On the contribution of eco-innovation features to a circular economy: A microlevel quantitative approach

The circular economy (CE) and eco-innovation (EI) are two concepts deemed instrumental in achieving a sustainable transition. They have been proposed in the academic literature and by practitioners and have acquired very high public policy relevance, being endorsed by policymakers and ultimately leading to regulations supporting them. It has been argued that both concepts are compatible and interrelated and that EI is instrumental in achieving the CE. However, little is known about how different EI features contribute to the CE at the microlevel. This article tries to cover this gap. Its aim is to assess and quantify the causal relationship between different EI features and the CE with the help of a unique dataset of small- and medium-sized firms in Spain and an econometric analysis. Our results show that only systemic EIs contribute to a global CE, whereas other EI types such as component additions or small changes in existing production processes could even be barriers to high levels of circularity. It is found out that technological novelty is not relevant for reaching the CE. The results support the understanding of how EIs enable a transition to the CE. Care should be taken not to promote incremental EIs that do not only achieve low (or no) circularity but that effectively lock-in the economic system in solutions that entail a barrier to the achievement of high-level circularity.     

Firm size and productivity from occupational choices

Small Business Economics - We model the distributions of firm sizes and of firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) as outcomes of a market equilibrium from the occupational decisions of...     

Monitoring, liquidation, and security design

By identifying the possibility of imposing a creditable threatof liquidation as the key role of informed (bank) finance ina moral hazard context, we characterize the circumstances underwhich a mixture of informed and uninformed (market) financeis optimal, and explain why bank debt is typically secured,senior, and tightly held. We also show that the effectivenessof mixed finance may be impaired by the possibility of collusionbetween the firms and their informed lenders, and that in theoptimal renegotiation-proof contract informed debt capacitywill be exhausted before appealing to supplementary uninformedfinance.     

The Dive and Disruption of Successful Current Products: Measures,Global Patterns,and Predictive Model

This study examines the diffusion of pairs of substitute products (current versus new) in five categories across 86 countries between 1977 and 2011. The study finds that current products reach a peak at about 56% of market penetration. Subsequently, they suffer a dramatic decrease in penetration of 286%, which we call the dive. A dive occurs in 96% of current products in five categories across 86 countries between 1977 and 2011. On average, the time from takeoff of new product to a peak in penetration of the current product is 6.6 years and to the dive of the current product is 8.4 years. The total time‐to‐dive includes a hidden discontinuance period (10.4 years), from the introduction of the new product to the peak of the current product, plus an overt time‐to‐dive (1.8 years), from the peak to the dive of the current product. The hidden discontinuance period and the overt time‐to‐dive are shorter, and the dive is steeper in emerging markets than in developed ones. A discrete‐time hazard model shows that the introduction of the new product, prior penetration of the current product, the population density of the country, and prior dives in other countries predict intercountry the hazard of a peak. Subsequently, takeoff of the new product, relative percentage growth in penetration of the current product prior to a peak, the length of the hidden discontinuance period, and prior dives in other countries predict the hazard of a dive. The models can predict the occurrence of a peak with true positive rate of 62% and a true negative rate of 87%, and a dive with a true positive rate of 82% and a true negative rate of 61%.     

Immigration and local spending in social services: evidence from a massive immigration wave

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between immigration and redistributive public spending by using the recent, massive arrival of immigrants in Spain. Specifically, we focus our analysis on the effect of 1998–2006 changes in local immigrant density on contemporaneous changes in municipal spending in social services. To address the potential endogenous location of immigrants, we adopt an instrumental variables approach that uses the distribution of rental housing in 1991 to predict the location of immigrant inflows. The results indicate that (per capita) social spending increased less in those municipalities that recorded the largest increases in immigrant density. We interpret our results as a reduction in natives’ demand for redistributive public spending.     

