The importance of education for the reallocation of labor: Evidence from Swedish linked employer–employee data 1986–2002

Using Swedish employer–employee data we study job and worker flows for different educational groups, as well as the cyclicality of such flows. Due to the long period studied, from 1986 to 2002, and the widely fluctuating business cycle during this period, we have a unique opportunity to analyze the cyclical pattern of job and worker flows. We especially look at the big downturn in the Swedish economy in the beginning of the 1990s. When workers are treated as homogenous, we find job reallocation to be countercyclical. However, when we estimate correlations for different educational groups, we find job reallocation to be countercyclical for the lowest educated, and acyclical for higher educated workers. Contrary to job flows, we find worker flows to be acyclical, with a strong procyclical pattern in hiring rates, and an acyclical pattern in separation rates. When decomposing worker flows into educational groups, the acyclical pattern is prevalent for all groups, except for the highest educated. For the highest educated, worker reallocation is strongly pro-cyclical due to both more hirings and separations during up-turns.     

The executive leadership imperative: A new perspective on how companies and executives can accelerate the development of women leaders

In light of today's leadership shortage, companies face challenges in trying to identify and develop new leaders to fill the key roles left vacant by baby-boomer retirements. This feat can only be accomplished by tapping all sources of future leadership talent—especially women, who are currently underrepresented at the executive level. The development of future leaders in most companies is handicapped by the fact that promotional decisions to the C-Suite level are based on a set of unstated criteria for advancement. The lack of clarity regarding the factors used to determine who does and who doesn’t progress to the executive level presents special challenges for aspiring women executives. Effectively addressing these obstacles requires a new mindset toward talent development within organizations. We recommend actions on two fronts: (1) specific practices that companies can make part of their succession planning and career development processes in the interest of creating a level playing field for executive advancement, and (2) actions that women can proactively employ to take the initiative in their own development as leaders.     

Tacit Collusion in a One‐Shot Game of Price Competition with Soft Capacity Constraints

This paper analyzes price competition in the case of two firms operating under constant returns to scale with more than one production factor. Factors are chosen sequentially in a two‐stage game generating a soft capacity constraint and implying a convex short‐term cost function in the second stage of the game. We show that tacit collusion is the only predictable result of the whole game, that is, the unique payoff‐dominant pure strategy Nash equilibrium. Technically, this paper bridges the capacity constraint literature on price competition and that of the convex cost function.     

The Paradoxical Behavioral Effects of a Directional Goal on Investors' Risk Perceptions and Valuation Judgments

Market participants who evaluate risk often have a preference or goal for positive company performance. The authors test how such a directional goal affects risk perceptions and the relation between risk perceptions and assessments of value in an investment context. Compared with investors without directional goals—who, consistent with prior behavioral research, focus on negative aspects of risk—the authors find that those with directional goals assess risk as being more symmetric (i.e., they are less focused on downside risk). However, investors with directional goals are also less likely to consider risk when assessing value. Taken together, these results suggest that a directional goal reduces one behavioral effect identified in prior literature (the tendency to focus on downside risk), but creates another behavioral effect (ignoring risk in assessing value). The authors discuss implications for standard setters and regulators seeking to communicate risk information to market participants.     

Does Globalisation Affect Crime? Theory and Evidence

Globalisation sceptics argue that trade liberalisation has high social costs, including an increase in expropriative behaviour such as civil conflict, coercion of labour and crime. We show that a theoretical relationship between trade and expropriation exists, but the sign differs for developed and developing economies. We verify this empirically using data on crime rates. Specifically, we find that trade liberalisation, as measured by both higher openness and lower import duty rates, tends to increase burglaries and theft in very labour‐abundant countries. For other countries, however, we find that trade liberalisation has either a small negative effect on crime or no effect, depending on the country's capital abundance.     

The gender pay gap in the ICT labour market: comparative experiences from the UK and New Zealand

This paper addresses the issues surrounding gender pay gaps focusing on the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector of the labour market. Reporting on research conducted in the UK and New Zealand (NZ) we adopted a mixed method approach using comparable qualitative and quantitative research techniques to investigate pay issues amongst women working in ICT in the UK and NZ. Our findings reveal commonalities of experience and some interesting differences. Unlike with the UK sample, for example, in NZ women working in ICT do not believe that their pay reflects their workload, skills and their position within their own organisation. Our study found that non‐transparent pay and reward systems and salary secrets exacerbate inequality and discrimination in the UK and NZ. The paper concludes by offering some policy directions to encourage a narrowing of the gender pay gap and reflects on the benefits of doing cross‐national research.     

Voting for Redistribution under Desert‐Sensitive Altruism*

We endow individuals who differ in skills and tastes for working, with altruistic preferences for redistribution in a voting model where a unidimensional redistributive parameter is chosen by majority voting in a direct democracy. When altruistic preferences are desert‐sensitive (i.e., when there is a reluctance to redistribute from the hard‐working to the lazy), we show that lower levels of redistribution emerge in political equilibrium. We provide empirical evidence that preferences for redistribution are not purely selfish, and that desert‐sensitive motivations play a significant role. We estimate that preferences for redistribution are significantly more desert‐sensitive in the US than in Europe.     

RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT OWNERSHIP IN DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS

We examine the relation between risk and ownership structure among depository institutions. The empirical results provide evidence that the relation between managerial ownership and depository institution risk is negative and significant, suggesting that as managerial ownership increases the level of risk-taking decreases. This finding, which supports a risk aversion hypothesis, is consistent across several market-based risk measures. Furthermore, we document greater risk and greater risk aversion for savings institutions relative to commercial banks.     

Landscapes for peace: A case study of active learning about urban environments and the future

The relationships between peace and futures education and our urban landscapes are potentially very rich. They invite wide-ranging discussion on issues such as the futures of urban design, public transport, environmental justice, and active citizenship and nonviolent movements of social change. Developing a peace, environmental and futures education perspective, involves a number of pedagogic shifts.The authors decided to take a group of postgraduate students from a wide range of countries and various disciplinary backgrounds on an urban walk in Sydney. This diverse group of students was enrolled in a cross-disciplinary course called Peace and the Environment. As one of several current curriculum offerings, this course is taught through the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.As a learning activity, the urban walk component was designed to facilitate reflection on what might constitute peaceful environments, including alternative readings of the Australian landscape. With such experiential learning activities, the evidence suggests that students are more likely to be open to alternative readings or mappings of their everyday environments, as well as to hospitable rather than hostile, imagined future landscapes.