Estimating the U.S. output gap with state‐level data

This paper develops a method to estimate the U.S. output gap by exploiting the cross‐sectional variation of state‐level output and unemployment rate data. The model assumes that there are common output and unemployment rate trend and cycle components, and that each state's output and unemployment rate are subject to idiosyncratic trend and cycle perturbations. I estimate the model with Bayesian methods using quarterly data from 2005:Q1 to 2018:Q2 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results show that the U.S. output gap reached about negative 4.6% around the years of the Great Recession and was about 0.9% in 2018:Q2.     

An Empirical Investigation on the Transfer of Expatriates Within MNCs from a Knowledge Perspective

We study the use of expatriates in transferring knowledge within a multinational corporation (MNC). We argue that MNCs use expatriates to allocate knowledge between headquarters and its foreign affiliates. With data from MNCs headquartered in South Korea, we trace unobservable knowledge using observable labour mobility. Our empirical analysis shows that the use of expatriates increases as communication between South Korea and the host country becomes more costly. However, the extent to which the use of expatriates relates with communication costs decreases in the sectoral complexity.     

An Exploratory Study of Regulatory Failure in the Australian Home Mortgage Market

Regulators have long been interested in protecting consumers borrowing for a home as it is likely the single greatest financial obligation they will undertake. In this paper we examine the approach taken in Australia to mandating the disclosure of simple comparison data to reduce the complexity involved in the home loan decision. This article highlights that while the form of the legislated disclosure significantly improves decision accuracy, the failure of the regulator to account for the consumer's purchase behavior and lenders' motivations has undermined its effectiveness. We provide a number of recommendations for how to rectify these failings, principally that regulators need to consider the role of borrower information search and lender motivation as part of any regulatory reform.     

Evidence of different models of socially responsible HRM in Europe

Socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) is becoming increasingly important for academics and managers. The interface between HRM and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the subject of analysis in this article. It adopts a contextual perspective to analyze whether the institutional context influences the implementation of socially responsible HRM (SR‐HRM). Considering the differences in the national institutional contexts across Europe, this study explores the different models of SR‐HRM in that region. The research is focused on a sample of 153 companies headquartered in Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The findings evidence the influence exerted by the national institutional context on the implementation of SR‐HRM. Differences among country clusters suggest the existence of different models of SR‐HRM in Europe. However, these models do not correspond to the blocks on HRM or on CSR identified by the literature but instead provide a novel categorization.     

Exploring consumer attitudes to online collaborative consumption: A typology of collaborative consumer profiles

Online collaborative consumption enhances peer networks, members of which communicate, collaborate, and even deliver services to one another via digital sharing platforms. Despite the tremendous increase in collaborative consumption, due in large part to the development of the Internet, the reality of the economic and social movements that underpin this trend is much less visible. Of course, not all consumers seek collaborative consumption or interact through online platforms. Using a qualitative approach, this paper aims to investigate motivational factors and barriers against collaborative consumption and to establish a typology of collaborative consumer profiles, identifying the most suitable type of online sharing platforms for each profile. The findings reveal the following collaborative consumer profiles: committed, pragmatists, intermittent, and skeptical, each demonstrating different preferences for the different type of online sharing platform.     

Does ethnic diversity decrease economic interactions? Evidence from exchange networks in rural Gambia

Using a unique dataset collected in 59 rural Gambian villages, we study how ethnic heterogeneity is related to the structure of four economic exchange networks: land, labour, inputs and credit. We find that different measures of village‐level ethnic fragmentation are mostly uncorrelated with network structure. At a more disaggregated level, household heads belonging to ethnic minorities are not less central than those from the predominant ethnicity in any of the networks and, at the dyadic level, the fact that two households share ethnicity is not an economically significant predictor of link formation. Our results indicate that, in the particular setting of our study, the structure of the exchange networks is better defined by other variables than ethnicity and that ethnic heterogeneity is unlikely to be a driver for sub‐optimal economic exchanges.     

Estimating within‐cluster spillover effects using a cluster randomization with application to knowledge diffusion in rural India

Spillover effects within randomized clusters pose a challenge for identifying impacts of an individualized treatment. The paper proposes a solution. Longitudinal and intra‐household observations are combined in estimating the direct knowledge gain from watching an info‐movie in rural India, while randomized village assignment identifies knowledge sharing. Simulations on synthetic data and econometric tests provide support for the estimation method. We find evidence of information sharing, but far less so for disadvantaged groups, such as illiterate and lower‐caste individuals; these groups rely more on actually seeing the movie. Our results are consistent with sizeable biases in ordinary least squares, matching or instrumental variable impact estimators that ignore within‐cluster spillovers.     

Telling and selling the value of diversity and inclusion—External consultants' discursive strategies and practices

On the basis of a qualitative study of a subgroup of diversity professionals, external diversity and inclusion (D&I) consultants, we explore D&I consultants' discursive strategies and practices situated within organisational structures, relations, and interactions of power and knowledge. Theoretically, the research reveals how D&I consultants' own discursive strategies interact with existing organisational and societal discourses of diversity, incrementally shaping their continual evolution. A classification is developed, which sets out four approaches taken by consultants with regard to their discursive strategies in relation to clients. The findings suggest that HR practitioners need to work in tandem with external consultants to develop strategies to improve the status and legitimacy of diversity work if the field is to progress the organisational D&I agenda.     

Tourism,heritage and politics: conflicts at the City of David,Jerusalem

This article analyses the development and progress of conflicts at the “City of David” heritage-tourism site in Jerusalem, Israel and the reciprocal relations between heritage sites and conflicts. It offers a comprehensive examination of the development of a major tourist attraction in Israel. Our research is based on the following two methods of qualitative research: (1) in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 43 key stakeholders; (2) textual analysis of current written materials and historical documents. The study investigates the relevant processes and decisions, stakeholder perceptions, the role of the archaeological excavations, and their relationship to the development of conflict. On a broader level, this study formulates a theoretical and practical framework for analysing the development of heritage tourism sites in conflict zones.     

Information asymmetry and the speed of adjustment: debasements in the mid‐sixteenth century

This article examines the impact of information asymmetry on the movement of London–Antwerp exchange rates against the backdrop of the Great Debasement of 1544–51. The case of the revaluation of gold coins in the Habsburg Netherlands in 1539, about which the sovereign and the public possessed similar information, is used as the benchmark to judge how far the speed of adjustment was affected by information asymmetry. This article is also part of the recent literature that estimates the degree of financial market integration in late medieval and early modern Europe. In the framework of the threshold autoregressive model, the speed of adjustment and the transaction costs associated with arbitrage are estimated, and the results are judged using the speed of communication as a benchmark since the flow of information played a critical role in financial arbitrage. The results reveal that the sixteenth‐century London–Antwerp exchange markets were already as integrated as that during the late nineteenth century, but information asymmetry severely disturbed the effectiveness of exchange arbitrage.