Nurse retention: is it worth it?

Nurse turnover costs thousands of dollars and negatively affects patient outcomes. Study results indicate experienced nurses perceive decreased autonomy and task orientation, and increased work pressure in their work environments. Strategies are presented to help retain RNs, save money, and improve patient outcomes.     

The micro-geography of academic research: How distinctive is economics?

This study examines micro-geographic clustering in the production and recognition of academic research. Three U.S. ZIP codes are associated with over 40 percent of articles in the top five economics journals and those articles garnered one-half of all citations in these journals from 2000 to 2015. Such micro-geographic concentration is not apparent in other disciplines, even those like chemistry that rely on specialized laboratories. Concentration of citations to economics articles whose authors are associated with a few key ZIP codes has strengthened over time, even as it has weakened for other disciplines. This micro-geographic concentration may increase systemic risk by reducing the diversity of economics research that is published and cited and may lead to insufficient research attention to local context.     

How do Migrants Choose Their Destination Country? An Analysis of Institutional Determinants

We analyze the effects of socio‐economic and institutional determinants, especially labor‐market institutions and features of social protection systems, on migrants’ location choices. Based on micro‐data for France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, we study migration to one of these four countries using a multinomial choice framework. Our estimates confirm conventional results regarding wages, networks, and unemployment rates. In addition, we find that there are indications of “insider–outsider effects” for union coverage and unemployment benefits, while employment protection does not have a clear‐cut impact on migration. Good education and health systems tend to attract migrants, while generous pension systems deter them.     

The impact of license regulation on the number of recreation trips: is it worth considering?

A two-stage nonlinear least-squares model (2NLS) with an endogenous treatment effect on recreation trips describes the behavior of recreationists with and without a fishing/hunting license. The proposed 2NLS is applied to the derivation of the policy-relevant average gains in the presence of an endogeneity bias to a license fee implementation program regulated by states. Recreationists who purchased a license are likely to recreate more than are the nonlicensed holders because the regulation may reduce congestions at sites where licensee visit often. The license regulation has a greater impact on the use of natural resources after controlling observed and unobserved confounders which might be correlated with the probability of being a license holder and with the final outcome, the number of recreation trips. We confirm that the individual without a permit regards the recreation trip as less valuable than does the individual having a license permit. We also found that the likelihood of purchasing a license among young adult recreationists is not at the level the states may desire. In addition, the number of trips demanded is more responsive to the nontransportation-related implicit travel cost than to the transportation-related implicit travel cost, although travel implicit costs are price inelastic.      

How Fat is the Top Tail of the Wealth Distribution?

Differential unit non‐response in household wealth surveys biases estimates of top tail wealth shares downward. Using Monte Carlo evidence, I show that adding only a few extreme observations to wealth surveys is sufficient to remove the downward bias. Combining extreme wealth observations from Forbes World's billionaires with the Survey of Consumer Finances, the Wealth and Assets Survey, and the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, I provide new improved estimates of top tail wealth in the United States, the United Kingdom, and nine euro area countries. These new estimates indicate significantly higher top wealth shares than those calculated from the wealth surveys alone.     

Old-age dependency: is it really increasing in aging populations?

To account for economic dependency we propose an adjustment to the old-age dependency ratio based on savings of the elderly. Computations are simple and the adjusted ratio is aimed at retaining the exogenous character of the conventional demographic ratio. Data from an economy with stagnating incomes and a fast growing elderly population (Japan) and an economy with fast growing incomes (Singapore) highlight that the conventional dependency ratio substantially exaggerates the burden of the elderly.     

Human capital accumulation and the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of labor: How large is the bias?

I consider two different skill accumulation technologies, learning by doing and Ben-Porath type training. The effect of human capital accumulation in the form of learning by doing is to increase the labor supply elasticity estimate by a factor of 2.1 relative to the estimate that ignores human capital accumulation. The results are similar for the Ben-Porath type training technology, although the estimate of the bias is somewhat higher.     

Scholastic just price versus current market price: is it merely a matter of labelling?

