THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC REGULATION IN THE ISTANBUL TAXICAB MARKET

This paper discusses the regulation of the Istanbul taxicab market and its consequences. While price and entry regulations are common to many taxi markets, there are significant differences in their institutional frameworks. We examine the problems of the Istanbul market and offer recommendations to improve its efficiency.     

Contrarian strategies and investor overreaction under price limits

This study investigates the effects of price limits on investment performance of contrarian trading strategies in Taiwan’s stock market over the period 1997 to 2006. All contrarian strategies in intraday limit-hit stocks lead to superior returns relative to the benchmark index return, and the findings support the overreaction effect. Also, there is evidence of delayed overreaction reflected by price continuations for the overnight period and price reversals for the subsequent trading day. Moreover, investment performance of contrarian strategies is related to firm characteristics where investors tend to overreact more in small-size, high-turnover, and non-high-tech stocks. Finally, price overreaction is strong for up-hit stocks in the aftermath of catastrophic events. If overreaction exists, price-limit regulation designed to cool off investors and reduce price volatility may not be effective.     

Security in a sea of insecurity: job security and intention to stay among service sector employees in Turkey

This article examines the association between job security and intention to stay for those who are employed in Turkey. There is a high level of unemployment in the country and many workers there are concerned about their job security. Job security refers to the objective dimensions of continuous contract, working full-time hours and paid and unpaid overtime. Job security also refers to the subjective dimension of perceived job security. We surveyed 407 employees in banking and related sectors' call centres, five-star hotel front-line staff and airline cabin crews. Results show that objective dimensions of job security are not associated with intention to stay. However, perceived job security is significantly and positively associated with intention to stay. We recommend that human resource managers focus on the perceived job security aspect of employment to keep valuable employees with the company.     

Work engagement,psychological contract breach and job satisfaction

This study extends both Social Exchange Theory and the Job Demands–Resources model by examining the link between psychological contract breach (PCB) and work engagement, and by integrating job satisfaction into this exchange relationship. We argue that PCB reflects employees' feelings of resource loss, and that these feelings impact work engagement through their impact on job satisfaction. Levels of employee work engagement can therefore be viewed as reciprocation for the exchange content provided by employers. We conduct structural equation modeling on longitudinal survey data from 191 employees, and our results suggest that the negative effect of PCB on work engagement is mediated by job satisfaction.     

An interactional perspective on perceived empowerment: the role of personal needs and task context

This study examines the influence of individual needs and task characteristics on a multifaceted definition of perceived empowerment using an interactional perspective. Respondents were Hong Kong Chinese employees and most of them lower-level or nonmanagerial level workers in business organizations. We used regression analyses to test a number of hypotheses informed by social psychology theories. The significant findings indicate that perceived empowerment is predicted by individual characteristics (need for achievement, need for power), task situations (receipt of task feedback, competency-based reward system, participation in goal setting) and their interactions. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.     

Markets for Tradeable Emission and Ambient Permits: A Dynamic Approach

This paper discusses trade mechanisms in pollutionpermit markets. Proofs are given, that sequential,bilateral trade in tradeable emissions permitsconverges to a market equilibrium with minimal totalcosts of pollution control. If ambient or depositionpermits are traded, the convergence of bilateraltransactions occurs only in the case of a singlereceptor. For multiple receptors, the proof ofconvergence for tradeable emissions and ambientpermits is given for two trade mechanisms: sequential,multilateral trade and a Walrasian auction.     

Income distribution, efficiency and rationing

This paper studies the impacts of income distribution on the efficiency of trade mechanism and rationing of agents who are priced out of trade in a dynamic search model with two-sided asymmetric information. Buyers and sellers have asymmetric information about valuations and incomes respectively. In such a frictional environment, the effects of several variants of changes in income distribution on efficiency of trading mechanism and the population of rationed buyers and sellers are elaborated.     

Scaling the volatility of GDP growth rates

The distribution of shocks to GDP growth rates is found to be exponential rather than normal. Their standard deviation scales with GDP^β where β=−0.15±0.03. These macroeconomic results place restrictions on the microeconomic structure of interactions between agents.     

Search in the product market and the real business cycle

Empirical evidence suggests that most firms operate in imperfectly competitive markets. We develop a search-matching model between wholesalers and retailers. Firms face search costs and form long-term relationships. Price bargain results in both wholesaler and retailer mark ups, which depend on firms' relative bargaining power. We simulate the general equilibrium model and explore the role of product market search frictions for business cycles. We conclude from the simulation exercise that incorporating product market search structure and shocks improve the standard real business cycle model to reproduce US business cycle fluctuations.