Market Competition and Lower Tier Incentives

The relationship between competition and performance-related pay has been analysed in single-principal-single-agent models. While this approach yields good predictions for managerial pay schemes, the predictions fail to apply for employees at lower tiers of a firm's hierarchy. In this paper, a principal-multi-agent model of incentive pay is developed which makes it possible to analyze the effect of changes in the competitiveness of markets on lower tier incentive payment schemes. The results explain why the payment schemes of agents located at low and mid tiers are less sensitive to changes in competition when aggregated firm data is used. JEL classification numbers: D82, J21, L13, L22. Keywords: Cournot competition, Contract delegation, Moral hazard, Entry, Market size, Wage cost.

Market Competition and Lower Tier Incentives

The relationship between competition and performance-related pay has been analyzed in single-principal-single-agent models. While this approach yields good predictions for managerial pay schemes, the predictions fail to apply for employees at lower tiers of a firm's hierarchy. In this paper, a principal-multi-agent model of incentive pay is developed which makes it possible to analyze the effect of changes in the competitiveness of markets on lower tier incentive payment schemes. The results explain why the payment schemes of agents located at low and mid tiers are less sensitive to changes in competition when aggregated firm data is used. Journal of Economic Literature classiffication numbers: D82, J21, L13, L22. Keywords: Cournot Competition, Contract Delegation, Moral Hazard, Entry, Market Size, Wage Cost.

The Network Company in Catalonia : ICT, Productivity, Competitiveness, Salaries and Performance in Catalonia's Companies. Research report (synthesis document)

Resum en anglès del projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

The Network Company in Catalonia : ICT, Productivity, Competitiveness, Salaries and Performance in Catalonia's Companies. Research report (synthesis document)

Resum en anglès del projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

Centrality and investment strategies at the beginning of industrialisation in mid-nineteenth-century Catalonia

We apply social networks analysis to the study of an important database on investment and companies" share in the Catalonia (Spain) of the nineteenth century. In contrast with most of the existing related literature, usually addressing power relationships across administration boards, we focus on the structure of interactions among individual investors and firms. Centrality analysis uncovers interesting roles played by certain economic sectors (e.g. textile and financial). Furthermore, the diverse composition (in terms of economic activity) of communities in the network (subgroups more densely connected internally than with the rest of the network) reveals a high investment diversification, which nicely agrees with a known characteristic of traditional Catalan business strategies.

An integrated model of adoption and development of e-commerce in companies

Since the mid-1990s researchers have sought to understand why some firms embark on e-commerceoperations on the Internet while others prefer to wait and see how events unfold. We still have todetermine which variables contribute to explaining the extent to which firms use e-commerce, giventhat to date the literature has not yet offered conclusive evidence on this question. The current workaims to provide an integrated vision of the set of factors influencing the e-commerce adoptionprocess. We use a sample of 2,038 firms of all types that trade their products either with otherorganizations or with end-consumers.

Between specialization and globalization. The marketing of agrarian products and its environmental impacts seen from a historical perspective: the province of Barcelona in the mid-nineteenth century

Ecological economics has five good reasons to consider that economic globalisation, spurred by commercial and financial fluxes, to be one of the main driving forces responsible for causing environmental degradation to our planet. The first, is the energy consumption and the socio-environmental impacts which long-distance haulage entails. The second, is the ever-increasing flow of goods to far-away destinations which renders their recycling practically impossible. This is particularly significant, because it prevents the metabolic lock of the nutrients present in food and other agrarian products from taking place. The third, is that the high degree of specialization attained in agriculture, forestry, cattle, mining and industry in each region, generates deleterious effects not only on the eco-landscape structure of the uses of the soil, but on the capability to provide habitat and environmental functions to maintain biodiversity as well

Companies in Conflict Situations: Advancing the Research Agenda. Seminar proceedings. Barcelona, october 2011

Seminar proceedings about the Seminar “Companies in Confict Situations”, organized by ICIP, with the aim of reflecting on the causes, the dynamics and the consequences of the participation of companies in armed conflicts. Over thirty international experts will be participating in the conferences to analyze the role and responsibilities of companies in connection with the international arms market (especially regarding small arms, light weapons and conventional weapons), the provision of military and security services, and the exploitation of, and trade in, natural resources.

Mandatory accounting disclosure by small private companies

This article analyzes how mandatory accounting disclosure is grounded on differentrationales for private and public companies. It also explores technological changes, such ascomputerised databases and the Internet, which have recently made disclosure of companyaccounts by small companies potentially less costly and more valuable, thanks to electronicfiling and universal online access to credit information systems. These recent developmentsfavour policies that would expand the scope of mandatory publication for small companies incountries where it is voluntary. They also encourage policies to reduce the costs and enhancethe value of disclosure through administrative reforms of filing, archive and retrieval systems.Survey and registry evidence on how the information in the accounts is valued and used bycompanies is consistent with these claims about the evolution of the tradeoff of costs andbenefits that should guide policy in this area.

Gazelle companies: Growth drivers and an evolution analysis

Gazelle companies are relevant because they generate much more employment than other companies and deliver high returns to their shareholders. This paper analyzes their behavior in the years of high growth and their evolution in the following years. The main factors that explain their success are competitive advantages based on human resources, innovation, internationalization, the excellence in processes and a conservative financial policy. Nevertheless, as time goes by they can be divided in two groups: a group which continues having growth, but most of them with lower growth rates; and the rest which face great problems or even disappear. The present study identifies several key factors that explain this different evolution.

Earnings management in Spain. Some evidence from companies quoted in the Spanish stock exchange

After the accounting scandals that have taken place mainly in the UnitedStates during the last years, some Spanish leading authorities havedefended the idea that this kind of accounting problems cannot happen inSpain. They argue that accounting regulation in Europe, and specificallyin Spain, make more difficult the use of creative accounting practices.The objective of this paper is to identify some evidence about thesituacion in Spain. The study tries to demonstrate that some accountingpractices of several of the companies quoted in the Spanish Stock Exchangecould be qualified as earnings management.To carry out this study, the authors have analysed the accounts of the 35companies included in the stock market index IBEX 35. This index iscalculated with the share prices variations of the most importantcompanies quoted in the Spanish Stock Exchange.

Capital goods imports and investments in Latin America in the mid 1920s

The assessment of Latin American long term economic performance is in urgent need ofmobilizing more data to match the pressing demands of growth analysts. We present asystematic comparison of capital goods imports for 20 Latin American countries in 1925. It relies on both the foreign trade data of the importing countries and of the major exporting countries the industrialized economies of the time. The quality of foreign trade figures is tested; an homogeneous estimate of capital goods imported is derived, and its per capita ranking is discussed providing new light on Latin American development levels before import substitution.

IFRS introduction and its effect on listed companies in Spain

From the beginning of January 2005 publicly traded companies in the European Union have to comply with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their consolidated accounts, as required by 1606/2002 European Commission Regulation. It had been suggested that the new accounting rules will facilitate not only the process of international harmonization of financial statements, but also efficient performance of financial markets and capital flows worldwide. This study analyzes the first results of IFRS implementation by Spanish non-financial listed companies.

Mid Holocene in Sant Julià de Boada (Baix Empordà, Girona): Stratigraphical sequence and paleoenvironmental records of the paludal deposits

Descripció de la seqüència estratigràfica i dels registres paleoambientals dels sediments holocens de Sant Julià de Boada