Remittances for Financial Access: Lessons from Latin American Microfinance

The potential of migrant remittances to foster access to financial services for low‐income households has been largely unexplored. Comparing three Latin American countries – the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Mexico – this inter‐disciplinary study links research on remittances and microfinance with multi‐actor governance approaches. While the context of high remittance‐dependence provides similar challenges in all cases, it finds remarkable variety both in the structure of the remittances market and the actors involved in microfinance and in the role governments play. It explains the diverging success of MFIs in remittance markets by pointing to the interplay of for‐profit, non‐profit and state actors embedded within the specific market structures of each country.     

Why are some more peer than others? Evidence from a longitudinal study of social networks and individual academic performance

Studies of peer effects in educational settings confront two main problems. The first is the presence of endogenous sorting which confounds the effects of social influence and social selection on individual attainment. The second is how to account for the local network dependencies through which peer effects influence individual behavior. We empirically address these problems using longitudinal data on academic performance, friendship, and advice seeking relations among students in a full-time graduate academic program. We specify stochastic agent-based models that permit estimation of the interdependent contribution of social selection and social influence to individual performance. We report evidence of peer effects. Students tend to assimilate the average performance of their friends and of their advisors. At the same time, students attaining similar levels of academic performance are more likely to develop friendship and advice ties. Together, these results imply that processes of social influence and social selection are sub-components of a more general a co-evolutionary process linking network structure and individual behavior. We discuss possible points of contact between our findings and current research in the economics and sociology of education.     

Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under ‘lockdown’ restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic.     

Generalized choice models for categorical time series

The NDARMA models of Jacobs and Lewis (1983) allow the modeling of categorical processes with an ARMA-like serial dependence structure. These models can be represented through a backshift mechanism, and we analyze marginal and bivariate properties of the resulting backshift process. Motivated by this backshift mechanism, we define the new class of generalized choice (GC) models, which include the usual NDARMA models as a special case, and we derive results describing the marginal and bivariate distribution of the GC model. We discuss implications concerning DMA(∞) models and the serial dependence structure of NDARMA models. Examples show that the family of GC models allows creating sparsely parametrized models for categorical processes with different types of serial dependence structure.     

Hedging and accounting-based RPE contracts for powerful CEOs

Several firms prohibit their CEOs from trading in the stock of peer firms. This is puzzling since hedging by the CEO through private trading in the capital market can reduce the CEO’s exposure to systematic compensation risk. When the CEO’s incentive contract comprises relative performance evaluation, we find that the firm might want to disallow private hedging even though there are no technological interdependencies or strategic interactions to peer firms. In the analysis, we highlight two frequently observed characteristics of incentive contracts. First, the use of accounting benchmarks is widespread in compensation contracts for CEOs. Second, empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that powerful CEOs have influence on the process of designing their own compensation. We find that in the presence of a powerful CEO, the firm can benefit from disallowing private hedging. In particular, the firm’s decision to allow or to disallow private hedging depends on the characteristics of the accounting benchmarks and the characteristics of the peer firms.     

Process matters—The relevance of the decision making process for divestiture outcomes

We apply strategic decision making and organizational change theory to corporate divestitures and argue that key characteristics of the divestiture decision making process can contribute to explaining the variation in divestiture outcomes. We test our hypotheses in an empirical multi-source quantitative study and find evidence that analytical comprehensiveness in the evaluation of divestiture effects on the corporate portfolio has a positive impact on the effectiveness of divestiture choices, but analytical comprehensiveness at the focal business unit (BU) level does not enhance decision effectiveness. Our results further indicate that involvement of the affected BU management has a varying impact during the decision making process, with negative effects during the early phase and positive effects in the later phase.     

Adoption and Outcomes of ISO 14001: A Systematic Review

The objective of this paper is to analyze the adoption and outcomes of the ISO 14001 standard through a systematic review of the main studies on this issue published in peer‐reviewed journals between 1996 and 2015. The 94 papers analyzed make it possible to paint a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of ISO 14001 in environmental management practices, performance in this area and social aspects such as employee awareness. The systematic review also sheds more light on the main pitfalls and success factors of the standard. Nevertheless, the similarities and even redundancies of the literature in terms of objectives, approaches and methods used tend to produce quite predictable and optimistic results, which do not reflect the complexity of the impact of ISO 14001. The paper highlights the importance of more diverse and critical approaches that might challenge the successful rhetoric of the dominant literature, which tends to focus on positive aspects and be limited to a few countries that are not representative of the wide international distribution of certification. The findings of this systematic review can also help managers in making decisions on the adoption and renewal of certification.     

Employer Branding: A Brand Equity‐based Literature Review and Research Agenda

Over the past two decades, scholarly interest in employer branding has strongly increased. Simultaneously, however, employer branding research has developed into a fragmented field with heterogeneous interpretations of the employer branding concept and its scope, which has impeded further theoretical and empirical advancement. To strengthen the foundation for future work, this paper takes a brand equity perspective to review the extant literature and create an integrative model of employer branding. Using an analytical approach, the authors identify 187 articles, which they integrate along different employer brand dimensions and branding strategies: (i) conceptual; (ii) employer knowledge dimensions; (iii) employer branding activities and strategies. On the basis of this review, the authors develop an employer branding value chain model and derive future research avenues as well as practical implications.     

Spiritual needs of mothers with sick new born or premature infants—A cross sectional survey among German mothers

Background

Spirituality is part of the basic needs of all humans, yet often undervalued by health professionals. Less is known about the spiritual needs of mothers of preterm or sick new born children.