Long‐Term Effects of Fiscal Policy on the Size and Distribution of the Pie in the UK*

This paper provides a joint analysis of the output and distributional long‐term effects of various fiscal policies in the UK, using a vector autoregression (VAR) approach. Our findings suggest that the long‐term impact on GDP of increasing public spending and taxes is negative, and especially strong in the case of current expenditure. We also find significant distributional effects associated with fiscal policies, indicating that an increase in public spending reduces inequality while a rise in indirect taxes increases income inequality.     

Interaction of Government Tiers and Central Banks in a Federation: An Empirical Test

Fiscal rules are necessary to protect monetary policy from the consequences of unsustainable or active fiscal policy for inflation. Monetary unions, such as the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), require even stronger fiscal rules to avoid free riding by regional fiscal authorities on the common monetary policy. By contrast, in a fiscal federation, the federal government internalises the effect of active regional policies on the overall price level. Federal fiscal policy contributes to price stability either by enforcing fiscal rules or by adjusting its own stance. Following Canzoneri, Cumby and Diba (2001), we test whether federal and regional governments in Germany behave in an active or passive way. We find evidence of a spillover effect of unsustainable policies on other regions. The German federal government offsets the effect on the price level by running passive policies. The Bundesbank's prime objective of price stability is therefore endorsed by fiscal policy. The results have implications for the regulation of fiscal policies in the EMU.     

Key drivers of services website loyalty

The ease of website comparison and strong price competition encourage users to constantly switch tourism service providers. The present work analyses how satisfaction, trust, and commitment can help to strengthen loyalty towards websites selling accommodation services. Moreover, special attention is paid here to evaluate the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between these variables. Structural equation models were used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 230 Mexican Internet users, online purchasers of tourist accommodation services. The results show significant differences between men and women's post-purchase behaviour with a higher influence in women of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty towards accommodation services websites. Managerial implications for accommodation websites are provided.     

Geographical Agglomeration as an Alternative to Vertical Integration

This paper provides empirical evidence of the relationship between agglomeration and vertical integration decisions. It contributes to the existing literature by first developing a conceptual framework that focuses on both opportunism risk and communication problems to explain how physical proximity among firms can be an alternative to internal organization. Second, this study tests this relationship through the use of firm-level data from 10,955 establishments in the Spanish meat industry. Results confirm that establishments located in agglomerated areas internally undertake fewer stages of the value chain. We also find that this relationship is weaker than expected and fades at distances greater than 2.5 km, which may be explained by the particular characteristics of this industry.     

Outsourcing Operations in Project Management Offices: The Reality of Brazilian Companies

The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanisms that influence decisions regarding outsourcing competencies in the operation of project management offices (PMOs). The exploratory research described here involves the use of a web‐based survey for enterprises in Brazil. In 78 of the survey's valid cases, the PMO is operated using the organization's internal resources. A possible conclusion is that the PMO is unlikely to positively relate to the culture of external services used by the organization and to use outsourcing to operate the PMO.     

Revisiting incubation performance: How incubator typology affects results

Relevant literature has discussed incubator versus nonincubator firm performance and the characteristics of different types of incubators. However, it has not considered assessing performance individually by archetype. We studied company performance in four archetypal incubators. Performance measures used fall into five categories drawn from literature: a) firm growth b) participation in R&D programs c) Input R&D d) Output R&D e) Employment generation cost. We find there are significant differences in three of the five performance categories among incubator types. We assess the performance of each one by determining whether the objectives for which each was created are met. Private, basic research and University archetypes meet their objectives. Regional development archetype does not.     

Does a Common Currency Promote Countries’ Growth via Trade and Tourism?

The main aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the effects of a common currency. In particular, the impact of a common currency on growth via trade and tourism is explored for a panel dataset which includes 179 countries as destination and 30 OECD countries as origin over the period 1995–2006. This research contributes to previous work in three ways: (i) tourism is included as an additional channel for a common currency to promote growth; (ii) the heterogeneity of countries is addressed by dividing the sample into three groups of countries by income; and (iii) up‐to‐date data including the case of the euro are considered. The results obtained suggest that a common currency strengthens economic growth by promoting not only international trade but also tourism.     

Measurement of the efficiency of football teams in the Champions League

In the case of football it could be argued that the purpose of clubs is to win the competitions in which they participate. However, the assessment of football clubs from the efficiency would be relevant in judging whether the results have been obtained without waste. The chosen sample is football teams who played in the Champions League from 2003 to 2007 and the method of calculating the efficiency will be both the traditional version of the DEA as well as the version proposed by Andersen and Petersen (1993), which allows discrimination among efficient units. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing financial reporting comparability across institutional settings: The case of pension accounting

The drive for comparability of financial information is to enable users to distinguish similarities and differences in economic activities for an entity over time and between entities so that their resource allocation decisions are facilitated. With the increased globalisation of economic activities, the enhanced international comparability of financial statements is often used as an argument to advance the convergence of local accounting standards to international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Differences in the underlying economic substance of transactions between jurisdictions plus accounting standards allowing alternative treatments may render this expectation of increased comparability unrealistic. Motivated by observations that, as a construct, comparability is under-researched and not well understood, we develop a comparability framework that distinguishes between four types of comparability. In applying this comparability framework to pension accounting in the Australian and USA contexts, we highlight a dilemma: while regulators seek to increase the likelihood that similar events are accounted for similarly, an unintended consequence may be that preparers are forced to apply similar accounting treatment to events that are, in substance, different.     

Managing internal stakeholders’ views of corporate reputation

The aims of this paper are to determine what constitutes internal reputation from the perspectives of both senior managers and employees and to use this understanding to create and assess measures of internal reputation. We also hypothesise and test the relationships between the views of each group and performance, using data from a survey of auditing firms. Manager views of reputation are found to co-vary with performance and to have a significant influence over employee views of reputation. We use these findings to illustrate how employee views of reputation can be managed.