Productivity growth patterns in US dairy products manufacturing plants

We analyse the productivity growth patterns in the US dairy products industry using the Census Bureau's plant-level data set. We decompose Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth into the scale and technical change components and analyse variability of plants’ productivity by constructing transition matrices. We observe a cross-sectional dispersion in plant-level productivity growth in the industry. Even though the industry aggregate shows a small TFP growth rate ?0.3%, quartile rank analysis shows that while the lowest productivity quartile plants average 1.9% loss in productivity, the highest productivity quartile plants average 1.1% growth annually. Our results show considerable movements of plants in their productivity rank categories overall and across age groups, and we find that the scale effect contribution to TFP growth accounts for about 90% of TFP growth on average in the industry. These plants extract scale efficiencies over technological progress to fuel TFP growth. The youngest plants start with the lowest productivity growth at the initial time period, but they catch up older plants productivity, which present the highest average growth rate through years. This may indicate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process for the industry.     

Predictability of Emerging Market Local Currency Bond Risk Premia

This article investigates the source of predictability of emerging market (EM) local currency bond risk premia by using a dynamic factor approach based on a large panel of economic and financial time series. We find strong predictable variation in EM local currency excess bond returns that is associated with macroeconomic activity. We provide evidence that the main predictor variables are the factors based on real economic activity that are highly correlated with measures of industrial and manufacturing production; however, factors based on global financial factors also contain information about the future local currency bond returns. The predictive power of the extracted factors is both statistically significant and economically important. Our research has important implications for policymakers and pension fund managers.     

The Role of Agents and Brokers in the Market for Health Insurance

Health insurance markets in the United States are characterized by imperfect information, complex products, and substantial search frictions. Insurance agents and brokers play a significant role in helping employers navigate these problems. However, little is known about the relations between the structure of the agent/broker market and access and affordability of insurance. This article aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of agents/brokers on health insurance offering decisions of small firms, which are particularly vulnerable to problems of financing health insurance. Using a unique membership database from the National Association of Health Underwriters together with a nationally representative survey of employers, we find that small firms in more competitive agent/broker markets are more likely to offer health insurance and at lower premiums. Moreover, premiums are less dispersed in more competitive agent/broker markets.     

Uncertainty and commitment in commissioning of health services

This article reports on the use of management accounting information in commissioning of health services in England. The effects of environmental pressures and uncertainty on the use of this information in the decision-making process was examined. The relationship was further analysed from the perspective of interorganizational dependence and commitment with reference to particular financial management and budgeting practices. A more integrated approach to health care commissioning could be achieved by better harmonizing fund allocation, performance measurement and management systems and by supporting cultivation of joint multiprofessional groups so that regional hubs of information could be used to formulate consistent, bottom-up and lasting local strategies to secure inter-organizational trust and mutual dependency between local health alliances.     

Organizational citizenship behaviour: a study of young executives in Canada,Iran, and Turkey

One of the most interesting constructs in organizational studies and human resource management is perhaps the concept of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). OCB emphasizes constructive and cooperative employee behaviours that contribute to the organization, yet do not fall within the domain of mandatory in-role behaviours. While researchers have investigated the role of contextual attitudes and dispositional attributes on the OCB, there is a lack in cross-cultural examination of this concept. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of individuals' job-related attitudes and dispositional characteristics on their OCB in three different societal cultures, that is, Canada, Iran, and Turkey. Data reported were collected from 220 young executives in these three countries. The results reveal similarities and differences among these cultures on cognitive and affective predictors of OCB.     

Small Business vulnerability to floods and the effects of disaster loans

In this paper, we examine the impacts of floods on businesses and the efficacy of small business administration (SBA) disaster loans on mitigating disaster aftereffects. We find lack of business adaptation to extreme events in the short term, indicating their extreme vulnerability to flood disasters. Our results further indicate that subsidized disaster loans are important for businesses, with statistically significant effects estimated for businesses employing fewer than 50 people. At the margin, for every additional dollar spent on disaster loans per establishment in a county, four small businesses survive. Gloomy projections about increasing frequency and severity of disasters imply there will be significant loss in local economic activities because of increased vulnerability of small businesses to these incidents. Moreover, these effects will have implications nationwide, given the vital role small businesses play in creating jobs.     

THE ECONOMICS OF THE UNCOVERED INTEREST PARITY CONDITION FOR EMERGING MARKETS

Abstract Financial account liberalizations since the second half of the 1980s paved the way for the burgeoning literature that investigates foreign exchange market efficiency in emerging markets (EMs) via testing for the uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition. This paper is the first to provide a broad and critical survey on this recent literature. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following questions. First, are the EMs different from the developed economies in the context of the UIP condition? Second, to what extent can these differences contribute to the debate on the UIP literature? Third, what are the empirical challenges specific to the EMs in testing for the UIP condition?     

Gender and Perceived Fundamental Moral Orientations: An Empirical Study of the Turkish Hotel Industry

Recent history is replete with scandalous acts and charitable acts within the business community. Unfortunately, scandalous acts seem to occur with greater frequency than charitable acts – at least as reported in the broadcast and print media. An interesting corollary to the incidence of scandalous and charitable acts is the apparent differential involvement of men and women, particularly in scandals. This article explores a possible explanation for the apparent gender differential in involvement in scandals and acts of charity. Drawing on a conceptual framework of three Fundamental Moral Orientations (FMOs) – selfishness, self-fullness, and selflessness – and relevant literature on gender effects, this article explores whether men and women are perceived as differing fundamentally in how they approach moral dilemmas. This phenomenon is examined with a sample of personnel (n = 682) from the hotel industry in Turkey. Results of the study indicate that gender has some effect on the perceived adoption of FMOs, and that these gender effects are generally consistent across age, educational level, and organizational rank categories. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Measuring the Impact of Price-Induced Innovation on Technological Progress: Application to the U.S. Food Processing and Distribution Sector

A model of price-induced innovation is presented incorporating long-run prices as arguments in the production function serving the role of stimulating firms to seek innovations. The empirical application examines the production structure and technological progress of the U.S. food processing and distribution sector for the period 1948–1991. The empirical model separates scarcity, innovation, and exogenous technical change responses in analyzing the Morishima elasticities for input combinations and multifactor input biases. The results suggest significant structural changes occurring in the food processing and distribution sector since 1980. Focusing on multifactor input bias, results suggest that there are no wide changes in technical change patterns over the last forty years. However, Morishima elasticity results suggest a more varied pattern of technical change between inputs. The price-induced technical progress has a dominant contribution on input decisions compared with the exogenous technical change.