José M. Arranz, Carlos García-Serrano and Virginia Hernanz
This paper investigates whether short-time work (STW) schemes were successful in their objective of maintaining employment and keeping workers employed within the same firms after…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates whether short-time work (STW) schemes were successful in their objective of maintaining employment and keeping workers employed within the same firms after the onset of the financial and economic crisis in 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
Spanish longitudinal administrative data has been used, making it possible to identify short-time work (STW) participation not only of workers but also of employers and allowing to know the future labour market status of participants and non-participants. Accordingly, treatment and control groups are defined, and Propensity Score Matching models estimated. The dependent variable is measured as the probability that an individual remained employed with the same employer in the future (one, two and three years) after implementation of a STW arrangement.
Findings
Our results suggest that treated individuals are about 5 percentage points less likely to remain working with the same employer one year later than similar workers, and this negative effect of participation increases over time. Thus, STW schemes would not have the assumed effect of preventing unemployment by keeping the participants employed relative to non-participants.
Research limitations/implications
As our analysis is based on the comparison of the employment trajectories of participant and non-participant workers in firms that have used STW arrangements, our findings cannot be interpreted as the job saving effects of either macro or micro studies carried out previously.
Practical implications
The analysis carried out in the paper is complementary to the country-level and firm-level approaches that have been used in the empirical literature.
Originality/value
We adopt a worker-level approach. This is novel since no previous study has focused attention on the impact of STW participation on the subsequent labour market status of workers.
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José María Arranz and Carlos García-Serrano
Using a Spanish administrative data set, the authors document the importance of recalls in labour market transitions. The authors focus on two issues: the interplay between the…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a Spanish administrative data set, the authors document the importance of recalls in labour market transitions. The authors focus on two issues: the interplay between the unemployment compensation system, the widespread use of fixed-term contracts and the layoff-rehire process; and the use of implicit contracts and, hence, the existence of cross-subsidisation between industries and firms within unemployment insurance. The purpose of this paper is to estimate a duration model with competing risks of exits in order to investigate the individual, job and firm attributes that influence the probabilities of leaving unemployment to return to the same employer or to find a new job. The findings indicate that recalls are very common and that, although they are widespread among the labour market, there are certain types of contract, firms and sectors which are more prone to use them.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors estimate a duration model with competing risks of exits in order to investigate the individual, job and firm attributes that influence the probabilities of leaving unemployment to return to the same employer or to find a new job with a different employer.
Findings
The findings indicate that recalls are very common and that, although they are widespread along the Spanish labour market, there are certain types of contract, firms and sectors which are more prone to use them.
Practical implications
Overall, the results suggest that there is room for the reform of the way the UCS is financed, in combination with changes in other labour market institutions.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it documents the importance of rehirings in labour market transitions, in general, and in compensated unemployment, in particular, highlighting the use of different types of contract (in particular, temporary ones) and using a large data set for Spain. Second, it examines the interplay between the unemployment compensation system, the use of temporary contracts and the layoff-rehire process, focusing its attention on the likely cross-subsidisation of firms and sectors with respect to unemployment benefits . This constitutes a relevant research and policy issue since it has to do with the design of the unemployment compensation system.
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José María Arranz and Carlos García-Serrano
The purpose of this paper is to examine the wage distribution in Spain, its evolution in recent years and the implications for increased wage dispersion. Accordingly, its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the wage distribution in Spain, its evolution in recent years and the implications for increased wage dispersion. Accordingly, its attention focuses on the following issues: first, the paper investigates how personal, job and firm attributes affect the wages distribution and examine earnings differentials between and within groups of workers according to their individual and job characteristics throughout the conditional wage distribution; and second, the paper analyses whether the business cycle may influence the magnitude of these differentials.
Design/methodology/approach
Using administrative data from the Spanish Social Security and the Tax Administration National Agency, the paper estimates OLS and quantile regression (QR) models in order to assess the impact of personal, job and workplace attributes on between- and within-groups wage inequality.
