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Browsing Research by Department "Economics"
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Publication Awakenings: An authentic leadership development program to break the glass ceiling(MDPI AG, 2021) Martínez Martínez, Miryam; Molina López, Manuel ; Cabo, Ruth Mateos de; González Pérez, Susana; Izquierdo, Gregorio; Gabaldón, Patricia; Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras; Agencia Estatal de Investigación; Universidad San Pablo - CEU; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Companies are vital agents in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. One key role that businesses can play in achieving the 5th Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality is implementing training programs for their women executives so they can reach top corporate leadership positions. In this paper,we test the effectiveness of an Authentic Leadership Development (ALD) program for women executives. By interviewing 32 participants from this ALD program and building on authentic leadership theory,we find that this program lifts women participants’ self-efficacy perception,as well as their self-resolution to take control of their careers. The driver for both results is a reflective thinking process elicited during the program that leads women to abandon the stereotype of a low status role and lack of self-direction over time. Through the relational authenticity developed during the program,women participants develop leadership styles that are more congenial with their gender group,yet highly accepted by the in-group leader members,which enhances their social capital. After the program,the women participants flourished as authentic leaders,were able to activate and foster their self-esteem and social capital,and enhanced their agency in career advancement,increasing their likelihood of breaking the glass ceiling. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI,Basel,Switzerland.Publication Bargaining under Threats: The Effect of Joint Custody Laws on Intimate Partner Violence(2021-09) Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Nollenberger, Natalia ; Roff, Jennifer; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75We study the effect of a policy change that exogenously shifted bargaining power from mothers to fathers on intimate partner violence. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment based on a series of reforms in Spain that shifted the custody decision from being unilaterally determined by the mother to a joint decision, barring evidence of violence. We find that the policy led to a large and significant decrease in intimate partner violence, with the largest effects among couples in which the mother was more likely to seek sole custody before the policy change.Publication Bargaining under Threats: The Effect of Joint Custody Laws on Intimate Partner Violence(IZA, 2020-10) Nollenberger, Natalia; Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Roff, Jennifer; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75We study the effect of a policy change that exogenously shifted bargaining power from mothers to fathers on intimate partner violence. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment based on a series of reforms in Spain that shifted the custody decision from being unilaterally determined by the mother to a joint decision, barring evidence of violence. We find that the policy increased the incidence of joint custody in Spain from less than 11% of all divorces to 40% in just five years. Comparing the evolution of intimate partner violence in treated and control regions and using couples without children as an additional comparison group, we find that the policy led to a large and significant decrease in intimate partner violence, with the largest effects among couples in which the mother was more likely to seek sole custody before the policy change. Consistent with this finding, the policy also led to a significant reduction in female partner homicides in treated regions. Finally, we also find evidence of more police reports by victims of intimate partner violence with a significantly higher proportion of these reports ending in dismissals or non-guilty decisions by the specialized courts. We interpret this finding as evidence of strategic behavior by mothers who want to retain sole custody of their children.Publication Can economic incentives for joint custody harm children of divorced parents? Evidence from state variation in child support laws(Elsevier, 2021-09) Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Roff, Jennifer; Sun, Hugette; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75US state laws vary widely in the treatment of child support under joint custody. While some states require no child support in joint custody cases, other states require fathers with joint custody to pay the same amount as if they had no custody. The economic incentives generated by those custody laws can affect family decisions and the wellbeing of children of divorced parents, both under joint and sole custody. Merging child data from the SIPP with state child support guidelines, we find that economic incentives for joint custody have negative effects on the human capital development and health of children of