Industrial Organization Commons^™

Union, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Union (2024), directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story.

Development And Utilization Of Mineral Resources In The Arctic And China’S Strategic Countermeasures, Yina Su

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

There are abundant strategic mineral resources as oil, gas, iron ore, copper, and nickel in the Arctic region. If the Arctic routes can be opened in the future, they will become another important transportation channels connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, following the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal, which may reshape the world’s maritime trade and transportation pattern. With the development of science and technology, increase in mineral resources consumption and changes in the international environment, the strategic position of the Arctic region is increasingly elevated, and the United States, Russia and some other countries of the European Union …

Architects Of War: The Economic And Industrial Strategies Of The Third Reich And United States Under Albert Speer And William Knudsen, Spencer David Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a chronological narrative that delves into the economic and industrial underpinnings of the Second World War, focusing on the contrasting war machines of Germany and the United States. By examining the strategic decisions and outcomes shaped by two central figures, Albert Speer of Germany and William S. Knudsen of the United States, this study highlights how their approaches to war production profoundly influenced the overall trajectory and outcome of the war. Knudsen’s embodiment of the American industrial spirit and Speer’s manipulation of Germany's constrained resources illustrate the crucial roles that economic strategies played alongside military operations. The …

Discourses That Undermine Union Movements: A Multimodal Analysis Of Union-Busting Videos, Theresa A. Catalano, Julia Schleck

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Labor unions in the United States have experienced decades of decline, but recent years have seen a rebirth of union campaigns and successes. Because unions are once again becoming a threat to large companies, it is reasonable to assume that efforts to discourage organizing efforts will increase and become even more robust in the near future. Although traditionally, companies have worked to suspend union organizing through captive audience meetings in which unions were discussed via verbal or written modes, more recent means of reaching workers with anti-union messages incorporate a variety of communication strategies to get the message across. As …

Consumer Demand For Food Products, Price Surge, And U.S. Public Policy: An Empirical Economic Analysis, Clement Olivier Codjia

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation, by leveraging advanced econometric modeling approaches and exploiting suitable large datasets, investigates consumer food product demand in a setting of change in regulating policies as well as unforeseen price increases. Three chapters have mainly enabled the dissertation to achieve its research goals, which have been explicitly presented in Chapter 1 along with the background as well as the core problem the studies have elaborated on.

Given that soft drinks stand out as a major cause of obesity and overweight worldwide, whereas the United States is the country most concerned with this problem, experts have agreed that labels and …

香港影視業勞工狀況終期研究報告2024, 嶺南大學政策研究院, 嶺南大學文化研究及發展中心, 嶺南大學「青年貧窮與就業」研究團隊, 潘毅, 梁仕池, 楊皓鋮, 蔡美琦, 鄧立賢

CCRD Research Report

推動影視業發展是港府近年的文創政策重心。影視業較為人注目的是黃金年代後票房積弱和創作自由的議題；而銀幕背後，從業員的處境則容易被忽略。本研究報告兼用定量和定質的調查，深入淺出地分析本地投身電影、電視、廣告、網片等影像製作的從業員的勞動條件，探討不合理待遇的成因，並按研究結果提出政策及行業倡議。

本研究以問卷調查了212為從業員的工作狀況，與44名從業員進行深度訪談，得出以下主要發現：

1）影視業以自由工作者為主，他們的僱傭型態零散，普遍沒有明文及完整合約便要開工，並容易面臨拖糧和其他形式的剝削（詳見第5部分）：

• 影視從業員以自由工作者為主，缺乏保障，面對多種危脆性（見p.26）
• 多數從業員開工前不會簽署正規協議（見p.35）
• 業內實際工作協議的完整度，比從業員理想的完整度有很大落差（見p.38）
• 行業零散度高，導致拖糧問題普遍（見p.47）
• 從業員容易面臨壓價和被資方轉移商業風險（見p.53）

2）影視業的生態和文化令從業員面對不公的操作和「行規」亦難以改變。這些因素包括：行業以人脈為重、行內層級文化較強、從業員願意為創作犧牲待遇、行內較缺乏團結及行動意識（詳見第6部分）：

• 從業員極度依賴人脈接觸工作機會。遇到不合理待遇時，顧慮到自己形象和開罪前輩的可能性，很多人都會忍氣吞聲，避免被行家覺得麻煩、小器，導致不獲重用。這無疑是製造了灰色地帶，讓掌握工作機會的人士和單位可以刻薄對待和剝削勞工，而毋須被問責（見p.58）
• 行內論資排輩的文化仍然存在，底層從業員要對前輩服從，表現出「肯捱」、願意「跟師傅學嘢」、甚至「任砌」等特質，難以反駁不合理要求，勞動尊嚴受損（見p.62）
• 從業員對藝術創作抱有熱誠，在商業製作中亦未必完全以金錢衡量自己的付出，因此容易陷入甘願「自我犧牲」的心態，導致被剝削（見p.64）
• 從業員若遇到不公平待遇，普遍不傾向團結行家一起尋求改變。主流的做法是在個人網絡傳播、私下聯絡對方追討、或放棄追究。多名受訪者歡迎行內發展出爭取權益導向的工會，惟他們認為現時並未有足夠條件推動（見p.65）

