Agroindustrialization of the global agrifood economy: bridging development economics and agribusiness research

This paper examines the agroindustrialization process from two supposedly disparate views: development economics and agribusiness research. The evolution of conceptual and methodological approaches emanating from these fields is explored and general observations are made concerning farm economic interdependence, institutional and organizational change, differing scopes of interest, the causes of agroindustrialization, orientation, and the choice of microanalytic tools, terminology, and unit of analysis. Despite an impressive list of hurdles, disincentives, and disconnects, complementarities between the two fields are identified. The paper concludes by exploring the potential of bridging development economics and agribusiness research to inform the future agroindustrialization research agenda.     

A new model of income distribution: the κ-generalized distribution

This paper proposes a three-parameter statistical model of income distribution by exploiting recent developments on the use of deformed exponential and logarithm functions as suggested by Kaniadakis (Phys A 296:405–425, 2001; Phys Rev E 66:056125, 2002; Phys Rev E 72:036108, 2005). Formulas for the shape, moments and standard tools for inequality measurement are given. The model is shown to fit remarkably well the personal income data for Great Britain, Germany and the United States in different years, and its empirical performance appears to be competitive with that of other existing distributions.     

Education and health in Europe

The productive and allocative theories predict that education has positive impact on health: the more educated adopt healthier life styles and use more efficiently health inputs, and this explains why they live longer. We find partial support for these theories with an econometric analysis on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 documenting a significant and positive correlation among education years, life styles, health outputs and functionalities. We however find confirmation for an anomaly already observed in the United States, namely the more educated are more likely to contract cancer. Our results are robust when controlling for endogeneity and reverse causality in IV estimates with instrumental variables related to quarter of birth and neighbours’ cultural norms.     

Online networks,social interaction and segregation: an evolutionary approach

There is growing evidence that face-to-face interaction is declining in many countries, exacerbating the phenomenon of social isolation. On the other hand, social interaction through online networking sites is steeply rising. To analyze these societal dynamics, we have built an evolutionary game model in which agents can choose between three strategies of social participation: 1) interaction via both online social networks and face-to-face encounters; 2) interaction by exclusive means of face-to-face encounters; 3) opting out from both forms of participation in pursuit of social isolation. We illustrate the dynamics of interaction among these three types of agent that the model predicts, in light of the empirical evidence provided by previous literature. We then assess their welfare implications. We show that when online interaction is less gratifying than offline encounters, the dynamics of agents’ rational choices of interaction will lead to the extinction of the sub-population of online networks users, thereby making Facebook and similar platforms disappear in the long run. Furthermore, we show that the higher the propensity for discrimination of those who interact via online social networks and via face-to-face encounters (i.e., their preference for the interaction with agents of their same type), the greater the probability will be that they all will end up choosing social isolation in the long run, making society fall into a “social poverty trap”.     

The influence of managerial satisfaction on corporate environmental performance and reputation

Organizational studies have widely debated the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Some papers have dealt with managerial satisfaction and businesses' performance adopting agency theory to interpret the results. However, no studies have yet considered the relationship between the satisfaction levels of an environmental manager and corporate environmental performance. This paper thus analyses the role played by the environmental manager's satisfaction in enhancing corporate environmental performance and reputation. The paper uses data from a survey of 412 Eco Management and Audit Scheme registered organizations. The results show a positive relationship between managerial satisfaction and environmental performance, whereas no such positive relationship was found when considering eco‐innovation performance. In addition, the environmental manager's satisfaction has a positive and indirect influence on the corporate environmental reputation. These results contribute to the literature on agency theory and aim to extend the debate between job satisfaction and job performance to the sustainable business field.     

Mis-measurement of inequality: a critical reflection and new insights

This article documents that the Gini index is an insufficient measure of inequality and, according to the traditional logic of interpretation, that it may lead to incorrect deductions. Since, apart from concentration, it cannot grasp other relevant features of inequality like heterogeneity and asymmetry—which, beyond its intensity, allow for considering the direction of inequality too—we suggest using the less known Zanardi index of asymmetry of the Lorenz curve as an appropriate measure of inequality. Our findings are supported with estimates from the Luxembourg Income Study Database.

     

Predictors of organizational citizenship behavior in relation to environmental and health & safety issues

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in relation to the environment and health and safety, commonly shaped by individual and voluntary initiatives, are essential factors for a smooth and efficient organization in firms. Our research explores the factors affecting OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues in a Multinational Enterprise (MNE) operating in the oil & gas sector. More in detail, we tested the influence of personal attitudes, self-efficacy, organizational support and social norm on OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues. The results show that personal attitudes and self-efficacy positively influence OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues and those factors are influenced respectively by perceived organizational support and social norm. Moreover, we found that attitudes play a full mediation between social norm and OCBs related to environmental and health and safety issues and that organizational support on organization citizenship behavior for the environment and health and safety that is partially mediated through the perceived self efficacy. Finally, the results of our investigation are contextualized in the theoretical and managerial frameworks pointing to a number of avenues for further research.     

R&D Spillovers on a Salop Circle

The paper describes quality/price equilibrium and welfare effects of R&D spillovers when firms are located around the circumference of a Salop circle, and the extent of the spillovers may depend on the geographic proximity between firms. In particular, we show that an increase in competition may have a positive effect on the provision of quality and firms' profits. We also extend the model allowing a multinational enterprise to locate at the centre of the circle. In this scenario it is important to understand the interplay of local R&D spillovers with the spillovers that propagate from and to the centre. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The bull and bear market model of Huang and Day: Some extensions and new results

We develop a financial market model with interacting chartists and fundamentalists that embeds the famous bull and bear market model of Huang and Day as a special case. Their model is given by a one-dimensional continuous piecewise-linear map. Our model, on the other hand, is more flexible and is represented by a one-dimensional discontinuous piecewise-linear map. Nevertheless, we are able to provide a more or less complete analytical treatment of the model dynamics by characterizing its possible outcomes in parameter space. In addition, we show that quite different scenarios can trigger real-world phenomena such as bull and bear market dynamics and excess volatility.     

Comparing Parametric and Non‐parametric Early Warning Systems for Currency Crises in Emerging Market Economies

This paper compares in‐sample and out‐of‐sample performances of parametric and non‐parametric early warning systems (EWS) for currency crises in emerging economies. The parametric EWS achieves superior out‐of‐sample results compared with the non‐parametric EWS. The policymaker faces a trade‐off when using EWS: greater cautiousness allows the policymaker to correctly call more crisis episodes, but this comes at the cost of issuing more false alarms. The benefit of correctly calling more currency crises needs to be traded off against the cost of issuing more false alarms and of implementing corrective policies prematurely.