Previous literature on the nexus between land, finance and business power has not systematically analysed the role of the liquidity of businesses’ assets. Combining process tracing with a comparative design, this study contributes a perspective on the role of standardized assets for business power. It investigates land acquisition tax reforms asking why institutional landowners’ structural and instrumental power was successful in Sweden but not in Germany. In Germany, a reform was passed in 2021 which disadvantages the private market institutional landowners compared to their public counterparts. This study argues that the standardization of landed property as liquid stock enabled publicly listed property companies to unite with other stock market actors, increasing their power resources and allowing them to successfully promote their interests due to the liquidity demands of their assets. This stands in contrast to the poorer reception of the liquidity of private market actors in their land-related transactions.
{"title":"Losing ground: business power, standardized assets and the regulation of land acquisition taxes in Germany and Sweden","authors":"Hanna Doose","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae003","url":null,"abstract":"Previous literature on the nexus between land, finance and business power has not systematically analysed the role of the liquidity of businesses’ assets. Combining process tracing with a comparative design, this study contributes a perspective on the role of standardized assets for business power. It investigates land acquisition tax reforms asking why institutional landowners’ structural and instrumental power was successful in Sweden but not in Germany. In Germany, a reform was passed in 2021 which disadvantages the private market institutional landowners compared to their public counterparts. This study argues that the standardization of landed property as liquid stock enabled publicly listed property companies to unite with other stock market actors, increasing their power resources and allowing them to successfully promote their interests due to the liquidity demands of their assets. This stands in contrast to the poorer reception of the liquidity of private market actors in their land-related transactions.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140036237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates how the type of elite to which a person belongs and their intergenerational contextual experiences are associated with attitudes towards inequality among elite individuals. We propose that membership of the economic elite and access to private schools, higher education business schools and affluent residential areas may contribute to the development of views that favour inequality. Using unique survey data collected in 2018 from a sample of 416 individuals belonging to Chile’s economic, political and cultural elites, we construct an additive score to measure attitudes towards inequality. Results of our regression analyses indicate that individuals belonging to the economic and political elite are more tolerant of inequality than members of the cultural elite. Moreover, intergenerational experiences at both private schools and higher education business schools significantly contribute to the formation of attitudes that favour inequality. These contextual experiences also relate to significant attitudinal variations within all elite groups.
{"title":"What makes elites more or less egalitarian? Variations in attitudes towards inequality within the economic, political and cultural elites in Chile","authors":"Rafael Carranza, Dante Contreras, Gabriel Otero","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae008","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates how the type of elite to which a person belongs and their intergenerational contextual experiences are associated with attitudes towards inequality among elite individuals. We propose that membership of the economic elite and access to private schools, higher education business schools and affluent residential areas may contribute to the development of views that favour inequality. Using unique survey data collected in 2018 from a sample of 416 individuals belonging to Chile’s economic, political and cultural elites, we construct an additive score to measure attitudes towards inequality. Results of our regression analyses indicate that individuals belonging to the economic and political elite are more tolerant of inequality than members of the cultural elite. Moreover, intergenerational experiences at both private schools and higher education business schools significantly contribute to the formation of attitudes that favour inequality. These contextual experiences also relate to significant attitudinal variations within all elite groups.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140045969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Significant efforts have been made to promote competition in public service sectors, expanding the reach of competition into non-economic fields. Surprisingly little is, however, known about the process by which competition is introduced into such settings. We examine this process, focusing on a Swedish municipality’s efforts to implement competition for students among its schools. By incorporating recent theoretical advancements regarding competition as an organized relationship, and utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, we shed light on the organizational efforts undertaken by politicians and bureaucrats to teach their schools to compete. We find that introducing competition can be complex, time-consuming and that it requires substantial organizational commitment. We highlight the existence of varying perceptions of competition among different stakeholders following its introduction. These findings suggest the need for future research that addresses questions about the costs of, and interests behind, introducing competition, as well as questions about responsibility for the subsequent effects of competition.