3）影視製作市道不佳，令製作預算壓縮，令長工時、職安意識不足問題亦更難有資源應對（詳見第7部分）：

• 拍攝現場有不少職安隱患，頗多從業員曾經歷或目睹工傷發生。從業員工時長、經常在疲勞狀態下工作；拍攝節奏趕急；現場未必有專業人員把關安全，僅靠經驗判斷安危等，都是造成職安隱患的原因（見p.77）
• 從業員連續多日超時工作的情況非常嚴重。受訪從業員認為行內有必要對作息時間有合理的規範，不應犧牲從業員健康（見p.74）
• 從業員認同需要專人負責監察片場安全，但對於如何實行並無共識（見p.81）
• 從業員普遍認為政府對行業的支援資源不足、不到位，應邁向更開放、不以商業效益為主要考量的方向改善（見p.84）

基於研究結果，我們對香港影視行業及政府提出以下倡議（詳見第8部分）：

保障自由工作者基本待遇（見p.87）

• 業界引入標準合約，推廣開工前先簽訂完整協議的文化
• 政府透過資助影像製作項目，推廣勞工友善措施
• 業界規範工時，減低超時、高強度工作的情況

改善工作條件及職業安全（見p.89）

• 業界和政府合作，設定適用於影視製作的職安課程、認證系統、作業指引
• 政府改善職安執法
• 從業員自我組織，維護及推動權益

支援業界發展（見p.92）

• 政府改善資助制度，支援各規模、多元創作
• 增加畢業生支援，輔助院校新晉人才與業界接軌

Esop Shocks: Employee Ownership And Employment Stability In Public Firms During The Covid-19 Crisis, Richard Taylor Lennox

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Did employee ownership preserve jobs and firm-level skill retention during the COVID-19 pandemic? In the United States, employee ownership (EO) primarily takes the form of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Using a longitudinal dataset composed of Department of Labor Form 5500 – CompuStat Fundamentals matched data from 2010-2022, this thesis examines the relationship between ESOPs and employment stability during the COVID pandemic for a large sample of public firms in the US. A fixed effects specification, controlling for a vector of firm characteristics and the national employment-to-population ratio, suggests that ESOPs had an employment-cushioning effect in public firms during the …

Regulator Preferences And Underinvestment In Drinking Water Infrastructure, Chunyu Guo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The infrastructure of U.S. drinking water systems faces chronic issues of low quality and underinvestment. As the water utilities in the U.S. are typically managed and regulated at the local municipal level, investment levels depend on the municipal regulator's preferences. Drawing from a dynamic framework, I specify and estimate the local regulators' objective function over drinking water infrastructure investment. This framework highlights the tradeoff between profit and consumer surplus and reveals how regulator preferences can deviate from net surplus optimization, resulting in underinvestment. My findings provide significant evidence that the drinking water infrastructure is underinvested. I reveal that the regulator's …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Financial Crisis And Female Entrepreneurship: Evidence From South Korea, Jungho Lee, Sunha Myong

Research Collection School Of Economics

We document a drastic increase in female-owned manufacturing firms in South Korea after the 1997 financial crisis. During the crisis, a major banking sector reform was conducted, and many underperforming bank branches were forced to close down. Using a geographical variation of bank branch closures during the reform, we show that the banking sector reform resulted in a rise in female entrepreneurship. We present evidence that male-owned firms were preferred by the closeddown bank branches, despite female-owned firms exhibiting lower risks and higher returns. The banking sector reform, although not explicitly aimed at addressing gender disparities, substantially benefited female entrepreneurs …

How Tiktok “Locks In” Its Users With Reference To What Happened In The Homeland Version Douyin Application, Yang Yang, Li Zi'ang, Zhigen Zhao, Sabrina (Zi Tong) Peng, Liyu Dou, Changyu Li, Yinqi Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

In October 2022, Douyin, the homeland version of TikTok, introduced a new rule requiring all its users to promote only Douyin-approved products during their live-streaming events and in their non-live short-videos. This requirement essentially restricts its users to monetize their content strictly through Douyin-approved products, as promoting products has become the most important source of income for Douyin users. This requirement essentially creates a lock-in effect.

