Natural Resources,Wage Growth and Institutions – a Panel Approach

This paper exam,ines the effect of nat,u,ral resource export depen,dence and fis,cal respon,si,bil,ity on wage growth, which is derived from the labour first‐order con,di,tion and esti,mated using a panel growth‐account,ing frame,work. Using annual data, the study accounts for the var,i,abil,ity of resource rev,e,nues, one of the major dif,fi,cul,ties of man,ag,ing these resources. The con,trol vari,ables include the most cru,cial growth fac,tors. Due to insuf,fi,cient annual data, human cap,i,tal is only con,sid,ered inside wages as in many endog,e,nous growth mod,els. We esti,mate the influ,ence on real wage growth aris,ing from the growth‐impacts of nat,u,ral resources through labour and cap,i,tal effi,ciency while con,trol,ling for fis,cal respon,si,bil,ity, which proves a suit,able proxy for pol,i,cies and insti,tu,tions in a sin,gle‐panel case. The results show that respon,si,ble fis,cal pol,icy, assessed by the bud,get bal,ance, pre,vents (var,i,able) dif,fuse and point‐source resources from hin,der,ing real wage growth (through labour effi,ciency), a result also sig,nif,i,cant in a sub‐sam,ple of un‐free coun,tries. The hypoth,e,sis of a resource curse work,ing through insti,tu,tions and reflected on real wage growth holds for resource export shares, but not adjust,ing for re‐expor,ta,tion. Over,all, resource effects are jointly insig,nif,i,cant, even though point‐source resources show a positive impact through cap,i,tal effi,ciency.     

Convergence among EU regions, 1990–2001

This article focuses on convergence in terms of output per working age person across regions in the European Union for the period 1990–2001. Controlling for the quality of national institutions, the authors investigate whether the status of “objective 1” region improves the speed of convergence as compared to what would be expected given the regions' initial conditions. They find evidence of conditional convergence among EU regions, with the quality of national institutions having a positive impact, but no evidence of a correlation between eligibility for objective 1 and faster convergence.     

IS E‐GOVERNMENT LEADING TO MORE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT LOCAL GOVERNMENTS? AN OVERALL VIEW

This paper seeks to assess to what extent e-government enables accountability and transparency in EU local governments. It also provides an overall view about how local governments are implementing ICTs initiatives to bring citizens closer to governments. Although the mere capacity of the Internet for the dissemination of information improves accountability and makes benchmarking easier, our results show that the expected benefits are far from being achieved because e-government projects are still in the early stages. The results also show that, at present, ICTs have not had a dramatic impact on EU local government accountability.     

Demand Shocks and Trade Balance Dynamics

This paper studies the trade balance dynamics in the G-7 countries plus Spain. We estimate a SVAR model to identify three different shocks: real supply shocks, real demand disturbances and nominal shocks. A microfounded stochastic open-economy model is built to derive the long-term identification restrictions. Estimates show that real demand shocks explain most of the variability of trade imbalances, whereas, contrary to previous findings, nominal shocks play a very limited role. These results are consistent with the predictions of a widely set of open-economy models and illustrate that demand policies are the main responsible of trade imbalances.     

Convergence in the EU

The EU has long viewed economic and institutional convergence as important goals, but the results thus far have been decidedly mixed, and there remain several open questions: How exactly should convergence be defined? How much convergence is necessary? What steps can be taken to improve convergence in the EU, and how can success be defined? Finally, how much convergence can be achieved by improving the economic performance in underperforming regions, and how can convergence in the form of harmonisation towards lower welfare levels be avoided?     

How former business owners fare in the labor market? Job assignment and earnings

This study uses detailed longitudinal matched employer–employee data to examine the impact of entrepreneurial experience on job assignments, careers, and wages. The results suggest that there are significant differences in career mobility between former business owners and workers who were always wage employees. Former business owners enter firms at higher job levels and progress faster up the hierarchy than wage employees without entrepreneurial experience. The majority of the former business owners find jobs in small firms. The return to business ownership experience is lower than the return to wage employee experience, thus suggesting that the labor market imposes a penalty for business ownership experience.     

Fishing Revenue, Productivity and Product Choice in the Alaskan Pollock Fishery

A key element in evaluating fishery management strategies is examining their effects on the economic performance of fishery participants, yet nearly all empirical studies of fisheries focus exclusively on the amount of fish harvested. The economic benefits derived from fish stocks involve the amount of revenue generated from fish processing, which is linked to both the way fish are harvested and the products produced from the fish. In this study we econometrically estimate a flexible revenue function for catcher-processor vessels operating in the Alaskan pollock fishery, recognizing potential endogeneity and a variety of fishing inputs and conditions. We find significant own-price supply responses and product substitutability, and enhanced revenues from increased fishing days and tow duration after a regulatory change introduced property rights through a new fishing cooperative. We also find significant growth in economic productivity, or higher revenues over time after controlling for observed productive factors and price changes, which exceeds that attributable to increased harvest. These patterns suggest that the move to rights-based management has contributed significantly to economic performance in the pollock fishery.     

Salesperson CLV orientation's effect on performance

Previous studies show how strategies based on the customer lifetime value (CLV) can lead to an increase of profitability for a firm. In this context, marketing serves the purpose of maximizing CLV and customer equity (the CLV of current and future customers). For most types of service firms, salespeople are direct participants in implementing the CLV concept. However, prior research does not answer the question of whether or how salesperson CLV orientation can enhance profits. Using data on salespeople in a large Chilean retail bank, this study shows that the effect of salesperson CLV orientation on salesperson performance follows an S-shaped function (which is first convex and then concave). Additionally, data does not support the idea that the optimum level of CLV orientation depends on salesperson customer orientation, salesperson adaptive selling behavior, or salesperson experience (i.e., CLV-oriented behaviors could be effective across a wide range of salespeople). As such, this study addresses an important concern among researchers and managers that is related to how to increase the salesperson performance. The findings of this study suggest that firms need to monitor individual salesperson CLV orientation more closely.