Browse by Series/Collection

The paper presents a model of housing and credit cycles featuring distorted beliefs and comovement and mutual reinforcement between house price expectations and price developments via credit expansion/contraction. Positive (negative) development in house prices fuels optimism (pessimism) and credit ...
[ more ]

The paper presents a model of housing and credit cycles featuring distorted beliefs and comovement and mutual reinforcement between house price expectations and price developments via credit expansion/contraction. Positive (negative) development in house prices fuels optimism (pessimism) and credit expansion (contraction), which in turn boost (dampen) housing demand and house prices and reinforce agents' optimism (pessimism). Bayesian learning about house prices can endogenously generate self-reinforcing booms and busts in house prices and significantly strengthen the role of collateral constraints in aggregate fluctuations. The model can quantitatively account for the 2001-2008 U.S. boom-bust cycle in house prices and associated household debt and consumption dynamics. It also demonstrates that allowing for imperfect knowledge of agents, a higher leveraged economy is more prone to self-reinforcing fluctuations.

This paper studies the interaction of agents' collateral price beliefs, credit constraint and aggregate economic activity over the business cycle. Learning strengthens the role of collateral constraints in aggregate fluctuations. Under heterogeneous learning rules, numerical simulations illustrate t...
[ more ]

This paper studies the interaction of agents' collateral price beliefs, credit constraint and aggregate economic activity over the business cycle. Learning strengthens the role of collateral constraints in aggregate fluctuations. Under heterogeneous learning rules, numerical simulations illustrate that bankruptcy on the part of borrowers arises sooner as they track the economy faster.

Global value chain (GVC) analysis (e.g. Gereffi, 1994) has been developed to understand the potential for developing countries and companies to upgrade production processes and capture value. Theoretically pluralist, it provides a methodological framework for posing research questions about the nat...
[ more ]

Global value chain (GVC) analysis (e.g. Gereffi, 1994) has been developed to understand the potential for developing countries and companies to upgrade production processes and capture value. Theoretically pluralist, it provides a methodological framework for posing research questions about the nature of globalisation. For Industrial Relations scholars it raises questions about the role of lead companies in setting standards amongst suppliers in the value chain, the influence of private labour codes and standards, Corporate Social Responsibility policies, forms of supranational regulation, and the role of civic society organisations in pressing for labour standards. New research questions are raised which require looking beyond the traditional components of the Industrial Relations system - the state, employers and unions - requiring inter-disciplinary engagement with debates in Development Studies and Economic Geography, and with researchers from the 'global South'.

Could brands associated with mostly negative information-those with poor reputations-be perceived as superior to unrecognized brands? A reasonable consumer should value reputation; however, it is also sensible to put a heavyweight on brand recognition. To investigate this question, the authors stu...
[ more ]

Could brands associated with mostly negative information-those with poor reputations-be perceived as superior to unrecognized brands? A reasonable consumer should value reputation; however, it is also sensible to put a heavyweight on brand recognition. To investigate this question, the authors study consumers' inferences about brand quality for products in three domains. Results suggest that brands associated with predominantly negative information are indeed perceived as of higher quality than unrecognised brands. In addition, when consumer inferences are predicted based on different memory cues, the frequency of encountering a brand dominates what people profess to know about it. The authors explore the ecological rationality of this strategy by studying the environmental relationship between expert-judged quality and consumer knowledge.

Antidumping (AD) is the most widely used contingent protection measure. In the United States, key decisions on AD are delegated to the International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency composed of six non-elected commissioners. Using a newly collected dataset, I study the determinants of a...
[ more ]

Antidumping (AD) is the most widely used contingent protection measure. In the United States, key decisions on AD are delegated to the International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency composed of six non-elected commissioners. Using a newly collected dataset, I study the determinants of all final ITC votes on AD during the 1980-2010 period. Contrary to the view that ITC commissioners are bureaucrats who simply follow technical rules, I find that their decisions crucially depend on which party has appointed them (the selection effect) and on the trade policy interests of key senators in that party (the pressure effect): whether (Democratic) Republican-appointed commissioners vote in favor of AD depends crucially on whether the petitioning industry is key (in terms of employment) in the states represented by leading (Democratic) Republican senators. JEL: D72, F10, F13, F14, P16

This paper proposes a novel approach, based on probit framework, towards measuring business cycle synchronization for 9 eurozone economies. We find strong cross-country synchronization in both business cycles and financial cycles. Moreover, financial synchronization dominates business cycle synchron...
[ more ]

