Marriage between credit cards and the Internet: Buying is just a click away!

This paper examines whether Internet access positively affects credit card balances. To that end, we compare the 2010 and 2013 Surveys of Consumer Finances, analyze the consistency of the results over time, and provide the rationale for any resulting differences. Using the censored techniques, our results indicate that Internet access has a positive effect on credit card balances, which suggests that consumers with Internet access are prone to higher balances compared to those without. The probability of carrying positive balances was larger in 2010 compared to 2013. Overall, the results suggest that, while the financial crisis might have contributed to higher balances in 2010, the economic recovery afterward seems to have eased the burden of credit card debt.     

Board of Directors and CSR in Banking: The Moderating Role of Bank Regulation and Investor Protection Strength

This paper brings together research on boards of directors as the backbone of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in the banking industry. The underlying idea is that some characteristics of bank boards, in particular independence and gender diversity, may impact the CSR commitments of banks. By making use of a sample of 159 banks in nine countries during the period 2004–2010, our empirical evidence suggests that banks with more independent directors and more female members on their boards incline toward socially responsible behaviour. Our results also suggest that institutional factors play a significant role in these effects. They show that in greater regulatory and stronger investor protection environments, board independence and gender diversity have more influence on the social behaviour of banks.     

The Effects of Oil Price on the Korean Economy: A Global VAR Approach

This article empirically explores the effects of oil price on the Korean economy using a Global VAR model. First, we evaluate the average connectedness of oil price with the Korean domestic variables over the precrisis period. We then investigate the time-varying contribution of oil price to the Korean financial and real sectors during and after the global financial crisis through recursive estimation. It is found that the contribution of oil price becomes very large in the case of real exports, equity prices, and real output, but plays a much less prevalent role in the remaining cases. In the meantime, the time-varying contribution of oil price to the Korean economy has not changed during and after the global financial crisis. Interestingly, we find that the Korean economy is affected mostly by overseas financial conditions in the short-term but it becomes more susceptible to oil price fluctuations in the long run, suggesting that Korea’s reliance on energy imports leaves the economy exposed to volatility in energy prices.     

The Landscape of Economic Growth: Do Middle-Income Countries Differ?

We review the growth experience of middle-income countries. Economic factors associated with growth appear to differ between middle-income and other countries. The efficiency of the financial system is importantly related to the growth rate in low- and middle-income countries, but appears to matter less as one moves up the income scale. Demographic variables also matter importantly in low-income countries. In middle-income countries, in contrast, measures of the financial system no longer appear to matter as importantly, as if inefficiencies in banking and financial systems are no longer as binding a constraint as at earlier stages of financial development; nor are demographic variables as important as before. At this point, other variables gain a growing role: these include whether the country experiences a banking or currency crisis, the extent of non-foreign direct investment capital inflows, and government debt as a share of gross domestic product.     

Political patronage and analysts’ forecast precision

We test whether the channel by which the government plays the role of political patron to selected firms influences analysts’ forecast precision in Malaysia. Correcting for analysts’ self-selection bias, we find a negative relation between analysts’ forecast errors and the social dimension of political patronage, as proxied by government-controlled institutional ownership. The reverse is found for the economic dimension of political patronage, as proxied by the percentage shareholding of government-linked corporations. We find no evidence that the personal dimension of political patronage influences analysts’ forecast precision.     

Are there major differences in the attitudes and service quality of standard and seasonal employees? An empirical examination and implications for practice

Despite the increased use of seasonal employees by organizations, few studies have been completed on the attitudes and service quality of seasonal office workers. Using Lautsch's classification model, we analyzed the organizational context in which the standard and seasonal workers in this study were employed. Hypotheses were developed based upon the organizational analysis and social exchange theory. Results from archival data obtained from a web‐based organizational survey of 205 clerical and professional workers indicated contrary to expectations, standard and seasonal employees did not significantly differ in terms of perceptions of overall job conditions, perceived organizational support (POS), or job engagement. However, seasonal employees did report significantly fewer opportunities to work on challenging tasks, less comfortable physical working conditions, and less job security than the standard workers. As predicted, standard employees reported significantly higher levels of service quality performance than seasonal employees. Additionally, job engagement mediated the relationship between POS and service quality for both the standard and seasonal employees. Implications for managing seasonal employees are discussed.     

Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

江西省耕地后备资源潜力分布及开发组合序列分析

[目的]根据耕地后备资源的分布特征研究其开发组合序列是有效开发利用耕地后备资源、补充耕地的重要前提。文章利用江西省耕地后备资源调查评价成果,以县为分级单元对全省耕地后备资源进行开发潜力分级,对江西省耕地后备资源开发组合序列进行研究,从而为江西省耕地后备资源的开发顺序提供参考。[方法]利用Arc GIS空间图形分析法、DPS数据处理系统两维图论聚类等方法确定开发潜力等级以及开发序列。[结果]江西省耕地后备资源开发潜力从高到底依次分为Ⅰ级潜力区、Ⅱ级潜力区、Ⅲ级潜力区和Ⅳ级潜力区,面积分别为2.726 672万hm~2、2.306 897万hm~2、2.873 594万hm~2、1.378 88万hm~2。[结论]根据两维图论聚类法分析结果得知,江西省各县地域相似程度较高可优先开发的组合有进贤县-南昌县-余干县-鄱阳县-彭泽县;袁州区-分宜县-上高县-渝水区-樟树市;进贤县-南昌县-余干县-鄱阳县-都昌县和樟树市-渝水区-上高县-高安市-奉新县-安义县-永修县等。     

中国柑橘生产布局变迁驱动机制研究——基于农户决策视角

[目的]从农户决策视角研究柑橘生产布局变迁机制对优化我国柑橘生产布局、解决柑橘“卖难”问题具有重要意义。[方法]文章借助Nerlove模型推导出果农种植行为对上期种植面积、上期价格、上期成本的响应函数;基于该响应函数,运用1985―2018年柑橘主产省数据构建面板模型从微观视角探讨我国柑橘农户种植决策影响因素,藉以从宏观视角分析我国柑橘生产布局变迁的驱动机制。[结果]（1）浙—闽—粤地区种植面积显著减少,赣南—湘南—桂北和鄂西种植面积快速增加,长江中游种植面积缓慢增加,柑橘种植呈“西移内扩”布局;（2）劳动力成本、非农就业机会、工资性收入水平是决定柑橘生产布局的关键因素;（3）浙—闽—粤地区较高的人工成本、非农就业机会和工资性收入水平导致果农种植积极性不高,而赣—南—湘南—桂北、鄂西地区较低的人工成本、非农就业机会和工资性收入水平导致果农种植积极性较高。[结论]优化柑橘种植布局,需要考虑劳动力成本、非农就业机会、工资性收入水平对柑橘种植的影响及区域差异。     

价值链视角下福建省渔业经济效率与影响因素对比

目的 文章以福建省为研究区域,选取渔业价值链中最具代表性的“生产—加工”两阶段,对比分析经济效率及影响因素。方法 从价值链视角构建渔业“生产—加工”两阶段投入产出系统,讨论选定指标,基于SBM-Tobit模型测度效率和影响因素。结果 （1）福建省渔业“生产—加工”两阶段效率均较低,生产阶段效率远高于加工阶段效率。（2）福建省渔业生产阶段效率呈现“大分散、小集聚”的分布特征,沿海和西北地区较高,闽西南地区较低;加工业主要分布在沿海地区,效率普遍较低。（3）工业化和城镇化对渔业生产阶段效率主要起负作用,消费水平、渔业经济规模、集约化和捕捞强度对生产和加工阶段效率均起正作用,沿海和内陆地区的影响机理存在一定差异。结论 福建省渔业“生产—加工”两阶段效率均具有较大的提升空间,需重点提升加工阶段效率,以拉动渔业价值链整体效率提升。