RETHINKING THE EFFECT OF IMMIGRATION ON WAGES

This paper calculates the effects of immigration on the wages of native US workers of various skill levels in two steps. In the first step we use labor demand functions to estimate the elasticity of substitution across different groups of workers. Second, we use the underlying production structure and the estimated elasticities to calculate the total wage effects of immigration in the long run. We emphasize that a production function framework is needed to combine own‐group effects with cross‐group effects in order to obtain the total wage effects for each native group. In order to obtain a parsimonious representation of elasticities that can be estimated with available data, we adopt alternative nested‐CES models and let the data select the preferred specification. New to this paper is the estimate of the substitutability between natives and immigrants of similar education and experience levels. In the data‐preferred model, there is a small but significant degree of imperfect substitutability between natives and immigrants which, when combined with the other estimated elasticities, implies that in the period from 1990 to 2006 immigration had a small effect on the wages of native workers with no high school degree (between 0.6% and +1.7%). It also had a small positive effect on average native wages (+0.6%) and a substantial negative effect (−6.7%) on wages of previous immigrants in the long run.     

2MTO,a new mapping tool to achieve lean benefits in high-variety low-volume job shops

This paper proposes the ‘Mapping Tool for Make-To-Order companies’ (2MTO), a new approach to map, analyse and achieve lean benefits in high-variety-low-volume job shops. The focus is, mainly, on the transitional phase from push to pull, when there is a compelling need to acquire a deep understanding of the current state of the system under analysis. Sometimes, in this initial phase, a pure pull approach cannot be developed and a job shop configuration must be maintained. If so, 2MTO allows selecting a suitable hybrid Production Planning and Control system to control Work-In-Process and to limit lead times, so as to quickly achieve lean benefits, without significantly altering the original layout. 2MTO is fully explained making reference to an Italian precision mechanic company, where the application of the method led to a successful implementation of a Workload Control system.     

Biopharmaceutical and chemical firms’ R&D disclosure,and cost of equity: The impact of the regulatory regime

Based on the proprietary costs theory, this paper aims to survey whether the regulatory regime (mandatory versus voluntary) of research and development (R&D) narrative disclosures impacts, by the means of a reduced information asymmetry, on the cost of equity capital. In order to construct a disclosure index to investigate the extent and the comprehensiveness of R&D information, the methodology adopted was the content analysis of 77 biopharmaceutical and chemical listed companies’ management reports from eight Western European countries across the period 2005–2009. Hence, we obtained an (unbalanced) panel data of 309 observations. The cost of capital has subsequently been regressed on the disclosure index. Results confirm a larger amount of R&D disclosures whereas information is more regulated, but they do not confirm an inverse relation with the cost of capital.     

Intervention Research as Management Research in Practice: Learning from a Case in the Fashion Design Industry

Research in the field of management and organizational sciences has yielded a deeper understanding of many emerging business issues. However, the relevance of the contributions has been increasingly criticized, in both the academic and public spheres. We propose the intervention research approach – originally developed by the research group at Ecole des Mines de Paris – as a design science approach able to address both the relevance gap issue and the growing complexity of management practice. It is argued that increasing our understanding of management requires research that is more insightful, influential and immediately applicable. This in turn requires closer collaboration between management and researchers during the inquiry process, which is not always easy to achieve. An illustrative case study of an intervention research project focusing on creativity, conducted in Italy in collaboration with a fashion company, demonstrates how intervention research can be rigorous and relevant to practitioners, and how it can advance theoretical knowledge in management science.     

Expectations of Career Counseling and Their Effect on Client Satisfaction

Although there has been growing attention to clients' expectations of career counseling, more research is necessary to clarify the role of these expectations in shaping client satisfaction at the end of the intervention. On the basis of expectation confirmation theory, this study examined the indirect effect of clients' initial expectations on overall satisfaction through the perceived performance and final confirmation of expectations. We also explored whether this indirect effect is dependent on counselors' initial expectations. Longitudinal data were collected on 83 counselor-client dyads involved in a career counseling intervention in northeast Italy. Results confirmed that clients' initial expectations predicted overall satisfaction with the intervention through the subsequent mediation of perceived performance and confirmation of clients' expectations. The moderating role of the counselors' initial expectations was not confirmed. These findings imply that career counselors should invest their efforts in managing clients' expectations.     

RATIONAL HEURISTICS? EXPECTATIONS AND BEHAVIORS IN EVOLVING ECONOMIES WITH HETEROGENEOUS INTERACTING AGENTS

We analyze the individual and macroeconomic impacts of heterogeneous expectations and action rules within an agent-based model populated by heterogeneous, interacting firms. Agents have to cope with a complex evolving economy characterized by deep uncertainty resulting from technical change, imperfect information, coordination hurdles, and structural breaks. In these circumstances, we find that neither individual nor macroeconomic dynamics improve when agents replace myopic expectations with less naïve learning rules. Our results suggest that fast and frugal robust heuristics may not be a second-best option but rather “rational” responses in complex and changing macroeconomic environments. (JEL C63, D8, E32, E6, O4)     

Factors Constraining Building Effective and Fair Geographical Indications for Coffee: Insights from a Dominican Case Study

The commodity nature of green coffee is the main cause of the ‘coffee paradox’ (falling producer prices and rising consumer prices). Geographical Indications (GIs) may be an effective ‘decommodifier’ of the coffee market, but many constraints have to be overcome. Based on an analysis of how the characteristics of the coffee production system shape the positions of local stakeholders and, thus, the GI building process, this article identifies some constraining factors that can seriously undermine the capacity the GI has to decommodify the market and attain a fairer distribution of the benefits for local producers.     

A fuzzy logic approach to poverty analysis based on the Gini and Bonferroni inequality indices

In the poverty analysis framework, a great deal of attention has been paid to the poverty measurement in terms of monetary variables, such as income or consumption. In this context, a relevant open problem is connected with the distinction between poor and non-poor. In fact, the concept of poverty is rather vague and cannot be defined in a clear way. In this respect, following a fuzzy logic approach, some new poverty measures are proposed. In particular, the fuzzy extension of two existing poverty measures based on the Gini and Bonferroni inequality indices is provided. Some synthetic and real applications are given in order to show how the proposed poverty measures work.     

“The adoption and implementation of performance measurement process in Italian public organisations: the influence of political,cultural and rational factors”

One of the main challenges in the field of performance measurement and management in public organisations is about how to use and manage performance measures effectively. This study aims to examine the stages involved in the process of utilisation of performance measures, i.e. adoption and implementation, and to investigate the political, cultural and rational factors that affect this process. For this purpose, a theoretical model from the literature has been extended and tested by using the data gathered through a survey involving the managers of several departments of Italian regions and municipal districts. The final sample has included 201 usable observations. The data analysis has been conducted using structural equation modelling. A significant cause-and-effect relationship was found between the stages of adoption and implementation. Moreover, it was found that adoption is driven significantly by rational factors. Otherwise actual implementation is influenced by factors addressed both by political considerations, such as external interest groups and by rational evaluations such as resources. The effects of other rational and cultural factors on implementation stage are mediated by adoption.