Desperate entrepreneurs: no opportunities,no skills

Promoting entrepreneurship has become an important policy strategy in Europe in the hope to stimulate the crisis-shaken economy. In this paper, we caution against undue expectations. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for 17 European countries, we find that a considerable proportion of the new entrepreneurs have started a business despite a negative perception of business opportunities as well as lack of confidence in their own entrepreneurial skills. This proportion has increased during the economic crisis, especially in those countries which were particularly affected by economic downturn and rising unemployment. We extend existing entrepreneurship theories to account for this phenomenon, which we call “nons-entrepreneurship”. Testing the hypotheses derived from our model, we find that the primary motivation for these people to turn to entrepreneurship is the lack of other options to enter the labour market during the economic crisis. Still, this sort of “desperate” entrepreneurship does not equal necessity based entrepreneurship, warranting further research.     

Die Transmission über den Zinskanal: von der Geldpolitik zur Kreditnachfrage

Through more favourable funding costs for commercial banks, the central bank can send expansionary monetary stimuli into the real economy to boost the demand for credit. In this regard, one of the most important channels for the transmission of monetary policy is the interest rate channel. This contribution analyses the effectiveness of the interest rate channel in the eurozone. It comes to the conclusion that the transmission of the expansive monetary stimulus into the banking sector works well, but that the transmission of the stimulus to the real economy is partly inhibited. The main factors that dampen credit demand are higher real interest rates as well as low growth and higher indebtedness, especially in the eurozone’s peripheral countries.     

Finanzierung von Zukunftsinvestitionen: Pragmatische Lösungen sind gefragt

Wirtschaftsdienst - Since the new German federal government has imposed tight fiscal policy restrictions on itself, a pragmatic approach is needed to finance the spending requirements of the...     

Effects of collective minimum wages on youth employment in Austria

This paper analyzes the impact of collective minimum wages on youth employment for 14 sectors of the Austrian economy, taking into account the possibility of nonlinearity. We find that when the real index of minimum wage rises above a certain point, negative employment effects for young individuals (aged between 19 and 25 years) can be expected in Austria. In five of seven market sectors the minimum wage lies above the optimal level that maximizes the employment of young workers.     

A Transposition of Territory: Decolonized Perspectives in Current Urban Research

In this article, we discuss the concept of territory from a decolonized perspective. We engage with the ongoing debate on decentralizing urban studies to outline the potential drawbacks of essentializing, generalizing or objectifying the urban. Through the socio‐territorial approach utilized here we seek to address these issues by shifting attention, first, to the social production of territory, and secondly, from an analysis of state strategies to the urban scale. We understand territory as being produced when subjects struggle over the practices, meanings and tenures of urban space. An example from Mexico City is employed to illustrate how territory becomes both the site and stake of social struggle. By focusing on the subjects involved in the production of territory, and on the way different subjects produce and reproduce hegemonic spaces and counter‐spaces, we emphasize three aspects in particular: first, a territory's specific material conditions; secondly, the imaginarios (social imaginaries) various actors inscribe into it; and thirdly, the communal land use form of the ejido as a unique territorial regulation. Finally, we argue for the empirical groundedness of the concept of territory with the aim of further pluralizing the field of urban studies. The socio‐territorial approach we propose explicitly focuses on power relations in the production of both urban space and knowledge.     

“接管”董事会

正大多数CEO将评估自己管理团队当成首要任务,但评估董事会及其规程其实比任何事情都更重要。与老板多接触,了解他们对你的期望,还有什么比这更急的事情吗?履新CEO可不是一般的工作:初到公司的100天是学习、调整、安排日程的关键时期。此间,新CEO的工作日程表上包括很多事情,比如制定详细的管理策略、掌控庞大的组织等。但很多新官上任的CEO都会忘了一件事:只有一个组织才最终决定他们的成功失败——董事会。     

Trade Credits and Bank Credits in International Trade: Substitutes or Complements?

Trade credits are an important financing tool for internationally active firms. This is surprising, as trade credits are generally more expensive than bank credits and thus a costly substitute for bank financing. In this paper, we investigate the relation between trade credits and bank credits for exporting firms. We develop a theoretical model and show that trade credits convey a quality signal which reduces the risk of the transaction and may thus facilitate obtaining additional bank credits. Hence, exporters who are not able to obtain bank credits in the first place use trade credits and bank credits complementarily. Using panel data on large German manufacturing firms, we provide supportive evidence for our theoretical predictions. In general, trade credits and bank credits are substitutes. For financially constrained exporters, the overall substitution effect is attenuated which is consistent with a positive signalling effect.     

Predicting within country household food expenditure variation using international cross-section estimates

International cross-section demand systems have not been tested on their ability to accurately predict within country consumption expenditures. This paper reports on such a validation exercise for the case of food budget share predictions across expenditure percentiles within Bangladesh.     

Asian North Americans' Leisure: A Critical Examination of the Theoretical Frameworks Used in Research and Suggestions for Future Study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to critically examine the theoretical frameworks employed in the existing research on Asian North Americans' leisure and to offer insights into additional theories that might be used in future research on the topic. The study reviewed three major theoretical frameworks employed by previous research in the field of leisure studies: (1) assimilation and acculturation theory, (2) ethnicity-based theories, and (3) self-construal. The study also provides recommendations for alternative theoretical approaches that could be used in investigations of Asian North Americans' leisure, including racial discrimination and stereotyping, the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective, transnationalism, and cultural and social capital.