This paper proposes a novel approach, based on probit framework, towards measuring business cycle synchronization for 9 eurozone economies. We find strong cross-country synchronization in both business cycles and financial cycles. Moreover, financial synchronization dominates business cycle synchronization in the eurozone, especially after the introduction of the single currency. For some peripheral country pairs, we even find some evidence of "de-coupling" business cycles relative to the core countries but the majority of marginal business cycle effects do not change much over time. The former observation supports the often heard plea for more Europe-wide macro-prudential regulation whereas the latter observation gives ammunition to those economists that always stressed that the euro zone architecture is unfinished business and that the conditions for an optimum currency area are not fulfilled. JEL Classification: C25, E32, F44

‘Choice’ is increasingly pursued as a goal of social policy. However the degree to which choice is exercised when entering an informal care role is open to debate. In this study of UK carers, we examined whether caring was perceived as a free choice, and what the consequence of choice was for carers...
[ more ]

‘Choice’ is increasingly pursued as a goal of social policy. However the degree to which choice is exercised when entering an informal care role is open to debate. In this study of UK carers, we examined whether caring was perceived as a free choice, and what the consequence of choice was for carers’ wellbeing. Our data were derived from responses to a postal survey conducted in a large British city. One thousand one hundred respondents reported providing care to a close person and of these, 72% answered a further set of questions about caregiving and about their own well-being. We found that informal care was generally perceived to be a free choice, albeit in most cases, a choice that was constrained by duty, financial or social resources. Having a sense of free choice in entering care was strongly and positively associated with wellbeing. The positive impact on wellbeing persisted across different measures of wellbeing and when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and the nature of the caring role. Further work is needed to better understand the modifiable aspects of choice for carers. Nonetheless, this study suggests that enabling individuals to have more choice in their caring roles may improve their lives.

Using high-quality administrative microdata spanning 2011-2013, this paper develops new routines to compare creative economies using the creative trident framework, and applies them to the UK and US national and regional contexts. We find the UK creative economy is larger in workforce shares, and gr...
[ more ]

Using high-quality administrative microdata spanning 2011-2013, this paper develops new routines to compare creative economies using the creative trident framework, and applies them to the UK and US national and regional contexts. We find the UK creative economy is larger in workforce shares, and grows faster over the study period; the US’ is absolutely larger, and is distributed more evenly across industries. Regional results are shaped by deeper differences in national urban systems. The paper highlights possibilities for widely varying national configurations of creative economies, considers potential mechanisms driving differentiation, and reflects on the usefulness of the creative trident approach. Keywords creative industries, creative trident, cities, labour markets, occupations, cross-country analysis

There has been limited attention to the internationalization of SMEs as a decision, and how the application of contrasting decision modes is associated with different information use and patterns of network attachment. This paper offers a new and systematic analysis of the likely associations betwee...
[ more ]

There has been limited attention to the internationalization of SMEs as a decision, and how the application of contrasting decision modes is associated with different information use and patterns of network attachment. This paper offers a new and systematic analysis of the likely associations between decision modes, information use, and network attachment among internationalizing SMEs. The analysis is applied to three categories of SME, identified in terms of their knowledge domain. By focusing on the relation between a relatively neglected subject – decision modes – and other issues that have been more centre-field, the paper contributes to an analytic synthesis in the field of SME research.

The object of this paper is to reconceptualise cultural intermediaries and cultural intermediation in a way that may not only allow a coherent understanding of the various functions associated with these actors, but may also enable systematic empirical analyses of their effects on other cultural, so...
[ more ]

The object of this paper is to reconceptualise cultural intermediaries and cultural intermediation in a way that may not only allow a coherent understanding of the various functions associated with these actors, but may also enable systematic empirical analyses of their effects on other cultural, social and economic phenomena. This paper employs a value chain approach to develop a typology of cultural intermediation that may enable a more systematic analysis of cultural intermediaries and cultural intermediation. It presents maps of cultural intermediation in England as well as the three major cities: London, Birmingham and Manchester.