divorced parents. Custody data together with parental characteristics and time use data suggest that economic incentives for joint custody may limit children's time spent with relatively high-quality mothers, as fathers pursue joint custody in response to the policy. We do not find an effect of economic incentives for joint custody on the probability of divorce and on the wellbeing of children in intact families. Our results are robust to specification changes, and the negative effects of economic incentives for joint custody on the wellbeing of children tend to be larger for girls and for children aged 12 and under.Publication Child Custody Laws and Household Outcomes(Springer Nature, 2022-09-06) Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Roff, Jennifer; Zimmermann, Klaus; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Shared parenting or joint physical custody is an increasingly common phenomenon in many Western countries. While one strand of the economics literature on this topic has taken a theoretical approach, examining the efficiency and distributional effects of joint custody within marriage, most of the literature has focused on identifying the effects of shared parenting empirically. However, an empirical analysis of shared parenting and its consequences is difficult for multiple reasons, including selection in joint custody and data ambiguity in identifying “friendly” joint custody legal regimes. This Handbook chapter provides an overview of the legal treatment of shared parenting internationally and within the USA and discuss the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of shared parenting on family outcomes. The chapter conclude with directions for future research.Publication Commitments and the Marital Match: The Effect of Alimony Reform on Assortative Matching(IZA, 2021-11) Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Roff, Jennifer; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This paper examines the effects of reforms that reduced alimony on matching in the marriage market. Recent literature indicates that divorce law changes which reduce commitment or income-sharing upon separation will lead to an increase in assortative matching, as women forgo specialization which may not be compensated upon divorce. Using state-level data on alimony reform that reduced the entitlements of eligible spouses and American Community Survey data on marriage and the characteristics of newlyweds, we find that alimony reform increased measures of spousal covariance in education. Our results indicate that correlation coefficients on spousal degree attainment consistently rise with alimony reform, and regression-based measures of assortative matching increase similarly. Moreover, we find the largest effects among those groups who might be more sensitive to the reform. Regression-based measures of assortative matching increase by over 10% among couples in which at least one partner had previously been married and by 9% among those couples who marry in states with less generous property division and child support which are often treated as substitutes for alimony in divorce settlementsPublication Earthquakes on the surface: earthquake location and area based on more than 14 500 ShakeMaps(European Geoscience Union, 2018-06-20) Lackner, Stephanie; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Earthquake impact is an inherently interdisciplinary topic that receives attention from many disciplines. The natural hazard of strong ground motion is the reason why earthquakes are of interest to more than just seismologists. However, earthquake shaking data often receive too little attention by the general public and impact research in the social sciences. The vocabulary used to discuss earthquakes has mostly evolved within and for the discipline of seismology. Discussions on earthquakes outside of seismology thus often use suboptimal concepts that are not of primary concern. This study provides new theoretic concepts as well as novel quantitative data analysis based on shaking data. A dataset of relevant global earthquake ground shaking from 1960 to 2016 based on USGS ShakeMap data has been constructed and applied to the determination of past ground shaking worldwide. Two new definitions of earthquake location (the shaking center and the shaking centroid) based on ground motion parameters are introduced and compared to the epicenter. These definitions are intended to facilitate a translation of the concept of earthquake location from a seismology context to a geographic context. Furthermore, the first global quantitative analysis on the size of the area that is on average exposed to strong ground motion – measured by peak ground acceleration (PGA) – is provided.Publication Estimating Latent-Variable Panel Data Models Using Parameter-Expanded SEM Methods(Taylor & Francis, 2024-07-15) Wei, Siqi; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This article presents new estimation algorithms for three types of dynamic panel data models with latentvariables: factor models, discrete choice models, and persistent-transitory quantile processes. The newmethods combine the parameter expansion (PX) ideas of Liu, Rubin, and Wu with the stochastic expectation-maximization (SEM) algorithm in likelihood and moment-based contexts. The