How work is organised is a critical component of firms’ learning process. Because of that, the relationship between firms’ work organisation and their innovative effort is endogenous in nature and, in turn, causal effects are hardly identifiable. This paper aims to contribute by analysing the effects of organisational work practices oriented toward knowledge sharing and innovative efforts in Uruguayan firms between 2009 and 2015. Our research design allows us to test both the endogenous relationship and the potential causal effects, using econometric panel data techniques and instrumental variables. The results corroborate the endogenous relationship between these variables. Moreover, a positive and significant effect of communication practices on the innovative effort is identified in low-tech manufacturing firms but not in high-tech firms. This result offers valuable implications for public policy and industrial practices in developing countries since it reflects the main features of an innovation pattern that mostly relies on modernisation strategies rather than on high-tech innovations based on R&D.

Mentoring Among Peers is a program developed to improve the integration of first-year college students. Controlling for sociodemographic, academic, and personality characteristics, we investigate the effects this program has on academic and non-academic dimensions using propensity score match-ing techniques. Results show that, in line with its main purpose, the program reduces the probability of desertion. On the other hand, we observe positive effects on academic outcomes, as students participating in the program pass more courses, and with better scores than similar students that were not men-tored. This latter effect is not one of the program’s goals, as it is designed to work exclusively on social dimensions. These outcomes could represent a starting point for educational policies looking to improve academic trajecto-ries of college students.

To assess the heterogeneity of transitions toward dependency in older adults and to explore the robustness of results to different operationalizations of dependency. Using data from people aged 60 years and older from a national representative study in Uruguay (Encuesta Longitudinal de Protección Social, N = 5071), we fitted multinomial regressions adjusted by sociodemographic and health characteristics to model transitions into dependency and death. We used a harder operationalization with basic activities of daily living (Katz-dependency) and Comprehensive-dependency with basic, instrumental, and advanced activities. Increasing age (RRR = 1.08, CI = [1.05; 1.12], p < .001) and having comorbidities (RRR = 2.16, CI = [1.31; 3.57], p = .003) increased the risk of transition from nondependent to dependent using Katz-dependency. Women with at least two chronic conditions have increased risk of Comprehensive-dependency (RRR = 1.79, CI = [1.15; 2.80], p = .010). Inconsistencies in findings emerged when evaluating transitions into dependency with the different measures, which may have social care implications.

Video Assistance Referee (VAR) is one of the major changes in football in the modern time. This paper addresses whether VAR affected several dimensions of the game, reducing the bias that referees may have in favor to home and rich teams. Exploiting the timing differences in the implementation of VAR in six European leagues, this paper investigates whether it affected the number of penalties, red cards, yellow cards, and goals of teams, in absolute and relative terms (or bias). The results show that VAR reduces the bias between poor and rich teams when poor teams are visitors, although there is no reduction in bias when poor teams are hosts. For variables in absolute terms the effect is no clear. The effects of VAR are heterogeneous across leagues, being the Premier League the one that suffered more changes after implementing the policy.