The Value of Transferable Skills

Most studies on skill transferability focus on the return to capabilities developed in the initial job and disregard the different characteristics of the origin and the destination industries. In contrast, this article assesses the borders of skill transferability by comparing the return to skills for firm stayers, firm changers in the same industry, and firm changers to other industries. Based on a sample of Portuguese employees in retail banking, our results confirm significant inter‐firm and inter‐industry skill transferability. Difference‐in‐differences estimates with propensity score matching show that firm switchers benefit from a wage premium compared to firm stayers. However, the wage premium drops sharply when movers leave the banking sector.     

Exchange rate returns and volatility: the role of time-varying rare disaster risks

This paper provides empirical evidence to the theoretical claim that rare disaster risks have predictability for exchange rate returns and volatility using a nonparametric quantile-based methodology. Using dollar-based exchange rates for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the quantile-causality test shows that indeed rare disaster-risks affects both returns and volatility over the majority of their respective conditional distributions. In addition, these effects are much stronger when compared to those using the British pound, especially in terms of currency returns.     

How Do Household Tasks Shape Employment Contracts? The Provision of Care in Portugal

This study illustrates the complexities involved in outsourcing domestic work to the market. It draws on an original dataset of paid domestic workers in Portugal to examine how specific tasks interact with and explain contractual arrangements. A fuzzy cluster analysis categorizes paid domestic workers into caregivers and cleaners; however, a great degree of overlap implies that caring also entails cleaning tasks necessary for the care receiver’s well-being. A subsequent Tobit regression analysis shows that caregivers have more formal and stable contracts but earn lower wages and have longer working hours relative to cleaners. The study finds a segmentation of national origin and that some migrants are at a disadvantage in care work. The study also examines how employers deal with the idiosyncrasies of domestic work such as navigating trust-related issues.     

The role of time‐varying rare disaster risks in predicting bond returns and volatility

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence to the theoretical claim that rare disaster risks affect government bond market movements. Using a nonparametric quantiles‐based methodology, we show that rare disaster‐risks affect only volatility, but not returns, of 10‐year government bond of the United States over the monthly period of 1918:01 to 2013:12. In addition, the predictability of volatility holds for the majority of the conditional distribution of the volatility, with the exception of the extreme ends. Moreover, in general, similar results are also obtained for long‐term government bonds of an alternative developed country (UK) and an emerging market (South Africa).     

Ranking by competence using a fuzzy approach

New approaches in economics of education consider the concept of competence to bringing in the multidimensional feature of labour force quality. Competence includes knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes. Each individual suits the combination of these elements to perform a task. Thus, different combinations expectedly lead to different task performance inside an occupation. In this paper, we focus on individual heterogeneity in homogeneous job requirements context. In sequel, we establish a theorem on unit simplex that potentially provides a ranking system by competence. The system is designed under a grade of membership framework, with a technique based on fuzzy sets theory. Under certain conditions, the referred theorem allows a mapping of individual multidimensional feature into the interval [0, 1]. So, the greater the value along this interval, the more competent the individual. An empirical study of a banking sector activity illustrates our research.     

Impact of oil prices on firm stock return: industry-wise analysis

The study investigates the impact of oil prices on firm-level stock returns in case of Pakistan over the period 1998–2014, as this relationship is neglected by the previous literature. By using the panel data estimation, the results of full sample indicate significant positive effect of oil price changes on firm stock returns in the same period, whereas the lagged oil price changes have significant negative effect on firms’ stock return. Moreover, the industry-level analysis also confirms the similar findings; results indicate significant positive impact of oil price on firms’ stock return in full sample, textile, chemical and miscellaneous industry, while the lagged oil price changes negatively affect the stock returns of full sample and all the industries except tobacco, jute and vanaspati industries. The study confirms that rise in oil price transfers a positive signal in the stock market that boosts the firm-level stock returns in Pakistan. In contrast to the negative shocks, the stock returns are significantly affected by the positive oil price shocks.