Early warning indicators and macro-prudential policies: a credit network agent based model

Credit network configurations play a crucial role in determining the vulnerability of the economic system. Following the network-based financial accelerator approach, we constructed an agent based model reproducing an artificial credit network that evolves endogenously according to the leverage choices of heterogeneous firms and banks. Thus, our work aims at defining both early warning indicators for crises and policy precautionary measures based on the endogenous credit network dynamics. The model is calibrated on a sample of firms and banks quoted in the Japanese stock-exchange markets from 1980 to 2012. Both empirical and simulated data suggest that credit and connectivity variations could be used as early warning measures for crises. Moreover, targeting banks that are central in the credit network in terms of size and connectivity, the capital-related macro-prudential policies may reduce systemic vulnerability without affecting aggregate output.     

Designing a fair,financially sustainable pay rate for owner-operator truck drivers. Modeling and case study

Owner operator truck drivers have been dealing with a long-standing problem: compensation per distance. Owner operators who get paid according to these criteria get a fixed payment per distance traveled regardless of how long it takes to actually cover the distance. This means that there are numerous situations that truck drivers are working; yet they might be unpaid because the truck is not moving. To compensate for the unfairness of the pay rate models, owner operators have continuously increased their working hours. In addition, many studies have confirmed that a fair payment is among the most important factors that truck drivers take into consideration when deciding to leave a company. Consequently, an unfair pay rate, along with the hard labor conditions truck drivers suffer from, inevitably leads to high turnover rates. For all these reasons, our study aims at developing a fair, financially sustainable pay rate for owner operators that will help companies ensure a stable and highly experienced workforce by making sure that owner operators can cover the real expenses of their working activity. Finally, in order to prove that our pay rate was of practical use, we test the model on one of the largest Spanish agro-food companies.     

Do institutions affect the matching process of disabled people? The Italian case

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the various Italian regions’ efficiency in providing employment for disabled people under Law 12 March n.68 1999, “Regulation on the right to work of disabled people” (Law 68/99) can be affected by their institutional quality. For this reason, a Stochastic Frontier Approach is used for estimating the regional matching function, where the flow of disabled people who found a job is produced by the combination of unemployment and vacancies. The matching equation is estimated using regional data from ISFOL, from 2006 to 2011. Results show the presence of a territorial dualism with regard to the matching process. The Southern regions of Italy have the lowest efficiency scores due to their lower institutional quality. The empirical analysis confirms that a good institutional quality is able to reduce the inefficiency of the matching process of disabled people. Therefore, it requires the implementation of policies aimed at improving the level of institutions, particularly in Southern Italy, in order to improve the efficiency of Law 68/99.

     

Determinants of employee training: impact on organizational legitimacy and organizational performance

Employee training is one of the most studied human resource practices, as it is considered critical for organizational success. However, employee training and its impact on organizational performance have usually been studied from an economic-rational perspective, in terms of the economic and competitive advantages that companies can achieve by training employees. This study goes beyond the economic-rational approach and draws on institutional theory. We introduce contextual factors in the analysis of the determinants of employee training to complement the variables of competitive advantage and explain the relationship between employee training and organizational outcomes. Data were collected from 374 organizations using a questionnaire administered in Spain. The findings support the idea that both economic-rational and institutional determinants influence employee training. There are also two different kinds of outcome from training employees: organizational legitimacy improves at the same time as organizational performance.     

Experiments on the thermo-hydraulic response of pressure liquefied gases in externally heated tanks with pressure relief

An experimental program is described and experimental results presented for the response of an externally heated horizontal cylindrical tank protected by a PRV and partially filled with a pressure liquefied gas. Measurements of tank pressure, temperatures, mass discharge and void development, along with photography of internal fluid behavior are used to demonstrate the complex thermo-hydraulic behavior as a function of heating and valve position. The results are used to compare some of these parameters with analyses of stratification and void development.     

Network governance: A cross-level study of social mechanisms,knowledge benefits,and strategic outcomes in joint-design alliances

Drawing on multiple-level embedded case study research of eight dyadic joint-design alliances and 14 collaborative ventures within them, this study sheds light on how value, in the form of common and private benefits, is created in interorganizational relationships. To do so, I focus on network governance (i.e., interorganizational coordination based on social networks) and its outcomes. As a result, I advance a cross-level model of how a system of reciprocally influencing network-level (i.e., structural) and dyad-level (i.e., relational) social mechanisms affects the propensity of allied organizations to engage in knowledge-intensive activities that yield considerable knowledge-based benefits and strategic outcomes at the alliance and firm levels. I conclude that simultaneous consideration of structural and relational embeddedness can enrich our understanding of network-based forms of organization and their impact on the outcomes of interorganizational cooperation. Although the system of social mechanisms needs to be understood as an interconnected whole, practicing alliance managers are advised to leverage different social mechanisms depending on the specific knowledge benefits they intend to achieve.     

Institutions and Development From a Historical Perspective: the Case of the Brazilian Development Bank

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the role played by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in different periods of Brazil’s development process since its founding in 1952. The bank’s history is nonlinear, varying with socio-economic and political changes over time. Four major periods in its history are: (i) from its creation to the debt crisis in the 1980s, a period known as ‘developmentalism’; (ii) the neoliberal movement of the 1990s; (iii) the reintroduction of the BNDES as a relevant tool for development in the 2000s; and (iv) a new neoliberal movement that arose beginning in mid-2016. Each of these periods is characterized by certain development conventions that shape how institutions, such as the BNDES, operate, and at the same time are shaped by them. In contrast to mainstream economics, which focuses on a one-size-fits-all institution for development, this paper evaluates the interactions between development and institutions as historical processes, with an emphasis on the prevailing development conventions. The trajectory and different roles assumed by the BNDES over time exemplify this permanent relationship, rejecting the idea that particular types of institutions are related to development.     

Actual and counterfactual growth incidence and delta Lorenz curves: Estimation and inference

Different economic growth episodes display very different distributional characteristics, both across countries and over time. Growth is sometimes accompanied by rising and sometimes by falling inequality. Applied economists have come to rely on the growth incidence curve, which gives the quantile‐specific rate of income growth over a certain period, to describe these differences. This paper introduces a mean‐independent analogue, the delta Lorenz curve, which gives the cumulative change in income share up to each quantile. We also develop estimation and inference procedures for both functions of quantiles. We establish the limiting null distribution of the test statistics of interest for those functions, and propose resampling methods to implement inference in practice. The proposed methods are used to compare the growth processes in the USA and Brazil during 1995–2007. Although growth in the average real wages was disappointing in both countries, the distribution of that growth was markedly different. In the USA, wage growth was mediocre for the bottom 80% of the sample, but much more rapid for the top 20%. In Brazil, conversely, wage growth was rapid below the median, and negative at the top. Wage shares fell in the USA up to the 83rd percentile, and rose in Brazil up to the 65th percentile.     

Determinants of institutional quality: an empirical exploration

ABSTRACT

Recent literature has underlined the role that institutions play in the process of development, making it essential to understand why differences exist in the quality of institutions across countries. The goal of this study is to investigate the determinants of institutional quality. Our results confirm that institutional quality is conditioned by variables that can be modulated by public policy, such as income per capita, international openness, education, taxation, and patterns of income (re)distribution. Our conclusions differ from the pessimistic outlooks of works highlighting deterministic factors, such as colonial or geographical factors, as determinants of institutional quality.