Fertility and the puzzle of female employment in the Middle East and North Africa

Female labour force participation rates across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have remained low for over four decades even though, in the same period, women's education rapidly increased and fertility rates substantially decreased. This study provides a better understanding of this surprising phenomenon by testing whether the number of children affects the mother's labour supply (using twins at first birth as an instrumental variable.) Despite a strong first stage, it does not find statistically significant effects in the second stage, even in the combined sample of over 100,000 observations. This non‐result, however, does not rule out that fertility affects women's employment in these countries. But it rejects impacts larger than 0.09. Similar twin‐studies in the United States found effects between 0.12 and 0.31. The paper discusses the implications of this result in understanding the puzzle of female participation in MENA and in designing policies to increase women's employment.     

Neo-institutionalism is not yet a scientific success: a reply to Barry Weingast

Barry Weingast agrees that the idea of liberalism was crucial for the making of the modern world, though in most of his comment he turns to his own writings making institutional change the crux. Yet institutions in Britain did not in fact change much, the changes had little economic oomph, and underlying property rights were good in numerous economies worldwide since ancient times. An ideational economic history works better: liberty caused our riches.     

How credible is the North Korean threat?

We perform event analysis on particular episodes of tension in the Korean peninsula between 2000 and 2008, and investigate the effect of the events on South Korean financial markets (stock markets, bond yield spreads and the exchange rate) given that South Korea would be the first affected by a military aggression from North Korea. Surprisingly, in nearly all cases, these events, which have often been dramatized in the world media, have no significant impact on either of these variables or only a very small one. We also find no significant impact of events on listed firms that would a priori be likely to suffer from increased tension between the two Koreas. Since financial markets often contain better predictions than expert opinions or surveys, these results strongly suggest that the North Korean threat is non‐credible.     

Beyond the Urban–Suburban Divide: Urbanization and the Production of the Urban in Zurich North

Starting from current debates on ‘global suburbanism' and ‘postsuburbia', this article explores the changes that the former ‘urban periphery' of Zurich North has experienced in the last three decades. It mobilizes Henri Lefebvre's triadic concept of conceived, perceived and lived space in aid of an analysis of the profound urban transformations that can be observed. The construction of a new tramline serves as a guideline for an analysis of the implementation of new governance arrangements strengthening cross‐border cooperation between individual municipalities and new strategies of cooptation and expertise. This resulted in the production of new urban structures which led to a more densely woven and connected urban fabric primarily providing spaces for the headquarter economy and middle‐class housing. Concomitantly, great efforts have been made to create new public spaces, an urban image and even an urban atmosphere. These have proved at least partially successful, thus promoting a symbolic redefinition of the former urban periphery as a distinctively ‘urban' space. Conventional definitions and concepts no longer suffice to adequately understand such novel urban forms, leading to the conclusion that division into an ‘urban' and a ‘suburban' world is no longer a useful tool for urban analysis.     

Recentralization as an Alternative to Urban Dispersion: Transformative Planning in a Neoliberal Societal Context

Growing dissatisfaction with the prevailing dispersed urban form and its generalized reliance on the automobile has resulted in the formulation of planning models seeking to substitute dispersed development with recentralization. A survey of 301 planning documents with a metropolitan focus, originating from the 58 US and Canadian urban regions with a population exceeding one million, reveals widespread support for urban recentralization. But interviews with 55 planners, involved in the preparation of these plans and/or the implementation of their proposals, highlight actual and foreseen barriers to the implementation of recentralization strategies. The article interprets the popularity of recentralization in planning documents as the outcome of planners' attempts to reconcile their commitment to sustainable development with societal factors affecting planning possibilities. Still, we anticipate serious problems in achieving large‐scale recentralization due to urban development path dependencies emanating from the prevailing urban form and dynamics, institutional structures, and from the limited urban transformative potential afforded by neoliberalism.     

Impact of Trade Credit on Firm Inventory Investment During Financial Crises: Evidence from Latin America

This paper studies whether trade credit is used as a substitute for bank credit in crisis periods in Latin America. The sample is composed of firms listed on the Argentine, Brazilian, and Mexican stock exchanges from 1994 to 2009. For the small firms, the substitution hypothesis was not rejected. However, this hypothesis was not confirmed homogeneously for all the firms during the crises. Unlike Brazilian and Argentine firms, Mexican firms use more cash reserves than trade credit. The big firms tend to use other financing sources. A pattern of trade credit use by sector has not yet been found.     

