Constructing the New Economy: A Discursive Perspective

The rise and fall of the 'New Economy' at the turn of the millennium, most visibly evidenced by the stellar rise and subsequent collapse of the Nasdaq composite index of technology stocks, represents one of the most significant business phenomena in recent times. This paper examines the 'New Economy' phenomenon as a culturally embedded discourse through an analysis of 133 print advertisements collected from the UK edition of the Financial Times between February and December 2000. It investigates the social construction of the concept 'New Economy' in a rapidly changing business environment. The contribution of the paper lies in the empirical study of discursive phenomena in late capitalist societies. From a discursive perspective, the 'New Economy' can be seen as a signifier that points to itself, whose form is its very content. The paper suggests the 'New Economy' must be understood in terms of its ability to accommodate multiple meanings, and it is this very ability which is profoundly ideological, in that it allows essentially socio-historical obsessions and anxieties (e.g. about novelty and change) to appear as seemingly 'natural' or logical behaviour.     

The illusion of independence: Spun-off firms’ risk-taking as a function of status and attachment to the parent firm

This paper examines the post-divestiture behavior of spun-off firms. Drawing on the spin-off literature and middle-status conformity theory, we argue that spun-off firms—as newly independent and publicly traded firms—tend to limit their risk-taking behavior to match the expectations of a crucial audience, i.e., security analysts. Following the logic of middle-status conformity theory, we hypothesize that firms with mid-level status are particularly susceptible to analysts' pressures, whereas high- and low-status firms are free to take greater risks. Crucially, however, we propose that this relationship is less pronounced for spun-off firms that are more attached to their parent firms, as formal and informal linkages between these two types of firms can endure beyond the separation and limit spun-off firms' independence. Using a dataset of 102 spin-off transactions occurring between 1995 and 2010, we find empirical support for a U-shaped relationship between spun-off firms' status and risk-taking. This relationship is attenuated when spun-off firms are more attached to their parents. We contribute to the spin-off literature by demonstrating that a spun-off firm's post-divestiture behavior is determined by the capital market audience's expectations and the attachment to the parent firm. In so doing, we also contribute to the literature on middle-status conformity theory by identifying a boundary condition of the theory. Additionally, we make a methodological contribution by combining ideas from the spin-off and institutional theory literature to develop a particularly comprehensive measure of attachment.     

Different Things Make Different People Happy: Examining Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being by Gender and Parental Status

This paper addresses a number of key challenges in current subjective well-being (SWB) research: A new wave of studies should take into account that different things may make different people happy, thus going beyond a unitary ‘happiness formula’. Furthermore, empirical results need to be connected to broader theoretical narratives. Using a re-examination of the social context of well-being as its case study, this article therefore resorts to sociological theory and fills a gap by investigating how social capital is correlated in different ways with the SWB of men, women, parents, and non-parents. Ordered logit and OLS regression analyses systematically examine slope heterogeneity using UK data from the European Social Survey. It turns out that civic engagement is not at all associated with higher life satisfaction for mothers, while the relationship is positive for men and strongest for childless women. Moreover, informal socialising is positively and more strongly associated with life satisfaction among women, although only when OLS is used. In sum, the social context of well-being varies considerably by gender and parental status. Mothers do not seem to benefit from formal social capital, indicating a “motherhood penalty” (see Correll et al., Am J Sociol 112(5):1297–1338 in 2007) regarding the psychological rewards usually associated with volunteering. Given the high levels of formal social capital among mothers, the findings also highlight the importance of the homo sociologicus concept. Consequently, SWB research can be successfully used to provide new insights into long-standing interdisciplinary theory debates such as the one on homo economicus versus homo sociologicus.     

Simultaneous confidence regions for the parameters of a Poisson INAR(1) model

The INAR(1) model (integer-valued autoregressive) is commonly used to model serially dependent processes of Poisson counts. We propose several asymptotic simultaneous confidence regions for the two parameters of a Poisson INAR(1) model, and investigate their performance and robustness for finite-length time series in a simulation study. Practical recommendations are derived, and the application of the confidence regions is illustrated by a real-data example.     

Labour Market and Labour Market Policy in the Eastern Part of Germany: New Approaches and New Links to Structural Policy

ABSTRACT: After unification, East German GNP dropped severely, total employment fell to about two thirds of the former level. Long-term labour market prospects remain poor. From the very beginning up to now, labour market policy (short-time work, early retirement schemes, work creation measures, further training and retraining) absorbed much of the surplus labour supply. Regulations were changed to allow for‘“mega-measures” (contrasting the traditional individual approach). A new co-financing model links work-creation measures more closely to regional structural policy. A labour market infrastructure was built up in a short time, including new elements such as‘“employment promotion companies” and‘“reconstruction agents“.     

Rational Versus Communicative: Towards an Understanding of Spatial Planning Methods in German Planning Practice

This paper considers the use of planning methods in German planning practice against the background of the ‘communicative turn’. The debate about concepts of rationality in Germany as well as in other countries can be said to have resulted in the paradigm of communicative actor-oriented planning achieving at least the same standing as the analytical rationality of the classical expert-based planning model. The inconsistent use of the term method in research corresponds to empirical findings indicating that the term is used ambiguously in practice. Nonetheless, planning methods fulfil a number of functions in practice. The notion of a relatively clear division between ‘analytical-rational’ methods on the one hand and ‘communicative’ methods on the other hand was relativized by experimental investigations. The setting in which the methods are applied seems of more importance; even apparently ‘analytical-rational’ planning methods can be implemented in a more or less communicative fashion.     

The Changing Space for NGOs: Civil Society in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes

In this introductory essay to the special issue on civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, we review core themes in the growing literature on shrinking or closing space for civil society. We discuss the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as agents of democratization and note the emergence of dual, at times apparently conflicting policy postures within authoritarian regimes (restriction and repression for some CSOs vs. financial support and opportunities for collaboration for others). We posit that different conceptual perspectives applied to civil society can help account for the duality of authoritarian postures and examine repercussions for three key subgroups of CSOs: claims-making (or advocacy) NGOs, nonprofit service providers and regime-loyal NGOs supporting often populist and nationalist discourses.

     

Linking jobs in global supply chains to demand

The expansion of global supply chains (GSCs) has increasingly disconnected the location of jobs from the demand supporting them, both geographically and in terms of sector. Using data from the World Input–Output Database, the authors examine these linkages across 40 countries over the period 1995–2013, expanding on earlier analysis published by the ILO, and provide evidence of the number of GSC‐related jobs in terms of job location–export destination combinations. Their findings point to changing patterns in demand and supply of GSC‐related jobs, increasing the role of China as a demand generator, reinforcing production linkages between emerging economies and increasing the number of service jobs dependent on manufacturing GSCs.     

CONSPICUOUS SPENDING AND THE INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

Using South African household expenditure data, we analyze how the spending of a household on visible goods, such as jewelry and clothes, depends on the distribution of income within its social group. We find that this spending is positively correlated with the share of peers who possess a similar income level to the household, what we dub the “local income share.” Moreover, we find that the spending of a household on visible goods is positively correlated with the average income of peers that are poorer than this household. We interpret this as evidence for cascade effects through which income changes among the poorest in the social group can trigger adjustments in the visible spending patterns of the wealthy. In line with previous research (Charles et al. 2009), we also find that visible spending of a household is negatively correlated with the average income of its social group. We present a simple model of status competition based on Hopkins and Kornienko (2004) that synthesizes these effects and can account for our results. (JEL D12, D31, O12)