The Fast Decay Process in Outdoor Recreational Activities and the Use of Alternative Count Data Models

Despite a number of significant advances in count data modeling during the last two decades and the growing popularity of these models in recreation demand analysis, standard count data models are inadequate to address the fast decay process of the dependent variable and the associated long tail. This article demonstrates how one and two-parameter alternative count data models can be used to properly model the fast decay process and the associated long tail commonly observed in recreation demand analysis. Econometric results from an illustrative application suggest satisfactory performance of four of the eight alternative count data models proposed in this article.     

Equilibrium analysis and envelope theory

Qualitative comparative statics amounts to a study of the qualitative properties of the Debreu mapping, i.e., the restriction of the projection (p,ω)?ω to the equilibrium manifold. We show that a natural framework for such a study is Thom's envelope theory which generalizes the theory of planar curve envelopes.     

Incorporating Price-Induced Innovation in a Symmetric Generalised McFadden Cost Function with Several Outputs

This paper proposes a multiple-output Symmetric Generalised McFadden (SGM) cost function, incorporating both exogenous and endogenous technological change. Whilst exogenous technological change is captured by the usual time trend, endogenous or price-induced technological change is cast within a partial-adjustment framework involving lagged input prices. The study points to various dimensions or components of technological change, and allows to disentangle pure factor substitution, given the state of the technology, from factor substitution due to price-induced changes in technology. Under the conditions of non-jointness in input quantities, the model further allows to identify technological change biases for each output separately. An empirical application is presented in which the proposed model is applied to time-series data on the feed manufacturing industry in Belgium. To improve on the econometrics, the SGM cost function also incorporates linear splines.     

Unemployment and employment offices’ efficiency: What can be done?

Regional employment offices provide placement services to job-seekers and employers and organize active labor market programs. In this paper, we carry out a quantitative evaluation of the employment offices’ performance in Switzerland based on production efficiency measures. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the performance of all employment offices and then account for factors in the local operating environment that are outside managerial control. This approach, and the ranking of employment offices, may easily be interpreted by policymakers and provides guidelines for raising the efficiency of the public employment service. Our findings suggest that there is considerable room for improved efficiency in employment service, which could lead to a lower level of structural unemployment. We also find that differences in the external operating environment have a significant influence upon the efficiency of employment offices.     

Hiring functions and a new index for measuring mismatch: Some empirical results for european countries

Conclusion This paper investigates the relation between mismatch and sectoral hiring functions. Traditionally, the indices used to measure structural mismatch were constructed by assuming that the hiring functions are identical across sectors. However, both theoretically and empirically, there is no reason to believe that the hiring behavior of the firms or the search methods of the workers are identical across sectors. Evidence for this is provided in the Appendix of this paper where it is shown that theUV curves for the different regions in Great Britain and different sectors in Switzerland are not identical. Brunello [1990] also shows that the hiring functions do not have to be identical. This paper also demonstrates that it may not be possible to eliminate structural unemployment totally when the hiring functions across sectors are non-identical. In other words, total hiring may be maximized even if theV/U ratios are not equalized across sectors. This conclusion is important as it highlights that the indices used in empirical work to measure structural mismatch may be seriously flawed.This paper develops an index for measuring mismatch which is rooted in the theory of hiring functions and utilizes the approach of measuring angle between vectors by the use of cos() functions. The FH index presented in this paper is based on a simple arithmetic mean of regional or sectoral cos() functions. It has been estimated for several European countries, and the empirical results highlight some interesting conclusions concerning regional mismatch in these countries.     

Examining the relationship between language divergence and word-of-mouth intentions

More than half of the countries in the world are multilingual, and more than half the world's consumers speak more than one language. Thus, bilingual consumers often receive services provided in a second or nonnative language. This article examines these consumers' word-of-mouth intentions after a service provision in a second language. Two studies show that consumers served in a second language are less likely to spread positive word of mouth. The results also reveal a negative halo effect, such that consumers served in a second language perceive the service provider as less responsive in general. Furthermore, the service provider's perceived responsiveness appears far more important for determining positive word-of-mouth intentions than other factors, such as service reliability. This study therefore contributes to the fields of service and sociolinguistics, with important implications for managers as well.     

The Construction of Risk Management Credibility Within Corporate Boardrooms

Despite various corporate collapses over the last decades, risk management is increasingly influential across organizations worldwide, as if the apparatus’ credibility was impermeable to scandals that, from critical angles, cast doubt on its efficacy. Relying on a cultural perspective of analysis highlighting the range of social processes that protect prevailing institutions’ legitimacy from aberrations, we examined the sense-making approaches employed by corporate boardroom actors to maintain their confidence in the credibility of the risk management apparatus despite being exposed to a continuous flow of corporate failures pointing to risk management efficacy limitations. Specifically, we conducted 35 interviews with corporate board stakeholders, mostly board members and corporate consultants. Our analysis indicates that actors involved in risk management processes tend to interpret aberration cases through perspectives that put the blame on some implementation deficiency, thereby ensuring that risk management's core assumptions are not questioned. These perspectives point to a defensive system of thought grounded in the director and consultancy communities, whose main referents are subject to intense work and re-conceptualization in the aftermath of aberrations, thereby providing community members with the means to make sense of the frictions of organizational life in ways that maintain the legitimacy of the risk management apparatus.     

Endogenous job destruction and job matching in cities

We propose a spatial search-matching model where both job creation and job destruction are endogenous. Workers are ex ante identical but not ex post since their jobs can be hit by a technological shock which decreases their productivity. They reside in a city, and commuting to the job center involves both pecuniary and time costs. As a result, workers with high wages are willing to live closer to jobs to save on time commuting costs. We show that, in equilibrium, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the productivity space and the urban location space. Workers with high productivities and wages reside close to jobs, have low per distance commuting costs and pay high land rents. We also show that higher per distance commuting costs and higher unemployment benefits lead to more job destruction.     

The organizational context of professionalism in accounting

This study analyses the degree to which change in the organizational context, content and location (both of the individual within the organization and the organization within the field) of professional work has contributed to variation in attitudes toward professional ideology and institutions. Through an online survey of Canadian chartered accountants we observe that, contrary to current accusations, a majority of accounting professionals remain committed to their profession, despite profound changes in the context, content and location of their work. We do find, however, that the strongest espoused deviation from core professional values and logics has occurred in traditional work contexts (i.e. public accounting firms), and for the distinctive value of commitment to independence enforcement, the deviation is most pronounced in the elite core of the profession – the Big Four professional service firms. Accountants in higher ranks also tend to identify more with commercialistic values. We speculate on the implications these findings hold for the professional project of accountancy.