A contribution to duality theory,applied to the measurement of risk aversion

This paper determines the precise connection between the curvature properties of an objective function and the ray-curvature properties of its dual. When the objective function is interpreted as a Bernoulli or cardinal utility function, our results characterize the relationship between an agent’s attitude towards income risks and her attitude towards risks in the underlying consumption space. We obtain these results by developing and applying a number of representation theorems for concave functions.The work of Juan E. Martínez-Legaz has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology and the FEDER, project BEC2002-00642, and by the Departament d’Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, Direcció General de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, project 2001SGR-00162. He also thanks the Barcelona Economics Program of CREA for its support. John Quah would like to acknowledge with gratitude the financial support of the ESRC (grant number R000271171). He would also like to thank the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley, whose hospitality he enjoyed while completing this project. Both authors would like to thank Simon Cowan for pointing the way to some important references. They are also very grateful to the referee whose insightful suggestions led to a much improved paper     

Joint Ventures versus Contractual Agreements: An Empirical Investigation

In this paper, we empirically investigate the determinants of the governance form of strategic alliances. We use a database with 1,344 worldwide alliances in several industrial sectors. In contrast with previous empirical studies, we find that alliances undertaking R&D activities are more likely to use loose forms of organization (contractual agreements) than more hierarchical ones (joint ventures), and this result is even stronger when the alliance takes place in technologically sophisticated sectors. Moreover, we show that alliances between rival firms tend also to be organized with forms closer to arm’s length transactions. When the scope of an alliance is multidimensional or the alliance is an international one, however, firms prefer more hierarchical organizations such as joint ventures. This paper was partially written while the first author was visiting the University of the Basque Country. We would like to thank Reinhilde Veugelers and the project FWO spillovers 6.0131.98 at the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven for the use of the K.U. database. Financial support from projects Progetto Giovani Ricercatori – 1999 Universitá di Udine, SEJ 2004-02172/ECON, 9/UPV 00035.321-13560/2001, UPV 00038.321-13503/2001 is gratefully acknowledged. We are also indebted to two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.     

Economic inequality in Spain: the european community household panel dataset

This article uses data from the 1998 European Community Household Panel to study economic inequality in Spain. It reports data on the Spanish distributions of income, labor income, and capital income, and on related features of inequality, such as age, employment status, educational attainment, and marital status. It also reports data on the income mobility of Spanish households, and data on income inequality in other European countries and in the US. We find that income, earnings, and, especially, capital income are very unequally distributed in Spain and that economic inequality in Spain is well above the European average.     

An Integrated Model of the Adoption and Extent of E-Commerce in Firms

This work aims to explain firms’ decisions to adopt Internet-based e-commerce, and the extent to which the adopters subsequently implement e-commerce to commercialize their products and services. We examine various types of factors previously considered by the literature (competitive environment, organizational characteristics, strategic orientation, innovative capacity, managers’ characteristics, IT equipment possessed and the use made of it). The analytical model developed here on the basis of a sample of 2,038 firms suggests that the factors influencing the adoption decision are different from those that eventually influence the results of firms’ commercial operations on the Internet. Likewise, we discuss the contribution of each type of determinant and the implications.      

Are More Innovative Firms Less Vulnerable to New Environmental Regulation?

Compliance with pollution limits and standards requires firms to implement adaptation processes that are not only costly themselves but also affect future profits in as much as they modify production systems and methods. This paper attempts to respond to the question of how technological knowledge moderates the effect that the implementation of a new environmental regulation has on the results of affected firms. The regulation selected for this study is the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Act (IPPC). A Multivariate Regression Model (MVRM) has been applied to the regulatory event. The most important implication of this paper is that technological knowledge prepares a firm for adapting to a greater environmental demand such as may be derived from a new regulation. This paper has been developed under the objectives of the CREVALOR Research Group (DGA-Spain). Moreover, it has been financed by the MEC-FEDER Research Project SEJ2005-07341.     

A new Cramer-Von Misses cointegration test with application to environmental Kuznets curve

This article introduces a new Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test robust to nonlinearities. We characterize nonlinear cointegration in terms of a nonlinear moving-average filter (high pass filter) of a matrix based on permutation matrices on the discrepancy of empirical distributions. A Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) test statistic is proposed for testing the null hypothesis of two independent random walks against a broad range of cointegrating alternatives with monotonic nonlinearities and level shifts in the cointegration relationship. We derive the asymptotic distribution of this induced-order Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test. This new non-parametric test statistic has two important properties: the invariance to monotonic transformations of the series and the robustness for the presence of several parameter shifts or structural changes. We analyse the small sample properties of this test by Monte Carlo simulations and evaluate the power of the test. Finally, this CVM test is applied to the analysis of long run environmental Kuznets curve which relates economic growth and pollution. In particular, we consider a nonlinear cointegration between gross domestic product (GDP) and CO2 emissions. Our new CVM test is able to find evidence of cointegration while classical single equation cointegration tests are not.     

Managerial perceptions of employees’ affective commitment and product innovation

In this paper we examine how managers perceive employees’ affective commitment and how this perception determines their trust as a managerial attitude toward organizational learning capability (OLC). Likewise, we study how managerial trust affects product innovation and OLC. In other words, we carry out a double mediation: firstly, we examine whether managerial trust is a mechanism through which managerial perceptions of employees’ affective commitment influences on OLC, and secondly, we study if OLC mediates between managerial trust and product innovation. By using structural equation modeling (partial least squares) on a sample of 192 Spanish firms we conclude that: (1) if managers perceive employees to be affectively committed, they will be willing to enhance OLC and to trust them; (2) managerial trust favors OLC and product innovation and (3) OLC appears to exert a full mediation between managerial trust and product innovation.     

Women Mayors and Management of Spanish Councils: An Empirical Analysis

This paper analyzes the relationship between the gender of mayors in Spanish local government and different budget items. It uses a sample of local budgets for 8,112 town councils between 2002 and 2010, totaling 64,361 observations. The Spanish context is characterized by decentralization of public responsibility to a greater extent than in neighboring countries, feeding the debate on the operational efficiency of local government and the importance of gender in public management. Results show that councils with women mayors have lower annual interest and debt repayment obligations and have higher expenditure on security, protection, and social promotion. Thus, the presence of women in politics may serve to improve councils’ economic situations, which is necessary not only for social justice but also for economic efficiency. In addition, in councils with more inhabitants, women mayors are more common, but women are less likely to occupy the office for longer periods.     

The quantitative turn in the history of economics: promises,perils and challenges

ABSTRACT

A quantitative turn in history of economic thought is looming. We argue that engineering it consciously is of crucial importance for historians of economics. We also highlight the limitations of quantitative techniques. Yet, the combination of qualitative and quantitative research could substantially enrich our narratives of the development of economics and its practice, of how ideas and tools disseminate and influence other spheres. A failed quantitative turn could lead our field to a house divided and, in the worst case, a civil war.     

Socioeconomic stratification and stereotyping: lab-in-the-field evidence from Colombia

In this study, we test the hypothesis that the Colombian system of socioeconomic stratification (SES), which ranks dwellings from one to six to calculate utility (public services) rates, may induce discrimination. To this end, a field experiment with around 1000 participants from Bogotá is carried out. The design includes a combination of a trust game and a dictator game and SES-contingent decisions. Results exclude the presence of pure preferences for discrimination, yet they confirm that low strata are associated with stereotypes of low trustworthiness. We also observe significant prosocial behavior in the low-income population, and most strikingly, we do not observe any difference in trustworthiness across different income levels.