Volatility, trade size, and order imbalance in China and Japan exchange traded funds

In recent years there have been reports of excessive price volatility and value differences between prices of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and their underlying asset values. The objective of our study is to shed light on these facts by taking a closer look at the relationship between return volatility, trade size, and order imbalance for international ETFs. Even after controlling for order imbalance, volume as represented by number of trades in one of five trade size categories continues to have a significant and predominantly positive impact on volatility. Both trade size and order imbalance are important determinants of the Japan and China ETFs’ price volatility.     

The role of Spanish local development and employment officers in human resource management

The aim of this study is to contrast the existence of a significant relation between good human resource practices and business results. The empirical analysis is applied to strategies implemented by Local Development and Employment Officers (LDEOs) with regard to the management of social integration and job placement programs within the context of Local Development in Spain for both the universalist and contingent perspectives of Human Resource Management. The novelty of this study lies in the impact local development programs are having on social integration and job placement, and, in particular, the effects of project management.     

Working sick and out of sorts: a cross-cultural approach on presenteeism climate,organizational justice and work–family conflict*

Abstract

A climate of presenteeism has important effects on employee well-being and the organization itself. Our study, based on surveys of health sector employees in six different countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Lebanon, Portugal, Russia and Spain) examines whether organizational justice plays a mediating role in the relationship between a presenteeism climate in the organization and work–family conflict (WFC). Our results indicate that the perception of organizational justice and the presenteeism climate do influence WFC. Moreover, higher levels of WFC were found in non-Latin countries. This study contributes to the work attendance and life balance field by providing cross-cultural empirical evidence corroborating the effect of justice and presenteeism climate on the WFC.     

The New Brand Ambassadors

SAN FRANCISCO Remember when citizen joumalism was a novel idea？ Now, average people armed with video cameras, laptops and mobile phones routinely cover everything from flood and fires to violence on the streets of Myanmar. Combine this do-it-yourself movement with the idea that every thought and personal event is Facebook-worthy, and it makes sense that citizen marketing is the newest form of consumer activism-one looked at by marketers as a poten- tial holy grail.     

Connecting the Two Faces of CSR: Does Employee Volunteerism Improve Compliance?

In 2004, the United States Sentencing Commission amended the Federal Sentencing Guidelines to allow firms that create “effective compliance and ethics programs” to receive better treatment if prosecuted for fraud. Effective compliance and ethics, however, appear to be limited to activities focused on complying with the firms’ internal legal and ethical standards. We explored a potential connection between the firms’ external corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors and internal compliance: Is there an organizationally valid relationship between these two firm activities? That is, when organizations demonstrate CSR with behaviors external to the firm, such as employee volunteerism, are their employees more likely to demonstrate uncompromised legal and ethical compliance behavior internally? We collected data from 164 working professionals enrolled in a top-tier MBA program in the southeastern United States regarding their employer-sponsored volunteer activities and their intentions to comply in various organizational compliance vignettes. We found that employer-sponsored volunteerism is associated with uncompromised compliance choices in one of the three vignettes. This finding indicates preliminary support for further inquiry into the relationship within the firm between external CSR behaviors and policies regarding organizational compliance. Post hoc analyses suggest that employer-sponsored volunteerism is strongly associated with a positive organizational identity, but organizational identity is not associated with the significant compliance vignette. This evidence suggests that the underlying mechanism that connects external CSR behaviors and internal compliance intentions is complex and requires future study.     

Migration,Unemployment, and Skill Downgrading

In this paper, we analyze the labor market impacts of immigration under flexible and rigid labor market regimes. A general equilibrium framework is developed, accounting for skill heterogeneity and labor market frictions, where unemployed medium‐skilled manufacturing workers are downgraded into low‐skilled service jobs, while low‐skilled service workers might end up unemployed. The analytical analysis shows that medium‐skill immigration decreases low‐skilled unemployment under the flexible regime, indicating a complementarity effect, while the rigid regime induces a substitution effect, leading to low‐skilled unemployment. Moreover, it leads to wage polarization. In a numerical analysis, the economic effects of different migration scenarios are quantified.     

On Keynes on inflation and unemployment

Keynes tends to be represented as someone who thought that alleviating unemployment was more important than any other consideration. Interestingly it seems that this was not always the case; he did not recommend employment creation under all conditions of excess labour supply. The great inflation of World War I and its aftermath left an indelible impression on him, and this mitigated his position on the importance of high levels of employment. In 1920 he recommended that inflation in the UK be controlled even if some unemployment would result, and there is at least some hint in his work that the relative importance to him of inflation and unemployment did not vary much over the remainder of his life.     

Does Inter‐jurisdictional Competition Engender a “Race to the Bottom”? A Meta‐Regression Analysis

A growing literature documents the existence of strategic political reactions to public expenditure between rival jurisdictions. These interactions can potentially create a downward expenditure spiral (“race to the bottom”) or a rising expenditure spiral (“race to the top”). However, in the course of identifying the existence of such interactions and ascertaining their underlying triggers, the empirical evidence has produced markedly heterogeneous findings. Most of this heterogeneity can be traced back to study design and institutional differences. This article contributes to the literature by applying meta‐regression analysis to quantify the magnitude of strategic inter‐jurisdictional expenditure interactions, controlling for study, and institutional characteristics. We find several robust results beyond confirming that jurisdictions do engage in strategic expenditure interactions, namely that strategic interactions: (i) are weakening over time, (ii) are stronger among municipalities than among higher levels of government, and (iii) appear to be more influenced from tax competition than yardstick competition, with capital controls and fiscal decentralization shaping the magnitude of fiscal interactions.     

From waste to hydrogen: An optimal design of energy production and distribution network

This paper focuses on evaluating the economic potential and infrastructure requirements of hydrogen production from agricultural residues, a representative green energy pathway. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is constructed for finding the most efficient and economical configuration of the whole pathway. Using northern California case studies, we found that hydrogen from agricultural wastes can be delivered at costs similar to producing hydrogen from natural gas, a non-renewable energy source. The potential impact of this energy pathway on local freight transport is also discussed depending on the choice of hydrogen delivery mode.