Search results

Talent compression is the labor market phenomenon where the average productivity differential between participants declines and has been used to explain the overall increase in competition within some professional sports markets. A finding that competitiveness is uniquely driven by talent compression is consistent with Rottenberg (1956), who argued that resource distribution is independent of factors that are invariant to labor productivity.

Rather than incorporate MLB team roster turnover as many of the past studies have done, we prefer to measure of all-star turnover in membership. Problematically, movement from an MLB team to an MLB team is limited by rule, finances and the fact that there are very few teams competing for player services. In contrast, All-Star membership is typically costlessly chosen by many millions of fans, league players and managers. In this way, All-Star voting should be invariant to many of the factors that affect movement from an MLB team to an MLB team.

In the end, we find that a close association between all-star turnover rates and the makeup of MLB’s labor pool.

The paper offers a new measure of player mobility.

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively examine if varying household consumption activities at different income levels drove CO₂ emissions to different degrees in Mexico from 1990 to 2014.

The paper applied a simple expenditure-CO₂ emissions elasticity model – a top-down approach – using data from consumption-based CO₂ emission inventories and the “Household Income and Expenditure Survey” and assuming a range of 0.7-1.0 elasticity values.

The paper results show a large carbon inequality among income groups in Mexico throughout the period. The household consumption patterns at the highest income levels are related to significantly more total CO₂ emissions (direct + indirect) than the household consumption patterns at the lowest income levels, in absolute terms, per household and per capita. In 2014, for example, the poorest household decile emitted 1.6 tCO₂ per capita on average, while the wealthiest decile reached 8.6 tCO₂ per capita.

The results suggest that it is necessary to rethink the effect of consumption patterns on climate change and the allocation of mitigation responsibilities, thus opening up complementary options for designing mitigation strategies and policies.

The paper represents an alternative approach for studying CO₂ emissions responsibility in Mexico from the demand side, which has been practically absent in previous studies. The paper thereby opens a way for studying and discussing climate change in terms of consumption and equity in the country.

IN these days of metal construction, the aircraft designer frequently uses the so‐called Batho theory of the torsion of thin shells. This simple and well‐known theory is a ecial case, applicable to tubes and boxes of any cross‐section, of the general St. Venant torsion theory. The same theory, applied to thin “ open ” sections, of which a channel is a mplc example, gives the result that the torsional strength and rigidity are very small. While it is true that such a section tends always to be weak in torsion in comparison with a closed section of similar dimensions, subject to certain conditions as regards fixing of the ends it is capable of transmitting an appreciable torque. The method of transmission can be described as differential bending of the two langes, in the case of the channel. Calculation of differential bending stresses in a two‐spar wing under torsion is a simple procedure, but alien the two members in differential bend form part of a continuous section, the conditions are somewhat altered. The general theory applicable to such cases may be called the theory of torsion‐bending. The results of this theory will be summarised, and the proofs given in the Appendix.

The design and launching of Master's degree programmes in management is a major task facing the polytechnics in Britain. Having existed for some six or seven years, they have achieved their initial objective of creating an appropriate range of first degree programmes, exhibiting the characteristics of career orientation, multi‐disciplinary structures, innovative learning methods and relevant assessment systems. The replacement of External London University Degree courses by Council for National Academic Award programmes has accompanied the conversion of the large colleges of technologies of the nineteen sixties into the polytechnics of the nineteen seventies. Many problems still exist in the first degree range: the provision of part‐time study versions to offset overgearing to full time students, the development of course network approaches, and the integration of sub‐degree work within total programmes of which first degrees are currently the main focus—in that connection the evolution of the Diploma in Higher Education could be a key item.

A transfer from a richer individual to a poorer one seems to be the most intuitive and straightforward way of reducing income inequality in a society. However, can such a transfer reduce the welfare of the society? We show that a rich-to-poor transfer can induce a response in the individuals’ behaviors which actually exacerbates, rather than reduces, income inequality as measured by the Gini index. We use this result as an input in assessing the social welfare consequence of the transfer. Measuring social welfare by Sen’s social welfare function, we show that the transfer reduces social welfare. These two results are possible even for individuals whose utility functions are relatively simple (namely, at most quadratic in all terms) and incorporate a distaste for low relative income. We first present the two results for a population of two individuals. We subsequently provide several generalizations. We show that our argument holds for a population of any size, and that the choice of utility functions which trigger this response is not singular – the results obtain for an open set of the space of admissible utility functions. In addition, we show that a rich-to-poor transfer can exacerbate inequality when we employ Lorenz-domination, and that it can decrease social welfare when we draw on any increasing, Schur-concave welfare function.

