The Impact of Bilateral Investment Treaties on FDI Dynamics

This paper investigates the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) in transition countries. FDI stocks are characterised by sluggish adjustment and a dynamic pattern. This leads to biased estimates of the contemporaneous impact of BITs on FDI in static models. In our application, the contemporaneous (short‐run) impact of BITs amounts to 4.8 per cent and the long‐run effect to 8.9 per cent in the preferred model.     

Leisure,Stress, and Coping: The Sport Participation of Collegiate Student-Athletes

Research has indicated that there is a relationship between stress and participation in leisure (Caltabiano, 1995; Chalip, Thomas, & Voyle, 1992; Reich & Zautra, 1981; Strauss-Blasche, Ekmekcioglu, & Marktl, 2002; Warner-Smith & Brown, 2002; Wheeler & Frank, 1988). It has been suggested that leisure buffers or mediates stress, thereby enhancing individual health and well-being, because of the self-determination and social support that are experienced in leisure (Coleman & Iso-Ahola, 1993). However, a number of issues have been raised by the recent research, including whether or not the leisure, stress, and health relationship varies by type of leisure activity (Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000), exactly why and how leisure (or any given leisure activity) interacts with stress (Iwasaki & Mannell, 1999-2000; Kleiber, Hutchinson, & Williams, 2002), and the possibility that leisure itself could be a stressor (Iwasaki & Mannell, 2000; Iwasaki & Smale, 1998). The interpretive study reported here examined a particular leisure activity--collegiate sport--and individuals' experiences of stress because of their participation in this type of leisure. Results indicate that collegiate sport is perceived to be both a buffer and experience of stress. Results also reveal that race and gender are important in shaping collegiate athletes' experiences of stress. Support was found for the ideas that (a) stress is a transactional process (Lazarus, 1998) and (b) research approaches that allow the dynamic experience and contextualization of the personal meanings of stress and leisure to emerge are needed (Iwasaki & Smale, 1998; Kleiber et al., 2002).     

Did Italy Need More Labour Flexibility?

The dramatic impact of the 2008 crisis on the Italian economy led to policy responses including structural reforms and labour market liberalisation to reverse the worrisome output and employment trends. A key action by the Italian government, the evocatively named Jobs Act of 2014, has deeply changed Italian industrial relations. The Jobs Act has introduced a new contract type that substantially limits workers’ rights to reinstatement in case of fi rms invalidly fi ring them. This article frames the Jobs Act within the overall liberalisation process begun in Italy in the 1990s, providing an initial evaluation of its impacts. Using detailed data sources, we show that the expected boost in employment cannot be detected, the share of temporary contracts over open-ended ones has increased and the number of part-time contracts has risen. This evidence suggests that the Jobs Act is failing to achieve its main goals.     

Connecting at the edge: Cycles of commodification and labour control within food delivery platform work in Belgium

In this paper we examine how commodification and labour control unfold within a digital labour platform, focusing on the connections between the platform, its users and workers. Based on a qualitative study covering couriers, clients, restaurants and the management of a food delivery platform in Belgium, we shed light on the complexity of commodification, explaining how the platform simultaneously empowers and disempowers all participants. We illustrate how the platform fosters commodification by granting access to transactions and fuelling competition, while at the same time increasing dependency through withholding information from users and workers. In so doing, we contribute to understanding how platforms exert control and create, extract and capture value by connecting users and workers with each other through the use of digital technology.     

The Diffusion of Employment Practices of US‐Based Multinationals in Europe. A Case Study Comparison of British‐ and Italian‐Based Subsidiaries

A number of approaches to the diffusion of employment practices within American‐based multinational companies (MNCs) can be discerned. In this paper, two theoretical approaches are contrasted: a ‘country‐of‐origin’ approach in which the influence of the home country is mediated by national features of host‐country institutional environments; and a power resources or strategic choice approach that emphasizes the autonomy of local actors within MNCs and their capacity to shape the diffusion of employment practices. Using a case study comparison of three Italian and two British‐based subsidiaries owned by an American MNC, the paper examines factors and patterns of diffusion of employment practices from the parent company to the local subsidiaries. The argument is put forward that company‐specific features enhance the strategic power of the subsidiary firm within the wider corporation, thus complementing institutional host‐country characteristics in shaping the diffusion of employment practices abroad. Hence, organizational as well as institutional effects contribute to creating the space that the various actors across host countries possess for protecting their interests and for exercising power on the terms and conditions of the diffusion.     

A NEW CINDERELLA STORY: JOINT VENTURES AND THE PROPERTY RIGHTS THEORY OF THE FIRM

Joint ventures (JVs) are a common form of inter-firm collaboration and, unsurprisingly, the subject of a vast literature, extending from economics to management and business studies. Issues of control are central to the definition of JVs, and this naturally calls for an interpretation in the context of the property rights theory (PRT) of the firm. In a series of seminal papers, Grossman, Hart and Moore (GHM) offer a rigorous framework to predict the allocation of control rights. Notably, under the standard assumptions of GHM, JVs are suboptimal. However, JVs are not suboptimal in more general settings where a number of the original framework's assumptions are relaxed. In the context of PRT, this paper surveys more than 20 contributions that address the optimality of JVs under contract incompleteness. The surveyed papers question the assumptions of GHM and reveal the circumstances in which JVs outperform sole ownership. Although contributions are scattered over time and bibliographical sources, we believe sufficient material has accumulated over 25 years of economic modelling to encourage some systematization. The discussion is organized in an intuitive and non-technical way; in particular, effort is devoted to analysing each paper in detail and providing a unified framework.     

The Limits of Pension Privatization: Lessons from Argentine Experience

The paper studies the operation of the mixed pension system established in Argentina in 1994. It points to the limitations that the new system has encountered to achieve some of the most important objectives of pension policy and pension reform. The analysis looks at the mechanisms affecting pension system performance, with particular attention to the way in which the new pension rules have interacted with the local macroeconomic, social, and political context. The empirical analysis of this experience is oriented to provide lessons for Argentina’s future reforms, as well as for many Latin American countries with similar pension arrangements.     

Intraday volatility in the bond,foreign exchange,and stock index futures markets

Intraday volatility for the Eurodollar, the Euro/dollar foreign exchange rate, and the E‐mini S&P 500 futures contracts traded on a continuous 23‐hour schedule on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Globex electronic platform is studied. Volatility transmission in a single market across different regions is mainly explained by intraregion volatility (heat waves); interregion volatility (meteor showers) plays a secondary role. The joint impact of liquidity variables such as volume and open interest on volatility is also analyzed. Volume tends to increase volatility, but open interest does not affect it. The results are explained by the type of trading venue. Unlike floor‐based trading systems, in electronic markets open interest does not seem to provide additional information on market liquidity and its relation to volatility beyond any information contributed by volume. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28:313– 334, 2008     

Defining,achieving, and evaluating collaborative outcomes: a theory of change approach

Governments have repeatedly claimed that collaboration improves public service outcomes. However, defining, achieving, and evaluating collaborative outcomes is often problematic. Analysis of multi-sectoral projects in Wales, which were supported by the European Social Fund, exemplifies these challenges. Shifts in policy discourses and the interplay between national and local agendas produced complex and contested understandings of outcomes which made difficult to evaluate the projects’ achievements. We argue that the pursuit of collaboration needs to be understood not simply as an attempt to improve public service effectiveness but also ‘cultural efficacy’. The conclusions offer reflections relevant for theory and practice.