Injury-related absenteeism and job satisfaction: insights from Greek and UK data

Most of the literature on absenteeism suggest that absence from work is a complex issue influenced by multiple causes, both of personal and of organizational nature. Job satisfaction has also been identified as one of the factors affecting an employee's motivation to work attendance. There is no universal agreement concerning the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction. Some research have found no correlation between these two variables, whereas other studies indicate a weak relationship between these two variables. It has also been suggested that absence and job satisfaction might be more strongly related under some conditions, for instance in the case of blue-collar workers. There is a lack of attention in the literature, however, to injury-related absenteeism, which is a particular type of absenteeism. This paper attempts to fill this gap and examines the effect of job satisfaction on injury-related absenteeism by using Greek and UK data. The empirical results suggest that there is a negative relationship between injury-related absenteeism and job satisfaction. The paper also discusses possible policy measures towards reducing injury-related absenteeism.     

FRS17 and the Sterling Double A Corporate Yield Curve

Abstract:   We argue that the appropriate discount rate used to report defined benefit pension plan liabilities in the financial statements is a yield derived from an estimate of a double A corporate yield curve. We show that parsimonious yield curve techniques are easily applicable to the sterling double A corporate bond market. Moreover, we find that with a careful selection of the data an objective and reliable yield curve can be obtained. In all we find that using a yield from a sterling double A corporate yield curve to obtain the value of defined benefit pension plan liabilities is a feasible alternative to the current recommendations of FRS17 .     

Loan underpricing and the provision of merger advisory services

This paper investigates the primary and secondary syndicated bank loan market to analyze the effect on pricing when the financial institution commingles syndicated lending with merger advisory services. In particular, we investigate the connection between the acquirer’s choice of financial advisor in a merger and future financing commitments. We find evidence of underpricing of syndicated bank loans in both the primary and secondary market. In the primary market, we show that non-acquisition loans granted by merger advisors to acquiring firms after the merger announcement date are charged a lower all-in-spread relative to acquisition loans if there has been a prior lending relationship. Consistent with this finding, we find that syndicated bank loans for non-acquisition purposes arranged by the acquirer’s advisor after the merger announcement date trade in the secondary market at a significant discount. Since the terms on these non-acquisition loans are not set upon merger announcement, they are most subject to risk shifting and underpricing agency problems. These findings offer evidence consistent with the existence of loss leader and potentially conflicted loans (priced at below-market terms) that are offered by the acquirer’s relationship bank advisor in order to win merger advisory business.     

Research Joint Ventures

Abstract.  Inter-firm collaboration is not new. What is new is that such collaboration has exploded during the past couple of decades, in parallel to the intensification of international competition. Moreover, the nature of collaboration has changed, shifting from peripheral interests to the very core functions of the corporation, and from equity to non-equity forms of collaboration. Importantly, cooperation focusing on the generation, exchange, and/or adaptation of new technologies has risen at very fast rates. Research joint ventures, the focus of this paper, belong in the latter category.
The proliferation of RJVs has created extensive interest among economists, business analysts, and policy decision-makers and led to the profusion of literature on the topic. This paper critically reviews the literature in industrial economics and strategic management that deals with RJV partner motives and RJV outcomes. The paper categorizes the different streams of this literature and indicates the state-of-the-art, synthesizes important understandings, and suggests key nodes of a future research agenda.     

Fairness and reflexivity in the Cyprus bail-in

The Cyprus debt crisis provides some unique lessons. By the time an assistance program was agreed with the Troika of international lenders, the problem had become so complex that a depositor bail-in was implemented to safeguard financial stability. The bail-in was an ad hoc solution applied for the first time in the eurozone but is now the blueprint for dealing with future banking crises. This paper examines the events for the 18-month period before the two eurogroup meetings on Cyprus in March 2013, and the resolution and restructuring of the two systemic banks of the country with depositor bail-in. We show how delays in dealing with the crisis exacerbated the problem but also how the tools brought into solve the problem had significant unintended consequences that fit the reflexivity principle. Available evidence questions the validity of confidential studies guiding the policy decisions on depositor haircut and supports the argument that the bail-in, as implemented in Cyprus, violated international principles of fairness. We use the analysis to draw some lessons on the use of bail-in for future crises.     

Issues of creative communication tactics and positioning strategies in the UK plastic card services industry

This paper explores the positioning and creative communication tactics (approaches) employed in the UK plastic card service industry. Using content analysis, the findings provide considerable evidence to suggest that there is an appreciation of the use of creative communication tactics and positioning strategies. Furthermore, the study reveals that, whereas creative communication tactics have patchy attention given to some aspects of it, there is an even spread of the frequency of usage of positioning strategies. The study also provides some generalizations as to the applicability of generic positioning strategies in service industries. Discussion of the shortcomings of the study and future research directions are provided.     

Neighborhood income distributions

This paper studies purely empirically aspects of the distribution of income within small neighborhoods and contrasts it with the income distribution at higher level of aggregation, such as census tracts and metropolitan areas. It relies on a unique feature of the American Housing Survey, whose 1985, 1989 and 1993 waves provide data for small residential neighborhoods. These consist of a dwelling unit and up to ten of its nearest neighbors. The paper employs several parametric and non-parametric econometric tools to measure income sorting in US residential neighborhoods. It documents the patterns of dependence among neighbors' income and imperfect sorting, with moderate but very significant correlation among incomes of neighbors and of considerable income mixing in US neighborhoods. These results persist even if choice-based sampling and heterogeneity across the sample are accounted for. Neighborhoods associated with a randomly selected renter are more sorted than those associated with an owner even though such owners are more likely to define their neighborhoods.     

Buyer-seller relationships along channels of distribution

This paper uses a conceptualization of the IMP model of buyer-seller interactions in examining the stability of relationship-building constructs at different levels of a traditional distribution channel. It examines the relative importance of five constructs as determinants of upstream (i.e. with suppliers) and downstream (i.e. with customers) business relationships and tests for possible misalignment between channel intermediaries. The findings offer empirical support for the model structure and the functional perspective of channel structures is employed in explaining differences. In addition, this research provides considerable evidence to suggest that there is greater emphasis placed in the development of relationships with customers than suppliers.     

Spatial interactions among U.S. cities: 1900–1990

We test implications of economic geography by exploring spatial interactions among U.S. cities. We use a data set consisting of 1900–1990 metro area populations, and spatial measures including distance from the nearest larger city in a higher-tier, adjacency, and location within U.S. regions. We also date cities from their time of settlement. We find that among cities which enter the system, larger cities are more likely to locate near other cities. Moreover, older cities are more likely to have neighbors. Distance from the nearest higher-tier city is not always a significant determinant of size and growth. We find no evidence of persistent non-linear effects on urban growth of either size or distance, although distance is important for city size for some years.     

Residential Mobility and the Housing Market in a Two-sector Neoclassical Growth Model

The impact of residential mobility and competitive housing markets on long run growth is examined using a two-sector general equilibrium overlapping-generations model in continuous time. There is an infinity of agents with finite lives who adjust their housing consumption by moving, which is costly. We explore the model's steady-state properties, first with a free housing market, then under rent control when the market clears through restrictions on the frequency of moves. Rent controls do not just reduce welfare; they may increase the steady-state capital-labor ratio.