Oil,Gas, or Financial Conditions-Which One Has a Stronger Link with Growth?

Using the models of Diebold-Yilmaz (2012) and Barunik and Krehlik (2018) and monthly U.S. data from January 1992 to May 2019 (329 observations), this study estimates the return and volatility connectedness transmitted from commodity markets (natural gas and crude oil) and the Kansas City financial stress index to macroeconomic indicators (GDP and CPI). As a research target, crude oil has received significant attention. Although natural gas plays an important role in the energy markets as an environment-friendly alternative, it has not been studied extensively. We find the different spread speed of shocks to return and volatility variables through the total spillover index. We focus on both crude oil and natural gas and find that after the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on September 19, 2008, there was a significant jump in the total return spillover from 35.09% to 46.91%, peaking in October 2008. Furthermore, in the frequency domain, we find that the total long-term return spillover index had the highest proportion during the global financial crisis. When the total spillover is concentrated on the high frequencies, it means the system will have an impact mostly in the short term. When it is concentrated on the lower frequencies, it shows that shocks are persistent and works in the long term among the system. It could give some information to the policymakers.     

Industrial Relations, Manipulative or Democratic?

Summary: Three historical periods of motivating workers toward increasing productivity still "coexist" today: negative incentives, external rewards, forms of workers' participation in industry. Varying modes of joint consultation at top levels existing in many countries are contrasted with American industrial research emphasizing workers' participation on the workshop level. The problems of "common goals" and "manipulation" in industry are considered as contributing factors to the gap between those two levels. To fill it, industrial sociologists should follow Mayo and others in the use of 'clinical' research to find new institutional forms for a democratic work process based on collective bargaining.     

Industrial relations in Civil Service agencies: transition or transformation?

Change in four Civil Service agencies is examined here, from their launch in 1988 to the general election in 1997. The extent of that change, judged on five indicators, is found to vary. In three agencies there was transformation but in one agency, where industrial relations remained con-sensual, there was not.     

Vertical Social Differentiation in Athens: Alternative or Complement to Community Segregation?

Vertical social differentiation is presented in the recent literature as an important element of reduced segregation in South European cities, and the supporting evidence originates mainly from Athens. The authors of this article question the claim about the common form and function of vertical social differentiation across South Europe, as well as its opposition to community segregation, and try to reveal the specificity of the processes leading to its formation in Athens. Since the mid‐1970s, the dominant process of urban growth in Athens has been middle‐class suburbanization. This process has reinforced community segregation and, at the same time, has triggered a filtering‐down process in wide areas around the CBD, formerly occupied by upper and mainly intermediate professional categories. Interclass vertical segregation has subsequently appeared in these areas, where intermediate professional categories and lower middle‐class households are now predominant. The fact that these areas do not represent a real choice for any of their resident groups shows that this vertical cohabitation has been the unintended consequence of changing segregation patterns, and hardly the outcome or the corollary of a growing process of sociospatial homogenization.     

Jane Jacobs on Henry George: Progress or Poverty?

Henry George and Jane Jacobs each have devoted followers today who remain mainly outside the intellectual mainstream, both are iconic American intellectuals largely sympathetic to and quite knowledgeable about how markets work, and they each challenged the prevailing economic orthodoxies of their day. Much has been written, pro and con, on George's single tax and on Jacobs's battles with urban planners, and while I don't directly address either here, what I say does have implications for those controversies. In particular, I show how and why their views on the nature of economic progress, and of cities in that progress, fundamentally differ. I trace the difference to George's essentially classical approach to economics in contrast to Jacobs's subjectivist approach, which more radically transcends the economics of her time.     

Integrated financial supervision: Which model?

Integrated agencies supervising banks, nonbank financial institutions, and securities markets have been gaining popularity around the globe. Using a unique data set on compliance with international standards in 84 countries, we find that greater supervisory integration is associated with higher quality of insurance and securities supervision and greater consistency of supervision across sectors. Within the different forms of integration, we find some support for the “twin peaks” model that integrates supervision across sectors but separates business conduct and prudential supervision. We also find that whether supervision is located inside or outside the central bank has no significant relation to supervisory quality.     

Charity shops on the high street: complementarity or unwanted neighbour?

Within the last ten years there has been substantial growth of the charity retailing sector. This increased retail presence and sophistication of marketing practices have led to the contention by mainstream retailers that charity shops, which enjoy specific fiscal arrangements, have an unfair competitive advantage. Utilising evidence from a range of town centre locations, this paper examines whether this allegation can be substantiated. Three sources of primary research are used: the profile of charity shops within a town centre context; the attitudes and perceptions of mainstream retailers and their organisational bodies; and finally, the perspective of town centre managers towards charity retailing. Analysis and subsequent discussion suggests that charity retailers can perform a complementary role within town centres, thus reducing the potential of conflict with mainstream retailing. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

Recast directive on European works councils: cosmetic surgery or substantial progress?

