JEEA‐FBBVA LECTURE 2013: THE NEW EMPIRICAL ECONOMICS OF MANAGEMENT

Over the last decade the World Management Survey (WMS) has collected firm‐level management practices data across multiple sectors and countries. We developed the survey to try to explain the large and persistent total factor productivity (TFP) differences across firms and countries. This review paper discusses what has been learned empirically and theoretically from the WMS and other recent work on management practices. Our preliminary results suggest that about a quarter of cross‐country and within‐country TFP gaps can be accounted for by management practices. Management seems to matter both qualitatively and quantitatively for performance at the level of the firm and the nation. Competition, governance, human capital, and informational frictions help account for the variation in management. We make some suggestions for both policy and future research.     

On the estimation of the Lorenz curve under complex sampling designs

Statistical Methods & Applications - This paper focuses on the estimation of the concentration curve of a finite population, when data are collected according to a complex sampling design with...     

And … action? Gender,knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries

This article explores how a knowledge ecology framework can help us better understand the production of gender knowledge, especially in relation to improving gender equality. Drawing on Law, Ruppert, and Savage, it analyses what knowledge of gender inequality is made visible and actionable in the case of the UK screen sector. We show: (i) that the gender knowledge production for the UK screen sector operated with reductionist understandings of gender and gender inequality, and presented gender inequality as something that needed evidencing rather than changing; and (ii) that gender knowledge was circulated in two relatively distinct circuits, a policy‐ and practice‐facing one focused on workforce statistics and a more heterogeneous and critical academic one. We then discuss which aspects of gender inequality in the UK screen industry remained invisible and thus less actionable. The article concludes with a critical appreciation of how the knowledge ecology framework might help better understand gender knowledge production, in relation to social change in the UK screen sector and beyond.     

The shift towards entrepreneurial universities and the relevance of third-party funding of business and economics units in Austria: a research note

Review of Managerial Science - The importance of public and private third-party funding of universities has changed over the last decades. However, the knowledge about how universities finance...     

Relational Equity as a Design Tool Within Making and Tinkering Activities

This article focuses on the partner-like relations that emerge between undergraduates and youth as they engage in “Making and Tinkering” activities in an afterschool learning ecology, and illustrates the potential for designed tinkering activity to produce relational equity among participants. Grounded in sociocultural theory, but leveraging theoretical contributions from learning sciences and tinkering research, we draw on ethnographic data across one year to examine how the social organization of Making & Tinkering activities provides necessary social conditions for “feedback-in-practice” and consequential learning. Analyses of interactions reveal how more symmetrical intergenerational relationships serve in the design of equitable learning spaces.     

Child maltreatment, revictimization, and violent behavior

The study investigates the cumulative impact of child maltreatment and victimization in adolescence on violent behavior in young adulthood in a nonclinical high-risk sample. The sample consists of 1,526 incarcerated young men (14 to 24 years) who were interviewed with standardized instruments during their prison term. Violent and nonviolent offenders with and without repeated victimization experiences throughout the life cycle were compared. Results show that child maltreatment doubles the risk for violent victimization in adolescence. Repeated victimization experiences in adolescence heighten the risk for later violent offending. This is the case for officially registered violence and self-reported violent behavior. In addition, child maltreatment increased the probability of self-reported violence as well. However, the interaction effect of victimization in childhood and victimization in early adolescence counteracted the main effects. Being repeatedly victimized throughout the early life cycle slightly reduced the probability of being a frequent offender.     

Preliminary report on the Accountability Scale: a change and outcome measure for intimate partner violence research

The current study investigated the reliability of a new self-report questionnaire assessing accountability for the perpetration of intimate partner violence. The Accountability Scale (AS) is a brief, Likert-type measure designed to assess the degree to which perpetrators acknowledge and accept responsibility for their violent actions. In Study #1, an exploratory factor analysis on a clinical sample revealed two factors: Acknowledging Harm and Internalizing Responsibility. In Study #2, the factor structure was replicated on a community sample using confirmatory factor analysis, revealing an 11-item solution. Factor 1 was related to readiness to change but negatively related to social desirability, suggesting convergent and discriminant validity of that subscale. Factor 2 was negatively related to Factor 1 in the community sample, calling into question the construct of accountability. Preliminary evidence suggests that the AS shows promise as a brief and reliable tool to assess forms of accountability. Future research will examine if the two factors of accountability function as mechanisms of change and outcome measures in intimate partner violence intervention research.     

Employment Decisions of Married Women: Evidence and Explanations

Aggregate evidence has revealed a significant increase in women’s labour market participation (especially among married women) and a decline in male participation, both in Italy and in all the other OECD countries. This paper empirically tests the relationship between the education and employment status of husbands and wives using the Bank of Italy Survey (1995). The results of our analysis show that employed women are likely to be married to employed men with a higher level of education and higher income. The estimates of the labour supply decisions of wives show that the effect of the unemployment status of husbands is mediated by other factors associated with the family’s view of wives working outside home. The response to a husband’s unemployment depends significantly on the employment decisions of parents (mothers and mothers‐in‐law), a proxy for the couple’s attitude towards women’s work.