An evaluation of the management of the Finnish employment service

This paper analyses the efficiency of the Finnish Employment Service's management in selecting unemployed individuals who are offered a job. The database used considers short-term unemployed individuals who face the same labour market conditions in 1996. Duration analysis with a Weibull model has been performed in order to study the determinants of the transition probability from unemployment into employment and the impact of receiving job offers through the Employment Service (ES). In order to carry this out, it has been taken into account that the reception of such job offers may be endogenous because the ES selects the individuals who will receive the offers. The empirical results suggest that the decisions made by the ES are adequate in the sense that they increase the benefit of society, compared with a random assignment of the vacancies offered through the ES. Moreover, the effects of the other determinants depend on whether the individual receives offers. The results also point out that individuals who receive no offers through the ES are more likely, as time passes by, to be discouraged in searching for a job than those who do.     

Price transmission and asymmetric adjustment in the Spanish dairy sector

Asymmetric threshold vector error correction models are applied to monthly price data to analyse price relationships and patterns of transmission among farm and retail markets for a variety of dairy products in Spain. The results suggest that asymmetries affect a conspicuous part of the raw milk processed in Spain. Implications for the organizational structure of Spanish dairy markets are offered.     

Human resource management and cultural diversity: a case study in Mozambique

A limited number of studies in Africa have reconciled human resource management (HRM) programs with cultural diversity as represented by Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The objective of this study is to examine how Western-based HRM can be modified to embrace cultural diversity in an African context. A mixed methodology employed a survey, as well as a case study in Mozambique. The results indicate high levels of power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and feminism that are very similar to Kenya. These dimensions differed across a spectrum of employee levels illustrating cultural hybridization at firm level in a multinational operating in Africa. The results also illustrate the importance of a range of health, family, and societal beliefs in the workplace. Finally, a series of HRM recommendations were developed in an African context with respect to the selection, training, performance measurement, and management programs of the company.     

Brand extension feedback: The role of advertising

Firms often use brand extensions as a way of introducing their new products, although they also risk diluting their brand image. In order to understand how consumers assess extensions and extended brands, the present work proposes and estimates a theoretical model, using the structural equation methodology. The results of the estimation indicate that the attitude towards the extension influences brand image and that this attitude is a consequence of the initial brand beliefs and the coherence of the new product. A multisample analysis also reveals that favoring the introduction of extensions through adequate advertising constitutes an efficient way of protecting brand image.     

The social dimension of firm performance: a data envelopment approach

A data envelopment model is proposed to quantify the social dimension of firm performance. Corporate social responsibility activities are treated as netputs to production. Production of good outputs and unintended by-products are combined in the overall measurement of firm performance. Our model is illustrated using a sample of global firms and suggests strikingly low social performance levels.     

Calculating the Efficient Frontier for the Portuguese Stock Market

The paper investigates the efficient frontier and capital market line for the Portuguese stock market before and after the Global Financial Crisis. The efficient frontier and capital market line shift to positions that offer investors better opportunities as we move from 2000‐2008 to 2009–2015.     

A new Cramer-Von Misses cointegration test with application to environmental Kuznets curve

This article introduces a new Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test robust to nonlinearities. We characterize nonlinear cointegration in terms of a nonlinear moving-average filter (high pass filter) of a matrix based on permutation matrices on the discrepancy of empirical distributions. A Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) test statistic is proposed for testing the null hypothesis of two independent random walks against a broad range of cointegrating alternatives with monotonic nonlinearities and level shifts in the cointegration relationship. We derive the asymptotic distribution of this induced-order Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test. This new non-parametric test statistic has two important properties: the invariance to monotonic transformations of the series and the robustness for the presence of several parameter shifts or structural changes. We analyse the small sample properties of this test by Monte Carlo simulations and evaluate the power of the test. Finally, this CVM test is applied to the analysis of long run environmental Kuznets curve which relates economic growth and pollution. In particular, we consider a nonlinear cointegration between gross domestic product (GDP) and CO2 emissions. Our new CVM test is able to find evidence of cointegration while classical single equation cointegration tests are not.     

Overview of the Portuguese Three Pillar Pension System

In order to cope with alleged future financial problems, several changes were made to the design of the Portuguese pension system since 2000. The aim was to achieve the diversification of retirement income sources across providers, both public and private, across the three pillars: public, industry-wide, and personal, and also across the financing forms of pay-as-you-go and funded. This paper describes these changes and analyses the results regarding, principally, the weight of each pillar and the investment performance of both public pension reserves and private pension funds. The main finding is that, in effect, there is one substantial longstanding pillar, and that is the public system.     

Comparative Research with Net and Gross Income Data: An Evaluation of Two Netting Down Procedures for the LIS Database

Researchers seeking to perform country‐comparative and trend analyses using income data have to account for the fact that income surveys differ in whether income is measured gross or net of taxes and contributions. We discuss, develop, and evaluate two ‘netting down procedures’ for data in the LIS Database. Evaluations of these netting down procedures indicate that comparisons across gross and net datasets can be greatly improved when netting down procedures are applied. In several cases, however, substantial amounts of bias remain.