MNCs,Technological Innovation and Regional Systems in the EU: Some Evidence in the Italian Case

The increasing appreciation of the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the generation of technology across national boundaries has been facilitated by the recent trend for MNCs to establish internal and external networks for innovation. The development of cross-border corporate integration and intra-border inter-company sectoral integration makes it increasingly important to examine where and how innovative activity by MNCs is internationally dispersed and regionally concentrated. By using patents granted to the largest industrial firms for innovation located abroad-arranged by the host region-we test the nature of the relationship between the foreign-owned and the indigenous company profiles of technological specialisation in the Italian regions. We argue the MNC networks for innovation in Europe conform to a geographical hierarchy of regional centres. Accordingly, the technological specialisation of foreign-owned affiliates in different regional locations depends upon the position of the region in the hierarchy, i.e. whether the regional system is at the top of the hierarchy (higher order location) or is a lower order regional centre.     

Corporate Socially Responsible Initiatives and Their Effects on Consumption of Green Products

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has focused often on the business returns of corporate social initiatives but less on their possible social returns. We study an actual company–consumer partnership CSR initiative promoting ecologically correct and conscious consumption of bottled mineral water. We conduct a survey on adult consumers to test the hypotheses that consumer skepticism toward the company–consumer partnership CSR initiative and the moral emotion of elevation mediate the relationship between company CSR motives perceived by consumers and consumer behavioral responses following this CSR initiative. Favorable consumer behavioral responses, in turn, relate positively to consumer support of other green products. The results provide scholars and managers with means of improving their understanding and handling of company–consumer partnership CSR initiatives.     

Wealth transfer taxation: an empirical investigation

We present an empirical model of wealth transfer taxation in the revenue systems of the G7 countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US—over the period from 1965 to 2009. Our model emphasizes the influences of population aging and of the stock of household wealth in an explanation of the past and likely future of this tax source. Simulations with the model using U.N. demographic projections and projections of household wealth suggest that even in France and Germany where reliance on wealth transfer taxation has been increasing for part of the period studied, wealth transfer taxes can be expected to wither away as population aging deepens over the next two decades. Our results indicate that recent tax designs that rely upon the taxation of wealth transfers to preserve equity in the face of declining taxation of capital incomes may be, in this respect, politically infeasible for the foreseeable future. We conclude by using the case of wealth transfer taxation to raise the general question of the extent to which the consistency of a proposed reform with expected political equilibria ought to play a role in the design of a normative policy blueprint.     

Should They Stay or Should They Go? Attitudes Towards Immigration in Europe

This paper examines the main determinants of individual attitudes towards immigration in Europe. Our results suggest that both economic and non‐economic variables shape attitudes towards immigration, but the relative importance of these factors depends crucially on the race/ethnicity of the arriving immigrants. While fears over labour market competition are more likely to shape attitudes towards the arrival of same race immigrants, more exposure to immigrants reduces opposition towards the arrival of different race immigrants. These findings persist after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics, and after exploiting the data to allow for cohort‐specific effects.     

Minimum wages and the wage distribution in Estonia

Abstract: This article studies how changes in the statutory minimum wage have affected the wage distribution in Estonia, a post-transition country with little collective bargaining and relatively large wage inequality. The analyses show that the minimum wage has had substantial spillover effects on wages in the lower tail of the distribution; the effects are most pronounced up to the twentieth percentile and then decline markedly. The minimum wage has contributed to lower wage inequality and this has particularly benefitted low-wage segments of the labour market such as women and the elderly. Interestingly, the importance of the minimum wage for the wage distribution was smaller during the global financial crisis than before or after the crisis.     

Sustainable Power Generation in Europe: A Panel Data Analysis of the Effects of Market and Environmental Regulations

Environmental and Resource Economics - Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions have become increasingly more pressing environmental concerns in European policy agenda. Environmental energy...     

Country performance during the Covid-19 pandemic: externalities,coordination, and the role of institutions

Economics of Governance - The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most powerful examples of negative externalities in local communities, entire countries and across the globe, calling for the...     

ESG controversies and bank risk taking

This study investigates how environmental, social, and governance controversies affect bank risk taking. By estimating a dynamic panel data model from 2011 to 2020, we find evidence that banks with fewer ESG controversies take less risk. Banks with a lower number of ESG controversies show their compliance with the implementation of ESG strategies to reduce risk, as evidenced by lower risk-weighted assets and higher Z-scores. The present study supports the recent guidelines on climate-related and environmental risks published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the European Central Bank. Therefore, the main results strengthen the need for the integration not only of social and governance risks but also of climate-related and environmental risks in banks' risk management framework.     

The effect of higher capital requirements on bank lending: the capital surplus matters

Empirica - The existing literature has displayed mixed results in terms of the relationship between tighter bank capital regulation and lending, which may be due to poor approximation of capital...