The Institutionalization of Fair Trade: More than Just a Degraded Form of Social Action

The context of economic globalization has contributed to the emergence of a new form of social action which has spread into the economic sphere in the form of the new social economic movements. The emblematic figure of this new generation of social movements is fair trade, which influences the economy towards political or social ends. Having emerged from multiple alternative trade practices, fair trade has gradually become institutionalized since the professionalization of World Shops, the arrival of fair trade products in the food industry, and the establishment of an official “fair trade” label. With the strength that this institutionalization has generated, fair trade can now be considered a real trade system that questions, as much as it renews, the traditional economic system. In parallel, this transformation has exacerbated the tensions within the movement, which can be characterized as a clash between a “radical, militant” pole and a “softer, more commercial” one. However, it is not the actual institutionalization of fair trade which is being debated among fair trade actors on either side of the fence, but rather the challenges inherent in finding an economic institutionalization acceptable to social economic movements. Therefore the institutionalization process of fair trade should not be seen as mere degradation of social action, but rather as typical of the institutionalization process of new social economic movements. If we need to worry about the highjacking and alteration of the fair trade movement by the dominant economic system, the opposite is no less likely, as new social economic movements contribute to an ethical restructuring of markets.     

Trade policy, trade volumes and plant-level productivity in Colombian manufacturing industries

This paper explores a period of substantial variation in trade policy across industries in Colombia (1977-1991) to examine whether increased exposure to foreign competition generates productivity gains for manufacturing plants. Using an estimation methodology that addresses the shortcomings of previous studies, we find a strong positive impact of tariff liberalization on plant productivity, even after controlling for plant and industry heterogeneity, real exchange rates, and cyclical effects. The impact of liberalization is stronger for larger plants and plants in less competitive industries. Our findings are not driven by the endogeneity of protection. Similar results are obtained when using effective rates of protection and import penetration ratios as measures of protection. Productivity gains under trade liberalization are linked to increases in intermediate inputs' imports, skill intensity, and machinery investments, and to output reallocations from less to more productive plants.     

International migration and universal healthcare access: evidence from Mexico’s ‘Seguro Popular’

Although ‘Seguro Popular’ (SP), a healthcare programme for the uninsured, has been in place in Mexico for more than a decade, its consequences for international migration both to and from the country have received little scholarly attention. Using the spatial variation in the programme’s coverage generated through the rollout over time, this paper examines the effects of SP on the number of emigrants and return migrants per household. Based on data from Mexico’s National Survey on Demographic Dynamics for 1997–2014, the analysis confirms that being affiliated to SP does not reduce the number of emigrants per household, but such affiliation is, however, positively related to the number of returnees per household. These results are valid across different subsamples of the population and time periods and are robust to omitted variable bias. Our findings have important implications for understanding the effects of social protection policies on international migration patterns.     

Empirical and Heuristic-Based Evaluation of Collaborative Modeling Systems: An Evaluation Framework

Within the field of groupware systems, collaborative modeling systems play an important role. They are useful and promising tools for many fields of application. In this paper we begin with the evaluation of the usefulness of one of these tools, SPACE-DESIGN, by applying it to a specific domain and by comparing it to a single-user tool which is shared by means of a shared window system. We have performed a study in two phases in order to evaluate usability aspects and the awareness support of both software tools. The first phase is an empirical study with users who have worked with both software tools, whilst the second is a heuristic study with some heuristic models that are well known in the context of the research work. Taking into account this study, we propose a complete evaluation framework, to be used as a theoretical lab which could be used to evaluate interactive and usability aspects of any collaborative modeling tool. This is based on a comparison strategy and proposes a specific sequence of phases: selection of collaborative modeling tools, empirical evaluation, heuristic evaluation, analysis of results, and obtaining of conclusions.     

