumer anti-choice and policy implications in the mobile gaming market

Significant growth in mobile media consumption has prompted a call to better understand the socio-cultural and policy dimensions of consumer choices. Contrary to industry and technology led analysis, this study argues that to guide consumer choice and innovation via regulatory policies requires an understanding of both ex-ante as well as in ex-post consumption conditions. This study examines mobile phone gaming to uncover how consumer anti-choice shapes decision-making as a framework for closely interrogating the ways in which policy concerns impact on consumers’ behavior. Through eleven focus groups (n=62), the study empirically identifies voluntary, intentional, and positive consumer anti-choice behaviors all of which impact policy initiatives when consumers, both gamers and non-gamers, self-regulate their behaviors. Findings point to four types of policy implication: regulating the self-regulated, understanding anti-choice, boundary-setting and including the self-excluded.     

Housing and the Weather

Monthly readings on housing construction and sales that are at odds with expectations are often attributed to unusual weather conditions. This paper examines the empirical relationship between weather abnormalities and housing activity. The conclusion is that unseasonable weather patterns have, at most, a slight impact on total housing starts, home sales, and the pace of construction activity. Even this weak effect is found only during the winter months. Sampling error accounts for much more of the month-to-month changes in measured housing activity than does the weather, and there is a general tendency to exaggerate the influence of unusual weather on the monthly national housing data.     

Launch Decisions and the Early Market Survival of Innovations: An Empirical Analysis of the Italian Mobile Value‐Added Services (VAS) Industry

There is a surprisingly high number of new products and services that fail to produce enough return on the firm's investments in development and launch activities. Literature has shown that these failures can be due to a poorly planned and executed launch. Although a vast stream of research has studied how strategic and tactical launch decisions affect the performance of new products and services, some issues still need theoretical and empirical investigation. This paper aims to extend new product launch research in two ways. First, it studies how tactical launch decisions (i.e., investments in advertising and involvement of external organizations in the launch process) interact with an important strategic choice (i.e., the degree of radicalness of the new product or service) to affect new product performance. Second, it focuses on a particular dimension of performance, that is, early market survival, which has been overlooked in launch strategy and tactics research so far. Using a data set comprising more than 9300 new mobile value‐added services launched in Italy between 2003 and 2006, the paper finds that launch tactics interact with the radicalness of the innovation to affect early market survival. In particular, communicating the distinctive characteristics of the new product or service and partnering with external organizations during the launch process are tactics that work particularly well with radical innovations. This is possibly due to the fact that they help reduce customers’ uncertainty regarding expected benefits and transaction costs, and hence contribute to win their resistance to adopt the innovation soon after launch. Investments in corporate advertising lead instead to a tangible improvement of the probability of early market survival for both radical and incremental innovations. In other words, the positive impact on the probability of early survival of increasing investments in corporate advertising appears to be relevant for both radically and incrementally new services. One possible explanation is that this tactic helps increase the number of potential customers who come to know about the existence of the innovating firms and its offering soon after launch, but this is likely to be equally important to stimulate early diffusion of both incremental and radical innovations.     

International Telecom Settlements: Gaming Incentives, Carrier Alliances and Pareto-Superior Reform

Liberalized countries that allow competition in international telecommunications favor traffic re-routing practices as arbitrage against foreign monopolists. This view is seriously incomplete. Monopolists, allied with carriers in liberalized countries, can use these practices to reduce termination payments to nonalliance carriersöthereby harming also consumers in liberalized countriesöby gaming regulations that require equal termination rates at both ends and 'proportional return' (the monopolist's traffic is allocated among carriers in proportion to their shares of traffic to its country). We also present a simple bilateral settlements reform that eliminates gaming incentives and other proportional-return distortions, yet benefits both countries.     

