'More is not necessarily better': the relationship between the quantity and quality of training efforts

International comparisons indicate that, on average, Belgian companies spend less on training than their French, German and Dutch counterparts. Encouraging companies to commit to training has consequently been an important policy goal over the last few years. One notable aspect of the policy to encourage training efforts by companies is that the effort is always represented in terms of the resources invested (input), not in terms of the learning achieved (output) or the quality of training programmes (throughput). Government policy is aimed at increasing the level of investment in company training. One of the questions we wish to investigate is whether this input-oriented approach to the training issue is actually effective. Whether companies will succeed in raising human capital to ever-increasing levels may depend not only (and maybe not even chiefly) on the extent of financial investment in training. The investment level does not necessarily determine the quality of the training processes developed by companies. Therefore, this paper focuses on the following research questions: (1) to what extent do companies monitor the systematic development of sufficiently effective training processes? In other words, is qualitative under-investment an issue, alongside financial under-investment? (2) Is the level of financial investment in company training correlated to the quality of training processes? The empirical data confirm that a kind of 'qualitative' under-investment can be reported and that the relationship between the level of investment in training and the quality of the training programmes is weak.     

Building the Legitimacy of Whistleblowers: A Multi‐Case Discourse Analysis

Evidence suggests that society still does not view whistleblowers as wholly legitimate—despite legal protections now offered in some jurisdictions, such as the United States. Drawing on a discourse analysis (i.e., an examination of statements), we investigate the well‐publicized stories of seven whistleblowers from 69 sources, including books, first‐ and second‐hand interviews, websites, and videos. Our focus is to examine how whistleblower discourses can build legitimacy by more tightly defining the whistleblower role and demonstrating its alignment with social norms. Using whistleblower self‐narratives, we identify four narrative patterns: (i) Trigger(s)—the event(s) leading to whistleblowing; (ii) Personality traits—whistleblower's morality, resourcefulness, and determination; (iii) Constraints—barriers requiring regulatory and organizational change; and (iv) Consequences—the longer term positive impact of the whistleblowing act. These patterns rely on symbolic, analogical, and metaphorical framing to allow others to better understand the role of whistleblowers and enlist their support. Exploring a data set of 1,621 press articles, we find indications that these narrative patterns resonate in the media—which provide a form of support and may be instrumental in legitimizing the whistleblower role. Grounded on these results, we develop a legitimacy construction model of the whistleblower role, that is, a representation of how role legitimacy is produced and sustained. From this model, we identify a number of important areas for future research.     

Finance–growth nexus: does causality withstand financial liberalization? Evidence from cointegrated VAR

The main finding of the paper is that, contrary to Rousseau and Wachtel (Economic growth and financial depth. Is the relationship extinct already? UNU-Wider discussion paper no. 2005/10, 2005), a long-run equilibrium relationship between financial and economic development is identified with data up to 2006—well over the financial openness boom of the nineties—in countries whose history is characterized by numerous years of high inflation and/or episodes of crisis or other structural change. Also, financial openness, or lack thereof, proves to be an important feature both in explaining differences in sensitivity of financial development to capital accumulation and in determining the direction of causality between financial and economic development. The paper finds that bidirectional causality between economic and financial development is not as frequent an outcome as in Luintel and Khan (J Dev Econ 60:381–405, 1999), and in several cases, Joan Robinson’s (The generalization of the general theory in the rate of interest, and other essays, Macmillan, London, pp 67–142, 1952) statement on the primacy of economic development over finance is supported by the estimations.     

Reference group influence on binary choices dynamics

The recent literature has analyzed binary choices dynamics providing interesting results. Most of these contributions consider interactions within a single group. Nevertheless, in some situations the interaction takes place not only within a single group but also between different groups. In this paper, we investigate the choice dynamics when considering two populations where one serves as a reference group. Considering this influence effect enriches the dynamics. Although the structurally stable resulting dynamics are attracting cycles only, with any positive integer period, the reference group makes the dynamics of the influenced population much more complex. We considered both the possibility that the reference group has the same or the opposite attitude toward the distribution over the choices. We show how the dynamics and the bifurcation structure are modified under the influence of the reference group. Our results illustrate how the propensity to switch choices in the reference groups may, indirectly, affect choices in the first group.     

The Embeddedness of Responsible Business Practice: Exploring the Interaction Between National-Institutional Environments and Corporate Social Responsibility

Academic literature recognizes that firms in different countries deal with corporate social responsibility (CSR) in different ways. Because of this, analysts presume that variations in national-institutional arrangements affect CSR practices. Literature, however, lacks specificity in determining, first, what parts of national political-economic configurations actually affect CSR practices; second, the precise aspects of CSR affected by national-institutional variables; third, how causal mechanisms between national-institutional framework variables and aspects of CSR practices work. Because of this the literature is not able to address to what extent CSR practices are affected by either global or national policies, discourses and economic pressures; and to what extent CSR evolves as either an alternative to or an extension of national-institutional arrangements. This article proposes an alternative approach that focuses on an exploration of links between disaggregated variables, which can then be the basis for imagining new national-institutional configurations affecting aspects of CSR. It illustrates this approach with an exploration of the importance of development aid policy for CSR practices in global supply chains.     

