Women's Economic Participation on the Eve of Industrialization: Bizkaia,Spain, 1825

This contribution discusses, from the regional perspective of Bizkaia, Spain, adult women's labor force participation prior to industrialization, including the impact of economic, social, and demographic variables, such as family life cycle, marriage, and the presence of minor children in the household. Women's high level of participation – 68.6 percent for the entire province – varies considerably, depending on local economic conditions. Job opportunities for women and socioeconomic characteristics of households act as first-order explanatory factors. Women in proto-industrial economies, like Bizkaia's, which combined the extraction, transport, and marketing of iron with agriculture and fishing, show greater participation. Demand for women's labor was linked to jobs without recognized qualifications. The association of women's participation with demographic variables is not manifest in the historical data. The results show that supply factors do not explain the variance in women's activity.     

Comprehensive Homeowners Microinsurance in Brazil: Estimation of Pricing and Market Potential

This study examines the question of comprehensive microinsurance for Brazilian homeowners. In particular, the study calculates (i) pricing for selected types of microinsurance homeowner's coverages and insured amounts and (ii) the estimated market potential of this product. The Brazilian agency charged with responsibility for regulation of private insurance, SUSEP, has determined that microinsurance should be aimed at families with a monthly per capita income of up to two minimum wages. According to this criterion, the study finds that there are more than 42 million households in Brazil eligible for microinsurance. The study also finds that microinsurance premiums for these households would be very low (US $0.97 to 2.03 per month)—less than 1% of average household income. This type of insurance would certainly be viable, considering the calculated market size of approximately US $780 million per year. These figures show that there is significant potential for the expansion of the microinsurance market in Brazil.     

Information and communication technology,co-innovation,and perceived productivity in tourism small and medium enterprises: an exploratory analysis

With the aim of providing new evidence and a practical instrument to measure co-innovative sources of productivity in tourism small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this article presents a newly designed questionnaire that has been validated by exploratory factor analysis. The empirical study was conducted on a representative sample of 500 tourism SMEs in Catalonia (a region in north-eastern Spain). Three factors emerged from the analysis: (1) Internet use; (2) firm innovation; and (3) new forms of work organization. Together, these factors explained 45.4% of cumulative variance. The reliability coefficients obtained for the three factors were high (α_1?=?0.76; α_2?=?0.72; and α_3?=?0.71). The study also identified a specific form of co-innovation in SMEs, which is based on bringing radically innovative products and services to the market, and on Internet use and work organization practices that are clearly orientated towards increasing income and optimizing resources. The combination between economics of the firm and statistical validation tools is a source of originality of the paper. Strategic guidelines to improve SMEs productivity have also been discussed.     

When and Where Are Informed Traders? What Is Their Relationship with Analysts in the Price Discovery Process?

The authors' aim was to analyze the influence of analysts' recommendations on the activity of informed and uninformed traders and whether such influence produces changes in the price discovery process. The analysis was carried out in the Spanish market, considered to be an ideal market given its characteristics. The authors' results indicate that although investors as a whole react to new information from analysts and their activity increases, this reaction is not independent of the type of stock. Informed traders do not increase their activity with small stocks to the same extent as uninformed investors do. Furthermore, the influence of these movements on price discovery is not significant. The results suggest that the interpretation role of analysts is more important for less accessible firms in terms of assessing their growth opportunities. This role may enhance the herding behavior of uninformed agents trading in those small titles for which they would otherwise need to invest extra time and extra money for taking profitable decisions.     

Empirical approach to the analysis of university student absenteeism: proposal of a questionnaire for students to evaluate the possible causes

Works on student absenteeism in the universities have not been preferential for the authors in the field of educational research. Usually, what has been made is an approach to the available absenteeism data as an intervening variable or as a variable characteristic of the educational process, but not as a dependent variable in the strict sense of the term. In this work, we intend to make an empirical approach to the possible reasons of student absenteeism. There is a double point of view: the students’ and the professors’; the reasons that justify it according to its protagonists are studied. This paper focuses on the six university degrees taught at the School of Economy and Business of the University of Barcelona (Facultat d’Economia i Empresa de la Universitat de Barcelona). An “ad-hoc” questionnaire has been prepared and the opinions of 1,162 undergraduates have been analyzed. The reasons given by each population differ in hierarchy and motivations.     