Virtual Currencies And Intrapreneurial Coordination, Martin Sibileau

Journal of New Finance

Managers of conglomerates or companies with multiple business units are, like central planners in socialist countries, unable to perform economic calculation. These units exchange goods and services internally based on transfer prices, not market prices, and it is hard to ascertain the value contributed by management, which is often hired and rewarded based on political considerations. Innovation is also often unwelcome, as it may challenge privileges of executive management. Until 2016, conglomerates lacked the technology to benefit from economic calculation. In this paper, I propose that a blockchain platform supporting an internal virtual currency enables economic calculation inside conglomerates, unlocking …

The Role Of Filipino Conglomerates In The Nation's Development, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Could the country's small and medium companies be the engines of transformation that it needs to attain and sustain the 6.5-8 percent annual growth targeted in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028? I doubt it. They have neither the knowledge nor the financial muscle to do it.

There is another group of companies that could lead the way. These are the large conglomerates of the nation. They have much better knowledge of the economy and financial power. Yet, in general, they do not innovate or export. Instead, they are into non-tradable activities (real estate, banking, distribution, insurance, construction, telecommunications and food). …

Understanding Factors Influencing Electric Vehicle Adoption: Evidence From Panel Data Analysis, Ryker Brian

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper investigates the factors influencing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) using panel data from California. The analysis employs a panel data model with within effects to examine the relationship between EV adoption rates and various socio-economic factors. The continued analysis gives out-of-sample forecasted results for the 4 counties with the highest share of electric vehicles registered in 2021. Additionally, the paper explores the influence of supply-side issues and complementary infrastructure on EV adoption. An introduction to Hidden Markov Methods is then given as the next step in the research.

Quantifying The Impact Of Airlines Exit In Tourism Destinations. The Cases Of Monarch And Thomas Cook, Ubay Pérez-Granja, Juan Luis Eugenio-Martin

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

We analyze the impact on tourists’ arrivals after the bankruptcies of Monarch Airlines and Thomas Cook. It draws on arrivals from the UK to Canary Islands and it employs a univariate and multivariate structural time series with level interventions. More interestingly, after Monarch exit, the policymakers applied a laissez faire strategy, which resulted in a 93.04% net loss of their level of traffic in Tenerife. However, after Thomas Cook exit, the policymakers intervened in the market proposing incentives to the incumbent airlines to cover the loss. It resulted in a 34.72% net loss of Thomas Cook level of traffic. Moreover, …

The Effect Of Google Fiber On Incumbents' Average Broadband Speed, Erick J. Solis

Theses and Dissertations

Broadband speeds have important effects on firms and households. Using data from the FCC ``Form 477" database, the Census Planning database, and Google's solicitation to communities interested in high-speed internet (Google Fiber RFI), I estimate the effect of Google Fiber rollout on internet download speeds offered by incumbent firms to consumers. I implement a difference-in-difference approach using census Metropolitan Statistical Areas as my definition of a broadband market. My approach captures both the direct and spillover effects of Google Fiber rollout. My findings show that average incumbents’ speed is 20 percent higher in markets where Google Fiber entered; the results …

The Distributional Impacts Of Transportation Networks In China, Lin Ma, Tang Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates the distributional impacts of transportation networks in China. We show that the quality of roads and railroads vary substantially over time and space, and ignoring these variations biases the estimates of travel time. To account for quality differences, we construct a new panel dataset and approximate quality using the design speed of roads and railroads that varies by vintage, class, and terrain at the pixel level. We then build a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model that allows for multiple modes and routes of transportation and forward-looking migration decision. We find aggregate welfare gain and less spatial income …

Esg Reporting And Its Effect On Financial Performance Of Oil, Gas, And Utility Companies In The United States, Logan Lam

Honors Theses

According to the Harvard Business Review article ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Plant (Pucker and King 2022), the term ESG investments – which stands for environmental, social, and governance investing – often confuses investors because it is unregulated. Additionally, the author continued to claim that the data is outdated and mostly unaudited. Even if data on these investments is available to investors, it can still be challenging for them to make decisions regarding ESG. Trusting compatibility and accuracy can be difficult considering that companies can choose how to produce or calculate their own ESG data. Another claim that …

The Occupy Movement: More Than Just A Movement, Logan O'Brien

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

A look into the Occupy Movement from the early 2000s.

Essays On Agglomeration Economies And Industrial Clusters, Ahmad Aswin Masudi

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of agglomeration economies in Indonesia’s manufacturing sector. In three chapters, I utilize different methods from three different perspectives.

The first chapter explores the role of localization and urbanization economies in manufacturing firms’ location decisions using Indonesia’s Industrial Survey from 2003 to 2013. The mixed conditional-multinomial logit model results indicate that, despite the small magnitudes, localization economies do attract firms. However, urbanization economies seem to discourage firms. On the other hand, sectoral-weighted import content has proven to be one of the most prominent attractors of firms, except for medium technology firms in Java. For foreign firms …