In this paper we examine the extent of international trade synchronization during periods of international trade collapses and US recessions. Using dynamic correlations based on monthly trade data for the G7 economies over the period 1961-2011, our results suggest rather idiosyncratic patterns of international trade synchronization during collapses of international trade and US recessions. During the great recession of 2007-2009, however, international trade experienced the most sudden, severe and globally synchronized collapse. (author's abstract)

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This study will focus on the luxury market and how this market has been affected by the present recession. The economic downturn have had a major impact on today’s business and consumption, practically all industries have been affected. However there exist different opinions about how the luxury market have been influenced, certain experts mean that this segment is recession proof while others believe that this market will experience the worst side-effects. For that reason we find it interesting to analyze the luxury market and develop our own opinion about the impact of the recession. The paper will emphasize the luxury sectors marketing actions and the impact on businesses. We have used a qualitative approach based on eight different interviews. The respondents have been carefully chosen to fulfill our purpose. These interviews will be fully presented in the appendix and will constitute the base of the analysis. Since the paper is written with a qualitative approach, it is difficult to make any generalizations regarding luxury in recession. Nevertheless the analysis and conclusion shown in chapter five and six will both be interesting and instructive.

Under en lågkonjunktur använder sig många företag av varsel och uppsägningar som ett sätt att minska kostnader och möta en vikande efterfrågan. Dessa uppsägningar innebär en förändring vilket är något som ofta möts av motstånd. I den här uppsatsen belyses de problem en ledare ställs inför i samband med en förändring som innebär uppsägningar och hur de har valt att genomföra dem. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att beskriva hur tre ledare i tre olika organisationer genomför uppsägningar som sker till följd av arbetsbrist. En kvalitativ metod har använts där vi genomfört tre halvstrukturerade intervjuer med ledare som haft insyn i beslutsprocessen från varsel fram till uppsägningar och varit de som till största del förmedlat besluten till berörda individer. Med insamlad empirisk data analyserades hur ledarna genomförde uppsägningarna utifrån teori som behandlar förändring, ledarskap och ett företags situation. Resultaten visade att trots liknande yttre förutsättningar i form av lågkonjunktur och vikande orderingång så skilde sig genomförandet av förändringen mellan de tre företagen. En likhet var att kommunikation varit en viktig strategi under processen. I samtliga fall var ledarskapet dessutom säkert, direkt och beslutsamt. / During a recession, many companies are using layoffs as a way to reduce costs and meet declining demand. These layoffs mean changes, which is often met with resistance. This thesis highlights the problems a leader is faced with during a change involving layoffs and how they have chosen to implement the same. The purpose of this thesis is to describe how three leaders in three different organizations implement layoffs occurring as a result of shortage of work. The research used is semi-structured interviews with three leaders who have taken part in the decision-making process of the layoffs. They have been, for the most part, responsible for conveying the decisions to the employees concerned. The collected empirical data was analyzed on the basis of theory dealing with organizational change, leadership and situational variables in order to understand how the layoffs have been carried out. The results showed that despite similar external environment in terms of recession and declining order, the implementation was different between the three companies. One similarity was that communication was an important strategy in the process. In each case the leadership was also secure, direct and decisive.

This study investigates the effect of National American Customer Satisfaction Index (NACSI) to aggregate consumer spending at different stage of business cycle. In this paper we use the data from The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to determine the recession term ,and we use EGARCH model to catch the asymmetric performance of aggregate consumer spending at different stage of business cycle. In this study we found that when the economic is not in recession period, improvement in aggregate customer satisfaction have a positive impact on future changes in aggregate discretionary consumer spending. The growth in financial obligations ratio have a negative impact on future changes in aggregate discretionary consumer spending at whole business cycle. The growth in financial obligations ratio also attenuate the positive impact from customer satisfaction, and the effect become more strong in recession period.

