Search results

In commercial web search engine results rankings, four stakeholder groups are involved: search engine providers, users, content providers and search engine optimizers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a multi-billion-dollar industry and responsible for making content visible through search engines. Despite this importance, little is known about its role in the interaction of the stakeholder groups.

We conducted expert interviews with 15 German search engine optimizers and content providers, the latter represented by content managers and online journalists. The interviewees were asked about their perspectives on SEO and how they assess the views of users about SEO.

SEO was considered necessary for content providers to ensure visibility, which is why dependencies between both stakeholder groups have evolved. Despite its importance, SEO was seen as largely unknown to users. Therefore, it is assumed that users cannot realistically assess the impact SEO has and that user opinions about SEO depend heavily on their knowledge of the topic.

This study investigated search engine optimization from the perspective of those involved in the optimization business: content providers, online journalists and search engine optimization professionals. The study therefore contributes to a more nuanced view on and a deeper understanding of the SEO domain.

This issue of Research in Law and Economics covers several areas of important research by a variety of international scholars. It contains technical papers on the appropriate way to estimate damages in patent disputes, as well as methods for evaluating relevant markets and vertically integrated firms when determining the competitive effects of mergers and other actions. There are also papers on the implication of different legal processes, regulations, and liability rules on consumer welfare, which range from the impact of delays in legal decisions in labor cases in France to issues of criminal liability related to the use of artificial intelligence.

This study seeks to estimate union wage effect in the public and private sectors of Ghana, respectively. It also seeks to ascertain whether the union wage effect in the two sectors varies.

The authors use data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey 6 (GLSS 6, 2012/2013) and Ghana Labour Force Survey (GLFS, 2015). In terms of estimation technique, the authors employ the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique to estimate union wage effect in public and private sectors, respectively.

The findings indicate that union wage effect in the public sector is positive and higher relative to that of the private sector.

The findings imply that strict enforcement of Section 82 of Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) will curb the political influence of public sector unions over their employer (Government).

This research paper has not been presented to any journal for publication and it is the authors' original work.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0045

This chapter uses quarterly county-level data from 2006 to 2014 to examine the direction of causality in the relationship between per capita opioid prescription rates and employment-to-population ratios. We first estimate models of the effect of per capita opioid prescription rates on employment-to-population ratios, instrumenting opioid prescriptions for younger ages using opioid prescriptions to the elderly. We find that the estimated effect of opioids on employment-to-population ratios is positive but small for women, while there is no relationship for men. We then estimate models of the effect of employment-to-population ratios on opioid prescription rates using a shift-share instrument and find ambiguous results. Overall, our findings suggest that there is no simple causal relationship between economic conditions and the abuse of opioids. Therefore, while improving economic conditions in depressed areas is desirable for many reasons, it is unlikely on its own to curb the opioid epidemic.

This research explores the impact of parental educational attainment, race, ethnicity, gender and employment on the time parents spend educating their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

School closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have affected billions of students worldwide, and have had an impact on the economy and the society. With classes being cancelled or taught remotely, the importance of parental intervention in children's education has accelerated.

The authors find that more educated parents allocate more time on child education, while higher income and employment have an adverse effect. Fathers are likely to spend more time than mothers in teaching and educating their children during COVID-19.

The findings have implications in identifying children whose education suffers the most in times of a pandemic and determining the main target group of policies designed to train children, encourage parental involvement and support children's educational development.

This is the first paper that examines the variations in parental time with children across social and economic subgroups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also focus on the time parents spend educating their children rather than just supervising them. The authors additionally examine the determinants of the time children study on their own. Finally, the analysis is novel because it is based on the newest available data collected to examine the trends and experiences of individuals in the United States triggered by COVID-19.

Due to the high levels of crime in Rio de Janeiro, the purpose of this paper is twofold. The first one is to analyze the effects of deterrence variables (such as the adoption of Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) and incarcerations) on violence in the municipalities of the State of Rio de Janeiro, as well as to verify the existence of “revenge effect.” The second is to analyze the effects of socio-economic development on violence, using development indicators.

Besides usual OLS method for panel data analysis, the study makes use of dynamic panel data framework through D-GMM and S-GMM. The estimates are based on a sample of 82 municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, and the period runs from 2003 to 2013. As dependent variables, the estimates use violent deaths (i.e. aggregation of intentional homicides and armed robberies followed by death) and homicides resulting from opposition to police intervention (i.e. civilians killed as a result of police actions against criminals – “opposition deaths”).