This paper investigates whether investors are compensated for taking on commonality risk in equity portfolios. A large literature documents the existence and the causes of commonality in illiquidity, but the implications for investors are less well understood. In a more than fifty year long sample o...
[ more ]

This paper investigates whether investors are compensated for taking on commonality risk in equity portfolios. A large literature documents the existence and the causes of commonality in illiquidity, but the implications for investors are less well understood. In a more than fifty year long sample of NYSE stocks, we find that commonality risk carries a return premium of around 2.6 per cent annually. The commonality risk premium is statistically and economically significant, and substantially higher than what is found in previous studies. It is robust when controlling for illiquidity level effects, different investment horizons, as well as variations in illiquidity measurement and systematic illiquidity estimation.

This paper investigates whether altruistic punishment when cooperation norms are violated is sensitive to gender effects. Our framework is a one-shot social dilemma game with third-party punishment in which subjects are informed of the others’ gender within their group. This allows us to test whethe...
[ more ]

This paper investigates whether altruistic punishment when cooperation norms are violated is sensitive to gender effects. Our framework is a one-shot social dilemma game with third-party punishment in which subjects are informed of the others’ gender within their group. This allows us to test whether third-party punishment depends on the punisher’s as well as on the contributors’ gender. We include treatments where the contributors have either the same or different gender from that of the third-party punishers. Our findings indicate that the assignment of altruistic punishment is gender sensitive. While third-party punishment is assigned similarly when contributors have the same gender as third-party punishers, this is not the case when the gender of the contributors and third-party punishers is different. Third-party male punishers sanction significantly harsher female contributors and earn significantly less relative to third-party female punishers when matched with male contributors. Overall, our results have important implications for the design of teams in the presence of free-riding incentives.

This study explores the impact of information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers on loan syndicate structure. Using a sample of 17,839 loans raised by 8,701 US firms between January 1986 and August 2007, we confirm existing evidence that lead arrangers form concentrated syndicates when borrower...
[ more ]

This study explores the impact of information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers on loan syndicate structure. Using a sample of 17,839 loans raised by 8,701 US firms between January 1986 and August 2007, we confirm existing evidence that lead arrangers form concentrated syndicates when borrowers require intense monitoring and due diligence. We provide new evidence regarding the roles of borrower reputation, lead arranger reputation and the bank-borrower relationship. First, lead arranger reputation can reduce information asymmetry but only for the most reputable lead arrangers. Second, borrower reputation, measured by the borrower’s past access of the loan market, reduces the problem of information asymmetry, with higher reductions for more recent and more regular borrowers. Third, our results regarding the past relationship between the borrower and the lead arranger support the moral hazard aspect of information asymmetry for all borrowers. We also find evidence for the adverse selection aspect of information asymmetry but only for opaque borrowers. The effect can, however, be overcome by the most reputable lead arrangers, as their behavior is strongly influenced by a fear of loss of reputation

Abstract We take a fresh look at firms’ innovation-productivity linkages, using novel data capturing new aspects of innovative activity. We combine UK administrative microdata, media and website content to develop experimental metrics – new product/service launches – for a large panel of SMEs. ...
[ more ]

Abstract We take a fresh look at firms’ innovation-productivity linkages, using novel data capturing new aspects of innovative activity. We combine UK administrative microdata, media and website content to develop experimental metrics – new product/service launches – for a large panel of SMEs. Extensive validation and descriptive exercises show that launches complement patents, trademarks and innovation surveys. We also establish connections between launches and previous innovative activity. We then link IP, launches and productivity, controlling for media exposure and firm heterogeneity. Launch activity is associated with higher SME productivity, especially in the service sector. High-quality launches and medium-size firms help drive this result. Keywords: innovation, productivity, ICT, data science JEL: C55, L86, O81

This paper examines the role of political alignment and the electoral business cycle on municipality revenues in Greece for the period 2003-2010. A panel dataset combining local and national elections with local budgets is used to run a fixed-effects econometric model. The findings suggest that muni...
[ more ]

This paper examines the role of political alignment and the electoral business cycle on municipality revenues in Greece for the period 2003-2010. A panel dataset combining local and national elections with local budgets is used to run a fixed-effects econometric model. The findings suggest that municipalities which are politically aligned to the national government receive more funds in the run-up to elections. This is evidence of electoral considerations in the allocation of resources and calls for policy changes promoting greater fiscal decentralisation to reduce pork-barrelling and rent-seeking, as well as the dependency between the local and national government levels.