My dissertation studies various questions falling into the broad context of macroeconomics and international economics. The questions have macroeconomic components because they are concerned with the behavior of aggregates. Specifically, the second and third chapters of my dissertation study the causes of fluctuations in aggregate macroeconomic variables and the way policy can be coordinated internationally to reduce these fluctuations, respectively. In addition, chapters III and IV address questions that fall into the realm of international economics. They are concerned with the optimal exchange rate regime between two countries, the consequences of partial exchange rate pass-through and the effect of an increase in vertical Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by domestic firms. The framework of my analysis is given by different versions of general equilibrium models. The second chapter of my dissertation decomposes fluctuations in aggregate observables for the UK economy during the 1980s recession. Using a modern accounting procedure, I estimate parameters that describe the economy using annual data from 1970 to 2002. Then, I simulate different versions of the model to find the distortions that are essential in driving the observed fluctuations. I find labor market distortions to be crucial in accounting for the episode, suggesting that the policies of the time were well targeted and effective. The third chapter of my dissertation studies policy coordination in a two-country framework allowing for partial pass-through. In particular, both countries are assumed to have monetary and fiscal stabilization instruments available. The optimal setting of these instruments under differing pass-through regimes is analytically derived. Fiscal policy is found to be used in a counter-cyclical fashion. In addition, the magnitude of fiscal stabilization is the largest when pass-through is partial. In the fourth chapter, I study the consequences of vertical FDI on aggregate productivity and welfare. The framework allows for heterogeneity across firms in two dimensions. It is firms that are at a disadvantage with respect to manufacturing costs that are benefiting most from moving their production process abroad. Overall, the ability to engage in vertical FDI increases productivity, lowers prices and thus increases welfare.

In 2008 and 2009, the world was shaken by the deepest recession since the Great Depression. This event has forced changes on many industries and professions - including Facility Management. This paper provides a "snapshot view" of how Facility Managers and Facility Management departments are navigating the financial meltdown. Preliminary research focused on previous recessionary periods, and the impact that they had on the development of Facility Management. In the recessions of the eighties, nineties and two thousands, Facility Managers started professional associations and developed professional certifications for themselves. At the same time, more businesses began utilizing the Facility Management function in order to orchestrate an increasingly complicated (and potentially expensive) built environment. At the same time, the same economic pressures led both to an increase in the use of outsourcing, and a backlog of deferred maintenance. Facility Managers had to be both innovative and flexible to survive in the industry - which has seen little growth in the 2000s. The main focus of this paper was a survey answered by 119 Facility Managers. In it, they reported on both how their departments were responding to the recession, and also how they were personally managing their careers during this time. Follow-up questions were also asked of some Facility Managers, to get a more detailed understanding of their answers. The main strategy that the survey found Facility Management departments turning to during the current recession was deferred maintenance, followed by staffing cuts and contract renegotiations. Facility Managers also reported that they are continuing to shift work to outsourcers - although some FMs reported that they have either outsourced all the work they can, or that there is no way to outsource some of the tasks that they do. In those cases, they focused on doing more work in-house. Individual Facility Managers tended to have relatively long careers, with about seventy percent being in their positions for longer than three years. Also, of those FMs who reported being unemployed, the majority had only been out of work for less than six months. Many of the Facility Managers questioned in this survey stated that they believed networking was a key component of their jobs. There were some who disagreed with this, however, believing that technical knowledge has become much more important than a strong social network. About equal numbers of people who had been in their jobs for about a year reported finding those jobs through job-boards as through networking Most of the Facility Managers who responded to the survey are not aware of any initiatives devoted specifically to helping out-of-work FMs. These groups do exist, however, and some were discovered in the course of researching this paper. It's notable that many Facility Managers appeared to have much more negative view of social networking sites than they do of in-person networking. The paper concludes by speculating on what the various results mean. While Facility Management departments appear to be laying professionals off, the long tenures and short periods of unemployment may signal that Facility managers are still in demand - even in times of recession. They may actually be more in demand now than in normal times, because of the need to balance multiple needs during a time of constrained spending on both capital and operating budgets. One red flag on the horizon is the perception of new technologies by respondents to this survey. Facility Managers were originally hired to manage costly new technologies in the workplace - this is something that they must continue to do in the future, and if they are not comfortable with changes that are coming, the profession may be bypassed or become marginalized. This may be a generational issue, which will be solved as younger people enter the industry.

