Moving to autarky,trade creation and home market effect: an exhaustive analysis of regional trade agreements in Africa

This article analyses the effects of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) on bilateral trade in Africa. A structural gravity equation is estimated over the period 1955–2014. The overall effect of RTAs on African trade is strong, but depending on the nature of the RTAs, there is a decreasing impact over time. While Economic Integration Agreements (EIAs) still favour trade in Africa, there was no trade creation coming from Free Trade Agreements between 1990 and 2014. However, the provisions of RTAs do not have a negative impact on trade: agreements that include behind-the-border policies do not significantly deter bilateral trade. To explain the declining impact of RTAs, we look at their redistributive impact between members states. There is no evidence that large countries disproportionally export diversified goods due to RTAs (no ‘home effect’). Countries with a good international network (‘hub effect’) benefited more than other countries of RTAs between 1955 and 1990 but this is however less true on the most recent period (1990–2014).     

The importance of service quality in British Muslim’s choice of an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account

Using an extended SERVQUAL model, this study identifies and compares the importance of service quality to Muslim consumers with an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account in a non-Muslim country, Britain. Eight group discussions and a survey of 300 Muslims were conducted. Five dimensions of service quality were identified, i.e. responsiveness, credibility, Islamic tangibles, accessibility and reputation. These differ in structure and content from the original SERVQUAL developed in a western context and the subsequent CARTER model constructed in a Muslim country. In addition, significant differences were found in the importance of items between Islamic bank account and non-Islamic bank account holders. This study is one of the first to identify and compare the importance of service quality between Islamic and non-Islamic bank account holders in a western non-Muslim country. The results advance our understanding of the impact of culture on SERVQUAL. The study provides insight into Muslims’ bank choice and helps bank managers of both Islamic and non-Islamic banks to focus their attention on the service quality dimensions that matter most to Muslim customers.     

Market orientation,job satisfaction,product quality,and firm performance: evidence from China

This article examines the processes by which market orientation (MO) affects performance using a cross‐level approach. The results of a survey of 2,754 employees from 180 firms in China show that organization‐level MO culture leads to unit‐level MO behavior, which improves employee‐level job satisfaction and then product quality, which in turn fosters organizational performance. In particular, MO behavior fully mediates the effects of MO culture on employee satisfaction, product quality, and organizational performance. Leadership quality strengthens the effect of MO culture on unit‐level MO behavior. Moreover, MO behavior enhances firm performance indirectly through employee job satisfaction and product quality. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

让领导人理解真实的企业文化（二）

缩小文化现实和理想间的差距 为什么公司有兴趣进行文化评估?如果企业希望自己实现目标的能力达到最大化,它就必须明确公司中的主流文化是否有助于推动员工行为实现企业战略目标.文化评估可以使公司对现实文化和理想文化间的差距进行分析.描绘出理想图景并正确认识现实差距,可以为设计缩小差距的机制提供关键的信息.如果竞争环境变化迅速,那么企业文化也需要随之变化.     

Sociology,Economics, and Gender

This article explores the profoundly gendered nature of the split between the disciplines of economics and sociology that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emphasizing implications for current efforts to bring the fields more closely together. Drawing on historical documents and feminist studies of science, it investigates the gendered processes underlying the divergence of the disciplines in definition, method, and degree of engagement with social problems. The recently developed field of economic sociology and other efforts to bridge the disciplinary gap have the potential to heal this disciplinary split, if they are broadened, deepened, and made wiser and more self-reflective through the use of feminist analysis.     

War Legacies,Welfare and Livelihoods in Rural Areas: The Case of Kosovo

This article examines the effects of war on livelihood choices and welfare outcomes of rural households in Kosovo using the 2000 Kosovo Living Standards Measurement Survey. We analyse the extent of the legacy of war on livelihood activities and welfare. We first identify livelihood portfolio clusters of households pursuing similar combinations of activities. These clusters are comparable to those described in more qualitative studies in the immediate post‐conflict period. We then examine the determinants of livelihood portfolio choice and the consequences of these for welfare outcomes. Our results provide evidence of a relationship between a household’s experience of war and livelihood choice. We also identify significant selection effects on welfare for three out of four livelihood clusters, highlighting the fact that selecting into a specific livelihood portfolio changes welfare relative to expected levels. Our results show that war not only affects livelihood choices but also changes the returns to these activities.     

The Indonesian tourism industry under crisis: a Bourdieuan perspective on social boundaries among small-scale business owners

Abstract

This study investigates how small-scale business owners in the Indonesian tourism industry seek to overcome the consequences of multiple crises, over a 10-year period. Taking a Bourdieuan perspective, the authors emphasize the context-dependency and quality differences of various forms of capital, and explain how these differences are manifested in boundary work aimed at overcoming major adversity. It is argued that social, economic and cultural capital contributes differently to small-scale business owners’ resilience, either spanning or setting developmental boundaries. This furthers understanding of how small-scale business owners cope with social boundaries and generate innovative opportunities for the development in the aftermath of crises.     

Corporate domicile and average effective tax rates: The cases of Canada,Japan, the United Kingdom,and the United States

We use financial statement information to estimate three alterantive average effective tax rates for firms domiciled in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the period 1982 to 1991. While many of the firms we examine operate worldwide, we use the termdomicile to refer to the legal residence or site of incorporation of the parent company. Our objective is to determine themarginal impact of a company's domicile on its worldwide tax burden, with controls for industry and year. We find both among domestic-only companies and among multinational companies the domiciles are consistently ranked in descending order by average effective tax rates as Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. In comparing domestic-only companies and multinationals domiciled in the same jurisdiction, only U.S. multinationals consistently face a greater tax burden than their domestic counterparts.     

Offer pricing of Australian industrial initial public offers

In the present paper we examine the setting of offer prices for Australian industrial initial public offers (IPOs) by fixed price offers. Our investigation focuses on the associations between offer prices and both market prices and accounting based measures of intrinsic value. Fixed‐price offers are less likely to be influenced by the canvassing of market demand when compared to the US setting, where book‐builds are typically used. We conclude that while Australian industrial IPOs are underpriced, they are not systematically undervalued. Contrary to research undertaken by Purnanandam and Swaminathan in the US book‐build setting, we do not conclude that Australian IPOs are systematically overvalued. As part of our analysis, we develop an empirical model of offer prices based on interviews with several leading Australian stockbrokers involved in setting them. Finally, using the ratio of offer price to intrinsic value measure, we find some evidence that undervaluation is positively related to underpricing.