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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Kurtulus, Fidan Ana (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald (North Carolina State University) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study is to examine whether women in the highest levels of firms' management ranks help reduce barriers to women's advancement in the workplace. Using a panel of over 20,000 private-sector firms across all industries and states during 1990-2003 from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, we explore the influence of women in top management on subsequent female representation in lower-level managerial positions in U.S. firms. Our key findings show that an increase in the share of female top managers is associated with subsequent increases in the share of women in mid-level management positions within firms, and this result is robust to controlling for firm size, workforce composition, federal contractor status, firm fixed effects, year fixed effects and industry-specific trends. Moreover, although the influence of women in top management positions is strongest among white women, black, Hispanic and Asian women in top management also have a positive influence on subsequent increases in black, Hispanic and Asian women in mid-level management, respectively. Furthermore, the influence of women in top management positions is stronger among federal contractors, and in firms with larger female labor forces. We also find that the positive influence of women in top leadership positions on managerial gender diversity diminishes over time, suggesting that women at the top play a positive but transitory role in women's career advancement. |
| Keywords: | women managers, gender diversity, race diversity, discrimination, mentoring, promotions, hiring, retention |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J24 J44 J62 J71 J78 J82 M51 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6444&r=hme |
| By: | Francine D. Blau; Peter Brummund; Albert Yung-Hsu Liu |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we develop a gender-specific crosswalk based on dual-coded Current Population Survey data to bridge the change in the Census occupational coding system that occurred in 2000 and use it to provide the first analysis of the trends in occupational segregation by sex for the 1970-2009 period based on a consistent set of occupational codes and data sources. We show that our gender-specific crosswalk more accurately captures the trends in occupational segregation that are masked using the aggregate crosswalk (based on combined male and female employment) provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Using the 2000 occupational codes, we find that segregation by sex declined over the period but at a diminished pace over the decades, falling by 6.1 percentage points over the 1970s, 4.3 percentage points over the 1980s, 2.1 percentage points over the 1990s, and only 1.1 percentage points (on a decadal basis) over the 2000s. A primary mechanism by which occupational segregation was reduced over the 1970-2009 period was through the entry of new cohorts of women, presumably better prepared than their predecessors and/or encountering less labor market discrimination; during the 1970s and 1980s, however, there were also decreases in occupational segregation within cohorts. Reductions in segregation were correlated with education, with the largest decrease among college graduates and very little change in segregation among high school dropouts. |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J62 J71 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17993&r=hme |
| By: | Marco Alderighi (Università della Valle d'Aosta and Università Bocconi); Marcella Nicolini (Università di Pavia and FEEM, Milan); Claudio A. Piga (Loughborough University and Rimini Centre Economic Analysis) |
| Abstract: | Based on two strands of theoretical research, this paper provides new evidence on how fares are jointly affected by in-flight seat availability and purchasing date. As capacity-driven theories predict, it emerges that fares monotonically and substantially increase with the flights occupancy rate. Moreover, as suggested in the literature on intertemporal price discrimination, the adoption of advance purchase discounts is widespread as the departure date nears, but it may be part of a U-shaped temporal profile, where discounts are preceded by periods of relatively higher fares. Finally, the intervention of yield management analysts appears to play a substantial role. |
| Keywords: | Pricing policy, Panel Data, Ryanair, Yield Management |
| JEL: | D22 L11 L93 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2012.14&r=hme |
| By: | Eike Berner; Laura Birg |
| Abstract: | This paper uses German household data on apparel purchases to show that, con- ditional on income, households di¤er with respect to their shopping outlets and the prices they pay. We estimate that high-price retailers are not a¤ected by changes in import prices. By contrast, the pass-through for low-price retailers is 53% within 3 months. Consequently, pass-through rates for low-income households are 58%, signi…cantly larger than those for high-income households. We then present one explanation for these observations in a theoretical model with vertical product differentiation due to bundling an otherwise homogeneous imported good with services. Following an import price shock, retailers who sell cheaper unbundled products change prices more than retailers who sell a higher-priced bundle of product and service. |
| Keywords: | Import prices, Pass-through, Retailers, Households |
| JEL: | D12 D31 F10 |
| Date: | 2012–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:133&r=hme |
| By: | Gautier, E.; Le Saout, R. |
| Abstract: | Using millions of individual gasoline prices collected at a daily frequency, we examine the speed at which market refined oil prices are transmitted to consumer liquid fuel prices. We find that on average gasoline prices are modified once a week and the distribution of price changes displays a M-shape as predicted by a menu-cost model. Using a reduced form state-dependent pricing model with time-varying random thresholds, we find that the degree of pass through of wholesale prices to retail gasoline prices is on average 0.77 for diesel and 0.67 for petrol. The duration for a shock to be fully transmitted into prices is about 10 days. There is no significant asymmetry in the transmission of wholesale price to retail prices. |
