​ :פרופ' מיקי מלול

The effect of economics cycles on job satisfaction in a two-sector economy/ Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 2017 ​

Economic growth improves the material well-being of all workers. However, when remu-neration in the public sector is less sensitive to economic cycles than in the private sector,as is typically the case, economic growth will worsen the position of workers in the pub-lic sector relative to workers in the private sector, even though their income improves inabsolute terms. As a result, job satisfaction may be countercyclical in the public sector. Wetest this counterintuitive hypothesis in a real-effort laboratory experiment that simulatesan economy with two sectors differing only in their remuneration scheme. Economic cyclesare introduced in order to test for their effect on job satisfaction and productivity in eachsector. We find that job satisfaction in the “public” sector is negatively correlated with thestate of the economy. This effect, however, does not carry over to productivity: even thoughan increase in a worker’s productivity in the public sector reduces his relative income, incomparison to a similar private sector worker, we find that this does not have a negativeeffect on job satisfaction.

Human resource management systems may serve as an antecedent that enables fi rms to develop a context for ambidexterity—an ability to pursue contradictory processes (exploitation versus exploration) within the same fi rm. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of motivation-enhancing HR practices on the productivity, motivation, and performance of commercial bank employees to promote and attain contextual ambidexterity within the organization. The theoretical model presented in this article shows how ex-ante incentives (incentives based on past performance) and ex-post incentives (incentives based on future performance) affect productivity, motivation, and performance of employees. The results are tested empirically by analyzing real quarterly data of commercial bank employees in Israel. The main results show that workers with relatively high abilities might take advantage of both ex-ante and ex-post incentives. In contrast, workers with relatively low ability are unable to take advantage of both incentive schemes. Our fi ndings indicate that motivation-enhancing HR practices such as fi nancial incentives signifi cantly infl uence the productivity and performance of employees. Our study contributes to the ambidexterity literature by examining how motivation-enhancing human resource (HR) practices such as incentive schemes make employees feel the sense of stretch that is essential in building an ambidextrous organization​.



פרופ' רפי בר-אל:

** Micro-enterprise lack of access to credit – The Israeli case /International Journal of Business and Economic Development Vol. 1 No.3 ,November 2013.
  ​תקציר

Micro-businesses face various difficulties in obtaining credit. Our research focuses on the demand side for credit through questionnaires addressed to 101 micro- businesses owners in a peripheral region of Israel. We have identified the existence of a market failure: micro-businesses tend to suffer from a lack of information in regard to the existence of credit funds and in regard to loan taking procedures. Many of them are unaware of their need for credit or do not know how and whom to address. We also found that the micro-business population is quite heterogeneous and is in need of tailor-made credit solutions.



**The Role of a Local Industry Association as aCatalyst for Building an Innovation Ecosystem: An Experiment in the State of Ceara in Brazil​​ /  Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice, 2015   Vol. 17, No. 3, 383–399

תקציר
We show that an industrial association can play the role of a catalyst for change where government intervention does not provide a sufficient response to market failure in the development of innovation activities, especially in less developed
regions. This experimental study was conducted in the State of Ceara in Brazil by the UNIEMPRE program of the federation of industries (FIEC). The findings show the positive influence of the local association of industries as a catalyst for the innovation process, acting through five main channels: increasing the awareness of all actors, providing information and knowledge, assisting firms in developing their innovation capabilities, developing the milieu’s innovation capabilities, and  establishing long-term sustainability of the process.​




:ד"ר אופיר רובין

 
​תקציר
Subsidizing energy-efficient technologies is considered by energy and environmental organizations to be one ​ ​of the most effective policies for decreasing energy consumption. In the transportation sector such policies are becoming ​ever more popular,and have been implemented in a considerable number of countries in recent ​years. Because these policies promote energy-efficient cars with lower usage costs,they may rebound and increase the distances traveled by households that have switched toenergy-​efficient cars. From an econometric perspective , a subsidization policy can be used as a valid instrument to  identify the households’ choice of energy efficiency levels of the cars they own.  This identification, in turn, can be utilized to account for endogeneity in the estimation of a rebound effect.  The present study uses  a natural experiment setting of such a policy implemented in Israel in 2009. The empirical results indicate  a fairly large average rebound effect of 40%. The results also indicate that while the policy indeed encouraged the purchase of energy-efficient cars, households that bought a new or used car during the
surveyed period did not generate a rebound effect of a different magnitude compared with other households that did not. We discuss the implications of our findings.​​​​​





​תקציר
The​ theoretical framework developed in this study allows development of a model of deregulated  electricity markets that explains two familiar empirical findings; the existence of forward premiums  and  price-cost markups in the spotmarket. This is a significant contribution because electricity forward  premiums have been previously explained exclusively by the assumptions of perfect competition and 
risk-averse behavior while spot markups are generally the outcome of a body of literature assuming oligopolistic competition.  Our theoretical framework indicates that a certain premium for forward contracting is required for efficient allocation of generation capacity. However,due to the uniqueness of 
electricity and the design of deregulated electricity markets this premium might be substantially higher
than  its optimal level.


:ד"ר פני יובל
New Localism has attracted growing interest among both researchers and practitioners who deal with local governance. Although most research on the subject has emphasized institutional and national points of view, this study aims to elucidate public opinion toward a governmental policy that for some fundamentally contradicts and for others goes hand in hand with the principles of New Localism: namely, an end-case scenario under which the central government neutralizes failing local authorities. Following Ford’s (Ford, Richard T., 1999,
Law’s territory (A history of jurisdiction), Michigan Law Review 97:843–930) pioneering work “Law’s Territory (A History of Jurisdiction),” we suggest a model that predicts the members of the public, based on individual- and community-level characteristics, who are likely to support the neutralization approach and further test the model using a field study of 1,321 residents of Israeli local authorities. Our analyses identified two individual-level factors (satisfaction with local services and social trust) and three community-level characteristics (socioeconomic status, ethnic majority versus minority population, and previous history of neutralization) that influence whether individuals are likely to support or oppose the neutralization approach. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed.​


According to the current Local Authorities Act in Israel 2000, once the municipal government fails to function financially, the Ministry of the Interior should intervene to appoint a professional team to help the municipality recover from its crisis. This law contains no wording ordering the local authorities to provide any local services. In the absence of a clear demand from the central government to provide certain public goods at the local level, what motivates the heads of local authorities to provide such goods? Given that local environmental issues are mostly identified as local services, and that people’s satisfaction with the quality of the local environmental services is an effective predictor for the re-election of an incumbent head in almost all Israeli municipalities, the way local authorities deal with these services constitutes a case study with which to examine their incentive for providing local services. This study seeks to explain the empirical nature of the major political motivations of the heads of local authorities for providing environmental services. The environmental and sustainability literature offers economic and civic motivations as an answer to this question. In contrast, this article suggests public choice theory as an alternative answer to this question.