How wages and employment adjust to trade liberalization: Quasi-experimental evidence from Austria

We study the response of regional employment and nominal wages to trade liberalization, exploiting the natural experiment provided by the opening of Central and Eastern European markets after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. Using data for Austrian municipalities, we examine differential pre- and post-1990 wage and employment growth rates between regions bordering the formerly communist economies and interior regions. If the ‘border regions’ are defined narrowly, within a band of less than 50 km, we can identify statistically significant liberalization effects on both employment and wages. While wages responded earlier than employment, the employment effect over the entire adjustment period is estimated to be around three times as large as the wage effect. The implied slope of the regional labor supply curve can be replicated in an economic geography model that features obstacles to labor migration due to immobile housing and to heterogeneous locational preferences.     

The preference for scarcity: A developmental and comparative perspective

Human adults often show a preference for scarce over abundant goods. In this paper, we investigate whether this preference was shared by 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children as well as chimpanzees, humans’ nearest primate relative. Neither chimpanzees nor 4‐year‐olds displayed a scarcity preference, but 6‐year‐olds did, especially in the presence of competitors. We conclude that scarcity preference is a human‐unique preference that develops as humans increase their cognitive skills and social experiences with peers and competitors. We explore different potential psychological explanations for scarcity preference and conclude scarcity preference is based on children's fear of missing out an opportunity, especially when dealing with uncertainty or goods of unknown value in the presence of competitors. Furthermore, the results are in line with studies showing that supply‐based scarcity increases the desirability of hedonic goods, suggesting that even as early as 6 years of age humans may use scarce goods to feel unique or special.     

Unsafe cycling behaviours and near crashes among Italian cyclists

This study investigates the direct and indirect effect of three types of unsafe behaviours (i.e. errors, generic violations and smartphone-specific violations) on the likelihood of near crashes and actual crashes among Italian cyclists. We considered smartphone-specific violations as a different unsafe behaviour subtype that enhances the probability of committing errors, thus increasing the likelihood of being involved in near crashes. Furthermore, we hypothesized that near crashes will predict actual crashes. Results revealed that errors predicted near crashes, whereas generic and smartphone-specific violations did not. Near crashes mediated the effect of errors on crashes. Moreover, smartphone-specific violations predicted crashes throughout its consecutive effects on errors and near crashes. These findings contribute to deepen our understanding of the relationship between cyclists’ unsafe behaviours, near crashes and actual crashes. To our knowledge, the present study is the first that links errors to near crashes among cyclists.     

Business cycles and monetary regimes in emerging economies: A role for a monopolistic banking sector

This study shows that the presence of imperfect competition in the banking system propagates external shocks and amplifies the business cycle. Strategic limit pricing, aimed at protecting retail niches from potential competitors, generates countercyclical bank markups. Markup increments during recessions directly increase borrowing costs for firms and indirectly damage the financial position of firms' balance-sheets, increasing the risk perception of lenders. I use Bayesian techniques and data from Argentina to show that the inclusion of monopolistic banking improves the fit of the New Keynesian small open economy model.     

Environmental sustainability in fashion supply chains: An exploratory case based research

In recent years, both researchers and practitioners have devoted attention to environmental sustainability issues in the fashion industry, but, despite the topic's relevance, a structured analysis of the problem is missing.This paper presents the results of exploratory case-based research aimed at identifying three factors: the drivers that push companies to adopt “green” practices, the different practices that can be used to improve environmental sustainability, and the environmental KPIs measured by fashion companies. Results include a comparison of two approaches pursued by established international companies with green-positioned brands with the efforts of small firms that have adopted alternative supply chain models.     

Relative demand for highly skilled workers and use of different ICT technologies

This study investigates the relationship between several indicators of ICT usage and digitalization and the relative demand for highly skilled workers. The data are based on two-digit industry-level information on seven European countries for the period 2001–2010. For manufacturing industries, static fixed-effects models show that the share of employees with internet broadband access, the diffusion of mobile internet access and the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and automatic data exchange combined with electronic invoicing are all significantly and positively related to skill intensity in the industries observed. For service industries, only mobile internet usage intensity is significant. Specifically for manufacturing, a 10-point increase in the percentage of firms using ERP systems is associated with an increase in the share of highly skilled workers by 0.4 percentage points. These estimates indicate that the increase in ERP system usage during the period studied accounted for 30% of the increase in the share of workers with a tertiary degree across manufacturing industries and countries. The results are robust with respect to the estimation method and the potential endogeneity of ICT.     

Financing technology transfer: assessment of university-oriented proof-of-concept programmes

This study analyses the characteristics of the proof-of-concept (POC) programmes initiated by university and public research organisations in Europe, as a mechanism to address funding gaps and improve the transfer of research-based inventions to markets. We contribute to the literature on investment readiness of new ventures and on financing technology transfer by assessing the structure of such funding instruments and identifying critical success factors for their design and implementation. The analyses rely on seven in-depth case studies of university-oriented POCs in Europe.     

Planning a Master’s Level Curriculum According to Career Space Recommendations Using Concept Mapping Techniques

Nowadays the European Universities are worried about how to adapt higher education to the new European Higher Education Area, as proposed in the Bologna Magna Charta Universitatum of 1998, and signed by 32 European Education Ministers. One of the key points in this higher education reform was the introduction of new Master’s level curricula. These Masters will look for the professional specialization and they will have to be adapted to the specific skills demanded by the society. This paper presents the results from a cooperation project – funded by the AECI (International Cooperation Spanish Agency) and developed between the University of Seville (Spain) and the Catholic University of Asuncion (Paraguay) – by about the planning of a new master’s level curriculum in digital signal processing (DSP) area, taking into account the Bologna principles and the conclusions obtained by the Career Space Consortium. A scientific method from social science, known as concept mapping techniques, was used to perform this planning. Basically, the idea of concept mapping consists of compiling the opinion from actors belonging to different environments (lecturers, researchers, workers, businessmen, etc.) related to DSP applications. The compiled data were statistically computed to cluster the opinions of the different agents. The result will be a master’s level curricula adapted to the environment requirements and the social settings.     

Accelerated internationalization by emerging markets’ multinationals: The case of the white goods sector

The emergence of a “second wave” of developing country multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a variety of industries is one of the characterizing features of globalization. This paper documents how emerging markets’ MNEs (EM-MNEs) may follow quite different patterns to reach, or at least approach, global competitiveness. In particular, it investigates how three EM-MNEs pursued global growth through accelerated internationalization combined with strategic and organizational innovation. Haier (China), Mabe (Mexico) and Arçelik (Turkey) emerged as multinationals in the large home appliances (so-called “white goods”) industry. The recipe for the success of these firms seems to lie in their ability to treat global competition as an opportunity to build capabilities, move into more profitable industry segments, and adopt strategies that turn latecomer status into a source of competitive advantage. At the same time, their experiences show that there are many strategies and trajectories for going global, consistent with a pluralistic conceptualization of globalization.