{"title":"Teaching schools to compete: the case of Swedish upper secondary education","authors":"Stefan Arora-Jonsson, Peter Edlund","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad074","url":null,"abstract":"Significant efforts have been made to promote competition in public service sectors, expanding the reach of competition into non-economic fields. Surprisingly little is, however, known about the process by which competition is introduced into such settings. We examine this process, focusing on a Swedish municipality’s efforts to implement competition for students among its schools. By incorporating recent theoretical advancements regarding competition as an organized relationship, and utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, we shed light on the organizational efforts undertaken by politicians and bureaucrats to teach their schools to compete. We find that introducing competition can be complex, time-consuming and that it requires substantial organizational commitment. We highlight the existence of varying perceptions of competition among different stakeholders following its introduction. These findings suggest the need for future research that addresses questions about the costs of, and interests behind, introducing competition, as well as questions about responsibility for the subsequent effects of competition.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139765452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Generating momentum for activist campaigns on complicated economic issues is difficult, especially in a transnational context. So, how did activists get action on tax justice and create a movement that has changed global tax policy? Drawing on 20 years of para-ethnographic fieldwork with the Tax Justice Network, we suggest that activists initially engaged in ‘identity switching’ tactics to access professional or policy arenas from a footing in one identity, to then switch identities to activate policy shifts. A first-generation leveraged multiple professional identities to access forums, build credibility and introduce a tax lexicon to activists and policymakers. These tactics were not, however, replicable, leading a second generation to concentrate on ‘identity fixing’, including professionalization and a tightening of organizational strategy over access and activation points. Here we theorize identity switching and fixing as underappreciated micro-foundations of transnational activism and demonstrate their importance for global economic justice.
{"title":"Getting action for global economic justice: the micro-foundations of transnational activism","authors":"Leonard Seabrooke, Duncan Wigan","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad077","url":null,"abstract":"Generating momentum for activist campaigns on complicated economic issues is difficult, especially in a transnational context. So, how did activists get action on tax justice and create a movement that has changed global tax policy? Drawing on 20 years of para-ethnographic fieldwork with the Tax Justice Network, we suggest that activists initially engaged in ‘identity switching’ tactics to access professional or policy arenas from a footing in one identity, to then switch identities to activate policy shifts. A first-generation leveraged multiple professional identities to access forums, build credibility and introduce a tax lexicon to activists and policymakers. These tactics were not, however, replicable, leading a second generation to concentrate on ‘identity fixing’, including professionalization and a tightening of organizational strategy over access and activation points. Here we theorize identity switching and fixing as underappreciated micro-foundations of transnational activism and demonstrate their importance for global economic justice.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139645829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Organizational research has revealed considerable variation in immigrant–native pay inequalities across workplace contexts. However, less is known about how broader labor market institutions intersect in the local dynamics of wage setting between employees of immigrant and native backgrounds. We argue that union density and higher shares of employees in licensed occupations in workplaces constrain organizational opportunity structures for unequal pay according to immigrant backgrounds. Our analysis of longitudinal linked employer–employee administrative data for the Norwegian labor market shows that the wage gap between immigrants and natives decreases with increasing workplace unionization, but almost exclusively for immigrants who are union members. Next, licensure raises pay at the individual and workplace levels, although any reduction in immigrant–native pay gaps is contingent on immigrants’ access to licensed jobs. Our findings support the claim that institutional regulation in the workplace reduces the organizational scope of unequal pay based on immigrant status.
{"title":"Unionization, licensure and workplace variation in pay inequality between immigrants and natives","authors":"Ida Drange, Håvard Helland, Are Skeie Hermansen","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad075","url":null,"abstract":"Organizational research has revealed considerable variation in immigrant–native pay inequalities across workplace contexts. However, less is known about how broader labor market institutions intersect in the local dynamics of wage setting between employees of immigrant and native backgrounds. We argue that union density and higher shares of employees in licensed occupations in workplaces constrain organizational opportunity structures for unequal pay according to immigrant backgrounds. Our analysis of longitudinal linked employer–employee administrative data for the Norwegian labor market shows that the wage gap between immigrants and natives decreases with increasing workplace unionization, but almost exclusively for immigrants who are union members. Next, licensure raises pay at the individual and workplace levels, although any reduction in immigrant–native pay gaps is contingent on immigrants’ access to licensed jobs. Our findings support the claim that institutional regulation in the workplace reduces the organizational scope of unequal pay based on immigrant status.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139645824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Universally invested asset managers like BlackRock have established a dominant position in equity markets around the globe. While extant contributions have explored their voting behaviour and role in shaping corporate governance at the firm level, less is known about their potential to build interest coalitions with other business groups, and their leverage over state-level corporate governance institutions. This article investigates conflict over a far-reaching reform to co-determination in Germany. Qualitative content analysis of over 100 stakeholder statements yields that asset managers forge coalitions with short-term-oriented investors to abolish key tenets of corporatist institutions. However, a domestic countercoalition of financial and non-financial firms prevented momentous institutional change. This article improves our understanding of international asset managers’ preferences and highlights coalition building as a key determinant of the political power of international finance. By aligning the costs of institutional change for incumbents, corporatist institutions continue to act as shields against financialization.
