1,720,988 research outputs found
Stimulating sustainable development in Brazil’s coffee sector : an empirical analysis on integrated landscape management strategies
Full text linkThis report investigates the sustainable agricultural performance of coffee farms in the south-eastern states of Brazil under integrated landscape management strategies. 651 municipalities were analysed across Paraná, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo between 2002 and 2016 to study the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality Program and the 2012 Brazil Investment Plan for Sustainable Land Use and Forest Management in the Cerrado biome. Using a Difference in Difference model with fixed effects estimations, I identified that both programs have facilitated significant improvements across income, yields and crop value. The research provides insights into the strategic opportunities for value chain investors, governments, financial institutions and farmers to improve environmental practices in coffee farming with economic incentives. Ultimately, my research provides compelling insights on the efficacy of integrated landscape management approaches for meeting the growing consumption demand as well as the commitments of Brazil’s ecosystem conservation and restoration initiatives.
“You cannot tackle hunger, disease, and poverty unless you can also provide people with a healthy ecosystem in which their economies can grow.”
— Gro Harlem Brundtlan
The impact of state ownership on companies’ sustainability : an empirical analysis of the ESG scores of companies in the EU/EEA
Full text linkAccording to a recent survey by McKinsey (2010), over 50 per cent of executives consider
sustainability to be very important to their company. Despite this, companies vary
greatly in their focus on sustainability, and we know relatively little about how the
ownership structure of a business affects its decision to take a more sustainable approach.
In this paper, we analyse the impact of state ownership on companies’ corporate social
performance (CSP), using environmental, social and governance disclosure scores (ESG
score) compiled by Bloomberg. Even after controlling for confounding variables such as
company size and sector, we find that companies partially owned by the state (SOEs)
perform significantly better than non-SOEs when it comes to ESG scores. In addition to
the average effects, we find that ESG scores increase with the size of the share owned by the
state. We also gather qualitative data from semi-structured interviews of six Norwegian
companies. The data suggests that our results can be explained by shareholders’ effect on
companies’ sustainability and governments’ promotion of sustainability through policies
and expectations for companies in their ownership. Moreover, as investors, the state often
has a more long-term perspective than private actors, and thus prioritises sustainable
development of the company over time
Does the ownership of CEOs affect their compensation? : a study of the link between ownership structures and CEO pay in unlisted Norwegian shipping and sea transport companies.
Full text linkThis master’s thesis studies the link between ownership structures and CEO compensation in
unlisted Norwegian shipping and sea transport firms. The objective is to examine differences in
total pay and pay-performance sensitivity between owner and non-owner CEOs, and we test the
predictions of CEO pay from two theories; agency theory and the managerial power perspective.
We find evidence that non-owner CEOs receive significantly higher compensation than owners,
between 39 % and 47 % on the average. Furthermore, compensation decreases with the
ownership percentage, which indicates that ownership shares can be used as a substitute for
cash compensation and to reduce agency problems. There is some evidence that firm
performance, measured by EBIT growth, affect the compensation of non-owners. This indicates
that non-owners have a higher pay-performance sensitivity than owners. Overall, predictions
from agency theory fits our data better than the managerial power perspective.
