House prices, money, credit, and the macroeconomy

This paper assesses the links between money, credit, house prices,and economic activity in industrialized countries over the lastthree decades. The analysis is based on a fixed-effects panelvector autoregression, estimated using quarterly data for 17industrialized countries spanning the period 1970–2006.The main results of the analysis are the following. (i) Thereis evidence of a significant multidirectional link between houseprices, monetary variables, and the macroeconomy. (ii) The linkbetween house prices and monetary variables is found to be strongerover a more recent sub-sample from 1985 to 2006. (iii) The effectsof shocks to money and credit are found to be stronger whenhouse prices are booming.     

Corporate hierarchy and vertical information flow inside the firm—a behavioral view

Little is known about how corporate hierarchies influence managers' propensity to pass information upward within the firm. Two streams of literature arrive at seemingly conflicting and untested predictions. Information economists maintain that middle managers pass more suggestions up the firm's line of command as the corporate hierarchy increases in order to avoid corporate omission errors. In contrast, scholars of organizational psychology suggest that hierarchies lead to evaluation apprehension and foster a perceived lack of control among mid‐level managers, leading to their reduced willingness to, and interest in, passing information up within the organization. Drawing on field data and model‐guided experimental studies, we provide original empirical evidence for the relevance of all the mechanisms above, and we delineate the conditions under which either mechanism prevails. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constrained Mean-Variance Portfolio Optimization with Alternative Return Estimation

This paper studies the problem of asset allocation in a mean-variance framework. The theoretical model of portfolio optimization is specified and then applied to a long panel data set from historic to most recent times, March 1990 – March 2013. The paper contributes in three ways. First, an alternative asset return model is proposed that combines the historical returns, capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and returns estimated based on firm fundamentals. These return estimates enter the optimization problem. The second contribution is the application of an improved covariance matrix estimator that has superior properties compared to the typical sample covariance estimator. Third, the paper proposes two investments strategies. The first proposition suggests always choosing the maximized Sharpe ratio portfolio and the second one, the portfolio with the highest information ratio. The nature of both strategies is designed for investors with different appetites for risk. The performance of these choices is analyzed in light of four types of constraints: upper/lower investment limits, group constraints and transaction costs. The one-period optimal investment portfolio is rebalanced at quarterly intervals. Both strategies are benchmarked against an alternative investment choice such as holding the S&P 500 index, or investing in a risk-free asset such as a bond. Portfolio analysis and backtesting reveal that the strategies are superior to simply holding an equally weighted portfolio, a risk-free asset or the S&P 500 index.     

Returns to alliance portfolio diversity: The relative effects of partner diversity on firm's innovative performance and productivity

This study considers the impact of diversification in types of technological alliances, resulting in alliance portfolio diversity, on various dimensions of a firm's performance, as they relate to exploration and exploitation. Using a large panel of innovative firms in the Netherlands, this study shows that partner type diversity in a firm's alliance portfolio has an inverted U-shaped relationship with productivity and radical innovative performance and a positive relationship with incremental innovative performance. Moreover, the results suggest that a lower level of diversity is needed to achieve an optimal level of productivity compared to radical innovative performance, whereas for incremental innovative performance a higher level of portfolio diversity appears to give the best performance.     

Outsourcing in the German Hospital Sector

Being under pressure both from demographic changes in most industrialised countries and increasingly scarce financial resources in social security, in the last decade the German hospital sector tried to find some relief in outsourcing of services not belonging to its core competences like IT services, catering and cleaning. However, not all the hopes connected with this strategy have been fulfilled. This paper takes stock of the current situation of outsourcing in the German hospital sector mainly by the size of the institution. It describes the patterns of outsourcing in the sector, looks at the reasons for outsourcing, and describes the experiences with it of the hospitals on the one hand and the service providers on the other. We conclude by expressing our expectations concerning the foreseeable future of outsourcing in the German hospital sector.     

TESTING POVERTY LINES

In theory, a poverty line can be defined as the cost of a common (inter‐personally comparable) utility level across a population. But how can one know if this holds in practice? For groups sharing common consumption needs but facing different prices, the theory of revealed preference can be used to derive testable implications of utility consistency knowing only the “poverty bundles” and their prices. Heterogeneity in needs calls for extra information. We argue that subjective welfare data offer a credible means of testing utility consistency across different needs groups. A case study of Russia's official poverty lines shows how revealed preference tests can be used in conjunction with qualitative information on needs heterogeneity. The results lead us to question the utility consistency of Russia's official poverty lines.     

Development similarities in urban clusters: Evidence from a spatial analysis of Israel''s urban system

The effect of geographic proximity on the similarity of development rates exhibited by urban localities in Israel is investigated. The analysis is carried out in three stages. During the first stage, Moran's I measure of spatial autocorrelation is used, indicating that the spatial autocorrelation of development rates drops as inter-town distances increase. In the second stage, the impact of explanatory variables (population size, remoteness, etc.) is tested using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLSs) and Spatial Lag Models (SLMs). The analysis indicates that inter-town proximity is a significant factor that helps to improve regression fits. Lastly, during the third step of the analysis, the spatial association of development rates is studied separately for centrally located and peripheral towns. The analysis points out that proximity effects appear to be stronger in the periphery.     

Tourism and urban revitalization a case study of Pore , Yugoslavia

This article emphasizes the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to revitalization of old urban areas through tourism. Historical urban values require special multidisciplinary care when transformed to suit the needs of both tourists and local population. The case study of the old urban area in Pore illustrates how this can be done. The study was aimed at identifying reasons for which tourists and local population visit Pore 's old urban core. It also intended to analyze the visitors' reactions to and expectations of old urban areas. The findings were to help make revitalization decisions and introduce new measures into the revitalization process itself, which in turn aimed at contributing to both future tourism developments and preservation of the area's historical and cultural heritage.