Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual's job quality than the country or ‘national model’ they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.     

A Theory of Broadcast Media Concentration and Commercial Advertising

We analyze a model in which the interaction of broadcasters, advertisers, and consumers determines the level of nonadvertising broadcasting produced and consumed. Our main finding is that an increase in concentration in broadcast media industries may lead to a decrease in the total amount of nonadvertising broadcasting. The strength of this inverse relationship depends, in part, on the behavioral response of the consumers to changes in advertising intensities. We also present a numerical general equilibrium solution to our model and demonstrate a positive relationship between consumer welfare and the number of firms in the broadcast industry.     

The effect of questionnaire length on survey response

Survey textbooks suggest that long questionnaires should be avoided, and a careful reading of the available empirical evidence confirms the negative effects of substantial length on both response rates and the quality of those responses which are obtained. Data is presented from a lengthy survey in Britain in 1987. Analysis of reasons for nonresponse to this survey suggest that length may indeed have been a significant disincentive to respond for many. However, no effect of length was found on item quality as measured by the number of responses given to open-ended questions. Unexpectedly, the variance in number of responses was greater when the questions were asked later in the questionnaire. The results are interpreted as resulting from the greater power that respondents gain as the survey proceeds.     

a sceptical beginners' guide to the dismal science

Many students of economics consider it an unrealistic subject. But as Brendan O'Rourke, of the Accountancy & Business College, Dublin, points out, its capacity to analyse complex problems lies in its capacity to make abstractions.     

‘Because it matters’

Basic economic logic, which often simplifies assessments and explanations of agricultural policy issues, is vitally important in communicating with policy-makers. Resources are limited, and there is a premium on getting decisions at least approximately right first time. Examples from southern Africa illustrate the importance of parity pricing, and its links to household food security (Lesotho), price risk, the emergence of an agricultural futures market, and its central role in allocating scarce agricultural resources (South Africa). Insights derived from an appreciation of parity pricing are relevant in other national contexts and also help explain how international grain markets operate. The parity pricing concept provides a framework for sense-checking complicated debates relating to two issues that have been prominent in recent years; first, whether and to what extent speculation in futures markets has been a driver of agricultural price spikes, and second, how far indirect land use change (ILUC), triggered by the use of agricultural feedstocks to produce renewable energy, is a material issue. These issues are likely to be of heightened importance in the face of climate change. Each emphasises that agricultural economics matters, and that it matters that we get the economics right.     

The complex cohort: a netnographic review of generation Y backpackers

This article uses exploratory netnographic analysis of 12 generation Y backpackers on an extended joint holiday in order to better understand and represent a rapidly emerging but underrepresented cohort. Insight is gained into a complex cohort with high expectations of leisure and tourism. Freedom and familiarity, challenge and indulgence, customisation and community, emerge as the themes which frame their often contradictory consumption. On the cusp of a sometimes unwelcome and not always achievable adulthood this is a generation in a unique position who accordingly have unique expectations of their leisure and tourism.     

Rethinking Profit-Maximization in Second-Degree Price Discriminating Markets

Atlantic Economic Journal - Standard models of indirect price discrimination generate a separating equilibrium in which all consumers choose bundles on their demand curves. Low-demand consumers...     

Modeling node heterogeneity in latent space models for multidimensional networks

Multidimensional network data can have different levels of complexity, as nodes may be characterized by heterogeneous individual-specific features, which may vary across the networks. This article introduces a class of models for multidimensional network data, where different levels of heterogeneity within and between networks can be considered. The proposed framework is developed in the family of latent space models, and it aims to distinguish symmetric relations between the nodes and node-specific features. Model parameters are estimated via a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. Simulated data and an application to a real example, on fruits import/export data, are used to illustrate and comment on the performance of the proposed models.