The impact of employers' recruitment behaviour on the allocation of vacant jobs to unemployed job seekers

This paper is focused on the allocation of vacant jobs to job seekers from a demand side perspective by studying the recruitment behaviour of employers. A model is developed to analyze the role of search and selection methods of employers as determinants of the probability that an unemployed person will be hired for a certain type of job. In an empirical application for the Dutch labour market, we have examined the effect of employer's recruitment behaviour on the allocation of vacant jobs to employed, unemployed and school-leaving job seekers.We find that job requirements for the applicants with respect to work experience are the most important determinant of the probability that an unemployed person will be selected to fill a vacant job. In addition, the use of advertisements by employers for jobs requiring high skill levels does also have a significant effect.     

Exchange rate volatility and international trade: A general-equilibrium analysis

We analyze the relation between exchange-rate volatility and the volume of international trade, in a general-equilibrium stochastic-endowment economy with imperfect international commodity markets, and treating both variables as endogenous. Even in the simplest model, the sign of the relation depends on the source for the change in volatility. For instance, more volatility of the endowments and higher costs to international trade both boost exchange risk (and lower welfare); but the first increases the expected volume of trade, while the second decreases trade. Note that even the (inter-equilibria) relation between trade and welfare is ambiguous.     

Selecting a Bond-Pricing Model for Trading: Benchmarking, Pooling, and Other Issues

Abstract:  Does one make money trading on the deviations between observed bond prices and values proposed by bond-pricing models? We extend Sercu and Wu's (1997) work to more models and more data, but we especially refine the methodology. In particular, we provide a normal-return benchmark that markedly improves upon the Sercu-Wu ones in terms of noisiness and bias, and we demonstrate that model errors contribute more to the variance of residuals—actual minus fitted prices—than pricing errors made by the market. Trading on the basis of deemed mispricing is profitable indeed no matter what model one uses. But there is remarkably little difference across models, at least when one re-estimates and trades daily; and with pooling and/or longer holding periods the results seem to be all over the place, without any relation to various measures of fit in the estimation stage. We also derive and implement an estimator of how much of the typical deviation consists of mispricing and how much is model mis-estimation or mis-specification. Lastly, we find that pooled time-series and cross-sectional estimation, as applied by e.g., De Munnik and Schotman (1994) , does help in stabilizing the parameter, but; hardly improves the trader's profits.     

How Does the Market for Corporate Control Function for Property Companies?

We investigate 95 takeovers of property companies all over the world and find that only two of those are hostile. To determine the effectiveness of the market for corporate control, we first study characteristics of targets and acquirers compared to a control sample, using the complete global universe of listed property companies during the most recent takeover wave (1999–2004). We find that the inefficient management hypothesis holds for both REITs and non-REITs, as targets exhibit significant underperformance before takeovers. In the second part of this study, we investigate shareholder wealth effects following takeovers and confirm previous findings that abnormal returns for targets and bidders are distinctly different for the real estate sector. Moreover, we show that this difference not only holds for REIT-to-REIT mergers, but also for mergers of real estate firms without a REIT-status.

Transfer of training: the role of feedback in supportive social networks

The transfer of training to the workplace often fails to occur. The authors argue that feedback generated within the work environment about the application of newly learned skills in the workplace helps to close the gap between the current performance and the desired goal of full application of what is learned during training. This study takes a social network perspective and explores the role of feedback generated within the social network in fostering motivation‐to‐transfer and the transfer of training. The results show that the number of people providing feedback and the helpfulness of this feedback are positively related to the motivation for and actual transfer of training. The frequency of feedback appears to be negatively related. This study underlines the importance of feedback in turning the workplace into a learning environment fostering the transfer of training. It also suggests the value of adopting a social network perspective.     

Perceptions and outlook on intercropping coffee with banana as an opportunity for smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda

Coffee and banana are important cash and food crops in Uganda and the surrounding East African highland region. Production is dominated by smallholders that have limited arable land and often coffee and banana are intercropped. No significant research and development efforts have been undertaken over the last few decades on this coffee/banana intercropping system. Because recent studies suggest that this system could be a practice with high benefits to the farmers, we decided to study the perceptions of stakeholders along the coffee value chain starting with farmers. Perception analysis based on open-ended interviews following interview guides revealed that a major limitation for the sustainability of this system was poor soil fertility conditions. Perceptions on the benefits of intercropping differed little among coffee actors; that is, banana intercropping provides additional food and income from smallholders’ limited land and helps farmers reduce risks related to drought, pest/disease attacks and coffee price volatility. However, farmers’ desire to minimize risks does not match the objective of stakeholders higher up the coffee value chain to maximize coffee production. Furthermore, research by public institutes, both national and international, is primarily organized for single crops and not systems. We conclude that the institutional setting of the coffee sector hampers the promotion of intercropping, despite the benefits for the farmer.     

Holism versus Reductionism in Modern Social Science Research

Quality &; Quantity - Since an early stage in most of thetechnical sciences, and during the last fewdecades in many of the social sciences,reductionistic research has become a mainstream typeof...