Getting Cars Off the Road: The Cost-Effectiveness of an Episodic Pollution Control Program

Ground-level ozone remains a serious problem in the United States. Because ozone non-attainment is a summer problem, episodic rather than continuous controls of ozone precursors are possible. We evaluate the costs and emissions reductions of a program that requires people to buy permits to drive on high-ozone days. We estimate the demand function for permits based on a survey of 1,300 households in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Assuming that all vehicle owners comply with the scheme, the permit program would reduce nitrogen oxides ( $\text{ NO }_{\mathrm{x}}$ ) by 42 tons per Code Red day at a permit price of $75. Allowing for non-compliance by 15 % of respondents reduces the effectiveness of the scheme to 33 tons of $\text{ NO }_{\mathrm{x}}$ per day. The cost per ozone season of achieving these reductions is approximately $9 million (2008 USD). Although year-round measures, such as the Tier II emissions standards, might be preferred on benefit-cost grounds, an episodic permit system might be considered as an interim measure before the Tier II emissions standards are fully reflected in the vehicle fleet.     

When the mirror gets misted up: Modularity and technological change

This study investigates how component technological change affects the relationship between product modularity and organizational modularity (the across‐firm mirroring hypothesis). Studying the air conditioning industry, we show that the across‐firm mirroring hypothesis does not hold for technologically dynamic components and the associated supply relationships. In this case, the mirror gets “misted up” with buyers and suppliers having recourse to information sharing even in the presence of highly modular components. Our study contributes to the debate on the organizational implications of modularity and its ramifications for the theory of the firm. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Informal Employment Dispute Resolution among Low‐Wage Non‐Union Workers: Does Managerially Initiated Workplace Voice Enhance Equity and Efficiency?

The decline of collective industrial relations has shifted the focus of industrial relations research to the study of individual employment disputes. In this article, we investigate whether employer‐initiated workplace voice is associated with improved resolution of individual complaints or grievances workers make against employers. We find that our measure of workplace voice is associated with less serious problems, more informal methods of dispute resolution, more satisfactory outcomes for workers and lower quit rates. However, these findings need to be set against generally low rates of satisfactory dispute resolution for all employees in our sample.     

High‐performance work system implementation in small and medium enterprises: A knowledge‐creation perspective

While it is well established that high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) affect firm‐level outcomes within large, complex organizations, less is known about how they create benefits for firms within the small‐business sector. Using a knowledge‐creation perspective, this study examines the impact of HPWSs in small and medium enterprises and examines whether the impact observed depends on the small‐business leader's capacity to obtain additional HR knowledge from an external expert, as well as the leader's HR background and knowledge. Archival and survey data were obtained from 294 small‐business organizations, with survey responses obtained from both the small‐business leader and an HR consultant assigned to the small business. Findings suggest that leader perceptions of HR effectiveness are positively related to the use of HPWSs and that this relationship is moderated both by the communication patterns between the small‐business leader and the HR consultant assigned to the firm and the small‐business leader's HR knowledge. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Environmental,Social and Governance investing: Does rating matter?

In the last decade, the demand for sustainable and social investments has improved. The mutual funds industry has responded to market needs by offering a number of investment products focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) companies. The aim of this article is to understand if an ESG score can actually be considered a valid criterion that portfolio managers could adopt, along with traditional risk–return optimisation, in selecting asset portfolios. The paper analyses the link between the performance and the ESG score of different sectoral portfolios (one for each sector of the Global Industry Classification Standard), entirely composed of ESG assets, in the search for a clear and strong positive correlation that could suggest an overall advantage to focus on an ex ante choice of assets with high ESG scores.     

