Not all high-alexithymia individuals are risk-takers: private self-consciousness moderates the relationship between alexithymia and risk-taking behaviours

This article concerns the influence which alexithymia exerts on risk-taking. In particular, alexithymia is seen as a factor which encourages risk-taking as it allows high-alexithymia individuals to feel emotions which are sufficiently intense to compensate for their deficit of emotional awareness. In this connection, we make the hypothesis that alexithymia’s influence is moderated by private self-consciousness (SC). This is because private SC increases the likelihood that high-alexithymia individuals become aware of their risk-taking tendency and that this tendency is discrepant with their pro-safety standards (‘putting someone in danger is bad’) or self-schemas (‘I am a responsible person’). Thus, private SC is likely to enable and motivate them to consciously regulate their behaviour in a safer direction. This hypothesis was empirically tested by a questionnaire amongst 372 French drivers, whose SC, alexithymia, as well as their current adoption of eight risky behaviours (with a more detailed analysis of speeding). The use of conditional process analyses reveal no main effects of alexithymia and private SC but strong interaction effects, while controlling for other predictors. More precisely, when private SC is low high-alexithymia individuals break more the speed limits and adopt more frequently risky behaviours than low-alexithymia drivers. Conversely, when private SC is high, they are less risk-prone. As practical implication, we recommend the use of techniques increasing private SC amongst high-alexithymia persons.     

Do interventions in foreign exchange markets modify investors' expectations? The experience of Japan between 1992 and 2004

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Bank of Japan's official interventions on the JPY/USD parity during the period 1992–2004. The novelty of our approach is to combine two recent advances of the empirical literature on foreign exchange interventions: (i) drawing on over-the-counter option prices to characterize more precisely the distribution of market expectations; (ii) redefining interventions in terms of events as they tend to come in clusters. Moreover, in order to deal with the features of the data (small sample size, non-standard distribution), we use bootstrap tests.We show that interventions have a significant impact on the mean expectation (the forward rate). The results are more ambiguous for variance. Additionally, we find that the effect of interventions on skewness is significant, robust to different definitions of skewness, and consistent with the direction of interventions. On the contrary, our results clearly show that kurtosis is not affected by interventions. We finally show that: (i) coordination increases effectiveness of interventions; (ii) results are not altered when controlling for other economic and political news.     

The valuation relevance of R&D expenditures: Time series evidence

The literature on the valuation relevance of R&D investments is based primarily on cross-sectional regressions or panel data regressions with time and firm (or industry) fixed effects such that the parameters relating R&D to market value are cross-sectionally constant. In an alternative approach, this paper investigates the value relevance of R&D investment using an earnings-based time series valuation model. Model parameters are estimated for each firm separately. In contradistinction to the results obtained from cross-sectional and fixed effects panel models, this study finds weak empirical support at best for the value relevance of R&D expenditures at the firm level.     

Perception by French students of the gendered nature of material artifacts studied in technology education

Many studies have shown the importance of the socio-cultural factors that lead girls to desert scientific and technological courses. Over a long period, the contents of the French technology education (TE) college curricula may well have contributed to strengthening the feeling among girls that this discipline was better suited to boys. The choice of technical artifacts that embody the knowledge taught could be partially responsible for this. Our investigation was conducted in two stages. Firstly, we made an inventory of artifacts presented in four TE schoolbooks for the 6th grade. Secondly, we submitted this list to a population of 98 girls and boys (12–14 years). Our results indicate that most of these artifacts were categorized as mixed. However, those that are classed as masculine are more numerous than feminine one’s. They are also more prevalent among girls and their number increases with age. The grouping of these artifacts by families also shows gender differences.     

Stock selection using a multi-factor model - empirical evidence from the French stock market

Using a Barra-type factor model, we have attempted to determine whether it is possible to beat the benchmark by taking advantage of anomalies established in the financial empirical literature. More specifically we have built an equity premium model based on three sets of factors (accounting variables, stock market characteristics and sector indicators) using a Bayesian method corrected for heteroscedasticity to estimate risk premiums, a technique that takes agents' learning into account. The results are encouraging: first, the factors that carried most weight on the equity premiums corroborated the results of empirical studies described in the financial literature, secondly, the portfolios constructed from our methodology and simulated outside our sample, returned higher performance than the benchmark and rewarded the supplement of volatility.     

Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual's job quality than the country or ‘national model’ they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.     

