Consensual control through the articulation of technology and local culture: evidence from a textile factory in Turkey

This article focuses on the complex network of control and consent through the articulation of technology and local culture in the workplace. The dynamics of this network are embedded in the interplay of global and local markets. The article explores these dynamics by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of a Central Anatolian city, Çorum, based on a case study conducted in Turkey. We observe how globalised patterns of control and consent are reproduced through the articulation of new technologies and the conservative culture specific to this locality. During the negotiations between employers and employees, this interplay plays a significant role in the construction of work realities. The consensual control produced within the framework of conservative values leads to a consensual hegemony in the organisation of labour process.     

The effect of search channel elimination on purchase incidence,order size and channel choice

This study investigates the impact of eliminating a search channel on purchase incidence, order size, channel choice and, ultimately, sales and profits. We analyze customer panel data from a large retailer over a five-year period. The retailer conducted a randomized field test in which the firm eliminated its catalog for half of the panel. We find that channel elimination decreases purchase incidence, especially for customers who, before the test, were heavy users of the telephone purchase channel that aligns with the catalog search channel. As expected, channel choice for purchases is shifted toward the internet and away from the telephone channel. Interestingly, order size per purchase increases. We investigate the impact of channel elimination on profits across different customer segments. We calculate a net positive impact because the savings from eliminating the catalog compensate for lower sales revenues.     

STATUS QUO IN THE WELFARE ANALYSIS OF TAX REFORMS

The welfare analysis of tax reforms most often consists of comparing the post‐reform distribution of individual welfare with the pre‐reform distribution or possibly that obtained from another reform as if they were completely independent. Such an “anonymous” approach does not take into account “changes” in individual situations, generally the main source of contention in any tax reform debate. This paper proposes a welfare criterion that allows comparison of reforms while taking into account individual status quo—i.e. pre‐reform—situations. This is done by extending standard utilitarian social welfare criteria to the case where individual utilities depend on initial income and income change.     

Strategic waiting in the IPO markets

The paper analyzes the strategic waiting tendencies of IPO firms. Our game theoretic model shows why some high-quality firms may strategically delay their initial public offering until a favorable signal about the economic conditions is generated by other issuing firms. Survival analysis suggests that IPOs in the highest quality decile have significantly higher median waiting days (since the start of a rising IPO cycle) than the IPOs in the lowest decile. During the early stages of an expanding IPO cycle the average firm quality is lower than in its later stages. We find supporting evidence also from the IPOs of future S&P 500 firms.     

Understanding visitor's motivation at sites of death and disaster: the case of former transit camp Westerbork,the Netherlands

This study begins to fill the gap in research of people's motivations to visit sites of death and suffering and to contribute to a deeper understanding of dark tourism consumption within dark conflict sites. The article aims to examine the motivations of visitors to former transit camp Westerbork as an iconic dark site in the Netherlands. The research process involved a self-administered survey questionnaire filled by 238, randomly selected Dutch visitors. Data are analysed by means of exploratory factor analysis to decide upon the relevant factors for representing the motivations of visitors to Westerbork. The findings show that people visit Westerbork mainly for ‘self-understanding’, ‘curiosity’, ‘conscience’, a ‘must see’ this place and ‘exclusiveness’. This is the first study to examine visitors’ motivations to Westerbork as a dark site. Most research on visitor motivations is not based on empirical data, but on theoretical research.     

Capital mobility and labor market volatility

We used a dynamic two-country optimizing model featuring efficiency wages to analyze the implications of capital mobility for labor market volatility. Capital mobility magnifies the short-run effects of productivity shocks and monetary shocks on employment and the real wage, but dampens the medium-run effects. The overall effects of capital mobility on the volatility and the cyclical properties of employment and the real wage are moderate.     

Growth Dynamics in the Biomedical/Biotechnology System

This article aims to understand the dynamics of growth in the biomedical/biotechnology system that consists of a variety of actors ranging from universities, medical supplies firms, and drug research firms, to clinical service suppliers. Based on a comparative study made in Ohio and in Sweden, we have analyzed three main factors: technology competencies, technology transfer, and networking capabilities. Our findings show a set of differences that can be grouped into two categories, viz. management and agglomeration externalities. Differences in management appear at three points: the resources allocated to technological competence development, managerial skills in the technology transfer phase, and the use of technology councils. Ohio seems to offer a better environment for starting up new firms and enabling these firms to successfully commercialize their technological assets. The agglomeration externalities that make a difference between the two regions might be grouped into two categories: increasing returns arising from network externalities and the advantages of networking with a variety of supporting organizations in the system.     

Disease‐Specific Moral Hazard and Optimal Health Insurance Design for Physician Services

This article analyzes disease‐specific moral hazard effects in the demand for physician office visits and explores whether optimal insurance for physician services should be designed to have disease‐specific cost sharing. Generalized method of moments is implemented to address the endogeneity of private health insurance, and the nonnegativity and the discreteness of physician services use. The results indicate that the moral hazard effect varies considerably across disease‐specific specialist care. The strongest moral hazard (for no‐condition related specialist visits) is almost twice the moral hazard effect of the weakest (for chronic condition related specialist visits). Although the findings indicate some variation in the moral hazard effect across disease‐specific general practitioner visits, the variation is less considerable. The main policy implication is that optimal insurance for physician services should be designed to have differential cost sharing based on disease status rather than to have uniform cost sharing.