Pushing the limit? Fiscal policy in the European Monetary Union

Governments are confronted with the growing realization that they face fiscal limits on the size of debt and deficits relative to GDP. These fiscal limits invalidate Bohn's criterion for fiscal sustainability, which allows explosive debt relative to GDP, eventually violating any fiscal limit. We derive restrictions on a fiscal rule, necessary for the government to eliminate explosive behavior. These restrictions require that the response of the primary surplus to debt be relatively strong, and that the primary surplus be cointegrated with both debt and output. We test these empirical implications for a panel of eleven EMU countries, and find that they are satisfied, implying that fiscal policy does not create explosive behavior.     

Core service versus relational benefits: what matters most?

Services literature has extensively examined the effects of core service and relational benefits on behavioral outcomes arguing that both components, studied separately, contribute significantly to customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, an integrative examination of the relative importance of both core service and relational benefits is missing. This study examines the combined impact of an extended typology of core service and relational benefits on satisfaction and relational outcomes. One qualitative and one quantitative study are conducted within a banking context. Findings confirm a more extensive typology of relational benefits and reveal that competence (part of the trust benefit) and convenience significantly affect satisfaction; however, when core service is introduced to the model, the effect of relational benefits ceases to be significant. Several future research opportunities for an integrated service benefits approach are identified; and implications for managers on how to allocate their efforts across the various types of service benefits are discussed.     

Trends in tourism planning and development

A number of tourism planning principles is considered and reference is made to the methodology of ekistics (the study of human settlements). Patmos, a Greek island, is taken as a case study, and the results of this tourism project are assessed in relation to the planning principles and methodology outlined.     

Intangible Assets and the Network Structure of MNCs

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between corporate intangible assets and the multinational network structure of the firm. Specifically, the question addressed in this paper is whether the nature of corporate intangible assets determines the mode of geographic expansion of the MNC. The interactive effects between the level and type of corporate intangibles and the foreign expansion path of MNCs are also examined. Based on the analysis of 362 MNCs, representing 88 three-digit SIC industries, the results of this study show that R&D-intensive MNCs maintain substantially more geographically diversified and less geographically focused operating networks than advertising-intensive MNCs. Furthermore, R&D-intensive MNCs' foreign investments create more value through geographic diversification, while non-R&D-intensive MNCs benefit the most by increasing the geographic focus of their foreign investment activities. We also document that MNCs without significant levels of technology know-how and marketing based intangible assets can benefit the most from geographic-focused rather than geographic-diversified foreign business operations.     

The Value of Investor Protection: Firm Evidence from Cross-Border Mergers

International law prescribes that in a cross-border acquisitionof 100% of the target shares, the target firm becomes a nationalof the country of the acquiror, and consequently subject toits corporate governance system. Therefore, cross-border mergersprovide a natural experiment to analyze the effects of changesin corporate governance on firm value. We construct measuresof the change in investor protection in a sample of 506 acquisitionsfrom 39 countries. We find that the better the shareholder protectionand accounting standards in the acquiror's country, the higherthe merger premium in cross-border mergers relative to matchingdomestic acquisitions.     

A life history approach to perceptions of global climate change risk: young adults’ experiences about impacts,causes, and solutions

Although the general acceptance of human-influenced global climate change within the technical sphere of science is important to consider, public perceptions of global climate change risks, impacts, causes, and solutions are as important to policy actions as scientific findings. Yet, studies analyzing climate change risk perceptions suffer from a number of limitations or use only a handful of approaches. Using a limited life history approach, this article answers calls for additional qualitative approaches in risk perception research. This article (1) introduces risk perception researchers to the limited life history method; (2) discovers that young adults articulate climate change solutions at the individual level, often as consumers, and blend their responses to climate change risks and advocacy for solutions with a general, environmentally friendly orientation, a ‘green posture;’ and (3) contends the key sources informing young adults’ perceptions about climate change risk have changed significantly from previous studies.