Paolo Figini

Multinational companies and wage inequality in the host country: the case of Ireland

Multinational Companies and Wage Inequality in the Host Country: The Case of Ireland. — In this paper, the authors analyze the impact of multinational companies on wage inequality in a host country. Based on a model, in which the introduction of new technologies leads to increases in the demand for skilled labour and, therefore, to rising wage inequality, they econometrically study the Irish manufacturing sector between 1979 and 1995. They examine inequality between wages for skilled and unskilled labour within the same manufacturing sector. Their results indicate that there is an inverted-U relationship between wage inequality and multinationals, i.e., with the increasing presence of multinationals, wage inequality first increases, reaches a maximum, and decreases eventually.ZusammenfassungMultinationale Unternehmen und Lohnungleichheit im Gastland: Der Fall Irland. — Die Verfasser analysieren die Auswirkungen multinationaler Unternehmen auf die Lohnungleichheit im Gastland. Auf der Grundlage eines Modells, in dem die Einführung neuer Technologien die Nachfrage nach qualifizierten ArbeitkrÄften verstÄrkt und damit die Ungleichheit unter den Löhnen erhöht, analysieren sie ökonometrisch den gewerblichen Sektor Irlands zwischen 1979 und 1995. Sie untersuchen die Ungleicheit der Löhne von gelernten und von ungelernten Arbeits-krÄften im gleichen Produktionszweig. Ihre Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ es eine umgekehrte U-förmige Beziehung zwischen Lohnungleichheit und Multis gibt, d.h., mit zunehmen-der Anwesenheit von Multis steigt die Lohnungleichheit zunÄchst an, erreicht dann ein Maximum und geht schlie\lich zurück.

Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect Wage Inequality? An Empirical Investigation

We use a panel of more than 100 countries for the period 1980 to 2002 to analyse the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and wage inequality. We particularly check whether this relationship is non-linear, in line with a theoretical discussion. We find that the effect of FDI differs according to the level of development: we depict two different patterns, one for OECD (developed) and one for non-OECD (developing) countries. Results suggest the presence of a non linear effect in developing countries; wage inequality increases with FDI inward stock but this effect diminishes with further increases in FDI. For developed countries, wage inequality decreases with FDI inward stock and there is no robust evidence to show that this effect is non-linear.

Tourism and Growth in a Cross-Section of Countries

The authors provide an empirical assessment of the relationship between tourism specialization and economic growth by updating the findings of previous papers written on this issue. They use data for more than 150 countries, covering different time spans between 1980 and 2005. Contrary to previous findings (for example, Brau et al, 2004 and 2007), tourism-based countries did not grow at a higher rate than non-tourism-based countries, except for the 1980–1990 period for which, however, the data on international tourism were not fully reliable. Estimating visitor spending through the segmentation approach has several advantages in terms of policy evaluation, user management and sampling design. This approach generally relies on visitor surveys to estimate two parameters, average spending per segment and segment share, so that total visitation can be apportioned to each subgroup. Equivalently, this approach is to estimate the weighted average spending by taking into consideration the relative shares of each user segment. This paper first provides a statistical formula to compute the variance of weighted average spending by taking into account the stochastic nature of spending and segment shares. Second, simulation analysis is adopted to compare the accuracy and precision of the spending estimator based on different study designs. The results show that conducting additional short surveys to obtain information on user segments provides two advantages. First, it helps to reduce non-response bias since certain visitor groups have higher ratios of unreturned questionnaires, incomplete data or non-participation. Second, it helps to decrease the variance of the estimator so that the upper and lower bound of the confidence interval can be narrowed. The level of variance reduction will depend on the relative segment shares, the average spending, cases that are obtained, spending variation and the probability of giving full spending information across segments. The implications for survey design are offered in light of the results. This study examines the impact of the Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy on US hospitality stock returns. Specifically, this research paper investigates the stock performance of US hospitality firms under different Fed monetary policy regimes. Hospitality companies include gambling firms, lodging companies and restaurants. Changes in the discount rate and federal funds rate are used to measure shifts in the Fed monetary policy and to classify the full monetary policy period as either a restrictive or an expansive monetary policy environment. An expansive monetary condition is a period with a decrease in the discount or federal funds rate; a restrictive monetary environment experiences an increase in the discount or federal funds rate. Empirical test results reveal that the influence of the two monetary policy indicators on hospitality stock returns varies to a great extent. The stock returns of US restaurants are related significantly to changes in the federal funds rate. However, changes in the discount rate generally have no strong impact on US hospitality stock returns.

