Tests for cointegration rank and choice of the alternative

This paper discusses likelihood-ratio (LR) tests on the cointegrating (CI) rank which consider any possible dimension of the CI rank under the alternative. The trace test and lambda-max test are obtained as special cases. Limit quantiles for all the tests in the class are derived. It is found that any of these tests can be used to construct an estimator of the CI rank, with no differences in asymptotic properties when the alternative is fixed. The properties of the class of tests are investigated by local asymptotic analysis, a simulation study and an empirical illustration. It is found that all the tests in the class have comparable power, which deteriorates substantially as the number of random walks increases. Tests constructed for a specific class of alternatives present minor power gains for alternatives in the class, and require the alternative to be far from the null. No test in this class is found to be asymptotically (in-)admissible. Some of the new tests in the class can also be arranged to give a constrained estimator of the CI rank, that restricts the minimum number of common trends. The power gains that these tests can obtain by constraining the minimum number of common trends appears to be limited and outweighted by the risk of inconsistency induced by the constrains. As a consequence, no value of the CI rank should be left untested, unless it can be excluded beyond any reasonable doubt.     

Association of Problem Gambling with Type of Gambling Among Italian General Population

The origin of gambling disorders is uncertain; however, research has shown a tendency to focus on specific types of games as a potential important risk factor. The principal aim of this study is to examine the relationships between types of gambling practices and gambling disorder. The data were extracted from IPSAD-Italia^® 2010–2011 (Italian Population Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs), a survey among the Italian general population which collects socio-cultural information, information about the use of drugs, legal substances and gambling habits. In order to identify the “problem gambler” we used the Problem Gambling Severity Index. Three groups are considered in this analysis: no-risk gamblers, low-risk gamblers, moderate-risk/problem gamblers. Type of gambling practice was considered among two types of gambler: one-game players and multi-games players. 1.9 % of multi-game players were considered problem gamblers, only 0.6 % of one-game players were problem gamblers (p < 0.001). The percentage of players who were low and moderate-risk gamblers was approximately double among multi-game players, with 14.4 % low-risk and 5.8 % moderate-risk; compared with 7.7 % low-risk and 2.5 % moderate risk among one-game players. Results of ordinal logistic regression analysis confirmed that higher level of gambling severity was associated with multi-game players (OR = 2.23, p < 0.0001). Video-poker/slot-machines show the highest association with gambling severity among both one-game players and multi-game players, with scores of OR equal to 4.3 and 4.5 respectively. These findings suggest a popular perception of risk associated with this type of gambling for the development of gambling problems.     

Social enterprise as a bottom-up dynamic: part 1. The reaction of civil society to unmet social needs in Italy,Sweden and Japan

Over the past decades, social enterprises have been acknowledged as key welfare actors in several EU countries. In spite of the dramatic research devoted to exploring them, several issues concerning the definition, drivers and roles played by policies in sustaining social enterprise growth are still highly contested. Drawing on the papers published in this Monographic section, the introduction to this issue reconstructs the debate that has accompanied the emergence and development of social enterprises with a view to providing evidence of the advantages of collective participation for social enterprise emergence and growth. Next, the introduction pays attention to the factors that have led to the emergence and success of social enterprises as a form of self-organization of civil society; and briefly describes the papers included in this issue.     

Democratic Punishment and the Archive of Violence: Punishment,Publicity and Corporal Excess in Antebellum New York

Nineteenth century American prisons were paradoxical institutions. Porous and impermeable, transparent and opaque, open to public view and occluded from sight; prisons clearly functioned as containers for raw coercion even as they were paraded as paragons of democratic transparency. How did New York State navigate between these countervailing positions and how did officials explicate the difference between them? In this essay I focus on the representation of institutional violence as a problematic of governance, I consider its impact on the development and transformation of public authority and track the role of state actors in navigating the scandals, crises and opportunities it engendered.     

Endogenous Population Dynamics and Metropolitan Cycles: Long-Term Evidence from Athens,an Eternally Mediterranean City

Natural population growth is an intrinsic property of demographic systems that depends on (spatially) non-stationary processes of fertility and mortality. Assuming distinctive demographic dynamics as a characteristic attribute of urban, suburban and rural systems, analysis of spatial variability in natural population growth delineates nonlinear stages of metropolitan expansion, possibly reflecting divergent responses to socioeconomic stimuli. The present study investigates endogenous population growth (1956–2019) and the relationship with demographic density as basic attributes of individual stages of the city life cycle in Athens (Greece), a mono-centric metropolitan region in Southern Europe. A spatially explicit analysis of natural balance rates at local scale identified two stages of growth, namely compact urbanization (mid-1950s to late 1970s)—with agglomeration strengthening the polarization in demographically dynamic and shrinking districts—and spatially decentralized suburbanization (early 1980s to late 2010s)—with a less defined role of agglomeration economies and more heterogeneous demographic processes. However, the impact of population density on endogenous growth was stronger in recent decades, suggesting how demographic dynamics may still respond to agglomeration stimuli, at least during recessions. At the same time, the spatial structure of natural balance rates became more mixed, likely reflecting the importance of heterogeneous demographic behaviors at the individual level.     

Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs: More Than a Family Strategy

This article explores the issue of immigrant women entrepreneurship. It focuses on the emergence of new points of view on self‐employed migrant women and in particular their search for independence. With the support of qualitative research carried on in Italy, it will set out a typology of motivations and strategies to become self‐employed in which, besides a “family strategy” and an “independency strategy”, a “mixed network strategy” also emerges. This last focuses on the role of mixed networks (with other foreigners and/or natives) not only in business management but also in the promotion of transnational social activities. Policies that support associations, creating opportunities for gathering and exchanging with local residents and improving the presence of immigrant women in local institutions, could have the side‐effect of increasing participation by immigrant women in self‐employment, not for lack of alternatives but as a path towards self‐fulfilment and empowerment.     

The Interplay Between Employee and Firm Customer Orientation: Substitution Effect and the Contingency Role of Performance‐Related Rewards

This paper identifies and explains a potential tension between a firm's emphasis on customer orientation (CO) and the extent to which employees value CO as a success factor for individual performance. Based on self‐determination theory and CO implementation research, the authors propose that firm CO may represent both autonomous and controlled motivations for CO, but that employees’ CO is more strongly linked to individual performance when employees experience solely autonomous motivation. Hence, the authors expect a substitution effect whereby the link between employees’ CO and their performance is weaker when firm CO is high. Furthermore, the authors examine a boundary condition for the previous hypothesis and propose that performance‐contingent rewards have a positive effect on the internalization of the extrinsic motivation stemming from firm CO. Two multilevel studies with 979 employees and 201 top management team members from 132 firms support these hypotheses. Against previous research, these findings offer a new perspective on the effectiveness of CO initiatives, propose employees’ motivational states as the theoretical explanation for the heterogeneity in the link between employee CO and performance, and reappraise the role of performance‐contingent rewards in CO research. Managerial implications for the effective implementation of customer‐oriented initiatives within firms are provided.