Managing knowledge through human resource practices: empirical examination on the Spanish automotive industry

This paper considers the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and knowledge management (KM). Specifically, it examines how the human resource (HR) practices that are expected to impact on employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunity to engage in KM, do so by enabling knowledge sharing, knowledge maintaining, and knowledge creation within organizations. HRM expected to impact employees’ abilities include training and development practices. HRM expected to impact on employees’ motivation include rewards and appraisal practices. HRM expected to impact on employees’ opportunities including providing the support of trusting collaborative relationships. Therefore, HR practices impacting employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities are expected to be positively related to knowledge sharing and maintaining within organizations. HR practices impacting employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunity are expected to be positively related to knowledge creation through their effect on knowledge sharing within organizations. Our research methodology uses a questionnaire survey approach to collect data from firms belonging to the Spanish automotive industry. Results from a final sample of 64 Spanish automotive firms show that HR practices aimed at motivating and giving employees the opportunity to behave as expected significantly affect knowledge sharing and maintaining. Further, knowledge sharing and maintaining is shown to mediate the relationship between HR practices and knowledge creation. The paper ends with a conclusion, limitations and implications for future research.     

Geographic export diversification: Determinants and their link with export performance

This study examines company‐specific factors that may help explain the choice of an export‐market strategy and explores how the selected export strategy contributes to explaining company's export performance (XP). Concentrating on a specific area within a broad spectrum of export behavior analysis has enabled us to examine these factors in greater depth. The results of our research, which was carried out using a sample comprising Spanish exporting companies, show a firm's size, a firm's age, and a firm's greater foreign ownership in its share capital are all determining factors for adopting a strategy geared to export‐market diversification. A greater level of investment in R&D and greater international commitment are also important in this regard. We suggest reinforcing these two factors because there is evidence of a better XP among firms that have a wider range of foreign markets.     

The Information Environment,Informed Trading,and Volatility

The relation between informed trading and volatility is analyzed using the change in the proportion of informed transactions calculated through the probability of informed trading variable. The analysis relates to the Spanish market during 1997–2010, given that the Spanish market covers a very diverse range of listed companies. Some companies are comparable to companies listed on U.S. markets while others are smaller in size and have a lower trading volume and inferior quality of information. The methodology is based on a modification of the model proposed by Avramov, Chordia, and Goyal [2006 Avramov, D., T. Chordia, and A. Goyal. “The Impact of Trades on Daily Volatility.” Review of Financial Studies, 19, (2006), pp. 1241–1277.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]. The authors’ proposal incorporates the change in the proportion of informed transactions, calculated with intraday data, into the volatility model. The results are also presented using a conditional volatility model in which the change in the proportion of informed transactions is incorporated. These results attest to the influence of informed trading as a price-stabilizing factor in heavily traded and highly capitalized stocks (familiar stocks). Informed trading leads to a marked decrease in volatility for these particular stocks both in periods of calm and crisis.     

Do independent directors protect shareholder value?

The present global financial crisis has revived the notion that competitive markets may lead some directors and executives to behave in opportunistic ways considered unethical and even illegal, through the pursuit of self‐interest. This article proposes and tests an integrated model that offers new insights into the relationship between board structure, independence and firm value. By incorporating the proportion of independent directors on the board as a moderating factor in this relationship, this study contributes to a better understanding of the entrenchment and convergence‐of‐interests hypotheses. Using empirical data obtained from 114 Spanish listed companies in a context of economic crisis, from 2007 to 2010, we conclude that having a board with a greater proportion of independent directors reduces the negative association existing between firm value and a large board size and significant board share ownership.