Managerial Problem-Solving Styles: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

The literature suggests that North American business-people differ from their Latin American counterparts with respect to specific behavioral traits. Our particular interest is in problem solving and in effecting changes in behavior to achieve better problem-solving capability. The purpose of the present study is to assess whether there are differences in problem-solving styles between two culturally different groups of managers registered in MBA Programs: Anglo American and Latin American. Using Kolb's (1984 2006) Learning Style Inventory, it was found that Anglo American managers tended to be relatively action-oriented, “Convergers” (they emphasize decision-making and use deductive reasoning), while Latin American managers tended to be reflection-oriented, “Assimilators” (they emphasize planning and like to create models in their analyses) in their problem-solving styles. The positive and negative aspects of each style are discussed and suggestions for improved decision-making are offered.

RESUMEN. La literatura sugiere que los empresarios norteamericanos difieren de sus contrapartes latinoamericanos, en lo que atañe a ciertos trazos comportamentales específicos. Nuestro interés particular se orienta a la solución de problemas e implementación de cambios comportamentales, con el propósito de adquirir habilidades específicas para la solución de problemas. El propósito de este estudio es evaluar si existen diferencias entre los estilos empleados para solucionar problemas entre diferentes grupos culturales de gerentes matriculados en Programas MBA angloamericanos y latinoamericanos. Usando el sistema de estilos de Kolb (1984 2006) denominado Learning Style Inventory, descubrimos que los gerentes angloamericanos tienden a orientarse con bastante frecuencia en la acción, los llamados ‘Convergentes’ (que hacen hincapié en la toma de decisiones y el uso del razonamiento deductivo), mientras que los gerentes latinoamericanos tienden a volcarse a la reflexión, los llamados ‘Asimiladores’ (que hacen hincapié enplanear y les gusta crear modelos en sus análisis), como característica de sus estilos para solucionar problemas. Discutimos los aspectos positivo y negativo de cada estilo, y hacemos sugerencias para mejorar la toma de decisión.

RESUMO. A literatura sugere que os homens de negócios norte-americanos diferem de seus colegas latino-americanos em traços comportamentais específicos. Nosso interesse particular recai sobre a resolução de problemas e a introdução de mudanças de comportamento para obter uma melhor capacidade de resolução de problemas. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar se existem diferenças nos estilos de resolução de problemas de dois grupos culturalmente diferentes de gerentes matriculados em cursos de MBA: anglo-americanos e latino-americanos. Utilizando o inventário LSI (learning style inventory) de Kolb (1984 2006), constatou-se que os gerentes anglo-americanos tendiam a ser relativamente orientados para a ação, “convergentes” (eles enfatizam a tomada de decisões e o raciocínio dedutivo), enquanto os gerentes latinoamericanos tendiam a ser orientados para a reflexão, “assimiladores” (eles enfatizam o planejamento e gostam de criar modelos em suas análises) em seus estilos de resolução de problemas. Os aspectos positivos e negativos de cada estilo são discutidos, e sugestões para melhorar a tomada de decisões são oferecidas.     

加、美边界国际和平公园建设对“泛珠三角”经济可持续发展的启示

国际和平公园是自然资源跨界保护的一种具体运用,它是以生态完整性为基础,以可持续发展为根本目标的一种新的发展理念。泛珠江三角洲作为一个经济区域,其在形成基础与发展模式及发展理念上同跨界保护异曲同工。本文以世界上第一个国际和平公园——加、美边界的沃特顿—冰川国际和平公园为例,挖掘跨界保护的根本思想与管理策略,为"泛珠三角"经济的可持续发展提供借鉴。     

美国云计算发展现状及趋势

当前新一轮以云计算为中心的IT产业革命已在美国兴起,以云计算为主题的新创公司也像雨后春笋般竞相涌现。本文首先介绍了云计算的概念,云计算实际上是许多技术的大汇总．包括：网格计算、效用计算、虚拟化计算、面向服务体系结构等,然后针对云计算对产业链的影响及其发展成熟度进行分析,最后介绍了云计算产业联盟的各国政府及中国台湾地区对云计算所做的规划,希望为国内云计算研发及产业发展提供参考。