When more is not better: Complementarities,costs and contingencies in stakeholder management

Instrumental stakeholder theory has largely emphasized the positive effects of investing in stakeholder cooperative relationships in an additive, linear fashion in the sense that the more investments the better. Yet investing in stakeholders can be very costly and the effects of these investments in firm performance are subject to complex internal complementarities and external contingencies. In this article we rely on set‐theoretic methods and a large international dataset of 1,060 multinational companies to explore theoretically and empirically some of the complementarities, costs and contingencies likely to arise in stakeholder management. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Rational Explanation for the Redistribution Paradox. Theory and Empirical Evidence

The paper provides a rational explanation for the redistribution paradox, whereby low‐income individuals seeking more social security prefer a lower taxation although this might imply a reduced welfare. A simple model of tax transfer and redistribution is presented, with various agents facing two different unemployment probabilities. We investigate how the preferred tax rate changes with the probability of being unemployed. We show that, when the probability of unemployment for the less‐skilled correlates negatively with that of the highly skilled, the relationship with the tax rate is not monotonic and depends on the level of risk aversion. This theoretical framework is confirmed in an empirical investigation based on microeconomic data, and in a robustness test based on macroeconomic data.     

Information transmission in coalitional voting games

A core allocation of a complete information economy can be characterized as one that would not be unanimously rejected in favor of another feasible alternative by any coalition. We use this test of coalitional voting in an incomplete information environment to formalize a notion of resilience. Since information transmission is implicit in the Bayesian equilibria of such voting games, this approach makes it possible to derive core concepts in which the transmission of information among members of a coalition is endogenous. Our results lend support to the credible core of Dutta and Vohra [Incomplete information, credibility and the core, Math. Soc. Sci. 50 (2005) 148-165] and the core proposed by Myerson [Virtual utility and the core for games with incomplete information, Mimeo, University of Chicago, 2005] as two that can be justified in terms of coalitional voting.     

Growth, income distribution, and democracy: What the data say

This paper investigates the relationship between income distribution, democratic institutions, and growth. It does so by addressing three main issues: the properties and reliability of the income distribution data, the robustness of the reduced form relationships between income distribution and growth estimated so far, and the specific channels through which income distribution affects growth. The main conclusion in this regard is that there is strong empirical support for two types of explanations, linking income distribution to sociopolitical instability and to the education/fertility decision. A third channel, based on the interplay of borrowing constraints and investment in human capital, also seems to receive some support by the data, although it is probably the hardest to test with the existing data. By contrast, there appears to be less empirical support for explanations based on the effects of income distribution on fiscal policy.     

Welfare analysis of a market with pairwise meetings and asymmetric information

Summary We study the welfare properties of a market with pairwise meetings and asymmetric information, establishing an equivalence between asymptotically expost individually rational and asymptotically (ex-ante, interim and ex-post) efficient equilibrium sequences.We thank Andreu Mas-Colell, Eric Maskin, and Thomas Sjöström for having raised the question which led to the writing of this paper. We are grateful to Nicholas Yannelis and two anonymous referees for helpful comments.     

Characteristics of high-growth entrepreneurs in Latin America

Scholars and governments presumed that growing the rate of entrepreneurs would naturally result in economic and job growth, and entrepreneurship has widely been viewed as an important tool for developing economies. Yet recently scholars have questioned the empirical evidence regarding the actual contribution of entrepreneurship to economic development. Recent contributions to the field suggest that not all entrepreneurial activity has a positive effect on economic growth in developing regions. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) provides a unique lense in assisting the predictive capability of entrepreneurial motivation. In this research, we focus on what factors influence the motivation of some entrepreneurs to seek a high-growth model as these growth oriented entrepreneurs, usually associated with opportunity-motivated firm founding, are the most likely to actually create jobs in developing countries. We utilize motivation for founding, five entrepreneurial competencies and three firm characteristics to predict growth expectations of entrepreneurial growth expectations. Leveraging responses to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey from more than 100,000 entrepreneurs in 19 Latin American countries, we discovered the existence of a triple interaction effect amongst opportunity-based entrepreneurs with higher levels of education and an export orientation and their growth expectations. In discussing the results, we reflect on the public policy implications for promoting the desired types of entrepreneurship in developing regions.     

Lloyd Shapley's Matching and Game Theory

This is a survey of Lloyd Shapley's contributions to matching theory and game theory in general, starting with the work that inspired the Swedish Academy to award the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Lloyd Shapley and Alvin Roth.     

The effect of government-designed export promotion service use on small and medium-sized enterprise goal achievement: A multidimensional view of export performance

Extant literature is equivocal on the effect of government-designed export promotion instruments and services (EPS) on firm performance. Moreover, literature examining the effects of EPS on exporting firms' success is dominated by a single performance perspective, namely, financial goal achievement. Further, the majority of the studies are conducted in developed countries, with limited attention to exporters in developing countries. In order to address these gaps, this study examines the impact of EPS use on export goal achievement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) from a developing country, while adopting a four-dimensional view of export performance. Based on a survey of 143 firms in Turkey, the findings suggest that EPS use improves all four export performance dimensions considered, namely, financial, stakeholder relationship, strategic, and organizational learning goal achievements. The article also delineates the performance effects of specific EPS. For example, stakeholder relationship goal achievement is influenced by only one EPS considered, namely, informational materials (e.g., brochures, pamphlets) on exporting. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for scholars, public policy makers, and managers.     

Ecological footprint analysis of road transport related to tourism activity: The case for Lanzarote Island

This work tries to evaluate road transport usage in Lanzarote Island and its implications for sustainable tourism development. The methodology followed here is the ecological footprint indicator. Its evaluation is based on projections of trip matrix estimated for Lanzarote Island. This study allows us to determine, in an approximate way, the environmental impact (that is, the contribution to climate change) of car usage on the island. Besides, it permits to extract some important conclusions about the trade-off existing between the need of individual mobility and tourism development in Lanzarote Island.