Fundamentals versus external shocks: Brazil's growing exposure to currency crises

While financial globalization does not lack theoretical economic merit, the more far-reaching practical consequences of this phenomenon are often not fully appreciated from the vantage point of North America or the European Union. In particular, globalization can make it more difficult for emerging economies to achieve macroeconomic stabilization. This is especially true if the countries in question have chosen the vehicle of pegged exchange rates as an important element of domestic anti-inflation policy. The chief macroeconomic difficulties for emerging economies in a world of volatile capital flows can include a loss of monetary control, a real appreciation of the domestic currency, and a worsening of economic fundamentals leading to damaging currency crises. This paper concentrates on the recent experience of Brazil as illustrative of the abject plight faced by many developing countries attempting to secure economic stabilization against the background of the present globalized international economy.This paper has benefitted from discussion with participants of the Forty-Sixth International Atlantic Economic Conference, Boston, MA, October 8–11, 1998.     

Networks,firms, and trade

Fixed costs associated with learning about demand and setting up distribution networks are expected to be lower when there are more potential contacts in the destination market, suggesting a greater probability of market entry and larger export revenues. We match historically-determined emigration stocks with detailed firm-level data from Portugal to examine the effect of migrant networks on these export outcomes. We find that larger stocks of emigrants in a given destination increase export participation and intensity. In addition, we show that the former of these effects tends to be more pronounced among firms that are more likely to have close ties with the emigrants. These results are consistent with a multiple-destination version of the Melitz (2003) model featuring market-specific entry costs and idiosyncratic firm-destination demand shocks.     

Does Aid Cause Trade? Evidence from an Asymmetric Gravity Model

Anderson and vanWincoop developed what has become the standard framework for framing and interpreting empirical work using the gravity model. Their framework relies heavily on an assumption of symmetry among countries. For issues related to North‐South trade, this assumption is problematic. In this paper, we develop an asymmetric extension of the Anderson–vanWincoop framework appropriate to the analysis of North‐South trade, where Northern countries produce differentiated goods and Southern countries homogenous ones. In addition, we use an appropriately extended version of Baier and Bergtrand and Taylor linear expansion – thus permitting its estimation using (good old) OLS. The result is an empirical model that (i) is better suited to the analysis of North‐South trade, (ii) is easy to estimate and compute comparative statics, not requiring a customised NLS routine and, given the way the South is included, (iii) provides a simple explanation of zero trade flows between some country pairs, a fact still not fully explained in the literature. As an illustration of its use, we examine the empirical link between foreign aid and trade.     

The reward gap in hierarchical loyalty programmes: how to enhance bottom-tier customers’ loyalty without alienating top-tier customers

ABSTRACT

Reward gap is the difference in the number and nature of rewards allocated to specific customer groups (or tiers) in a hierarchical loyalty programme. Building on the social comparison, equity and attribution theories, and two experiments conducted in a retailing context, we investigate the effect of reward gap size and visibility on both bottom-tier (BT) and top-tier (TT) customers. Findings from Study 1 show that a large reward gap reduces loyalty to the programme in BT customers, while it enhances it in TT customers. These effects are mediated by perceived fairness and perceived control. Findings from Study 2 show that a non-visible large reward gap increases loyalty to the programme in BT customers without affecting it in TT customers. This effect is mediated only by perceived fairness. Altogether, the findings highlight the mechanisms that explain the effect of the reward gap on BT and TT customers’ loyalty to the programme.     

Online Engagement and the Role of Digital Influencers in Product Endorsement on Instagram

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the forms of engagement generated from the endorsement of products by digital influencers on Instagram, considering the characteristics of their online posts. A qualitative approach was used to investigate digital influencers’ posts based on semiotic image analysis and the critical incidents technique. The results reinforced that digital platforms enable distinct forms of engagement by establishing new configurations that affect relationship marketing and promotion strategies. In particular, on Instagram, the development of engagement can involve four participants who play different social roles, expanding the process of value co-creation.     

Performing catharsis: The use of online discussion forums in organizational change

Online discussion forums have been used to both support and resist organizational change. Our empirical study examined how employees in one organization used an online forum to help them deal discursively with changes that they perceived as threatening to their identity. In particular, we found that the postings of one key individual were central in framing the organizational changes in a way that had powerful cathartic consequences for employees’ feelings of anger and loss of face. Paradoxically, however, we also found that such use of the online forum had the contradictory consequence of helping to facilitate the very changes that employees perceived to be problematic.     

浅析职业经理人的忠诚度与家族企业

中国家族企业的存在是历史发展的必然,而当今家族企业的发展需要职业经理人的参与。本文阐述了职业经理人的特征及职业经理人应有的对企业的忠诚度,而对职业经理人采取有效的留用方式将会促进家族企业的发展。     

A NON‐SUBSTITUTION THEOREM WITH NON‐CONSTANT RETURNS TO SCALE AND EXTERNALITIES

An input–output model with non‐constant returns to scale and externalities is presented, and it is shown that in this model the non‐substitution theorem is still valid. More precisely, the quantity side of the theorem, i.e. the proposition on efficiency, remains valid, while there can be no equilibrium prices independent of final demand.     

Improving the statistical power of financial event studies: The inverse variance weighted average-based test

Some claim that the event study methodology literature is “mature”. But the overlooked IVWA-based test is more powerful than conventional tests. Its implementation requires the same inputs as the traditional test. Its functional form yields the power improvement. Using CRSP monthly data for 1944–1971 and 1980–2006, simulations indicate that IVWA-based test correctly rejects the null hypothesis substantially more frequently than the traditional test. Its superiority seems more pronounced over 1980–2006. This casts doubts over previous event studies that failed to reject the null. They may have done so incorrectly due to lack of statistical power. Their reevaluation under IVWA-based test is advisable.