Globalization and electoral outcomes: Evidence from Italy

We study whether and to what extent the electoral dynamics in Italy over the 1994–2008 period can be explained by the development of economic factors associated with globalization. To measure the level of exposure to globalization for local labor markets, our main unit of analysis, we use the intensity of import competition from China and the presence of immigrants. Looking at parties’ political positions and employing an estimation strategy that accounts for endogeneity and time‐invariant unobserved effects across local labor markets, we find that both immigration intensity and exposure to import competition from China have contributed positively to the electoral outcomes of far‐right parties, whereas only immigration intensity has increased the vote shares of right‐wing and traditionalist/authoritarian/nationalist parties. Some evidence, albeit not robust, shows that immigration may have also had a positive impact on far‐left parties, thus possibly further contributing toward political polarization. Moreover, electoral turnout has responded negatively to an increased presence of migrants. While the above effects seem to work through the mediation of labor markets, our results, especially those related to immigration, suggest that other mechanisms at the level of local communities are also at play.     

Can Spending Time in the Minors Pay Off? An Examination of the Canadian Junior Public Equity Markets

This paper tests whether the junior public equity markets serve as an effective development market for early‐stage firms compared to private venture capital (VC). Focusing on the Canadian market, we compare the long‐run stock performance of firms that graduate from the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange (TSX‐V) to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) against the performance of VC‐backed firms that have a direct IPO on the TSX. Controlling for various confounders and possible selection biases, we find that TSX‐V graduations significantly outperform VC‐backed IPOs by 28.2 percentage points in the three years following the TSX listing. Our results are consistent with the idea that a TSX‐V listing provides the insiders of early‐stage companies with valuable public‐markets experience.     

The Effects of the Specialization of Private Equity Firms on their Exit Strategy

We investigate how industry and stage specialization of Private Equity (PE) firms affect the likelihood to exit investments by means of trade sales, Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), or Secondary Buyouts (SBOs). Our empirical analysis relies on competing risks models. Using a sample of 818 Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs) by US and European PE firms over the period 2000–2015, we find that both industry and stage specializations of PEs increase the likelihood of exiting via IPO, whereas only industry specialization positively affects the likelihood of divesting through a trade sale. Finally, SBOs are more likely for non‐specialized investors.     

Changes in the second-moment properties of disaggregated capital flows

Using formal statistical tests, we detect (i) significant volatility increases for various types of capital flows for a period of changes in business cycle comovement among the G7 countries, and (ii) mixed evidence of changes in covariances and correlations with a set of macroeconomic variables.     

The impacts of climate change on tourist mobility in mountain areas

This study investigates the effects of climate change on tourist mobility in mountain areas, distinguishing between infrastructure, transport operation and travel demand. We examine change in tourist travel demand by proposing a two-step approach to forecast its future development. A multi-origin, multi-destination model for tourism demand quantifies the variation in overnight stays within a given region, and a linear, deterministic model determines the traffic-related implications. The method, tested on the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol (Italy), exhibits expected variations in winter and summer travel demand up to 2080 under different scenarios. Results reveal that average summer traffic can be more than twice as intense as average winter traffic, contributing to significantly increasing the peak days of congestion along the Provincial road network. Despite this evidence, all stakeholders seem to be at an early stage in incorporating this information into their strategic planning. The need for adequate transport policies and measures is considered essential to obtain the optimal balance of transport modes that will be required in the near future.     

Sustainability drivers in food retail

Sustainability has become a relevant issue for retailers. We develop an integrated model with three drivers of retailer's investments in sustainability. First, the more their processes, human resources and customer driven capabilities are developed, the more investments in sustainability tend to occur. Second, retailers leverage their relationships with suppliers to invest in sustainability. Third, competition and economic instability may also lead to long run investments in social and environmental. We tested three hypotheses by surveying 101 retailers operating supermarkets, hypermarkets and neighborhood stores that focus mainly on food with a limited offering of general merchandise and apparel. Our results show the importance of customer driven capabilities for investments in sustainability. Communication with the supplier also has an impact on investments, while the process and policies of the supplier relationship do not. Retailers invest in sustainability to coordinate this relationship. Our study sheds light on the drivers for sustainability and offers an understanding of how a retailer may invest further in sustainability.     

Organizational creativity as a crucial resource for building international business competence

We aim to elucidate the roles that organizational creativity plays in the development of firms’ international business competence (IBC). We conducted an investigation grounded in the resource-based view of how this intangible resource supports the development of capabilities and competences. We surveyed 77 Brazilian audiovisual SMEs and analyzed our data using OLS regression analysis. The results partially support the hypothesis that organizational creativity is a building block for IBC but show that its effect is mostly exerted through the mediation of some of the dimensions of innovative and entrepreneurial capabilities. This study has implications both for organizations and public policies, contributing to the debate on how firms stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship and how public agents can leverage SMEs’ internationalization process.     

Europe's Second Markets for Small Companies

European stock exchanges have repeatedly opened second markets to list small companies. We explain the motivation for the creation of these second markets, and the reasons why many of them have failed. We find that the average long‐run performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) on second markets is dramatically worse than for main market IPOs. However, the second markets have provided firms with the opportunity to raise funds at the IPO and in follow‐on offerings. The relative success of London's AIM, which is an exchange‐regulated market with minimal regulations, has led other European stock exchanges to establish similar non‐EU regulated second markets. Most of the IPOs on these exchange‐regulated markets are offered exclusively to institutional investors, and are equivalent to private placements. These IPOs, which frequently raise only a few million euros, rarely develop liquid trading.