goal is to facilitate conver-gence in models with a large space of latent variables by improving algorithmic efficiency. This is achieved byspecifying expanded models within the M step. Effectively, we are proposing new estimators for the pseudo-data within iterations that take into account the fact that the model of interest is misspecified for drawsbased on parameter values far from the truth. We establish the asymptotic equivalence of the likelihood-based PX-SEM to an alternative SEM algorithm with a smaller expected fraction of missing informationcompared to the standard SEM based on the original model, implying a faster global convergence rate.Finally, in simulations we show that the new algorithms significantly improve the convergence speed relativeto standard SEM algorithms, sometimes dramatically so, by reducing the total computing time from hoursto a few minutes.Publication Factores de éxito en el emprendimiento femenino turístico rural en Costa Rica(Universidad de Alicante, 2021-07-15) Gabaldón, Patricia; Gutiérrez Cruz, Merlyn; Such Devesa, María Jesús; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This research article aims to define the profile of Costa Rican women entrepreneurs in the rural tourism sector and to determine whether their characteristics and those of their ventures are related to their performance. A mixed methodology has been adopted based on semi-structured and in-depth interviews. The results highlight the importance of family support and contact networks as essential elements for the development of successful enterprises. Family and networks provide two essential elements for the success of women entrepreneurs: access to finance and the formalization of their business. It is particularly important to point out the contribution of this research to the under-studied field of rural entrepreneurs, given their contributions to reducing poverty for which access to information has traditionally been very limited.Publication Factores del entorno empresarial que condicionan la actividad de las micropymes femeninas de turismo rural en Costa Rica(UCOPress, 2023-06-30) Gabaldón, Patricia; Gutiérrez Cruz, Merlyn; Such Devesa, María Jesús; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Este estudio analiza los factores del entorno empresarial que influyen en la actividad de las micropymesturísticas rurales dirigidas por mujeres en Rica. Basándonos en la teoría institucional, se seleccionaron elementos institucionales formales (capital humano, barreras burocráticas, financiación, apoyo gubernamental) e informales (códigos de conducta, normas sociales, papel familiar) que influyen en la actividad empresarial femenina. Se realizó un análisis comparativo cualitativo difuso (fsQCA) a una muestra de 28 mujeres empresarias turísticas rurales costarricenses para conocer las interacciones entre dichos factores que afectan a la generación de ganancias. Los resultados de la investigación revelan cinco configuraciones diferentes que conducen a bajas o nulas ganancias en la actividad empresarial femenina. Los factores formales (barreras burocráticas y bajos niveles de capital humano), combinados con la presencia o la ausencia de otros factores institucionales tanto formales como informales representan una condición crítica vinculada con la baja o nula generación de ganancias. Las implicaciones teóricas de esta investigación contribuyen al conocimiento de los elementos institucionales formales e informales que afectan el crecimiento de las empresas dirigidas por mujeres en el sector turístico rural costarricense, y en las implicaciones prácticas, contribuye al fortalecimiento de la actividad empresarial femenina.Publication Gender diversity on corportate boards: directors' perceptions of board functioning and gender quotas(Virtus Interpress, 2023) Arnardottir, Audur Arna; Sigurjonsson, Throstur Olaf; Gabaldón, Patricia; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This research explores how increased gender diversity on corporate boards in Iceland,driven by applying a ?hard? public policy,i.e.,board gender quota legislation,has affected post-quota board directors‘ perceptions of board functioning. This study falls into the growing literature on board diversity (Boshanna,2021; Li et al.,2020). Directors‘ opinions towards board decision-making and monitoring activities are researched,as well as their effect on corporate governance practices. A survey was answered by 244 board directors in Iceland. Results show that the initial attitude towards gender quotas was more negative among male directors than female directors but became more similar and positive over time. Strong support is found for increased female board participation leading to different viewpoints being discussed at the board table in addition to better decision-making. A similar picture emerges regarding the behavior of holding chief executive officers (CEOs) accountable and being more focused on corporate governance practices. These results were significantly the view of female directors and directors chairing the assessed board. Male directors are more negative than their female counterparts about the short-term effect of increased female participation is having on board dynamics. This research indicates that a gender quota has led to increased female board