Policy impact assessment in developing countries using Social Accounting Matrices: The Kenya SAM 2014

This paper describes the structure and estimation of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Kenya for the year 2014. Among its specificities, this SAM includes a very high disaggregation of the agri‐food sector and accounts for the double role of households as producers and consumers. Accounting for these characteristics is crucial to provide robust socioeconomic analysis in the context of developing countries. Indeed, this type of database is valuable to perform ex‐ante evaluations of economic policies with various economic models and techniques. In this paper, we present an application with a linear multiplier analysis (backward linkages and value chain decomposition). The results show the capacity of the primary sector in Kenya to generate value added and employment, with this growth distributed more intensely in rural households whose main livelihood is semi‐subsistence agriculture.     

Identifying the Independent Sources of Consumption Variation

By representing a system of budget shares as an approximate factor model we determine its rank, i.e. the number of common functional forms or factors, and we estimate a base of the factor space by means of approximate principal components. We assume that the extracted factors span the same space of basic Engel curves representing the fundamental forces driving consumers' behaviour. We identify these curves by imposing statistical independence and by studying their dependence on total expenditure using local linear regressions. We prove consistency of the estimates. Using data from the UK Family Expenditure Survey from 1977 to 2006, we find strong evidence of two common factors and mixed evidence of a third factor. These are identified as decreasing, increasing, and almost constant Engel curves. The household consumption behaviour is therefore driven by two factors respectively related to necessities (e.g. food), luxuries (e.g. vehicles), and in some cases by a third factor related to goods to which is allocated the same percentage of total budget both by rich and poor households (e.g. housing). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Informal adult care and caregivers' employment in Europe

I discuss instrumental variable estimates of the effect of providing unpaid adult care on the caregivers' probability of being employed, using eight waves of the European Community Household Panel. I focus on men aged 40–64 and women aged 40–59 from thirteen Member States, aggregated in two groups of Northern-Central and Southern countries. Previous papers with European data found that IV estimates are more negative than estimates assuming exogeneity of caregiving. I show that this difference is not robust once account is taken of time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity. Indeed, instruments turn out not to be needed, and the estimated effect is negative, but small in both groups of countries.     

Firm size, business experience and export intensity in SMEs: A longitudinal approach to complex relationships

The objective of the paper is to test the effect of firm size and business experience on export performance. In fact, despite a growing number of empirical studies, the question of the relationship between these variables is not clearly established. This research aims at contributing to a better understanding of these complex relationships with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors develop a general model and test it using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms that spans the 1997–2001 period. Combining a time-series with a cross-sectional analysis, they use an econometric model in order to test the relationships. Their findings provide a strong support for both relationships. The results show that it is not business experience per se which is important but that it is the relative change in experience that truly impacts upon export performance. The model also reveals that industry effects are relevant.     

Does total-factor productivity drive housing prices? A growth-accounting exercise for four countries

Housing prices diverge from construction prices after 1997 in four major countries. Besides, total-factor productivity (TFP) differences between construction and the general economy account for the evolution of construction prices in the US and Germany, but not in the UK and Spain.     

Strategic accessibility competition

We analyze the effect of competition in market-accessibility enhancement among quality-differentiated firms. Firms are located in regions with different ex-ante transport costs to reach the final market. We characterize the equilibrium of the two-stage game in which firms first invest to improve market accessibility and then compete in prices. Efforts in accessibility improvement crucially depend on the interplay between the willingness to pay for the quality premium of the median consumer and the ex-ante difference in accessibility between regions. From the social standpoint, also the accessibility investment depends on such a comparison. Finally, we endogenize quality choice and check the robustness of the result to some natural modifications of our assumptions.     

The Phasing of Fiscal Adjustments: What Works in Emerging Market Economies?

This paper investigates the political and economic determinants of successful fiscal adjustment in 25 emerging market economies from 1980 to 2001. The results show that large and back‐loaded fiscal adjustments have the highest likelihood of success. Fiscal consolidations based on expenditure cuts increase the probability of approaching and achieving fiscal sustainability but are insufficient to maintain it unless accompanied by revenue reforms. Adjustment episodes launched in countries where governments enjoy a parliamentary majority and do not face imminent elections, are found to be more successful. Fiscal consolidations undertaken under IMF‐supported programs also have a higher probability of success.     

Wage bargaining and vertical differentiation

This paper applies the Nash Bargaining solution to wage setting in a vertically differentiated oligopoly and studies its welfare effects. The market outcome crucially depends on the bargaining power attributed to the agents. I show that the wage bargaining structure is likely to lead to another source of inefficiency that adds to the classical one derived by oligopoly pricing and quality choice. (JEL: L11, J51)     

Sustainability report in small enterprises: case studies in Italian furniture companies

The recent evolution of the economic and social context has led enterprises to consider and assess corporate environmental and social impacts integrated with the traditionally measured economic and operating performances. From this point of view, the international debate on the advantages given by the firms' adoption of socially responsible behaviour has been developed; the increasing consciousness of the social character in enterprises' activities has enlarged the interest in communication. For this reason, several different standards have been developed in order to transmit, to the stakeholders, data, information and approaches about environmental, social and sustainability topics related to the firm's activities. In this dynamic context, the features of SMEs require specific guidelines, which address the contents of an SME‐oriented sustainability report. In this perspective the aim is to design guidelines able to meet with these SMEs' requirements; seven case studies, on Italian furniture small enterprises, complete the study. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.