Pareto-improving Immigration in an Economy with Equilibrium Unemployment

A dynamic two-country labour matching economy is presented. Workers decide whether to search in their native country or look for a job abroad (bearing an additional cost). The number of vacancies posted by firms in each country depends on the average characteristics of the workers searching inside that country. Wages are determined in an individual Nash bargain. We show the existence of multiple steady-state equilibria: one no-migration equilibrium and two migration equilibria. The multiplicity of equilibria is due to a self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon linking average wages and incentives to migrate. The equilibria are Pareto-ranked, with migration-equilibria dominating no-migration.     

The practice of sport and its influence on social values and behaviour education

‘Non-health effects’ of sports practice, as life satisfaction or non-cognitive education, are being adopted as aim in academic journals in several fields. This paper tries to contribute to this literature by focusing on the links between youth sports and the formation of values and social skills. To do this, we have made a survey, in which more than 5000 Spanish students were involved. They were asked about their sport activity, leisure preferences and socio-economic and family characteristics. We analyse separately athletes and non-athletes using Heckman’s two-step method. Therefore, we split the sample based on the likelihood of practising sports initially predicted by a probit analysis. Then, we separately estimate the non-cognitive educational outcomes of each group of individuals. The results of the first step show significant differences in gender, socio-economic and academic performance. In the second step, segregating the sample provides a number of highly significant effects: The cases of household income and videogames frequency play, among others. So, we have detected a different effect of increasing family income on the educational results (positive in the athlete and negative in the non-athlete group). In addition, a more substantial negative effect was observed in time devoted to videogames in the sample of athletes. These results can be used to implement educational policy measures, such as the promotion of sport in schools, or implementing awareness campaigns about responsible engagement in leisure time activities.     

Anti-Discrimination Laws: Undermining Our Rights

The purpose of this article is to argue in favor of a private employer??s right to discriminate amongst job applicants on any basis he chooses, and this certainly includes unlawful characteristics such as race, sex, national origin, sexual preference, religion, etc. John Locke and many after him have argued that people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property or the pursuit of happiness. In this view, law should be confined to protecting these rights and be limited to prohibiting other people from transgressing those rights. The law should not hinder an employer??s ability to discriminate, any more than it should compel people to marry against their wishes. These laws generally emerge from a moral perspective that people think should be imposed on everyone else. But those who don??t welcome those morals are in effect being coerced to abide by them against their will; this is unethical. Finally, it will be argued that the free market has mechanisms by which discrimination will, be rendered powerless to harm its victims.     

A Theory of Socio‐spatial Integration: Problems,Policies and Concepts from a US Perspective

Discussions about socio‐spatial integration in the US have been primarily focused on research into residential segregation. The treatment of these two concepts as opposites has had two consequences. First, most policies for integration have been based solely on concepts of segregation. Second, the intensive criticism directed at integration flows more from those policies than from its conceptual meaning. This article develops a framework for socio‐spatial integration. It does this first by outlining an understanding of segregation and the complexities of its treatment, then by making a distinction between policy applications and the conceptual meaning of integration. This review shows that, rather than suiting a linear approach, socio‐spatial integration can be expressed as a multidimensional relationship that may work independently and at different scales. Socio‐spatial integration is then exposed as the opposite of social exclusion, of which physical proximity between different social groups is just one dimension. Two lines of research are proposed: first, a repositioning of integration as a progressive aspiration and a critique of naturalist conceptions; second, a balancing of the weight of spatial proximity among the different dimensions of integration.     

Going multinational under exchange rate uncertainty

We analyze a model where an exporting firm competes a la Cournot in a foreign market. The firm faces exchange rate uncertainty and has the option to invest abroad. The paper contributes four results. First, real option pricing techniques are used to derive the optimal timing rule of the investment and the price of the firm and foreign competitors. Second, the sunk cost of entry into the foreign market introduces hysteresis in direct investment flows. We find that the degree of hysteresis grows with the number of firms in the industry. Third, we determine the conditions under which dumping may appear and the role of FDI in precluding this type of dumping. Fourth, tariffs have the well known FDI-inducing effect, more so in less competitive markets, and are more effective at deterring delocation. Furthermore, a tariff might have the effect of triggering dumping.