participation in addition to impacting decision-making corporate norms,according to directors,as policymakers intended. © 2023 The Authors.Publication Getting More Women on Boards: Cultural and Institutional Antecedents That Matter(SAGE Publications Inc., 2023) Warner Soderholm, Gillian; Seierstad, Cathrine; Aberg, Carl; Gabaldón, Patricia; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the multiple cultural and institutional antecedents which can positively (or negatively) impact the incorporation of more women on corporate boards (WoCB). Many contemporary discourses about quotas versus voluntary actions by corporations as drivers of greater gender diversity on boards are largely based on cross-country mimicking. These discourses often fail to integrate country-level configurations and conditions,as drivers or barriers to change. We advance this research by seeking to understand the complexity of such multiple antecedents to getting WoCB. Results show multiple macro factors involved in getting WoCB in Europe. We test the complex inter-relations of factors such as legislation,cultural,societal,economic,political,and institutional variables,and their effects. Findings highlight important drivers of more women on boards such as gender equality in political empowerment and institutional settings; government-regulated maternity and paternity leave; specific legislative or soft quota policies; and societal cultural variables,such as (low) power distance and (high) assertiveness,as drivers of getting WoCB. These results prove the need to consider and complement legislative policies to specific cultural and institutional conditions in each country. To help policymakers,we provide insights into which multiple macro factors act as drivers or barriers in their organizations or societies for getting more WoCB. This will help decision makers in organizations or policymaking bodies to match gender diversity goals to the multiple country-level conditions they need to navigate,hence making a better world together. © The Author(s) 2023.Publication High Speed Internet and the Widening Gender Gap in Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Hospital Records(IZA, 2022-05) Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Nollenberger, Natalia; Arenas Arroyo, Esther; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This paper studies the impact of internet access on adolescent’s mental health. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the deployment of optic fiber in different areas of Spain between 2007 and 2019, we find that high-speed internet (HSI) increased mental health diagnoses among girls. Exploring the mechanisms behind this effect, we show that HSI increases addictive internet use while reducing time spent on sleep, homework, and socializing with family and friends, with girls driving all these effects. We also provide evidence that HSI contributes to a significant increase in suicide among adolescents, with the effects again being larger among girls.Publication Income risk inequality: Evidence from Spanish administrative records(Wiley, 2022-12-01) Wei, Siqi; Bonhomme, Stéphane; De Vera, Micole; Hospido, Laura; Arellano, Manuel; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75In this paper, we use administrative data from the social security to study incomedynamics and income risk inequality in Spain between 2005 and 2018. We con-struct individual measures of income risk as functions of past employment his-tory, income, and demographics. Focusing on males, we document that incomerisk is highly unequal in Spain: More than half of the economy has close to perfectpredictability of their income, while some face considerable uncertainty. Incomerisk is inversely related to income and age, and income risk inequality increases.Publication Income, Employment and Health Risks of Older Workers(Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros, 2022-07) Wei, Siqi; Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad; María de Maeztu Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This paper begins with the observation that many olderworkers move to "bridge" jobs with lower wages and fewer working hours before exiting the labor force for good. To explain this gradual transition to full retirement, I propose a nonlinear agingrelated shock — mismatch shock, which mismatches workers with their existing job and triggers job leaves. I develop an empirical framework of employment and job transitions jointly with stochastic wage and hour processes to separate health risks, individual-specific productivity risks, firm-specific mismatch risks, quality of outside offers, and job destruction risks faced by older workers. The model is estimated with a sample of male individuals aged 51 to 70 in the US Health and Retirement Study applying a novel parameter-expanded stochastic EM algorithm. The paper finds that mismatch shocks play an important role in explaining the reduction in wages and hours for movers. Furthermore, I calculate the welfare cost of risks and quantify how much individuals value the possibility of a flexible transition to full retirement by constructing a utility-based structural model of consumption, employment and job movements where agents face the same risks as in the empirical model. The model is estimated using a novel