Observed macroeconomic forecasts display gradual recognition of the long-run growth of endogenous variables (e.g. output, output per hour) and a positive correlation between long-run growth expectations and cyclical activities. Existing business cycle models appear inconsistent with the evidence. Th...
[ more ]

Observed macroeconomic forecasts display gradual recognition of the long-run growth of endogenous variables (e.g. output, output per hour) and a positive correlation between long-run growth expectations and cyclical activities. Existing business cycle models appear inconsistent with the evidence. This paper presents a model of business cycle in which households have imperfect knowledge of the long-run growth of endogenous variables and continually learn about this growth. The model features comovement and mutual influence of households' growth expectations and market outcomes, which can replicate the evidence, and suggests a critical role for shifting long-run growth expectations in business cycle fluctuations. JEL classifications: E32, D84

We analyze the consequences of a monopolistic, non-partisan, profit-maximizing media on policy divergence. The media undertakes costly coverage that may reveal the quality of an office-seeking political challenger only if quality-conscious voters pay an access fee. Voters are ideologically homogenou...
[ more ]

We analyze the consequences of a monopolistic, non-partisan, profit-maximizing media on policy divergence. The media undertakes costly coverage that may reveal the quality of an office-seeking political challenger only if quality-conscious voters pay an access fee. Voters are ideologically homogenous and the incumbent politican is a populist with known quality. We show that while media absence implies a populist challenger, media presence yields platform extremism: it creates demand for information about quality and provides incentives to the media to invest in coverage that are exploited by high-quality challengers to signal strength. JEL Classifiers: C72, D72, D82

Organizational neuroscience (ON) is a rapidly emerging sub-field. Criticisms of its reductionism are common. Yet it is possible for practitioners and critics to engage. Such engagement is facilitated by realism. It agrees with the practitioners of ON that brain functions can in principle be measured...
[ more ]

Organizational neuroscience (ON) is a rapidly emerging sub-field. Criticisms of its reductionism are common. Yet it is possible for practitioners and critics to engage. Such engagement is facilitated by realism. It agrees with the practitioners of ON that brain functions can in principle be measured and that causal influences can be identified. It agrees with the critics in stressing the centrality of context and the emergent nature of social processes. The claims and potentials of ON can best be grasped through realist principles.

We analyze the impact of prosecutor elections on case backlogs. Previous evidence has shown that re-election pressures result in more cases going to trial. Since trials require time and resources, one can expect an effect on the queue. Two competing theories are developed: one of signaling quality ...
[ more ]

We analyze the impact of prosecutor elections on case backlogs. Previous evidence has shown that re-election pressures result in more cases going to trial. Since trials require time and resources, one can expect an effect on the queue. Two competing theories are developed: one of signaling quality in an asymmetric information environment and one of effort exertion, each of which can explain increased trials before election, but differ in their predictions regarding the impact on backlogs. A district-level, panel data set of caseload flows in North Carolina is analyzed. Evidence is presented that contested re-elections are associated with a decrease in the number of cases handled and an acceleration of the growth of the backlog. This suggests that retention concerns lead to signaling which causes distortions, re-allocating resources from disposing cases to prosecuting cases at trial.

A multi-paradigm literature review methodology, ‘interplay’, is applied to alternative explanations of megaproject governance and performance. A two-fold categorisation of explanations, functionalist and interpretivist, is employed. The key insight is that despite important differences in epistemolo...
[ more ]

A multi-paradigm literature review methodology, ‘interplay’, is applied to alternative explanations of megaproject governance and performance. A two-fold categorisation of explanations, functionalist and interpretivist, is employed. The key insight is that despite important differences in epistemological orientation these two categories of explanation are essentially ‘performative’, which is expressed through a shared acceptance of the notion of actor farsightedness. This means that governance in megaprojects is primarily understood as static, convergent and patterned forms of organization (made order), while governance as discontinuous, divergent and fluctuating micro-processes of organizing is ignored. Having identified this explanatory gap, the article concludes with a call to refocus project governance research to include proper consideration of the multiple processes of organizing through which actors use, reproduce and transform governance as made order.

