Influence of freight transport purchasing processes on logistical variables related to CO2 emissions: a case study in Sweden

Emissions from freight transport stem from logistical variables such as vehicle utilisation, fuel efficiency, and distance. The purpose is to determine how shippers’ freight transport purchasing processes influence logistical variables. A multiple case study of freight transport purchasing processes was conducted, based on interviews with transport purchasers and providers. Three causes of influence of shippers’ purchasing processes on logistical variables were found: specific requirements, network structure of transport providers, and scope of contract. Specifications by purchasers, especially time requirements, influence several logistical variables (‘mode used’, ‘length of haul’, ‘load factor’, ‘empty running’, and ‘fuel efficiency’). This paper clarifies the implications of transport purchasing on CO₂ emissions in terms of logistical variables, which are understood in transportation research and practice. It describes the effects of shippers’ requirements on transport providers’ execution of transport. The results provide a foundation for shippers to discuss their influence on logistical variables with transport providers.     

The rhythm of effective entrepreneurs’ decision-making process. The pathways of alertness scanning and search and cognitive style. A mediation model

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - How can entrepreneurs be effective when making decisions? To enrich current research on entrepreneurship and cognition, the present study...     

Divergence in HR Functional Roles in Local Government

Abstract

In spite of a growing body of research on the position and role of HRM and the HR function in organizations, local government HRM has not received the attention it deserves. This article contributes to research on the role of the HR function by deploying a discursive perspective on how HR managers construct their function's role in the context of Finnish local government. Five discourses are located in the talk of HR managers, which show emerging discursive tensions and contradictions in the roles of the HR function in local government.     

Women entrepreneurs and work-family conflict: an analysis of the antecedents

Over the years, academic attention towards work-family conflict (WFC) issues has been constantly growing due to the socio-economic changes occurring in society. In line with this, great effort has been devoted to investigating WFC experienced by employees, while still almost untapped is the conversation with reference to women entrepreneurs. Moreover, the few studies that deal with women entrepreneurs’ WFC have mainly analysed its negative consequences rather than its predictors. Thus, this study aims to fill such research gap by analysing women entrepreneurs’ WFC antecedents. Based on the bidimensional conceptualization of WFC, distinguishing between work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW), this study verifies an expanded model of the WFC which takes into consideration either the within-domain effects or the cross-domain effects of work and family stressors on WIF and FIW experienced by women entrepreneurs. In doing so, an analysis based on data from 669 women entrepreneurs has been conducted. Results show that both within-domain relationships and cross-domain relationships play a key role in explaining the WFC experienced by women entrepreneurs.

     

Climate transition risk and bank lending

We investigate whether and how banks in the global syndicated loan market adjusted the pricing and supply of credit to account for higher climate transition risk (CTR) in the years following the 2015 Paris Agreement. We measure CTR by considering the pollution levels of borrowers and the engagement of countries where borrowers are headquartered in addressing climate change issues. The evidence is mixed and points to nonlinear relations between lending variables and CO2 emissions. Policy events such as the Paris Agreement and government environmental awareness are significant climate risk drivers that, when combined, may amplify banks' perception of CTR.     

Remittances and healthcare expenditure: Human capital investment or responses to shocks? Evidence from Peru

This paper estimates the effect of international remittances on healthcare expenditures, taking into account both the interdependence with other consumption goods and the effects of health shocks. More precisely, we assess whether the budget allocation decisions of remittance‐receiving households reveal different preferences to invest in health capital, even when the simultaneous effect that health shocks may have on the demand of remittances and on other types of nondurable expenditures is accounted for. Using data from the “Peruvian National Survey of Households,” we find that remittances have a positive impact on healthcare budget shares, net of the remittance‐related income effect and independently of the occurrance of a health shock. They also have a positive impact on housing and a negative one on other expenditure items, that is, clothing, transport, and education. Hence, our results indicate a “pure” tendency of remittance‐receiving households to devote larger shares of their budget to health capital investment, rather than to other types of consumption goods.     

Comparing employment estimates using different minimum wage variables: the case of Brazil

Several minimum wage variables have been suggested in the literature to estimate the effect of the minimum wage on employment. The most common ones are the real minimum wage, the ‘Kaitz index’, the ‘fraction affected’, the ‘fraction at’ and the ‘fraction below’. This diversity of variables makes it difficult to compare the associated estimates across studies. One problem is that these estimates are not always calibrated to represent the employment effect of a 1% minimum wage increase. Another problem is that these estimates measure employment effects for different groups of workers. In this paper we critically compare employment effect estimates using these five minimum wage variables and data from a Brazilian monthly household survey panel from 1982 to 2000. Our principal finding is that the sign of this effect is robust across the different minimum wage variables, but that its magnitude and significance are sensitive to the minimum wage variable used.     

Effects of interest rate caps on credit access

Journal of Regulatory Economics - We study the liberalization of the microcredit usury rate in Colombia and its effects on loan expansion. In February 2007 the interest rate ceiling for microcredit...     

How do firms adjust their prices in Turkey? Micro-level evidence

This article investigates the pricing behaviour of Turkish firms over the period 1988–2006 on the basis of firm-level micro data. The duration of prices is found to be 3.9 months on average. There is no clear heterogeneity across main groupings in the frequency of price changes, but more dependence on imported goods reduces price stickiness. Price decreases are less frequent than price increases, indicating downward rigidity in prices. There is evidence in favour of both time and state-dependent price setting behaviours. Further, there is a low degree of synchronization of price changes across firms, whereas price increases tend to be more synchronized than price decreases. Ordered probit models show that price adjustments depend on the type of the shock: the pass-through of a change in the cost is faster than changing demand. Besides, estimated probabilities of price adjustments with 5-years rolling windows reveal that inflation targeting has succeeded in bringing down the probability of price increases, whereas downward price rigidity has not weakened yet.     

Accounting for Ecosystems

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment documented the importance of ecosystem services. It is therefore important to include these services in the national system of economic accounts. This requires estimation of “accounting prices” for ecosystems, that is, the marginal value of a change in the size of the system. This raises a number of questions: What do we mean by the “size” of the system? What is the dynamics of the system? How do we quantify the impacts on services from a change in the size of the system and finally how do we value these impacts? We discuss these questions in a few examples of ecosystems, and valuation as such is not the major problem. The major problem is the lack of information of the appropriate dynamic model for most systems. We therefore suggest that economists and ecologists should set priorities on which ecosystems should be the first objects for study for these; we should test the possibilities of estimating the accounting prices.