Overdue by nine years, contested by employers and awaited by trade unions, a review of the European works council Directive 94/45/EC finally became reality in 2009. This article presents background information about the positions of the European social partners and other institutional EU actors in order to understand the outcome of the events of 2008–09. Focus is directed towards providing a general overview of the new elements in the recast directive on European works councils (EWCs). Keeping the different views on EWCs of the social partners in perspective, the article argues that the recast directive, despite its shortcomings, represents progress rather than superficial cosmetic surgery.     

Influence of economic crisis on new SME survival: reality or fiction?

The aim of this research was to analyse the survival of new ventures during periods of economic crisis. The article compares survival probability during growth and crisis periods. An empirical study was used to analyse new venture survival probability. Results show that new firms have a greater likelihood of surviving during crisis periods than they do during growth periods. An additional aim of the study was to analyse the survival probability of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs during crisis periods. Results show that gaps in survival likelihood between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship are bigger during times of crisis than they are during growth periods.     

Innovation processes: Which process for which project?

The innovation process has traditionally been understood as a predefined sequence of phases: idea generation, selection, development, and launch/diffusion/sales. Drawing upon contingency theory, we argue that innovation process may follow a number of different paths. Our research focuses on a clear theoretical and managerial question, i.e., how does a firm organize and plan resource allocation for those innovation processes that do not easily fit into traditional models. This question, in turn, leads to our research question: Which configuration of innovation processes and resource allocation should be employed in a given situation, and what is the rationale behind the choice? Based on a large-scale study analyzing 132 innovation projects in 72 companies, we propose a taxonomy of eight different innovation processes with specific rationales that depend on a project׳s contingencies.     

Bargaining: separately or together?

This paper explores conditions under which economic agents will want to bargain collectively instead of individually with a common third party—when, for example, two firms (or unions), who are bargaining with the same, indispensable, outside party, will want to merge and bargain as one. I use a non-cooperative sequential bargaining model to analyze this question. Previous work has shown that agents prefer to bargain collectively if they are substitutes for each other in production. This result, however, depends on an exogenously fixed sequence of bargaining. I allow the bargaining sequence to be determined endogenously and investigate how incentives for collective bargaining vary with heterogeneity when delay is costly. The previous results are not robust when the agents are substitutes. In particular, substitute agents prefer individual to collective bargaining if they are heterogeneous and sufficiently patient. In the presence of transaction costs, substitutability of agents is no longer the sole determinant of collectivization. Rather, the degree of heterogeneity in production, in conjunction with the degree of substitutability between agents determine the incentives for collective action.     

Co-operation and co-opetition as open innovation practices in the service sector: Which influence on innovation novelty?

This study aims to identify the influence of co-operation practices and the use of internal and external information sources on the propensity of firms to introduce new to the market innovations in the service sector. Data come from the 4th Community Innovation Survey, which covers the years 2002-2004. A logistic regression model is applied with the degree of novelty of good/service innovation as dependent variable. The analysis of the parameter estimates shows that firms provided with information from market sources and from internal sources as well as firms involved in science-based collaboration for their product innovations are more likely to introduce new to the market innovations, whereas information coming from competitors seems to have a negative influence on the degree of novelty of innovation.     

Workfare: Servitude or success formula?

Neither welfare nor workfare is much of a choice. But workfare leads to real choices, freedom, and autonomy. Welfare represents the state's acceptance of its duties to honor the welfare claim rights of those citizens in real need of temporary public assistance. In contrast, workfare recognizes additional claim-rights, namely, those that enable full agency and autonomy through education for employment, with a view toward ensuring that the dependency period is indeed temporary. Critics of workfare cannot be unaware of the educational resources—especially those of open-access community colleges, open days, evenings and weekends—that taxpayers have put at the disposal of everyone who is at all serious about self-improvement.     

黎瑞刚:All in or NOT?

黎瑞刚这次的职务变动再次成为大家关注的焦点。近日,上海市人民政府发布了关于上海文化广播影视集团有限公司人事任免通知,免去黎瑞刚总裁职务,任命王建军为上海文化广播影视集团有限公司总裁。消息一出,众人哗然。黎瑞刚对此表示,他的职务调整是实至名归。黎瑞刚曾任上海文广新闻传媒集团总裁、上海第一财经传媒有限公司董事长。2002年10月,出任上海文广新闻传媒集团(SMG)总裁后,他一手主导了SMG的体制内改革,被媒体认为是体制内最像企业家的台长,在熟悉他的     

The state: Agent or proprietor?

This paper addresses the following question: Does characterizing the state to be an agent of its citizens provide a useful "as if" framework for positive analysis of economic policy? Or, can we understand economic policy only by explicitly characterizing the state as proprietary, the instrument of the ruling elite?