Subsidised Training and Youth Employment: Distinguishing Unobserved Heterogeneity from State Dependence in Labour Market Histories

Using the 1990–2 wave of the French Labour Force Survey to study the employment histories of young people I consider transitions between six labour market states: employment contracts whether permanent or temporary, unemployment, training, education and non-participation. I use a fixed effect estimator in a dynamic multinomial logit model which can accommodate any form of unobserved heterogeneity in levels. This analysis can be extended to Markov processes of any order. I relate heterogeneity components to individual and family characteristics by using simulated maximum likelihood methods. These procedures allow evaluation of the effects training schemes have on youth employment histories.     

Employment and Skills in Financial Services: A Comparison Of Banks and Insurance Companies in Five OECD Countries

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, financial services remained among the fastest growing sectors in most OECD countries. Since the early 1980s however, the pace of employment growth in financial services has slowed in several countries. In a few of them, such as France, there even have been warnings by industry executives of subsranrial employment losses in the years ahead as result of both market saturation and large productivity increases due to the widespread diffusion of computerised technologies [Le Monde, 1986]. A study recently completed by the authors for the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (19871 arrives a conclusions that are at once more optimistic and more complex.     

The Role of Trust in Creating Effective Alliances: A Managerial Perspective

The popularity of alliances in business has exploded over the past few years along with an increasing interest in the role of trust in economic transactions. This paper details the nature of alliances and the crucial role played by trust in creating and managing alliances. Evidence of the emergence of trust are further given within the context of alliances established by small and medium-sized Swiss enterprises where both planning and mutual trust constitute essential ingredients.     

Random incentive systems in a dynamic choice experiment

Experiments frequently use a random incentive system (RIS), where only tasks that are randomly selected at the end of the experiment are for real. The most common type pays every subject one out of her multiple tasks (within-subjects randomization). Recently, another type has become popular, where a subset of subjects is randomly selected, and only these subjects receive one real payment (between-subjects randomization). In earlier tests with simple, static tasks, RISs performed well. The present study investigates RISs in a more complex, dynamic choice experiment. We find that between-subjects randomization reduces risk aversion. While within-subjects randomization delivers unbiased measurements of risk aversion, it does not eliminate carry-over effects from previous tasks. Both types generate an increase in subjects’ error rates. These results suggest that caution is warranted when applying RISs to more complex and dynamic tasks.     

Ecotourism in Antarctica. The role of the naturalist‐guide in presenting places of natural interest

Tourism in Antarctica has seen rapid development over the last ten years, based mainly on the American market, and on special interest environmental discovery tours. This report discusses the key role of the naturalist‐guide in Antarctic tourism, and the importance of leadership, scientific knowledge, conservation and social skills in the work of a guide. The report suggests that the profession needs greater recognition: they have a critical role to play in developing sustainable tourism in environmentally fragile areas.     

Synchronization of Innovation and Vehicle Projects: Proposal of a Management Tool at Renault SAS

The success of a vehicle on the market depends on its price, reliability, and attractiveness; for the latter, innovations are the key elements in the differentiation from competitors. Managing the processes of selecting and integrating innovation projects into vehicle projects is therefore crucial. This article presents a management tool that aims at managing the interplay between innovation projects and vehicle projects. The objectives are to increase and optimize the amount and value of innovation projects integrated into vehicle projects. The tool, called “Profilor,” is based on the concept of intrusiveness, which is presented from a theoretical and empirical point of view.     

Intertemporal transfers of emission quotas in climate policies

We are interested in situations in which governments are committed to some pollution abatement constraint which does not match the society's most preferred level of pollution, like in the current climate change policies undergone on behalf of the Kyoto protocol. We develop an overlapping generations model with capital and pollution in which the individuals care about the environmental quality. We show that slightly improving the intertemporal flexibility of the emission quotas by authorizing two-period backward and forward transfers allows to decentralize the whole optimal growth path at competitive equilibrium.     

Financial crisis in the Russian Federation: Are the Russians learning to tango?

The paper presents some evidence about the rise and fall of financial markets in Russia in the course of 1998, and discusses the causes and likely consequences of the crisis for the Russian economy. It also discusses some important policy issues regarding the effects of global financial integration. The central message is that the Russian financial disaster is a typical example of crisis contagion, although the underlying vulnerability of the economy was a problem which no investor could ignore. In particular, financial stabilization remained extremely fragile owing to the deterioration of the fiscal situation and the vulnerability of the banking system.