The Economics of Tropical Deforestation

This paper provides a survey of 'first wave' economic studies of tropical deforestation and land use. These studies of tropical forest land conversion are generally at the cross‐country level. We also conduct a synthesis cross‐country analysis of tropical agricultural land expansion. The results show that agricultural development is the main factor determining land expansion, but institutional factors have an important influence. Income effects tend to vary from region to region, and do not always display an 'Environmental Kuznets Curve' relationship     

Non‐Mandatory Approaches to Environmental Protection

The approach to environmental protection has been evolving from a regulation‐driven, adversarial 'government‐push' approach to a more proactive approach involving voluntary and often 'business‐led' initiatives to self‐regulate their environmental performance. This has been accompanied by increasing provision of environmental information about firms and products to enlist market forces and communities in creating a demand for corporate environmental self‐regulation by signaling their preferences for environmentally friendly firms. This paper provides an overview of the non‐mandatory approaches being used for environmental protection and surveys the existing theoretical literature analyzing the economic efficiency of such approaches relative to mandatory approaches. It also discusses empirical findings on the factors motivating self‐regulation by firms and its implications for their economic and environmental performance. It examines the existing evidence on the extent to which information disclosure is effective in generating pressures from investors and communities on firms to improve their environmental performance.     

A Meta‐Analysis of β‐Convergence: the Legendary 2%

Abstract.  The topic of convergence is at the heart of a wide‐ranging debate in the growth literature, and empirical studies of convergence differ widely in their theoretical backgrounds, empirical specifications, and in their treatment of cross‐sectional heterogeneity. Despite these differences, a rate of convergence of about 2% has been found under a variety of different conditions, resulting in the widespread belief that the rate of convergence is a natural constant. We use meta‐analysis to investigate whether there is substance to the 'myth' of the 2% convergence rate and to assess several unresolved issues of interpretation and estimation. Our data set contains approximately 600 estimates taken from a random sample of empirical growth studies published in peer‐reviewed journals. The results indicate that it is misleading to speak of a natural convergence rate since estimates of different growth regressions come from different populations, and we find that correcting for the bias resulting from unobserved heterogeneity in technology levels leads to higher estimates of the rate of convergence. We also find that correcting for endogeneity of the explanatory variables has a substantial effect on the estimates and that measures of financial and fiscal development are important determinants of long‐run differences in per capita income levels. We show that although the odds of a study being published is not uniform for studies with different p ‐values, publication bias has no significant effect on the conclusions of the analysis.     

Entrepreneurship and survival dynamics of immigrants to the U.S. and their descendants

Many studies have explored the determinants of entering into entrepreneurship and the differences in self-employment rates across racial and ethnic groups. However, very little is known about the survival in entrepreneurship of immigrants to the U.S. and their descendants.We adopt a modeling framework based on duration analysis, which takes into account both the fact that the stock of entrepreneurs initially observed represents a selected sample and the inability of observing in the data the exit time for some spells. Unlike previous studies, we find a lower survival probability in entrepreneurship for Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants, which does not carry on to their U.S.-born descendants. We also find that these two immigrant groups tend to enter entrepreneurship from unemployment or inactivity and they are more likely to exit towards employment in the wage sector, suggesting that entrepreneurship represents for them an intermediate step from non-employment to paid employment.     

Testing for Linearity

The problem of testing for linearity and the number of regimes in the context of self‐exciting threshold autoregressive (SETAR) models is reviewed. We describe least‐squares methods of estimation and inference. The primary complication is that the testing problem is non‐standard, due to the presence of parameters which are only defined under the alternative, so the asymptotic distribution of the test statistics is non‐standard. Simulation methods to calculate asymptotic and bootstrap distributions are presented. As the sampling distributions are quite sensitive to conditional heteroskedasticity in the error, careful modeling of the conditional variance is necessary for accurate inference on the conditional mean. We illustrate these methods with two applications — annual sunspot means and monthly U.S. industrial production. We find that annual sunspots and monthly industrial production are SETAR(2) processes.     

The determinants of business start-ups in tertiary education: evidence for Greece through a panel data approach

Up to now there is no consensus in the relevant literature on the exact factors that lead a student to entrepreneurship. In addition, evidence on differences in the entrepreneurial activity among regions and, even more, in the entrepreneurial education provided by individual universities, within the same region, call for context-specific longitudinal studies. The primary objective of this paper is to provide evidence on the determinants that influence the propensity of young students of a Greek University to establish a new business venture. The methodological approach employed is based on a questionnaire survey collecting data from 1,500 students, spanning the period 2005–2010. Data has been processed through the use of a panel cointegration and panel causality methodology. The empirical findings entail useful insights on students’ attitudes and perceptions of entrepreneurship.     

Founder nativity,founding team formation,and firm performance in the U.S. high-tech sector

This paper is motivated by the movement of foreign-born entrepreneurs out of ethnic enclaves and into the mainstream, globally-connected economies of the countries of immigration, and from necessity to opportunity entrepreneurship. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to integrate the emerging literature on foreign-born entrepreneurship with work on the composition and impact of founding teams. Empirically, we draw on original quantitative and qualitative data on the U.S. high-tech sector. We find that homophily drives team formation and that nationality diversity in founding teams has a modest impact on firm performance.     

