Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzung aus dem Italienischen von Erich Allina, WienÜbersetzt von Josef SteindlAus dem Italienischen Übersetzt von Alexander Gerschenkron, Wien     

New development: Value for money (VFM) in public services—the importance of organizational culture

VFM has been a key aspect of public service management for several decades and its importance has been raised in recent years as a consequence of austerity. Organizational culture is recognized in research literature as a key driver of organizational performance. However, little attention has been paid to the topic of organizational culture in relation to VFM in public services. This article presents the findings of new research in this area.     

Dividend payout and executive compensation: theory and evidence from New Zealand

Using a model based on Bhattacharyya (2007), we predict a positive (negative) relationship between the earnings retention ratio (dividend payout ratio) and managerial compensation. We use tobit regression to analyse data for New Zealand firms' dividend payouts over the period 1997–2015 and find results consistent with Bhattacharyya (2007). These results hold when the definition of payout is modified to incorporate both common dividends and common share repurchases. Our results indicate that corporate dividend policy among New Zealand firms is perhaps best understood by considering the dividend payout ratio, rather than the level of, or changes in, cash dividends alone.     

Australian wine industry competitiveness: why so slow to emerge?

Despite favourable growing conditions, Australia's production or exports of wine did not become significant until the 1890s. Both grew in the 1920s, but only because of government support. Once that support was removed in the late 1940s, production plateaued and exports diminished: only two per cent of wine production was exported during 1975–1985. Yet over the next two decades, Australia's wine production quadrupled and the share exported rose to two‐thirds – before falling somewhat in the next 10 years. This paper explains why it took so long for Australia's production and competitive advantage in wine to emerge, why it took off spectacularly after the mid‐1980s and why it fell in the 10 years to 2016. It concludes that despite the recent downturn in the industry's fortunes, the country's international competitiveness is now firmly established and commensurate with its ideal wine‐growing climate, notwithstanding the likelihood of further boom‐slump cycles in the decades ahead.     

Generation Z Perceptions of a Positive Workplace Environment

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal - The most recent generation to enter the workplace, generation Z, has been stereotyped as being less engaged in the workplace, despite being highly...     

Behavioral Factors in Equity Allocation Decisions: A Large-Scale Experimental Study With Context

Traditional models of rational behavior struggle to explain how individuals allocate their money over a variety of financial instruments, including annuities, the stock market, and risk-free bonds. This study uses a large and diverse data set from an investment experiment that is rich in context and captures some important features of actual financial decision making. The focus of the article is to build on the literature documenting behavioral explanations for investment choices by studying the equity allocation decision across different financial tools. The authors find evidence that risk aversion, inertia, and excessive extrapolation are associated with investment behavior even when it is clear that return rates are independent across decision-making periods. Further, subjects have an asymmetric response to positive versus negative returns. In addition to having a novel experimental design, the authors also examine behavior before and after the recent financial crisis. The authors find that the financial crisis indirectly affects the first-stage annuity take-up rate in the experiments vis-à-vis a higher average level of risk aversion after the start of the crisis.     

Identity,Enactment, and Entrepreneurship Engagement in a Declining Place

We examine entrepreneurship practice and identity work in a rural small town in New Zealand. Once prosperous, the town suffered economically and socially as old industries closed. Recently the town was rejuvenated, largely because of Linda's entrepreneurial activities. Our findings demonstrated conflict between her entrepreneurial identity and local sense of place. We theorize Linda's entrepreneurial identity in her business practice; where she experienced controversy, despite economic success. We argue that a complete understanding of identity and entrepreneurship practices requires attention to social and spatial processes, not just economic processes.     

Choosing Winners and Losers in a Classroom Permit Trading Game

This paper presents a classroom game in which students trade pollution permits. By changing the distribution of permits across firms, the game shows students how the allocation of property rights determines the winners and losers in the permit trading system but does not affect the efficiency of the system. This game can be used in a variety of classes, including principles or environmental economics, and can be conducted in a 50-minute class period with follow-up discussion in the next class.     

Impact of East Asia's Growth Interruption and Policy Responses: The Case of Indonesia

Assessments to date of the consequences of implementing the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations have assumed medium-term rates of economic growth in East Asia that now seem unsustainable. This paper compares an earlier assessment with a new set of estimates involving an interruption to East Asian economic growth in the late 1990s, using the global, economy-wide GTAP model. Attention focuses on results for Indonesia, the worst-affected country in the region. An important consequence of the crisis is that Indonesia is likely to become more agrarian for a time than it otherwise would have been. The estimated benefits to Indonesia from embracing further unilateral reform, as a way of catching up, are contrasted with the alternative strategy of reneging on Uruguay Round commitments to liberalize trade.