The changing employment situation in some cities with living wage ordinances

More than 120 municipalities (cities, towns, and counties) have introduced living wage ordinances. These laws mandate that certain employers in their jurisdiction pay their workers wages that are above federal and state minimum levels. The opponents of these laws argue that these ordinances have adverse impacts on local labor markets. This study considers rates of growth of employment and unemployment trends in a sample of these cities before and after they introduced their living wage ordinances. It finds that while a few cities have had negative labor market experiences after introducing their living wage law these cities represent the exception rather than the rule.     

Composite indicators of sustainable urban mobility: Estimating the rankings frequency distribution combining multiple methodologies

The contribution of this paper consists in applying several techniques to estimate a composite indicator of sustainable urban mobility for 116 Italian provincial towns, as proposed by Luzzati and Gucciardi (2015). The aim is to provide the decision-maker with a richer set of information on sustainable mobility, making explicit the impact of the techniques used on the values obtained. A set of 16 indicators with a nested structure has been selected and 33 combinations of normalization, weighting, and aggregation techniques are applied. The results are presented by city, by city groupings (size and location), and focusing on the ten largest Italian cities. It is found that small cities perform better in terms of sustainable mobility than medium or large cities. As expected, in some cases (e.g., Milan) the intervals of the results obtained are quite large, indicating that the techniques used to normalize, weight, and aggregate the indicators highly affect the performance indexes. In other cases (e.g., Rome) the results are stable across methodologies.     

What happens to international new ventures beyond start-up: An exploratory study

Since its inception, research in international entrepreneurship has focused mainly on how and why international new ventures internationalize early on. To date, there has been hardly any research regarding the issue of continuing corporate growth in such ventures beyond their start-up phase or initial internationalization. Theoretically, we ground our study within the dynamic capabilities view of the firm and through an inductive theory building research explore how and whether international new ventures made-it beyond the start-up phase, aiming to generate early theoretical constructs to guide international entrepreneurship research in this substantive area. Grounded in data, we develop the following constructs related to made-it points: strategic experimentation, tensions in organizational gestalt, and legitimacy lies. To get to a made-it point, entrepreneurs experiment with their venture at several levels: organizational, business model, and operational. These experimentation efforts are fueled by tensions that exist in the organizational gestalt, such as ownership structure, business proposition to the market, and product development process. To legitimate themselves and their venture in the stakeholders’ eyes, entrepreneurs may tell legitimacy lies. We maintain that international new ventures do not reach a made-it point if they only manage to develop substantive capabilities to produce desired outputs at various levels within the venture but fail to create dynamic capabilities to change and reconfigure existing substantive capabilities.     

Conducting inference in semiparametric duration models under inequality restrictions on the shape of the hazard implied by job search theory

Using a four-month panel of revised Current Population Survey data from September–December 1993, we extend the class of semiparametric hazard models of the type first studied by Prentice and Gloeckler ( 1978 ), and brought to the attention of economists by Meyer ( 1988 , 1990 ), to incorporate inequality restrictions on the shape of the hazard. This extension enables us to test hypotheses regarding the shape of the hazard implied by search theory using duration data alone. These tests provide another link between the empirical and theoretical literatures on unemployment duration and job search. The GHK probability simulator makes it straightforward to generate approximate hypothesis test results, as simulation estimates of the probability under the null hypothesis are generated using the asymptotic normal approximation to the distribution of the hazard parameters obtained from maximum likelihood estimation. Importance sampling is used to conduct inference under the null and obtain exact finite sample estimates of the probability the null is satisfied. A new algorithm for maintaining stability of the importance weights is also developed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Empirical Analysis of Productivity in Philippine Agriculture, 1974–2000

Using recent agricultural data sets, we estimate a non-neutral and non-homothetic translog variable cost function to empirically investigate Philippine agricultural productivity. Overall, the annual average productivity growth rate is 0.51 percent. The highest productivity level is observed during the post-Green Revolution period (1974–1980). Thereafter, productivity growth shows a discernible decline up until the late 1990s. This indicates that productivity level during the Green Revolution era has not been sustained or paralleled, despite substantial policy changes put in place since 1986 to invigorate the agricultural sector. The government should therefore continue to promote technological progress in Philippine agriculture; however, this may require redirection of its present policy by placing more emphasis on productivity-enhancing investments, such as research and development, irrigation and other infrastructure.     

