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Di Tella et al. (2001) show that temporary fluctuations in life satisfaction (LS) are correlated with macroeconomic circumstances such as gross domestic product, unemployment and inflation. In this paper, we bring attention to labour market measures from search and matching models (Pissarides 2000).

Our analysis follows the two-stage estimation strategy used in Di Tella et al. (2001) to explore sectoral unemployment levels, labour market tightness and matching efficiency as LS determinants. In the first stage, we use a large sample of individual data collected from a continuous web survey during the 2007–2014 period in the Netherlands to obtain regression-adjusted measures of LS by quarter and economic sector. In the second-stage, we regress LS measures against the unemployment level, labour market tightness and matching efficiency.

Our results are threefold. First, the negative link between unemployment and an employee's LS is confirmed at the sectoral level. Second, labour market tightness, measured as the number of vacancies per job-seeker rather than the number of vacancies per unemployed, is shown to be relevant to the LS of workers. Third, labour market matching efficiency affects the LS of workers differently when they are less satisfied with their job and in temporary employment.

No evidence of this relationship has been documented before. Our results give support to government interventions aimed at activating demand for labour, improving the matching of job-seekers to vacant jobs and reducing information frictions by supporting match-making technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the matching process before and after the Great Recession in the Netherlands. The Dutch case is interesting because it is characterised by increasing matching efficiency.

This paper uses data from 2001 to 2014 to study the Dutch labour market matching process accounting for the three labour market states and their heterogeneities.

The elasticity of hires with respect to the short-term employed was significant, positive and countercyclical, while elasticities relating to new entrants were procyclical. The matching function (MF) displays constant returns to scale (CRTS) when using an alternative labour supply (LS) measure that includes the short-term employed as jobseekers. The findings are at odds with the idea of mismatch and a shortage of skills. Search frictions for employers were lower and vacancies were filled faster. This can be related to the fact that in a loose labour market context with increasing short-term employment, employers increase their hiring of employed workers which generates negative externalities on unemployed.

The implications concern the specification of the MF and the CRTS assumption when using unemployment as a LS measure.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work conditions and job characteristics with respect to three subjective well-being (SWB) indicators: life satisfaction, job satisfaction and satisfaction with work-life balance. From a methodological point of view, the paper shows how social sciences can benefit from the use of voluntary web survey data.

The paper makes use of a large sample of individual data obtained from voluntary web surveys collected as part of the WageIndicator project. The sample includes extensive information on the quality of working conditions together with different well-being indicators. The propensity score adjustment weights are used to improve the sample performance.

The results shed light on the importance of certain job characteristics not only in determining job satisfaction, but also in other SWB domains. The findings support the theory of spillover perspectives, according to which satisfaction in one domain affects other domains.

As a voluntary web-survey, WageIndicator is affected by selection bias. The validity of the sample can be improved by weighting, but this adjustment should be made and tested on a country-by-country basis.

The paper provides analysis of the quality of a web survey not commonly used in happiness research. The subsequent presentation of the effects of working conditions on several satisfaction domains represents a contribution to the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the forecast of tourism inflows into Spain by use of Google – indices on internet searches measuring the relative popularity of keywords associated with travelling to Spain.

Two models are estimated for each of the three countries with the largest tourist flows into Spain (Germany, UK and France): a conventional model, the best ARIMA model estimated by TRAMO (model 0) and a model augmented with the Google-index relating to searches made from each country (model 1). The overall performance of both models is compared.

The improvement in forecasting provided by the short-term models that include the G-indicator is quite substantial up to 2012, reducing out of sample mean square errors by 42 per cent, although their performance worsens in the following years.

Deeper study and conceptualization of sources of error in Google trends and data quality is necessary.

The paper illustrates that while this new tool can be a powerful instrument for policy makers as a valuable and timely complement for traditional statistics, further research and better access to data is needed to better understand how internet consumers’ search activities translate (or not) into actual economic outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to recommend the use of internet data for social sciences with a special focus on human resources issues. It discusses the potentials and challenges of internet data for social sciences. The authors present a selection of the relevant literature to establish the wide spectrum of topics, which can be reached with this type of data, and link them to the papers in this International Journal of Manpower special issue.

