What Drives Green Product Development and How do Different Antecedents Affect Market Performance? A Survey of Italian Companies with Eco‐Labels

Green products can play a key role in the achievement of sustainable development goals. Through a survey of 188 Italian companies with eco‐labeled green products, this study aims at understanding the relative importance of several motivations to develop green products, the influence of different motivations and firm characteristics on green product features (radicalness and differentiation), and which factors affect market performance of green products. This study reports a ranking of 49 motivations, highlighting that the most relevant are related to the prospect of market benefits. Results also show that product radicalness and differentiation have partially different antecedents in terms of motivations, while being a family firm positively influences only product differentiation. With regards to factors affecting market performance of green products, prospect of market benefits, availability of new technologies, firm foreign ownership, product radicalness and differentiation show a positive influence, while firm age displays a negative effect.     

Ownership of individual retirement accounts – an empirical analysis based on SHARE

This paper examines the household retirement saving decisions in what concerns to the ownership of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in eight European Union (EU) countries. IRAs are more and more seen as an alternative to public pension benefits, which are decreasing. Therefore, understanding the enrolment in IRAs, both the socio-economic factors and over time, is most important. Detailed empirical analysis of the factors that might influence the ownership of IRAs is presented based on Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), using data from Wave 2 (2006–2007) and Wave 4 (2010–2011). Further, to analyse the impact of legal retirement age in the ownership of IRAs, two subsamples are considered: people aged between 50 and 64 years old (50–64 years) and people aged 65 or over (≥ 65 years). The results suggest that age, years of education, income and ownership of dwelling influence positively and significantly household saving, while number of children, marital status and risk aversion have a negative effect. Marital status and income are not statistically significant for retired people. Policy implications are derived.     

Information and access to United Nations diplomatic missions

United Nations (UN) diplomats play an important role in international policy, yet there is a scarcity of evidence and theory on their preferences and behaviour. We report the results of an online field experiment designed to identify the revealed preferences of diplomats. In particular, we investigate whether and how diplomats will provide access to outside organizations based on offers of information. We contacted diplomats by email and randomized offers of information on either peer missions or world affairs. While offers of information on peers garnered nearly 45% more responses indicating interest than offers of information on world affairs, response rates across both treatments were low, and the difference is only 3.3 percentage points. Our estimated treatment effects of assignment to the peer as compared to world affairs treatment are not statistically significant. Our experiment failed to provide evidence that these types of informational offers facilitate differential access to UN diplomats.     

Modelling preferences for nature-based recreation activities

This research contributes to a better understanding of visitors’ preferences and behavioural patterns in national parks and protected areas. A conceptual model is proposed to explain why visitors prefer particular nature- or culture-based activities. It integrates three components – outdoor recreation participation, expectancy-value and environmental attitudes. The New Environmental Paradigm is used to capture environmental attitudes, and the motivations for travelling to parks are based on the push and pull motivation factors. Structural equation modelling is used to test the proposed model using data from 401 domestic visitors to Portuguese parks and other protected areas. Results show that nature-based sports are influenced by motivation to do adventurous sports and by social norms; the pro-environmental attitudes, the motivation to enjoy nature and the influence of others affect the interest in interpretation activities; the model’s strongest impact on recreation activities is from culture-related motives.     

Term Spreads,Forward Rates and Yield Curve Forecasts

The expectations hypothesis contends that long rates should equal expected forthcoming average short rates. The spread between long and short rates should therefore forecast changes in short rates. In addition, forward rates should anticipate future spot rates. We present econometric evidence for the Euro area in the period from September 2004 to August 2018. In our sample, term spreads are negatively correlated to subsequent interest rate changes. The difference between forward and spot rates is conversely positively correlated to ensuing spot rate changes. Further regression analysis shows, that nominal interest rates do not have predictive properties for future inflation. A vector autoregression analysis whilst revealing medium term overconfidence of Euro area investors, suggests that the propositions of the expectations hypothesis should hold over relatively long periods of time.     

Defaults in bank loans to SMEs during the financial crisis

We investigate the role of (business) collateral and (personal) guarantees alongside small and medium enterprise (SME), lending bank and loan characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, sectors, and geographic locations while controlling for unobserved time effects in predicting default at the peak of the financial crisis. First, we find a positive relation between collateral and default, and a negative relation between guarantees and default. Second, we find a negative relation between the joint influence of collateral and high credit score, and a positive relation between the joint influence of collateral and low credit score and default. We also find a negative relation between the joint influence of guarantees and high credit score. These findings are relevant for SME policies aimed at facilitating access to credit, reducing the cost of borrowing, and decreasing default; risk management of banks; and the application of theories of financial economics in the context of a financial crisis.     

Determinants of the income velocity of money in Portugal: 1891–1998

This paper performs a long-run time series analysis of the behaviour of the income velocity of money in Portugal between 1891 and 1998 by assessing the importance of both macroeconomic and institutional factors and looking for particularities in the Portuguese case. We estimate two cointegration vectors for the income velocity of money, macroeconomic variables and institutional variables. It is apparent that one of these vectors reflects the relationship between income velocity and macroeconomic variables, while the other reflects the relationship between income velocity and institutional variables. Moreover, a regression analysis reveals that the usual U-shaped pattern is displayed with a relatively late inflection point located around 1970, which is consistent with the Spanish case. It is further noted that this is a feature of countries with a late economic and institutional development process.     

Closed-loop supply chains: a guide to theory and practice

During the last decades, attention to the environment has grown substantially. A remarkable and significant trend has been the recognition of the strategic importance of reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) as a consequence of the Directive on Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment. In this paper, we analyse the transformation from an ‘open-loop supply chain’ to a ‘closed-loop supply chain’. Our aim is to guide the reader through the main aspects of both theory and practice in CLSCs: starting from the existing literature, we adopt a broader approach and define the guidelines for managers to follow in the supply chain decision process. Assuming a producer responsibility perspective, we pay a special attention to some of the most important sustainable strategic decisions that a company has to face in order to implement and effectively manage the CLSC: (i) location–allocation, (ii) returns collection, (iii) inventory control of returns, (iv) returns grading and (v) performance management of CLSC. We describe each typology of problems, their mathematical formulations and the implications through both an environment and business perspective. We highlight the managerial implication and then underline the limits of the current literature, and define future directions for research to explore.