Sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget

This paper investigates the relationship between sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget. The key result of this paper is that governments that invest more and spend less on consumption have significantly lower sovereign credit spreads. This finding is in accordance with the endogenous growth theory, which predicts a positive impact of government investment and a negative impact of government consumption on the long-term growth rate. Finally, a broader tax base significantly reduces sovereign credit spreads. A possible explanation may be that governments with more tax receipts are less likely to have liquidity problems to finance their debt charges.     

The Effect of Providing Monetary Information on Energy Savings for Household Appliances: A Field Trial in Spain

Journal of Consumer Policy - Energy labels are one of the most widely used policies in the European Union for increasing the energy efficiency of household appliances. However, their effectiveness...     

Do Smaller Classes Always Improve Students’ Long‐run Outcomes?

We exploit the strict class size rule in Norway and matched individual and school register information for 1982–2011 to estimate long‐run causal effects on income and educational attainment. Contrary to recent evidence from the US and Sweden, we do not find any significant average effect on long‐run outcomes of reduced class size. We further use the large register data set and quasi‐experimental strategy to estimate whether the class size effect depends on external conditions facing students and schools, such as teacher quality, extent of upper secondary school choice, school district size, local fiscal constraints and labour market conditions. Overall, we find that the class size effect does not depend on these factors measured at the school district level. The absence of class size effects on long‐run outcomes in Norway is consistent with earlier findings for short‐run outcomes, using comparable data and empirical strategies.     

Releasing Control: Parents on Vacation

The paper examines the family vacation phenomenon by comparing parents on vacation (n = 203) with parents during daily life (n = 246) in terms of two psychological constructs: regulatory focus and parenting style. Results revealed that parents in both samples were similar in their ‘regulatory focus of promotion’ (need for challenges) and ‘parenting styles’ (permissive and authoritarian), but parents on vacation scored lower on both need for security (‘regulatory focus of prevention’) and authoritative ‘parenting style’. The findings suggest that parents, especially mothers, view family vacation as an opportunity to relax and release parental control. The findings' theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The acceptability of different types of soymilks available in Cape Town in consumers from high and low socio‐economic areas

The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and acceptability of soymilk (defined as consumption pattern/usage and taste) by adult consumers, residing in different socio‐economic areas (low vs. high) in Cape Town. The study population of 214 participants were selected using convenience sampling. A questionnaire was developed in order to obtain demographic data (four items); basic general knowledge of soymilk (four items); and acceptability of the tested products (consumption patterns and taste) (eight items). There was a significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.000) regarding basic knowledge of soymilk, with significantly more in the high socio‐economic area (HSEA) having a score of at least 75%. Gender (P = 0.082) and age (P = 0.122) did not have a significant impact on the consumption patterns of soymilk. There was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to current usage (P = 0.228) and frequency of use (P = 0.213) of soymilk. However, a significantly smaller group (P = 0.000) of participants in the low socio‐economic area had previously tasted soymilk compared with those in the HSEA (16.7% vs. 41.5%; P = 0.000). In conclusion, socio‐economic status appeared to be associated with knowledge of soymilk. No significant differences with regard to gender, age or current usage in the two groups studied were noted.     

The structure of income mobility: empirical evidence from five UE countries

In this paper we use the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to assess differences in the level and structure of income mobility in a selected sample of European countries. We adopt recent theoretical proposals for the decomposition of axiomatic and welfare measurements of mobility in exchange, structural and growth components. Decomposition exercises which take into account some type of division of the population and income sources are also performed. We find that cross-country income mobility comparisons largely depend on the type of indices used. The relative positions of the countries considered change when the analysis is based on ethical instead of objective measures of income mobility. Results also show that in most countries income growth has a very limited effect upon aggregate mobility, being the most important determinant the rerankings of individuals, with a little weight for inequality changes. Although some common results exist concerning the delimitation of groups experiencing the greatest income fluctuations, such as individuals belonging to single-parent households or young household heads, the intensity of these results varies greatly across countries. The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (grant SEJ2004-07373-c03-03) and the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales. We would also like to acknowledge the help given by the European Centre for Analysis in Social Sciences of the University of Essex.     

Pre-entry experience,technological complementarities,and the survival of de-novo entrants. Evidence from the US telecommunications industry

We investigate the effect of pre-entry experience on firms’ performance in terms of survival. In particular we focus on entrants from a related upstream industry – semiconductors – into a downstream industry – telecommunications. We examine a sample of 336 de-novo start-ups in the US telecommunication industry and we estimate a discrete time hazard model of firm exit. Our findings show that, after controlling for both firms and founders’ characteristics, firms whose founders had prior experience in a related upstream industry such as semiconductors enjoy a relatively lower hazard of exit with respect to intra-industry spinoffs and other types of start-ups. Additionally, background heterogeneity of the founding team is an important determinant of survival for the firms in our sample. Our results point to the role of interdependences and technological complementarities between two vertically related industries in affecting the performance of new entrants.     

When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations

The resource-based view and the knowledge-based view are important developments in strategic management theory, and ‘knowledge management’ has exploded in the popular management literature. There is, however, little empirical literature that explores the connections between firms' attempts at knowledge management and their HR strategies. In this paper, we focus particularly on links between knowledge management and staffing practices. High-technology manufacturing was selected as the site of our research, as high-technology firms rely on highly skilled employees to innovate and develop new products and are therefore an ideal environment for exploring the strategies employed for both managing knowledge, and recruiting and retaining employees. Drawing particularly on the work of Hansen et al. (1999 Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. 1999. What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?. Harvard Business Review, March–April:, : 106–16. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this paper identifies and explores two fits between knowledge management and HR strategy or what we call KM-HR configurations: ‘personalization-retention’ and ‘codification-recruitment’. We argue that there is no one way to manage knowledge and its links to HRM and build a simple framework of potential KM-HR configurations with propositions for future research.     

Identity in entrepreneurship effectuation theory: a supplementary framework

The article proposes a new framework on identity construction in entrepreneurship that in valuable ways supplements the logic of identity presented in Sarasvathy??s (2001, 2008) popular effectuation theory. Effectuation theory assumes that identity is a given and relative stable precondition of the entrepreneurial process that support the entrepreneur in ordering preferences in the process of effectuating resources, stakeholder commitment, etc.. The article shows that identity construction is an active and integral part of the effectuation process, and it importantly influences the manner in which the entrepreneur acts and makes decisions in the process. The article seeks to challenge and advance effectuation theory??s view on identity based on a narrative study of ten novice student entrepreneurs. The study gives insight into the identity processes involved in becoming a student entrepreneur, and it may serve as a guide to how entrepreneurship educators and counselors can place more emphasis on identity related struggles involved in the entrepreneurial effectuation process.     

Images of entrepreneurship: towards a new categorization of entrepreneurship

Based on a systematic literature review of contemporary entrepreneurship process research, the article provides a supplementary way of categorizing research on the entrepreneurial process which takes philosophy of science into account to a higher extent than done in previous categorizations. The motivation for doing so is to minimize problems of communication and comparison of concepts, results and theoretical contributions often experienced in entrepreneurship research. Applying Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) paradigmatic framework to analyse the selected literature, it is suggested that the essence of past and present entrepreneurship process theory can be captured in five images of entrepreneurship: 1) The Image of Machines; 2) The Image of Evolution; 3) The Image of Contingencies; 4) The Image of Mind; and 5) The Image of Social Becoming. The five images are considered to be concise and easily recalled tools, which will be valuable in the continuous development and organization of future ideas in entrepreneurship research.