Internet data are increasingly representing a large part of everyday life, which cannot be measured otherwise. The information is timely, perhaps even daily following the factual process. It typically involves large numbers of observations and allows for flexible conceptual forms and experimental settings.

Internet data can successfully be applied to a very wide range of human resource issues including forecasting (e.g. of unemployment, consumption goods, tourism, festival winners and the like), nowcasting (obtaining relevant information much earlier than through traditional data collection techniques), detecting health issues and well-being (e.g. flu, malaise and ill-being during economic crises), documenting the matching process in various parts of individual life (e.g. jobs, partnership, shopping), and measuring complex processes where traditional data have known deficits (e.g. international migration, collective bargaining agreements in developing countries). Major problems in data analysis are still unsolved and more research on data reliability is needed.

The data in the reviewed literature are unexplored and underused and the methods available are confronted with known and new challenges. Current research is highly original but also exploratory and premature.

The paper reviews the current attempts in the literature to incorporate internet data into the mainstream of scholarly empirical research and guides the reader through this Special Issue. The authors provide some insights and a brief overview of the current state of research.

Purpose: The first objective is to explore how narcotelenovelas and news can be compared in their representation of drug violence and figures. The second is to explore a method which identifies intertextual references in fiction by contrasting them with journalistic reports. Methodology/approach: Qualitative content analysis is of three narcotelenovelas: El Señor de los Cielos, El Chapo, and Narcos: México. After documenting clear historical references and figures, a search was made through news engines and portals to make a comparison of the fictional versus journalistic representation of such references. Findings: Many elements of narcotelenovelas such as events and public figures are highly comparable to those described in news. While producers openly warn that they changed facts for dramatic purposes, it’s possible to propose hypotheses in which audiences construct their historical memories based on fictional narratives. Research limitations: This chapter does not offer an exhaustive list of intertextual references from all three narcotelenovelas. Originality/value: This type of comparative analysis between fiction and journalism hasn’t been explored for the study of narcoculture media products. The author poses a hypothesis, in which fiction contributes significantly to collective memories and imaginaries, especially when it appeals to historical references audiences might identify.

The study aims to present an agent-based simulation model (ABM) for exploring interorganizational coordination scenarios in local disaster preparedness. This approach includes local actors and logistical processes as agents to compare various strategic coordination mechanisms.

The ABM model, developed in the Latin American context, specifically focuses on a case study of Colombia. Three coordination mechanisms (centralized, decentralized and cluster-type) have been evaluated using three performance indicators: effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility.

Simulation results show that the decentralized scenario outperforms in terms of efficiency and flexibility. On the contrary, the centralized and cluster-type scenarios demonstrate higher effectiveness, achieving a greater percentage of requirements coverage during the disaster preparedness stage. The ABM approach effectively evaluates strategical coordination mechanisms based on the analyzed performance indicators.

This study has limitations due to the application of results to a single real case. In addition, the focus of the study is primarily on a specific type of disaster, specifically hydrometeorological events such as flash floods, torrential rains and landslides. Moreover, the scope of decision-making is restricted to key actors involved in local-level disaster management within a municipality.

The proposed ABM model has the potential as a decision-making tool for policies and local coordination schemes for future disasters. The simulation tool could also explore diverse geographical scenarios and disaster types, demonstrating its versatility and broader applicability for further insights and recommendations.

Cuba’s 1959 Revolution brought about dramatic changes not only in that island‐nation but also in the USA. Cubans, and later Cuban‐Americans, have changed the face of Miami and south Florida. The economic and social successes of Cuban‐Americans, the third largest Latino group in the USA, are prevalent in scholarly and popular literature. In this annotated bibliography, the author presents journal articles, chapters in books, books, and human rights reports, published between 1990 and 1998, as well as World Wide Web sites, that discuss the Cuban‐American experience. Articles from the popular literature are not included, nor are materials that deal primarily with Cuba or Cuba‐USA relations.