Trade-employment linkage of FTAs in Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-347
Author(s):  
Yong Joon Jang ◽  
Mee Jin Cho ◽  
HanSung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Firm Heterogeneity ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Difference

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the link between trade liberalization and employment through the export channel under Korea’s FTAs by distinguish firm heterogeneity (i.e. size) as well as sector-level international competitiveness (i.e. comparative advantage). Design/methodology/approach Using the firm-level data during 2000–2009, the authors drive the difference-in-difference-in-difference model on Wagner (2007) with the dependent variables of labor productivity and employments and the independent variables of free trade agreement, revealed comparative advantage, firm size and payroll costs. Findings The authors find that the economic benefit of FTAs in Korea is not concentrated in large enterprises or firms with comparative advantage. Accordingly, the authors conclude that FTA or trade liberalization brings positive effects to business as a whole, rather than to specific industries or group of firms. Research limitations/implications The Korean Government has continued its policy of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for a long time by recognizing them as socially underprivileged. According to the results of this study, an increase in export through FTAs improves firm’s labor productivity and increases employment, especially for SMEs, which can be a practical and efficient support for them. Originality/value The paper provides the empirical evidences that how the effects of trade liberalization on labor depend on firm heterogeneity, industrial competitiveness and/or both and thus how labor is reallocated in response to trade liberalization in Korea.

The response of majority employee-owned firms during the pandemic compared to other firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Blasi ◽  
Douglas Kruse ◽  
Dan Weltmann
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Employee Ownership ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rutgers University ◽  
Employment Trends ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Industry Membership ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how majority employee-owned firms responded to the pandemic compared to firms that were not majority employee-owned. The Employee Ownership Foundation partnered with Rutgers University and the SSRS survey firm to survey ESOP and non-ESOP firms about their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A key purpose of the survey was to estimate firm-level changes in employment from mid-January to August (current employment figures were adjusted to August 5 using BLS industry employment trends). The survey also looked at other forms of adjustment and responses to the pandemic as reviewed below. The focus in this study is on the differences between firms that are majority owned by ESOPs and those that are not.Design/methodology/approachThe survey included 247 executives from ESOP Association member companies and 500 executives from an SSRS business panel constructed to be representative of US companies with 50 or more employees. The survey started on August 5 and ended on September 23, 2020.Findings(1) Majority ESOP firms had employment declines from January to August that were on average only one-fourth as large as for other firms. The difference is maintained when controlling for industry membership. (2) Majority ESOP firms were more likely to be declared “essential,” but the lower employment cutbacks among majority ESOP firms remain among essential and non-essential businesses. As essential businesses, majority ESOP firms were more likely receive Paycheck Protection Program or other government pandemic assistance, but both assistance recipients and non-recipients had lower employment cutbacks among majority ESOP firms. (3) The extent of employment cutbacks was higher for non-managers than for managers, but the manager/non-manager gap was higher among other firms than among majority ESOP firms.Research limitations/implicationsThis study supports empirical findings done previously.Practical implicationsThis study suggests to non-EO firms what they can do.Social implicationsThis study suggests strengths of EO firms.Originality/valueA very original and one-of-a-kind dataset.

scholarly journals Information technology (IT) productivity paradox in the 21st century

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood Hajli ◽  
Julian M. Sims ◽  
Valisher Ibragimov
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
It Investment ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
High Positive Correlation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Productivity Paradox ◽  
It Productivity Paradox ◽  
It Productivity

Purpose – Since the 1970s productivity growth in most economies slowed, while information and communication technology expenditures increased: the “information technology (IT) productivity paradox.” Some researchers reported an end to the paradox, but this is most likely due to IT industry growth approaching the Year 2000 phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to update IT productivity paradox research. Design/methodology/approach – For comparability this research replicates methods employed by previous studies but employs a two-level approach: first macroeconomic indicators; second labor and multi-factor productivity. Findings – Findings suggest IT investment has high positive correlation with gross domestic product growth, but not labor or multi-factor productivity. This ambiguity suggests the paradox is still poorly understood. Research limitations/implications – The findings are not conclusive; the authors cannot confirm or reject the existence of the productivity paradox. The global recession and banking crisis makes it prudent to wait until recovery before analyzing data from that period. Practical implications – Lack of convincing evidence supporting positive effects from IT investment suggests some firms benefit from IT investment, but not others, and that IT investment has questionable returns. Social implications – Firm level studies might find IT investment benefits some firms, but lack of convincing macroeconomic level evidence of positive effects of IT investment suggests the paradox still exists. Originality/value – This research updates the IT productivity paradox demonstrating the phenomenon is still poorly understood and thus worthy of further study, questioning the benefits of IT investment for industry and national economies.

