Can a Shorter Workweek Induce Higher Employment? Mandatory Reductions in the Workweek and Employment Subsidies

This paper presents a unified model of the impact on employment of a mandatory reduction in work hours in combination with an employment subsidy to reduce quasi-fixed costs of employment, while attempting to maintain worker's take-home pay or welfare level. Achieving the dual policy objectives of enhancing employment and maintaining worker income is not necessarily feasible. Nevertheless, a reduction in the legal workweek may induce a degree of downward wage flexibility, while an employment subsidy to firms accommodates downward wage rigidity. It may be possible, therefore, to increase employment with a policy that combines a reduction in the workweek with an employment subsidy. In general, however, the long run employment outcome is ambiguous, and a decline in output cannot be ruled out. More direct policy measures whose impact can be assessed with greater certainty—in particular, removing structural rigidities in the labor market—should be given priority to decrease long term unemployment.     

The limits on bond financing of government deficits under pptimal fiscal policy

Limits on perpetual bond financing of deficits without increased taxation or inflation are analyzed by juxtaposing the bond creation rate against the interest rate on bonds and the economy's growth rate. Sargent and Wallace (1981) and Barro (1976) argue that the bond creation rate must be smaller than the economy's growth rate. McCallum (1984) finds that the bond creation rate can exceed the economy's growth rate but must be smaller than the interest rate. McCallum's conclusion obtains under lump-sum taxation. We show that if lump-sum taxation is not feasible the bond creation rate cannot exceed the economy's growth rate. It is not possible to substitute bond financing for distortionary taxation in order to improve the level of welfare indefinitely.     

Megatrends as perceived in Turkey in comparison to Austria and Germany

Countries and companies use foresight studies to manage uncertainty. Environmental scanning and trend analyses are important tools for identifying and monitoring change. Trend analysis requires more than simply extrapolating to the future. The content of communication serves as the basis of inference so those trends could be explored.This research uses an interdisciplinary approach combining media content analysis and factor analysis to discover many ways Turkey and the world may restructure and what the new society may look like as perceived by the individuals who participated in the survey. It determines six types of individuals in Turkey with different personal attitudes towards megatrends. Similarities and dissimilarities with previous studies in Austria and Germany are identified and discussed.     

Adoption of health information technologies: the case of a wireless monitor for diabetes and obesity patients

This paper explores what determines the adoption of health information technologies through the use of a case study of a wireless service prototype developed for patients with diabetes and obesity. A technology acceptance model was used as the basis for developing the theoretical framework, which was later tested through a field study. Results indicated that the usefulness of an e-health service was affected by the quality of service, its compatibility with users’ lifestyle, the quality of support, the quality of information presented in the service, usage time, image, accessibility, and ease-of-use characteristics of the service. Designers should develop services that do not require much usage time as users do not want to spend much time using the service. In addition, users should be able to access data presented in the service quickly and easily when they need it. Customisable menu items and short cut keys can be used to make data access quick and easy.     

The relationship between burn-out and psychological resiliency levels of special education teachers in a developing economy

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between burn-out and psychological resiliency levels of special education teachers based on some demographic variables. 70 special education teachers working at 7 special education schools affiliated to North Cyprus Ministry of Education Primary Education Management Office and 21 schools which has special education mainstreaming room participated in this research. The Maslach Burn-Out Scale was used in this study to determine burn-out levels of special education teachers while the Psychological Resiliency Scale for Adults was used to determine their psychological resiliency levels. The study revealed a negative relationship between family cohesion (a sub-dimension of psychological resiliency) and emotional burn-out and desensitization (the sub-dimensions of burn-out), and it found no significant difference for gender in terms of both variables. The emotional burn-out score (a sub-dimension of burn-out scale) differed significantly based on the daily working hours of teachers. There is however a significant difference between “structural style” scores (the sub-dimension of psychological resiliency) based on educational status, as well as between desensitization scores of special education teachers and age.

     

Testing stochastic income convergence in seasonal heterogeneous panels

In this paper we introduce a seasonal version of the Solow–Swan growth model and acquire an empirical income convergence equation. We take this equation as a basis to investigate whether income convergence exists in an OECD sample. To do this, we propose the test statistics under various asymptotic properties for some of the seasonal frequencies in the context of nonstationary heterogeneous panels. Critical values and moments of our statistics are generated and their finite sample performances are examined via Monte Carlo simulations.     

Not Leverage but Change in Leverage Matters for Firms’ Future Growth: Evidence from Turkey's Top 1000

In the financial literature it is generally assumed that a firm's financial leverage is a good measure (proxy) of the firm's access to financing. In this study, it is argued that it is not the firm's debt (leverage), but the change in leverage that more accurately mirrors the firm's true likelihood to have access to external sources of financing. Applying a firm-type analysis and panel data techniques to data on the top 1000 private industrial companies of Turkey for the period 1997–2012, it is shown that it is the change in leverage ratio, not the level of leverage ratio itself that matters for the future firm growth, controlling for profitability, leverage and firm size.     

Exploring Adaptivity in Service Development: The Case of Mobile Platforms

Together with the developing technologies of a fast‐evolving Web environment, computers, and handheld devices, human–computer interaction is gaining more importance. User interface, as the interactive layer between user and information systems, has a great role in system adoption. Based on a technology acceptance model, acceptance of a system can be explained as a function of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Because several external variables have impact on PU and PEOU, the content and interface design of every single application should be addressed accordingly in a way that enhances the consumer's attitude about using the system by considering the impact of external variables through system usage. The objective of this study was to uncover potential external variables that may influence PEOU and PU, and indirectly influence behavioral attitude in mobile service acceptance and to explore the effects of those variables, primarily adaptivity and the relationships of all the variables among each other, through the limited interface of a mobile platform. Thus, developers will be able to relate the tuning of product features to the adoption of the products they are developing based on a platform.     

Consumer satisfaction and loyalty derived from the perceived quality of individual banking services: A field study in Eskişehir from Turkey

The research project intends to find out the differences in the quality of the services rendered by the national banks of Turkey as perceived by the bank customers. This paper is an academically held field research conducted in May 2000 in the city of Eski?ehir Turkey, covering 1340 respondents who are regular bank customers, that is, who carry out banking transactions more than once in a month. These banks are all well-known, nation-wide financial institutions publicly or privately owned and are classified under three main groups depending on their ownership style and their size. Respondents are selected systematically from different age groups, income groups, and occupations reflecting both sexes. A questionnaire form included ten close-end multiple-choice questions (excluding demographic questions) is designed for the research purpose     

Comment on “Do credit rating agencies add to the dynamics of emerging market crises?” by Roman Kräussl

Possible explanations are provided for two basic results in Kräussl's paper. First, rating effect may be stronger in emerging markets because they are less transparent. Transparency is interpreted in the context of Knightian uncertainty and institutional quality. Emerging markets have lower institutional quality ratings and present greater uncertainty than mature markets, therefore, they are more susceptible to rating agencies’ evaluations. Some empirical evidence on the correlations between institutional quality rankings and portfolio investment is presented. Second, sovereign credit downgrades generate a stronger market reaction than upgrades because decision makers value losses more than gains, as posited by cumulative prospect theory.