Human capital and exports: A micro-level analysis of transition countries

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the impact of human capital endowments on export intensity employing firm-level data for 29 transition economies. A particular focus is placed on comparing and contrasting Central and Eastern Europe countries (CEECs) with those from the former Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The impact of the share of employees with higher education, provision of on-the-job training, years of experience of the top manager and labour cost on export intensity is assessed. To test these relationships, Tobit and Fractional Logit approaches are adopted. The estimation results suggest that, overall, having a more educated workforce exerts a positive impact on the export intensity of firms in transition economies, the magnitude being larger for CEECs. Average labour cost, as an alternative measure, also turns out to exert a positive but stronger impact. Insufficient evidence is found of a role for training programmes and years of experience of the top manager.     

Corporate sector liability dollarization and exchange rate balance sheet effect in Turkey

In this study, we investigate the causes and balance sheet effect consequences of Liability Dollarization (LD) of nonfinancial sectors in Turkey. The dynamic panel data Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) results suggest that both sector specific and macroeconomic variables are significant in explaining the corporate sector LD. Industries appear to partially match the currency composition of their debt with their income streams. Devaluations are found to be contractionary, in terms of investments and profits, for sectors with higher LD. Macroeconomic instability affects the performance of the industries negatively. Our results also stress the importance of strong macroeconomic policy stance for an endogenous dedollarization process.     

The relationship between corporate reputation and organizational citizenship behavior: a comparative study on TV companies and banks

Corporate reputation (CR) is an increasingly emphasized issue in the management and organizational studies. Many research studies on the corporate reputation have revealed the impact of that issue on the informal performances of employees. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between corporate reputation and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The survey method has been conducted through random sampling. Four TV companies and four banks have been included in the survey. Results have been evaluated comparatively across two different sectors. The research has been composed of two parts; in the first part the corporate reputations of the chosen companies have been measured according to the Cravens et al. (2003) index. In the second part of the research the organizational citizenship behaviors of the employees in the eight companies have been measured and the relationship between corporate reputations of the companies and the employees’ OCBs have been analyzed through the correlation and regression analysis. It is revealed that there is a statistically significant effect of CR on OCB.     

A history of European electricity day-ahead prices

In this article, we examine the development of day-ahead prices in five European markets which became more connected over recent years. Where previous studies examined the convergence of price levels over time, we focus on patterns in estimates for the parameters in a switching regimes model. This makes it possible to distinguish between prices under normal market conditions and under non-normal market conditions, those market conditions that can cause extreme price spikes. We expect that increased connectivity yields additional supply in the short-term and therefore will reduce the impact of price spikes. Our results indicate that the impact of price spikes and volatility decreased over time, that prices behave more random, and that the parameter estimates between various connected markets seem to have converged between the Belgian, Dutch, French, German and Nordic day-ahead markets over the years 2003 through 2010. These results can be explained by increased connectivity and improved liquidity.     

Understanding the effects of political influence behaviors on informal performances

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of supervisors’ political influence behaviors on subordinates’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). As a subgoal of the study the effects of those political behaviors on organizational identification (OID) and affective commitment (AC) of subordinates have also been evaluated. Thereby OID and AC are also supposed to be the mediators in the relation between superiors’ political behaviors and subordinate’s OCB. Through convenience sampling method, 265 employees, who are all medical representatives, from 10 companies operating in Turkish pharmaceutical industry have been subjected to survey for this research. The reason of conducting the survey in one sector is to minimize the effects of internal and external environmental factors of different sectors. Data acquired through the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 program. Through this program, hierarchical regression analyses have been implemented to reveal the independent variables’ effects on the dependent variable through the mediator variables. The main hypothesis of the study indicating the effects of the managers’ political behaviors on the employees’ OCB has been accepted. The sub-hypotheses which predicted the mediator effects of OID and AC in the model are also accepted.     

Cross sectoral FDI spillovers and their impact on manufacturing productivity

This paper explores the relationship between FDI spillovers and productivity in manufacturing firms in five European transition countries. The novelty of our approach lies in exploring different mechanisms of horizontal spillovers and disentangling the impact of backward and forward vertical spillovers from services and manufacturing sectors. We rely on firm level data obtained from the Amadeus database and annual input-output tables. The results from dynamic panel model estimations reveal that local manufacturing firms benefit from the presence of foreign firms in upstream services, especially in the knowledge intensive services, and in downstream manufacturing sector. Demonstration effect is found to be negatively associated with domestic firms’ productivity, while worker mobility and increased competition appear to be the main channels of horizontal knowledge diffusion. The firms’ productivity is also influenced positively by human capital and intangible assets. Finally, we show that the direction and intensity of both vertical and horizontal spillovers depend on the absorptive capacity of domestic firms.