The Effects of Non‐tariff Measures on Agri‐food Trade: A Review and Meta‐analysis of Empirical Evidence

The increasing policy interest and academic debates on non‐tariff measures (NTMs) has stimulated a growing literature on how NTMs affect agri‐food trade. The empirical literature provides contrasting and heterogeneous evidence, with some studies supporting the ‘standards as catalysts’ view, and others favouring the ‘standards as barriers’ explanation. To the extent that NTMs can influence trade, understanding the prevailing effect, and the motivations behind one effect or the other, is a pressing issue. We review a large body of empirical evidence on the effect of NTMs on agri‐food trade and conduct a meta‐analysis to disentangle potential determinants of heterogeneity in estimates. Our findings show the role played by the publication process and by study‐specific assumptions. Some characteristics of the studies are correlated with positive significant estimates, others covary with negative significant estimates. Overall, we found that the effects of NTMs vary across types of NTM, proxies used for NTMs, and levels of detail of studies. The estimated effects are also influenced by methodological issues and publication processes.     

Monetary policy and dynamic efficiency in economies of overlapping generations

In an economy of overlapping generations, money, distinct from debt, provides liquidity and is dominated as a store of value. Nominal rates of interest that are low, but do not vanish, eliminate equilibrium allocations far from Pareto optimal allocations.     

Homeownership and new entrepreneurs: first empirical evidence of a bidirectional interaction

Literature linking housing and professional choices focuses on the supply side of the labour market (the search for a job as employee), thus considering the unemployment rate as the only measure of labour market outcomes. Indeed, the usually neglected link between homeownership and entrepreneurship is equally important for assessing labour market performance. This empirical article represents one of the first attempts to test the interplay between homeownership and (new) entrepreneurs. Effectively, using a panel data analysis in Italy, we find a first empirical evidence of a positive and bidirectional interaction between homeownership and new entrepreneurs (precisely, small businesses and the self-employed).     

Computerization and immigration: Theory and evidence from the United States

Recent technological changes have been characterized as “routine-substituting” because they reduce demand for routine tasks and increase demand for analytical and service tasks. Little is known about how these changes have impacted immigration, or task specialization between immigrants and native-born individuals. In this paper, we show that such technological progress has attracted immigrants who increasingly specialize in manual-service occupations. We also suggest that openness to immigration attenuated the job and wage polarization faced by native-born from technological changes. We explain these facts with a model of technological progress and endogenous immigration. Simulations show that unskilled immigration attenuates the drop in routine employment proceeding from technological change, enhances skill upgrading for native-born and raises economy-wide productivity and welfare.     

Reformulating Arrow’s Conditions in Terms of Cardinal Pairwise Comparison Matrices Defined Over a General Framework

In the paper, we deal with cardinal preferences of experts when these are expressed by means of Pairwise Comparison Matrices (PCMs). In order to obtain general results, suitable for several kinds of PCMs proposed in literature, we focus on PCMs defined over a general unifying framework, that is an Abelian linearly ordered group. In this framework, firstly, we aggregate several PCMs and we analyse how the aggregated PCM preserves some coherence levels, such as transitivity, weak consistency and consistency. Then, we reformulate Arrow’s conditions in terms of PCMs, and we provide two preference aggregation procedures for representing group preferences that give a social PCM and a social cardinal ranking, respectively. Finally, we analyse how these preference aggregation procedures satisfy reformulated Arrow’s conditions.     

Breaking Through Complexity: Visual and Conceptual Dimensions in Logo Evaluation across Exposures

This research investigates the effects of visual and conceptual complexity (VC and CC) on brand logo evaluations at single and multiple exposures. Building upon the theoretical distinction between visual and conceptual constructs and on a processing fluency account, it is proposed that the effects of VC and CC on attitude toward the logo change across exposures following opposite patterns, and are driven by the mechanisms of perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency, respectively. The results of a hybrid experimental study suggest that the initially positive effect of VC on attitude toward the logo becomes negative with multiple exposures, whereas the initially negative effect of CC on attitude toward the logo becomes positive as exposures increase. The findings contribute to research on consumer reactions to the visual elements of brands, and offer guidelines to brand managers and logo designers for leveraging on VC and CC, as well as on the number of exposures, in order to raise the attractiveness of logos.     

What is the Value of Luxury? A Cross‐Cultural Consumer Perspective

International luxury businesses are challenged by the identification and satisfaction of the common needs and desires of global market segments. Although luxury goods have become available to a wider range of consumers, the traditional conspicuous consumption model has been transformed into a new experiential luxury sensibility that is marked by a change in the way that consumers define luxury. Based on an empirical study in collaboration with American, European, and Asian researchers, the results provide evidence that consumers in various parts of the world purchase or wish to purchase luxury products for varied reasons but that such consumers generally possess similar values. Regardless of their countries of origin, the basic motivational drivers of luxury consumers are similar among the financial, functional, personal, and social dimensions of luxury value perceptions, although the relative importance of these dimensions varies.     

ON THE SOURCES OF HETEROGENEITY IN BANKING EFFICIENCY LITERATURE

This study reviews the empirical literature on banking efficiency by conducting a meta‐regression analysis. The meta‐dataset consists of 1661 observations retrieved from 120 papers published over the period 2000–2014. While the role of study design and method‐specific characteristics of primary studies is evaluated, the focus concerns regulation in banking. The results are fourfold. First, parametric methods always yield lower levels of banking efficiency than non‐parametric studies. Second, banking efficiency is higher in studies using the value‐added approach rather than the intermediation method. Third, efficiency scores also depend on the journal's ranking and on the number of observations and variables used in the primary papers. Finally, regulation matters: primary papers focusing on countries with a liberalized banking industry provide higher values for efficiency scores.