Additionality When REDD Contracts Must be Self-Enforcing

This paper examines self-enforcing contracts as a financial mechanism for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation when the opportunity cost of the land (i.e., landholder type) is private information and is imperfectly correlated over time (i.e., partially persistent types). Because self-enforcement limits the feasible incentives, the conservation levels are constrained by the surplus created. Regardless of the degree of persistence of such opportunity costs across contracting periods, a first-best self-enforcing contract can deliver “additional” carbon sequestration beyond the business as usual scenario only if the value of forest conservation is sufficiently high. Otherwise, self-enforcing contracts can induce some, suboptimal level of carbon sequestration. The degree of persistence of opportunity costs across periods does not affect the amount of total payments provided in the optimal menu of contracts, but greater persistence of opportunity cost types leads to contracts that feature more of the total payment as a bonus in contracts for landholders with a high opportunity cost for their land and more of the total payment as an upfront fixed payment for landholders with a low opportunity cost.     

The use of earnings and operations management to avoid credit rating downgrades

Firms placed on negative credit watch face the threat of a credit rating downgrade. At the same time, they are given the opportunity to put recovery efforts in place to retain their current credit rating. In this paper, we test to what extent firms use earnings management as a short-term recovery strategy. We find that both accruals-based and real earnings management are associated with firms avoiding credit rating downgrades, and that these alternative earnings management strategies tend to be complements rather than substitutes. However, following the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, only real earnings management is significantly associated with the credit watch outcome. We find evidence that firms which maintain their rating via earnings management are better able to afford the inevitable earnings reversals, and that in the year following the credit watch period, the credit rating performance of these firms is significantly better than firms which undergo a downgrade, with fewer downgrades and more upgrades in this period. Our results also imply that credit rating agencies are not misled by earnings management but rather allow for some discretion in reporting earnings that facilitates the dissemination of private information about future firm performance.     

Sexual harassment in organizations

Sexual harassment is now recognized as a potential problem for most organizations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the various aspects of sexual harassment as a problem: its definition (including both the economic injury and hostile environment types of harassment), its characteristics, and a discussion of how to deal with such problems in the workplace. Organizations are encouraged to act affirmatively by (1) establishing a policy prohibiting sexual harassment in the organization; (2) establishing and making employees aware of a grievance procedure for sexual harassment complaints; and (3) educating employees about the problem of sexual harassment through a combination of awareness and experiential training techniques.     

SURVEYING THE ECONOMICS OF PLURAL MODES OF ORGANIZATION

Why do firms concomitantly rely on more than one organizational arrangement to procure/distribute a given input/product? In this paper, we systematically review and discuss the extensive path undergone by the literature exploring this issue: the so‐called plural forms. We address two main questions: how to explain the coexistence (and often the prevalence) of plural forms in many types of businesses? Are plural forms stable or a transitory phenomenon? We describe the most prominent motivations identified in the economics and management literature that drive firms to adopt plural forms and show that their vast majority are related to the mitigation of various types of agency/transaction costs. We also demonstrate that most of the available pieces of empirical evidence suggest the stability of plural forms over time. We conclude by demonstrating the path that has been trailed by the most recent developments.     

Which manufacturing firms learn by exporting?

Using a longitudinal database (1996–2003) at the plant level, this article analyses the causal nexus between international trade engagement and productivity in Portugal. By applying the propensity score matching and a differences-in-differences estimator, the learning-by-exporting hypothesis is analysed in particular. A higher growth of labour productivity and total factor productivity is found for new exporting firms. To uncover the channels through which the learning effects are driven, the same methodology is applied to some sub-samples. Learning effects are higher for new exporters that are also importers or start importing at the same time. Other factors affecting learning ability are found in firms exporting to more developed markets, in those that achieve a certain threshold of export intensity and mainly for those firms that belong to sectors where Portugal has a comparative disadvantage.     

How Much Did Oil Market Developments Contribute to the 2009 Recession in Germany?

In this paper, we use a structural vector autoregressive model to study the effects of oil market developments on the German economy. We find that higher oil prices are always associated with a decline in private consumption expenditures, but the response of gross domestic product (GDP) crucially depends on the underlying shock. While a disruption in oil supply provokes a recession, positive world demand shocks prompt a temporary increase in exports and investment, which initially outweigh the cutback on consumption. In a counterfactual analysis, we show that the world demand shocks that led to the 2007/2008 oil price rise triggered a delayed 0.8 percent decrease in German GDP in 2009, and therefore notably contributed to the recession of that year.     

The impact of diverse measures of default risk on UK stock returns

A number of recent papers examine the relationship between default risk and equity returns, and the results are mixed. These studies employ different measures of default risk and we find that correlations between eight diverse measures of default risk tend to be less than 50%. Nonetheless, we find that the relationship between stock returns and diverse measures of default risk tends to be consistent; default risk is a significant determinant of stock returns and this relationship is “hump backed”, as predicted by Garlappi and Yan (2011).     

Factors influencing the adjustment of women on global assignments

This study tests a four-factor model proposed by Caligiuri and Cascio (in press) for predicting the cross-cultural adjustment of female expatriates. The four factors tested in this paper were family support, personality characteristics, organizational support and host nationals' attitudes towards female expatriates. Structured phone interviews with thirty-eight American female expatriates from US-based companies were conducted. The responses were content analysed and regression was conducted. The results suggest company and family support are significantly related to cross-cultural adjustment. Thus, suggestions are given for future research on female expatriates using the theoretical model of social support. Practical recommendations for how to maximize the likelihood of success for women on global assignments are also given.     

Enterprise maturity models: a systematic literature review

Maturity models (MM) have been used by different enterprise segments. However, while many MM have been developed, few have been validated because of the lack of studies that demonstrate how to classify model levels. This study investigates the literature that presents assessment models for classifying maturity levels as well as the development of the research area. A systematic literature review was carried out, finding 409 relevant papers and a list of the few methods for classifying the maturity level. This review enabled us to update the state of the art on MM and identify gaps that may prompt future research.