Creating sustainable value in the hospitality industry: a (critical) multi-stakeholder study in the Dominican Republic

This paper identifies sustainable initiatives reported by “sustainability-champion” hotels in the Dominican Republic, while contrasting them against the views of key stakeholders. We adapt and apply Hart and Milstein's Sustainable Value Framework, and complement it with a Critical Management Studies approach. Our analysis relies on a mixed-methods approach (non-hierarchical k-means cluster analysis, as well as thematic and content analysis). Findings indicate that most hotels are engaging more actively in present-oriented strategies such as pollution prevention (especially, the international hotels) and in product/service stewardship. However, in the future-oriented strategies, hotels owned by local investors show higher commitment to both clean technology and innovation, and to the sustainability vision (as the firm's growth path). In addition, although the views of multiple stakeholders show a clear acknowledgment of the hospitality industry's sustainability efforts (particularly regarding education and environmental protection), they also offer differing views about the ultimate impact and value of those efforts for them and for the broader society. Our study offers a new theoretical lens to explore multi-stakeholder approaches and offers practical implications for the Dominican Republic's National Strategy for Development 2010–2030, as well as implications that may be of use for other tourism-dependent countries.     

Decomposing the effect of trade on the gender wage gap

This paper uses variation in exposure to increased Chinese imports in Brazil to investigate the impact of trade on gender wage inequality. First, using Brazilian census data, we find that rising imports reduced the gender wage gap in Brazilian local labour markets. Next, using Oaxaca–Blinder decompositions, we show that this reduction in the wage gap was largely explained by trade increasing the share of female workers in higher-paying occupations. Finally, we use a matched employer–employee data set to investigate how individual workers adjust to the trade shock. Similar to the local labour market analysis, we find that male workers exposed to increased import competition saw a larger decline in both wages and cumulative earnings relative to female workers. In addition, we uncover an interesting asymmetry in that, while male workers exhibited much higher degrees of industry mobility in response to the trade shock, female workers exhibited an equal if not higher degree of occupational mobility.     

THE BROTHER‐IN‐LAW EFFECT*

When a firm is forced to pay abnormally high wages, hiring transfers rents. This effectively endows the employer with the ability to grant favors, and he may wish to do so even at some cost to efficient production. We refer to this as the brother‐in‐law effect. This article analyzes its consequences. When the brother‐in‐law effect is due to unionization, decisions regarding both the number and type of workers employed could be inefficient; overemployment could obtain even relative to the workforce that would be employed without unionization. We also identify cases in which nepotism improves efficiency.     

Banking Sector Performance in Latin America: Market Power versus Efficiency

Since the mid‐1990s the banking sector in the Latin American emerging markets has experienced profound changes due to financial liberalization, a significant increase in foreign investments, and greater merger activities often occurring following financial crises. The wave of consolidation and the rapid increase in market concentration that took place in most countries has generated concerns about the rise in banks' market power and its potential effects on consumers. This paper advances the existing literature by testing the market power (Structure–Conduct–Performance and Relative Market Power) and efficient structure (X‐ and scale efficiency) hypotheses for a sample of over 2500 bank observations in nine Latin American countries over 1997–2005. We use the Data Envelopment Analysis technique to obtain reliable efficiency measures. We produce evidence supporting the efficient structure hypotheses. The findings are particularly robust for the largest banking markets in the region, namely Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Finally, capital ratios and bank size seem to be among the most important factors in explaining higher than normal profits for Latin American banks.     

PPP EXCHANGE RATE RULES,MACROECONOMIC (IN)STABILITY,AND LEARNING*

In order to maintain competitiveness, governments in developing economies seem to have pursued purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate rules, by adjusting the nominal devaluation rate in response to real exchange rate deviations from an intermediate target. This article shows that these rules are likely to induce macroeconomic instability, as they generate sunspot‐driven fluctuations that are in fact learnable by agents in the Expectational‐Stability sense. It finds that the existence of these “learnable sunspots” depends, among others, on open economy features, including the degree of openness and the degree of exchange rate pass‐through to consumer's import prices.     

IS A THEORY OF TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY REALLY NEEDED?

This paper addresses the question of whether or not a theory of total factor productivity (TFP) is needed in order to explain the observed large per capita income differences across countries. As the argument that it is needed has been reached by calculating TFP empirically, we show that the way the estimates of TFP have been computed is not an innocuous issue. To illustrate our point, we discuss how two well‐known textbooks on growth theory present the arguments and the problems associated with these expositions. We conclude that the tautological nature of the estimates of TFP lies at the heart of an important question that the empirical literature on economic growth has been dealing with during recent years. Hence, our arguments cast doubt on the need for a theory of TFP.     

Foreign direct investment and spillovers: gradualism may be better

Abstract.  The standard argument says that in the presence of positive spillovers foreign direct investment should be promoted and subsidized. In contrast, this paper claims that the very existence of spillovers may require temporarily restricting FDI. Our argument is based on two features of spillovers: they are limited by the economy's absorptive capacity and they take time to materialize. By letting in capital more gradually, initial investment has the time to create spillovers – and upgrade the economy's absorptive capacity – before further investment occurs. The economy converges to a steady state with a superior technology and a greater capital stock.     

Entrepreneurial Structure Qualitative Analysis: The Case of Seville (Spain)

In the field of territorial economic growth, it is possible to identify important characteristics in the entrepreneurial structure, such as the structure of the size of firms, main activity sectors, or the degree of innovation. However, other lesser known characteristics are important also, such as functional dependency, which considers the relationship between small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and suppliers and clients belonging to any territorial field or productive dependency, which considers the level of concentration in terms of buying and selling in connection with the main suppliers and clients, respectively. In order to empirically contrast the importance of these entrepreneurial characteristics and try to relate them with territorial economic growth, a sample of 400 enterprises in the province of Seville (Spain) is used.      

Market efficiency in the Spanish derivatives markets: An empirical analysis

This paper analyzes Granger caUSAlity between daily prices of the Spanish stock index (Ibex 35) and its futures contract using Johansen cointegration methodology. The study differentiates between short-run and long-run caUSAlity. The empirical results prove that, in the short run, the futures price causes the spot price. However, the opposite is not true. On the other hand, long-run caUSAlity is embodied in the response of futures prices after deviations from the long-run equilibrium. These results say that during the period of study, the Spanish futures market behaved as an efficient market.