Findings
Among other things, we find that, although the average wage has been increasing over time (until 2009), changes have not been uniform across the earnings distribution, making the dispersion fall during boom years but rise during downturn years. Furthermore, changes in the impacts of some characteristics (types of contract, education/qualifications, region and employer size) contributed to higher wage dispersion, while others (tenure) made the distribution more equal.
Originality/value
The analysis of the paper in novel in that it investigates whether wage differentials respond to the business cycle and what the source of that variation is. Moreover, it analyses wages differentials not only at the mean but also throughout the conditional earnings distribution, making it possible to assess the impact of these attributes on between- and within-groups wage inequality.
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Gonzalo Maldonado-Guzmán and Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes
Eco-innovation is a relatively recent construct in the literature, which nowadays more and more researchers and academics consider as one of the strategies that generate a higher…
Abstract
Purpose
Eco-innovation is a relatively recent construct in the literature, which nowadays more and more researchers and academics consider as one of the strategies that generate a higher level of sustainable and business performance. However, little is known about the influence of eco-innovation practices on sustainable performance and business performance, particularly in the automotive and auto parts industry. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this knowledge gap and explore the aforementioned interdependence.
Design/methodology/approach
The influence of eco-innovation practices on sustainable performance and business performance is investigated through a research framework consisting of 5 constructs, 25 items and 6 hypotheses derived from an extensive review of the literature. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 460 companies in the automotive and auto parts industry in Mexico. The data were analyzed through a confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results obtained indicated that eco-innovation practices have a positive influence on both sustainable performance and business performance in the automotive and auto parts industry.
Originality/value
This paper provides further insightful evidence of the influence of eco-innovation practices on sustainable performance and business performance, particularly in the automotive and auto parts industry.
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Rebeca San José‐Cabezudo, Jesús Gutiérrez‐Cillán and Ana M. Gutiérrez‐Arranz
The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the Hierarchy of Effects – a model that has been widely applied in the study of persuasion in traditional communications…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the Hierarchy of Effects – a model that has been widely applied in the study of persuasion in traditional communications media – to evaluate Website effectiveness. In particular, this contribution seeks to consider a more complete model in order to evaluate the responses of the individuals to the Websites, incorporating new variables to the traditional sequence; and to study the moderating effect of the specific characteristics of the audience – the individual user's motivations in terms of Internet access in the basic structure of this model.
Design/methodology/approach
The multi‐equations methodology is used to test the sequence of responses that produce the visit to an experimental Website: the perceived informative value and the perceived entertainment value of a Website, the attitude toward the Website, the attitude toward the brand and the intention to buy the brand for two different individual groups: the “information seekers” and “entertainment seekers”.
Findings
The results reveal two well differentiated positive models of behavior in the online context.
Practical implications
In their Website strategies, the organizations should not neglect those aspects which may arouse emotional reactions in the Internet users, but they should pay more attention to generated informative value to obtain more favorable users' responses.
Originality/value
Previous studies had not tested empirically the moderating effects of the users' motivations in terms of Internet access (search for information versus entertainment) over this original and more complete structure of individuals' responses to the Website.
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M. José Garrido Samaniego, Ana M. Gutiérrez Arranz and Rebeca San José Cabezudo
Determinants of internet adoption in industrial purchase have rarely been paid attention in the literature. Considering this gap in the literature, the present study intends to…
Abstract
Purpose
Determinants of internet adoption in industrial purchase have rarely been paid attention in the literature. Considering this gap in the literature, the present study intends to approach the factors that determine the use of the internet as a source of information in procurement.
Design/methodology/approach
This research analyzes whether different internet tools are used throughout the phases in the purchasing process and, at the same time, whether the characteristics of the buying situation determine the use of the internet in that process. The survey is based on an e‐mailed questionnaire sent to a sample of 103 Spanish firms.
