What's Left for ‘Social Europe’? Brexit and Transnational Labour Market Regulation in the UK-1 and the EU-27

The paper examines UK government positions on the regulation of transnational labour in the context of Brexit. Through an analysis of EU regulations on posted workers – the practice whereby a company based in one EU member state sends workers to carry out a service in another EU member state – the paper argues that the UK has consistently advocated further liberalisation of transnational labour markets in EU level decision-making, a position consistent with promoting increasingly ‘flexible’ labour markets at home. Brexit marks a turning point. Demands from British workers for stronger protection against liberalising pressure help explain the UK's recent shift towards relaxing its opposition to ‘market-correcting’ EU initiatives like the revised posted worker directive. Brexit provides a window of opportunity for the revitalisation of ‘Social Europe’ in the EU-27, without a longstanding veto player at the bargaining table, but one more likely focused more on upholding national labour protections than initiating new supranational policies.     

Crises,Liquidity Shocks,and Fire Sales at Commercial Banks

If liquidity shortages cause financial crises, a lender of last resort can provide funds to banks facing potential fire sales. However, if funding problems primarily occur at banks with existing solvency problems, then government liquidity programs may not spur bank lending. We find that commercial bank funding does not typically dry up in a crisis, not even during the subprime crisis. Rather, weak banks are more likely to borrow less. Furthermore, banks rely more on deposits and newly issued equity than fire sales. When they do sell assets, they cherry pick assets in order to alleviate pressure from capital regulations.     

Skills Required of Managers in Livestock Production: Evidence from Focus Group Research

Identification of skill sets required of managers and supervisors in livestock production is necessary to guide selection, training, task assignment, and promotion. Management roles in livestock production differ from those in other industries, given the unique work environment and task attributes of production agriculture. Based on focus group discussions with pork operation managers, iterative code development resulted in five management skill sets: Change Agent, Counselor, Model Employee, Motivator, and Housekeeper. These skill sets were compared with a data set of dairy operation managers and with research in other industries based on the Competing Values Framework for managerial leadership.     

Smallholder Supply Response to Marketing Board Activities in a Dual Channel Marketing System: The Case of Zambia

In recent years, parastatal grain marketing boards have re‐emerged as important elements of grain markets in eastern and southern Africa, yet little is known about how farmers are responding to their scaled up activities. This article develops a conceptual model of farmers’ production decisions in the context of dual output marketing channels (government and private sector) when output prices at harvest time and the availability of one of the marketing channels are unknown at planting time. It then applies the model to the case of Zambia and uses nationally representative household‐level panel survey data to estimate the effects of the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), the government parastatal maize marketing board, on smallholder crop production and fallow land. The FRA buys maize from smallholders at a pan‐territorial price that typically exceeds market prices in major maize producing areas. Results suggest that increases in the farmgate FRA maize price raise farmer maize price expectations, which induces a supply response. Smallholders respond to an increase in the FRA price by extensifying their maize production. On average, a 1% increase in the FRA price is associated with 0.06% increases in smallholders’ maize area planted and quantity harvested. There is also some evidence that farmers reduce the area of land under fallow in response to FRA incentives but there is no evidence of reductions in the area planted to other crops.     

PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION WITH JUMPS AND UNOBSERVABLE INTENSITY PROCESS

We consider a financial market with one bond and one stock. The dynamics of the stock price process allow jumps which occur according to a Markov-modulated Poisson process. We assume that there is an investor who is only able to observe the stock price process and not the driving Markov chain. The investor's aim is to maximize the expected utility of terminal wealth. Using a classical result from filter theory it is possible to reduce this problem with partial observation to one with complete observation. With the help of a generalized Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation where we replace the derivative by Clarke's generalized gradient, we identify an optimal portfolio strategy. Finally, we discuss some special cases of this model and prove several properties of the optimal portfolio strategy. In particular, we derive bounds and discuss the influence of uncertainty on the optimal portfolio strategy.     

State productivity growth in agriculture: catching-up and the business cycle

This paper examines the relation between the business cycle and convergence in levels of agricultural productivity across the 48 contiguous states. First, we find evidence of convergence in total factor productivity levels across the different phases of the business cycle, but the speed of convergence was greater during periods of contraction in economic activity than during periods of expansion. Second, we find that technology embodied in capital was an important source of productivity growth in agriculture. As with the rate of catch-up, the embodiment effect was much stronger during low economic activity phases of the business cycle.     

Length of stay and hospitalization costs for patients undergoing lung surgery with Progel pleural air leak sealant

Aim: Progel Pleural Air Leak Sealant (Progel) is currently the only sealant approved by the FDA for the treatment of air leaks during lung surgery. This study was performed to determine whether Progel use improves hospital length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants in patients undergoing lung surgery.

Methods: The US Premier hospital database was used to identify lung surgery discharges from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2015. Eligible discharges were categorized as “Progel Sealant” or “other sealants” using hospital billing data. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to control for hospital and patient differences between study groups. Primary outcomes were hospital LOS and all-cause hospitalization costs. Clinical outcomes, hospital re-admissions, and sealant product use were also described.

Results: After PSM, a total of 2,670 discharges were included in each study group; baseline characteristics were balanced between groups. The hospital LOS (mean days?±?standard deviation, median) was significantly shorter for the Progel group (9.9?±?9.6, 7.0) compared with the other sealants group (11.3?±?12.8, 8.0; p?<?.001). Patients receiving Progel incurred significantly lower all-cause hospitalization costs ($31,954?±?$29,696, $23,904) compared with patients receiving other sealants ($36,147?±?$42,888, $24,702; p?<?.001).

Limitations: It is not possible to say that sealant type alone was responsible for the findings of this study, and analysis was restricted to the data available in the Premier database.

Conclusions: Among hospital discharges for lung surgery, Progel use was associated with significantly shorter hospital LOS and lower hospitalization costs compared with other synthetic/fibrin sealants, without compromising clinical outcomes.     

Third-Party Certification,Sponsorship, and Consumers’ Ecolabel Use

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers’ use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers’ trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers’ use of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified versus uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers’ distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business association-sponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers, and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use.