Pensions reforms,workforce ageing and firm-provided welfare

This paper investigates the impact of an exogenous increase in the legal retirement age on the firms’ propensity to provide welfare services voluntarily to their employees. To this purpose we exploit a unique information derived from the Rilevazione su Imprese e Lavoro (RIL), a survey conducted in 2015 on a large and representative sample of Italian firms. Applying different regression models we show that firms which were forced to give up previously planned hirings because of the Law 201/2011 (the so-called ‘Fornero pension reform’), increased the probability of providing welfare services at workplace. By referring to the sociological, human resource management and economic literature we then argue that a sudden increase in the legal retirement age may motivate the employers to establish welfare schemes as a way to cope with an ageing workforce. Our findings also hold when propensity score matching methods are used in order to control for sample selection issues.     

Product quality, lender liability, and consumer credit

Under ‘linked credit’ (also known as ‘connectedlending’), the buyer obtains a loan from a lender withthe specific purpose of purchasing a certain product. Creditis arranged directly by the seller, who acts as an intermediaryfor the finance company. Within this form of financing, thelender often accepts a measure of liability for defective products.We show that ‘connected-lender liability’ can workas a signalling device for the reliability of sellers, so asto alleviate the market failure that arises when sellers arebetter informed than consumers about the quality of their products.     

The role of regulation, fiscal incentives and changes in tastes in the diffusion of unleaded petrol

This paper analyses the diffusion of unleaded petrol in theUK. Changes in the market share of unleaded fuel are the resultof changes in the composition of the car stock and changes inthe choice of fuel given the car stock. We find that fuel typechoices have been mainly driven by changes in tastes and learningas opposed to changes in relative prices induced by fiscal incentives.However car stock composition effects dominate the diffusionprocess and we find that through this route regulatory changeshave made major contributions to changes in the market shareof unleaded fuel.     

Institutions and geography: Empirical test of spatial growth models for European regions

This article provides an empirical assessment of the growth experiences of European regions, during the period 1991–2004, by taking into account the spatial effects due to both institutions and geography. These effects have been modelled by means of specific controls and by using a non-conventional spatial weight matrix. Results favour a model dealing with substantive spatial externalities. Within this framework, the country-specific institutions are strongly and positively related to the regional productivity's growth rate. In addition, the geo-institutional proximity increases the spatial dependence of the regional output per worker and raises the speed of convergence. By contrast, the pure geographical metrics is underperforming, while underestimating the convergence dynamics.     

Linking inward/outward FDI and exploitation/exploration strategies: Development of a framework for SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between exploitation/exploration strategy and foreign direct investment (FDI) involving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on qualitative data collected from 45 FDI projects reported by 38 SMEs in a small open economy (SMOPEC), we develop an empirically grounded framework and research propositions that suggest inward FDI (into the SME) is associated with exploration driven by a strategic asset-seeking motive, and outward FDI (by the SME) is associated with exploitation driven by market and efficiency-seeking motives. Further, for the SMEs in this study, ambidextrous exploration and exploitation appear complementary and co-occur either simultaneously through an inward FDI project, or sequentially through separate inward and outward FDI projects, respectively. Our findings, however, reveal a lack of clear sequencing between inward and outward FDI, in contrast to previous research that has conceptualised inward FDI as a strategic means to achieve outward FDI. Implications for theory, practice and policy are discussed.     

Efficiency and total factor productivity change of Malaysian commercial banks

This paper analyses the efficiency of Malaysian commercial banks between 1996 and 2002 and finds that while the East Asian financial crisis caused a short-term increase in efficiency in 1998 primarily due to cost-cutting, increases in non-performing loans after the crisis caused a more sustained decline in bank efficiency. It is also found that mergers, fully Islamic banks, and conventional banks operating Islamic banking windows are all associated with lower efficiency. The paper estimates suggest mild decreasing returns to scale, and an average productivity change of 2.37% that is primarily attributable to technical change, which has nonetheless declined over time. Finally, while Islamic banks have been moderately successful in developing new products and technologies, the results suggest that the potential for Islamic banks to overcome their relative inefficiency is limited.     

Disability in Italian households: income,poverty and labour market participation

This article studies the economic effects of disabled members on Italian households, with the aim of identifying a suitable target group for welfare policies. Survey of Households Income and Wealth data for the year 2000 is used. Preliminary results show significant differences in levels of income and poverty diffusion to the detriment of households with disabled members. We propose an exogenous explanation: the replacement ratio between disability benefits and expected labour income shows that disability benefits do not compensate the potential incomes of the disabled person and of the possible carer, except in households with severe socioeconomic disadvantages. We also propose an endogenous explanation: applying a logit model we show that the labour market participation of the possible carer is reduced in households with disabled persons. In order to increase the income of the households with disabled members, policy recommendations include the provision of care services and structural policies to improve employment, income and educational opportunities for households at greatest disadvantage.     

A spatially filtered mixture of <Emphasis Type="Italic">β</Emphasis>-convergence regressions for EU regions, 1980–2002

Assessing regional growth and convergence across Europe is a matter of primary relevance. Empirical models that do not account for structural heterogeneities and spatial effects may face serious misspecification problems. In this work, a mixture regression approach is applied to the β-convergence model, in order to produce an endogenous selection of regional growth patterns. A priori choices, such as North–South or centre-periphery divisions, are avoided. In addition to this, we deal with the spatial dependence existing in the data, applying a local filter to the data. The results indicate that spatial effects matter, and either absolute, conditional, or club convergence, if extended to the whole sample, might be restrictive assumptions. Excluding a small number of regions that behave as outliers, only a few regions show an appreciable rate of convergence. The majority of data show slow convergence, or no convergence at all. Furthermore, a dualistic phenomenon seems to be present inside some States, reinforcing the “diverging-convergence” paradox. An erratum to this article can be found at     

INTER AND INTRA FIRM DIFFUSION OF ICT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK) AND SWITZERLAND (CH) AN INTERNATIONALLY COMPARATIVE STUDY BASED ON FIRM-LEVEL DATA

This paper examines the effect of participation in government-sponsored R&;D consortia on the R&;D productivity of firms in the case of robot technology in Japan. We attempt to provide a new empirical analysis and discussions on the issue of government project evaluation by investigating the impact of the evolution of government programs, and to compare government-sponsored R&;D consortia with collaborative R&;D among firms. Using indicators of the quality of patents, which enables us to provide an estimation of quality-adjusted research productivity, we find that participation in government programs has a positive impact on the research productivity of participating firms. Moreover, the impact of participation became much higher after the design of government programs in this field changed in the late 1990s. Also, we find that participation in government-sponsored consortia has a greater impact on research productivity than participation in collaborative R&;D among firms. This may support government involvement in R&;D as a coordinator of R&;D collaboration.