Economic and Non-economic Satisfaction as Outcomes of Micro-enterprises’ Perceived Value from Banking Relationships

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to position economic and non-economic satisfaction as outcomes of micro-enterprises’ perception of value, and to determine the antecedents of perceived value within the business banking industry.     

The Long‐run and Short‐run Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Financial Development in African Countries

This paper contributes to the understanding of the other neglected effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) by analysing how FDI affects financial development in the short run and long run for a panel of 49 African countries over the period 1990–2016. The empirical evidence is based on a pooled mean group approach. With three panels differentiated by income level, the following findings are established: first, while there is a positive and significant long‐run relationship between FDI and financial development in Africa, in the short run the effect of FDI on financial development is negative. Second, the effect of FDI is positive and significant in the long run in the three sub‐samples. However, in the short run, the effect of FDI is negative and significant in lower‐income countries and non‐significant in lower‐middle‐income and upper‐middle‐income countries. Overall we find strong evidence supporting the view that FDI promotes financial development in African countries in the long run.     

HORIZONTAL MISMATCH BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT AND FIELD OF EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

This paper provides a systematic review of the growing literature on the poor match between employees’ field degree and the job requirements, also referred to as horizontal mismatch. We identify the different definitions used in the literature and find that each measure of horizontal mismatch yields substantially different incidence rates. We discuss the validity of the different measures and conclude that a more uniform definition of horizontal mismatch is needed. The likelihood of horizontal mismatch is among other things determined by the extent to which employees possess general skills as opposed to occupation‐specific skills, and, it appears to be more frequently present among older workers. Compared to well‐matched employees, horizontally mismatched workers generally incur a wage penalty, are less satisfied with their jobs, and are more likely to regret their study programme. The ensuing findings offer guidance to prevent horizontal mismatch as well as a roadmap for future research.     

Speculative pressure

The paper investigates the information content of speculative pressure across futures classes. Long-short portfolios of futures contracts sorted by speculative pressure capture a significant premium in commodity, currency, and equity markets but not in fixed income markets. Exposure to commodity, currency, and equity index futures’ speculative pressure is priced in the broad cross-section after controlling for momentum, carry, global liquidity, and volatility risks. The findings are confirmed by robustness tests using alternative speculative pressure signals, portfolio construction techniques, and subperiods interalia. We argue that there is an efficient hedgers-speculators risk transfer in commodity, currency, and equity index futures markets.     

Educación y desigualdad salarial en el sector informal. El caso del Camerún

En este artículo se estiman los efectos de la educación sobre la desigualdad salarial del sector informal en el Camerún. Mediante una regresión cuantílica se analizan los datos de la segunda encuesta sobre el empleo y el sector informal en el Camerún (EESI 2), de 2010. Los resultados indican que la calificación se asocia a una mayor remuneración y desigualdad salarial, principalmente en el caso de los trabajadores con estudios superiores. En consecuencia, se formulan varias recomendaciones de política destinadas a favorecer la formalización, mediante la creación de empleo calificado, el desarrollo de infraestructuras adaptadas para el sector informal y el fomento de la formación profesional.     

Farmers' consumption of an imported cereal and the cash/foodcrop decision: An example from Senegal

The effects of key agricultural policies on Senegalese farmers are analysed through a survey combining farming systems research methods, family budgets, dietary and anthropometric studies for the same rural households. Policies impact their food consumption through farm and non-farm incomes, prices of inputs, extension and research, and the prices of basic foods. Food consumption is closely related to family success in mixed cropping, but millet remains the basic rural food. Although rice has deeply penetrated rural markets, a maintenance of export earnings will require simultaneous gains in yields for both cash and traditional foodcrops.     

Homogeneity and symmetry testing when the error distribution has fat tails

The Laitinen (1978) and Meisner (1979) experiments are extended to error distributions that are fat-tailed mixtures of normal distributions.     

Income and price elasticities of demand at low levels of real income

For levels of real per capita income starting at 3% of the U.S. per capita income in 1975, income and price elasticities of demand are tabulated. The prominent role of food consumption for low-income households is emphasized.     

A Meta‐Analysis of β‐Convergence: the Legendary 2%

Abstract.  The topic of convergence is at the heart of a wide‐ranging debate in the growth literature, and empirical studies of convergence differ widely in their theoretical backgrounds, empirical specifications, and in their treatment of cross‐sectional heterogeneity. Despite these differences, a rate of convergence of about 2% has been found under a variety of different conditions, resulting in the widespread belief that the rate of convergence is a natural constant. We use meta‐analysis to investigate whether there is substance to the 'myth' of the 2% convergence rate and to assess several unresolved issues of interpretation and estimation. Our data set contains approximately 600 estimates taken from a random sample of empirical growth studies published in peer‐reviewed journals. The results indicate that it is misleading to speak of a natural convergence rate since estimates of different growth regressions come from different populations, and we find that correcting for the bias resulting from unobserved heterogeneity in technology levels leads to higher estimates of the rate of convergence. We also find that correcting for endogeneity of the explanatory variables has a substantial effect on the estimates and that measures of financial and fiscal development are important determinants of long‐run differences in per capita income levels. We show that although the odds of a study being published is not uniform for studies with different p ‐values, publication bias has no significant effect on the conclusions of the analysis.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Eco‐Control Deployment: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Firms

Environmental issues have become an important consideration for a growing number of organizations. Eco‐control may represent a valuable tool to help organizations address such issues. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the eco‐control practices adopted by Canadian organizations and to understand the antecedents and consequences of their adoption. More specifically, this study examines (i) the extent to which eco‐control practices are deployed within organizations, (ii) the factors and motivations that lead organizations to implement eco‐control practices, and (iii) the impact of adoption on firms’ managerial and operational environmental actions as well as on environmental and economic performance. Using survey data from a sample of 249 Canadian manufacturing firms, this article shows that environmental missions, environmental policies, environmental strategic planning, environmental budgets and environmental performance indicators are the most frequently adopted eco‐control practices among the investigated firms, while environmental incentives seem to be less frequently adopted. The results of this study also suggest that competitive and ethical motivations as well as size, environmental exposure and stakeholder pressure are all important factors in explaining eco‐control practice adoption by Canadian manufacturing firms. Moreover, the results of this study show that organizations that have undertaken more intensive managerial and operational environmental actions have also adopted more intensive eco‐control practices. Organizations adopting more intensive eco‐control practices perform better both environmentally and economically performance than firms adopting less intensive eco‐control practices.