Innovative behavioral regulatory agencies as second generation commitment devices

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes how the commitment problem in economic regulation, and a solution based on strategic delegation, are affected by the non-standard rationality of agents that participate in the regulatory interaction. As a result, on the one hand, independent regulators are seen as part of a potentially more robust innovative regulatory system, and, on the other hand, their contribution to this system can be based on a wider range of instruments. Second generation commitment mechanisms that take this into account may be a key ingredient of reforms in the regulation of those industries that require a long run perspective.     

Near Observational Equivalence and Fractionally Integrated Processes

The aim of this paper is to study the presence of nearly observationally equivalence problems in fractionally integrated processes. In order to illustrate our results, by means of a Monte Carlo study, we analyze the finite sample behaviour of the usual Durbin-Watson statistic in a regression between two independent nonstationary fractionally integrated processes with MA (1) innovations.     

Transitional dynamics and the distribution of assets

Summary. We study the evolution of the distribution of assets in a discrete time, deterministic growth model with log-utility, a minimum consumption requirement, Cobb-Douglas technology, and agents differing in initial assets. We prove that the coefficient of variation in assets across agents decreases monotonically in a transition to the steady state from below, if (i) the consumption requirement is zero, or (ii) the consumption requirement is not too big and the initial capital stock is large enough. We also show how a positive consumption requirement or a small elasticity of substitution between capital and labor can generate non-monotonic paths for inequality.JEL Classification Numbers: D31, E21, O41.We would like to thank S. Chatterjee, M. Huggett, T. Keister, P. Krusell, M. Santos, S. Williamson, and an anonymous referee, for their valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are ours. Urrutia aknowledges the support of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, to which he was affiliated during early phases of this project.     

University spin-off programmes: How can they support the NTBF creation?

University researchers create technological opportunities that give rise to NTBF. The commercialization process of these opportunities is very complex, thus requiring universities to have programmes to support it (USOP). In this research 37 Spanish programmes, and 20 spin offs created with the support of the Technological University of Catalonia’s USOP (Innova Programme), have been examined. The study describes the technological opportunity creation, recognition and exploitation processes, and classifies the factors that determine it. Finally, the study develops a four-action-line-model that contributes to better understand how the activities carried out by USOPs minimize the barriers for spin off creation.     

Credit accessibility and corporate social responsibility in financial institutions: the case of microfinance

What are financial institutions' social responsibilities in developing countries? On the one hand, these institutions share the generic responsibilities of all human organizations and business enterprises. However, their specific social responsibility is the performance of the social function of financial intermediaries, which, in the case of emerging countries, consists mainly of contributing to economic growth and solving the problem of poverty. This paper describes a number of technical‐economic and moral problems that take us to a consideration of the performance of banking operations in microfinancing, with special reference to Latin America. The paper also provides a series of recommendations that, in addition to contributing to solving the development and poverty problems in emerging countries, help define financial institutions' social responsibility in such countries.     

Symmetric Coalitional Binomial Semivalues

We introduce here a family of mixed coalitional values. They extend the binomial semivalues to games endowed with a coalition structure, satisfy the property of symmetry in the quotient game and the quotient game property, generalize the symmetric coalitional Banzhaf value introduced by Alonso and Fiestras and link and merge the Shapley value and the binomial semivalues. A computational procedure in terms of the multilinear extension of the original game is also provided and an application to political science is sketched.     

QUANTITATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF BRANCHLESS BANKING ON MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS

In this study, we examined how implementing branchless banking partnerships (BBPs) can enable microfinance institutions to improve their efficiency by reducing cash handling and to expand its product offering to savings. We examined the case of Attawfiq Microfinance in Morocco, that implemented a BBP strategy named Low Income Banking (LIB) in order to achieve increased efficiency and expand its product offering to savings through the LIB account offering. We studied how the customers of Attawfiq used the LIB account for transactional and savings purposes by analysing a large database of sociodemographic factors of customers and payments data of microcredits for the period 2010–15 (554,541 customers). We included in our analysis, for the first time to our knowledge, not only the study of the correlations between a very extensive dataset of sociodemographic variables and the use of bank accounts in terms of transactions and savings, but also the study of microcredit data as explanatory variables. Our study concluded that the BBP model implemented (LIB) allowed Attawfiq Microfinance to improve its operating efficiency although it failed to achieve increased savings.     

Evaluating the impact of prior experience in entrepreneurial intention

Although entrepreneurial behavior is proposed as part of the solution to fragile labor markets, in particular in periods of economic and social change, policy makers are struggling to find the right levers to promote it. Despite the extant prior research on entrepreneurial behavior, little is known on the entrepreneurial behavior drivers for the individuals of working age with experience. Prior research explores the influence of entrepreneurial knowledge to study the drivers of experienced individuals evaluating whether or not to engage in an entrepreneurial behavior. This research introduces entrepreneurial knowledge to study the impact of prior experience on entrepreneurial intention. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this research work analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurial intention, and the mediating effects of the TPB perceptual variables: personal attitude (PA), social norm (SN), and perceived behavioral-control (PBC). A structural equation model (SEM) has been used to analyze the responses of a sample of 431 experienced individuals of working-age that completed a questionnaire based on Liñan & Chen’s, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 593–618, (2009) Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ). The results showed that entrepreneurial knowledge positively influences entrepreneurial intention and that this influence is mediated by the perceptual variables of the TPB model (PA, SN, PBC). These findings contribute to the understanding of the entrepreneurial intention for experienced individuals and consolidate the use of the TPB model to study individual entrepreneurial intention. The findings suggest that policy makers should pay more attention to individual entrepreneurial knowledge, and strengthen the attractiveness of an entrepreneurial career, if they are interested in fostering entrepreneurial behavior among individuals of working age with experience.     

Openness and income: The roles of trade and migration

This paper explores the relationship between openness to trade, immigration, and income per person across countries. To address endogeneity concerns we extend the instrumental-variables strategy introduced by Frankel and Romer (1999). We build predictors of openness to immigration and to trade for each country by using information on bilateral geographical and cultural distance (while controlling for country size). Since geography may affect income through other channels, we also control for climate, disease environment, natural resources, and colonial origins. Most importantly, we also account for the roles of institutions and early development. Our instrumental-variables estimates provide evidence of a robust, positive effect of openness to immigration on long-run income per capita. In contrast, we are unable to establish an effect of trade openness on income. We also show that the effect of migration operates through an increase in total factor productivity, which appears to reflect increased diversity in productive skills and, to some extent, a higher rate of innovation.