Do micro start-ups fuel job creation? Cross-country evidence from the DynEmp Express database

Exploiting a novel database recently built from national business registers by the OECD with the support of an international network of experts, this paper investigates the growth dynamics of micro-firms (employing less than ten workers) across 16 countries. Results show that only a small proportion of micro-firms manage to grow beyond ten employees, but those contribute disproportionately to overall job creation. Econometric analysis focusing in particular on the role of age confirms that young micro-firms—especially those below 3 years of age—are much more likely to grow above ten employees than older firms. These findings are remarkably stable over the three time periods considered (2001–2004, 2004–2007, and 2007–2010), i.e., also during the Great Recession.     

Efficient monetary allocations and the illiquidity of bonds

We construct a monetary economy with heterogeneity in discounting and consumption risk. Agents can insure against this risk with money and nominal government bonds, but all trades must be monetary. We demonstrate that a deflationary policy à la Friedman cannot sustain the constrained-efficient allocation as no-arbitrage imposes too stringent a bound on the return money can pay. The constrained-efficient allocation can be sustained when bonds have positive yields and, under certain conditions, only if they are illiquid. Illiquidity, meaning that bonds cannot be transformed into consumption as easily as cash, is necessary to eliminate arbitrage opportunities due to disparities in shadow interest rates.     

BRAZILIAN POVERTY BETWEEN AND WITHIN GROUPS: DECOMPOSITION BY GEOGRAPHICAL, GROUP-SPECIFIC POVERTY LINES

This study investigates Brazilian poverty by exploiting geographical differences in the cost of living. We apply the reformulation of the FGT class of poverty measures proposed by Chiappero and Civardi (2006) . This decomposition aims to compute poverty within groups, using group-specific poverty lines, and poverty between groups by adopting a community-wide poverty line. Our findings suggest that the analysis of poverty between and within groups is more exhaustive than the standard methodology when differentiated poverty lines are exploited.     

The relationship between food consumption, age and gender over time in Britain

This paper investigates the relationship between nutrition and socio-economic status among British youths. It describes the dynamics of consumption over age and time using data from the British National Food Survey (NFS) covering the period 1975-2000. Daily calories-age relationships for men and women are estimated by solving a non-linear least square model with a roughness penalty function approach. Focusing on young age groups, trends of consumption over the 25-year period of study and the cohorts effect have been explored across three classes of age. Finally, an exploration of specific trend variations in eating habits has been implemented controlling for income distribution.     

Issue linkage and issue tie-in in multilateral negotiations

We describe a model of international, multidimensional policy coordination where countries can enter into selective and separate agreements with different partners along different policy dimensions. The model is used to examine the implications of negotiation tie-in — the requirement that agreements must span multiple dimensions of interaction — for the viability of multilateral cooperation when countries are linked by international trade flows and transboundary pollution. We show that, while in some cases negotiation tie-in has either no effect or can make multilateral cooperation more viable, in others a formal tie-in constraint can make an otherwise viable joint multilateral agreement unstable.     

Managing integrators where integration matters: insights from symbolic industries

Recently, companies have been faced with strong need for integration in order to deal with the trade-offs of the current competitive environments – quick response and customization, technical functionality and stylistic appeal, low cost and top quality. This need has led to the introduction of different integrating positions. Although these positions already exist within the firm, in recent years they have become strategic and therefore have to be carefully managed. The relevance and the management of integrators are particularly evident in the symbolic industries, where the need to combine the symbolic and the functional facets of products and services has become increasingly critical for companies to succeed. We provide evidence based on four case studies conducted in the European fashion industry in order to build an original framework for the effectiveness of the integrators and to highlight the relevance of HRM practices in dealing with these positions.     

New evidence on the firm-university linkages in Europe. The role of meritocratic management practices

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the determinants of university-industry links in five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), using internationally comparable firm-level data for the period 2007–2009. Besides the usual firm-specific variables, it examines the role of meritocratic management practices in firms’ decisions to collaborate in R&D. Firm innovative efforts, the export status and the R&D government support are positively related to business-university links in almost all countries, human capital and firms’ size in two out of five countries under scrutiny, while belonging to science-based sectors does not seem to play a significant role in all countries but Italy. Importantly, we find that meritocratic managerial practices positively affect the firm-university nexus in Germany, France and the UK, while meritocracy does not appear to enhance businesses’ R&D collaboration in Italy and in Spain.     

Big Data Algorithmic Trading Systems Based on Investors’ Mood

Traditional automated trading systems use rules and filters based on Chartism to send orders to the market, aiming to beat the market and obtain positive returns in bullish or bearish contexts. However, these systems do not consider the investors’ mood that many studies have demonstrated its effects over the evolution of financial markets. The authors describe 2 "big data" algorithmic trading systems over Ibex 35 future. These systems send orders to the market to open long or short positions, based on an artificial intelligence model that uses investors’ mood. To measure the investors' mood, the authors use semantic analysis algorithms that qualify as good, bad, or neutral any communication related to Ibex 35 made on social media (Twitter) or news media. After 1.5 years of research, conclusions are: First, the authors observe positive returns, demonstrating that investors’ mood has predictive capacity on the evolution of the Ibex 35. Second, these systems have beaten the Ibex 35 index, showing the imperfect efficiency of the financial markets. Third, big data algorithmic trading systems numbers are better in Sharpe ratio, success rate, and profit factor than traditional trading systems on the Ibex 35, listed in the Trading Motion platform.     

On the political economics of tax reforms: survey and empirical assessment

Political constraints and incentives are the true driver of tax reforms. This paper reviews the political economics literature on personal income tax systems and reforms to see how political mechanisms help explain tax reforms. We take some of the implications of these theories to the data using LABREF, a database that identifies labor tax reforms in the European Union for the period 2000–2007, and control for economic and labor market factors. We find that political variables carry more weight than economic variables, and we show empirical regularities that support political economy theories. We also find that governments tended to reform more in better economic times, engaging in pro-cyclical behavior.