Unemployment and liquidity constraints

We present a dynamic framework for the interaction between borrowing (liquidity) constraints and deviations of actual hours from desired hours, both measured by discrete‐valued indicators, and estimate it as a system of dynamic binary and ordered probit models with panel data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We analyze a household's propensity to be liquidity constrained by means of a dynamic binary probit model. We analyze qualitative aspects of the conditions of employment, namely whether the household head is involuntarily overemployed, voluntarily employed, or involuntarily underemployed or unemployed, by means of a dynamic ordered probit model. We focus on the possible interaction between the two types of constraints. We estimate these models jointly using maximum simulated likelihood, where we allow for individual random effects along with an autoregressive process for the general error term in each equation. A novel feature of our method is that it allows for the random effects to be correlated with regressors in a time‐invariant fashion. Our results provide strong support for the basic theory of constrained behavior and the interaction between liquidity constraints and exogenous constraints on labor supply. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence

Abstract.  This paper studies the links between macroeconomic adjustment and poverty. The first part summarizes some of the recent evidence on poverty in the developing world. The second reviews the various channels through which macroeconomic policies affect the poor, whereas the third is devoted to the specific role of the labor market. It presents an analytical framework that captures some of the main features of the urban labor market in developing countries and studies the effects of fiscal adjustment on wages, employment, and poverty. The fourth part presents cross‐country regressions linking various macroeconomic and structural variables to poverty. Higher levels and growth rates of per capita income, higher rates of real exchange rate depreciation, better health conditions, and a greater degree of commercial openness lower poverty, whereas inflation, greater income inequality, and macroeconomic volatility tend to increase it. Moreover, the impact of growth on poverty appears to be asymmetric; it seems to result from a significant relationship between episodes of increasing poverty and negative growth rates.     

What have We Learnt from the Convergence Debate?

This paper surveys the convergence literature. It begins by laying out different definitions of convergence and by showing the link between the convergence issue and the growth theory debate. The paper then follows the convergence research conducted along four different approaches, namely the cross‐section, panel, time‐series, and distribution approaches. The paper shows the association of these methodological approaches with various definitions of convergence and highlights the connections among the convergence results. It shows that, despite some impressions to the contrary, there is considerable agreement among the results. Although the convergence research might not have solved the growth debate entirely, it has helped both the neoclassical and the new growth theories to adapt and evolve. The research on convergence has established new stylized facts regarding cross‐country growth regularities. It has brought to fore the existence of large technological and institutional differences across countries and has given rise to new methodologies for quantifying and analyzing these differences. This is providing a new information base for analysis of technological and institutional diffusion and for further development of growth theory in general.     

Entrepreneurship: Cause and Consequence of Financial Optimism

Extant evidence that the self‐employed overestimate their returns by a greater margin than employees is consistent with two mutually inclusive possibilities. Self‐employment may foster optimism or intrinsic optimists may be drawn to self‐employment. Previous research is generally unable to disentangle these effects because of reliance on cross‐sectional data. Using longitudinal data, this paper finds that employees who will be self‐employed in the future overestimate their short‐term financial wellbeing by more than those who never become self‐employed. Optimism is higher still when self‐employed. These results suggest that the greater optimism of the self‐employed reflects both psychological disposition and environmental factors. By providing greater scope for optimism, self‐employment entices the intrinsically optimistic.     

The role of regions for different forms of business organizations

Abstract

The evidence for associations between area characteristics and entrepreneurship is fairly consistent in most studies. These studies, however, have disregarded the fact that the areas might be constructs that have no effect on the individual differences in entrepreneurship and, furthermore, have conflated entrepreneurship and sole proprietorship, disregarding the impact of area constructs on different forms of business organizations. Therefore, we investigate and quantify, within a multi-level framework, the importance of municipalities and regions for understanding individual differences in entrepreneurship and self employment (defined as sole proprietorship). By using register data comprising the entire Swedish population for 2000–2010, we decompose the variation for the respective form of business organization into three levels: the individual, the municipality and the region. Our results show that about 10% of the total variation in entrepreneurship can be attributed to the municipality and region level. The corresponding numbers for self employment are 3–4%. Our results indicate that regions and municipalities differ markedly in area impact for entrepreneurs compared to self employed. The results from the present study show the importance of taking into account the form of business organization in economic analysis, and they can be used when considering whether it is appropriate to focus on specific municipalities and regions for policy interventions on self-employment.     

Managing the locals: employee relations in South Asian restaurants

This paper examines the management of employee relations in South Asian firms in the UK independent restaurant sector. Key working practices pertaining to the employment relationship are examined in a particular socio-economic and spatial context. Acknowledging such contexts facilitates an appreciation of how ethnicity and employment relations interact, rather than abstracting culture from the material context in which it operates. Consistent with this analytic focus, a mixed embeddedness perspective (Kloosterman et al. 1999) is adopted which recognizes the importance of both economic and social aspects of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. A qualitative methodology, drawing upon 23 case histories (involving both employer and employee perspectives) is deployed. The indications from this research suggest that the employment relationship is an outcome of the fluid interaction of social, economic and geographical contexts. This renders problematic both culturalist and purely economic approaches to ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Future research should carefully consider how the employment relationship is influenced by its embeddedness within specific communities.     