The Economics of Tourism Destinations

The tourism destination, intended as the location of tourism structures and services as well as the place where travelers’ needs are fulfilled, is the core of the tourism system. Usually, a destination is geographically well defined, but its boundaries may often blur and evolve. According to Davidson and Maitland (1997):

Dynamic efficiency of the human intestinal microbiota

Abstract The emerging dynamic dimensions of the human intestinal microbiota (IM) are challenging the traditional definition of healthy gut microbiota, principally based on the static concepts of phylogenetic and functional core. On the other hand, recent researches are revealing that the microbiota plasticity is strategic for several aspects of our biology, addressing the different immunological and metabolic needs at various ages, and adjusting the ecosystem services in response to different lifestyle, physiological states or diets. In light of these studies, we propose to revise the traditional concept of healthy human IM, including its degree of plasticity among the fundamental requisites for providing host health. In order to make a model taking into account the relative importance of IM core functions and plasticity for the maintenance of host health, we address to Economics, where the efficiency of a productive system is measured by computing static and dynamic parameters.

The Puzzle of Tourism Demand at Destinations Hosting UNESCO World Heritage Sites An Analysis of Tourism Flows for Italy

The study develops a comprehensive picture of tourism demand trends at UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHSs) with the aim of providing evidence of any growth in demand for specific destinations after the listing of their sites. In contrast to previous literature, this article focuses on the smallest statistical unit (the municipality) to examine WHS impact on the destination. Analyzing 16 Italian WHSs, we show the most relevant trends in hospitality demand, comparing tourism flows at destinations before and after listing. Data show that, on average, growth rates of tourism demand in the 5 years after WHS listing are not higher than growth rates in the 5 years before the listing, but a number of different patterns emerge. The policy and managerial implications of such findings are straightforward: at least for a mature destination like Italy, there is no statistical evidence that WHS listing is associated with accelerating market growth rates.

Estimating Tourism Effects on Residents: A Choice Modelling Approach to the Case of Rimini

For tourist destinations, sustainable economic development requires, together with the attainment of economic efficiency, environmental protection and social cohesion. This latter aspect implies that the local community has to be actively involved in the planning and in the management of the tourism sector, and that (the great part of) tourism earnings have to be fairly distributed among the residents.

The management of tourism destinations: A policy game

Real-world tourism destinations differ in the way they develop and are managed. This is mainly due to the complexity of the tourism product (a bundle including both complementary and substitute goods and services) and the type of primary resource. Moreover, the planning of tourism and the policy of the destination depend on coordination and cooperation among several agents (private companies, public bodies and hybrid agents) on a plethora of issues. This article deals theoretically with the alternative patterns of strategic interaction that can be played by the different stakeholders of the destination: private agents can either play cooperative or non-cooperative pricing strategies, while the optimal investment policy for the destination management depends on the timing of the game (private and public agents’ moves can either be simultaneous or sequential). By jointly considering the two features of cooperation and game timing, the authors are able to identify four different cases for their policy model. They show that the solutions of these cases generally differ and, if private agents are coordinated, the policymaker’s choice between simultaneous and sequential moves is irrelevant. On the contrary, if agents are not coordinated, the policymaker prefers to use its first-move advantage in the sequential game in order to reduce the inefficiency stemming from the non-coordination of prices. The results are carefully discussed with respect to the peculiarity of the tourism product (where mainly complementary goods are included) and to the different patterns of destination management which are observed worldwide.

The influence of formal trade agreements and informal economic cooperation on international tourism flows

This article aims to contribute to the literature on the effects of trade bloc formation and plurilateral economic cooperation on international tourism flows. This research expands previous findings in the number of countries (58) and types of agreements (formal and informal, global and regional) under investigation in order to (i) capture the effect of both formal trade agreements and plurilateral economic integration on bilateral tourism flows; (ii) test the robustness of previous findings through the use of alternative econometric specifications, estimation techniques and measurement of tourism flows. In this respect, an important feature of this research is the introduction of ‘total tourism’, corresponding to the ‘total trade’ variable in trade studies, as an alternative dependent variable in the specification of the gravity model used throughout the article.

The Information and Communication Technology and the Tourism Sector

As every other aspect of everyday life and socioeconomic relationships, also tourism is crossed, and sometimes deeply affected, by the evolution of a complex system of phenomena that in the common language can be defined as Internet Revolution, New Economy, Information Technology (IT), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), etc. Without entering in specific topics pertaining to the Economics of Information or to the Science & Technology debate, in this chapter we will simply try to understand if and how the economic problem and rationale of tourism firms, tourists, and destinations are affected by what certainly is a momentous change in the organization of our society: