Culture rules OK: class and culture in Brazilian cities

Cet article considère comment la culture dans les villes brésiliennes représente un reflet ainsi qu'une voie de médiation de la domination des classes. On analysera ici les pratiques et les orientations des différentes classes sociales par l'examen des stratégies employées pour répondre aux besoins materiels et culturels. On montrera comment les comportements formels et informels s'entrecoupent et comment, malgré le fait qu'ils semblent souvent ětre en conflit avec les formes ‘rationnelles’ de confronter un problème, en réalité, ils proviennent des péculiarités de l'ordre social et économique actuel, se conformant bien à la logique du processus brésilien de l'accumulation du capital.     

Short‐term monitoring of fiscal policy discipline

Under the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), European Union (EU) Member States commit themselves to avoid excessive deficits over 3% of GDP and to pursue the medium‐term objective of budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus. The SGP also provides regulation for the surveillance of budgetary positions. An analysis of tools for the surveillance of budgetary positions is the focus of this paper. In particular, it addresses two open issues in the empirical public finance literature which are crucial for monitoring fiscal policy discipline in the EU. First, the estimation of the structural component of the fiscal balance ratio. Second, the computation, when only annual fiscal data are available, of quarterly budget balance ratios, using relevant information from quarterly measured macroeconomic series. An econometric model that addresses both issues is presented and estimated. Additionally, this modelling framework allows us to answer questions such as: what is the safety margin that will prevent a particular country from reaching, with certain probability, a budget deficit that breaches the 3% upper bound? Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectiveness of Macroprudential Policies in Developing Asia: An Empirical Analysis

Before the 2008 global financial crisis, bank monitoring focused primarily on risks to individual institutions, or what are generally referred to as prudential risks. Regulators thus failed to consider that a buildup of macroeconomic risks and vulnerabilities could pose systemic risk to the financial sector. The global credit crisis showed the inadequacy of purely prudential surveillance systems and the need for bank supervisors to better detect the buildup of macroeconomic risks before they can threaten the financial system. This article presents an empirical framework for analyzing how effectively macroprudential policies control credit growth, leverage growth, and housing price appreciation. Two significant findings emerge. Broadly, macroprudential policies can indeed promote financial stability in Asia. More specifically, different types of macroprudential policies are proved effective for different types of macroeconomic risks.     

Mobile Payments,Social Money: Everyday Politics of the Consumer Subject

How should we think about mobile payments systems such as Apple and Android Pay? We argue that mobile payments should be understood in the context of changing consumption practices and the wider problematic of the consumer subject in International Political Economy. One (managerialist) view of these changes suggests that certain ‘immaterial’ values in brands, logos or networks can become an important element in economic growth. Thus, businesses increasingly craft user experiences to realise brand value as the indicator of future consumption, for example, Facebook, Netflix. Against this view, the critical literature has underlined how the customer relationship should be understood as an element in corporate power; enticing consumer subjects to dedicate their social lives to the task of monetisation. Rather than choose between sides of this dichotomy, we suggest it may be more fruitful to reflect upon the unanticipated potentialities of mobile payments. By reflecting on the sociality of money, we move beyond a simple cost-benefit analysis, or a structural determinism, to emphasise the contingency of market subjects, questioning how to think about the relationship between consumer subjects, on the one hand, and and a putatively impersonal (yet palpable) global economy, on the other.     

ITU conference in Nairobi: Confrontation or mutual understanding?

This article discusses decisions taken at the Nairobi Plenipotentiary Conference on the technical cooperation activities of the International Telecommunication Union, and relates them to other important ITU activities. Proposals for a new regulatory framework for telecommunication services to be considered at the forthcoming World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference are also examined.     

From orphan to artisan: apprenticeship careers and contract enforcement in The Netherlands before and after the guild abolition

Employing novel data on over 400 apprenticed orphaned boys from the Dutch cities of Leiden and Utrecht, this article explores the functioning of apprenticeship during and after the guilds. Although the mobility of apprentices was high and contracts were uncertain, no complaints arose from masters or guilds. Wages paid to these apprentices demonstrate that their labour made a gradually increasing contribution to the workshop from the start of their term. This enticed masters to take on apprentices and removed the need for contract enforcement. After the guilds were abolished, the number of apprenticed orphans in the crafts grew, suggesting that guilds previously hampered access to training. Additional data collected for regular (non‐orphan) apprentices corroborates these findings.     

R&D personnel and human resource management in multinational companies: between homogenization and differentiation

This paper discusses the impact of globalization processes on models of R&D personnel management in multinational companies operating in Europe. Existing literature focuses on the globalization of R&D activity, on the one hand, and on national systems of innovation, on the other. By contrast, there are few studies of the linkage between the globalization of R&D and its impact on HRM. Drawing on the practices of multinationals in four sectors (pharmaceuticals, chemicals, computer hardware and software), the paper examines whether the hold of national differences in the area of HRM has been significantly weakened in the face of new models of competitiveness and management in multinationals. It focuses on two dimensions: recruitment and mobility. The studies highlight two major trends. The ‘internationalization’ of R&D clearly has effects on HRM models but not as great as might be expected. HRM policies such as recruitment and pay systems continue to be nationally based, reflecting legal and institutional differences. At the same time, in conjunction with new forms of R&D organization such as projects, the standardization of HRM tools may be observed. But this is partial and affects only a limited number of tools, notably individual evaluation.     

Risk aversion,cooperative membership,and path dependences of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers in Sub‐Saharan Africa often mitigate production risks through cooperative membership: institutionalized arrangements where they pool resources and collectively manage production and marketing chains. Cooperative membership has a significant advantage: it cushions detrimental effects of external forces, placing a premium on a risk‐seeking attitude (experimenting and innovating), which can yield greater accumulation. However, cooperatives are self‐selective institutions: relatively better‐endowed farmers, who are usually less risk‐avoidant than poorer ones (a consequence of their broader material bases), tend to be overrepresented. These two realities complicate the causal assessment of the relationships between risk attitudes, farmers’ socioeconomic status, and cooperative membership that is essential to comprehend the role of cooperatives in local capital accumulation. To help resolve this thorny analytical problem, an experimental study was carried out in eastern Ethiopia—a risky production environment where cooperatives feature prominently and relatively affluent farmers exist alongside poorer ones. It unveils the working of specific path dependences: poorer cooperative members are less risk seeking than nonmembers, but at an interval much less than that observed for affluent farmers. For development policies, this suggests that a greater payoff can be expected from investing in farmers’ material bases than from further improving cooperative membership.     

The relationship between tax rates and tax revenues in eurozone member countries - exploring the Laffer curve

We estimate Laffer Curves for direct and indirect taxes for each Eurozone country, using panel data from 1995 to 2011, by means of Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models. We choose the three taxes that contribute the most to the government tax revenue: the value added tax (VAT), the corporate income tax (CT), and the labour income tax (LT). From our estimated significant parameters, which have the expected signs according to the Laffer Curve theory, we obtained a maximum/optimal tax rate for VAT for Greece, Portugal, and Slovakia and for the majority of the Eurozone countries for direct taxes. We also take into consideration the business cycle. Many countries do not present differences in regime, and when they do, the optimal tax rate is higher during recessions. Finally, we compare the observed tax rates in 2012 to the estimated optimal tax rates, to assess if the 2012 policy was located at the prohibitive range of the Laffer Curve. Our results are important for the discussions about fiscal discipline and harmonization in the Eurozone, since they exhibit important disparities between countries and taxes. We can see that, especially for CT and LT, there is a strong divide between the values of the optimal maximum tax rates for Eastern European countries and Western European economies. Additionally, the economic and financial conditions of each country also influence the value for the tax rate.     

Met expectations and supplies–values fit of Dutch young adults as determinants of work outcomes

Many studies have shown that work outcomes, such as job satisfaction and turnover intentions, are affected by met expectations and the fit between the work values of an employee and the supplies offered by the organization. However, research that investigates their simultaneous effects on work outcomes is absent in the literature. This study examined the concurrent effects of met expectations and supplies–values (S–V) fit of Dutch young adults on job satisfaction and intention to leave. It was hypothesized that met expectations as an outcome of a cognitive evaluation process would explain variance in affective work outcomes beyond and above that predicted by measures of S–V fit and main effects of job supplies and work values. Results supported this hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications of these results directions for future research are discussed.