Testing for Independence of Wage Drift and Minimum Contractual Wage: An Empirical Investigation Using Italian Aggregate Time Series

A theoretical two-stage bargaining model for wage drift and minimum contractual wage is discussed and its implication in terms of Granger-causality between the two variables is tested by using Italian aggregate time series. Empirical evidence suggests rejecting the independence of the two series. This result has, in turn, implications for policy analysis. Our findings seem to indicate the appropriateness of a policy oriented towards decentralized wage setting.     

Productivity Competitiveness among Non Cooperating Integrated Economies: A Negative-Sum Game

ABSTRACT: The strategies adopted by European countries during the 1970‘s and 1980‘s have been unsuccessful in their attempt to produce more employment. These strategies have been centred on attempts to improve the international position of a country at the expense of the others through increasing productivity and competitiveness. The negative effects on employment due to higher productivity should have been offset, in the longer run, by an increasing share of exports. But the eventual result has been that relative positions of countries have remained fundamentally unchanged. This is due to the fact that all countries adopted the same strategy. Aggressive strategies do not pay in terms of employment. More effective policies, in a situation characterized by accelerated technical progress, can be more easily implemented in a more co-operative international context. Even if there is no moral solidarity between the nearly related races of Europe, there is an economic solidarity which we cannot disregard. Even now the world markets are one. This is to put the issue on its lowest grounds. There are other arguments, which the most obtuse cannot ignore, against a policy of spreading and encouraging further the economic ruin of great countries (J.M. Keynes) ¹⁸     

The Governance of Directors' Pay: Evidence from UK Companies

We examine the determination of directors' compensation in UK quoted companies between 1985 and 1994. The primary innovation contained in the paper is the focus on the governance mechanisms that determine pay outcomes. Our results indicate that: (i) directors' compensation is positively related to pre-dated shareholder returns and company size with the quantitative effect of the latter dominating the former. (ii) We find that the pay-for-performance link has become quantitatively stronger over our sample period. (iii) There has been positive adherence to the principles of the Cadbury report, but these variables play little statistical role in shaping the direct compensation of top directors.     

Barriers to exercise behavior among older adults: a focus-group study

Longer life expectancy, rapid population growth, and low exercise-participation rates of adults 65 and older justify the need for better understanding of older adults' exercise behavior. The objectives of this focus-group study were to determine barriers to the exercise behavior of older adults. Six focus groups, three with exercisers and three with nonexercisers, were conducted at various sites throughout Rhode Island. The majority (n = 57) of the 66 individuals who participated were women, and all stated that they were 65 and older. Results from the focus-group data identified 13 barriers to exercise behavior. The most significant barriers mentioned by nonexercisers were fear of falling, inertia, and negative affect. Exercisers identified inertia, time constraints, and physical ailments as being the most significant barriers to exercise. Implications from these focus-group data can be useful in the development of exercise interventions for older adults, which could increase exercise participation.     

Farming without a recipe: Wisconsin graziers and new directions for agricultural science

From 2005 through 2008, we undertook a participatory research project involving graziers from 8 farms in Southern Wisconsin, all of whom practice management intensive grazing. We used semi-structured interviews and participant observation during research and field days to investigate graziers’ engagement with university research. Grazing farms demonstrate rich variability and individuality as a result of their position within a number of biophysical and social contexts. Graziers emphasized the importance of finding ways to work with the variables of their specific context, rather than trying to control that variability. This effort entails the development and use of local knowledge, as graziers respond to the idiosyncrasies of their farms. It also leads graziers to reject mainstream agricultural research that has produced formulas for agricultural uniformity. The picture of grazing that emerged from our interviews leads us to propose the search for agroecological principles and agroecological tools, embedded in context, as an alternative to conventional research. We argue that this proposal speaks to the greater conundrum of how to relate the general knowledge of science to the place-specific, experience-based knowledge of grass-based farmers.     

Fast and robust estimators of variance components in the nested error model

Usual fitting methods for the nested error linear regression model are known to be very sensitive to the effect of even a single outlier. Robust approaches for the unbalanced nested error model with proved robustness and efficiency properties, such as M-estimators, are typically obtained through iterative algorithms. These algorithms are often computationally intensive and require robust estimates of the same parameters to start the algorithms, but so far no robust starting values have been proposed for this model. This paper proposes computationally fast robust estimators for the variance components under an unbalanced nested error model, based on a simple robustification of the fitting-of-constants method or Henderson method III. These estimators can be used as starting values for other iterative methods. Our simulations show that they are highly robust to various types of contamination of different magnitude.     

Political Organizations,Interest Groups and Citizens Engagement: An Integrated Model of Democracy

The paper starts with a theoretical reinterpretation of some classical topics in the public choice literature, where specific elements of contract theory and the theory of the firm are introduced. By putting into contact these completely different fields of economics, it defines a general theoretical framework for political behaviors whose implications go beyond those determined by the standard self-interest assumption. Political organizations, as suppliers of public policies, are supposed to maximize a residual quantum consisting in the public authority that can actually be exercised after all the electoral commitments, with voters and interests groups, have been fulfilled. This residual right—which can be seen also as a degree of discretion necessary for ruling parties to deal with unforeseen contingencies—is based on the reputational capital (goodwill) accumulated over time by political organizations and represents the intangible asset that secures voters’ loyalty and, consequently, the legitimacy to exercise public authority in the long run. When a deficit of goodwill occurs, a chain of “exit” strategies by voters can lead to undesirable results unless an effective “voice” option for citizens exists.