Economies of scale and gender discrimination in transition: the case of the Republic of Tajikistan

This article tests for economies of scale and for evidence of discrimination based on gender lines in intra-household consumption allocations using data from the Living Standards Survey in the Republic of Tajikistan (TLSS). Overall results support the existence of household economies of scale in Tajikistan; however, empirical evidence supporting boy–girl discrimination is limited despite anecdotal evidence otherwise.     

Commercial bank ownership and performance in China

This study examines the determinants of bank performance based on proxy variables that assess the quality of assets, profitability, liquidity and overall performance. Using a sample of 111 Chinese commercial banks over the period of 2000–2012, we find that foreign banks appear to have better asset quality and overall performance although lower profitability compared to domestic banks. In contrast, the state-owned banks tend to be more profitable and have better liquidity position compared with other domestic banks and foreign banks. At bank level, equity/liability ratio exerts significant influence on overall bank performance, while at the macroeconomic level, per capital GDP, GDP growth, inflation and unemployment rates appear to have a bearing on bank performance.     

Bubbles,crashes and information contagion in large-group asset market experiments

Experimental Economics - We study the emergence of bubbles in a laboratory experiment with large groups of individuals. The realized price is the aggregation of the forecasts of a group of...     

京津冀省市间创新能力相似性、耦合性及多维邻近性对协同创新的影响

考虑到省市间协同创新能力受省市内和省市间因素的共同影响,从创新能力的相似性、耦合性以及制度邻近性、认知邻近性、地理邻近性5个方面构建京津冀省市间协同创新能力评价指标体系,运用主成分分析法对京津冀省市间协同创新能力进行测度,并利用多元回归分析这些因素对协同创新能力的影响程度。研究结果表明：①北京-天津的协同创新能力最好,北京-河北的协同创新能力最差,这种结果与京津冀省市内各自创新能力分布不均衡紧密相关;②创新能力的相似性、耦合性对京津冀协同创新发展具有正向影响;③认知邻近性、地理邻近性以及制度邻近性中市场化程度的相似性对京津冀协同创新发展具有正向影响,其中市场化程度相似性的影响最为显著,而制度邻近性中的地方保护相似性对京津冀协同创新发展具有制约作用。     

From Foster Mothers to Child Care Centers: A History of Working Mothers and Child Care in Sweden

The Swedish welfare state is usually considered "woman friendly." It treats mothers, including single mothers, as workers and offers them high quality public child care. Feminist typologies often use paid work as the lens through which to look at welfare states. Jane Jenson, however, proposes that we think seriously about care in typologies of welfare states. The aim of this article is to take the child care arrangements of working mothers seriously and the empirical concern is historical. While most people believe that the expansion of public child care in Sweden enabled mothers to become workers, it could also be argued- looking through the lens of care- that new public policies enabled women workers to become caregivers.     

MODELING INTERNATIONAL CONSUMPTION PATTERNS

This article addresses a number of key problems commonly confronted in the literature on international demand analysis. These include data issues and requirements, multistage budgeting, outliers, group heteroskedasticity, and model selection. A two-stage demand system is fit to International Comparison Programme data for 114 countries for nine aggregate categories and eight food sub-categories of goods. Outliers are identified and omitted from the sample. Parameter estimates for the two stages are obtained with a maximum-likelihood procedure that corrects for group heteroskedasticity. Country-specific income and own-price elasticities are calculated and indicate that poor countries are more responsive to changes in income and prices than rich countries. We also find evidence for the strong version of Engel's law; when income doubles, the budget share of food declines by approximately 0.10.     

Pay progression in routinised service sector work: navigating the internal labour market in a fast food multinational company

The United Kingdom's widespread use of low-skill, low-paid employment has been well documented. It has been argued internal labour markets (ILMs) benefit such workers, affording them with opportunities for progression. Relatively little is known, however, about the impact of ILMs on entry level workers undertaking routinised service sector work. Drawing on qualitative data, this article explores the prospects on offer in a market leading, fast food multinational company. Potential enabling features include on-the-job training, a transparent and integrated pay structure and a professed culture of progression . Occupational movements to positions above the low-pay threshold are, however, relatively rare. We conjecture this contradiction is the result of the business context in which the firm operates. The findings suggest that in sectors where price leadership strategies dominate, escape from low pay is likely to be exceptional, even within large organisations featuring some of the classic characteristics of ‘pure’ or strong ILMs.     

The development of capabilities in new firms

This research explores evidence of corporate capabilities for conducting acquisition and alliance deals in young firms. We hypothesize that investors conjecture about the future based on information about a firm's capabilities. Each successive deal carries intrinsic value, creates experience, generates feedback, and yields information about the firm's underlying capabilities. We evaluate whether stock prices impute expectations that firms will capably pursue particular programs of acquisitions and alliances. The analysis covers how investor responses change across successive deals on the theory that firms with a concentrated program of deals may develop capabilities more intensively than those with programs that involve both acquisitions and alliances. The dataset covers the population of firms that went through an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States between 1988 and 1999. It contains information on all of their post‐IPO acquisitions and alliances, and on how their stock prices changed in response to the announcement of each deal. The results suggest that within the first year after IPO, investors expect firms to execute particular streams of alliances and acquisitions that reflect their unique histories of demonstrated capabilities. We also find evidence that investors cannot fully anticipate deal programs. The findings support a capabilities‐based view of the firm and also show that accurate inference using event‐study methods may require digging deep into the early histories of firms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effectiveness of pre-release advertising for motion pictures: An empirical investigation using a simulated market

We use data on a movie’s stock price as it trades on the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a popular online market simulation, to study the impact of movie advertising. We find that advertising has a positive and statistically significant effect on expected revenues, but that the effect varies strongly across movies of different “quality”. The point estimate implies that the returns to advertising for the average movie are negative.