<p> </p><p>‟Recession‟ and ‟Layoff‟ were the buzz words of late 2008. Economic slowdown and recession have hit the economy hard. At the same time people in society are getting older and the demographic profile of the population is getting increasingly top heavy, with the retirements of the 1940‟s baby boomers expected to peak in 2010. The implications of an increased proportion of old people in society have been debated for some time, but the issue has not become a pressing concern for firms until recently.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to investigate „How does the economic slowdown and the demographic change affect the recruitment behavior of the firms in the region?, the region being defined as the County of Jönköping and County of Östergötland in southern Sweden.</p><p>The study is based on an exploratory survey polling respondents about their willingness to employ, the effects that the economic slowdown and demographic change exert on them. The survey was conducted during November 2008.</p><p>The descriptive and inferential quantitative statistical analysis of the empirical findings and sec-ondary sources draw on contemporary research in the areas of demographic change, economic theory and human resource management.</p><p>Demographic change is of less importance with regards to firms' willingness to employ than ex-pected and is overshadowed by the lack of skilled and experienced labour, which makes finding a suitable employment not so difficult, even in these recessionary times, if you have the right education, qualification and/or experience.</p><p>It is hard to give a definitive answer as to how large the effect of the economic slowdown on recruitment is, but it does indeed affect the firms' willingness to employ, and it has generally negative consequences for the overall size of the workforce. Nevertheless, there remains a need for employees fed by the inextinguishable calls for competence and experience.</p><p>With regards to the general recruitment behaviour, the firms face a dilemma. The weak economic climate commands cost savings. But the widespread call for and concurrent lack of skilled and experienced labour, both in the firms and in the labour market, command resources to be committed to the search for applicants. Furthermore, coping with the challenges of an agediverse workforce will be one of the most important commissions for anyone dealing with human resource management issues in the future.</p><p> </p> / <p> </p><p>Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur den ekonomiska avmattningen och den demografiska förändringen påverkar företagens rekrytering i regionen. Region i studien är definierad som Jönköpings och Östergötlands län.</p><p>Studien bygger på en enkät, utförd november 2008, angående företagens vilja att rekrytera och de effekter som den ekonomiska avmattningen och den demografikas förändringen har på den.</p><p>Enkätsvaren och sekundär data analyserades med hjälp av beskrivande och jämförande statistisk analys och bygger på en teoretisk referensram hämtad från relevanta forskningskällor inom områdena demografi, nationalekonomi och human resource management.</p><p>Den demografiska förändringen har mindre effekt på företagens vilja att nyanställa än vad som var väntad och är överskuggad av en kronisk svårighet att hitta utbildad och erfaren arbetskraft. Detta betyder att hitta en anställning i dessa svåra tider inte är så omöjligt som vissa personer föreslår, under den viktiga förutsättningen att man har den rätta utbildningen, de rätta kvalifikationerna eller den rätta erfarenheten.</p><p>Det är svårt att ge ett definitivt svar på hur stor effekt den ekonomiska avmattningen har på företagens vilja att nyanställa. Klart är dock att den finns en generell negativ ekonomisk effekt som påverkar företagens vilja att nyanställa negativt som även orsakar en generell minskning av den totala sysselsättningen. Dock kvarstår ett behov av att anställa hos företagen på grund ut av den kroniskt höga efterfrågan på kompetens och erfarenhet.</p><p>Med avseende på den generella rekryteringsbeteende hos företagen står dom inför ett dilemma. Den ekonomiska avmattningen tvingar företagen att spara pengar inom human resources. Den kroniskt höga efterfrågan och bristen på kvalificerad arbetskraft tvingar dock företagen att avvara resurser till att utveckla sin rekrytering för att hitta rätt personal och nyanställa. Företagen måste börja förbereda sig för de utmaningar och förändringar som en allt äldre befolkning innebär på området human rescource management i framtiden.</p><p> </p>

During the years 2000-2002, the Republic of Argentina experienced one of the most, if not the most, devastating social/political/economic crisis ever seen. President Fernando de la Rua, elected in 1999, was forced to resign on December 20th, 2001, after several months of protests, public demonstrations, and a colossal economic recession. During the crisis, the media played a vital role, they told people not only what issues to think about but also what to think about them. This study analyzed the newspapers role during the crisis using the Agenda-Setting Theory as the research foundation.

Challenging economic conditions have led local governments to explore alternative methods to deliver public services to residents. This thesis explores historical contracting out trends and offers new research about contracting out activity by local jurisdictions in the state of Florida. Through an e-survey, the new data examines if cities and counties in Florida increased contracting out activity of public services in response to a declining economic environment and changes in population growth trends. This elaborate and multifaceted task is accomplished through a deliberate interdisciplinary research approach. The literature review consists of well-known publication responsible for creating the foundation of contracting out research, which has been covered often in previous research. However, this thesis also spans across customary research approaches by including recent news coverage from non-traditional sources, extensive analysis of the most recent United States economic recession, and a close examination of the specific changes that transpired in Florida. It covers publication from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the National League of Cities (NLC). It also covers data from sources focused on Florida such as the Bureau of Economic Business Research (BEBR, Florida Department of Revenue (DOR), and the Florida League of Cities (FLC). Combined with a comprehensive literature review, the research explores whether two explanatory factors (population growth changes and fiscal pressures) were drivers of contracting out decisions by Florida counties and cities during the 2007-2009 recession.