To get additional insights into the dynamics of top executive compensation, we surveyed the
CEOs in the dataset. The survey reveals that non-owners to a greater extent receive
performance-based pay compared to owners. Most non-owners believe the compensation gap
is due to the owners’ possibility of replacing their salary with dividend payments. However,
owners mostly claim that they rarely or never pay out dividends instead of salary. They believe
that inner motivation, cautiousness, and commitment to the firm can explain the pay gap. There
are some findings from our survey that highlights differences in motivation. Owners score
somewhat higher on intrinsic motivation, while non-owners are more motivated by extrinsic
factors
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Reforming an Institutional Culture of Corruption: A Model of Motivated Agents and Collective Reputation
Full text linkRecent research has highlighted social image and identity concerns as factors that influence economic decisions. Given that an individual’s choice of employment may be important for their social image, we consider a model of worker sorting into the mission-oriented or private sector with motivated agents who also value the collective reputation of their place of employment. The initial insight of the analysis is that, from the institution’s perspective, there may exist both a high-reputation, low-wage equilibrium and a low-reputation, high-wage equilibrium, which raises the question of how an institution can transition between equilibria. Our main contribution is to characterize a dynamic wage path that will transition from a low-reputation to a high-reputation steady state: Importantly, the effect of wages on motivation depend on the initial reputation - starting from low-reputation, higher wages crowd in motivation, while starting from high-reputation, higher wages crowd out motivation. Therefore, a non-monotonic wage path is required to achieve a transition to the low-wage, high-reputation equilibrium - an initial wage increase to crowd in motivated workers, followed by a wage decrease to crowd out non-motivated workers. These results provide a novel explanation for empirical findings in developing nations that - in direct contrast to evidence from developed nations - public sector workers are less prosocial and higher wages weakly increase motivation. Lastly, we discuss the implication of our results for policy measures aimed at reforming an institutional culture of corruption
Efficient fiscal spending by supranational unions
Full text linkWe use a novel approach to address the question of whether a union of sovereign countries can efficiently raise and allocate a budget, even when members are purely self-interested and participation is voluntary. The main innovation of our model is to explore the link between budget contributions and allocation that arises when countries bargain over union outcomes. This link stems from the distribution of bargaining power being endogenously determined. Generically, it follows that unstructured bargaining gives an inefficient result. We find, however, that efficiency is achieved with fully homogenous countries, and when countries have similar incomes and the union budget is small. Moreover, some redistribution arises endogenously, even though nations are purely self-interested and not forced to participate in the union. A larger union budget, however, entails a tradeoff between equality and efficiency. We also analyze alternative institutions and find that majority rule can improve efficiency if nations who prefer projects with high public good spillovers are endogenously selected to the majority coalition. Exogenous tax rules, such as the linear tax rule in the EU, which is designed to increase efficiency on the contribution margin, can also improve overall efficiency despite decreasing the efficiency of the allocation of funds.Wir nutzen einen neuen Ansatz um der Frage nachzugehen, ob eine Union aus souveränen Staaten effizient ein Budget erheben und verteilen kann, auch wenn alle Mitgliedstaaten ausschließlich ihren Eigennutzen maximieren und die Mitgliedschaft freiwillig ist. Die Hauptneuerung unseres Modells ist die Erforschung des Zusammenhanges zwischen Beiträgen zum gemeinsamen Budget einerseits und dessen Allokation andererseits, der aus dem Verhandlungsprozess resultiert. Dieser Zusammenhang entsteht, da die Verteilung relativer Verhandlungsmacht endogen ist. Das bewirkt, dass ein unstrukturierter Verhandlungsprozess fast immer zu ineffizienten Resultaten führt. Ausnahmen ergeben sich wenn alle Staaten homogen sind, sowie wenn die nationalen Einkommen ähnlich und das gemeinsame Unionsbudget vergleichsweise gering sind. Darüber hinaus zeigen wir, dass ein gewisses Maß an Umverteilung entsteht, obwohl alle Staaten ausschließlich eigennützig handeln und freiwillig teilnehmen. Mit einem wachsenden Budget ergibt sich allerdings ein Konflikt zwischen Gleichheit und Effizienz. Desweiteren analysieren wir alternative Institutionen und zeigen dass ein Mehrheitsprinzip effizienzsteigernd sein kann, sofern die Staaten welche Projekte mit dem höchsten Gemeinnutzen bevorzugen eine Mehrheitskoalition bilden. Exogen bestimmte Beitragssätze, wie etwa die proportionale Steuerregel in der EU, welche zur Steigerung der Effizienz auf der Abgabeseite eingeführt wurde, können ebenfalls insgesamt vorteilhaft sein, obwohl gleichzeitig die Effizienz der resultierenden Mittelverteilung sinkt
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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