Findings
In general, different uses of the internet tools are not observed in the different stages of the buying process. However, the characteristics of purchasing situations (novelty, complexity, perceived risk, time pressure and personal stake) at each buying situation make possible an explanation of the use of different internet tools throughout the different phases in purchasing.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this paper show that there are implications for practitioners related to the core hypotheses of the research. The contingency approach employed in the study makes it easier to adapt the different internet tools (web pages, intranet development or adoption of videoconference technology) to the specific characteristics of the buying situation in which they are primarily used. On the other hand, the main limitation of this research lies in the composition of the sample, so that it could be considered suitable to extend the study to different product lines and to decisions on service contracts in the near future.
Originality/value
This research analyzes whether different internet tools are used throughout the phases in the purchasing process and, at the same time, whether the characteristics of the buying situation determine the use of the internet in that process.
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Victoria Osuna and José Ignacio García Pérez
This paper aims to study the type of short-time work (STW) schemes implemented in Spain to preserve jobs and workers’ incomes during the COVID-19 crisis and the corresponding…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the type of short-time work (STW) schemes implemented in Spain to preserve jobs and workers’ incomes during the COVID-19 crisis and the corresponding labour market outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
A dynamic macroeconomic model of job creation and destruction of the search and matching type in a dual labour market.
Findings
The model shows that the availability of STW schemes does not necessarily prevent a large increase in unemployment and job destruction. The quantitative effects depend on the degree of subsidization of payroll taxes and on the design of the policy. A scenario with a moderate degree of subsidization and where the subsidy is independent of the reduction in hours worked is the least harmful for both welfare and fiscal deficit. The cost of such a strategy is a higher unemployment rate. Concerning heterogeneous effects, the unemployed are the ones who experience the strongest distributional changes.
Originality/value
The effectiveness of STW schemes in dual labour markets using a search and matching model in the context of the COVID-19 crisis has not been analysed elsewhere. The literature has emphasized the importance of dynamics, labour market institutions and workers’ heterogeneity to understand workforce adjustment decisions in the face of temporary shocks to de- mand especially when firms’ human capital is relevant. These elements are present in the model. In addition, this paper computes welfare and distributional effects and the cost of these policies.
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Jose Picatoste, Laura Pérez-Ortiz, Santos Miguel Ruesga-Benito and Isabel Novo-Corti
Smart cities can be understood as an inclusive space for each and everyone to achieve their best options, within the framework of sustainable development, where institutions boost…
Abstract
Purpose
Smart cities can be understood as an inclusive space for each and everyone to achieve their best options, within the framework of sustainable development, where institutions boost information and technology environments that help achieve the highest individual and social well-being with the aim of improving the lives of citizens. The youth group (between 15 and 24 years) was severely affected by the crisis. In this paper, youth employability, in relation to the new challenges of smart cities, is analyzed in the EU with the aim of assessing the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) skills on youth employability.
Design/methodology/approach
By means of a mean analysis and structural equation modeling, the differences between the Eurozone and the other countries in the EU is analyzed, as well as the importance of information technologies and the computer skills for increasing youth employability.
Findings
The results indicate that awareness of the importance of IT skills is greater in the Eurozone and that computer skills are highly significant to explain the employability of young people.
Practical implications
The achieved conclusions point out to the training on computers skills as a key factor for boosting youth employment.
Social implications
This work could provide some tools to help policymakers design instruments for increasing youth employment, as well as to provide training mechanisms to obtain the skilled workforce needed for the enterprises that emerged in the environment of smart cities.
Originality/value
The main original value of this work is to relate computers skills and the employment rates for youth in the framework of the European Union.
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Julissa Marina Ormeno Blanco and Beatriz Arranz
This study focuses on urban lighting design, exploring its effect on citizens´ emotions. A methodology based on Kansei engineering is developed in response to the question: How…
Abstract
Purpose
This study focuses on urban lighting design, exploring its effect on citizens´ emotions. A methodology based on Kansei engineering is developed in response to the question: How does lighting of facades within the urban space influence people’s emotions?