This paper studies the welfare properties of competitive equilibria in an economy with incomplete markets subject to idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. We focus on the role of securitization, whereby borrowers can reduce idiosyncratic asset risk, which enables increased leverage and investment. In ...
[ more ]

This paper studies the welfare properties of competitive equilibria in an economy with incomplete markets subject to idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. We focus on the role of securitization, whereby borrowers can reduce idiosyncratic asset risk, which enables increased leverage and investment. In the absence of frictions in the securitization process, we show that the ability to securitize assets completes markets. When there are frictions in the market for securitized assets, requiring originators to hold some skin-in-the-game, markets remain incomplete and risk-sharing is limited. In this case, fire-sales are required to repay debt and finance new investments when the economy is hit by a negative shock. Moreover, the equilibrium may be constrained inefficient due to the existence of a pecuniary externality that can result in over or under-investment. We examine policies to correct over-investment and find that a leverage ratio restriction generates a Pareto improvement, while forcing originators to hold additional skin-in-the-game reduces welfare. Both policies reduce leverage and raise prices in a fire-sale, however tightening skin-in-the-game also directly reduces the resources available to those who most need them, which dominates the positive effect of higher prices.

We show that the Value Function Iteration (VFI) algorithm has difficulties approximating models with jump discontinuities in policy functions. We find that VFI fails to accurately identify both the location and size of jump discontinuities while the Endogenous Grid Method (EGM) and the Finite Elemen...
[ more ]

We show that the Value Function Iteration (VFI) algorithm has difficulties approximating models with jump discontinuities in policy functions. We find that VFI fails to accurately identify both the location and size of jump discontinuities while the Endogenous Grid Method (EGM) and the Finite Element Method (FEM) are much better at approximating this class of models. We further show that combining value function iteration with a local interpolation step (VFI-INT) is sufficient to obtain accurate approximations. Differences between policy functions generated by VFI and these alternative methods are economically significant. We highlight that these differences across methods cannot be identified using Euler equation errors as these are not a sufficient measure of accuracy for models with jump discontinuities in policy functions. As a result, speed comparisons across methods that rely on Euler equation errors as a measure for accuracy can be misleading. The combination of computational speed, relatively easy implementation and adaptability make VFI-INT especially suitable for approximating models with jump discontinuities in policy functions.

A competing risk hazard model is employed to examine the reasons for Hong Kong's Growth Enterprise (GEM) companies transferring to the Main Board (MB) in the period 2000-2012. In our sample during the period 21 companies or 15% of the original stock moved up to the MB. The modal life expectancy of...
[ more ]

A competing risk hazard model is employed to examine the reasons for Hong Kong's Growth Enterprise (GEM) companies transferring to the Main Board (MB) in the period 2000-2012. In our sample during the period 21 companies or 15% of the original stock moved up to the MB. The modal life expectancy of a GEM company was about eight years. Companies that did not move up to the MB were at a small risk of delisting due to long term suspension or liquidation, but the great majority just remained where they were. Regarding the factors behind transfer to the MB, of the 129 companies listed on the GEM in the period, we find that companies with higher net profit and greater product market power were more likely to graduate in the following year. However, companies with lower growth, higher financial risk and those audited

The present work identifies the relationship between sharing photographs with different depictions in Facebook on relationship quality, which varies depending on the type of target sharing the photographs. With over 1 billion active users, disclosure on Facebook is frequent, considered a norm of onl...
[ more ]

The present work identifies the relationship between sharing photographs with different depictions in Facebook on relationship quality, which varies depending on the type of target sharing the photographs. With over 1 billion active users, disclosure on Facebook is frequent, considered a norm of online interaction, and actively encouraged by site providers. The extant academic literature identifies Facebook as an effective tool to connect with known and unknown others, and identifies the differences in sharing behaviour when users are aware of their audience. Operating within a lowest common denominator approach to disclosure on Facebook, the present work identifies the potential consequences to personal relationships when sharing day-to-day information. Results found from a sample of 508 Facebook users suggests individuals should actively adjust their privacy settings to ensure that even amongst flattened information – i.e. that deemed appropriate for release to all target types – disclosure does not harm current and potential relationships. Implications for, users, academic theory and disclosure practice are discussed.

This paper performs a mixed-methods analysis of place-branding strategies developed in the ‘Tech City’ cluster initiative in Inner East London, drawing on ethnographic material, semi-structured interviews and visual content. Using Jessop’s concept of the spatial imaginary, we explore key foundation...
[ more ]

This paper performs a mixed-methods analysis of place-branding strategies developed in the ‘Tech City’ cluster initiative in Inner East London, drawing on ethnographic material, semi-structured interviews and visual content. Using Jessop’s concept of the spatial imaginary, we explore key foundational geographies, trace the emergence of the ‘Silicon Roundabout’ and Tech City concepts between 2008 and 2014, then discuss Tech City’s governance and progress, highlighting both day-to-day challenges and more basic tensions. We contrast this experience with that of ‘Here East’, a new regeneration space across the city in the Olympic Park.

