Labour Market Assimilation of Recent Immigrants in Spain

This article provides a preliminary analysis of the employment and occupational assimilation of recent immigrant waves to the Spanish labour market as their residencies lengthen. Using Spanish data from the 2001 Population Census and the 2002 Earnings Structure Survey, we find evidence of immigrant employment and occupational assimilation significantly varying by gender, origin and educational attainment.     

Capital Structure Decisions During a Firm's Life Cycle

The study reported here examines the financing choices of small and medium-sized firms, i.e., those most vulnerable to information and incentive problems, through the lens of the business life cycle. We argue that the controversy in the empirical literature regarding the determinants of capital structure decisions is based on a failure to take into account the different degrees of information opacity, and, consequently, firms' characteristics and needs at specific stages of their life cycles. The results show that, in a bank-oriented country, firms tend to adopt specific financing strategies and a different hierarchy of financial decision-making as they progress through the phases of their business life cycle. Contrary to conventional wisdom, debt is shown to be fundamental to business activities in the early stages, representing the first choice. By contrast, in the maturity stage, firms re-balance their capital structure, gradually substituting debt for internal capital, and for firms that have consolidated their business, the pecking-order theory shows a high degree of application. This financial life-cycle pattern seems to be homogeneous for different industries and consistent over time.     

新疆企业人力资源管理外包研究

在我国,人力资源管理外包已经成为外包模式的重要组成部分,并显示出其强大的市场发展空间和潜力。随着新疆经济的快速发展和市场竞争的日益加剧,新疆企业人力资源管理外包作为一种新的管理方式也越来越显示出其必要性和重要性。文章在介绍人力资源管理外包涵义的基础上,分析了新疆企业人力资源管理外包的必要性,然后对新疆企业人力资源管理外包的风险进行了分析,最后提出了防范措施。     

Georges Perrin and the GP cost calculation method: the story of a failure

After the Second World War, a number of costing methods were developed in France in response to the perceived limitations of Rimailho's 'homogeneous sections' method. The common feature of all these methods was the provision of a more thorough analysis of operations through the adoption of techniques which were simple to use. The GP method, developed by Georges Perrin, was the most successful but, despite its many advantages, its success was limited, due to deficiencies in Perrin's communication policy and his network of contacts.     

Mixed duopoly, inefficiency, and public ownership

If a publicly-owned firm has a higher marginal cost than a private firm, partial public ownership may be welfare-improving, if the public firm acts is Stackelberg leader. If the private firm's marginal cost is private information a simple transfer function is truth-eliciting. If the stock market is efficient, the cost of renationalization is “small”.     

What is the role of consensus statements in a risk society?

Abstract

This paper explores the role of consensus statements in a risk society. It uses Beck’s theory of risk to show that scientists have employed consensus statements in order to re-establish faith in science. Through analysing the goals of participants in consensus fora and comparing them to the fora processes, this paper considers how consensus statements and guidelines in public health can be viewed as remedies for the decline in expert trust experienced in the current risk society. To collect data, 25 interviews were undertaken with consensus panel participants from the USA, UK and Australia. Interviewees were from peak national agencies/commissioning agencies and were categorised as policymaker, practitioner and consumer stakeholders. Participants made recommendations for improving consensus processes in order to mitigate perceptions of risk. These were: (1) clearly stated goals; (2) robust, evidence-based and transparent processes of methodological development and participation/deliberation/decision-making; (3) diverse stakeholder representation, including increased consumer participation; (4) transparency about conflicts of interest; and, (5) robust, carefully worded recommendations. Poor-quality consensus statements can further entrench scepticism about the scientific enterprise. While consensus statements can be seen as a tool for moderating perceptions of risk, policymakers and scientists must ensure the integrity, strength and transparency of their research methods. This has the potential to facilitate policy, improve scientific accountability to the public and legitimise processes. While fostering greater trust is not a primary objective for scientists, an increase in legitimacy of process can be an important unintended consequence of improved quality consensus statements and an important antidote to the risk society.     

On relative performance,remuneration and risk taking of asset managers

We analyze the asset management problem when the manager is remunerated through a scheme based on the performance of the fund with respect to a benchmark and his/her choices are driven by a power utility function. We show that it is not the asymmetric-fulcrum type feature of the scheme that makes the difference in preventing excessive risk taking in case of a poor performance. To prevent gambling when the performance deteriorates, it is important not to provide a fixed fee to the asset manager, and that remuneration is sensitive to a very poor relative performance as in the case of a capital stake or of a management fee with flow funds. We provide empirical evidence on the mutual fund industry showing excessive risk taking in case of a very poor performance and limited risk taking in case of overperformance with respect to the benchmark. These results agree with a remuneration scheme including a fixed fee and a cap.