Financial Literacy and Self‐Employment

In this paper, we study the relationship between financial literacy and self‐employment. We use established financial literacy questions to measure literacy levels. The analysis shows a highly significant and positive correlation between the index and self‐employment. We address the direction of causality by applying instrumental variable techniques based on information about maternal education. We also exploit information on financial support and family background to account for concerns about the exclusion restriction. The results provide support for a positive effect of financial literacy on the probability of being self‐employed. As financial literacy is acquirable, the findings suggest that entrepreneurial activities might be increased by enhancing financial literacy.     

Invisible influence, tangible trap: The clerical conundrum

This paper contends that the contribution made by clerical workers to organisational effectiveness is invisible due in part to the dominant perspective on the clerical sector, and in part to what is seen to be the nature of the workers themselves. In synthesising some of the degradation literature with an examination of elements of clerical subjectivity it is demonstrated that clerical effectiveness is rendered invisible and that this, in turn, essentially traps clerks in low status work. Drawing on ideas emerging from past and recent literature on tacit knowledge and comparable worth, the paper seeks to demonstrate that, by applying the principles of tacitness and its analysis to this non-managerial area of work, we can see where the influence of clerical workers lies. The paper ends with a challenge to organisations which reaps the benefits of a skilful and knowledgeable workforce while doing little to formally acknowledge such expertise.     

Infant mortality in Europe,socio-economic determinants based on aggregate data

A great deal of research has been conducted on the determinant factors of infant mortality. In this work, the focus is placed on the aggregate determinants of infant mortality in the EU. Data is collected from Eurostat and World Health Organization – Health for All databases for the period 2005-12. Robust regressions and panel data regressions are estimated in order to test the main determinants of infant mortality in the EU. Both the GDP and birth before the age of 20 influence infant mortality rate. It is likely that as mothers mean age at the first child increases, the rate of infant mortality decreases. The results found here contribute to the discussion on the factors explaining infant mortality in Europe and to future health policy. In particular, controlling teen motherhood may help to reduce infant mortality rate in the EU.     

Health insurance and lifestyles

This article contributes to the discussion surrounding the existence of ex ante moral hazard and propitious selection in a voluntary private health insurance scenario. Moreover, it provides an estimation of the determinants of lifestyle choices and of private health insurance demand. A multivariate probit is estimated for health insurance demand and lifestyle decisions to take into account the potential endogeneity of these decisions. The results indicate that there is evidence of ex ante moral hazard in deciding to do sports and eating healthy snacks. Hence, no propitious selection has been found for these decisions. Another relevant result shows that there is no individual heterogeneity for the lifestyle choices, except for smoking, and private health insurance choice. Evidence from the results also supports the idea that there are nonobservable variables playing a role in the lifestyle decisions. These results provide some directions for policymakers, such as the promotion of precautionary behaviours and the use of implicit lifestyle drivers to promote healthy choices by people.     

Brain drain and income distribution

In a context in which increased income inequality has raised much concern, and skilled workers move easily across countries, an important question arises: how does the brain drain affect income distribution in the source economy? We address this question and introduce two contributions to the literature on brain drain. First, we present and solve a simple stylized model to study whether and, if so, how the brain drain affects the distribution of income, in a context in which higher education is publicly financed with general taxes. Second, we explore empirically the effect of an increase in skilled emigration on income distribution. A key prediction of our theoretical model is the existence of a non-monotonic relationship between income inequality and emigration of skilled workers. Our empirical data confirm this result, showing a statistically significant inverse U-shaped form.     

An Internet Access Solution: MANET Routing and a Gateway Selection Approach for Disaster Scenarios

After natural and man-made disasters, the telecommunication infrastructure is usually severely damaged, thus hampering communication and rescue services. It is impossible for disaster victims to make use of communication devices such as cellular phones, iPads, or their laptops to make a connection with the outside world (Internet). With infrastructure less and decentralized features, the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) can play an important role in improving communication in post-disaster affected areas. Therefore, the important functionalities of a MANET that allow users to create dynamically configurable wireless networks without fixed infrastructure using common devices such as mobile phones is necessary. This paper reports on the development of new techniques for routing selection and gateway load balancing in MANETs. Network fairness, throughput, and packet delays are measured empirically. The proposed mechanisms can reduce network congestion and consequently improve communication in affected areas.     

An Assessment Framework for Practicing Facilitator

There is an on-going recognition of the need for facilitation to support different group settings. However, the skills and expertise required to successfully facilitate a group of participants to achieve their goal is a challenging task to achieve. There are a number of barriers towards facilitation: A facilitator needs to operate at many different levels at the same time; understand the politics within the group; encourage interaction within the group; and guide participants through tasks and activities, while balancing the needs of the group and the client to reach real outcomes. One of the key competences of a facilitator is flexibility, to adapt to varying circumstances. The complexity and dynamic nature of delivering an appropriate and effective facilitation service makes it therefore difficult to assess the facilitator’s performance in any facilitated session. In this paper we describe a framework in the form of an artefact developed to aid the facilitators in assessing their own performance in different meetings. Facilitation Service Assessment Framework (FSAF) allows facilitators to define metrics and measures in the context of facilitator’s goals. The assessment framework consists of a structure and a process which facilitators use to apply the framework to facilitation scenarios. Finally, the paper describes how experts evaluated FSAF in alternative scenarios by running a survey and then by conducting interviews.     

Innovation and exporting: evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper investigates the relationship between innovation and the export behavior of firms using data from a representative panel of Spanish firms over 1991–2002. It presents a simple theoretical model of the firm decision to export and innovate that guides the econometric analysis. Consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model, the econometric results suggest a positive effect of firm innovation on the probability of participation in export markets. The results further reveal the heterogeneous effects of different types of innovations on the firm export participation. In particular, product upgrading appears to have a larger effect on the firm export participation than the introduction of cost-saving innovations. These findings are robust to firm unobserved heterogeneity, dynamic specifications, and to the use of instrumental variables to control for the potential endogeneity between innovation and exporting.     

Professional Directors and Governance Quality

We examine professional directors—board members with no employment outside of serving as independent directors. We find that boards with a higher percentage of professional directors engage in more acquisitions, experience lower acquisition announcement returns, and exhibit lower performance‐turnover sensitivity and lower financial performance. We also examine the returns surrounding the appointment‐announcement dates of professional directors and find that firms experience significantly lower cumulative abnormal returns upon the appointment announcement of professional directors as compared to nonprofessional directors. The negative returns are primarily experienced by firms that face greater agency issues, suggesting that the market does not value professional directors for stricter monitoring. Overall, our findings do not lend support for calls to professionalize corporate boards.