This paper examines associations of mass media and information and communications technologies (ICTs) with inequality and poverty. It has been found that newspaper circulation has a robust negative association with inequality. Radios and TVs also have a negative association with poverty. ICT expenditures (as a percentage of GDP) have a negative association with poverty. An ICT index is constructed which also has a negative association with poverty. An instrumental variable analysis confirms the robust negative association between newspaper circulation and inequality.

This paper aims to examine the strategic issues of risk for independent theatrical film distributors in the Hindi film industry in India.

The study adopted qualitative grounded theory approach to explore contextually relevant strategic issues of risk for independent theatrical film distributors. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with Hindi film distributors helped to gain explorative insights about the risk behaviour of film distributors operating in Mumbai “circuit”.

The findings suggest that risk faced by distributors is a function of product (film content) features, contractual terms, resources such as finance and strength of strategic alliances with the producers. The study develops a business risk model for the film distributors from a series of propositions.

The paper contributes to the literature on motion picture industry by highlighting the importance of distribution risk in the film value chain.

Through a critical review of the impact of luxury international business, this study aims to contribute to an understanding of business activities that depend on an unequal distribution of income and wealth.

Drawing on a wide range of academic and practitioner literature, this study adopts a critical luxury studies approach to provide an assessment of the economic and social impact of luxury international business.

Luxury is an increasingly important sector of the economy, which contributes to the welfare of increasing numbers of people across the world. Alongside its dependence on an unequal distribution of income and wealth and the negative aspects to which this gives rise, luxury business generates significant benefits to the economy and society through promoting economic growth, innovation, cultural enrichment, improved quality of the built environment and environmentally sustainable business practices. Nevertheless, an appropriate level of regulation and taxation on the excesses of contemporary luxury consumption could improve the welfare of all. Hence, luxury international business warrants investigation by critical scholars who recognize the complexity of the benefits and dark sides arising from luxury.

This study draws on an extensive review of academic and practitioner literature. However, primary research is required to investigate further the key issues identified.

Through an exploration of the impact of the production and consumption of luxury, this study reveals how luxury businesses serving the super-rich can contribute to the welfare of society whilst also giving rise to negative outcomes.

By adopting a critical luxury studies approach, this study offers an original contribution to the field of international business and introduces avenues for future critical international business research.

The purpose of this paper is to show that for some key topics on labour economics such as the effect of seniority and job mobility in wages, it is important to explicitly consider firm fixed effects. The author also wants to test whether the importance of firm in explaining wage dispersion is higher or lower in Spain than in other European countries.

The author estimates an individual wage equation where firm and workers effects are considered and the estimation process control for censored wages. This exercise is performed for the Spanish economy over the course of a whole business cycle, i.e., 2000-2015.

The author demonstrates that Spanish firms contribute to explain around 27 per cent of the individual wage heterogeneity but more importantly around 74 per cent of inter-industry wage differentials. In both cases, this contribution is mainly related to large dispersion in firm’s wage policies. The process of positive sorting of workers across firms or industries does not play an important role. Interestingly, the importance of firm’s wage policies in explaining individual wage dispersion has increased over the current Big Recession.

The results confirm that firms set wages and, henceforth, are partially responsible for individual wage heterogeneity but more importantly for inter-industrial wage dispersion.

The exercise is performed under optimal conditions because the author uses a longitudinal matched employer-employee data set, observed wages are at a monthly frequency, and implements an estimation method suitable for censored models with two high-dimensional fixed effects. This is the first study that looks deeply into the role of firms in explaining wage heterogeneity at the individual and industry level in Spain and along the current Big Recession.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the intellectual structure and research fronts of discipline of supply chain risk management (SCRM), in order to identify the knowledge groups in the research area to date, as well as to reveal any relationships between these subfields and the central influential trends.

By means of a bibliometric study, the 32 most co-cited articles on SCRM published in 16 top business-related academic journals are analysed using multivariate statistical techniques, i.e. multi-dimensional scaling, cluster analysis and correspondence factor analysis.

The results demonstrate a clearly identifiable structure as a result of the performed co-citation analysis. The conducted cluster analysis and factor bring forward that the research field is arranged in five different areas of interest: explaining supply chain (SC) risk phenomena, concepts, frameworks and insights of SCRM; modelling risks for SCs; inventory risks affecting supply efficiency; SC and product design methods; and SC risk mitigating strategies.

Overall, the intellectual structure of SCRM is first examined through a bibliometric approach using quantitative techniques – for improved understanding of its origins, and to identify the state of the science – and to offer suggestions for future studies that could cover current gaps. This study represents the potential to advance the SCRM literature landscape.