Safety of playgrounds in The Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper the results are presented of a national survey on playground safety in The Netherlands. Thirteen trained inspectors each inspected 51 playgrounds in their own region. In total, 663 playgrounds with 7150 pieces of playground equipment were subjected to an inspection. The following safety criteria were inspected: entanglement, surfacing material, installation and maintenance aspects. The results show that one out of every three pieces of playground equipment fail on one or more criteria. The number of pieces of equipment that fail in playgrounds operated by local authorities or recreational companies is higher than that in playgrounds operated by voluntary associations. The smaller the playground the higher the number of failures per piece of equipment

The time has come for experts to provide the operators with information which will improve the safety level. More funding should be provided for the local authorities to prevent the occurrence of accidents.     

Poverty and unemployment: A cultural approach

For years, policymakers, business leaders, human resources professionals, and economists have attempted to explain the existence of unemployment. Unemployment inhibits the economic growth of a nation and contributes to the problem of ongoing poverty, which cannot be lessened without that growth. Understanding the causes of unemployment and developing policies and programs to decrease it are vitally important for nations around the world, but one key variable in the study of unemployment has been overlooked. That variable is culture. This article will show that culture can significantly explain cross‐national differences in unemployment rates and offers a link to understanding the global problem of poverty that plagues nations today. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exports and technology in manufacturing industry

Zusammenfassung Exporte und Technologie der Verarbeitenden Industrie. — Die Verfasser nehmen die Behandlung der Technologie in der modernen Au\enhandelstheorie kritisch unter die Lupe. Unter Anwendung einer dynamischen Perspektive liefern sie einige neue empirische Erkenntnisse über die Beziehung zwischen der technologischen Wettbewerbsf?higkeit eines Landes und seiner Exportleistung. Anhand von fünf Industriel?ndern (Deutschland, Japan, Frankreich, Schweden und den Niederlanden) wird gezeigt, da\ es in dieser Hinsicht betr?chtliche Unterschiede zwischen den L?ndern gibt. Diese Unterschiede k?nnen teilweise auf l?nderspezifische Entwicklungspfade und auf Unterschiede in der Industriestruktur zurückgeführt werden, aber nach Ansicht der Autoren k?nnten sie auch durch eine unterschiedliche nationale Technologiepolitik beeinflu\t worden sein.

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Résumé Les exportations et la technologie des industries manufacturières. Cette étude examine le traitement du facteur de technologie dans la théorie moderne du commerce international. En utilisant une perspective dynamique, les auteurs donnent quelque évidence nouvelle pour la relation entre la compétitivité technologique et la performance dans le commerce international. En considérant cinq pays industriels (R.F.A., le Japon, la France, la Suède, et les Pays Bas), il est évident qu’il y a des différences remarquables entre ces pays. On peut attribuer ces différences aux processus du développement spécifiques de ces pays et aux différences entre la structure industrielle de ces pays examinés. Mais d’après les auteurs, ces différences pourraient être influencées aussi par les différences entre la politique de la technologie de ces pays.

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Resurnen Exportaciones y tecnologia en la industria manufacturera. — Este trabajo estudia el trato del factor tecnologia en la teoria moderna del comercio. Utilizando un enfoque dinámico se presenta evidencia empirica nueva de la relation entre la competitividad technológica y la performance del comercio. Considerando los casos de cinco paises industrials (Alemania, Japon, Francia, Suecia y Holanda) se demuestra que existen notables diferencias entre los países en este aspecto. Si bien estas diferencias se pueden atribuir parcialmente a las trayectorias de desarrollo especificas de cada pais y a diferencias en la estructura industrial, se sugiere que también podrian ser influenciadas por las diferencias entre las politicas tecnológicas nacionales.

     

Macro and Micro Perspectives of Growth and Poverty in Africa

This article reviews trends in poverty, economic policies, andgrowth in a sample of African countries during the 1990s, drawingon the better household data now available. Experiences havevaried. Some countries have seen sharp drops in income poverty,whereas others have witnessed marked increases. In some countriesoverall economic growth has been pro-poor and in others not.But the aggregate numbers hide systematic distributional effects.Taking both macro and micro perspectives of growth and povertyin Africa, the article draws four key conclusions. First, economicpolicy reforms (improving macroeconomic balances and liberalizingmarkets) appear conducive to reducing poverty. Second, marketconnectedness is crucial to enable participation in the gainsfrom economic growth. Some regions and households by virtueof their remoteness were left behind when growth picked up.Third, education and access to land emerge as key private endowmentsto help households benefit from new economic opportunities.Finally, rainfall variations and ill health have profound effectson poverty outcomes, underscoring the significance of socialrisk management in poverty reduction strategies in Africa.     

Vertical fiscal imbalances and fiscal performance in advanced economies

The paper examines empirically, using a measure of “vertical fiscal imbalances” (VFI), the relationship between overall fiscal performance and the financing structure of subnational governments. It presents stylized facts regarding the size, evolution, and components of measured VFI using data from 28 OECD countries. On average, the general government fiscal balance is found to improve by 1 percent of GDP for each 10 percentage point reduction in VFI.