Abstract

From an analytical point of view, some aspects of Just Price theory, probably the most famous and lasting scholastic concept, remain controversial: the cost-of-production versus the subjective-utility theory of value is a main controversy as well as the question of whether the natural just price is conceptually the same as the current market price. Strictly speaking, just price isconceptually the same as the current market price. Of concern is whether the meaning behind the label is the same in both scholastic and liberal traditions. There are different interpretations among scholars. One is that the just price is merely the current market price, and common estimation plays the same role as market forces in a competitive context. Another group states that the just price is quite different from the market price; the fundamental reason is that the ethical framework of the scholastic paradigm sets a corpus of principles that greatly differs from the neoclassical homo economicus. Is it possible to speak of a collaborative market price (scholastic tradition) and competitive market price (liberal tradition)? This article tries to dig into such debate and reflects on the morality of the market price.     

How important is cultural background for the level of intergenerational mobility?

Based on brother correlations in permanent earnings for different groups of second generation immigrants, the findings in this paper indicate that cultural background is not a major determinant of the level of intergenerational economic mobility.     

How global is FDI? Evidence from the analysis of Theil indices

It is open to question whether the intensified worldwide competition for FDI has reduced its traditionally strong concentration in a few large and relatively advanced host countries. We calculate and decompose Theil indices to track changes in absolute and relative concentration of FDI during the period 1970–2013. We find that both absolute and relative concentration decreased when excluding offshore financial centers from the overall sample. In addition to the narrowing gap between OECD and non-OECD countries, the concentration across non-OECD countries declined for both the absolute and relative measures. This is also true for major subgroups of non-OECD countries. Finally, recent developments indicate that low-income countries are no longer at the losing end of the competition for FDI.     

Forward-premium puzzle: is it time to abandon the usual regression?

The forward premium puzzle is usually evidenced by the rejection of the null hypothesis in the uncovered interest parity (UIP) regression. Because this parity need only hold in a risk-neutral world, a risk adjustment term is missing from the equation if speculation in foreign exchange markets is risky. We deal with this issue following the literature which assumes that discounted returns on foreign government bonds are log-normal, so we can linearize the Euler pricing equations (in level) and obtain a modified UIP system for which the risk adjustment term is obtained by applying to the pricing kernel-based relations a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity-in-mean model. However, here we innovate by adopting a methodology which differs from all these related works. We construct and use a stochastic discount factor that does not depend on a specific model, by residing in the space of returns which we extract from the data by simply imposing the orthogonality restrictions represented by the Euler equations. So, we devise a purely statistical pricing kernel that performs well in in-sample level equations. Somewhat disappointingly, the risk premium inclusion in the conventional regression changes neither the significance nor the magnitude of the forecasting power of the forward premium for most currencies we study. The contrasting performance of the tests in level and in logs suggests that linearization may be to blame.     

IMF conditionality supports revenue collection: is it just tax rates?

This article examines if the observed favourable impact of conditionality in IMF programmes on revenue performance arises from changes in tax rates. It does so by studying the experience of 126 low- and middle-income countries during 1993–2013. When changes in tax rates are controlled for, the impact of revenue conditionality (and especially conditionality on revenue administration reform) not only remains strong on value-added tax collection but also, in contrast to earlier results, it contributes to significant improvements in income tax collection.     

Absorptive capacity and innovation: when is it better to cooperate?

Cooperation can benefit and hurt firms at the same time. An important question then is: when is it better to cooperate? And, once the decision to cooperate is made, how can an appropriate partner be selected? In this paper we present a model of inter-firm cooperation driven by cognitive distance, appropriability conditions and external knowledge. Absorptive capacity of firms develops as an outcome of the interaction between absorptive R&D and cognitive distance from voluntary and involuntary knowledge spillovers. Thus, we offer a revision of the original model by Cohen and Levinthal (Econ J 99(397):569–596, 1989), accounting for recent empirical findings and explicitly modeling absorptive capacity within the framework of interactive learning. We apply that to the analysis of firms’ cooperation and R&D investment preferences. The results show that cognitive distance and appropriability conditions between a firm and its cooperation partner have an ambiguous effect on the profit generated by the firm. Thus, a firm chooses to cooperate and selects a partner conditional on the investments in absorptive capacity it is willing to make to solve the understandability/novelty trade-off.     

Your employment brand: is it working for or against you?

The ability to attract and retain hard-to-find professionals is vitally connected to the perceptions of your organization both internally and externally. Many organizations confuse their employment brand with branding and all too often put considerable effort and often scarce resources against ineffective initiatives. Most health care organizations do not consistently allocate the necessary resources needed to build and sustain a strong employer brand. The relationship between employers and employees to and among each other and the values you strive for collectively are the cornerstones of your employment brand. It is imperative for nurse leaders to create and sustain an environment where employees are inherently positive and connected to their organization.