Theory and Empirics of Democracy and Crime Revisited: How Much Further Can We Go with Existing Data and Methodologies?

The vast empirical work on the criminogenic nature of democracies has produced strong—albeit suspiciously wide‐ranging—claims. This article reviews existing evidence and methodologies that link crime and democracies. It asks three questions: Do theories generate separable and exclusionary predictions enabling their identification and testing? Could results be more conclusive given existing data limitations and the current methodological state of the art? How far are we from obtaining such results? We conclude that there are far too many arguments with blurry lines predicting just about any result. Data are more likely to constitute the binding constraint rather than methodology issues, despite the fact that the estimation of causality between democracy and crime can still be improved. Finally, the priority should be the harmonization of existing information sources, which will require overcoming externalities associated with the public good nature of global information generation.     

Sustainable Development,Sustainability Leadership and Firm Valuation: Differences across Europe

Sustainable development is nowadays a high priority for firms all over the world. Consequently, numerous firms have increased their social responsibility initiatives, reinforcing the credibility and trust of their stakeholders. However, prior research about the relevance of sustainability leadership for the European investment community is scarce. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine whether sustainability leadership – proxied by membership of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe – is value relevant for investors on the 10 major European stock markets over the 2001–2013 period. Our overall results reveal that there exist significant differences across markets. These findings are relevant especially for investors, but also for the managers of listed firms, market regulators and policymakers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Why Regulation Is Needed in Emerging Markets in the Tourism Sector

The neoclassical ideal has defended the idea that markets, in a context of limited regulation, reach an optimal equilibrium automatically. We analyze this assertion in an applied manner with a case study of the emerging online market of intermediation of tourist apartments. The lack of regulation in this market causes many social and economic impacts on local communities, which can jeopardize the survival of the activity. We conclude that an analysis of markets that considers only prices results in a limited view. All externalities and their effects on the population must be taken into account, as well as the interests of the individuals involved, apart from profit‐making.     

Is there a minimum wage biting in Puerto Rico? Updating the debate

This research evaluates the repercussions on employment in Puerto Rico of the latest increases in the minimum wage (made between 2007 and 2009). We find that the increases in the minimum wage to $7.25 had a negative impact on employment in a few small sectors only, and that employment was significantly more affected by output.     

Corporate governance and IPO underpricing in a cross‐national sample: A multilevel knowledge‐based view

Prior studies of IPO underpricing, mostly using agency theory and single‐country samples, have generally fallen short. In this study, we employ the knowledge‐based view (KBV) to explore underpricing across 17 countries. We find that agency indicators are insignificant predictors, board of director knowledge limits underpricing, and external knowledge both substitutes for and complements internal board knowledge. This third finding suggests that future KBV studies should consider how internal and external knowledge states interact with each other. Our study offers new insights into the antecedents of underpricing and extends our understanding of comparative governance and the KBV of the firm. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Networks of queues with infinite servers in each node applied to the management of a two echelons repair system

After a report of results about infinite servers queues, essentially on its busy period, a model is built, using networks of queues with infinite servers in each node, to study a two echelons repair system for example of a fleet of aircraft, shipping or trucks. The customers are the failures, and their service time is the time that goes from the instant at which they occur till they are completely repaired. The failing repairs occur in a base or in a remote station. The whole failures detected in the base are repaired there. Some of the failures detected in the station are repaired there and the others in the base. The results referred above allow the determination of a two echelons repair system performance measures. In this application, models of Carrillo （1991） and Ferreira （1996） are considered, improved and completed. The theory is illustrated with a numerical example.     

Banking merchants and banking houses: the hidden key to the workings of the Spanish banking system in the nineteenth century

The historical study of the Spanish nineteenth-century banking system has been almost exclusively carried out through a consideration of the experiences of the joint-stock banks. But the very scarce number of these, and their territorial distribution, makes it necessary for us to look for other financial intermediaries who were able to satisfy the demand for banking services in that time and place. We demonstrate that this role was fulfilled by the banking merchants and banking houses operating through individual firms and partnerships. The object of this work is to make their activities better known and vindicate their importance. The sources used for the study are mainly the accounting documents of several banking houses.     

Self-interest, self-restraint and corporate responsibility for nanotechnologies: Emerging dilemmas for modern managers

The recent developments in nanotechnology have simultaneously conjured up visions of utopia and dismal images of technological and biological catastrophes. Interestingly, the world of nanoscales has given rise to larger than life ethical dilemmas, challenging the basic assumptions that we hold about ethics, man-machine interface, adoption of new technologies and, fundamentally, the directions of human development. Given the divergence and uncertainties in the assessment of risks and benefits associated with nanotechnology, regulatory oversight in the future is likely to be partial and fragmented. Even where interests converge, the large time-frame needed for standardization of regulation coupled with the varying propensities of countries of the world to understand, assimilate and respond to risk issues increase the difficulties associated with creating appropriate regulatory regimes. In the absence of such controls, it may be necessary to rely on corporations behaving in a socially responsible manner by self-regulating when dealing with the conceptualization, development, use and disposal of nanoparticles. Caught between the reality and rhetoric, corporate managers need to manage trade-offs between corporate advantage and social responsibility in ways that may have a significant bearing on the survival of their firms and the future development of nanotechnology itself. This paper examines the tensions between the self-interest of corporations in exploiting the technology to bring innovative products to the market and self-restraint in exercising ethical choices to secure wider safety and salubrity in the face of scientific uncertainty and public insecurity