New methods of evaluating physical demand at work areas

The manufacturer's requirement of increasing productivity results in the need to design work stations that are increasingly more effective and specialized. However, this procedure can bring about an overloading of the worker, a lack of motivation, and, consequently, a reduction in productivity.Ergonomics adapts the work station to the worker with the object of improving his welfare and satisfaction at his post. One aspect that this science concerns itself with is the evaluation of physical demands connected to productive tasks. Mechanical movements are also studied in order to perform tasks efficiently.We here propose a new method of physical demand analysis that determines the risk factor for muscular skeletal lesion. This method uses, as a base, the system of predetermined times, MTM-UAS. It includes a computer system that allows us to easily analyse the operations at a work station and generates charts similar to those of UAS, but, instead of times, it measures the quantity of mechanical work necessary for each movement.The information that the method provides can be used by different divisions within companies in making decisions about improvements at work stations.     

Endogenous fluctuations in unionized economies with productive externalities

Summary. We discuss the effects of unions on steady-state multiplicity and welfare, and on the existence of endogenous fluctuations. We consider an OG economy with productive capital externalities and we focus on underemployment equilibria. We find that for wide regions in the parameter space, including an arbitrarily small degree of externalities and a Cobb-Douglas technology, unions increase steady state employment and welfare, and local indeterminacy (sunspots) emerges. Moreover with a CES technology multiplicity of steady states is only possible in the presence of unions. Our results also show that the role of unions in shaping local dynamics and bifurcations depends on technology (externalities and factors substitutability).Received: 16 January 2002, Revised: 18 March 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: E32, J51, D60, D62. Correspondence to: Leonor ModestoThis paper is a much revised version of our former working paper Unions, Increasing Returns and Endogenous Fluctuations. Financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under the POCTI, is gratefuly acknowledged.     

Energy taxation in Southern Europe: The case of Portugal

We investigate whether or not the imposition of a common EC energy-tax will penalize more the poorer Southern European economies and if this will harm convergence at the EC level. We start by surveying briefly the existing studies and empirical evidence. Then we exploit the results obtained when using the macroeconometric HERMES models to simulate the introduction of an energy-tax. Unfortunately, as we only have HERMES results for one Southern European economy, Portugal, our conclusions are limited. Finally, we investigate convergence in Europe and the effects of energy taxation on convergence. We conclude that energy taxation will harm growth all over the EC, penalizing more one of the less developed countries, Portugal, and having most probably adverse effects on convergence.This paper was prepared for presentation at the Conference Energy Tax in Europe organized jointly by the SEO-University of Amsterdam and the DG XII of the CEC and held in Amsterdam on 13th December 1991. I would like to thank the participants in the Conference and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies.     

Perceptions of poverty attributions in Europe: a multilevel mixture model approach

The perception of the causes of poverty has long been recognized as a very important factor in the broader study of this social phenomenon. This study covers 15 European Union countries and considers three types of poverty attributions: individualistic, societal, and fatalistic. The individualistic view perception believes the poor are responsible for their situation, the societal perspective blames society for poverty and the fatalistic view considers poverty to be the result of bad luck or fate. A multilevel mixture model with three clusters of countries and six clusters of individuals was identified. Despite the generalization of the social explanations of poverty at the individual or micro level, there are also groups that emphasize more individualistic explanations, blaming the poor for their condition. At the country or macro level, the most developed cluster believes in the individualistic and fatalistic causes of poverty, whereas the least developed clusters explain poverty based on the injustices of society. There is diversity in the way these countries perceive poverty.     

The use of Fx derivatives and the cost of capital: Evidence of Brazilian companies

Large corporations have been using derivative instruments as a tool to protect their indirect exposure, as FX risks. A sample with 47 non-financial Bovespa Listed Brazilian companies from 2004 and 2010 was used to test the hypothesis that use of derivatives as a risk management policy tool reduces companies' cost of capital. In contrast to other countries, results rejected this hypothesis, showing that in Brazil there is a positive relationship between using these tools and cost of capital. However, a more in-depth analysis based on the TACC model for a Brazilian company, this hypothesis was not rejected after the 2008 crisis.     