Exchange rate changes and LDC export performance under generalized currency floating

Zusammenfassung Wechselkurs?nderungen und die Exporte der Entwicklungsl?nder bei einem allgemeinen Floating. — Die meisten Untersuchungen über die Reaktion der Entwicklungsl?nderexporte auf Wechselkurs?nderungen haben sich nur mit den induzierten Preisbewegungen, die mit den Ver?nderungen der realen Wechselkurse verbunden sind, befaΒt. Das ist zwar zweckm?Βig bei festen Wechselkursen zwischen den wichtigsten W?hrungen, einige Aufmerksamkeit sollte aber auch den Ver?nderungen der relativen Preise nach einem gr?Βeren Realignment im Rahmen des gegenw?rtigen Systems des allgemeinen Floatings geschenkt werden. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht beide Aspekte der relativen Rentabilit?t im Exportgesch?ft, d. h. relativ im Hinblick auf heimische Güter und auf die mit Importgütern konkurrierenden Produkte, und deren EinfluΒ auf Entwicklungsl?nderexporte seit 1973. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, daΒ der Effekt von Realignments in der Regel kleiner war als der der beobachteten realen Wechselkurs?nderungen. Ein anderes wichtiges Resultat ist die groΒe Zahl von F?llen, in denen die Variabilit?t der realen Wechselkurse als eine signifikante erkl?rende Variable erscheint. Für verschiedene L?nder lassen die Ergebnisse vermuten, daΒ die Unsicherheit über den realen Wechselkurs für das Exportangebot wichtiger war als die Ver?nderungen in den relativen Preisen, die auf nominale Wechselkurs?nderungen und gr?Βere Realignments zurückzuführen sind.

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Résumé Les changements du taux de change et les exportations des PVD dans un monde des taux de change flottants. — La plupart des études empiriques sur les réactions des exportations des PVD aux changements du taux de change se sont exclusivement occupées des mouvements induits des prix relatifs associés avec les changements du taux de change réel. Tandis que cela est approprié sous les conditions des taux de change fixes parmi les monnaies principales, il est nécessaire de prêter attention à l’effet de prix relatif des réalignements des monnaies principales sous le système actuel des monnaies flottantes parmi les pays développés. Cet article examine les deux aspects de la profitabilité relative exportatrice, c’est-à-dire, en relation aux biens locaux et à la production des biens qui font concurrence aux importations, et de son influence sur les exportations des PVD depuis 1973. Les résultats empiriques indiquent que l’effet de prix relatif d? aux réalignements des monnaies principales a été plus petit que celui des ajustements observés du taux de change réel. Un autre résultat essentiel est le grand nombre des cas oú la variabilité du taux de change réel apparait comme variable explicative signifiante dans les régressions. Les résultats suggèrent pour plusieurs pays que l’incertitude sur le taux de change réel a été plus importante pour l’offre exportatrice que les changements des prix relatifs d?s aux ajustements des taux de change nominaux et aux réalignements des monnaies principales.

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Resumen Variaciones en el tipo de cambio y el comportamiento de las exportaciones de países en desarrollo bajo fluctuation cambiaria generalizada. — La mayoria de los estudios empiricos sobre la respuesta de las exportaciones de los pafses en desarrollo frente a variaciones en el tipo de cambio se han ocupado solamente de los movimientos de precios relativos inducidos, asociados con variaciones en el tipo de cambio real. Mientras esto es apropiado en el contexto de tipos de cambio fijos entre las monedas mas importantes, también se garantiza cierta atenci?n para el efecto de precios relativos de las realineaciones de las monedas más importantes bajo el actual sistema de fluctuaciones cambiarias generalizadas entre paises en desarrollo. En este articulo se examinaron ambos aspectos de la rentabilidad de exportacion relativa, p. ej., relativa a los bienes domésticos y a la production competitiva con las importaciones, como también su influencia sobre las exportaciones de los países en desarrollo desde 1973. Nuestros resultados empiricos indican, que el efecto de precios relativos debido a la realineaci?n de las monedas más importantes ha sido generalmente más pequeno que el ajuste observado de los tipos de cambio reaies. Otro resultado importante es el gran numéro de casos en los que la variation de los tipos de cambio reaies surge como una variable explicativa signincante en las regresiones. Para varios países los resultados sugieren que la incertidumbre del tipo de cambio real ha sido más importante para la oferta de exportation que los cambios en los precios relativos, debido a ajustes nominales del tipo de cambio y realineaciones cambiarias importantes.