The effect of mode 4 liberalization on illegal immigration

This paper aims to assess the impacts of the temporary movement of workers on the illegal immigration. It uses a discrete time, forward-looking model with heterogeneous agents, in order to describe the decision made by illegal migrants from developing countries. Illegal migrants are supposed to accede only to the informal sector and are price takers, as they have no negotiating power. Taking into account these specifications, the theoretical model is solved analytically and illustrated numerically. It demonstrates that under some conditions, the liberalization of temporary movement of workers could lead to a decrease of illegal migration.     

An economic production and remanufacturing model with learning effects

Managing inventory in reverse logistics has been receiving much attention in recent years. One inventory problem that has been of interest to researchers is the production and remanufacturing model, where used items are collected and remanufactured to satisfy customer demand. The available models in the literature do not discuss the learning effects in production and remanufacturing processes. This may not be true in industries where labour costs and learning costs are expensive. By modelling these learning effects, management may use established learning models to better utilize capacity, manage inventories, and coordinate production and distribution throughout the chain.This paper extends the production, remanufacture, and waste disposal model by assuming learning to occur in both production and remanufacturing processes. However, this paper also assumes that improvements due to learning require capital investment. Mathematical models are developed, numerical examples are provided, and results are discussed.     

On leanness, agility and leagile supply chains

In 1999 a paper by Naylor, Naim and Berry on ‘leagility’ was published in international journal of production economics. The paper has attracted over 100 independent citations from over 60 journals of international standing. This paper explores the testing, exploitation and extension of the original work. Via a systematic literature review the notable findings are that the 1999 paper has been exploited in terms of its classification of supply chains into lean, agile and ‘leagile’; those terms have been tested via survey and case based empirical research; has been extended beyond the original stock decoupling point exploitation of lean and agile to encompass other forms of ‘leagility’. This paper concludes that further robust testing of ‘leagility’ and the definitions of leanness and agility are still required to encompass different market sectors and ensure triangulation of research methods.     

The role of biomass energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental sustainability in G7 economies

This paper empirically examines the effect of biomass energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental sustainability in G7 economies. The current study attempts to report a comprehensive analysis of biomass energy and economic complexity on ecological and carbon footprints and carbon emissions. We employ data from 1990 to 2019 and adopt robust panel econometric techniques that account for the analysis's cross-sectional dependence. We conduct cointegration analysis, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), system generalized method of moments (GMM) and conditional quantile model for our empirical analysis. The empirical findings show that both biomass energy consumption and economic complexity are detrimental to the ecological footprint and carbon footprint. Additionally, we find that globalization positively affects the environment, while we find some evidence that bureaucratic quality improves environmental quality. Finally, in line with other research, we find that economic growth has detrimental effects on the environment. Our results suggest that policymakers should be more cautious in promoting biomass as a clean energy source and that the G7 economies should take advantage of their leading position in innovation to invest more in sustainable practices and investment.     

Strategic interaction and aggregate incentives

We consider a model of interdependent efforts, with linear interaction and lower bound on effort. Our setting encompasses asymmetric interaction and heterogeneous agents’ characteristics. We examine the impact of a rise of cross-effects on aggregate efforts. We show that the sign of the comparative static effects is related to a condition of balancedness of the interaction. Moreover, we point out that asymmetry and heterogeneous characteristics are sources of non-monotonic variation of aggregate efforts.     

Malmquist indices of productivity growth for Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia

This paper studies the total factor productivity （TFP） of banks in Malaysia with the emphasis on comparing the relative productivities of Islamic and Conventional banks. The Malmquist index approach is used to decompose productivity growth into technical efficiency and technological change. The productivity growth is measured and decomposed into technical change and efficiency change. The efficiency change is further decomposed into pure efficiency change and scale efficiency. It is found that Islamic banks＇ productivity growth is limited by its lack of technological change compared to its conventional counterparts. Nonetheless, both types of banks are operating at the correct level in terms of scale or size.     

Does entrepreneurs’ psychology affect their business venture success? Empirical findings from North Africa

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper discusses the effect of psychological traits on success. We empirically explore the effect of entrepreneurs’ psychological...     

The Impact of Fixed Exchange Rates on Fiscal Discipline

In this paper, it is shown that contrary to standard arguments, fiscal discipline is not substantially enhanced by a fixed exchange rate regime. This study is based on data from 116 countries collected from 1975 to 2004, and uses various estimation techniques for dynamic panel data, in particular a generalized method of moments estimation in the tradition of Arellano and Bover [Journal of Econometrics (1995), 68 , 29] and Blundell and Bond [Journal of Econometrics (1998), 87 , 115]. Contrary to previous papers on this topic, the present paper takes into account that the consequences of a new exchange rate regime do not necessarily fully manifest immediately.