A multilevel examination of skills‐oriented human resource management and perceived skill utilization during recession: Implications for the well‐being of all workers

This article examines whether organizations can enhance employee well‐being by adopting human resource management (HRM) practices strategically targeted to improve skill development and deployment in a recessionary context. Employee skill utilization is proposed as the mediating mechanism between HRM practice and well‐being. The role of workplace skill composition is also examined as a boundary condition within which HRM differentially impacts employee outcomes. Using a nationally representative survey of UK workplaces (Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2011) and matched management and employee data, the analysis focused on organizations that had implemented some recessionary action following the 2008–2009 global financial and economic crisis. The findings show that human capital enhancing HRM and enriched job design positively influenced both job satisfaction and work‐related affective well‐being through increased employee skill utilization. Organizations with predominantly high‐skilled workforces were more likely to adopt these skills‐oriented HRM practices. Nevertheless, the effects of HRM on employee outcomes via skill utilization applied across organizations, regardless of workforce skill composition. The findings demonstrate employee skill utilization as a driver of HRM outcomes and the sustainability of “best practice” HRM arguments across all skill levels, even in the face of recession.     

Dismantled Spatial Fixes in the Aftermath of Recession: Capital Switching and Labour Underutilization in the Greek Capital Metropolitan Region

The article offers a fresh, empirically grounded look at the spatialities of crisis‐triggered employment forms—a largely overlooked issue in contemporary critical geography literature. Specifically, it discusses the interconnection between investment flows from manufacturing to the built environment (capital switching) and underemployment in urban metropolitan regions to substantiate its impact on emerging spatial fixities. The article, which is based on an empirical analysis informed by a radical political economy, investigates changing fixed capital formations in Greece over an extended period prior to and during the recession, from 1995 to 2012. It traces the evolution of part‐time waged work in the capital metropolitan region of Attica (Athens) vis‐à‐vis the rest of the country's regional labour markets, focusing on the polarized 2005–2012 period and the demise of the construction industry. The article highlights that ‘disrupted’ capital switching that occurred in Greece, closely associated with recalibrated sectoral priorities and institutional interventions, resulted in the uneven sprawling of underemployment. Our findings offer insight into how the dismantling of spatial fixes within core metropolitan regions of the southern European Union (and beyond) are connected to labour surplus and successive slumps in manufacturing and construction. The article closes by calling for new theorizations of contemporary urban regional unevenness and its spatiotemporal fixities, which account for the role of changes in labour turnover time.     

The influence of recession and income strata on consumer demand for protein sources

Though meat products are considered the primary sources of protein in the U.S., people consume a variety of protein sources including meat, fish, eggs, dairy products and beans. This study expands the typical meat demand study by including alternate protein sources. We implement state-space modelling and Bai-Perron tests to examine structural change in U.S. expenditure patterns on protein sources across pre- and post-recessionary periods. Results are integrated into a Time-Varying Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) including beef, pork, poultry, fish and seafood, eggs, dairy products, dried beans, and an ‘other meat’ composite. Expenditure elasticities generally become relatively more elastic post-recession for protein sources across all income quintiles, with the largest changes in beef and pork. The lowest income group exhibits the least change in own-price and in expenditure elasticities, likely an indication of already limited flexibility.     

The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Its Impact on the Global Economy: What Does It Take to Turn Crisis into Opportunity?

The COVID‐19 pandemic broke out at a time when there were heightened uncertainties in the global economy. Understanding these uncertainties provides an important background for analyzing the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, assessing the effectiveness of policy measures in combating the pandemic and reviving the global economy, and predicting the trajectory of the economic recovery in the post‐pandemic era. We analyze how COVID‐19 would likely deepen an existing malaise in the global economy, and what could be done to address these problems while managing the economic recovery. We argue that three fundamental factors that could lead to a solid recovery in the post pandemic era are structural reform, new technology and re‐integration. They could be managed by instituting a new “global social contract.” Supported by strong public policies at all levels, especially at national level, these three factors could bring about the salvation of the global economy as it recovers or re‐emerges from the pandemic crisis.     

Default correlation: rating,industry ripple effect,and business cycle

For a well-diversified bond portfolio, default risk over the investment horizon is known as the major risk and the risk is largely from correlated defaults. While plenty of theoretical work about default correlation has been developed, empirical studies on default correlation have not made much progress in the past two decades. In this paper, we fill this void in the literature by thoroughly investigating how default correlation changes across different bond ratings, over different time horizons, and across different industries over the sample period of 1970 to 2014. In particular, we examine how rating-based default correlations change before, during, and after recessions. More importantly, we reveal the ‘industry ripple effect’ that default correlations are low within upstream industries but become higher within downstream industries along the structure of the supply chain. Also, default correlations are relatively high between upstream industries and downstream industries.     

Securitization bubbles: Structured finance with disagreement about default risk

An additional reason for the structured finance boom of the 2000s may have been disagreement about default risk of collateral assets. When risk-neutral investors disagree about average default probabilities, structuring collateral cash flow raises prices by concentrating optimists’ demand on risky tranches. With disagreement about default correlation, low-correlation investors believe in diversification and pay high prices for senior tranches they deem riskless. High-correlation investors value junior tranches they expect to pay whenever aggregate conditions are good. Risk aversion and short selling through credit default swaps reduce the prices of both pass-through and structured securitizations but may increase the return to tranching.     

Have restaurant firms been using right recession turnaround strategies?: Evaluating with propensity score measure

Among the diverse strategies that restaurants use in recessions, some studies have shown that strategies that increase advertising, profit margins, or asset turnover have yielded promising results in terms of firm performance. However, the success of these turnaround strategies might be due to the health or size of a firm rather than the implementation of these strategies. Therefore, this study empirically tested this question utilizing the propensity score measure (PSM) due to concerns with selection bias across restaurant segments. The results showed significant improvements in revenue for limited-service and franchise restaurants when aggressive advertising was used but no improvements in profitability. The profit margin strategy had no impact on revenue but affected profitability and stock returns positively for all segments. Finally, the asset turnover strategy had adverse effects on revenue the year after a recession for all segments. These mixed results suggest that managers need to be cautious when implementing recession turnaround strategies.     

资产负债表的宏观管理研究——论治理经济危机的新思路

由于传统宏观经济管理分析包含健康的资产负债表这一微观经济基础,所以这些经济分析主要着眼于流量研究,看不到资产负债表衰退或不健康这一事实。本文通过资产负债表的存量分析,看到了真实经济、金融机构和资本市场之间的内在联系,丰富了宏观经济管理的微观基础理论,为治愈金融危机和经济危机提供了新的指导原则,从而为预防我国经济衰退寻找新的管理方案。     

美国房地产周期与经济衰退的可预测性研究

本文对房地产周期与收益率曲线反转对经济衰退的预测两个变量的联合预测进行了理论探讨和实证检验。实证结果表明,房地产周期和收益率曲线反转的联合预测力远大于单变量预测力。将本文实证结果应用于2006年以来经济数据的分析表明,从预测角度看美国经济将在2007-2008年间进入衰退。     

驳“美国经济衰退与中国储蓄率高有关”论调

近年来,美国不断指责中国有意低估人民币,称中国是导致全球金融危机的原因之一,最近又指出美国经济问题是因为中国的储蓄率过高而造成的。面对这种指责,文章对美国经济问题和中国高储蓄率分别进行了深层研究,明确了在两者之间并无实质关系。美国对中国储蓄率的指责是在寻找不存在的借口。