Opening the black box: Finding the source of cost inefficiency

Parametric and nonparametric procedures are used to identify the apparent source of cost inefficiency in banking. Inefficiencies of 20–25% from earlier studies are reduced to 1–5% when, in addition to commonly specified cost function influences, variables reflecting banks’ external business environment and industry indicators of “productivity” are added. These productivity indicators explain most of the reduction in bank operating cost over 1992–2001 and was 5 times the reduction in the dispersion of inefficiency. Inefficiency appears stable over time because it is small relative to industry-wide cost changes occurring concurrently and because technology dispersion is imperfect.

An Examination of the Quality of Jobs in the Call Center Industry

This paper examines jobs in the information society and the new economy, taking as its focus the call center industry. More specifically, the study analyzes the degree of variability of the quality of call center jobs. In order to achieve this objective, an index of job quality is generated, and an empirical analysis of the characteristics of jobs in call centers is carried out. This allows us to determine the level and variability of quality of jobs in this sector and to establish whether the reality of these jobs is as good as the forecasts for work in the new economy.      

Data requirements and use in nutrition planning in Costa Rica

In designing data systems for food and nutrition planning, little attention has been given to the type of data which may be needed at different stages of the planning process, ie political motivation and definition of policies, selection of programmes, geographical distribution of resources within a programme, delivery of services at the local level and monitoring of changes. The authors examine some experiences in terms of how decisions are made, available data and its use in national programmes, and the consequences relevant to the nutritional status of the Costa Rican population.     

Business vision of human resources

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it questions the traditional view of the two sides of the labor market. The demand is made up of an aggregate of organizations seeking to fill a number of workplaces, and the supply is constituted by the labor factor or workforce as a group of individuals who freely offer their work in exchange for monetary compensation. Second, this paper initiates a debate about a more adequate (or more realistic) understanding of the demand-supply idea regarding labor by putting forth an alternative interpretation of the role played by the agents composing the labor market. In this sense, this paper reflects upon the situation of the labor market rather than on theory-building or testing its changes.     

What is going on when nothing is going on? Exploring the role of the consumer in shaping waiting situations

Research on waiting in services focuses mainly on the role of companies in waiting situations. Much of the existing research envisages the consumer as a passive victim of the delays caused by companies. This article redresses the imbalance in research on waiting by exploring the role of consumers in waiting situations. A qualitative methodology is used, involving data collection through in‐depth interviews and personal diaries, to facilitate an in‐depth analysis of consumers’ waiting experiences. Additionally, a holistic approach is employed with a view to examining the ‘whole’ waiting experience rather than individual or isolated aspects of waiting. The main finding of the study is that consumers play an active and deliberate role in waiting situations. This is the first study to empirically identify the behaviours and initiatives undertaken by consumers when forced to wait for services. The results suggest that consumers play an active role in organising and reducing the real or perceived waiting time. They actively seek information on the length and causes of the wait. And, on occasions, the consumer may also be the cause of the wait or may even increase the delay by their actions. In contrast to most of the existing research on the topic of waiting, this study adopt a qualitative, in‐depth approach, with a multicultural sample, and a focus on the consumer whose role in waiting has previously been overlooked.     

Does entrepreneurial activity matter for economic growth in developing countries? The role of the institutional environment

The discussion on which institutions determine entrepreneurial activity – and the role of institutions in the aggregated output for developing countries – is as yet unresolved. The extant literature about entrepreneurship recognizes new ventures as potential mechanisms for long-term development. Yet, there is a consensus on the lack of evidence, particularly for these countries. Drawing on institutional economics, this article explores the interrelationships among institutional environment, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth. To this end, we use simultaneous-equation panel data models for a sample of 14 developing countries (78 observations) over the period of 2004–2012. The main findings suggest a causal chain running from institutions to opportunity entrepreneurship, which is linked to the economic growth of emerging economies. In particular, we find that institutional factors – such as the number of procedures to start a new business, private credit coverage ,, and access to communication– influence entrepreneurial activity driven by opportunity. Policy implications for developing countries could be derived in order to enhance their economic performance through entrepreneurial activity.

     

Executive Gender Pay Gaps: The Roles of Female Risk Aversion and Board Representation

Using a large sample of executives in S&P 1500 firms over 1996–2010, we document significant salary and total compensation gaps between female and male executives and explore two possible explanations for the gaps. We find support for greater female risk aversion as one contributing factor. Female executives hold significantly lower equity incentives and demand larger salary premiums for bearing a given level of compensation risk. These results suggest that females’ risk aversion contributes to the observed lower pay levels through its effect on ex ante compensation structures. We also find evidence that the lack of gender diversity on corporate boards affects the size of the gaps. In firms with a higher proportion of female directors on the board, the gaps in salary and total pay levels are lower. Together, these findings suggest that female higher risk aversion may act as a barrier to full pay convergence, despite the mitigating effect from greater gender diversity on the board.     

Revisiting the decomposition of cost efficiency for non-homothetic technologies: a directional distance function approach

In the early 1980’s Kopp and Diewert proposed a popular method to decompose cost efficiency into allocative and technical efficiency for parametric functional forms based on the radial approach initiated by Farrell. We show that, relying on recently proposed homogeneity and duality results, their approach is unnecessary for self-dual homothetic production functions, while it is inconsistent in the non-homothetic case. By stressing that for homothetic technologies the radial distance function can be correctly interpreted as a technical efficiency measure, since allocative efficiency is independent of the output level and radial input reductions leave it unchanged, we contend that for non-homothetic technologies this is not the case because optimal input demands depend on the output targeted by the firm, as does the inequality between marginal rates of substitution and market prices—allocative inefficiency. We demonstrate that a correct definition of technical efficiency corresponds to the directional distance function because its flexibility ensures that allocative efficiency is kept unchanged through movements in the input production possibility set when solving technical inefficiency, and therefore the associated cost reductions can be solely—and rightly—ascribed to technical-engineering-improvements. The new methodology allowing for a consistent decomposition of cost inefficiency is illustrated resorting to simple examples of non-homothetic production functions.     

Un análisis de la gestión por competencias en la empresa española De la teoría a la práctica

This paper is about the competency management, a technique for human resources management aimed at improving the performance of employees and organization performance. Specifically, there are concerns about the high degree of implementation of this technique and its relationship with management performance in specific industries with various economic outcomes.     

A note on “A directional slacks-based measure of technical inefficiency”

In this note we show, by means of several examples, that a directional distance function model cannot be matched with an additive model. Specifically, we show the difference between the directional slacks-based measure and the corresponding directional distance function.