A Note on How and Why Growth and Unemployment Go Hand in Hand in Developing Economies

This paper develops a simple model to explain the phenomenon of persistent unemployment, even in an economy experiencing high output growth. In the model, unemployment grows at a rate identical with the growth rate of input factors and sectors. The result is primarily triggered by a pre-fixed minimum wage for unskilled workers. To corroborate our claim, we have empirically tested our model hypothesis using data for 12 developing countries and found empirical results consistent with the theory. To mitigate or reduce unemployment, history becomes crucial in deciding on the desired rate of growth in different sectors.     

International Trade,Migration and Unemployment – The Role of Informal Sector

This paper provides an elaborate general equilibrium framework by including informal economic activities in a model of trade, migration and unemployment. Existence of informal activities is critical in generating positive employment effects of liberal trade policies. Following a tariff cut informal wage increases and rate of unemployment goes down under reasonable conditions. Next we generalize the benchmark model to capture the phenomenon of sequential migration: from agriculture to urban informal sector, and then to urban formal sector. Positive employment effect of reformatory trade policy partly owes to the fact that the presence of informal sector directly reduces the cost of migration and, hence, further induces the process of outmigration from agricultural sector. The paper also extends the benchmark model to include both informal intermediate and final good.     

Responsible Marketing and Its Impact on Business Performance: A Longitudinal Study

This research article explores, analyzes, and justifies the requirement of socially responsible activities of the corporation in the light of alternative approach to marketing promotion. In fact, this research claims for more societal activity-based promotion (responsible marketing) in place of product driven advertisement-based marketing (traditional) only. Thus, this research refutes the combined impact of societal activities (donation and employee expenditure) and advertisement (Advertisement Expenditure) on business performance (Profit/Sales). This has been analyzed with longitudinal (time series) data for 15 year period of the available 9 companies in capitaline database. Appropriate methodologies in regards to time series data have been performed. The findings are thought-provoking since the evidence of combined effect is not that much visible, though its impact in comparison with marginal effect is quite more. Finally, to conclude this research refutes the utility of advertising as a means of promotion, but at the same time, it indicates the changing direction of advertisement content from product feature-based to more societal activity-based.     

The Roles of Gender and Marital Status on Risky Asset Allocation Decisions

We analyze data on asset allocations in individual retirement accounts to examine the roles of marital status and gender on investment decisions. We utilize data from two birth cohorts to understand the relationship over a wide age range. We find that, in their 30s and early 40s, men are more likely to hold a majority of their funds in stocks in individual retirement accounts compared to women. The gender difference disappears around retirement age; however, a significant difference by marital status emerges in that age group. Divorced and widowed individuals are less likely to hold a majority of their funds in stocks compared to married individuals in their 60s. While there exists a positive gap in stock holdings between married men and married women in their 30s, the gender gap is nonexistent among older individuals. Using paired data on stock holdings in the older birth cohort, we show that husbands' and wives' asset allocations in individual retirement accounts are strongly correlated, coinciding with the lack of a gender gap in stock holdings among older couples.     

Transnational remittances and state protection of human rights: A case for caution

This paper explores the impact of transnational remittance receipts on state respect for human rights, identifying the latter with the CIRI Index of Physical Integrity Rights which aggregates information on disappearances, extrajudicial killings, political imprisonment, and torture. Based on sample of 106 developing economies considered over the period 1981–2011, we find that remittances have a strong negative impact on state respect for physical integrity rights, the results being robust to alternate specifications and estimation methods. Our results underline the need for caution in evaluating the developmental consequences of remittance inflows, especially on institutional quality.     

Lower tick sizes and futures pricing efficiency: evidence from the emerging Malaysian market

We provide robust evidence of the impact on spot market liquidity and the pricing efficiency of FBM-FKLI index futures following the introduction of lower tick sizes for the stocks listed in the Bursa Malaysia. Our findings show a significant increase in unexpected trading volume and the speed of mean reversion of the futures mispricing. We find that the increase in the unexpected trading volume of the underlying stocks helps in reducing inter-market price discrepancies. The findings offer new evidence that lowering of tick sizes improves pricing efficiency in the Malaysian futures market.

     

Exploring the influence of big data analytics management capabilities on sustainable tourism supply chain performance: the moderating role of technology orientation

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the importance of big data analytics (BDA) management capabilities, namely BDA planning, BDA investment, BDA coordination, and BDA control on sustainable tourism supply chain performance (STSCP). The study also explored the moderating role of technology orientation on BDA management capabilities' association with STSCP. Perceptual responses from 212 analytics professionals suggest BDA planning, BDA coordination, and BDA control as prominent enablers of sustainable tourism supply chain performance. Furthermore, technology orientation was found to enhance the contribution of BDA planning, BDA coordination, and BDA control as enablers.     

Communication Cost,Skilled-Unskilled Wage,and Informality

Journal of Quantitative Economics - This paper establishes an interesting link between informality and time zone differences in a general equilibrium trade model for small open economy. Trading...     

Class or caste? A study on the role of caste and wealth status in school choice decision

There is a strong political opinion in India in favour of replacing caste based affirmative action with an economic class based one. We contribute to this debate by looking at the interaction of caste and wealth in school choice. We show that too rich and too poor parents behave in the same way irrespective of their caste identities—rich parents sending their children to private schools while poor parents choosing public schools for their children. The caste identity, we find, plays a role for the school choice decision made by the parents belonging to the economic middle class. Among the economic middle class parents, the ones from the privileged castes send their children to private schools, while the children of the parents from the disadvantaged castes are sent to public schools. The result is robust to alternative definitions of privileged and disadvantaged castes. For school quality choice, however, we find a monotonic relationship between wealth and school quality.