This paper argues that it is crucial to take account of both home and host country contexts in order adequately to understand their implications for Chinese enterprises investing into foreign countries. This calls for an analysis that is sensitive to both home and host country contexts, and that tak...
[ more ]

This paper argues that it is crucial to take account of both home and host country contexts in order adequately to understand their implications for Chinese enterprises investing into foreign countries. This calls for an analysis that is sensitive to both home and host country contexts, and that takes into account how the institutions and political systems in those contexts establish institutional and resource capital needs for the overseas-investing firm. We discuss and illustrate three different conjunctions of Chinese and host country characteristics, and the firm-level learning and adaptation required in the light of the relevant capitals likely to be available to Chinese firms. The analysis draws upon insights from resource-based, institutional and political perspectives. While it is developed with specific reference to China, we also suggest that this form of analysis can be applied more generally to the implementation of outward foreign direct investment from any country.

The paper reviews the progress of the sociology of work in Britain since 1945. It identifies two long-standing influences, Marxism and Weberian analysis, and a third more recent approach shaped by post-modernism. It disputes claims associated with the last, that the field suffers from fragmentation ...
[ more ]

The paper reviews the progress of the sociology of work in Britain since 1945. It identifies two long-standing influences, Marxism and Weberian analysis, and a third more recent approach shaped by post-modernism. It disputes claims associated with the last, that the field suffers from fragmentation and lack of integration in mainstream sociology. It demonstrates, by contrast, a continuing ability to address the changing nature of work, reflected in constructive debate between the first two approaches. The definition of the field has also broadened considerably. Future challenges include the analysis of developments at the top of the class structure, that is a sociology of managers and of capital, and those at the bottom, notably the effects of migration on work and employment.

This paper examines the transfer, replication and adaption of knowledge, assets and capabilities in MG Rover from the British workforce to the new Chinese owners and employees at Nanjing Automotive Corporation (NAC). The study explores the intra-organisational processes adopted to integrate knowledg...
[ more ]

This paper examines the transfer, replication and adaption of knowledge, assets and capabilities in MG Rover from the British workforce to the new Chinese owners and employees at Nanjing Automotive Corporation (NAC). The study explores the intra-organisational processes adopted to integrate knowledge, innovation-related routines and networks. We identify distinctive mechanisms for both ‘discrete’ transfers and ‘cumulative’ flows of knowledge and capabilities, with different kinds of impact on the innovative capacity of the recipient firm. With the more recent take-over of NAC by SAIC the MG-NAC restructuring is examined as part of the broader evolution of a large, innovative and multinational Chinese car firm. The study also provides insights into the changing complementarities between Western and Chinese manufacturers and lessons for managers regarding effective alignment with evolving competitors

Since the 1980s, financial crises have tended to reoccur with increasing frequency and growing intensity. They are endogenously generated by the established OTD (Originate-To-Distribute) model within the new finance-growth paradigm. Good finance fosters the correct allocation of financial resources,...
[ more ]

Since the 1980s, financial crises have tended to reoccur with increasing frequency and growing intensity. They are endogenously generated by the established OTD (Originate-To-Distribute) model within the new finance-growth paradigm. Good finance fosters the correct allocation of financial resources, the fair redistribution of wealth and positive economic growth (the virtuous cycle), whereas bad finance captures part of the created wealth and, thanks to a highly technologically advanced financial system with the ability to create money ex nihilo, over time it drags the economy down to recession or negative growth, destroying wealth and consequentially social welfare (the unvirtuous cycle). Therefore, structural factors are at the foundation of the persistence of instability and thus of what we define as the unvirtuous cycle, which can generate what we label the wealth trap. A VUC index has been developed by us to capture the status quo of the finance-growth relationship. A cross country analysis for the US, UK and Euro area economies has been made in order to verify the validity of the index. A core variable is identified: the degree of financial innovation. This is an endogenous variable within the endogenous money/credit creation process; its identification is of crucial importance, as it is the key to full understanding of the finance-growth relationship and is the element of originality in this field of studies. The VUC index for all countries shows clearly the exponential effect of the degree of financial innovation over time. It is important for scholars and policymakers to understand the mechanism underpinning the finance-growth relationship and that it is their responsibility to return the economic system to what we will call the virtuous cycle.

