Better protected,better paid: Evidence on how employment protection affects wages

This paper empirically establishes the effect of the employer's term of notice on the wage level of employees. The term of notice is defined as the period an employer has to notify workers in advance of their upcoming dismissal. The wages paid during this period are an important element of firing costs and hence employment protection. To find a causal effect, I exploit the exogenous change in the term of notice that resulted from the introduction of a new Dutch law in 1999. Strong evidence is found that a longer ‘dormant’ term of notice leads to higher wages. In my sample, an additional month of notice increases wages by three percent, ceteris paribus.     

Approach for a pro-active emerging risk system on biofuel by-products in feed

Worldwide biofuel products have rapidly entered the market and consequently so did the availability of their by-products for feed production. A pro-active emerging risk system for biofuel by-products is essential in order to prevent the occurrence of emerging hazards in feed and livestock production. In the current study, two biofuel by-products were elaborated upon, namely Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) resulting from bioethanol production and microalgae slurry resulting from biodiesel production. A holistic approach was used in which both factors from within the feed chain as well as outside the feed chain were incorporated. A list of critical factors linking dynamics in the biofuel production chain with possible feed safety risks was established after consultation of experts in in-depth interviews. Subsequently, a workshop was organized to determine the most important critical factors. Indicators (signals that indicate a change in critical factors) and information sources were linked to these factors for the individual cases. Based on expert judgment, the most important critical factors identified for the two selected cases were: chain complexity, composition of the feed product, origin of raw materials and climate change. Ranking of the indicators showed that in both cases the number of chain stages was the most important general indicator for feed safety risks.     

Structural aspects of social capital: tests for cross-national equivalence in Europe

In this contribution we start from the emerging consensus on the widely disputed phenomenon of social capital. We propose to focus on structural aspects of social capital: formal (contacts within formal organizations) and informal (contacts outside of formal organizations). First, we address methodological questions on the cross-national equivalence of these social capital measurements. Second, we re-visit substantive questions on the patterns of relationships in different European countries. In particular, we inquire to which degree formal and informal social capital can substitute each other, as well as being complementary. We take advantage of recent Eurobaromer data (2004) containing a wide range of valid measurements on both structural aspects of social capital. We find strong evidence for cross-national equivalent measurements regarding formal social capital, employing probabilistic scalogram analyses. For informal social capital, we find strong evidence for configural and metric invariance as well as evidence for partial scalar invariance, employing multi group confirmatory factor analyses. We have to reject the substantive hypothesis on substitution of formal and informal social capital for all countries under consideration, except for Romania. We corroborate the hypothesis on complementarity of formal and informal social capital.     

“多国体系”中行为体的不同行为逻辑及其根源——兼与许田波商榷

对于为何战国时期的列国最终由秦国实现统一,而在近代欧洲的多国体系中反复出现均势这一问题,许田波通过对春秋战国时期与近代早期欧洲进行比较研究之后认为:战国时期的秦国采取自强型改革和聪明的战略,突破制衡逻辑从而实现统一;而欧洲国家则采取自弱型权宜措施和相对笨拙的战略,从而导致均势在欧洲的盛行。作者认为,许田波的论述脱离了欧洲和中国的文化背景和历史实践,导致对多国体系中政治行为体之所以奉行不同的行为逻辑产生了误读。战国时期的列国都奉行兼并统一的战略,是因为它们都受到中国大一统观念的引导;而近代欧洲产生的主权观念和均势行为则与欧洲中世纪之后形成的多元化政治格局紧密相关。作者认为构建中国的国际关系理论不能僵硬地套用西方国际关系理论的范畴、概念与观点,而应该从中国的文化传统和历史实践出发,体现出创造性和独立性。     

Efficiency of iterated WLS in the linear model with completely unknown heteroskedasticity

Iterated weighted least squares (IWLS) is investigated for estimating the regression coefficients in a linear model with symmetrically distributed errors. The variances of the errors are not specified; it is not assumed that they are unknown functions of the explanatory variables nor that they are given in some parametric way.
IWLS is carried out in a random number of steps, of which the first one is OLS. In each step the error variance at time t is estimated with a weighted sum of m squared residuals in the neighbourhood of t and the coefficients are estimated using WLS. Furthermore an estimate of the co-variance matrix is obtained. If this estimate is minimal in some way the iteration process is stopped.
Asymptotic properties of IWLS are derived for increasing sample size n . Some particular cases show that the asymptotic efficiency can be increased by allowing more than two steps. Even asymptotic efficiency with respect to WLS with the true error variances can be obtained if m is not fixed but tends to infinity with n and if the heteroskedasticity is smooth.     

Strategic management archetypes

In the recruitment of managers it is increasingly necessary to attune the choice of candidate to the strategy of the company or its subsidiary. In this paper—coauthored by specialists in the fields of management recruitment and corporate strategy—the authors develop classifications of strategies and of management archetypes. Linking of these classifications leads to an approach that can assist both managers-employees and managers-employers when filling management vacancies. In addition, the approach can be used to assist management development programmes and to relate management planning to strategic planning.