The Voluntary Continuation in the Obligatory System of the Social Security Law

The system of obligatory insurance, regulated by the Social Security Law, includes the design of a mixed system, which allows workers to continue contributing to the social security. This mixed system, called voluntary continuation in the obligatory system, contemplates the option for workers who have concluded a work relationship and who wish to continue accumulating weekly contributions necessary to obtain the disability and life insurance rights, such as those of dismissal in old age, and are considered in the Social Security Act of 1973.     

The impact of income redistribution on aggregate consumption

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Comparaisons de divers types de programmes de stabilisation des revenus agricoles du Québec

Deux modèles de programmation mathématique (MOTAD–cible statique et MOTAD-cible dynamique) ont été utilisés pour analyser l'impact de trois différents programmes d'intervention gouvernementale sur l'allocation optimale des ressources et sur les revenus totaux d'une ferme représentative au Québec. Les résultats montrent que sous les scénarios ASRA/ASREC et RARB, les revenus espérés sont supérieurs pour le RARB comparativement à ASRA/ASREC à un bas niveau de risque, mais ils sont du même ordre lorsqu'on considère les niveaux de risque plus élevés. L'allocation des ressources et la taille de la ferme sont quelque peu différentes. Afin de comparer ces deux programmes d'intervention, deux ratios ont été calculés : les dépenses nettes des gouvernements par rapport au revenu brut et au revenu net de l'entreprise. Les résultats montrent qu'un programme de type RARB est supérieur à un programme de type ASRA/ASREC, et ce, même si les transferts par unité assurée sont les mêmes. Sous le scénario CSRN, les résultats indiquent que les fermes ont des tailles de deux à quatre fois plus petites que dans les scénarios ASRA/ASREC ou RARB et que la stratégie financière des dépôts et des retraits dans le compte CSRN est déterminante dans l'augmentation du revenu espéré de la ferme.     

Analysis of compensatory financing schemes for export earnings fluctuations in developing countries

Several recent initiatives in the area of compensatory financing have pushed this issue into the forefront of discussion between developed and developing countries. This study performs simulations of various types of compensatory financing schemes assuming they had been in operation during the 1960s and early 1970s and draws some conclusions with respect to the relative costs and benefits of such schemes and with respect to their coutry and regional distribution. The results show that a compensatory financing scheme broadly defined is a flexible financial instrument which can be useful in helping developing countries with export instability problems.     

Borders and Growth

This paper presents a framework to understand and measure the effects of political borders on economic growth and per capita income levels. In our model, political integration between two countries results in a positive country size effect and a negative effect through reduced openness vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Additional effects stem from possible changes in other growth determinants, besides country size and openness, when countries are merged. We estimate the growth effects that would have resulted from the hypothetical removal of national borders between pairs of adjacent countries under various scenarios. We identify country pairs where political integration would have been mutually beneficial. We find that full political integration would have slightly reduced an average country's growth rate, while most countries would benefit from a more limited form of merger, involving higher economic integration with their neighbors.     

Health and welfare benefit litigation under ERISA

Denial of health benefits may result in devastating financial problems for the consumer. Given the complexities of the system, more and more employees turn to attorneys for help. Litigation and the resultant costs, in turn, further exacerbate the cost of providing benefits to employees and the burden to the employer. The law governing employer-paid health care and benefit plans is a blend of third party beneficiary contract law, trust law and administrative law. This article provides an overview of the federal litigation resulting from a third party payer's denial of coverage.     

Social comparisons in wage delegation: experimental evidence

We make two main contributions in this article. We examine whether social comparisons affects workers’ performance when a firm can choose workers’ wages or let them choose their own. Firms can delegate the wage decision to neither, one or both workers in the firm. We vary the information workers receive, finding that social comparisons concerning both wages and decision rights affect workers’ performance. Our second contribution is methodological. We find that our treatment effects are present with both stated effort and a real-effort task, which suggests that both approaches may yield similar results in labor experiments.     

Green Practices and Organizational Design as Sources of Strategic Flexibility and Performance

Green competences are dynamic capabilities based on practices (green practices), routines and structures that can be used to detect opportunities, make the most of them and use them to transform organizations. With this in mind, we explore the relationships between environmental management, organizational performance, and organizational processes and practices. We identify three key constructs related to green competences: (1) hybrid structures, (2) environmental best practices and (3) strategic flexibility, a key variable connecting structural design and green practices to organizational performance. We propose that the implementation of specific organizational structures characterized by the inclusion of market‐driven control practices within hierarchies (internal hybrids) could enhance firms' environmental responsiveness and deployment of green best practices. In addition, we suggest that green practices and structures are positively related to the development of strategic flexibility, driving above‐average returns in dynamic environments. To test these hypotheses, we use data from the European aviation industry. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

EQUITY CORRELATIONS IMPLIED BY INDEX OPTIONS: ESTIMATION AND MODEL UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS

We propose a method for constructing an arbitrage‐free multiasset pricing model which is consistent with a set of observed single‐ and multiasset derivative prices. The pricing model is constructed as a random mixture of N reference models, where the distribution of mixture weights is obtained by solving a well‐posed convex optimization problem. Application of this method to equity and index options shows that, whereas multivariate diffusion models with constant correlation fail to match the prices of index and component options simultaneously, a jump‐diffusion model with a common jump component affecting all stocks enables to do so. Furthermore, we show that even within a parametric model class, there is a wide range of correlation patterns compatible with observed prices of index options. Our method allows, as a by product, to quantify this model uncertainty with no further computational effort and propose static hedging strategies for reducing the exposure of multiasset derivatives to model uncertainty.