{"title":"Sectors versus borders: interest group cleavages and struggles over corporate governance in the age of asset management","authors":"Dustin Voss","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad072","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Universally invested asset managers like BlackRock have established a dominant position in equity markets around the globe. While extant contributions have explored their voting behaviour and role in shaping corporate governance at the firm level, less is known about their potential to build interest coalitions with other business groups, and their leverage over state-level corporate governance institutions. This article investigates conflict over a far-reaching reform to co-determination in Germany. Qualitative content analysis of over 100 stakeholder statements yields that asset managers forge coalitions with short-term-oriented investors to abolish key tenets of corporatist institutions. However, a domestic countercoalition of financial and non-financial firms prevented momentous institutional change. This article improves our understanding of international asset managers’ preferences and highlights coalition building as a key determinant of the political power of international finance. By aligning the costs of institutional change for incumbents, corporatist institutions continue to act as shields against financialization.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"17 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139443887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The replacement of cash by cashless alternatives carries huge potential to aggravate social inequality. Governments struggle to manage these dynamics since they must keep a delicate balance between the formation of strong players and the provision of inclusive payment options. Studying the political economy behind the payment industry is crucial to understanding how digitalization has transformed payments. To this aim, we look at the history of the payment industry in two cases: the USA and the euro area. In the USA, the cashless revolution gave rise to an oligopoly of two extremely successful credit card companies, which, however, resulted in a banking system that does not serve the needs of at least one-fifth of the population. In the euro area, the population has access to affordable financial services; however, neither the private nor the public sector has been able to provide the infrastructure to integrate European payments.
{"title":"Small money, large profits: how the cashless revolution aggravates social inequality","authors":"Barbara Brandl, David Hengsbach, Guadalupe Moreno","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad071","url":null,"abstract":"The replacement of cash by cashless alternatives carries huge potential to aggravate social inequality. Governments struggle to manage these dynamics since they must keep a delicate balance between the formation of strong players and the provision of inclusive payment options. Studying the political economy behind the payment industry is crucial to understanding how digitalization has transformed payments. To this aim, we look at the history of the payment industry in two cases: the USA and the euro area. In the USA, the cashless revolution gave rise to an oligopoly of two extremely successful credit card companies, which, however, resulted in a banking system that does not serve the needs of at least one-fifth of the population. In the euro area, the population has access to affordable financial services; however, neither the private nor the public sector has been able to provide the infrastructure to integrate European payments.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139375424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Utilizing the geographical polarization of American politics, we examine how state politics shape the implementation of downsizing. Combining power resources theory and the political-embeddedness approach in organizational studies, we propose that labor power resources at the state level, namely Democratic control of state government and state-level union membership, limit firms’ ability to implement drastic job cuts within the state. Based on data on the 697 largest, publicly traded US firms between 1981 and 2005, combined with their establishment-level employment data from EEO-1 reports, our analysis shows that post-downsizing reductions in employment were less severe in states with a worker-friendly political environment. But the limited effectiveness of labor’s power resources in right-to-work states and the American South suggests that there is considerable regional variation. Our findings provide strong evidence of the political embeddedness of firms, by demonstrating the growing salience of political considerations in corporate decision-making.