simulation-based algorithm that exploits the connection to the empirical model and the estimates from the empirical model. The results show that the median cost of mismatch risks amounts to a reduction in consumption flow by 5?3%-7?1% depending on the education group. Banning job changes and re-entry causes a welfare loss equivalent to a consumption drop of 12% 4%.Publication Indicadores comentados sobre el estado del sistema educativo español 2024(2024) Scarlat, Elvira; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Esta décima edición dedica un capítulo especial al informe PISA y cuenta también con los comentarios de un amplio grupo de expertos que comentan aspectos significativos de nuestro sistema de educación y formación.Publication Intimate partner violence under forced cohabitation and economic stress: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic(Elsevier, 2021-02) Arenas Arroyo, Esther; Fernández Kranz, Daniel; Nollenberger, Natalia; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75With the COVID-19 outbreak imposing stay at home and social distancing policies, warnings about the impact of lockdown and its economic consequences on domestic violence have surged. This paper disentangles the effect of forced cohabitation and economic stress on intimate partner violence. Using an online survey data set, we find a 23% increase of intimate partner violence during the lockdown. Our results indicate that the impact of economic consequences is twice as large as the impact of lockdown. We also find large but statistically imprecise estimates of a large increase of domestic violence when the relative position of the man worsens, especially in contexts where that position was already being threatened. We view our results as consistent with the male backlash and emotional cue effects.Publication Introducing synchromodality: One missing link between transportation and supply chain management(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2022) Acero, Beatriz; Saenz, Maria Jesus; Luzzini, Davide; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75This study develops and tests the synchromodality construct,a novel supply chain concept that integrates the flexible use of different transport modes based on real-time information. At a time when global supply chains are complex and subject to uncertainty,synchromodality has emerged at the forefront of research and practice as a tool to ensure efficient delivery performance and thus supply chain competitiveness. Despite synchromodality is attracting the attention of leading companies and policy makers,only scholars within the transport research community have engaged with the topic so far. We believe a supply chain management perspective is missing,but essential,to develop the full potential of synchromodality. Our study shows that synchromodality capabilities encapsulate four key elements: visibility,integration,multi-modal transport,and flexibility. Thanks to a three-stage research approach exploiting multiple methods,this study conceptualizes,develops,and validates the first synchromodality measurement model,which reflects the multidimensional nature of the concept. We hope to set the stage for a number of potential future research opportunities that can explore synchromodality implementation and outcomes. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Supply Chain Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLCPublication La importancia de la diversidad de género en las empresas innovadoras un análisis del caso español(Ministerio de Economía, Comercio y Empresa, 2020-02-27) Gabaldón, Patricia; Gimenez Jimenez, Daniela; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75En esta investigación examinamos cómo la diversidad de género influye en las decisiones sobre la innovación en equipos que trabajan con I+D en España. Utilizando el panel de datos de la encuesta PITEC durante el período 2008 a 2016 realizada por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), los resultados de la investigación ponen de manifiesto como la diversidad de género en estos equipos investigadores tiene un impacto positivo pero limitado sobre la innovación de servicios. Estos resultados demuestran que la incorporación de mujeres en innovación puede ayudar a fomentar la equidad de género en las organizaciones a la vez que incrementa su innovación.Publication La mujer emprendedora en el turismo rural peculiaridades del caso costarricense a través de la revisión bibliográfica(Universidad de Murcia, 2020-12-16) Gabaldón, Patricia; Gutiérrez Cruz, Merlyn; Such Devesa, María Jesús; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Este artículo analiza el fenómeno de la mujer emprendedora en el turismo rural en Costa Rica, enmarcándola en el contexto latinoamericano y en el de las emprendedoras rurales. A partir de una revisión sistemática de la literatura, se define el perfil de las empresarias, sus motivaciones y las barreras que enfrentan. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto las importantes similitudes entre las emprendedoras turísticas rurales costarricenses con el resto de las emprendedoras en Latinoamérica y del mundo. Este estudio contribuye al conocimiento de las emprendedoras dentro del marco del turismo rural, esencial para el desarrollo económico del país.