Matching external search strategies with radical and incremental innovation and the role of knowledge integration capability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Difference

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the differential effects of two external search strategies on radical innovation (RI) and incremental innovation (II) and explore the mediating role of knowledge integration capability (KIC).Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the data collected from a sample of 241 firms from Chinese electronic information industry. The author conducted a hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS and PROCESS to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that both external search breadth and depth have positive effects on RI/II performance. The author also found that the effect of search breadth on RI is greater than that on II, and the effect of search depth on RI is less than that on II. Moreover, the author discovered that KIC fully or partially mediates the relationship between external search strategies and RI/II.Originality/valueThe paper provides a finer grained understanding concerning the difference in the impacts of the two external search strategies on RI/II performance. The paper also adds to the existing literature by explaining the path in which external knowledge search influences RI/II through the mediation effect of KIC.

Outward FDI and productivity promotion of exporting firms: firm-level evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Song Zhang ◽  
Haoze Li ◽  
Chunlai Chen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Effect ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
Outward Fdi ◽  
Export Intensity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Exporting Firms ◽  
Chinese Firm ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) conducted by exporting firms on their productivity.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two Chinese firm-level datasets. To reduce the bias when merging the two datasets, this study uses a comprehensive link approach to obtain more observations. The propensity score matching method is employed together with the difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference approaches to identify the casual effects.FindingsThe study finds that exporting firms become more productive through learning effect via OFDI, and the positive impact of OFDI on total factor productivity materializes very quickly but subject to diminishing return. The study also finds that state-owned enterprises gain less learning effect via OFDI than private-owned enterprises, and firms with higher export intensity or larger size tend to gain less improvement in productivity via OFDI.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to investigate empirically the impact of OFDI conducted by exporting firms on their productivity. In particular, the study analyzes three types of firm heterogeneous factors, namely, ownership, export intensity and size, in affecting exporting firms' learning effect via OFDI.

Do trade reforms affect changes in patterns of comparative advantage?

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Namsuk Choi
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Poor Country ◽  
Export Performance ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Trade Reform ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Reforms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of foreign trade liberalization and trade reforms on the process of structural upgrading, and explore the extent to which they provide impetus for exports. Design/methodology/approach This paper accounts for trade liberalization dates, cumulative years in open regime, and the density of 1,006 products in the patterns of comparative advantage for 132 countries from 1975 to 2000. The effects of trade liberalizations and trade reforms in open regime on future export performance are estimated by using various empirical strategies. Findings This paper finds that the speed of moving from simple poor-country goods to rich-country goods in export depends not only on having a route to nearby goods of increasingly higher value, but also on the increase in the cumulative years in open regime. In particular, a 1 percent change in the relatedness across products with trade reform in open regime increases the probability of exporting a new product by 2.0 percent more. Originality/value A contribution of this paper is that it measures the extent to which trade reform in open regime affects the evolution of comparative advantage, even after taking account of the role of relatedness of exported products as in the Hausmann and Klinger (2006, 2007). In this paper, empirical findings of a comprehensive product level cross-country time-series data analysis may contribute to generalize the role of trade reform on structural upgrading not only for a pro-competitive export country like Korea but also for a typical developing country.

The effect of comparative advantage of host country’s industry on multinationals’ M&A vs greenfield FDI decisions

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeho Lee ◽  
Yong Joon Jang
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Entry Mode ◽  
Foreign Market ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
Comparative Advantages

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that comparative advantage of host country’s industry can be one of the significant determinants of the decision on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or greenfield in foreign direct investment (FDI). Design/methodology/approach The authors extract five-related properties of an industry with comparative advantage in a host nation from Bernard et al.’s (2007) international trade model with heterogeneous firms and attempt to empirically test their roles in a multinational enterprise’s (MNE) M&A or greenfield investment decision, using the inward FDI data set in Korea from 1999 to 2006. Findings The theoretical framework finds that the five properties derived from an industry with comparative advantage in a host country have mixed motives for M&A or greenfield. The empirical results show that selected conventional independent variables generally affect the M&A or greenfield entry mode decision with significance individually and that their impacts become more or less prominent when the authors employ interaction terms combining them with comparative advantages in the industries. Research limitations/implications This implies that MNEs not only consider their own firm-specific advantages or other country-level factors for foreign market entries as the previous research generally found, but also seriously take into account industry-specific factors, especially industry-wide comparative advantages based on heterogeneous productivities of firms. Originality/value This paper reconciles multinationals’ strategic motives under an oligopolistic market with their efficiency gains under a monopolistic competitive market, which are considered as two main factors for cross-border M&A. Furthermore, this paper adds a new firm-level data set into entry mode research.