The Design of Stable International Environmental Agreements: Economic Theory and Political Economy

International environmental agreements typically strive for the solution of a common property resource dilemma. Since the sovereignty of states precludes external enforcement, international environmental agreements must be self‐enforcing. Game theoretical models explain why rewards and punishments imposed through the environmental externality generally fail to enforce full cooperation. Therefore, environmental treaties incorporate provisions that enhance the incentives for participation such as transfers, sanctions and linkage to other negotiation topics in international politics. Moreover, interaction with markets and governments as well as the rules and procedures adopted in the negotiation process influence the design and the effectiveness of an international environmental agreement.     

Historicizing the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship: The case of the ethnic Chinese in Bangkok

This paper aims to come to a better understanding of the meaning of ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship for second- and third-generation ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Bangkok, Thailand. Research on ethnic Chinese entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia typically investigates the dominance, attributed to specific ‘Chinese’ cultural values and strong intra-ethnic networks, of the ethnic Chinese in business and entrepreneurship. Our research among second- and third-generations shows an inclination of the interviewees to emphasize the irrelevance of their ‘ethnic’ Chinese background in entrepreneurship. To understand the meanings of the expressed irrelevance, we argue that it is constructive to incorporate a historical/generational approach of the ethnic group (migration history, nationalism) and of the business (social organization) into the study of ethnic entrepreneurship. The contribution to ethnic entrepreneurship research is threefold. Firstly, we show how a generational lens provides a more nuanced understanding of the ‘ethnic’ in ethnic entrepreneurship. Secondly, we show how incorporating the historical context helps to position business conduct in the social/societal experiences of entrepreneurs. Finally, our case study of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in Thailand brings an Asian perspective to ethnic entrepreneurship debates that generally concern European and North American research studies and thus hopes to inspire future comparative research.     

Filipino ethnic entrepreneurship: An integrated review and propositions

With a large percentage of its population as overseas workers or emigrants, a number now in the millions and likely grow even larger, an examination is appropriate of the entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities faced by emigrants from the Philippines. This study explores the factors that shape entrepreneurship among emigrants in general and, in particular, among Filipinos in the United States of America. Integrating literature from a variety of sources relating to the migration of Filipinos and the creation and management of new ventures by ethnic entrepreneurs in the United States, it proposes a general model of ethnic entrepreneurship, develops propositions relating to the propensity of Filipino emigrants to establish entrepreneurial ventures, and concludes with suggestions for future research.     

Long-term earnings and employment effects of housing voucher receipt

Using a propensity score matching approach coupled with difference-in-differences regression analysis, we estimate the effect of housing voucher receipt on the employment and earnings of a large longitudinal sample of low-income families for 6 years following voucher receipt. Our results indicate that voucher receipt has little effect on employment, but a negative effect on earnings. The negative earnings effect is largest in the years immediately following initial receipt, and fades out over time. In addition, we find that the pattern of recipient earnings responses to voucher receipt differs substantially across demographic subgroups. Several robustness tests are run to support the reliability of our findings. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and policy.     

失地农民就业创业转型问题研究

城市化快速推进,导致失地农民数量不断增多。失地农民的就业创业、理财问题不仅关系到国家经济的可持续发展,也影响到社会的和谐与稳定。在这种形势下,如何提高农民创业就业能力、理财技能,创造就业机会,使这些农民"失地"不"失业",实现失地"农民"本质上向"新市民"的真正转变,已成为当务之急。同时,利用社会力量及时创办一些以失地农民创业指导、理财咨询辅导为主业,培训失地农民职业技能、让农民失地不失业为目标的短期培训咨询机构已势在必行。     

The decision to moonlight: does second job holding by the self‐employed and employed differ?

This article considers drivers of second job holding among the self‐employed in comparison with the employed. Econometric analysis of panel data explores whether the self‐employed are more or less likely to take on a second job when already running their own business than their employed counterparts. The findings contribute to the literature through identification of a need‐based variable—difficulty in meeting housing costs—as a key driver of movements from self‐employment to hybrid entrepreneurship. Findings, further, identify different patterns of second job holding by gender, particularly among self‐employed individuals.     

Life-course and entry to entrepreneurship:embedded in gender and gender-egalitarianism

ABSTRACT

Prior research has suggested that low gender egalitarianism results in a gender gap in entrepreneurship participation, as it provides men and women with different opportunities and constraints. However, this research has primarily relied on an unrealistic assumption, namely that gender-related opportunities and constraints occur evenly throughout different life stages. This paper details an institutional life-course model that explains gender-related patterns in individuals’ propensity to enter entrepreneurship and contingencies related to the level of gender-egalitarianism in society and individuals’ life stages. We test our conceptual model on a unique integrated dataset from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the World Value Survey, encompassing a total of 672,781 adults in 71 countries.