Gentrification in Spain and Latin America — a Critical Dialogue

Major social and political transformations such as the shift towards neoliberal urban policies have widely altered the contemporary structuring of metropolitan areas in Spain and Latin America. One key consequence is the recapture of city centres by wealthy tenants and the eviction of poorer households, a phenomenon usually designated by the term gentrification. In comparison to the comprehensive documentation of gentrification in the Anglophone environment, few scholars have paid attention to this phenomenon in this area of the world so far. This article responds to this gap, providing an exhaustive revision of the debates about gentrification occurring in Spain and Latin America during the last decade and tracking two theoretical motivations. First, it stresses the necessity of characterizing gentrification discourses in Spain and Latin America, preparing a conceptual appropriation and contextualization of the term itself. Second, it confirms that gentrification in Spain and Latin America varies substantially from processes observed in the Anglophone world. As a result, the review develops insights into emancipating and challenging debates that remain useful for the mainstream gentrification discourse too. Addressing this, it proposes a reconsideration and repoliticization of gentrification through the territorial and linguistic lens of Spanish and Latin American researchers.     

Parametric inference from system lifetime data under a proportional hazard rate model

In this paper, we discuss the statistical inference of the lifetime distribution of components based on observing the system lifetimes when the system structure is known. A general proportional hazard rate model for the lifetime of the components is considered, which includes some commonly used lifetime distributions. Different estimation methods—method of moments, maximum likelihood method and least squares method—for the proportionality parameter are discussed. The conditions for existence and uniqueness of method of moments and maximum likelihood estimators are presented. Then, we focus on a special case when the lifetime distributions of the components are exponential. Computational formulas for point and interval estimations of the unknown mean lifetime of the components are provided. A Monte Carlo simulation study is used to compare the performance of these estimation methods and recommendations are made based on these results. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the methods proposed in this paper.     

Probability of an incoming order signal

Taking into account that transaction prices are realized at the bid or the ask price, we propose a probabilistic neural network model and a Bayesian rule to predict the incoming order signal of a stock and its probability using the buy–sell trade indicator or trade direction sign. We consider that if there is any private information to be inferred from trade, agents can use a trade equation to form an expectation about the future trade based on the trade and quote revision history. In addition, we use it to analyse the classification and forecasting capacity of various discrete regression and probabilistic neural network models to estimate the probability of an incoming order signal by means of statistical and economic criteria. Our results indicate that the probabilistic neural network classifies and predicts slightly better than linear, Probit and MLP models for short forecast horizons, among other statistical criteria, and reversed trades with respect to the economic assessment of the negotiation for both short and long forecast horizons.     

Return to tourist destination. Is it reputation,after all?

In this paper the hypothesis that repeated purchases in the tourism markets could be considered as a consequence of asymmetrical information problems is studied. This hypothesis is analysed with the case study of the island of Tenerife using the estimation of a count data model. It was found that the length of the stay and the information obtained from previous visits and/or relatives and friends might increase the return to a destination suggesting the presence of a reputation mechanism as proposed by Shapiro (1983 Shapiro, C. 1983. Premiums for high quality products as returns to reputations. Quaterly Journal of Economics, 98: 659–79. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The determinants of the willingness to return were also estimated, confirming the main results.     

Matchmaking: community and business unit racial/ethnic diversity and business unit performance

Past studies examining how the match between organization and community racial/ethnic proportions influences performance have relied on the social categorization perspective on diversity, but have not offered strong significant results. However, the information and decision-making perspective on diversity suggests that organizational diversity fit based on variety, rather than a match of demographic proportions, leads to greater performance. This study considered both perspectives to test how both racial/ethnic proportions matching and diversity fit influence business unit financial performance. This was tested on a sample of 51 business units of a restaurant chain in the USA. The results show that business unit diversity was associated with higher performance in diverse communities but not in homogeneous communities. This suggests that racial/ethnic diversity is a valuable human resource conducive to greater performance but this is contingent upon community diversity. Implications for organizational diversity research and human resource management are discussed.     

Tax morale affects tax compliance: Evidence from surveys and an artefactual field experiment

Our working hypothesis is that cross-cultural differences in tax compliance behavior have foundations in the institutions of tax administration and citizen assessment of the quality of governance. Tax compliance being a complex behavioral issue, its investigation requires use of a variety of methods and data sources. Results from artefactual field experiments conducted in countries with substantially different political histories and records of governance quality demonstrate that observed differences in tax compliance levels persist over alternative levels of enforcement. The experimental results are shown to be robust by replicating them for the same countries using survey response measures of tax compliance.     

Realizing the gains from trade: Export crops, marketing costs, and poverty

This paper explores the role of export costs in the process of poverty reduction in rural Africa. We claim that the marketing costs that emerge when the commercialization of export crops requires intermediaries can lead to lower participation into export cropping and, thus, to higher poverty. We test the model using data from the Uganda National Household Survey. We show that: i) farmers living in villages with fewer outlets for sales of agricultural exports are likely to be poorer than farmers residing in market-endowed villages; ii) market availability leads to increased household participation in export cropping (coffee, tea, cotton, fruits); iii) households engaged in export cropping are less likely to be poor than subsistence-based households. We conclude that the availability of markets for agricultural export crops help realize the gains from trade. This result uncovers the role of complementary factors that provide market access and reduce marketing costs as key building blocks in the link between the gains from export opportunities and the poor.     

Critical Role of Leadership on Ethical Climate and Salesperson Behaviors

Leaders play a critical role in setting the tone for ethical climate in organizations. In recent years, there has been an increased skepticism about the role played by corporate executives in developing and implementing ethics in business practices. Sales and marketing practices of businesses, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, have come under increased scrutiny. This study identifies a type of leadership style that can help firms develop an ethical climate. Responses from 333 salespeople working for a North American subsidiary of an international pharmaceutical company were used to analyze the impact of instrumental leadership on ethical climate. We also examined the effect of ethical climate on effort, satisfaction with the supervisor, and job satisfaction. Managerial implications are provided.