Although there are many stock market anomalies which the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) finds difficult to explain, it also has its strengths, and so far no alternative hypothesis has been developed which can explain what the EMH explains but which can also do a better job in explaining the pheno...
[ more ]

Although there are many stock market anomalies which the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) finds difficult to explain, it also has its strengths, and so far no alternative hypothesis has been developed which can explain what the EMH explains but which can also do a better job in explaining the phenomena with which it struggles. It is argued that the way forward is to postulate that the stock market can be in one of three states: a fundamental state, in which share prices are determined as in the EMH, a bubble or bull market state, in which share prices are above their fundamental levels but continue to rise because asset holders expect to sell the shares at even higher prices in the future, and a bear market state, in which shares are held exclusively by 'irrational' agents and rational agents cannot exploit the overvaluation because of short-selling constraints. It is also argued that heterogeneous rational expectations may help explain some features of stock market behaviour.

Innovative, high-technology activities are seen as motors of development, with knock-on effects throughout their local economies. Such activities tend to organise networks that span beyond atomized firms, creating ‘ecosystems’ of mutual dependence as well as competition. However, such ecosystems rem...
[ more ]

Innovative, high-technology activities are seen as motors of development, with knock-on effects throughout their local economies. Such activities tend to organise networks that span beyond atomized firms, creating ‘ecosystems’ of mutual dependence as well as competition. However, such ecosystems remain poorly understood, which in turn constrains the effectiveness of any policy response. This first-steps paper uses the unique, user-generated Crunchbase dataset to fill some of these gaps. With rich information on founders, workers, products and early stage investment activity, Crunchbase has great potential for ecosystem understanding. Like many ‘big data’ resources, however, Crunchbase requires cleaning and validation to make it suitable for robust analysis. We develop a novel approach to gapfill location data in Crunchbase, exploiting DNS/IP address information, and run a series of tests on a raw sample of 225,000 company-level observations covering the US, UK and Canada. We provide initial descriptive results, and set out steps for further research.

We analyse the motives and market valuation of various forms of stock market delisting. We show that firms that delist voluntarily are likely to have come to the market to rebalance their leverage rather than to finance their growth opportunities. During their public life, their leverage remained ve...
[ more ]

We analyse the motives and market valuation of various forms of stock market delisting. We show that firms that delist voluntarily are likely to have come to the market to rebalance their leverage rather than to finance their growth opportunities. During their public life, their leverage remained very high, they could not raise equity capital, and their profitability, growth opportunities, and trading volume declined substantially. Their stock prices decrease significantly on and before the announcement date. These results hold even after controlling for agency, asymmetric information, and liquidity effects, and suggest that firms delist voluntarily when they fail to benefit from listing.

Huw Beynon’s Working for Ford achieved celebrity when published in 1973. An assessment 40 years later identifies the lasting value of the book. Though written from a clearly stated point of view, it did not present a biased account, and it included much information permitting alternative assessments...
[ more ]

Huw Beynon’s Working for Ford achieved celebrity when published in 1973. An assessment 40 years later identifies the lasting value of the book. Though written from a clearly stated point of view, it did not present a biased account, and it included much information permitting alternative assessments. It is also possible to construct an explanation of why the situation was as it was; this explanation turns on the technology of car plants, distinctive strategies adopted by Ford management, and the active role of workers. Though the particular events analysed in the book were of their time, the book is of more than historical interest. Its lasting value is four-fold: it explains how and why workers engage in immediate battles for control of the workplace; it indicates that workers do not choose such battles willingly and are often aware of wider concerns while lacking the means to pursue them; it points to substantial areas of continuity with the contemporary organization of labour and struggles for workers’ dignity; and it permits reflection on the possibilities of organized alternatives to current forms of work organization.

This report constitutes a scoping literature review that identifies and critically examines the evidence base surrounding health and wellbeing programmes conducted in the workplace and their impact on employees and their employing organisations. The review drew on a broad range of sources covering m...
[ more ]

This report constitutes a scoping literature review that identifies and critically examines the evidence base surrounding health and wellbeing programmes conducted in the workplace and their impact on employees and their employing organisations. The review drew on a broad range of sources covering multiple sectors. However, the report additionally highlights evidence that relates specifically to the retail and construction industries. The review offers an analysis of the current evidence base and discusses the implications of implementing different types of workplace health and wellbeing schemes. Some recommendations for supporting and promoting the health and wellbeing of employees in organisations are made on the basis of this review and, where gaps in knowledge are identified, recommendations for further research are made.