Remittances,monetary institutions,and autocracies

ABSTRACT

How do remittances affect the choice of exchange rate regimes? Previous research shows that remittances, by easing the ‘impossible trinity’, increase the probability of governments adopting fixed exchange rates. However, that research overlooks the conditioning effect of monetary and political institutions. We argue that remittances, by altering recipient governments’ incentives to use monetary policy counter-cyclically, make central bank independence a credible anti-inflationary tool in less credible regimes; that is, autocracies. Thus, autocracies that receive remittances do not need to rely on fixed exchange rates. In this way, remittances open policy alternatives for developing autocracies. Statistical tests on a sample of 87 developing and transitional countries between 1980 and 2010 support our argument.     

Customer satisfaction's key factors in Spanish grocery stores: Evidence from hypermarkets and supermarkets

The marketing literature has shown how certain attributes of the store are key for grocery retailers to differentiate themselves in the final markets. From this preliminary consideration the present work proposes a step forward by ascertaining the main factors that underlie the attributes of the store which have already been identified in the literature. All of this is taken into account with the object to examine which of these factors presents a greater influence on customer satisfaction. To test the proposed analysis, a sample of 358 Spanish customers that had carried out their purchase in different types of grocery stores (in particular, hypermarkets and supermarkets) has been analyzed considering a key variable of retail patronage behavior: the store format in which the purchase had been carried out. This study has enabled us to obtain interesting conclusions about the variables that have the most influence on customer satisfaction, providing useful managerial recommendations for decision-making in grocery retailing.     

Incorporating nutrients into meat demand analysis using household budgets data

The objective of this article is to analyze the Spanish demand for meat, taking into account the consumer's concern about the relationship between food diet and health. This concern is forcing food demand analysts to assume that consumer utility is a function of nutrients instead of simply the food products themselves. Nevertheless, these utility function arguments are not produced in the marketplace but rather at home. As a consequence, in this article household production theory is followed in order to analyze Spanish demand for meat using the Quarterly National Expenditure Survey for 1999. Demands for several meat products (the input in the model) are derived from the translog cost function. Censored regression models are used in the estimation process, since many zero responses are reported. Five broad categories, eight nutrients, and the most relevant socioeconomic variables are considered. Finally, a set of elasticities is calculated with respect to all the variables included in the analysis.     

Enterprise maturity models: a systematic literature review

Maturity models (MM) have been used by different enterprise segments. However, while many MM have been developed, few have been validated because of the lack of studies that demonstrate how to classify model levels. This study investigates the literature that presents assessment models for classifying maturity levels as well as the development of the research area. A systematic literature review was carried out, finding 409 relevant papers and a list of the few methods for classifying the maturity level. This review enabled us to update the state of the art on MM and identify gaps that may prompt future research.     

Corporate social responsibility,country-level predispositions,and the consequences of choosing a level of disclosure

We study the different levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of the largest European firms. We find that firms are more predisposed to disclose more CSR information in countries with better investor protection, higher levels of democracy, more effective government services, higher quality regulations, more press freedom, and a lower commitment to environmental policies. Our analysis of the association of different levels of CSR disclosure with share prices indicates that a high level of CSR disclosure is associated with higher share prices, whereas a low level of CSR disclosure in sensitive industries is associated with lower share prices (compared to no disclosure). These results are also present when we analyse changes in CSR disclosure and are robust to the inclusion of an accounting quality measure in our model. The overall effect of the association of higher levels of CSR disclosure with higher share prices is stronger in countries with more democracy, more government effectiveness, better regulatory quality, and more press freedom. Therefore, market participants find CSR disclosures more informative in countries where investors are in a better position to voice their concerns and where there is better regulation and more effective government implementation of regulations.     

The Entry‐Deterring Effects of Inflexible Regulation

This paper investigates the signalling role of tax policy in promoting, or hindering, the ability of a monopolist to practise entry deterrence. We show that environmental policy can facilitate the incumbent firm's concealment of information from potential entrants, thus deterring entry, and yet entail welfare improvements. Furthermore, we demonstrate that entry deterrence is more likely to arise when environmental regulation cannot be rapidly revised across time if market conditions change (inflexible regimes) than when regulatory agencies can adjust environmental policy over time.