Communication externalities in cities

To identify communication externalities in French cities, we exploit a unique survey recording workplace communication of individual workers. Our hypothesis is that in larger and/or more educated cities, workers should communicate more. In turn, more communication should have a positive effect on wages. By estimating both an earnings and a communication equation, we find evidence of communication externalities. In larger and more educated cities, workers communicate more and in turn this has a positive effect on their wages. Depending on the estimates, we find that 13 to 22% of the effects of a more educated and larger city on wages percolate through this channel.     

Stochastic regularization for the mean-variance allocation scheme

Despite being based on sound principles, the original Markovitz portfolio allocation theory cannot produce sound allocations, and restrictions or modifications need to be imposed from outside the theory in order to obtain meaningful portfolios. This is unsatisfactory, and the reasons for this failure are discussed, in particular, the unavoidable small eigenvalues of the covariance. Within the original principles of risk minimization and return maximization, several modifications of the original theory are introduced. First, the strategic and tactical time horizons are separated. A base long-term allocation is chosen at the strategic time horizon, while the portfolio is optimized at the tactical time horizon using information from the price histories. Second, the tactical portfolio is financed by the strategic one, and a funding operator is introduced. The corresponding optimal allocation (without constraints) has one free parameter fixing the leverage. Third, the transaction costs are taken into account. This includes the current re-allocation cost, but crucially the expected costs of the next reallocation. This last term depends on the sensitivity of the allocation with respect to the covariance, and the expectation introduces another dependency on the (inverse) covariance. The new term regularizes the original minimization problem by modifying the lower part of the spectrum of the covariance, leading to meaningful portfolios. Without constraints, the final Lagrangian can be minimized analytically, with a solution that has a structure similar to the original Markovitz solution, but with the inverse covariance regularized by the expected transaction costs.     

Ein Objekt, das sich verweigert: Der Journalismus in der Soziologie Pierre Bourdieus

Gilles Bastin develops a critique of the concept of the »field of journalism» (»champ journalistique«) in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. At first, the genesis of the object under scrutiny, journalism, within Bourdieu’s sociology is introduced. Thus the continuity is made clear with which Bourdieu — from the sixties onwards — conceives of journalists as increasingly powerful agents (»opérateurs«) of »social magic« (»magie sociale«) and of processes primarily in the field of intellectuals. Bastin then analyzes the various suggestions made by different authors for describing the »field of journalism«, and he looks at the variance in using this notion, which makes the concept of the field as such very heterogeneous. In light of other conceptions borrowed from the sociology of professions, such as Everett C. Hughes’, he suggests three critical perspectives: First, Bourdieu’s concept of the field makes work »vanish«; it neglects the conditions of working and the substantial activities of journalists. Second, it leads to a disparate view of journalists’ activities as a subject for research. And thirdly, it decidedly individualizes journalists’ activities.     

Emergence d'un nouveau systeme productif en agriculture

Les changements qui affectent le modèle de production agricole, dans le nouveau contexte économique, peuvent être caractéhsés par un renversement de quatre principes fondamentaux d'organisation. La séparation de la conception et de la production qui était le principe moteur du productivisme est relayé par l'adaptation de la production au marché avec une différenciation des produits (ce que nous désignons comme une logique de qualité). Mais la standardisation exige néanmoins une adaptation des techniques de la production de masse aux contextes locaux, notamment assurée par l'organisation professionnelle des producteurs. La transformation du métier exige de nouvelles formes d'organisation professionnelle. De nouvelles activitès ayant pour base les exploitations agricoles peuvent, dans certains cas, s'inscrirent dans une nouvelle vitalité des zones rurales. Issues of innovation in the agricultural sector arise from the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the accompanying reform of socio-structural policies, the establishment of an agri-environmental policy and the adoption of quality indicators based on the geographic origin of production. This paper deals with the shift in management principles and the transformation of systems of innovation. This transformation is described as a shift from a productivist logic (Fordism in agriculture) to a logic of quality that takes into account the diversity of demand and the opportunities linked to the rural location of production. The evolution towards precision agriculture is contributing to this shift. This new logic of production harms, to some extent, the professional organisation of farmers. The paper uses a schematic analysis of the old and emergent production models to show the relationships between the old and new logic of organisation. Fordist principles, especially the separation of design and production, are generally standard in agri-food production systems. But agriculture is characterised by land-based production and a family workforce that leads to a specific role for the professional organisation of farmers. After an analysis of this professional and productivist model, we show how the analysis leads to a structural crisis. We focus mainly on the endogenous mechanisms of a quality crisis and its contribution to a professional crisis. However, the professional crisis is a different type compared to the tensions that appear in Fordist labour management. At this level, the analogy with Fordism is not much help. We use four principles that are generally used in the literature, to describe an alternative productive system. The main features of organisational change in agriculture can be integrated into this model. Nevertheless, in agriculture, the new principles seem to correspond to a rather wide variety of organisations. It is not easy to predict the consequences for rural employment from this agricultural model of production change.     

Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth: the Role of Financial Intermediation

This paper analyzes the impact of public debt on financial efficiency in an overlapping‐generations model. We argue that public debt may reduce intermediation costs by increasing the collateral of entrepreneurs. This effect is stronger, the stronger the non‐Ricardian component of public debt, i.e. the more it is associated with intergenerational redistribution. This effect can be interpreted as future generations acting as a guarantee for the loans provided to the entrepreneurs of the current generation. Furthermore, multiple growth paths may arise as low taxes increase private collateral, which in turn boosts growth via financial efficiency, while higher growth allows to maintain the same debt/GDP ratio with reduced taxes.     

Compulsive buying: Concept and measurement

This article investigates the probable causes of compulsive buying, proposes a conceptual framework to explain the phenomenon, and develops an appropriate measuring scale. The results of the analysis testify to the reliability and validity of the scale which was administered to 76 consumers.

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Begriffliche und empirische Erfassung von zwanghaftem Kaufverhalten

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag behandelt zwanghaftes Kaufverhalten als einen besonderen Verhaltenstyp, der aus dem Zusammenwirken dreier Kräfte erklärt wird, nämlich erstens einer starken emotionalen Aktivierung, zweitens einer hohen kognitiven Kontrolle und drittens einer hohen Reaktivität. Der wichtigste Unterschied zwischen zwanghaftem und impulsivem Kaufverhalten wird in den kognitiven Vorgängen gesehen, die eine Person dazu führen, die Wiedererlangung des affektiven Gleichgewichtes mit einem Kaufakt zu assoziieren. Genauere Unterschiede zwischen verschiedenen Kaufverhaltenstypen bietet Figur 1. Die Zusammenhänge, die zur Entstehung von zwanghaftem Kaufverhalten führen, werden in Figur 2 gezeigt. Aus diesen Zusammenhängen ergeben sich drei Hypothesen, die empirisch geprüft werden:1. Der zwanghafte Käufer ist im allgemeinen in höherem Maße ängstlich als ein durchschnittlicher Käufer. 2. Der zwanghafte Käufer hat tendenziell ein schwächeres Selbstbewußtsein. 3. Der zwanghafte Verbraucher hat häufiger ein Elternteil mit mißbräuchlichem Verbraucherverhalten.Zur Prüfung dieser Hypothesen wird eine Skala entwickelt, die in Tabelle I beschrieben ist und deren Reliabilität und Validität sich als befriedigend erweist. Außerdem dürfte sie eindimensional sein. Die Daten, die von 38 zwanghaften Käufern und einer gleichgroßen Zahl von durchschnittlichen Käufern stammen, stützen die erste und die dritte Hypothese, die zweite Hypothese konnte nicht bestätigt werden.

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Gilles Valence and Alain d'Astous are Professors of Marketing, and Louis Fortier a graduate student, at the University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec J1K 2R1, Canada. The authors would like to thank Mr. Claude Sevigny (A.C.E.F. Estrie) and Mr. Claude Boucher (C.L.S.C. SOC), as well as Mrs. Monique Croteau, for graciously helping to track down compulsive buyers.This paper was first presented at the XVIIth Annual Conference of the European Marketing Academy, Bradford, England, April 5–8, 1988. A French version of the paper will be published in Recherches et applications en Marketing.     

Green not (only) for profit: An empirical examination of the effect of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment

Thanks to an original database on French firms we investigate the impact of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment. Using a bivariate probit model, we show that voluntary environmental-related standards (i.e., ISO 14001 standard, organic labeling, fair trade, etc.) improve the recruitment of professional and non-professional employees. This finding suggests that, beyond environmental considerations, human resources management can drive registration.