A dynamic analysis of an endogenous growth model with leisure

Summary. The main goal in this paper is to analyze an economic model of endogenous growth where human capital accumulation acts as the engine propelling economic activity. The added ingredient in our model is that agents derive utility from consumption and leisure, where leisure is defined as the amount of time devoted to those activities augmented by the level of education. Under regular conditions we show that there is a unique globally stable balanced growth path. We also provide a characterization of the behavior of our economic variables along the transition. Received: May 26, 1998; revised version: September 9, 1999     

Tourism in peripheral regions: a Swedish policy perspective

To be successful as a motor in the development of declined regions, tourism must be integrated in a carefully planned regional development policy which has clear objectives. Regional development policy in Sweden is reviewed in the context of the northern peripheral areas of the country. The objectives were first economic and relied on the trickling down effect from the core. With the crisis of the 1970s the focus shifted to ‘quality of life’. Regional policy became more active with tourism as a sort of motor in the development plans. Most of the activities failed due to heavy dependence on investment in large public and private enterprises. The focus has now shifted to a more endogenous mode of development and, as a means to this, the restoration of the ‘brain balance’ through inward migration to the declined peripheral regions. The parameters for a tourism policy which would be a significant factor in creating an attractive region for tourism and for an inward migration which would play its role in a wider development process are set out.     

European women: why do(n’t) they work?1

To increase labour market participation is a major challenge currently faced by the EU, and attracting women into the labour force appears as a promising avenue to do so. Therefore, a clear understanding of what the factors influencing the evolution of female participation rates are in Europe is essential for a successful design of policy measures aiming at increasing participation rates. This article provides empirical evidence on the role that institutions have played in determining participation rates of women in the European labour markets. Our findings discard any doubt on the influence of institutions on women's participation in Europe. The strictness of labour market institutions negatively affects female participation rates. We also find that institutional features aimed at reconciling motherhood with professional life such as maternity leave schemes and part-time work favour participation rates of prime-age women. Additionally, fertility rates and education enrolment have been relevant for the evolution of participation rates during the sample period considered for prime-age and young females, respectively, while cohort effects drive the developments of older females.     

Does economic freedom increase income inequality? Evidence from the EU countries

This paper examines the relationship between economic liberalization and income inequality in the EU using panel data for the 2000s. The empirical evidence suggests that economic freedom is strongly related to income inequality. However, not all areas of economic freedom affect income distribution similarly. Government size is robustly associated with inequality, and also when controlling for potential endogeneity in a dynamic panel data analysis. Regulation is linked to income inequality as well, whereas legal system and sound money have no significant effects on income distribution. In the case of freedom to trade internationally, the relationship differs between old (EU-15) and new (former socialist) EU countries.     

The Rise and Fall of Centralized Wage Bargaining

During the three decades spanning the early 1950s to the early 1980s, the wage‐setting process in most Northern European countries was dominated by centralized bargaining (i.e., peak‐level labor and employer associations set wages nationwide). In the early 1980s, centralized wage bargaining began to collapse. In this paper, we assess a novel explanation for both the initial establishment of a centralized wage‐setting process, and its subsequent collapse. According to our theory, centralized wage bargaining was set up as a response to the spillovers created by the unemployment benefit program. Its collapse was the result of the increase in the productivity gap across workers, brought about by equipment‐specific technological progress and equipment–skill complementarity.     

Local Banking Market Frictions and Youth Crime: Evidence from Bank Failures

Journal of Financial Services Research - This paper examines the impact of local banking market frictions measured by bank failures on youth crime. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we...     

Tourism Demand Forecasting with Neural Network Models: Different Ways of Treating Information

This paper aims to compare the performance of three different artificial neural network techniques for tourist demand forecasting: a multi‐layer perceptron, a radial basis function and an Elman network. We find that multi‐layer perceptron and radial basis function models outperform Elman networks. We repeated the experiment assuming different topologies regarding the number of lags used for concatenation so as to evaluate the effect of the memory on the forecasting results. We find that for higher memories, the forecasting performance obtained for longer horizons improves, suggesting the importance of increasing the dimensionality for long‐term forecasting. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The entanglement of time and cost deviations in public projects

There is growing concern regarding cost and time overruns in public projects. However, despite the extensive literature on the subject, there is relatively little research on the impact of time overruns on cost overruns. This study assesses whether larger time deviations can lead to larger cost deviations. Our hypothesis is that a project with a time overrun is more likely to also have a cost overrun. The authors used a sample of 208 projects in Portugal, with data collected from the Portuguese Court of Auditors. Using the data, a number of econometric models were developed: Ordinary Least Squares, Generalized Linear Model, Tobit, and Probit. The instrumented variables and structural equation modelling techniques were applied to address potential endogeneity in the data. The analysis was controlled for factors such as political, governance, economic, and project variables. The results suggest that larger time deviations are associated with larger cost deviations. The inference is that projects that take longer to complete also tend to suffer from cost overruns.     

A social capital approach of market orientation in public non-profit organizations: The case of blood transfusion centers in Spain

In order to identify the determinants of market (donor) orientation in blood transfusion centers and services (BTCS), this study seeks to analyze whether connectedness and interpersonal trust represent a fundamental basis for interfunctional coordination that leads to market (donor) orientation. An empirical study was carried out with 147 participants from 14 Spanish BTCS. The measurement scales were validated through CFA and the proposed relationship model was tested using SEM. Both interpersonal trust and connectedness that exist among BTCS members foster interfunctional coordination and, ultimately, their donor orientation. Thus, BTCS must emphasize their internal relationship networks, rearranging them in favor of their donor orientation. This paper integrates social capital literature with market orientation literature, and it proposes empirical evidence on the role played by internal social links on interfunctional coordination, which leads to market orientation. This research proposes a reliable and valid measure of blood donor orientation, which could be useful for the future testing of theory and research in the non-profit context. BTCS should adopt an organizational design which allows the introduction of a new managerial paradigm. People in charge of different areas at BTCS must pay particular attention to the climate of trust and the level of connectedness in cross-functional relationships. The negative evolution of blood donation and the results of this research suggest that BTCS need to apply a management model focused on the donor, in order to achieve a sustainable donation system.     

The influence of partners' known preferences on auditors' sceptical judgements: The moderating role of perceived social influence pressure

We examine the moderating effect of auditors' perceived social influence pressure on the influence of partners' known preferences on auditors' sceptical judgements in China. We invoke social influence theory to provide complementary insights into the driving forces behind auditors' judgements, over and above the pressure arising from accountability. We hypothesise that the influence of partners' known preferences on auditors' sceptical judgements is stronger for auditors who perceive higher social influence pressure than those who perceive lower pressure. Our results support the hypothesis and establish the value of understanding auditors' perceived social influence pressure in managing partners' communication with audit teams.