新型城镇化对产业升级的影响效应分析

我国新型城镇化已成为经济新常态下产业升级的新思路,新型城镇化进程产生的诸多绩效是产业升级的强大动力。本文系统阐述了新型城镇化影响产业升级的作用机理,并基于数据可得性以带状选取东中西部各3个省份,每个省选取3个中大型地级市2004~2015年的面板数据作为研究样本,将新型城镇化和产业升级之间关系图和格兰杰因果检验结合,从时间和空间角度分析新型城镇化对产业升级的影响。结论表明：在时间上,2005~2011年,两者有负相关关系,2011~2015年,两者有正相关关系;在空间上,东部新型城镇化对产业升级有正向影响,中西部前者对后者无正向影响。根据实证结果和新型城镇化对产业升级的影响在时间和空间上存在差异的原因进而提出相关对策建议。     

Firm‐specific human capital,organizational incentives,and agency costs: Evidence from retail banking

This paper explores conflicting implications of firm‐specific human capital (FSHC) for firm performance. Existing theory predicts a productivity effect that can be enhanced with strong incentives. We propose an offsetting agency effect: FSHC may facilitate more‐sophisticated ‘gaming’ of incentives, to the detriment of firm performance. Using a unique dataset from a multiunit retail bank, we document both effects and estimate their net impact. Managers with superior FSHC are more productive in selling loans but are also more likely to manipulate loan terms to increase incentive payouts. We find that resulting profits are two percentage points lower for high‐FSHC managers. Finally, profit losses increase more rapidly for high‐FSHC managers, indicating adverse learning. Our results suggest that FSHC can create agency costs that outweigh its productive benefits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Service guarantee and optimal payout models

This paper evaluates both the optimal service level and optimal economic payout in service payout models. A service guarantee level is explicitly taken into consideration to obtain the optimal payout. In this study, we consider a generic model to provide insights into the dynamic interaction between the service guarantee and optimal payout levels. Parametric analyses show that when the demand payout coefficient is high, the impact of the payout is positive only if the payout rate is high enough.     

Improving bid efficiency for humanitarian food aid procurement

The competitive bid process used by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to procure food supplies and transportation services for humanitarian food aid is subject to bidder gaming that can increase prices and deter competition. Additionally, suppliers and carriers are matched after bid submission, preventing synergies from coordinated planning. Given these concerns, we determine the optimal auction mechanism to minimize gaming then justify pre-bid planning between suppliers and carriers using properties of the cost distribution functions. We operationalize these changes with a uniform price auction. The improved mechanism should deter gaming, enhance bid participation, and increase delivered food aid volumes.     

网络时代下的奢侈品营销分析

随着网络时代的科技冲击,越来越多的奢侈品品牌不甘于传统的消费方式,开始进入网络市场。如何顺应潮流,在网络时代的奢侈品营销中胜出,获得消费者的青睐,成为各大奢侈品商家费心解决的问题。结合奢侈品营销分析其网络营销的特点,找出网络营销的利与弊,从而为奢侈品网络营销提供借鉴。     

The economic implications of satellite technology and the industrialization of space

This article examines the economic issues emerging from systems options in space industrialization, allocation of orbital space and the impact of satellite technology on economic development. The economics of space industrialization involve most areas of economic analysis, including market failures, regulation and the theory of economic development. With the global economy wavering between recessions and upturns, and with the debts of developing countries threatening the international banking system, the economic impact of satellite technology becomes increasingly relevant.     

Critically Important: The Heterogeneous Effect of Diplomatic Tensions on Trade

Review of Industrial Organization - With global value chains interlocking today’s economies, what is the impact of diplomatic tensions on international trade? We exploit variation in monthly...     

中国省域流通效率及其影响因素研究——基于空间统计及空间计量分析

文章从市场、产业和企业层面构建流通效率综合评价指标体系,测度了2008~2015年各地区流通效率水平,并借助空间统计分析了我国流通效率的空间相分布特征。研究发现：我国流通效率水平存在显著的正向空间自相关性,环渤海经济圈和长三角经济圈地区流通效率表现为高高集聚特征,中西部地区流通效率则呈低低集聚特征。基于邻接空间、地理距离和经济距离权重矩阵的空间误差模型回归结果显示,邻近地区对本地区流通效率水平具有显著的负向效应,人均 GDP、市场化程度和对外开放对流通效率水平具有显著的正向影响,产业结构、人力资本、政府支出对流通效率的影响只在邻接空间权重下具有显著的正向影响,而城市化对流通效率水平的作用不显著。     

The Performance Effects of Human Resource Practices: The Case of Interclub Networks in Professional Baseball, 1919–1940

