The role of development in global fertility decline

At the first intergovernmental global Population Conference at Bucharest in 1974, delegates from the Third World argued that rapid population growth would only be controlled when a more equitable relationship was established between the More and Less Developed Countries, leading to accelerated social and economic development in the latter. Over the subsequent quarter of a century this perspective has been progressively displaced as the dominant paradigm by the view that sustained fertility decline can be accomplished through good quality family planning programmes in the context of gender-sensitive social policies, including formal education. This paper is an attempt to establish whether the abandonment of the Bucharest ideology is justified on the basis of subsequent theoretical developments in fertility studies, and by global demographic trends over the period.It is concluded from an examination of the role of development in the historical demographic transition in Europe that the role of contraceptive diffusion is exaggerated, and economic growth and the distribution of its product unjustifiably neglected in the dominant theoretical position. The evidence points to a close negative correlation between income distribution and fertility, at national and regional levels. However, fertility decline is also sometimes driven by poverty, but evidence and theory point to the likelihood of such change being both partial and reversible.Alternative approaches to fertility explored since 1974 include the institutional approach, especially the transition from the extended to the nuclear family, and the ideational approach, which stresses the cultural significance of children and marginalises the impact of economic change on fertility. These perspectives, the validity of which is conditionally acknowledged, do little if anything to detract from the overall conclusion that the dominant factor in fertility decline is equitably distributed improvement in material standards of living.The paper concludes with speculation that future trends in population growth will be driven by the economic patterns emerging from the ongoing liberalisation of trade and investment under the aegis of globalisation.     

Are the Official Estimates of Productivity Growth Giving the MPC Misleading Signals?

Official estimates show that manufacturing productivity growth has stalled over the past few years, while average earnings have continued to rise. Should these developments worry the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)? In this article, Neil Blake and Paul Robson argue that employment changes and to a lesser extent output, have been mis-recorded. It turns out that productivity has been underestimated, with new estimates more consistent with the high average earnings growth data seen recently. Manufacturers have therefore been unnecessarily targeted by the MPC, while other evidence suggests that the service sector is the guilty party.     

Determining the antecedents for a strategy of corporate social responsibility by small- and medium-sized enterprises in the UK fashion apparel industry

This paper seeks to increase the understanding of the antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in small UK fashion garment manufacturing firms. A review of CSR practice is used to inform the theoretical development of the wider aspects of small business competitive advantage. A causal map of the antecedents of CSR in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is presented which will help guide the selection of the constructs to be used for measuring the existence of CSR in SMEs in the UK fashion garment manufacturing industry. Future research will gain a greater understanding of this phenomenon through evaluating the obstacles and drivers for the implementation of a CSR strategy in small garment manufacturing businesses.     

Public attitudes to TDM measures: a comparative study

This paper presents the results of a range of data analyses of users’ attitudinal responses to various travel-demand management measures in two case-study cities in the UK: Cambridge and Newcastle upon Tyne. The analyses focus on several important aspects of implementing TDM measures, including the relationship between the perceived effectiveness and public acceptance of alternative TDM measures and how the generated net benefits, in particular the revenues raised from road-user charging and increased parking charges, are used. A number of key issues are identified for the implementation of TDM measures that are both acceptable to the public and also capable of achieving their stated objectives.     

The Choice Between Spin-offs and Sell-offs

Spin-offs and sell-offs are alternative methods for divesting assets, but the effects on the parent firm differ substantially. We examine firms' characteristics that may influence the asset divestiture choice between a spin-off and sell-off. Results of the analysis indicate that the primary factors influencing the choice of divestiture type are financial distress, number of directors on the board, whether the CEO is also the Board Chair, and the size of the unit divested.     

Hong Kong's Code of Ethics Initiative: Some Differences between Theory and Practice

As a result of the public demand for higher ethical standards, business schools are increasingly taking ethical matters seriously. But their effort has concentrated on teaching business ethics and on students' ethical behavior. Business faculty, in contrast, has attracted much less attention. This paper explores the context and the implications of an alleged case of plagiarism in a master's dissertation submitted to a university lacking both an ethical code of conduct and a formalized procedure to deal with academic misconduct. The events evolved into a bitter political process in which the more ethically aware members of faculty challenged efforts to cover-up. Here the focus is on the motives and behavior of faculty members involved in this case rather than the alleged plagiarist's. The role played by the main actors involved in the process in examined using the theory of moral development and the organizational politic perspective. The paper discusses the mechanisms available to raise ethical awareness and prevent academic misconduct, and the limitations of self-regulation and self-monitoring that prevails in the university system. It also examines the impact of ethics instruction and faculty ethical standards on students' behavior and concludes that ethics instruction can only be effective when the principles taught are in line with daily actions of their instructors.     

The sensitivity of bank stock returns to real estate

According to the Federal Reserve Board, banking firms have recently been shifting significantly larger portions of their loan portfolios into real estate. This increase in real estate lending has caused concern about the continuing economic health of banks on the part of state and federal regulators, since changes in real estate returns, evidenced by changes in property value, can potentially have a significant impact on bank default risk and profit-ability. However, concerned parties do not seem to have explicitly considered the relationship between mortgage default risk and the specific characteristics of real estate investments.This study examines the sensitivities of stock returns for different bank groups, based on the percentage of total loans in real estate and the percentage of loans in five different mortgage categories (construction and development loans, farmland loans, one- to four-family residential loans, multifamily residential loans, and nonresidential and nonfarm loans), to changes in real estate market returns. This is done by developing and using a three-index model.The results of this study indicate that bank stocks, overall, are very sensitive to changes in real estae returns. Banks, with a larger portion of their total loans invested in all types of real estate loans, except farmland loans, are most sensitive to changes in real estate returns.