Selection and network effects—Migration flows into OECD countries 1990-2000

This paper presents empirical evidence on immigration flows into the OECD countries during the period 1990-2000. Our results indicate that network effects are strong, but vary between different groups of welfare states and between countries according to the type of immigration policy being applied. Network effects seem to be less important in the Nordic countries which also seem to attract immigrants from the lowest income level source countries. We do not find clear evidence that selection effects measured by migration flows being sensitive to differences in public social expenditures have had a major influence on the observed migration patterns until now. This may partly be explained by restrictive migration policies which may have dampened the potential selection effects.     

Internationalisation choices of Polish firms during the post-socialism transition period: The role of institutional conditions at firm’s foundation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the home country radical change of institutional conditions influences the firm-level internationalisation process understood as exporting. In particular, we aim to broaden our understanding of how changing institutional conditions affect the internationalisation process of Polish firms founded in different institutional conditions; i.e. under the communist regime (before 1990), in the transition period (1990–2003), and in the post-transition period (2004 and later). We compare and contrast in each period three crucial aspects describing the internationalisation process: time to internationalisation, direction and degree of internationalisation. We find support for the assertion that the institutional conditions at a firm’s birth influence the internationalisation paths of emerging market firms in terms of speed, direction and degree of internationalisation. Firms founded either in the transition (1990–2003), or in the post-transition phase (2004 and later) are more likely to: (1) make the decision about internationalisation earlier in their life cycle, (2) enter developed markets, and (3) achieve a higher degree of internationalisation than firms founded under the communist regime (before 1990).     

Effectiveness of price discounts and premium promotions

Although price discounts are by far the most common form of sales promotions employed by firms, the increasing use of premiums as a promotional strategy may imply that they are occupying a more important place in the promotional strategy. Since price discounts are quite costly and can reduce consumers' reference prices, undermine perception of quality, and hurt brand equity, it is crucial to know what type of promotion is the most preferred and valued by consumers. As the most recent works in the field have argued that the promotional benefit level is an important determinant of promotional effectiveness, this research reports the results of two experimental studies that investigated the interaction effect between promotional benefit level and promotion type across three levels of benefit (low, moderate, high). The results obtained suggest that at high benefit levels price discounts are more effective than premiums, while the opposite occurs at low levels. However, a similar evaluation of promotional tools was found at moderate benefit levels. The findings offer guidance to managers who might benefit from knowing what is the best strategy to promote their products and services. Our work also extends prior related research because, to this date, the effectiveness of price discounts and premiums across promotional benefit levels is an under‐researched issue. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Foreign ownership wage premia in emerging economies

In this article we examine the relationship between wages, labour productivity and ownership using a linked employer–employee dataset covering a large fraction of the Czech labour market in 2006. We distinguish between different origins of ownership and study wage and productivity differences. The raw wage differential between foreign and domestically‐owned firms is about 23 percent. The empirical analysis is carried out on both firm‐ and individual‐level data. A key finding is that industry, region and notably human capital explain only a small part of the foreign–domestic ownership wage differential. Both white and blue collar workers as well as skilled and unskilled employees obtain a foreign ownership wage premium. Foreign ownership premia are more prevalent in older and less technologically advanced firms. Joint estimation of productivity and wage equations show that, controlling for human capital, the difference in productivity is about twice as large as the wage differential. Overall, results indicate that the international firms share their rents with their employees.     

The expected benefit as determinant of deal-prone consumers' response to sales promotions

This study proposes that the responses of more and less deal-prone consumers to price discounts and premiums depend on the promotional benefit level. At low and moderate benefit levels, low deal-prone consumers show a higher evaluation for price discounts than for premiums but if the benefit is high, deal proneness does not bias the higher evaluation of price discounts. An experimental study shows that low deal-prone consumers are concerned with obtaining price discounts. Taken together, these findings suggest that consumers more concerned with obtaining promotions do not always prefer price discounts.     

The Role of Product‐Premium Fit in Determining the Effectiveness of Hedonic and Utilitarian Premiums

This research explores how the effectiveness of hedonic and utilitarian premiums is contingent with the degree of product‐premium fit. It is proposed that the effectiveness of utilitarian/hedonic premiums is higher at a high/low degree of fit between the premium and the focal product. Specifically, a series of three experimental studies were conducted. Consistent with expectations, Study 1 found that at high product‐premium fit utilitarian premiums were preferred over hedonic ones, while Study 2 revealed that hedonic ones were preferred at a low‐fit condition. To further validate these preliminary results, Study 3 developed a full factorial experimental design wherein the interaction effect between the nature of the premium and product‐premium fit on consumers’ liking, purchase intention and positive word‐of‐mouth was evaluated. This study confirmed the existence of a significant interaction effect and the direction of the simple effects was consistent with findings from Studies 1 and 2. However, the differences were only significant at a low‐fit condition.     

Increased sorting and wage inequality in the Czech Republic

This paper makes use of a linked employer–employee dataset to examine the evolution of wage inequality in the Czech Republic during 1998–2006. We find evidence of slightly increasing returns to human capital and diminishing gender inequality and document sharp increases in both within‐firm and between‐firm inequality. We investigate several hypotheses to explain these patterns: increased domestic and international competition, decentralized wage bargaining, skill‐biased technological change and a changing educational composition of the workforce. Domestic competition is found to lower within‐firm inequality whereas we find no evidence that increased international trade at the industry level is associated with higher between‐ or within‐firm wage inequality. The key factors driving the observed increase in wage inequality are increased educational sorting and the inflow of foreign firms to the Czech Republic.