The reaction of prices and of the balance of payments to revaluation of the Deutsche Mark

Zusammenfassung Die Reaktion der Preise und Zahlungsbilanz auf eine Aufwertung der Deutschen Mark. —Im ersten Teil des Aufsatzes werden die Wirkungen einer Aufwertung der Deutschen Mark und von Ver?nderungen der Weltm arktpreise auf Preise, L?hne und Einkommensverteilung in Westdeutschland berechnet unter Verwendung eines Preismodells, das auf dem skandinavischen Ansatz beruht, aber eine Unterscheidung zwischen kompetitiven und nichtkompetitiven Industrien enth?lt. Es wird dann gezeigt, da\ die Terms of trade und die Gewinnquoten im kompetitiven Sektor der Volkswirtschaft durch eine Aufwertung stark beeinflu\t werden, vor allem auf kürzere Sicht. Die Wirkungen sind zwar geringer, wenn die L?hne den Preis?nderungen angepa\t werden, bleiben aber bedeutend. Demnach scheint eine Aufwertung reale Wirkungen auf die Wirtschaft Westdeutschlands auszuüben. Au\erdem wird eine exogene Verschlechterung der Terms of trade analysiert, die, wie sich zeigt, durch die Existenz eines nichtkompetitiven Sektors verst?rkt wird. Die Gewinne im kompetitven Sektor steigen und ziehen dadurch Ressourcen aus den nichtkomptetitiven Industrien an, solange sich nur die Preise im kompetitiven Sektor erh?hen, unabh?ngig davon, ob die Terms of trade steigen oder fallen. Im zweiten Teil wird ein kleines Modell der deutschen Wirtschaft gesch?tzt und simuliert, um die Wirkung einer Aufwertung auf die Zahlungsbilanz zu illustrieren. Es wird gezeigt, da\ ein Handelsbilanzüberschu\ nach einer Aufwertung ansteigen kann.

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Résumé La réaction des prix et de la balance des paiements sur la revalorisation de la Deutsche Mark. —Dans la première partie de cet article nous computons les effets d’une revalorisation de la Deutsche Mark et des changements des prix de marché mondial sur les prix, les salaires et les parts distributives en Allemagne de l’Ouest à l’aide d’un modèle de prix inspiré de l’école Scandinave mais faisant une distinction entre des industries compétitives et noncompétitives. Puis nous démontrons que les termes de l’échange aussi bien que les parts de profit dans le secteur compétitif de l’économie sont fortement affectuées par la revalorisation, particulièrement à court terme. Les effets deviennent plus faibles si les salaires sont ajustés par les changements des prix, mais restent encore importants. Donc une revalorisation semble produire des effets réels pour l’économie de l’Allemagne de l’Ouest. Une détérioration exogène des termes de l’échange est analysée qui est accentuée par l’existence d’un secteur noncompétitif. Les profits dans le secteur compétitif accro?t et c’est pourquoi attirent des ressources des industries noncompétitives, indépendamment d’un accroissement ou d’un déclin des termes de l’échange, tant que les prix dans le secteur compétitif s’augmentent. Dans la deuxième partie nous estimons un petit modèle de l’économie allemande pour illustrer l’effet de la revalorisation sur la balance des paiements. Nous démontrons que le surplus de la balance commerciale peut accro?tre apès la ravalorisation.

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Resumen La reactión de los precios y de las balanzas de pagos frente a la revaluaci?n del marco alemán. —En la primera parte de este estudio se computan por medio de un modelo de precios inspirado en la propuesta escandinava los efectos de la revaluaci?n del marco alemán y de cambios en los precios del mercado mundial sobre los precios, salarios y cuotas distributivas en Alemania Occidental, pero haciendo una distinción entre industrias competitivas y no competitivas. Se muestra en seguida que los términos del intercambio como también las tasas de beneficio en el sector competitivo de la economía se ven fuertemente afectadas por la revaluación, particularmente en el corto plazo. Los efectos son mas débiles pero aún importantes, cuando los salarios se ajustan por cambios en los precios. En consecuencia, una revaluación parece producir efectos reales sobre la economía de Alemania Occidental. En seguida se analiza un deterioro exógeno en los términos del intercambio, que se ve acentuado por la existencia de un sector nocompetitivo. Las ganancias en el sector competitivo aumentan, atrayendo de esta manera recursos de industrias no competitivas, independientemente de si los términos del intercambio mejoran o se deterioran, mientras los precios en el sector competitivo se mantengan en aumento. En la segunda parte se estima y simula un peque?o modelo de la economía alemana para ilustrar el efecto de la revaluación sobre la balanza de pagos. Se muestra que el superávit de la balanza comercial puede aumentar después de la revaluación.

     

Employee work–life balance outcomes in Ireland: a multilevel investigation of supervisory support and perceived organizational support

This article examines how employee perceptions of supervisory and organizational support for work–life balance, in addition to the number of work–life balance programmes available, predict a number of work–life balance outcomes including role conflict, job satisfaction, family satisfaction and turnover intentions in a sample of large private and public sector organizations in Ireland. The attitudes of HR managers towards work–life balance programmes are also explored. To account for the nested structure of the data, analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modelling. We found that perceptions of work–life supportiveness as measured at the HR manager and immediate supervisor levels affect employee uptake of work–life programmes, employee work–life balance outcomes and turnover intentions.     

Pitting real options theory against risk diversification theory: International diversification and joint ownership control in economic crisis

This study examines how MNE divestment decisions differ according to real options vs. risk diversification perspectives. We develop competing hypotheses in relation to international diversification and joint ownership control. Empirical results give consistent support to the real options perspective. We find that large MNEs with greater international diversification are less likely to divest their subsidiaries during times of economic crisis. The negative effect of joint ownership control is however manifested in both crisis-stricken and non-crisis country subsidiaries as well as in their interaction effect.