We study an important mechanism underlying employee referrals into informal low skilled jobs in developing countries. Employers can exploit social preferences between employee referees and potential workers to improve discipline. The profitability of using referrals increases with referee stakes...

The ANZ Bank publishes a monthly count of the number of job advertisements appearing in New Zealand newspapers and, more recently, internet sites. It is New Zealand’s de facto vacancy or help-wanted series. Apart from its role in economic commentaries, there is very little published research...

This essay investigates the interaction between demand uncertainty and non-competitive labor markets where firm owners have the option to shut down and relocate. Workers cannot find new jobs instantly and therefore accept wage reductions to avoid unemployment, if firm owners credibly threaten to...

A striking feature of OECD labor markets in the 1990s has been the very rapid increase of temporary agency work. We augment the equilibrium unemployment model as developed by Pissarides and Mortensen with temporary work agencies in order to focus on their role as matching intermediaries and to...

In this paper we experimentally study effects of exogenous revenue shocks on long-term relationships between firms and workers. While we find that shocks have no significant effect on wages and a little effect on the duration of relationships, we observe their significant effect on effort...

This article reviews previous research regarding cost stickiness and performs an empirical analysis applied to a sample of farms. It recognizes that modelization of cost stickiness is a particular case of representation of cost variations as a function of output variations. It also discusses...

The agricultural sector has always been characterized by a predominance of small firms. International competition and the consequent need for restraining costs are permanent challenges for farms. This paper performs an empirical investigation of cost behavior in agriculture using panel data...

This paper conducts an empirical study on output, costs and incomes in organic farming with a sample of Spanish firms. Financial accounting data reveals that organic and partly or transitional to organic farming do not get significantly different output than intensive farming. Farms in...

Esta comunicacion investiga la manipulacion de resultados en las pymes espanolas en el periodo 2000-2008. Se trabaja con dos muestras de empresas (solventes e insolventes) y el proceso seguido ha consistido en recoger datos contables de los cinco anos previos antes del concurso de acreedores y...

The aim of this study is to reflect which the main competitive factors for small and medium businesses are today in Catalonia. For this reason, it has been chosen a sample of 1000 small businesses approximately (according the EU criteria) and analysed the financial information. From this source,...