http://repub.eur.nl/res/concept/jel-J1/ Recent publications classified by JEL Code J1 en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37266/ 2013-03-26T00:00:00Z The growing interest of the business world in the virtues of individ- uals with specific cognitive behavioral characteristics, such as lack of attention and hyperactivity, is not matched by scholarly work. Indi- viduals who experience the challenges associated with such character- istics are thought to thrive in work environments that embrace their talents. Given that entrepreneurship requires a distinctive mindset, we test the hypothesis that individuals who, more than others, expe- rience symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity (ADHD) favor entrepreneurship over wage-employment. Using data of nearly 13,000 university students, we show that symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity increase the likelihood of intending to startup a busi- ness directly after study. We find evidence for partial mediation of two work attributes; independence and risk tolerance. Students who experience ADHD symptoms prefer to work independently and do not shy away from working on high-risk projects, which partly explains their preference for an entrepreneurial career. Verheul, I. Block, J.H. Burmeister-Lamp, K. Thurik, A.R. Tiemeier, H. Turturea, R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38283/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z The standard empowerment model underlying gender policies by international organisations emphasises women's access to resources. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the relative importance of access to resources as compared with women's agency, recognising that this agency may be limited by gendered institutional constraints. It presents a cross-country analysis with a variety of formal and informal gendered institutions, access to resources and well-being achievements. The regression analysis suggests that women's empowerment depends both on access to resources (positively) and on gendered institutions (negatively), with different institutions affecting different dimensions of empowerment. Staveren, I.P. van http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37322/ 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z Although the effect of time to death (TTD) on health care expenditures (HCE) has been investigated using individual level data, the most profound implications of TTD have been for the forecasting of macro-level HCE. Here we estimate the TTD model using macro-level data from the Netherlands consisting of mortality rates and age- and gender-specific per capita health expenditures for the years 1981-2007. Forecasts for the years 2008-2020 of this macro-level TTD model were compared to forecasts that excluded TTD. Results revealed that the effect of TTD on HCE in our macro model was similar to those found in micro-econometric studies. As the inclusion of TTD pushed growth rate estimates from unidentified causes upwards, however, the two models' forecasts of HCE for the 2008-2020 were similar. We argue that including TTD, if modeled correctly, does not lower forecasts of HCE. Baal, P.H.M. van Wong, A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34753/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z The food crisis encountered in 2002 in Malawi was arguably one of the worst in the recent history of the country. The World Food Programme estimated that between 2.1 and 3.2 million people were threatened by starvation. Despite this assumed severity, not much research on the actual consequences of the crisis has been carried out so far. In order to fill this gap, this paper aims to identify the effects of the 2002 food crisis on the health status of the very young children exposed to it. Given the lack of longitudinal data and data collected during the crisis, assessing the potential impact of the 2002 events and the emergency aid that followed is challenging. We rely on representative data collected before and after the crisis and various methods from the impact evaluation literature to create a counterfactual in order to assess the implications of the crisis. Our analysis indicates that the net impact of the crisis was surprisingly low. Under-five excess mortality must have been below the 10,000 crisis-induced deaths suggested by some NGOs.Moreover, we also do not find any general and lasting loss in weight or height of children below the age of five. Nevertheless, if we disaggregate our sample population further by age and gender, we do find some nutritional impacts, both positive and negative. The positive effects identified seem to be the result of the combined influence of selective mortality and effective aid and policy interventions responding to the crisis. Hartwig, R. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37308/ 2011-12-22T00:00:00Z Using data from representative population surveys in 17 countries, we find that the lower rate of female business ownership is primarily due to women's lower propensity to start businesses rather than to differences in survival rates across genders. We show that women are less confident in their entrepreneurial skills, have different social networks and exhibit higher fear of failure than men. After controlling for endogeneity, we find that these variables explain a substantial part of the gender gap in entrepreneurial activity. Although, of course, their relative importance varies significantly across countries, these factors appear to have a universal effect. Koellinger, Ph.D. Minniti, M. Schade, C. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25710/ 2011-08-01T00:00:00Z This paper examines the impact of coinsurance exemption for prescription medicines applied to elderly individuals in Spain after retirement. To evaluate this coinsurance change we use a rich administrative dataset that links pharmaceutical consumption and hospital discharge records for the full population aged 58 to 65 in January 2004 covered by the public insurer in a Spanish region and we follow them until December 2006. We use a difference-in-differences strategy and exploit the eligibility age for Social Security to control for the endogeneity of the retirement decision. Our most conservative results show that the uniform exemption from pharmaceutical copayment granted to retired people in Spain increases the consumption of prescription medicines on average by 9.5%, total pharmaceutical expenditure by 15.2% and the costs borne by the insurer by 47.5%, without evidence of any offset effect in the form of reduced hospitalization. The impact is concentrated among individuals who were consumers of medicines for acute and other non-chronic diseases with a previous coinsurance rate in the range 30% to 40%. Puig-Junoy, J. García-Gómez, P. Casado-Marín, D. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25752/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z Gender discrimination continues to be a problem in organizations. It is therefore important that organizations use performance evaluation methods that ensure equal opportunities for men and women. This article reports the results of an experiment to investigate whether and, if so, how the gender of the rater and that of the ratee moderate the relationship between the level of subjectivity in performance appraisals and organizational attractiveness. Participants in the experiment were 313 undergraduate students. We predicted, and indeed established, that as the probability increases that employee performance is evaluated by a female manager, women expect more positive outcomes of subjective, but not objective evaluation processes. Our data did not support our expectation that as the probability of being evaluated by a female manager increases, men expect less positive outcomes of subjective evaluation processes. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of why women are over-represented in jobs with objective formula-based reward systems, such as piece-rate systems. They are also of interest to organizations that are looking for more ethical human resource management practices. Maas, V.S. Torres-González, R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20443/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the claim that the application of human factors (HF) knowledge can improve both human well-being and operations system (OS) performance. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review was conducted using a general and two specialist databases to identify empirical studies addressing both human and OS effects in examining manufacturing OS design aspects. Findings – A total of 45 empirical studies were found, addressing both the human and system effects of OS (re)design. Of those studies providing clear directional effects, 95 percent showed a convergence between human effects and system effects (þ, þ or 2, 2 ), 5 percent showed a divergence of human and system effects (þ, 2 or 2, þ ). System effects included quality, productivity, implementation performance of new technologies, and also more “intangible” effects in terms of improved communication and co-operation. Human effects included employee health, attitudes, physical workload, and “quality of working life”. Research limitations/implications – Future research should attend to both human and system outcomes in trying to determine optimal configurations for OSs as this appears to be a complex relationship with potential long-term impact on operational performance. Practical implications – The application of HF in OS design can support improvement in both employee well-being and system performance in a number of manufacturing domains. Originality/value – The paper outlines and documents a research and practice gap between the fields of HF and operations management research that has not been previously discussed in the management literature. This gap may be inhibiting the design of OSs with superior long-term performance. Neumann, W.P. Dul, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38237/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z The allocation of Moluccan immigrants across towns and villages at arrival in the Netherlands and the subsequent formation of interethnic marriages resemble a natural experiment. The exogenous variation in marriage formation allows us to estimate the causal effect of interethnic marriages on the educational attainment of children from such marriages. We find that children from Moluccan fathers and native mothers have a higher educational attainment than children from ethnic homogeneous Moluccan couples or children from a Moluccan mother and a native father. Ours, J.C. van Veenman, J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17453/ 2009-08-01T00:00:00Z We examine the effects of trade liberalization on child work in Indonesia. Our estimation strategy identifies geographical differences in the effects of trade policy through district level exposure to reduction in import tariff barriers. We use a balanced panel of 261 districts, based on four rounds (1993 to 2002) of the Indonesian annual national household survey (Susenas), and relate workforce participation of children aged 10-15 to geographic variation in relative tariff exposure. Our main findings show that increased exposure to trade liberalization is associated with a decrease in child work among the 10 to 15 year olds. The effects of tariff reductions are strongest for children from low skill backgrounds and in rural areas. Favorable income effects for the poor, induced by trade liberalization, are likely to be the dominating effects underlying these results. Kis-Katos, K. Sparrow, R.A. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21022/ 2009-08-01T00:00:00Z Dominant development policy approaches recommend women’s employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women’s well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women’s employment status and their well-being as measured by freedom from marital violence yields an ambiguous picture. Motivated by this ambiguity, this paper draws on testimonies of men and women and data gathered from rural Uttar Pradesh, to examine the effect of women’s employment and asset status as measured by their participation in paid work and their ownership of property, respectively, on spousal violence. Unlike the existing literature, we treat women’s work status and violence as simultaneously determined and find that women’s engagement in paid work and ownership of property, are associated with sharp reductions in marital violence. Bedi, A.S. Chhachhi, A. Bhattacharyya, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16517/ 2009-07-31T00:00:00Z We ran a field experiment in a Dutch retail chain consisting of 128 stores. In a random sample of these stores, we introduced short-term sales competitions among subsets of stores. We find that sales competitions have a large effect on sales growth, but only in stores where the store's manager and a large fraction of the employees have the same gender. Remarkably, results are alike for sales competitions with and without monetary rewards, suggesting a high symbolic value of winning a tournament. Lastly, despite the substantial variation in team size, we find no evidence for free-riding. Delfgaauw, J. Dur, A.J. Sol, J. Verbeke, W.J.M.I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15654/ 2009-02-24T00:00:00Z This study assesses the influence of client gender and auditor gender on auditors' judgments. In an experimental task, a client offers unverified explanations as to why the auditor's initial proposed adjusting journal entry (AJE) to lower the inventory value should not be recorded. The design includes one randomly manipulated variable (client gender: male or female) and one measured variable (auditor gender: male or female). The dependent variable assesses the influence of the client's explanations on the auditor's final proposed AJE recommendation. The results indicate that both male and female auditors exhibited a male favorability; that is, they were persuaded more by a male than female client to change their initial AJE recommendation. Furthermore, female auditors were more influenced by a male client and less influenced by a female client than male auditors. Using an expert panel's consensus opinion as a benchmark for the “best” solution, the male auditors were more accurate than female auditors, irrespective of client gender. Additional research will aid in substantiating, determining the limits, and generalizing the findings. Gold-Nöteberg, A.H. Hunton, J.E. Gomaa, M.I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13834/ 2008-11-14T00:00:00Z The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) refers to the sensitivity of statistical research results to the initial spatial nomenclature used. Despite a substantial literature in the related field of geography on the potential influence of the MAUP, the urban economic modeling tradition has not paid much attention to this issue. In this article, we test to what extent the MAUP moderates the effect of agglomeration externalities on areal sectoral employment growth by varying the initial geographical scale of analysis. Using spatial cross-regressive modeling in which we account for spatial spillover effects of agglomeration externalities, we find different effects of agglomeration forces across geographical scales. As the MAUP is a theoretical as well as a methodological problem, research should not only work with proper statistical specifications of spatial agglomeration models incorporating different geographical scales, but also relate this more explicitly to hypotheses concerning the geographical scale at which agglomeration externalities operate. Burger, M.J. Oort, F.G. van Knaap, G.A. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14033/ 2008-08-20T00:00:00Z We study a unique sample of 1,547 nascent entrepreneurs in Germany and analyze which factors are associated with their self-reported satisfaction regarding their start-up. Our study identifies a new facet of procedural utility and offers new insights about the motivations and goals of nascent entrepreneurs. Most importantly, we identify a group of nascent entrepreneurs that “cannot get satisfaction” with their start-up—not because their start-up fails to deliver financial returns, but because they did not choose to become entrepreneurs in the first place. This group of unsatisfied entrepreneurs includes individuals starting a business after a period of long-term unemployment and those individuals with a lack of better employment alternatives (necessity entrepreneurs). In addition, we provide additional evidence for the importance of both financial and non-financial incentives of entrepreneurs. While financial success is the most important determinant of start-up satisfaction, achievement of independence and creativity is also highly important. Our results emphasize the relevance of procedural utility for understanding economic behavior. Block, J.H. Koellinger, Ph.D. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14030/ 2008-07-18T00:00:00Z In this paper we analyze the demographic factors that influence the migration dynamics of recent immigrants to The Netherlands. We show how we can allow for both permanent and temporary migrants. Based on data from Statistics Netherlands we analyze both the departure and the return from abroad for recent non-Dutch immigrants to The Netherlands. Results disclose differences among migrants by migration motive and by country of origin and lend support to our analytical framework. Combining both models, for departure and returning, provides the probability that a specific migrant ends-up in The Netherlands. It also yields a framework for predicting the migration dynamics over the life-cycle. From the obtained insight in the dynamic composition of migrants in the country important policy implications can be derived, including admission procedures for different countries and/or migration motives. Bijwaard, G.E. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10888/ 2008-01-07T00:00:00Z We investigate whether women and men differ with respect to the steps they take in the entrepreneurial process, distinguishing between five successive steps described by the following positions: (1) "never thought about it"; (2) "thinking about starting up a business"; (3) "taking steps to start a business"; (4) "running a business for less than three years"; (5) "running a business for more than three years". This paper provides insights into the manner in which women and men climb the entrepreneurial ladder and the factors that influence their position on the ladder. We use data from the 2006 "Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship" consisting of more than 10,000 observations for 25 member states of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and the United States. Findings suggest that for men it is easier to climb the ladder and that this may be attributed partly to their higher tolerance of risk. Grilo, I. Thurik, A.R. Verheul, I. Zwan, P.W. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10481/ 2007-07-24T00:00:00Z In this paper we identify the effects of ageing on the relative price of nontradeables versus tradeables. We consider two cases. In a first specification, age effects only account for short-run dynamics. An alternative case allows for permanent age effects. Estimating the respective cases by means of an ECM on a panel of OECD countries we find significant effects of demographic composition on the relative prices, even after correcting for the standard explanatory variables. Simulations based on population projections of the UN show that ageing might substantially contribute to inflationary pressures in the near future. Bettendorf, L.J.H. Dewachter, H.D.R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10438/ 2007-07-02T00:00:00Z How does global aging affect the convergence in global economic development? Both the developing and developed world will be characterized for the coming decades by aging populations. Changes in the age distribution of a population are an important determinant of economic performance as they affect wealth accumulation and dependency burdens, yielding a demographic dividend of extra growth. During the twenty years from 1975 to 2005 Europe and the US have benefited from a strong demographic dividend. However, in the decades to come this effect will be reversed and the driving force behind the wealth of nations has to be sought elsewhere. Africa and, to some extent, India might benefit from the demographic dividend. However, this potential growth phase may well disappear if supporting conditions for growth are absent. Large-scale migration is not expected to be a sustainable solution to unbalanced global economic developments. Remittances, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Official Development Assistance (ODA) will remain necessary capital flows for the developing world in the near future. Remittances offer no structural solution to reduction of poverty as these funds flow to a selective group of families and are allocated generally to consumption rather than to investment purposes. Migration of a temporary nature in conjunction with offshore outsourcing of services and production may offer a solution for the dilemmas of population and development, which OECD donors face in offering development assistance and designing immigration policy. Dalen, H.P. van http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9263/ 2007-03-21T00:00:00Z In this paper we analyze the demographic factors that influence the migration dynamics of recent immigrants to The Netherlands. We show how we can allow for both permanent and temporary migrants. Based on data from Statistics Netherlands we analyze both the departure and the return from abroad for recent non-Dutch immigrants to The Netherlands. Results disclose differences among migrants by migration motive and by country of origin and lend support to our analytical framework. Combining both models, for departure and returning, provides the probability that a specific migrant ends-up in The Netherlands. It also yields a framework for predicting the migration dynamics over the life-cycle. We can conclude that for a complete view of the migration dynamics it is important to allow for both permanent (stayers) migrants and temporary (movers) migrants and that return from abroad should not be neglected. Bijwaard, G.E.