{"title":"Power resources of labor and the state politics of downsizing","authors":"Jiwook Jung, Tom VanHeuvelen","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad064","url":null,"abstract":"Utilizing the geographical polarization of American politics, we examine how state politics shape the implementation of downsizing. Combining power resources theory and the political-embeddedness approach in organizational studies, we propose that labor power resources at the state level, namely Democratic control of state government and state-level union membership, limit firms’ ability to implement drastic job cuts within the state. Based on data on the 697 largest, publicly traded US firms between 1981 and 2005, combined with their establishment-level employment data from EEO-1 reports, our analysis shows that post-downsizing reductions in employment were less severe in states with a worker-friendly political environment. But the limited effectiveness of labor’s power resources in right-to-work states and the American South suggests that there is considerable regional variation. Our findings provide strong evidence of the political embeddedness of firms, by demonstrating the growing salience of political considerations in corporate decision-making.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"20 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study addresses a critical gap in our understanding of how the employer and workplace context influences the working career of older employees. Leveraging linked employer–employee data, this study examines the impact of workplace retention practices on an early labour market exit for employees aged fifty-five to sixty-four in Denmark. The findings reveal that, for those eligible for early retirement, work environment adaptation, re-employment of retired employees, and positive views of older employees’ productivity significantly contribute to avoiding early retirement. However, these workplace retention practices do not influence unemployment, emphasizing their effectiveness in postponing early retirement rather than mitigating job loss. Moreover, the analysis shows that employees with managerial roles and high skill levels benefit more from workplace retention practices in terms of avoiding both early retirement and unemployment. This finding highlights the employer’s key role in shaping inequalities in an ageing workforce by selectively providing opportunities to extend working lives.
{"title":"Managing an ageing workforce: workplace retention practices and early labour market exit","authors":"Jeevitha Yogachandiran Qvist","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad063","url":null,"abstract":"This study addresses a critical gap in our understanding of how the employer and workplace context influences the working career of older employees. Leveraging linked employer–employee data, this study examines the impact of workplace retention practices on an early labour market exit for employees aged fifty-five to sixty-four in Denmark. The findings reveal that, for those eligible for early retirement, work environment adaptation, re-employment of retired employees, and positive views of older employees’ productivity significantly contribute to avoiding early retirement. However, these workplace retention practices do not influence unemployment, emphasizing their effectiveness in postponing early retirement rather than mitigating job loss. Moreover, the analysis shows that employees with managerial roles and high skill levels benefit more from workplace retention practices in terms of avoiding both early retirement and unemployment. This finding highlights the employer’s key role in shaping inequalities in an ageing workforce by selectively providing opportunities to extend working lives.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"3 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article contributes to debates on business power, noisy politics, and right-wing populism. The populist right weakens strategies of quiet politics, which many suggest has led to a steep decline of business power. I challenge this view and argue that a combination of innovative strategies and ample financial resources allow business associations to exercise power in this environment. Drawing on new empirical evidence, the article makes three central contributions. First, I suggest that the failure of Remain business advocacy in the 2016 Brexit referendum resulted from the constraints of administrative legislation (the PPERA), weaknesses in campaigning strategies, and the CBI leadership’s decision to not register as a campaign organization. Second, while my regression analysis provides some support for Culpepper’s quiet politics argument, the Swiss business federation Economiesuisse has won 90% of the referendum campaigns it has led, including many referendums with high issue salience against right-wing populists. Third, Economiesuisse shows that business strategies of ‘loud voice’ can be successful. With money and innovative public-facing campaigning strategies, business organizations can win in noisy environments and against right-wing populists.
{"title":"Business power, right-wing populism, and noisy politics: lessons from Brexit and Swiss referendums","authors":"Daniel Kinderman","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad061","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to debates on business power, noisy politics, and right-wing populism. The populist right weakens strategies of quiet politics, which many suggest has led to a steep decline of business power. I challenge this view and argue that a combination of innovative strategies and ample financial resources allow business associations to exercise power in this environment. Drawing on new empirical evidence, the article makes three central contributions. First, I suggest that the failure of Remain business advocacy in the 2016 Brexit referendum resulted from the constraints of administrative legislation (the PPERA), weaknesses in campaigning strategies, and the CBI leadership’s decision to not register as a campaign organization. Second, while my regression analysis provides some support for Culpepper’s quiet politics argument, the Swiss business federation Economiesuisse has won 90% of the referendum campaigns it has led, including many referendums with high issue salience against right-wing populists. Third, Economiesuisse shows that business strategies of ‘loud voice’ can be successful. With money and innovative public-facing campaigning strategies, business organizations can win in noisy environments and against right-wing populists.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":"105 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134956717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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