Common stories of reintroduction: A discourse analysis of documents supporting animal reintroductions to Scotland

Political decisions on environmental issues are increasingly required to be ‘knowledge based’, which has led to a wealth of (scientific) expert documents that aim to inform decision-making. However, the roles of rhetoric and argumentation in those documents have received relatively little scientific attention. We studied 111 expert documents in support of reintroductions to Scotland and identified the elements that constituted the discourses of white-tailed eagle, beaver and lynx. Similar building blocks (so-called storylines) were found in all three debates. The pro-reintroduction discourse as a whole bore resemblance with other contemporary environmental management discourses: In what could be termed ‘win-win logic’, positive storylines were combined to point at the necessity of a management intervention, in our case a reintroduction. Yet, additional mechanisms were also at work which suggests that downplaying negatives can be as important as dwelling on positives. Crucially, we found that the Scottish pro-reintroduction discourse might have become increasingly ‘reflexive’ in terms of its rhetoric and argumentation. The latter development may have major implications for political decision-making. A more critical use of rhetoric and argumentation in expert documentation is needed to achieve environmental political decision-making that is open to any possible outcome of deliberation (including non-reintroduction).     

The timing and probability of FDI: an application to US multinational enterprises

An ‘option-pricing’ model is employed to analyse the timing of FDI. Assuming that the firm's profits are determined by the attractiveness of both the home and foreign countries, and that attractiveness follows a Brownian motion, an optimal trigger value of FDI is derived. The model shows that, contrary to the NPV rule, FDI entry should be delayed the greater the uncertainty of attractiveness in both locations. Another important result is that MNEs do not regard FDI as a risk-diversification tool. The results of the model were then tested empirically with US FDI data, using labour costs as a proxy for (the reciprocal of) attractiveness. The results support the findings of the analytical model.     

Financial constraints and cash–cash flow sensitivity

This article explores the cash–cash flow relationship by comparing financially constrained and financially unconstrained companies. Unlike previous research, we test the sensitivity of cash to cash flow by considering unlisted firms as constrained and listed firms as unconstrained. Our empirical evidence is based on findings from Spanish firms and is consistent with the core rationale that unlisted firms face more difficulties than their listed counterparts when looking for funding from external markets. As a result, unlisted firms tend to hoard significant amounts of cash out of the generated cash flow, while listed firms do not. Our findings are robust to a number of additional empirical tests.     

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This paper is devoted to an analysis of financial ratio adjustment in European financial statements. To that end, we use an hierarchical model based on the partial adjustment model. This model allows us to distinguish between adjustments that are due to external shocks and which affect all countries, on the one hand, and those resulting from internal shocks which affect the relative position of one country with respect to the rest, on the other. In addition to estimating the average adjustment coefficients of each ratio, we locate those countries that have a behaviour which is significantly different from the rest. We find that, in general, the evolution of the ratios analysed is mainly determined by their adjustments to external shocks, with the ratios related to the profit and loss account demonstrating a greater sensitivity to all types of shocks. By contrast, the debt ratios show the least sensitivity. When considered on a country-by-country basis, the most significant differences appear in the results ratios, with Spain being the country that is most sensitive to external shocks, and Denmark and Germany being least sensitive to all types of shocks.     

Low-wage mobility in the Portuguese labour market

Low-wage employment has become a matter of concern in many countries, Portugal being among them. In particular, the extent to which low-wage employment is a permanent or transitory situation is an important issue. This paper examines low-wage mobility in the Portuguese labour market using the bivariate probit model proposed by van de Ven and van Praag (1981), in order to account for the potential endogeneity of the initial state. For this purpose, we use a matched employer-employee panel data for 1996 and 2000. Raw figures show that a significant number of workers are trapped into low-wage employment. We also find that males and the better-educated are more likely to escape from such a situation. Furthermore, initial firm characteristics, such as firm size, age and industry influence mobility. In particular, low-wage workers in larger or in newer firms have better mobility prospects.JEL Classification: J31, J42Financial support from the Portuguese Science Foundation and FEDER under grant POCTI/ECO/37668/2001 is acknowledged. The author is indebted to an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Finding the right employee online: determinants of internet recruitment in Spanish firms

This paper analyses the variation of recruitment strategies in Spanish firms, with special emphasis on the Internet. Using data from the Spanish Labour Trends Survey for the period 2001–2011, we study the factors influencing the decision to use online recruitment and explore the differences between Internet and eight traditional recruitment channels. Our results show that the adoption of the Internet monotonically increases over the sample period, when Internet becomes more universal and even in periods with excess of applicants. Large firms operating in information-intensive activities, and located in regions more developed and with better infrastructures are more likely to search for new employees online. We also find that Internet and traditional recruitment methods follow different patterns, especially when using personal referrals and public employment services. Our results suggest the presence of network externalities derived from the increase number of compatible online job seekers.     

The controversial link between entrepreneurial activity and inequality

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This study illustrates how entrepreneurship may contribute to enhancing economic growth and prosperity by reducing inequality and exclusion....     

On Norms and Coordination Games: A Rent–Seeking Approach

The aim of this paper is to extend the rent–seeking literature to the equilibrium selection problem in competitive coordination games, i.e., games in which more than one equilibrium exists, and individuals' preferences are opposed. We analyze alternative correlated equilibria: contractual agreements and legally enforced equilibria. The latter are to be understood as the outcome of rents–seeking contests in which players invest resources in order to set a norm. The contest is analyzed in its basic two–person setting and later generalized to the two–populations case. There we show that the outcomes depend on the relative payoff structure of the game, the technological properties of the contest, and the population distribution. Finally, the efficiency analysis focuses not only on the extent of the rent dissipation, but also on the comparative analysis of the inefficiencies that arise in the market (not coordinated) equilibrium.     

Completion of a Lévy market by power-jump assets

Except for the geometric Brownian model and the geometric Poissonian model, the general geometric Lévy market models are incomplete models and there are many equivalent martingale measures. In this paper we suggest to enlarge the market by a series of very special assets (power-jump assets) related to the suitably compensated power-jump processes of the underlying Lévy process. By doing this we show that the market can be completed. The very particular choice of the compensators needed to make these processes tradable is delicate. The question in general is related to the moment problem.Received: June 2004, Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 91B28, 91B26, 91B16, 91B70JEL Classification: C61The work of José Manuel Corcuera and David Nualart is partially supported by the MCyT grant no. BFM200304294. W. Schoutens is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium) (F.W.O. - Vlaanderen).