Promoting corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises: Key determinants of intermediary performance in Africa

This study explores the key determinants of intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises in Africa. Despite being a critical link in the delivery of sustainability support services to small and medium‐sized enterprises, intermediaries have only received limited research attention. Research exploring intermediaries of corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises have focused broadly on their roles but narrowly on performance. Those exploring intermediary performance have often focused on larger companies, sometimes, neglecting the specifics of small and medium‐sized enterprises, especially in African countries. Improving intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability requires an in‐depth understanding of the factors that determine their performance. As a qualitative study, interview responses from 32 experts working in National Cleaner Production Centres in four African countries were analysed using inductive thematic approach. The findings suggest that programme constraints, external profile, small and medium‐sized enterprises context, impact strategy, and service networks are the key determinants of intermediary performance in promoting corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises. These determinants facilitate and inhibit intermediaries’ ability to promote corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises. The implications concern the need for intermediaries and small and medium‐sized enterprises to manage these determinants in promoting corporate sustainability.     

Toward an Improved Definition of Poverty

This paper is motivated by the observation that the type and the combination of assets are associated with the likelihood of poor households' experience of shock. Focusing on the case of adivasi households in the south Indian state of Kerala, we find that the type, number and combinations of specific assets (primarily social and physical capital) yield varied magnitudes of association with households' experience of shock, which is a measure of vulnerability. Thus, going beyond mere welfare considerations, social policies that prioritise and sequence the type and combination of asset building based on contextual factors help minimise the incidence of shocks and improve livelihood choices.     

The impact of oil price changes on Spanish and euro area consumer price inflation

This paper assesses the impact of oil price changes on Spanish and euro area consumer price inflation. We find that the inflationary effect of oil price changes in both economies is limited, even though crude oil price fluctuations are a major driver of inflation variability. The impact on Spanish inflation is found to be somewhat higher than in the euro area. In both economies, direct effects have increased in the last decade, reflecting the higher expenditure share of households on refined oil products, whereas indirect and second-round effects seem to be losing importance.     

Trade unions and productivity: theory and evidence

Recent work by economists has generated new theories of the impact of trade unions on productivity. This article gives an exposition of these theories and assesses the extent to which they are supported by empirical evidence.     

Predicting Retirement Upon Eligibility: An Embeddedness Perspective

Concern over the impact of baby‐boomers' retirement on needed skills and proprietary knowledge has stimulated an interest in identifying workplace factors associated with retirement upon eligibility. Drawing from embeddedness theory, the authors identify work‐based antecedents potentially underlying a related, but distinct, form of withdrawal—retirement upon eligibility. The authors generate and test hypotheses regarding the impact of fit‐, sacrifice‐, and links‐related antecedents using a prospective study design and a national probability sample of some 500 older individuals who, at the time of the initial interview, were within months of becoming—for the first time—eligible to receive such benefits. The findings indicate that, beyond the effects of person‐based antecedents (e.g., age, health, assets, expected retirement income), a combination of fit‐ (i.e., job challenge), sacrifice‐ (i.e., perceived organizational support), and links‐related factors (i.e., stability of close workplace peer relations) have a substantial influence on the decision to retire upon eligibility. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Technology transfer from the defence to the civilian sector in Israel— methodology and findings

The objective of this project was to recommend government policies which would improve the process of technology transfer from the defense to the civilian sector in Israel. With a Technology Transfer Model providing a conceptual framework, two research teams diverged into two separate research courses and then converged for the purpose of drawing integrated conclusions. The conclusions of the two teams were strikingly similar. Specific statistical techniques were used for the first time in the field of technology transfer and various new concepts were introduced and analyzed, such as Order Transfer, Proper Transfer, high level success, and low level success. (This is the final report, its outline having previously been published [1].)     

Monetary,fiscal, and structural drivers of inflation in Ethiopia: new empirical evidence from time series analysis

This study empirically investigates the drivers of inflation in Ethiopia using monthly data over the period July 1998 to September 2020. It explores short-run and long-run effects of domestic and external determinants of inflation—including demand-side, supply-side, and structural factors—using the cointegration and vector error-correction methodology. Four measures of inflation are considered: cereals, food, nonfood, and all-items Consummer Price Index (CPI) inflation. A key contribution to the existing literature is the investigation of the role of the fiscal sector in modeling inflation, a topic that has been neglected in the existing studies on inflation in Ethiopia. The empirical results show that disequilibria in the monetary sector, grains sector, and food markets have long-run effects on inflation. In the short run, inflation is driven by structural factors (notably, cereal output gaps and imported inflation) as well as demand-side factors (notably, money growth and public sector borrowing). The results hold when analysis is limited to the high growth period from 2005 onward, following the end of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program in the country. The evidence provides valuable insights in the context of ongoing macroeconomic policy reforms in Ethiopia.     

Natural Resource Booms and Inequality: Theory and Evidence*

We develop a theory, in the context of a two‐sector growth model in which learning‐by‐doing drives growth, to explain the time path of income inequality following natural resource booms in resource‐rich countries. Under the condition of a relatively unskilled labor intensive non‐traded sector, inequality falls immediately after a boom, and then increases steadily over time until the initial impact of the boom disappears. Using data for 90 countries between 1965 and 1999, we find evidence in support of the theory, especially for oil and mineral booms. We also find that uncertainty about future commodity prices increases long‐run inequality.