Marketers’ human capital resources and job performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Dinh Tho ◽  
Nguyen Dong Phong ◽  
Tran Ha Minh Quan ◽  
Nguyen Thi Mai Trang
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Job Performance ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects

Purpose Positing that human capital resources of marketers comprise both psychological capital (PsyCap) and marketing capital (MarCap), and that PsyCap in combination with MarCap will have a synergistic effect on marketers’ job performance, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the configurational roles of PsyCap and MarCap in marketers’ job performance. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey data set collected from 472 marketers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the study tested the net effects of PsyCap and MarCap on job performance using structural equation modeling (SEM). Then, the study investigated the configurational roles of PsyCap and MarCap in job performance employing the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings SEM results show that two components of PsyCap (efficacy and optimism) and one component of MarCap (organizational MarCap) have positive effects on job performance. fsQCA findings reveal that, except hope, combinations of PsyCap and MarCap components form several sufficient conditions for job performance. Research limitations/implications The focus of this study is on marketers, that is, at the individual level. Future research should examine both PsyCap and MarCap at a higher level, such as the team, unit, or firm level. Practical implications The study’s findings suggest that firms should pay attention not only to the net effect but also to the configuration of PsyCap and MarCap when designing and implementing their human resource strategies and policies. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on human capital resources by confirming the configurational roles of PsyCap and MarCap in marketers’ job performance.

scholarly journals The intergenerational effect of parental enthusiasm for reading

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (84) ◽  
pp. 239-259
Author(s):  
Jose G. Clavel ◽  
Mauro Mediavilla
Keyword(s):  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Reading For Pleasure ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to focus on how reading for pleasure is transmitted within the family. Using data taken from the Programme for International Student Assessment test of 2009, which dealt in depth with the reading proficiency of students, the authors show that children of parents who read for pleasure are better readers. Within the extensive research and published results on reading performance, the authors focused on the transmission of parents’ reading attitudes to their children. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors have opted for an approach of “difference in differences”, applied to a population that represents all 15-year-olds from five countries (Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Portugal). To support this study, the authors chose as a response variable the difference between reading performance and maths performance of each student, taking into account five plausible values for each student. The authors have several explanatory variables, among them what we call the “treatment”, which is the parents’ enthusiasm for reading. Findings The calculated estimations clearly indicate that there is a positive effect for four out of the five countries analysed, ranging from 4 points for Italy to 6.5 points for Germany and Portugal. As for the significance of the effect, with the exception of Hungary, the result is reliable and robust. It should also be noted that the variable that indicates the existence of a reading habit by children (daily reading for pleasure) is seen as a factor that positively affects the difference between competence in reading and mathematics in four out of the five countries analysed. Originality value The results show positive effects on children whose parents read for pleasure, and this fact should be used to further encourage parents to promote their own reading time for pleasure. In view of the already quantified trend in international reports that adults are reading less, it seems crucial to involve educational authorities in reversing this phenomenon, knowing the impact that adult reading habits have on the reading competence of young people.

Performance of microfinance institutions in Muslim countries

Humanomics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Ashraf ◽  
M. Kabir Hassan ◽  
William J. Hippler III
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measures ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Loan Loss ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The Difference

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to analyze whether performance measures and their factors for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Muslim countries are significantly different from those in their non-Muslim counterparts, central to the Islamic scholars' argument that religious and cultural norms in Muslim countries may drive the preference of Islamic microfinance over conventional microfinance. Design/methodology/approach – Using a cross-sectional dataset of 2,138 firm-years for 754 different MFIs across 83 countries, 33 Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member Muslim countries and 50 non-member countries, we analyzed the MFI performance based on three sets of measures: outreach, loan recovery and profitability and overall financial performance measures, with respect to two sets of explanatory variables, namely, country-specific and firm-level variables. Findings – Results show that country gross domestic product size is positively related with profitability, and the percentage of women borrowers is also significant in driving loan recovery and firm profitability in the OIC sample, but they are otherwise not significant for the rest of the world sample. Practical implications – This study contributes to the understanding of the core argument in the motivation of Islamic MFIs, which is whether cultural and religious factors are important for MFI success in Muslim countries. Originality/value – This study introduces a variable that measures the difference between a country's independence year and their OIC membership year as a proxy for the “country religious inclination” of a Muslim country. Results suggest that countries with delayed membership in OIC show lower inclination to popular Islamic beliefs and higher market penetration of conventional microfinance outreach. Positive relationships among a country's religious inclination and loan loss ratios and loan provisions are also consistent with the moral hazard hypothesis that few religious communities may be more prone to default.

CEO power and labor productivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-165
Author(s):  
Emily Breit ◽  
Xuehu (Jason) Song ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
Joseph Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Labor Cost ◽  
Ceo Power ◽  
Cost Component ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labor Efficiency

Purpose This paper aims to examine how Chief Executive Officer (CEO) power affects firm-level labor productivity. Design/methodology/approach The authors rely on regression analysis to examine the relation between CEO power and labor productivity. Findings Following prior research (i.e. the sequential rank order tournament theory), the authors predict that powerful CEOs lead to high labor productivity. They find a significant and positive relationship between CEO power and labor productivity. They further decompose labor productivity into labor efficiency and labor cost components and find a positive (negative) relationship between CEO power and labor efficiency (cost) component, suggesting that more powerful CEOs better manage labor efficiency and control labor cost. The results are also robust to various additional tests. Originality/value This study contributes to two streams of research: the CEO power literature in finance and the labor productivity and cost literature in accounting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study that performs a direct empirical test on the relation between CEO power and labor productivity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document