Social Security, Optimality, and Equilibria in a Stochastic Overlapping Generations Economy

Social security institutions implement intergenerational transfers and distribute risks over time. To compare various social security designs, we study an overlapping generations model with demographic shocks. Production takes place through a neoclassical production function subject to productivity shocks. We give a near characterization of optimal allocations. We study rational expectations equilibria when contributions are mandatory, based on labor and capital income. We also describe the equilibria of an economy with a voluntary pay-as-you-go social security fund, and show that they have a long-run optimality property. An example with Cobb–Douglas production and utility functions illustrates the results.     

Where Do Unions Add Value? Predominant Organizing Principle,Union Strength and Manufacturing Productivity Growth in the OECD

This article deploys comparative historical data on 14 OECD countries to examine the significance of predominant union structure for the impact of union strength on the (medium‐term) growth in hourly labour productivity in manufacturing. The analysis shows that where craft and general unionism predominates, union strength has a deleterious impact on productivity growth. Where enterprise unionism predominates, union strength is irrelevant. However, where industrial unionism predominates, union strength promotes productivity growth. These effects exist independently of established economic influences on aggregate productivity growth. The findings are interpreted as displaying the importance of the character of the governance that unions provide for their productivity impact.     

Union Density in Israel 1995–2010: The Hybridization of Industrial Relations

In the past the Israeli industrial relations system was corporatist, characterized by high levels of membership in trade unions and employers' associations, as well as broad coverage of collective agreements. The corporatist system gradually eroded from the mid‐1980s, but its major transformation came with the removal of the Ghent‐like system in 1995. The article observes data collected since the transformation, distinguishing between membership and coverage trends. These distinctions aid in revealing that a hybrid of two distinct industrial relations subsystems has developed. The notion of hybridization suggests that unlike past accounts, which described the substitution of the corporatist industrial relations system by a liberal‐pluralist system, what actually emerges is their coexistence. Despite the path‐determined nature of the Israeli hybrid, the interaction between coverage and membership is instructive for understanding strategic choices made in other European countries in which a similar gap emerged. The article notes the potential for synergy between the two subsystems and notes the actual development of rivalry and friction.     

Whistleblowing and power: A network perspective

This article presents a network perspective on whistleblowing. It considers how whistleblowing affects, and is affected by, the preexisting distribution of power inside and outside an organization, where power is conceptualized as deriving from the network positions of the key actors. The article also highlights four characteristic features of whistleblowing: third‐party detriment, local subversion, appeal to central or external power, and reasonable expectation of concern. The feature of local subversion succinctly explains why whistleblowing is difficult. The feature of appeal to central or external power highlights that contrary to the perception of a democratizing phenomenon, whistleblowing tends to redistribute discretion away from local power toward more central power. This suggests a need for caution about institutional measures to promote whistleblowing in contexts where governance is already highly centralized.     

Do more mergers and acquisitions create value for shareholders?

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - How does an investor value the announcement of new business integration? The history of acquirer’s acquisition may matter for investors....     

Conflict resolution in organizational buying centers

This article reports the results of a field study of buying center conflict and conflict resolution processes—factors often seen as key ingredients in modeling the organizational buying process. The problem-solving and persuasion modes were found to be more often used than the potentially destructive power and politics modes. As expected, increasing levels of conflict were found to be associated with confrontation-oriented modes of resolution. Differences in resolution mode across stages of the purchase process were not significant.     

Redistributive effects of the shift from personal income taxes to indirect taxes: Belgium 1988–93

Between 1988 and 1993, the Belgian personal income tax system and the indirect tax system were reformed to a considerable extent. We use microsimulation models to investigate the impact of the reform on the liability progression and the redistributive effect of the combined tax system. The redistributive effect of personal income taxes decreased, notwithstanding an increase in liability progression. For indirect taxes, both the liability regressivity and the reverse redistributive effect have been enhanced. We use recently developed statistical tests to gauge the significance of the observed changes.