Vertical collusion

We characterize collusion involving secret vertical contracts between retailers and their supplier—who are all equally patient (“vertical collusion”). We show such collusion is easier to sustain than collusion among retailers. Furthermore, vertical collusion can solve the supplier's inability to commit to charging the monopoly wholesale price when retailers are differentiated. The supplier pays retailers slotting allowances as a prize for adhering to the collusive scheme and rejects contract deviations. In the presence of competing suppliers, vertical collusion can be sustained using short-term exclusive dealing.     

Attachment orientations and entrepreneurship

This research presents a theoretical model and examines it empirically to associate attachment orientations with various types of entrepreneurs. The results show clear evidence that attachment orientations not only predict an adult’s tendency to become an entrepreneur but also the type of entrepreneur he will become. Specifically, the results show that attachment anxiety is the dimension that is the most responsible for the variability of becoming an entrepreneur, while anxiety and avoidant dimensions predict his characteristics and attitudes as an entrepreneur. This paper makes five important contributions to the research of both attachment theory and entrepreneurship. First, it adds to the theoretical understanding of the psychology of entrepreneurs. Second, the attachment theory enables us to extend our understanding beyond the predictions of personality traits regarding entrepreneurial intentions in order to further predict the type of entrepreneur he will turn out to be. Third, it stresses the role of early childhood events regarding the prediction of future entrepreneurial orientation. Fourth, it uses a unique data set of real young entrepreneurs in a single industry homogenous design in Israel, which is known worldwide as a startup nation. Fifth, it focuses on the opportunity validation stage (rather than the opportunity identification of the resource allocation stages), which is often neglected in entrepreneur personality research.     

Healthier for whom? Technological service improvement in the healthcare industry

This study tackles the dilemma of a technology-based service improvement wherein an organization performs a technology change to improve its service process, while its customers do not necessarily perceive the new service as an improvement. The empirical research follows a healthcare provider that changed its primary care provider appointment scheduling using a new call centre technology. The methodology involves three processes reflecting the entire change: personal interviews, focus groups, and surveys. To facilitate adoption of a technology-based service, it is recommended that there be a focus on customers’ experience with similar service industries’ image, and organizational policies on contracting service representatives.     

Corruption, institutions and trade

The economics literature describes various factors that affect trade between countries, which, in addition to the standard economic and geographic factors, also include cultural, ethnic and historical factors. The present study is apparently one of only a few attempts in the literature to examine directly the effects of corruption on trade and the first attempt to examine trade over time in a specific country whose level of corruption changed significantly. Israel was chosen as the subject of the study mainly because of the fact that, according to international indexes, the country’s status as a civil society has declined significantly over the past decade. According to the corruption index of Transparency International, Israel was ranked 33rd in the world, at the end of the sample period in 2008, having fallen from 14th in 1995. The results of the research can serve as the basis for comparison to similar studies of other Western countries. The study’s conclusions support the hypothesis that the effect of corruption on trade of any given country is significant, stable and negative.     

Focality advantage in platform competition

We consider a methodology for studying how beliefs shape platform competition based on the notion of a partial focality. The concept of focality is useful for modeling platform competition when the presence of network effects results in multiple equilibria for a certain set of prices. We illustrate how to implement this methodology in both static and dynamic competition between platforms that differ in their basic quality. The initial degree of focality affects the ability of the high‐quality platform to win the market. Yet, dynamic considerations may have a positive or negative effect on this ability.     

Corporate tax payments under formulary apportionment: Evidence from the financial reports of 50 major U.S. multinational firms

Under a formulary apportionment system of taxing multinational corporate income, U.S. tax liabilities would be based on the product of a multinational firm's worldwide income and the fraction of their real activities that occur in the United States – typically, an average of asset, payroll, and sales shares. This analysis utilizes financial reporting data for 50 large U.S. multinational firms to analyze how tax payments would change under a possible formulary system, updating Shackelford and Slemrod (1998). Our time period is 2005–2007 instead of 1989–1993. We find that tax payments under formulary apportionment would increase modestly overall but by a lower magnitude than found by Shackelford and Slemrod. Given the changes in the international tax environment since the earlier time period, this is a puzzling finding; we speculate regarding possible explanations.     

Decomposing Wage Gaps between Ethnic Groups: The Case of Israel

Past investigations of the income gaps between Jews and non-Jews in Israel treat non-Jews as one group. In this paper we separate the non-Jewish group into three main religious minorities: Muslims, Christians, and Druze and focus on the northern part of Israel, where most minorities live. Using the latest Israeli census, we find significant explained and unexplained income gaps in favor of Jews. The unexplained gaps tend to be larger the more educated the individual. Jews have much higher representation in the more lucrative occupations, and earn significantly more in them. Muslims generally suffer from the largest income gaps, while Druze have the lowest income gaps, reflecting direct and indirect benefits reaped from serving in the army. Among minorities, Christians are the most educated and most concentrated in the top occupations, which explains why they have the lowest gaps in the highest percentiles of the income distribution.     

Implementation and Assessment of Project-Based Learning in a Flexible Environment

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known method for imparting thinking competencies and creating flexible learning environments. Advancing low-achieving pupils is an on-going challenge for educational systems. Routing low-achievers into low-learning tracks creates a vicious circle. In order to extract pupils and their teachers from the on-going cycle of failure, and to promote pupils cognitively and emotionally, four steps were taken: defining significant goals for the pupils as well as for the teachers, changing the learning environment, carrying out original projects taking advantage of the pupils' special skills and abilities, and changing assessment methods for project-based learning activities in a computerized environment. This paper presents a continuous field research that has used qualitative and quantitative tools for exploring pupils' progress in the affective and the cognitive domains. The research tools were: Analysis of pupils' portfolios, observations of class activities, interviews with pupils, teachers and school management, achievements in the matriculation examinations, and assessment of pupils' projects. The findings indicate that scientific-technological PBL elevated pupils' motivation and self-image at all levels and achieved significant affective learning. The activities over three years are summarized and show an increase in the number of students achieving the college admittance requirements. Most of the low-achieving pupils succeeded with distinction in the same matriculation exams that the high-achievers did in the same school. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.