Design/methodology/approach
Outdoor lighting design is a multidisciplinary topic that involves, among other aspects, design, energy savings, protection of nocturnal biodiversity and profitability, all of which are important functional and regulatory requirements. However, they do not necessarily consider user needs, which make perception and emotional response difficult parameters in the lighting design process. The studies carried out on lighting and its impact on emotions have mainly been done indoors. The objective of this work is to propose a methodology to evaluate emotional response to the illuminated nocturnal urban space with the purpose of providing knowledge to create emotionally efficient luminous spaces that improve people’s perception and well-being. The instrument used was the survey (online questionnaires), based on Kansei engineering, created to incorporate the emotional variable in product design. The research was carried out with participants from Peru, Spain and Germany. The results collected the reaction of the participants to different types of night-time luminous spaces presented, which contributes to a better understanding of user needs and activities regarding the space. This knowledge is intended to help designers meet their expectations.
Findings
The Kansei engineering method has made establishing relationships between the sensations experienced and the physical characteristics of the luminous space possible. From the point of view of outdoor lighting design planning, Kansei methodology can contribute to a better understanding of user needs within the urban space, serving as a guide to specialists when making lighting decisions and thus meeting their expectations. Therefore, it is considered a very useful and recommended instrument not only from the beginning of lighting projects but also applicable to lighting master plans. The method used contributes to a multidisciplinary design approach, performing a simultaneous analysis of all the requirements and design parameters (architectural, psychological, biological, environmental and social) that intervene from the first design phases of the project, which will allow qualitative lighting solutions aimed at user satisfaction with the urban night space. From a comprehensive point of view, the instrument generated enables identifying not only quantitative values of the urban night space (luminous spaces and technical descriptors) but also qualitative values (aesthetic descriptors), which are both decisive instruments when measuring user satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
Participants were only from Germany, Peru and Spain.
Originality/value
Traditionally, research aiming at user responses to lighting environment comes from the field of psychology or engineering, not considering parameters of lighting design that could effectively cater to specific user needs.
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Angelica Maria Sanchez-Riofrio, Nathaniel C. Lupton, Segundo Camino-Mogro and Álvaro Acosta-Ávila
Worldwide, Ecuador is one of the countries with the most entrepreneurial activity from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). However, the effect of adopting the US…
Abstract
Purpose
Worldwide, Ecuador is one of the countries with the most entrepreneurial activity from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). However, the effect of adopting the US dollar (dollarization), over which the central bank has no control, combined with being mainly an exporter of primary products, as well as strategic currency devaluation by neighboring economies, has created a difficult situation, especially for Ecuadorian women’s MSMEs. This paper aims to study the relationship between female ownership and Ecuadorian MSMEs’ financial, economic and social outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors compile a near-population panel of 617,804 firm-year observations representing an unbalanced panel of 112,917 MSMEs during the 2007–2016 sampling window. Panel (fixed effects) regression is used to test the hypotheses concerning the antecedents to firm financial performance, economic and social outcomes. Cox proportional hazards modeling is used to assess the impact of antecedents on firm survival.
Findings
First, firms providing more social benefits (e.g. employment and higher wages) have higher survival rates. Second, female ownership is negatively related with microenterprise financial performance, but positively associated with small-enterprise financial performance. Third, female-owned enterprises tend to provide higher wages per employee for all firm sizes. Fourth, although female-owned microenterprises are less efficient, they tend to provide more for their employees and possibly communities, through the economic stimulus they provide, in terms of the size of the financial outcomes.
Originality/value
This paper shows that, although this is a “man’s world,” women are learning earlier, developing faster professionally and overcoming stereotypes to focus on activities that generate both economic performance and social outcomes. Governmental policies that have contributed to MSMEs’ growth and women’s participation are identified. The findings suggest ways to improve and support both the creation of more women-owned MSMEs in emerging countries, such as Ecuador, and the survival of existing male- and female-owned MSMEs.