A Note on Market Power in an Emission Permits Market with Banking

In this paper, we investigate the effect of market power on equilibrium path of an emission permits market in which firms can bank current permits for use in later periods. In particular, we study the market equilibrium for a large (potentially dominant) firm and competitive fringe with rational expectations. We characterize the equilibrium solution for different permits allocations and discuss the large firm’s stock-holding constraints needed for credible market manipulation.     

Accumulation of reserves in emerging and developing countries: mercantilism versus insurance

Review of World Economics - Motivated by the significant increases in international reserves during the 2000s, this paper analyzes the reasons why emerging and developing countries choose to...     

Education and Income Inequality: New Evidence From Cross-Country Data

This paper presents empirical evidence on how education is related to income distribution in a panel data set covering a broad range of countries for the period between 1960 and 1990. The findings indicate that educational factors—higher educational attainment and more equal distribution of education —play a significant role in making income distribution more equal. The results also confirm the Kuznets inverted–U curve for the relationship between income level and income inequality. We also find that government social expenditure contributes to more equal distribution of income. However, a significant proportion of cross–country variation in income inequality remains unexplained.     

An examination of the relationship between women's personal goals and structural factors influencing their decision to start a business: The case of Pakistan

Most of the work on women entrepreneurs in developing countries relates largely to those who are uneducated and very poor, working in the rural areas or the urban informal sectors. Few studies have attempted to study women entrepreneurs in the urban formal sectors in developing countries, the category of women corresponding to the women entrepreneurs studied in the Western world.Furthermore, most of these studies, conducted largely by international development agencies, have tended to focus on issues from a macroperspective. They assume that women entrepreneurs in developing countries are a homogeneous group, with similar experiences in starting a business.This study departs from earlier research in two major ways. First, it focuses on actual and potential women entrepreneurs in the urban formal sector. Second, adopting a symbolic interactionist approach, it tries to take a closer look at women's experiences in starting a business. Hence, it focuses on women's perceptions and the way they define their goals and the advantages and constraints they face in starting a business at a micro level.Data for the study were gathered through in-depth interviews of 33 participants of an entrepreneurship development program (EDP) run in Karachi, Pakistan. Sixteen of these were women who started a business after attending the EDP. The other 17 women did not start a business, although they had originally intended to do so.The study revealed that women wanted to start a business in order to achieve three types of personal goals: personal freedom, security, and satisfaction.Freedom seekers were mostly women who had experienced some kind of frustration or dissatisfaction in their paid work, and who now wanted to start their own business in order to have the freedom to choose the type of work, hours of work, work environment, and the people they worked with.Security seekers were mostly women who, triggered by some personal mishap (such as death or retirement of husband), wanted to start a business in order to maintain or improve their and their family's social and economic status. An important reason why most of these women opted for their own business rather than paid work was the flexibility that self-employment offered in terms of location (close to home, working from home) and hours of work, to which paid jobs could not cater.The satisfaction seekers were mostly housewives, with no previous work experience, who wanted to start a business in order to prove to themselves and to others that they are useful and productive members of society.The impact of structural factors on women's ability to start a business varied according to the dominant personal goal women had chosen. Structural factors influencing start-up were divided into three categories: internal resources, that is, women's qualifications and/or work experience; external resources, that is, finance and location; and relational resources, that is, family, employees, suppliers, and customers.The relationship between women's personal goals and structural factors influencing start-up led to the development of a conceptual framework that could help explain why some women, despite apparently unfavorable circumstances, succeeded in starting a business, whereas others even under apparently favorable circumstances did not do so.Understanding the different goals women pursue and how the relationship between these goals and the structural factors influenced start-up can be of great help to researchers, planners, as well as practitioners working to promote women entrepreneurs. This understanding can lead to the development of more finely tuned policies and programs of support that not only recognize that women have different goals for wanting to start a business, but that their needs and experiences in starting up vary according to their particular goals for business ownership.     

On Pollution Permit Banking and Market Power

We consider a pollution permit market with a large firm and fringe of competitive firms. To smooth compliance towards a long-run emissions goal, firms are initially allocated a stock (i.e., bank) of permits that can be gradually consumed. We first show how the large firm can credibly manipulate the spot market in subgame-perfect equilibrium. Motivated by features observed in the US market for sulfur dioxide emissions, we then show that the introduction of stock transactions has no effects on market power, but that forward trading and incomplete observability of stock holdings do have pro-competitive effects. Both authors are also Research Associates at the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.     

Family SMEs' Internationalization: Disentangling the Influence of Familiness on Spanish Firms' Export Activity

This paper studies the relationships between family involvement and internationalization of family small and medium enterprises (SMEs), examining the effects exerted by the three main dimensions that comprise the concept of familiness: power, experience, and culture. Disentangling the influence of familiness dimensions lead us to discover the combined effects of family's governance, generation, and culture on SMEs' export activity. The results, using the F‐PEC scale over a sample of 500 Spanish firms, show that this multidimensional approach better identifies the determinants of the family SMEs' internationalization. Specifically, we find that the family experience and its culture orientation positively affect the firm's export activity, whereas family governance/management does not have any significant influence.     

Managing human resources in the Latin American context: the case of Chile

In this article several aspects of human resource management (HRM) in Chile will be examined. Initially Chile will be analysed in the context of Latin American culture and history, as it shares a number of common features with the rest of the countries of the region. Secondly, the arrival of HRM to Chile is explored, as well as how it is affected by the particular characteristics of the country. Thirdly, HRM research literature in the specific context of Chile is reviewed and analysed. Finally, some consequences are discussed, and it is concluded that Chile shares a unique history, culture, social particularities and problems with the other countries of the region, affecting the way in which HRM is deployed in organisations. It is also concluded that more research in this context is urgently needed.     

The influence of individual characteristics on getting involved in an entrepreneurial team: The contingent role of individualism

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - A traditional stereotype of the entrepreneur is that of a lone hero. However, many entrepreneurs engage in new businesses as members of...     

Effects of family involvement on the monitoring of CEO compensation

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This study examines the effectiveness of CEO compensation monitoring depending on the extent of family involvement in the firm. Considering...     

Corporate environmental reputation: Exploring its definitional landscape

Despite its growing strategic importance, the concept of Corporate Environmental Reputation (CER) still lacks a specific definition and content delimitation in the literature. This fact, together with its difficult differentiation from other similar constructs, hides the key role of this construct in the connection between management and environmental studies and in the development of corporate environmental management strategies. To address this issue, in this research, we develop a literature review on CER conceptualisation, operationalisation and measurement, and analyse its main effects on firm competitiveness and performance drawing on the Institutional Theory and the resource‐based view. As a result, we propose a CER definition, highlighting its main characteristics and drivers and delimitating it in relation to closely related concepts such as green corporate image and corporate environmental legitimacy.