| Keywords: | price stickiness, menu costs, (S,s) models, gasoline price. |
| JEL: | E31 D43 L11 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:375&r=hme |
| By: | Antonella Stirati |
| Abstract: | The theory of employment is clearly a central question in economic thought. Economists of all traditions and schools have always admitted short run fluctuations in aggregate employment levels associated with the business cycle and explained them with a variety of factors. Yet the central question is, of course, fluctuations around which long run level of employment? Focussing mainly on long run aspects of employment theory, this paper aims at providing an overview of different theoretical approaches that have been prominent in various phases in the history of economics up to the present. It necessarily summarizes and, hence, simplifies approaches and debates, but may be useful in suggesting that textbook accounts of past authors (including Keynes) and approaches may be wrong, or at least very controversial. It may thus stimulate a renewed interest in past authors and suggest the possibility of a different angle in reading past and present controversies. |
| Keywords: | Employment theory; History of Economics, Say’s law; schools of thought in macroeconomics |
| JEL: | B00 E00 E24 J01 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0148&r=hme |
| By: | Ács, Zoltan J. (George Mason University, School of Public Policy); Naudé, Wim (UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, University of Maastricht) |
| Abstract: | Unlike in the past where industrial policy was either focused on creation and growth of state-owned firms or alternatively consisted merely of broadly functional policies without consideration for firm or entrepreneurial specifics, the requirement now is that future industrial policy ought to be a nuanced partnership between entrepreneurs and the state. In this paper we outline some considerations for such an industrial policy where the entrepreneur-state nexus is paramount. Moreover, we argue that such an industrial policy will need to take into consideration that the entrepreneur-state nexus is evolving, and that it depends on the stage of development of a particular country. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, industrialization, structural change, industrial policy, innovation, development |
| JEL: | O32 L52 L53 M13 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2012021&r=hme |
| By: | Chung, Yessica C.Y. |
| Abstract: | Using an enterprise-level dataset collected from 234 workshops located in the furniture cluster of the city of Arusha, Tanzania, this paper investigates the mechanisms of technical knowledge exchange that take place in clusters. A knowledge exchange link is defined as any two clustering entrepreneurs who perform similar manufacturing techniques in the production process. The results show that the strength of the ethnic networks of producers has positive effects on acquisition of manufacturing techniques, particularly in skills such as wood-joining, which are mainly influenced by a producer’s own skills rather than production facilities. Using dyadic data analysis, this paper further finds that two producers from the same ethnic minority are more likely to exhibit the same manufacturing techniques compared with two producers from the same ethnic majority. These findings suggest that ethnic networks facilitate knowledge exchange in an industrial cluster, but that this positive externality of the ethnic network effect only takes place in small-sized ethnic groups, and only to the extent that sophisticated facilities are not essential in the knowledge learning processes. |
| Keywords: | ethnic networks , knowledge learning , industrial cluster , Africa |
| Date: | 2012–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:37&r=hme |
| By: | Britta Stöver (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Kirsten S. Wiebe (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Dr. Ulrike Lehr (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research); Dr. Marc I. Wolter (GWS - Institute of Economic Structures Research) |
| Abstract: | Science-based policy analysis becomes increasingly important in the globalised world. Complex economic and social structures need to be thoroughly analysed and direct and indirect effects of policy measures should be identified and, if possible, quantified. Economic policy modelling has a long tradition (Almon, 1991) and economic models have over the past decades become more detailed regarding the economic structure and more extensive regarding the non-economic aspects represented in these models. There exist detailed structural economic models for most OECD countries. For newly emerging economies and developing countries only few such models exist. A global database and model environment is provided by the GTAP project, which is frequently used to develop computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. These models use a unique database, which often is not compatible to datasets of national statistic offices. Still, there are countries for which no such structural economic models exist. The macro-economic PRESIMO model for Morocco for example does not include the industry structure of the Moroccan economy. However, analyses at the industry level are important when analysing the development of for example labour markets or energy demand. The economic opportunities from international projects such as DESERTEC (Concentrating Solar Power in the Saharan Region) could be evaluated identifying sectors, which benefit the most. Using the example of Morocco this paper outlines the prerequisites for developing structural economic models and shows application possibilities of these models for simulating the effects of policy measures. |
| Keywords: | Input-Output modelling, policy analysis, application possibilities |
| JEL: | O21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gws:dpaper:12-3&r=hme |
| By: | Dietrich, Franz; List, Christian |