Hysteresis and sluggishness in Portuguese unemployment, 1977–88

The phenomenon of unemployment persistence led to the development of alternative theories of unemployment. Among these the ‘hysteresis’ concept by Blanchard and Summers (1987) received a wide interest. Based on this notion we developed a generalized model that nests Blanchards and Summers' theory. Using this framework we conducted an empirical investigation for the Portuguese labour market (1977–88). The results obtained point towards the existence of labour demand sluggishness, wage inertia and unemployment hysteresis. The model also suggests the existence of a rather inelastic labour demand curve.     

Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Stabilizations: What are the Gains from Cooperation?

In this paper we extend the open-economy stochastic framework of Obstfeld and Rogoff (Q J Econ. 117:503–36, 2002) to include distortionary taxation, when prices are flexible but wages are sticky. We use the model to analyze the optimal design of tax rules that respond to productivity shocks, under non-cooperation and cooperation between the fiscal authorities, and evaluate the gains from coordination. We show that, although monetary policy would be preferred to fiscal policy as a stabilization tool both under competition (Nash) and under cooperation, there is a role for procyclical fiscal stabilization in a monetary union where the monetary authority cannot respond to asymmetric shocks. Moreover, we show that in the Nash game there will be an incentive for the fiscal authorities to try to manipulate the terms-of-trade in their favor, and we estimate the potential gains from fiscal policy coordination. The size of the gains depends crucially on the value of the Frisch elasticity of labor supply. For lower values of the Frisch elasticity (more in line with microeconometric estimates) the gains are relatively small, but for more elastic labor supplies (more in agreement with the business cycle literature) the gains can be very large.

Fiscal Policy in the New Open Economy Macroeconomics and Prospects for Fiscal Policy Coordination

Abstract.  This paper reviews the literature on the effects of fiscal policy in new open economy macroeconomics (NOEM) models, complementing it with additional results that attempt to clarify the importance of the exchange rate regime (fixed or flexible) and of the type of policy (balanced budget or debt‐financed). Fixed exchange rates only seem to postpone the costs from the short to the long run, but the type of policy is crucial in determining the welfare impact of fiscal expansions. The paper also reviews the recent literature on fiscal policy coordination and shows that there is already some evidence that the gains from coordination in this area can be potentially large but draw attention to the need for reflecting more on the role of fiscal policy as a stabilization tool and on possible interactions between fiscal and monetary policy.     

Automatic Editing for Business Surveys: An Assessment of Selected Algorithms

Statistical offices are responsible for publishing accurate statistical information about many different aspects of society. This task is complicated considerably by the fact that data collected by statistical offices generally contain errors. These errors have to be corrected before reliable statistical information can be published. This correction process is referred to as statistical data editing. Traditionally, data editing was mainly an interactive activity with the aim to correct all data in every detail. For that reason the data editing process was both expensive and time-consuming. To improve the efficiency of the editing process it can be partly automated. One often divides the statistical data editing process into the error localisation step and the imputation step. In this article we restrict ourselves to discussing the former step, and provide an assessment, based on personal experience, of several selected algorithms for automatically solving the error localisation problem for numerical (continuous) data. Our article can be seen as an extension of the overview article by Liepins, Garfinkel & Kunnathur (1982). All algorithms we discuss are based on the (generalised) Fellegi–Holt paradigm that says that the data of a record should be made to satisfy all edits by changing the fewest possible (weighted) number of fields. The error localisation problem may have several optimal solutions for a record. In contrast to what is common in the literature, most of the algorithms we describe aim to find all optimal solutions rather than just one. As numerical data mostly occur in business surveys, the described algorithms are mainly suitable for business surveys and less so for social surveys. For four algorithms we compare the computing times on six realistic data sets as well as their complexity.     

Aggregate consumer ratings and booking intention: the role of brand image

The very nature of tourist services implies that consumers consider all available cues when making hotel bookings. Information obtained via the Internet is an especially important cue, and the findings of numerous studies highlight the importance of peer-generated information—electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)—in consumers’ decision-making processes. Along with eWOM, however, traditional marketing signals such as brand image and price still affect consumer behaviour. Thus, this study analyses the effect of eWOM (i.e. global hotel ratings) on purchase intention, considering the role of brand image. Two online scenario-based experiments designed using real information from TripAdvisor were conducted. The final sample comprised 260 participants. Variation in hotel ratings modified consumers’ purchase intentions, with brand image playing a significant role in this relationship. The effect of eWOM on consumer purchase intentions was higher (lower) for hotels with a poorer (better) brand image. The results of the analysis imply that price can potentially help to prevent the negative effect of poor ratings.