This study investigates the performance effects of two industry‐specific human resource management innovations that dramatically changed the way professional baseball teams selected and trained ballplayers. In the early part of this century, major league clubs developed and refined two player‐development practices based on “reserve team” and “farm team” systems. We use a panel data set of the win/lose records for the population of 16 major league clubs for the seasons from 1919 through 1940 to test hypotheses about the effect of human resource practices on organizational performance. The results suggest that the reserve team practice had no significant impact on organizational performance. In contrast, the more complex farm‐team system, pioneered by Branch Rickey of the St. Louis Cardinals, improved organizational performance and diffused rapidly throughout the league. We estimate that by 4 years after its creation, the farm‐team system improved a team's win rate by 0.068 points relative to nonadopters of the farm‐team system and teams with less than 4 years of prior experience with a farm‐team system. The results also show that the farm‐team effect was not confined to St. Louis but also was experienced by later adopters. These results contribute to the growing literature showing a positive effect of human resource policies on organizational performance. The results also illustrate the important role the external environment plays in shaping this relationship (e.g., legal restrictions to labor mobility).     

An Empirical Evaluation of the CPI Home Purchase Index, 1973–1978

This paper examines the accuracy of the home purchase component of the Consumer Price Index. Alternative monthly index series are simulated over the period 1973–1978 using FHA Master Statistical File data. Hedonic indexes derived from monthly regressions are compared to series constructed by the current CPI index method, which utilizes only age and size of house in correcting for intertemporal quality change. Of particular interest is the BLS practice of "linking out" price changes occurring when FHA raises its ceiling on the size of insurable mortgages. This procedure may have led to a significant downward bias in the official index.     

产品空间视角下制造业结构转变研究——以江浙沪为例

本文在产品空间视角下，将产品空间结构理论从国际贸易领域移植到国内区域层面，利用中国30个省份2003～2011年145类制造业3位码细分行业数据和2012～2014年147类制造业3位码细分行业数据，构造中国制造业产品空间，采用固定效应模型和Probit模型检验产品密度对比较优势的影响，并以江浙沪为例，对制造业结构转换目标选择进行了探讨。研究发现：在国内区域层面，产品密度在产业转型中发挥着引领产业创新和阻止产业衰退的双重作用。在产业结构转换中，需要遵循此规律，选择合适的转换目标，避免结构转换中的断档停滞。     

外商直接投资对城乡收入差距的影响研究——空间溢出及门槛特征

本文以我国30个省市2003～2014年的面板数据构建空间滞后模型和门槛面板模型,以人均国内生产总值和外商直接投资（FDI）强度为门槛变量,实证检验FDI与城乡收入差距间的非线性空间关系。结果表明FDI与城乡收入差距具有显著的空间积聚特征,同时FDI对缩小城乡收入差距的效应显著,且在各地区间存在明显差异。此外,FDI与城乡收入差距间具有门槛特征。当人均国内生产总值和FDI强度跨过门槛值时,FDI对于缩小城乡收入差距的效应会呈现出下降趋势。     

Reducing the Error in Monthly Housing Starts Estimates

This paper describes a method for developing estimates of total monthly housing starts that are more accurate than the published Census Bureau figures. The technique makes use of the facts that (1) estimated building permit issuance is subject to far less sampling error than is the starts estimate and (2) permit issuance and starts bear a strong contemporaneous correlation. The conclusion is that monthly housing starts and monthly building permit issuance should be assigned nearly equal weights in developing an improved estimate of total housing starts.     

Monitoring,Grievances, and Plant Performance

This study develops the theory and an in-depth longitudinal study of the role of residual grievance activity as a suggested proxy for managerial monitoring within the context of manufacturing production. In the empirical section, we test the theory and practice within the firm for the optimal level of monitoring/grievances in an establishment with monthly data over a ten-year period. We find that production-related residual grievances could indicate increased managerial monitoring of a kind that has a positive impact on productivity.     

Quality of Work Life and Human Resource Outcomes

This study develops and tests hypotheses regarding the influence of Quality of Work Life (QWL) initiatives on absenteeism, accidents, grievances, and quits, using monthly longitudinal human resource archival data collected at a unionized Midwestern heavy manufacturing firm for the period from 1976 to 1986. The sample size is 129 months (48 months of pre-QWL measures and 81 months of post-QWL measures). Autoregression procedures are utilized to examine the direct impact of QWL on human resource outcomes. QWL is found to significantly reduce absenteeism, minor accidents, grievances, and quits.