Financing Pay-as-you-go Public Pension Systems: Some Notes in the Light of the Classical-type Theory of Income Distribution

The paper uses a Sraffa-type two-sector model to study how the presence of retired workers interacts with the distribution of the surplus between workers and capitalists (firms). In particular, the paper investigates how the ongoing diminution of the ratio between active and retired workers affects the wage-profits-pensions frontier, which is defined after allowing that a social security tax, which reduces the claims of active workers and capitalists on the surplus of the economy, finances the pensions distributed each year to retired workers. Finally, it is argued that the different impact of defined-benefit and defined-contribution pay-as-you-go pension schemes depends on the actual incidence of payroll taxes.     

Socially responsible and conventional investment funds: performance comparison and the global financial crisis

We investigate the performance of socially responsible funds (SRFs) and conventional funds (CFs) in different market (geographical area and class size) segments during the period 1992–2012. From an unbalanced sample of more than 22 000 funds, we define a matched sample using a beta-distance measure to match any SRF with the ‘nearest neighbour’ CF in terms of sensitivity to risk factors. Using this matching approach and a recursive analysis, we identify several switch points in the lead/lag relationship between the two investment styles over time in different market segments. A relevant finding of our analysis is that SRFs played an ‘insurance role’ outperforming CFs during the 2007 global financial crisis.     

Emerging Powers in WTO Negotiations: The Domestic Sources of Trade Policy Preferences

In the current round of multilateral trade liberalization, emerging powers such as Brazil and India created the G-20 coalition and refused to accept further tariff rate reductions for industrial products before the United States and the European Union made reciprocal concessions in agriculture. This article examines how and why Brazil and India have taken a more offensive and proactive position at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Following Putnam's two-level games approach, I focus on domestic factors and specifically on interest groups to explain actors' policy preferences in WTO negotiations. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies Brazil and India lend credit to the literature discussing the impact of powerful, sector-specific interest groups on governments' trade policy preferences. From an empirical perspective, the findings show how these two countries translated these demands into government positions and influenced WTO outcomes as agenda-setters and coalition builders.     

Knowledge,innovation, and control towards accountability: a comparative case study

This paper deepens the countervailing relationship between control and innovation in highly innovative networks. It adopts a middle range theory perspective [Broadbent and Laughlin, 2013. Accounting Control and Controlling Accounting: Interdisciplinary and Critical Perspectives. 1st ed. Bingley: Emerald Group] integrated with the quintuple helix model (Carayannis and Campbell, 2010. “Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other?.” International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development 1 (1): 41–69] to explore how control and innovation interact and shape each other in the contexts of high complexity and intensive knowledge creation, towards the satisfaction of accountability demands by stakeholders. The research relies upon two case studies and reveals what are the factors positively shaping the interaction between innovation and control towards greater accountability. We document that successful changes are facilitated by the implementation of adequate and innovative informal control devices favouring collaborative relationships, reinforcing innovation and shared knowledge and capabilities within the organisation. The findings are relevant to all complex settings involved in multifaceted processes of producing knowledge and innovation.     

Impact of culture on tourist decision‐making styles

This paper developed and tested an integrative model to examine the relationship between tourism decisions and their cultural background. The model was tested using surveyed data from 400 tourists travelling to Lisbon, a cultural city and the capital of Portugal. The results of a structural equation analysis revealed that culture affect tourist decisions. The decision to visit Lisbon relies on its quality, brand and price. This decision is shaped by the likelihood of visitors to accept social differentiation (power distance), moderated by their sense of individualism as well as their long‐term orientation. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Insight into the impact of energy caps on the costs of cellular networks with different layouts and technologies

We investigate the options of a network operator who needs to reduce its carbon footprint, expressed in terms of a global energy cap. First, we propose two ways to meet the energy limitations: by efficiently managing the energy consumed by the legacy networks or by installing additional capacity to the initial topology. We show the power savings that can be obtained in both cases as well as the incurred costs. Then we identify the initial composition of the network and the available technology in the upgrade phase as the factors that have the most influence on the ability of a network to meet the energy caps. Finally, we show the intrinsic unfairness of the energy caps, which are imposed to all the networks without taking into account the differences among them. In conclusion, we highlight the fundamental role of carbon markets and emission trading systems to guarantee a measure of fairness between the operators.     

The gift of being chosen

We report evidence from an experiment where an employer selects one of two workers to perform a task for a fixed compensation. Workers differ in their ability. The employer’s payoff depends on the worker’s ability and on a non-contractible effort that the worker exerts once employed. We find that selected workers exert an effort higher than the minimum enforceable one. When the employers can send a free-text form message to the selected worker, workers with low ability exert significantly higher effort than the workers with high ability. The difference in effort overcompensates the difference in ability.     

Ownership concentration and firm risk: The moderating role of mid-sized blockholders

This study analyzes the relationship between mid-sized blockholders and firm risk. We show that ownership structure matters for firm risk beyond the first largest blockholder. Firms with multiple blockholders take more risk than firms with just one blockholder, even when controlling for the stake of the largest blockholder. Consistent with the diversification argument, we find that firm risk increases by 22% when the number of blockholders increases from one to two. Our results are robust to controlling for blockholder type and firm characteristics. We carry out various robustness checks to tackle endogeneity issues. More generally, we provide evidence that firms’ decisions are affected by mid-sized blockholders and not merely the largest blockholder. This is in line with theoretical predictions.