The estimates indicate that incarceration presents marginal capacity to reduce violence. Regarding the findings for the adoption of UPPs, the evidence suggests that this project increased violence and, therefore, the possibility of displacement of violence to other regions of the State. With respect to the effect of police deaths over violence, the results are unprecedented and suggest the existence of a “revenge effect.” Besides, the study points to the importance of socio-economic development to reduce violence.

Once the study analyzes the effects of incarceration and UPPs, it contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on the ability of anti-crime policies of reducing (or not) violence. In addition, when considering the death of policemen in the estimates, the study shows an unprecedented way, the effect that these deaths cause over violence (the so-called “revenge effect”). Moreover, the study considers the impacts of the development of employment and income, health and education on violence. When analyzing these development indicators, the study contributes with the literature that looks for non-police alternatives to control crime.

This study examines the impact of trade openness, human capital, public expenditure and institutional performance on unemployment in various income groups of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries.

Traditional panel data methodologies neglect the issue of cross-sectional dependence and provide ambiguous outcomes. A novel approach, “dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE)”, is utilized in this study to tackle with aforementioned issue. Pooled mean group (PMG) estimation is also applied to verify the robustness of the findings.

The long-run estimates show that trade openness has a significant and negative relationship with the unemployment rate in overall and lower-income OIC economies and a positive correlation with unemployment in higher-income OIC countries. Public expenditure is negatively and significantly correlated with unemployment in higher-income and overall OIC economies. Moreover, human capital reduces unemployment in higher-income and overall OIC countries while increases unemployment in lower-income OIC economies.

The research tends to endorse the argument for continuous trade openness policy along with efficient use of public expenditure and improved institutional performance to reduce unemployment in OIC countries.

The DCCE approach in this research considers heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence between cross-sectional units and thus gives robust outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the change in the Italian and Spanish wage polarization degree in a time of economic crisis, taking into account the factors affecting labor force heterogeneity. Gender differences in the evolution of social fractures are considered by carrying out the analysis separately for males and females.

The approach by Palacios-Gonzánlez and García-Fernández (2012) on polarization is applied to the microdata provided by the EU Living Conditions Surveys (2007, 2010 and 2012). According to Palacios-Gonzánlez and García-Fernández’s approach, polarization is generated by two tendencies that contribute to the generation of social tension: the homogeneity or cohesion within group and the heterogeneity between groups. The following labor force characteristics are considered: gender, level of education, type of contract, occupational status and job status.

The results for Italy reveal a higher increase of polarization for women than for men from the perspective of the type of contract. In Spain, the wage polarization of women also increases more intensively compared to men from the perspectives of level of education, job status and occupational status, while in Italy the reduction of the wage polarization index by level of education can be related, above all, to an increase in overqualification of women.

While the empirical literature on polarization has made considerable investigation into employment and job polarization, this paper explores the rather less explored matter of wage polarization. Furthermore, particular attention is paid to the impact on polarization of the Great Recession.

The phenomenon of overeducation and the magnitude and persistence of the imbalance impact are analysed for the Spanish labour market from 2006 to 2013.

The authors present random-effects probit estimations comparing individuals and their short-term and long-term labour mismatches.

The results support the existence of long-term persistence (status in the previous year) and short-term persistence (status at the beginning of the observed period) in overeducation. Precariousness in the labour market, measured by temporality or by the strong destruction of employment, could force individuals to choose a job below their qualification. Additionally, the phenomenon of overeducation is shown to have increased in the period 2010–2013 in relation to the period 2006–2009 independently of the region considered, though those regions with higher unemployment rates display greater imbalances.

Although the results come from two different samples, it is possible to conclude that overeducation is a phenomenon that tends to perpetuate over time in Spain.

One of the issues of greatest interest that is crucial to assess the relevance of the spreading of overeducation is whether overeducation can be considered as a temporal mismatch, in which case the seriousness of the problem would not be so important, or, on the contrary, as a persistent one, in which case, governments should take it into account in their education reform programmes.

Overeducation persistence has been studied in countries such as the United States, Canada, Switzerland or Germany; however, in Spain, there are hardly any studies. Spanish labour market has certain specificities that make the analyses relevant: the high unemployment rates and high elasticity of employment with respect to the economic cycles. Under these circumstances, workers could opt for more stable positions that require a lower qualification than the one they have. This option could be even more convenient during crisis. Additionally, the article includes a disaggregated analysis by Spanish regions. The differences in the unemployment rates within and between regions are significant (some of them had at the beginning of the crisis an unemployment rate close to 7%, while in others it exceeded 12%) which allows the authors to study the phenomenon in different contexts.