Comments on “An analysis of the international tourism demand in Spain” by P. González and P. Moral

Although the state-space, unobserved component approach to forecasting has many advantages, it must be applied carefully in practice and should not be used in an uncritical, ‘black box’ fashion. In particular, such an approach to the modelling and forecasting of Spanish tourism data is inappropriate and leads to misleading conclusions, particularly in relation to the uncritical selection and use of explanatory regression variables.     

Fuel taxation,emissions policy,and competitive advantage in the diffusion of European diesel automobiles

Economic integration agreements have significantly decreased import tariffs. We investigate whether national policies can be an effective replacement for tariffs to protect domestic industry. We show that (a) European fuel taxes and vehicle emissions policy favored diesel vehicles, a technology popular with European consumers but largely offered only by domestic automakers; (b) European automakers benefited from pro‐diesel fuel taxes and a lenient NO_x emissions policy to earn significant profits from diesel cars; and (c) that both policies amounted to significant nontariff trade policies equivalent to an import tariff between two to three times the official rate.     

Factors affecting success in the professional entry exam for accountants in Brazil

This paper explores factors that have affected the success of candidates in the professional entry exam conducted by Brazil’s Federal Council of Accounting. We analyse results of 18,948 candidates who sat for the exam in 2012, using a logistic regression model and the key indicators used by government to monitor the performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) and the characteristics of candidates. We find that success is related positively to the quality of the HEIs from which candidates graduated and to a measure of student ability that is used widely in Brazil. We find also that males perform better than females and that younger candidates perform better than older candidates. The geographical region of Brazil within which candidates completed the exam was also significant. The insights provided will help public policy-makers in Brazil, and the Brazilian accounting profession, to understand key factors associated with current low pass rates.     

The Actuarial Balance Sheet for Pay‐As‐You‐Go Finance: Solvency Indicators for Spain and Sweden*

This paper provides the first estimate of the actuarial balance of the Spanish contributory pension system for the old‐age contingency, based on official data. The main accounting entries are developed from the principles of double‐entry bookkeeping. The novel entry in the balance sheet, entitled the ‘contribution asset’ or ‘hidden asset’, is at the centre of the theoretical discussion. A comparison between the official balance sheet for the Swedish notional account system and our balance sheet for the Spanish contributory pension system is also provided. The main finding is that the Spanish pension system has an insolvency rate of 31.4 per cent. The policy implication is that unless current legislation is reformed, Spanish taxpayers (the plan sponsor) should count on making transfers to the pension system with a present discounted value of 31.4 per cent of current liabilities. Moreover, a comparison of the consecutive balance sheets for 2001‐06 shows that the degree of insolvency is growing over time, even though the cash‐flow outcome has improved over the same period. Taking steps to reverse this trend and restore solvency is in Spanish taxpayers' interest, and possibly also in the interest of those in the European Union who recognise that there is a chance that they may have to support the Spanish budget in the future.     

When Do Employees Cyberloaf? An Interactionist Perspective Examining Personality,Justice, and Empowerment

Cyberloafing—using the Internet for non‐work‐related activities—is a prevalent counterproductive work behavior in the workplace, but researchers have not yet paid sufficient attention to this issue, especially related to the role of personality in cyberloafing. Recognizing such a research gap, and using a trait activation theory framework, this study examines whether conscientiousness and emotional stability negatively relate to cyberloafing. We further investigate how organizational justice perceptions and psychological empowerment moderate the negative relationship between these personality traits and cyberloafing. Based on a sample of 247 employees, we find that those high in conscientiousness cyberloaf less when they perceive greater levels of organizational justice. In addition, highly conscientious individuals cyberloaf less when they have low, rather than high, levels of psychological empowerment. Implications for research and practice as well as future research directions are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Leaders and Laggards in Environmental Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of SMEs in Europe

The main purpose of this article is studying the factors influencing eco‐innovative intensity in the European SMEs. Building upon the 'innovation triangle model', business competences, environmental orientation and network involvement are considered as the main determinants of 'greenness' of innovation in a sample of 3852 SMEs. Four categories of eco‐innovators (leaders, followers, loungers and laggards) are identified, and their profiles/driving factors are described using a generalized ordinal logistic model. Our results confirm that the increasing demand for green products and the adoption of eco‐organizational innovation affect positively the level of environmental innovation, while technological lock‐ins have the opposite effect across all categories. Neither leaders nor laggards are influenced by environmental policies. Small firms and those who give importance to financial constraints tend not to achieve upper categories, while valuing technological capabilities, market power and networks are crucial determinants of being in upper categories of eco‐innovation intensity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Reparameterized inverse gamma regression models with varying precision

In this article, we propose a mean linear regression model where the response variable is inverse gamma distributed using a new parameterization of this distribution that is indexed by mean and precision parameters. The main advantage of our new parametrization is the straightforward interpretation of the regression coefficients in terms of the expectation of the positive response variable, as usual in the context of generalized linear models. The variance function of the proposed model has a quadratic form. The inverse gamma distribution is a member of the exponential family of distributions and has some distributions commonly used for parametric models in survival analysis as special cases. We compare the proposed model to several alternatives and illustrate its advantages and usefulness. With a generalized linear model approach that takes advantage of exponential family properties, we discuss model estimation (by maximum likelihood), black further inferential quantities and diagnostic tools. A Monte Carlo experiment is conducted to evaluate the performances of these estimators in finite samples with a discussion of the obtained results. A real application using minerals data set collected by Department of Mines of the University of Atacama, Chile, is considered to demonstrate the practical potential of the proposed model.     

Ambiguity and the value of information revisited

We analyze the value that decision makers place on the acquisition of information that partially or completely resolves uncertainty over the correct distribution of outcomes. We distinguish two sources of ambiguity of a given message service: posterior uncertainty over the correct probability distribution and uncertainty over the message which will be received. Given this distinction, we present a model where attitudes towards the two sources of ambiguity are separated and we study how these attitudes affect the value of information. The analysis clarifies and integrates seemingly contradictory results obtained previously in the literature.     

Can sustained growth be attained through trading exhaustible resources for foreign research?

We analyze the existence and the stability of a sustained balanced growth equilibrium (SBE) in a model of two non-homogeneous trading economies. A technological leader country which sells patents of new intermediate products in exchange for an exhaustible resource extracted by a technological follower trade partner. Considering a growth-essential resource, the ‘knife-edge’ assumption of exactly constant returns to scale (CRS) to manmade inputs can be alleviated, and the scale effects associated with R&D-based growth models overcome. A fully endogenous SBE is proven to exist, although its stability turns out to be a ‘knife-edge’ possibility. The long-run equilibrium is saddle-path stable assuming CRS in manmade inputs. Conversely, considering increasing returns to scale together with a completely specialized two-country trade, the equilibrium could be reached only if the two economies initially guard a particular relation, described by a particular subset of the state space.