On the relationship between financial inclusion and bank performance

This study examines the relationship between various financial inclusion measures and banks' performance across multiple countries with varying institutional, regulatory and income levels. To construct an aggregate bank performance index, we employ principal component analysis, which utilises a set of critical indicators summarised by the CAMEL rating system, including banks' solvency, asset quality, efficiency, profitability and liquidity. Our primary findings indicate that different measures of financial inclusion exhibit varying associations with bank performance. Specifically, there is a trade-off between bank performance and credit deepening, especially in high-income nations. Conversely, in low-income nations, higher financial inclusion, measured by deposits to GDP, number of deposits, and number of borrowers, does not affect bank performance adversely. Banks in low-income nations could achieve significant gains by improving financial access and enhancing regulatory environments.     

What do we know about consumers' ontological security in disaster scenarios?

While prior consumer studies have adopted various theoretical perspectives to explain individuals' reactions to disasters, scant attention has been paid to the role of ontological security in shaping those responses. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by qualitatively exploring ontological security in two contexts: man-made and natural disasters. To this end, we conducted 35 focus groups in the UK, Germany, and France to address how people reacted to terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic respectively. Through thematic analysis, three themes emerged: fear versus anxiety, oneself versus others, and materialistic versus experiential purchases. Man-made disasters appear to elicit fear, concern for self, and a preference for materialistic purchases, whereas natural disasters seem to trigger anxiety, concern for others, and a preference for experiential purchases. Both types of disasters seem to evoke a desire to escape from reality. In closing, we discuss both transitory and prolonged threats to ontological security and how they shape individuals' behaviours while restoring their security.     

Optimal promotions of competing firms in a frictional labour market with organizational hierarchies

We study optimal promotion decisions of hierarchical firms, with one junior and one senior managerial position, which interact in a search and matching labour market. Workers acquire experience over time while being employed in a junior position and the firm has to determine the experience level at which the worker receives a promotion which allows her to fill a senior position. Promoted workers move to the senior position in their current firm, if it is vacant, otherwise they search for senior positions on the market. The promotion cut-offs of the competing firms exhibit strategic complementarity, but we show that generically a unique stable symmetric general equilibrium exists. We find that stronger competition among firms leads to later (earlier) promotions if the initial number of firms is small (large) giving rise to an inverse U-shape relationship. In the presence of two skill groups, stronger competition among firms reduces the importance of skill differences, so the gap in wages and promotion times decreases with the number of firms. The model is compatible with empirical evidence that high-skill workers are promoted faster than the low-skilled and that internal promotions are more frequent than cross-firm moves to a higher hierarchical position.     

Symbolic,Experiential and Functional Consumptions of Heritage Tourism Destinations: The Case of Angkor World Heritage Site,Cambodia

This study empirically investigates the effects of three destination consumptions (namely symbolic, experiential and functional) on tourists' destination attachment and satisfaction, and further on destination loyalty at a heritage tourism destinations. Using a sample of 512 international tourists visiting Angkor, Cambodia, results reveal that all three types of consumptions have significantly positive effects on destination attachment and satisfaction, which in turn positively affect destination loyalty. However, the effects of symbolic consumption and experiential consumption are greater than that of functional consumption. The results also support the importance of the role of destination attachment in the quality–satisfaction–loyalty relationship. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantifying the trade-reducing effect of embargoes: Firm-level evidence from Russia

In 2014, Russia responded to sanctions imposed by a coalition of Western countries with a retaliatory import embargo. I draw on this unique case study and a customs data set on firm-level import transactions to investigate the ramifications of Russia's counter-sanctions on firm-level foreign trade. Using detailed data and a triple-difference estimation strategy, I examine micro-level dynamics and heterogeneities that aggregate data alone do not reveal. I identify the effects of the embargo on the extensive margin (the probability that a firm imports a particular product from a given country in a particular time period) and the intensive margin (the value of a firm's import transaction) of firm-level trade, as well as its effects on logged unit values. The main findings of this study show that the embargo had statistically significant negative impacts on extensive and intensive margins of firm-level trade. I also pinpoint evidence of multiple exemptions from the embargo and a large degree of heterogeneity of firm-level responses to the embargo based on firm attributes, such as firm size and government connection.