Responsibility of the University in Employability: Development and validation of a measurement scale across five studies

This paper develops and validates, at a confirmatory level, a second‐order scale to measure Responsibility of the University in Employability (RUE). First, the literature on the components of RUE is explored and a formative conceptual model is proposed to underpin its measurement using extant research in the field of organisational responsibility and employability. At the empirical level, the second‐order RUE model considers the reputation of the university, the teaching staff, and the matching activities with employers as components of RUE. This model is based on five empirical studies. The first is a small‐sample study based on the opinions of experts (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;5) and the rest are based on representative samples of university students (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;816, n&nbsp;=&nbsp;1,082, n&nbsp;=&nbsp;1,088, and n&nbsp;=&nbsp;1,203). A very good fit between model and data were revealed (CFI&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.975; RMSEA&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.039; standardised X<sup>2sup>&nbsp;=&nbsp;2.676). The results indicate that matching activities with employers and teaching staff generate more RUE than university reputation. Guidelines are offered for managing the responsibility of the university in employability.     

Psychometric properties of the Valencia Scale of Attitudes and Beliefs Towards Hypnosis (therapist version) (VSABTH-T) online version

Quality & Quantity - This study analyzes, for the first time, the psychometric properties of the Valencia Scale of Attitudes and Beliefs towards Hypnosis, Therapist Version (VSABTH-T) in its...     

Does urbanization boost environmental impacts in Colombia? An extended STIRPAT–LCA approach

The relationship between urbanization and technological progress on environment, mainly CO2 emissions, has been extensively studied in the last decades; however, little effort has been made to understand such a relationships in developing countries. This work focuses on understanding the effects of urbanization and some technological factors on the Colombian electricity consumption. This topic is addressed from several environmental impact dimensions rather than solely focusing on CO2 emissions. An extended STIRPAT model, in combination with LCA approaches, was applied in a balanced panel dataset of 27 states, over the period of 2003 to 2018. Our findings suggest that urbanization is the major driver of electricity consumption and climate change in Colombia. Our results address the lack of information about this topic in developing countries and also, they contribute to understand the main features of emissions in Colombia and the key driving forces behind their environmental impacts. Finally and given the current trends on population and urban growth, we conclude with some recommendations aimed to relevant stakeholders.     

Cambio tecnológico y empleo en el Brasil,Colombia y México: ¿Qué trabajadores son los más afectados?

A partir de un enfoque basado en tareas se analizan los patrones de empleo ocupacionales y de calificación en los mercados laborales urbanos del Brasil, Colombia y México entre 2002 y 2015. Se observa una fuerte disminución del empleo en ocupaciones de calificación media y un ligero aumento en las de baja y alta calificación. Según una descomposición shift-share, la disminución se explica por cambios intrasectoriales (hipótesis de rutinización) en ciertos casos (secretarios y taquígrafos), y por cambios intersectoriales en otros (artesanos y operadores de máquinas). Los cambios tecnológicos afectaron negativamente a las mujeres y beneficiaron a los jóvenes y a los más calificados.     

Movie release strategy: Theory and evidence from international distribution

Choosing the right time to release a new movie may be the difference between success and failure. Prior research states that the “bigger” a blockbuster is, the more likely it is (and should be) released during a high‐demand week. We present a theoretical framework which is consistent with this observation but adds a rather surprising theoretical prediction: among non‐blockbuster (i.e., niche) movies, everything else constant, the greater a movie's appeal, the more likely it is released during a low‐demand week. In other words, the relation between movie appeal and high‐demand‐week release is U‐shaped: it decreases at low levels of overall appeal (niche movies) and increases at high levels of overall appeal (blockbusters). We provide intuition for this novel result and argue that it is robust to a number of changes in functional form assumptions. We then show that the theoretical results are consistent with the evidence from an extensive data set on international releases. Specifically, we run a series of movie‐country‐pair regressions with high‐demand‐week‐release as a dependent variable and exogenous shocks to the movie's appeal as an explanatory variable. As predicted by theory, the regression coefficients have opposite signs for the blockbuster and non‐blockbuster cases.     

An agent-based early warning indicator for financial market instability

Inspired by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch global breath rule, we propose an investor sentiment index based on the collective movement of stock prices in a given market. We show that the time evolution of the sentiment index can be reasonably described by the herding model proposed by Kirman in his seminal paper “Ants, rationality and recruitment” (Kirman in Q J Econ 108:137–156, 1993). The correspondence between the index and the model allowed us to easily estimate its parameters. Based on the model and the empirical evolution of the sentiment index, we propose an early warning indicator able to identify optimistic and pessimistic phases of the market. As a result, investors and policy-makers can set different strategies anticipating financial market instability. Investors can reduce the risk of their portfolio while policy-makers can set more efficient policies to avoid the effects of financial instability on the real economy. The validity of our results is supported by means of a robustness analysis showing the application of the early warning indicator in eight different worldwide stock markets.

     

Beyond GDP: an analysis of the socio-economic diversity of European regions

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to analyze the socioeconomic diversity of the European Union (EU-28) regions from a dynamic perspective. For that purpose, we combine a series of exploratory space-time analysis approaches to multiple Factor Analysis (MFA) applied to a large range of indicators collected at the NUTS-2 level for the period 2000–2015 for the EU-28. First, we find that the first factor of MFA, interpreted as economic development (ECO-DEV), is spatially clustered and that a moderate convergence process is at work between European regions from 2000 to 2015. Second, when comparing these results with those obtained for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, we show that the convergence pattern detected with GDP per capita is more pronounced: ECO-DEV adjusts slower over time compared to GDP per capita. Third, pictures provided by the remaining interesting factors, capturing educational attainment, population dynamics and employment, are very different.     

The relationship between tax rates and tax revenues in eurozone member countries - exploring the Laffer curve

We estimate Laffer Curves for direct and indirect taxes for each Eurozone country, using panel data from 1995 to 2011, by means of Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models. We choose the three taxes that contribute the most to the government tax revenue: the value added tax (VAT), the corporate income tax (CT), and the labour income tax (LT). From our estimated significant parameters, which have the expected signs according to the Laffer Curve theory, we obtained a maximum/optimal tax rate for VAT for Greece, Portugal, and Slovakia and for the majority of the Eurozone countries for direct taxes. We also take into consideration the business cycle. Many countries do not present differences in regime, and when they do, the optimal tax rate is higher during recessions. Finally, we compare the observed tax rates in 2012 to the estimated optimal tax rates, to assess if the 2012 policy was located at the prohibitive range of the Laffer Curve. Our results are important for the discussions about fiscal discipline and harmonization in the Eurozone, since they exhibit important disparities between countries and taxes. We can see that, especially for CT and LT, there is a strong divide between the values of the optimal maximum tax rates for Eastern European countries and Western European economies. Additionally, the economic and financial conditions of each country also influence the value for the tax&nbsp;rate.     

The super-alertness of central banks

The Review of Austrian Economics - This paper applies Kirzner’s theory of entrepreneurial alertness to central banking. As opposed to entrepreneurs operating within the market, central banks...     

Is There Room for Ethical Consumers on the Finnish Political Spectrum?

Journal of Consumer Policy - This paper examines ethical consumption by comparing attitudes between different political party supporters. In recent consumer theories, it is argued that...