| Abstract: | Behaviourism is the view that preferences, beliefs, and other mental states in social-scienti c theories are auxiliary constructs re-describing people's behav- ioural dispositions. Mentalism is the view that they capture real phenomena, no less existent than the unobservable entities and properties in the natural sciences, such as electrons and electromagnetic elds. While behaviourism has long gone out of fashion in psychology and linguistics, it remains the dominant orthodoxy in economics, especially in the form of revealed preferencetheory. We aim to (i) clear up some common conceptual confusions about the two views in economics, (ii) situate the debate in a broader historical and philosophical context, and (iii) defend a mentalist approach to economics. Setting aside normative concerns about behaviourism, we show that mentalism is in line with best scienti c practice even if economics is treated as a purely positive science of human social behaviour. We distinguish mentalism from, and reject, the radical neuroeconomic view that social behaviour should be explained in terms of people's brain processes, as distinct from their mental states. |
| Keywords: | behaviourism; mentalism; realism; economic models; preferences; beliefs; rationalization; philosophy of science; neuroeconomics |
| JEL: | B0 C0 A11 D03 D0 N0 A12 D01 A14 B41 |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37813&r=hme |
| By: | Curtiss, Jarmila; Ratinger, Tomáš; Medonos, Tomáš |
| Abstract: | Cooperative and corporate farms have retained an important role for agricultural production in many transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Despite this importance, these farms' ownership structure, and particularly the ownership's effect on their investment activity, which is vital for efficient restructuring and the sector's future development, are still not well understood. This paper explores the ownership-investment relationship using data on Czech farms from 1997 to 2008. We allow for ownership-specific variability in farm investment behaviour analyzed by utilizing an errorcorrection accelerator model. Empirical results suggest significant differences in the level of investment activity, responsiveness to market signals, investment lumpiness, as well as investment sensitivity to financial variables among farms with different ownership characteristics. These differences imply that the internal structure of the Czech cooperative and corporate farms will be developing in the direction of a decreasing number of owners and an increasing ownership concentration. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eps:fmwppr:121&r=hme |
| By: | James McNerney; Brian D. Fath; Gerald Silverberg |
| Abstract: | We study the structure of inter-industry relationships using networks of money flows between industries in 20 national economies. We find these networks vary around a typical structure characterized by a Weibull link weight distribution, exponential industry size distribution, and a common community structure. The community structure is hierarchical, with the top level of the hierarchy comprising five industry communities: food industries, chemical industries, manufacturing industries, service industries, and extraction industries. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1204.4122&r=hme |
| By: | Laura Panza (School of Economics, La Trobe University) |
| Abstract: | The Ottoman Empire underwent a process of integration with the global economy during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This paper explores one aspect of this process, examining the linkages established between the cotton industries in Egypt and Western Anatolia, which we consider as part of the Empire, and the international cotton market during the first wave of globalisation. We undertake a quantitative exploration of the pattern of price transmission between the Ottoman and the international cotton markets over this period, connecting changes in the nature of spatial market integration to major economic and political developments. |
| Keywords: | Market integration, Globalisation, Ottoman Empire |
| JEL: | F15 N15 N75 O1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trb:wpaper:2012.01&r=hme |
| By: | Becker, Anke (University of Bonn); Deckers, Thomas (University of Bonn); Dohmen, Thomas (ROA, Maastricht University); Falk, Armin (University of Bonn); Kosse, Fabian (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Although both economists and psychologists seek to identify determinants of heterogeneity in behavior, they use different concepts to capture them. In this review we first analyze the extent to which economic preferences and psychological concepts of personality – such as the Big Five and locus of control – are related. We analyze data from incentivized laboratory experiments and representative samples and find only low degrees of association between economic preferences and personality. We then regress life outcomes – such as labor market success, health status and life satisfaction – simultaneously on preference and personality measures. The analysis reveals that the two concepts are rather complementary when it comes to explaining heterogeneity in important life outcomes and behavior. |
| Keywords: | risk preference, time preference, social preferences, locus of control, Big Five |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D80 D90 I00 J30 J62 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6470&r=hme |
| By: | Marcello M. Estevão; Irineu E. Carvalho Filho |
| Abstract: | Even though institutions are created to protect workers, they may interfere with labor market functioning, raise unemployment, and end up being circumvented by informal contracts. This paper uses Brazilian microeconomic data to show that the institutional changes introduced by the 1988 Constitution lowered the sensitivity of real wages to changes in labor market slack and could have contributed to the ensuing higher rates of unemployment in the country. Moreover, the paper shows that states that faced higher increases in informality (i.e., illegal work contracts) following the introduction of the new Constitution tended to have smaller drops in wage responsiveness to macroeconomic conditions, thus suggesting that informality serves as a escape valve to an over-regulated environment. |
| Keywords: | Brazil , Economic models , Labor markets , Unemployment , Wages , |
| Date: | 2012–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:12/84&r=hme |