Export activity,persistence and mark-ups

This article addresses the differences in margins across exporting and nonexporting firms. We jointly estimate a translog cost function, a variable factor share equation and price-cost margin equations to analyse the effect of persistence in export activity on margins. Results indicate that nonexporters have smaller margins than persistent exporters and firms that entered foreign markets during the nineties. However, larger export ratio is negatively associated with margins for persistent exporters. It suggests that efficiency advantages for exporters are partially compensated by higher competitive pressure in international markets. These results are in accordance with the predictions of Melitz and Ottaviano (2005 Melitz, MJ and Ottaviano, GIP. 2005. Market size trade, and productivity, NBER Working Paper Series No. 11393 (forthcoming in The Review of Economic Studies) [Google Scholar]).     

Business Cycle Synchronization between Euro Area and Central and Eastern European Countries

We analyze the degree of co‐movements in real macroeconomic aggregates across selected euro area and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries applying a multi‐factor model. Our results suggest that the evolution of the global European factor matches well the narrative of main economic events between 1995 and 2011, capturing among others the recession during the recent global financial and economic crisis. This factor plays a central role in explaining real output growth variability in euro area and is negligible in CEE countries. Furthermore, using Markov switching models and concordance indices, we shed light on an increase in business cycle synchronization, with the degree of concordance between country‐specific and European business cycles being high.     

An Integrated Model of the Adoption and Extent of E-Commerce in Firms

This work aims to explain firms’ decisions to adopt Internet-based e-commerce, and the extent to which the adopters subsequently implement e-commerce to commercialize their products and services. We examine various types of factors previously considered by the literature (competitive environment, organizational characteristics, strategic orientation, innovative capacity, managers’ characteristics, IT equipment possessed and the use made of it). The analytical model developed here on the basis of a sample of 2,038 firms suggests that the factors influencing the adoption decision are different from those that eventually influence the results of firms’ commercial operations on the Internet. Likewise, we discuss the contribution of each type of determinant and the implications.      

Littering in protected areas: a conservation and management challenge – a case study from the Autonomous Region of Madrid,Spain

This paper examines issues surrounding littering in protected areas (PAs), one of the most ubiquitous and conspicuous impacts of tourism activity. In addition to obvious visual, landscape-affecting impacts, litter may have hazardous consequences for biodiversity and humans. In order to precisely assess littering in a densely populated region with high levels of visitation to natural and protected areas, we counted, measured and classified all types of non-organic litter covering an area of 1 cm² or more found on the ground in zones intensively used by visitors (picnic areas and paths) within the 10 PAs of the Autonomous Region of Madrid. On average, 11.65 m²/ha of litter were recorded in those zones. Strict visitor management measures greatly reduced that figure. Over 75% of all litter was paper and cardboard, and plastic; 88% of litter coverage was by large pieces over 25 cm² in size. We tested the hypothesis that the amount of waste found on paths is correlated with the distance to the entrance to a PA, but no general model fitted actual litter distribution patterns, although empirical results backed the hypothesis for most cases. A range of waste management strategies are explored and litter management measures suggested for problematic PAs.     

The Latino Assumption: A Research Note

The Latino assumption refers to the presumption that individuals residing in the United States and its commonwealths who have descended from Latin American countries and Spain constitute a homogeneous panethnic social identity. Inappropriately studying individuals of Latin American and Spanish descent as a homogeneous group in leisure research may result in threats to internal validity, statistical conclusion, and external validity. This article examines these issues and the historical context of the Latino assumption.     

Motivations of educational tourists in non-English-speaking countries: the role of languages

ABSTRACT

Learning a language or improving one’s foreign language skills may be a key motivator for students to decide to participate in an exchange program as well as choose the destination for their studies. Nevertheless, studies on educational tourism are limited, and there is no research on the motivations of students visiting non-English-speaking countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to examine the motivations of university students in non-English-speaking destinations by using the push-and-pull framework. Primary data were collected through an online survey from 190 and 205 students who participated in mobility programs in a Spanish university and in a German university respectively. Empirical findings reveal that languages are a key motivating factor for either growing personally through cultural enrichment, or growing professionally. Furthermore, these data allow generic recommendations so that the destinations can attract a larger number of international students.     

Management sub-advising in the mutual fund industry

This is a study of how contractual mechanisms can mitigate agency conflicts in sub-advised mutual funds. Sub-advising contracts allow fund families to expand their product offerings to include new investment styles and thereby gain market share. We show that costly contractual arrangements, such as co-branding, multi-advising, and performance-based compensation, can mitigate agency conflicts in outsourcing and protect investors from potential underperformance. Fund families will find it cost-effective to implement such incentive mechanisms only when investors are sophisticated in assessing manager skill. The findings help to explain why a large percentage of fund families outsource their funds to advisory firms.     

Anomalías en la autocorrelación de rendimientos y la importancia de los periodos de no transacción en mercados latinoamericanos

This paper aims to determine the evidence of returns autocorrelation for the main Latin American stock markets, and the influence of the day of the week effect on this phenomenon. Also, we analyze the importance of non-trading periods and their incidence on stock markets returns. We determine a high autocorrelation in most of the stock markets analyzed, both in local and global currency and the day-of-the-week effect on only some of the stock markets. Evidence of correlation between trading periods returns and those of non-trading periods is also found.     

IPO and Aftermarket Performance of Single‐Listed Chinese ADRs

This paper analyzes the post‐IPO and long‐run aftermarket performances of single‐listed Chinese ADRs during the 2004–2010 period. Single‐listed ADRs are traded daily in major exchanges in the United States, but their underlying shares are not traded in the issuer's home market. Our results show that over the short‐run, buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns of single‐listed Chinese ADRs following their IPO are not significantly different from the typical post‐IPO performance of stocks in U.S. exchanges, including that of traditional dual‐listed Chinese ADRs. Nevertheless, over the longer horizon, the excess returns of a portfolio composed solely of single‐listed Chinese ADRs outperform a portfolio of dual‐listed Chinese ADRs, but underperform a benchmark portfolio composed of U.S. firms matched on the basis of their IPO date. We also find that the portfolio formed solely of single‐listed Chinese ADRs exhibits significantly distinct loadings on the common portfolio factors from the portfolio formed of dual‐listed Chinese ADRs and from the benchmark portfolio of U.S. stocks.     

From objective to constituted risk: an alternative approach to safety in strategic technological innovation in the European Union

Safety is a legitimate means of limiting technological innovation in our societies. However, the potential socio-economic impact of curtailing techno-industrial progress on the grounds of safety means that risk governance policies tend to restrict the range of legitimate approaches to safety on the principle that it can only be discussed in the frame of an allegedly objective scientific representation of risk. In European risk governance, socio-economic factors such as the underlying innovation rationales and goals are not openly considered to be related to the constitution of safety, but tend largely to be treated as factors of subjective reaction towards risk and technology. This paper seeks to overcome that approach by proposing a ‘constitutive’ understanding of how risk and socio-economic factors and dynamics relate, focusing in particular on the ‘safe and responsible’ development of nanotechnology in the European Union (EU). I argue that risk is constituted according to socio-economic considerations, and that the controllability of the environmental and health risks of nanotechnology in the EU is assumed on principle in the very strong institutional commitment to the industrial exploitation of nanotechnology R&D. Using a constitutive approach, we may legitimately conceive a broader set of potential safety scenarios, while at the same time highlighting major obstacles to implementing more critical constitutions of techno-industrial risk in the framework of a highly competitive knowledge-based global economy.