Corrigendum to “Characterization of the asymptotic distribution of semiparametric M-estimators” [J. Econometrics 159 (2) (2010) 252–266]

This note provides correction to Ichimura and Lee (2010).     

Why and when organizational culture fosters affective commitment among knowledge workers: the mediating role of perceived psychological contract fulfilment and moderating role of organizational tenure

Drawing on Denison and Mishra (1995)’s framework of organizational culture, this study examines why and when organizational culture is related to knowledge workers’ affective commitment. Data were collected from 640 employees working in three high-technology companies in China. The findings indicate that the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment is mediated by perceived psychological contract fulfilment. In addition, organizational tenure moderates the relationship between two external dimensions (i.e. adaptability and mission) of organizational culture and perceived psychological contract fulfilment. This study extends the current theoretical framework of organizational culture by demonstrating the underlying mechanism and the boundary condition of the relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment. The findings also provide practical implications for international managers to design appropriate human resource management policies and practices in China.     

The synergistic effect of insurance and banking sector activities on economic growth in Africa

It is widely understood that the insurance and banking sectors of every economy perform some functions in driving economic growth. What is not yet well documented is whether their roles are complimentary or substitutive. With the aid of the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique, this paper evaluates the synergistic effect of both sectors on economic growth in a panel of 10 African countries that are responsible for most of the activities in the continent’s financial sector. The insurance-banking-growth nexus was also examined through bootstrap panel causality tests. The results show that the life insurance market and the banking sector, as well as the non-life insurance market and the banking sector, are complimentary. We find that, overall, the relationship between the insurance and banking sectors in Africa is a complimentary one and that their synergistic impact on economic growth is positive. The feedback hypothesis was also confirmed in the relationship between the insurance sector and economic growth and between the banking sector and economic growth.     

Corroborating social media echelon in cancer research

Worldwide medical facilities differ, and for this reason, the causes of death can vary. Cancer is considered the second leading cause of death after heart disease worldwide, and the same causes of death are observed in the United States (US). Therefore, the purposes of this study are to explore worldwide research levels in the field of cancer and the social collaboration of researchers and institutions in this field. This article examines the structural patterns of international co-authors and co-institutions in science citation index papers in cancer research. The study uses measures from the social network analysis method, including degree centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and effectiveness, to investigate the effects of social networks in the area of cancer research. Empirical analysis results identify the US is the most central country, followed by Germany, Italy, France, and China, in terms of co-authored networks in this research field. Institutional analysis results indicate that the University of Milan is at the top in terms of degree centrality. The Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in France and German University of Düsseldorf occupy the second and fourth positions, respectively. The University of California in Los Angeles and Harvard University, both in the US, are at third and fifth positions, respectively.     

Stability of money demand function revisited in China

As China's economic reforms have undergone significant structural changes after 1979, it has been rather difficult to formulate a stable money demand function over the period following that year. While previous literature on the long-run relationship of money demand in China shows the existence of stable money demand, this article revisits the stability of the China money demand function over the period after 1979. To employ the unit root tests and the cointegration tests with structural break, the empirical evidence demonstrates that economic and financial deregulation did affect the stability of demand for money in China over the period 1977 to 2002. Moreover, the estimated long-run income and interest elasticity are respectively 1.01 (1.11) and ?0.14 (?0.08) using the real M1 (M2) equation. In addition, real income and the interest rate are found to be weakly exogenous. We overall do find structural breakpoints mainly in 1980 and 1993, and they look to match clearly with corresponding critical financial and economic incidents.     

Economic effects of positive credit information sharing: the case of Korea

In many countries, in addition to negative credit information such as loan default and arrears, positive credit information is also exchanged on a voluntary and reciprocal basis. Employing optimal credit decision models of profit maximizing banks, and utilizing a unique dataset of 2?million consumer loan obligors in Korea, we investigate the economic effects of sharing positive credit information in addition to negative credit information already exchanged. We find that the discriminatory power of the credit scoring model improves significantly. We proceed to investigate the economic effects of the information gap in a competitive credit market by assuming two representative banks that differ only in the level of credit information sharing. The bank that utilizes negative information only suffers from deterioration of the borrower pool and reduced profit, as high credit risk borrowers are more concentrated on this bank due to underpricing of risks. Our finding suggests that banks have incentives to voluntarily participate in the positive information sharing mechanism, since even a small difference in discriminatory power stemming from the information gap may lead to a significant fall in profitability as the distribution of borrower quality changes endogenously due to adverse selection problems.     

Foreign ownership and the credibility of national rating agencies: Evidence from Korea

By analyzing bond price reactions to rating changes in Korea, this study adds a new angle to the existing literature on Global Rating Agencies (GRAs, i.e. Moody’s, S&P’s, Fitch) with higher reputation/independence vs. National Rating Agencies (NRAs) with more in-depth local knowledge. Faced with substantial regulatory burdens, GRAs have chosen to operate indirectly in the Korean domestic market by acquiring local NRAs. In our event study, cumulative abnormal returns following downgrades by a wholly domestically owned NRA tend to dominate those from downgrades by two affiliates of GRAs. This casts doubt on the additional information value of reputation capital acquired through GRA ownership as perceived by emerging markets.     

Why Any Seatbelt Mandate is an Infinitely Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma: A Health Economics Perspective

Abstract

Among the most controversial of public health measures are those that restrict people’s freedom of choice presumably for the purpose of protecting their own health and safety. Mandatory use of automobile seatbelts can inspire allusions to the “tyranny of health” and the ‘health police.” This study revisits state seatbelt legislation, which is in force in all but one state of the USA. In modeling seatbelt mandates as indefinitely repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) games, the study qualifies and overcomes the limitations of conventional interest group and expressive voting theories. It indicates why and how utility-maximizing players, particularly carmakers, insurance companies, consumer advocates and regulators, may choose to cooperate, even in instances where mutual defection would bring each of them higher payoffs. The study suggests why state seatbelt mandates endure, despite ongoing concerns that they undermine individual autonomy or that their social costs outweigh the benefits of law-enforcement. The evolution and mediating effects of reputation and reciprocity in otherwise highly contestable healthcare decisions are consequently explored. Finally, the study identifies the implications of indefinitely repeated games on the continuing nature of strategic relationships and for mitigating conflict over traffic safety regulation, regardless of time and place.     

Heterodox Economics and its Critics

Heterodox economics has its critics. Most of the criticisms are friendly comments and analysis directed towards improving heterodox economic theory. However, the critics and their criticisms that are the concern of this article are the ones that challenge the existence of heterodox economic theory and the community of heterodox economists as manifested through their graduate programs, conferences, journals and identity. These critics observe that the academic status quo in economics, as manifested in its department and journal rankings, rules of academic engagement, and its institutions and organizations, favor mainstream economics and that it is unlikely to change in the future. Consequently, they argue that heterodox economists can survive only if they become more like mainstream economists. With focus on assimilation, the critics direct their criticisms towards the social characteristics of the heterodox community and to the personal characteristics of heterodox economists. This article is a response to the critics.