Employment Patterns of Husbands and Wives and Family Income Distribution in Italy (1977–98)

The pattern of employment among men and women has changed remarkably over the past decades. The growth in the participation in the labor market of women with high-income husbands has heightened concerns that wives' earnings may increase income inequality among married couples, especially in countries like Italy, the U.K., and the U.S., where more noticeable growth of income inequality during the past decade has accompanied changes in employment levels. In this paper we attempt to measure the impact of the changes of women and men's employment patterns on the distribution of income among Italian households, by considering regional differences, using micro data from the Historical Archive of the Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) for the period 1977–98. Our results indicate that total income distribution would have been more unequal without women's labor income.     

Regression analysis and dependence

In this paper we study the relationship between regression analysis and a multivariate dependency measure. If the general regression model Y=f() holds for some function f, where 1i₁< i₂<···i_m k, and X₁,...,X_k is a set of possible explanatory random variables for Y. Then there exists a dependency relation between the random variable Y and the random vector (). Using the dependency statistic defined below, we can detect such dependency even if the function f is not linear. We present several examples with real and simulated data to illustrate this assertion. We also present a way to select the appropriate subset among the random variables X₁,X₂,...,X_k, which better explain Y.     

Fed Funds Rate Surprises and Financial Markets

This paper investigates the sensitivity of various financial markets to surprises in the federal funds rate. We employ the methodology outlined by Kuttner [2001] to reevaluate prior results and expand the analysis to include data up until the financial crisis, inclusive. Our data set includes additional events to previous studies, which led our results to differ than those earlier studies. For our sample excluding the financial crisis (1994–2007), we found that Fed funds surprises had a significant effect on the percent change in the S&P 500 index, but generally had little significant effect on Treasury yields and the trade-weighted dollar. We also studied a decomposition of the yield curve and found that the lack of significant effect on Treasury yields was a result of the offsetting effects of surprises on the term premium and risk-neutral yield. In addition, our analysis of the financial crisis revealed several shifts in the response of many asset classes, likely a result of the large signaling effects contained in monetary policy combined with the extraordinary events that were occurring.     

THE EXTENDED GOVERNANCE OF COOPERATIVE FIRMS: INTER‐FIRM COORDINATION AND CONSISTENCY OF VALUES

This work aims at providing a framework for the analysis of governance in networks of cooperative firms. It builds on four bodies of literature: cooperation, transaction costs, monopoly capitalism, production networks. The framework associates the specific principles that define the identity of cooperative organizations (self‐help, member ownership, democratic control, financial participation, limited capital remuneration) alongside more general governance levels (embodied values, property rights, control, resource allocation). We then apply the same dimensions to production networks and propose a stylized networking model for cooperatives. We introduce market power, and identify two polarized types of networks: (1) heterarchical forms of coordination based on cooperation and mutual help, (2) hierarchical coordination based on exclusive direction. We compare both types with our normative framework providing examples and brief case studies for each network type. Recommendations to scholars and practitioners point at the opportunity to discriminate inter‐firm relations and production development strategy in terms of the values of cooperation, at all governance levels.     

The Spanish privatisation process: Implications on the performance of divested firms

This paper reviews the main characteristics of the Spanish privatisation and liberalisation processes and their consequences for the performance of privatised firms. Conventional pre- versus post-privatisation comparisons fail to indicate significant improvements in privatised firms' profitability and operating efficiency over a medium-term horizon once industry effects are taken into account. In contrast, they do highlight significant improvements in divested firms' industry-adjusted profitability and efficiency over a long-term horizon. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that the economic environment may play an important role in the success of privatisation processes, and that profitability and efficiency gains seem to take place in firms operating in competitive markets and in firms that were privatised during periods of macroeconomic growth. Our results also partially support the influence of restructurings before privatisation on firms' performance.     

The influence of family ownership dispersion on debt level in privately held firms

The aim of this article is to investigate the financing behavior of privately held firms along the dispersion of family ownership. Drawing on the socio-emotional wealth perspective, we argue that debt levels are contingent on the degree of ownership dispersion among family members. Based on a sample of 2451 observations, in a 10-year time frame, our results reveal the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between debt level and intra-family ownership dispersion. We demonstrate that this relationship is moderated by the generational involvement that inverts it in later generations.     

Subprime Credit: The Evolution of a Market

Business Economics - About once every decade or so economists get to witness the evolution of a credit market. In the 1970s there were mutual funds, in the 1990s there were high yield bonds, and...     

Two Wrongs Make a ‘Right’? Exploring the Ethical Calculus of Earnings Management Before Large Labor Dismissals

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper examines whether firms strategically legitimize large labor dismissals (LLDs) by performing ex-ante downward earnings management. We further assess whether...