Macroeconomic Fluctuations in Developing Countries: Some Stylized Facts

This article documents the main stylized features of macroeconomicfluctuations for 12 developing countries. It presents cross-correlationsbetween domestic industrial output and a large group of macroeconomicvariables, including fiscal variables, wages, inflation, money,credit, trade, and exchange rates. Also analyzed are the effectsof economic conditions in industrial countries on output fluctuationsin the sample developing countries. The results point to manysimilarities between macroeconomic fluctuations in developingand industrial countries (procyclical real wages, countercyclicalvariation in government expenditures) and some important differences(countercyclical variation in the velocity of monetary aggregates).Their robustness is examined using different detrending procedures.     

Gender quota in the civil service and female participation: Evidence from Nepal

Female quotas for high-ranking positions in corporations and governments should (i) increase the hiring of women and (ii) inspire more women to apply for these positions. The goal will be that eventually, (iii) even without the quota, more women will apply to and succeed in high-ranked positions. This paper exploits the variations of female quotas in Nepalese civil service exams across years, services, ranks and exams within the same service to investigate these three effects. Empirical results show that female quotas in a given exam increase applications and the hiring of women. Even in exams without a quota, the female quotas of other exams within the same service increase the number of female applicants.     

The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values: a study of Mount Isa city,Queensland, Australia

Much publicity has been given to the problem of high levels of environmental contaminants, most notably high blood lead concentration levels among children in the city of Mount Isa because of mining and smelting activities. The health impacts from mining‐related pollutants are now well documented. This includes published research being discussed in an editorial of the Medical Journal of Australia (see Munksgaard et al. 2010 ). On the other hand, negative impacts on property prices, although mentioned, have not been examined to date. This study rectifies this research gap. This study uses a hedonic property price approach to examine the impact of mining‐ and smelting‐related pollution on nearby property prices. The hypothesis is that those properties closer to the lead and copper smelters have lower property (house) prices than those farther away. The results of the study show that the marginal willingness to pay to be farther from the pollution source is AUS $13 947 per kilometre within the 4 km radius selected. The study has several policy implications, which are discussed briefly. We used ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression, spatial error and spatial autoregressive or spatial lag models for this analysis.     

Supply chain analysis of e-tailing versus retailing operation – a case study

The swift growth of e-commerce or e-tailing as a consumer retail channel has made it a serious competitor to traditional retail channels and is changing consumers’ purchasing behaviour. The purpose of this case study, based on Target and Amazon.com, is to analyse the attributes of traditional retailing, e-tailing, and hybrid supply chain models to form conclusions about the feasibility of an idealised supply chain model for the future. An integrated and generalised modelling framework is used that incorporates Six Sigma – define, measure, analyse, improve, control methodology leveraging various tools, including process flow maps, cause and effect diagram, performance efficiency metrics, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and Monte Carlo simulation. Based on this analysis and research, the conclusion is that the idealised supply chain of the future may evolve into a hybrid supply chain, which includes both e-tail and retail channels. The main recommendations from this study include assessing the risks of migrating to such a hybrid supply chain and to leverage the recommended actions provided in the hybrid FMEA. To facilitate more effective and mature processes, this study can guide researchers in exhaustive empirical evaluations of hybrid supply chains, gather experiences and lessons learned for practitioners.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation of Organic Farmers: A Case of Organic Vegetable Farmers in the Badulla District of Sri Lanka

The authors sought to assess the entrepreneurial behavior of the organic vegetable farmers in the Badulla District of Sri Lanka. The primary data were collected through use of a structured questionnaire that was used to interview 231 farmers. The study found that there are three main agribusiness models operating in the district. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of the farmers fitted into three business models was measured following the method suggested by Covin and Slevin and by Lumpkin and Dess. The study revealed that the highest EO was exhibited by the Member Farmers of Organic Association (2.4 of 5) followed by the Contract Organic Farmers (2.24 of 5), and the lowest EO was exhibited by the Independent Organic Farmers (1.8 of 5). The analysis of variance revealed that the EO is significantly different across the three business models, and mean separation revealed that the Member Farmers’ of Organic Organizations model exhibited the highest EO followed by the Contract Farmers model and then the Independent Farmers’ model.     

Offline and Online Search in Used Durables Markets

This study examines how different information sources are used by consumers prior to their purchase of used durable goods, specifically used cars. We examine how online and offline search are related. Categories of online sources are dealer websites and resale websites, and of offline sources are print media and dealer visits. Prior research on new car purchases finds that online sources substitute for traditional, offline sources such as dealer visits. We examine whether this theory extends to used-car purchases and distinguish between dealer websites and resale websites (a distinction relevant to used-goods markets) by collecting data from a sample of used-car buyers. Because search in different sources can be interrelated, and due to data censoring, we build and estimate a simultaneous equations Tobit model. In contrast to existing research, we find that online search on dealer websites is complementary to and not a substitute for dealer visits. This complementary effect highlights the importance of dealers’ web presence in used markets.     

Economic policy uncertainty and fund flow performance sensitivity: Evidence from New Zealand

Utilizing a large sample of actively managed equity funds and a recently developed EPU index for New Zealand, we show that fund flow performance sensitivity decreases with policy uncertainty. The role of policy uncertainty as a determinant of fund flow performance sensitivity is found to be stronger, particularly for funds with global focus, large sized funds, high momentum funds and those with high idiosyncratic volatility and low downside risk. The findings support the argument that high policy uncertainty dampens investors' ability to process information that allows them to distinguish fund manager skill from luck. The results remain strong after accounting for various macroeconomic factors.     

Political regimes and financial crises

This study investigates how democratic or autocratic regimes, their transitions, and durations, affect the probability of experiencing financial crises. The empirical strategy employs novel instruments and Lewbel's method to address potential endogeneity concerns. The results reveal that democratic transition reduces the probability of crises by around seven percent, whereas autocratic switchovers enhance the crises likelihood by twelve percent. The findings remain robust in presence of a number of heterogeneity checks, with alternative measures of crises indicators, and employing different proxy for democratic transition. Thus, institutions in transition countries could play important role in managing such financial upheavals.     

Liabilities of origin and its influence on firm's corporate social performance? A study of emerging market multinational corporations

This study draws upon the institutional-based view to examine how home country institutional voids affect the corporate social performance (CSP) of emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs). We propose that home country institutional voids of EMNCs are positively related to CSP. We also argue that EMNCs' internationalization and visibility will further augment the above relationships. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 89 EMNCs from 10 countries from 2009 to 2018 and found support for our arguments. Our findings show that EMNCs use CSP to overcome the liabilities of origin due to their home-country institutional voids. Internationalization and visibility increase the challenges of origin liabilities and EMNCs respond by enhancing their CSP. Our research adds to the existing knowledge base on institutional voids within the realm of international business.