An application of the DEA double bootstrap to examine sources of efficiency in Bangladesh rice farming

In this article we examine sources of technical efficiency for rice farming in Bangladesh. The motivation for the analysis is the need to close the rice yield gap to enable food security. We employ the DEA double bootstrap of Simar and Wilson (2007) to estimate and explain technical efficiency. This technique overcomes severe limitations inherent in using the two-stage DEA approach commonly employed in the efficiency literature. From a policy perspective our results show that potential efficiency gains to reduce the yield gap are greater than previously found. Statistically positive influences on technical efficiency are education, extension and credit, with age being a negative influence.     

The influence of values and attitudes on green consumer behavior: A conceptual model of green hotel patronage

This study develops a comprehensive conceptual framework of consumer behavioral intentions in green hotels. Based on Schwartz’s values theory, using Stern’s nomenclature, in conjugation with value-attitude-hierarchy, ecocentric and anthropocentric ethic, and green signaling theory, this study identifies values (biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic) and attitudes (ecocentric and anthropocentric) that influence consumers’ green hotel visit intention, willingness to pay more, and willingness to sacrifice. This study adds to the extant literature by incorporating the consumers’ environmental concern perspective, the social-altruistic perspective, and the personal benefits and status perspectives in embracing green products. Understanding the interplay of biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic values and ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes on green hotel behavioral intentions will provide insights to better understand the green consumer and to better manage the green hotel.     

Computerization and immigration: Theory and evidence from the United States

Recent technological changes have been characterized as “routine-substituting” because they reduce demand for routine tasks and increase demand for analytical and service tasks. Little is known about how these changes have impacted immigration, or task specialization between immigrants and native-born individuals. In this paper, we show that such technological progress has attracted immigrants who increasingly specialize in manual-service occupations. We also suggest that openness to immigration attenuated the job and wage polarization faced by native-born from technological changes. We explain these facts with a model of technological progress and endogenous immigration. Simulations show that unskilled immigration attenuates the drop in routine employment proceeding from technological change, enhances skill upgrading for native-born and raises economy-wide productivity and welfare.     

Transforming the colonial legacy: The future of the Pakistani University

The universities of Pakistan were established by the colonial British government in 1858 so as to produce educated Indians to serve in the expanding bureaucracy. As government and security were the major concerns of the colonial government they made the bureaucracy (ICS) and the military prestigious and efficient institutions while higher education remained subordinate, government-controlled and poor. Being unattractive, the universities could not attract the most competent students and remained medieval teaching institutions with almost no research. This continues in Pakistan because the ruling elites of Pakistan continue to govern the country in the colonial tradition of the past. In the last section certain changes are suggested to make the universities more academically competent.     

Matching of police and hospital road crash casualty records – a data-linkage study in Malaysia

Underreporting of road crashes hampers the development of appropriate road safety countermeasures in many countries. In this study, police and hospital records from road crash casualties in the Melaka Tengah district in Malaysia from 2014 were collected to determine their matching and reporting rates. Based on authentic personal identifiers from both types of records, Microsoft SQL was used to reveal how the matching rate varies due to multiple factors. The results showed that 311 cases (of 7625 hospital records) could be linked to both databases, yielding a 4.1% matching rate and a 4.7% police reporting rate. Both the reporting and matching rates increased with the level of injury severity. The significant underreporting in the police database showed that complementary data are necessary for enhancing the current official crash data records.     

Effects of sales promotion type and promotion depth on consumer perceptions: the moderating role of retailer reputation

This study uses a between-subjects experimental design to test the effect of two sales promotion formats (coupon versus markdown) with either high and low face values on consumer attitudes toward the deal, perceived product quality, and purchase intentions. The reputation of the retailer offering the deal is predicted to moderate the relationship between the promotional offer and consumer responses. Consumers perceive product quality to be higher when offered a high value coupon vs. markdown but there is no significant difference in perceived quality across promotion types when the promotion face value is low. When a deep price discount is offered by a retailer with a negative reputation, however, consumers have more favorable attitudes toward the deal and higher purchase intentions when provided with a markdown vs. coupon. Conversely, a high value coupon elicits more favorable evaluations than a markdown when the retailer has a positive reputation. When the value of the promotion is low and the retailer has a positive reputation, consumers have more positive deal attitudes and purchase intentions when offered a markdown vs. coupon. There is no significant difference in the effects of promotion type when the retailer has a negative reputation. The findings therefore establish retailer reputation as an important moderator of sales promotions effectiveness. This research is limited by the use of a single product category and a student sample. Process measures are also needed to validate the proposed theoretical conceptualization. The results provide managers insight into the type and value of the sales promotion to offer based on consumer perceptions of the retailer's reputation in the market.     

Financial Development,International Trade,and Economic Growth in Australia: New Evidence From Multivariate Framework Analysis

This study investigates the relationship between financial development, international trade and economic growth for Australia over the period of 1965 to 2010. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration is applied to examine the long-run relationship among the series, whereas stationarity properties of the variables are tested by applying two structural break tests. Results confirm the long-run relationship among the variables. Financial development, international trade, and capital appear as the drivers of economic growth in short and long runs. The feedback effect exists between international trade and economic growth. Financial development Granger causes economic growth validating supply-side hypothesis.     

The effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports

We investigate the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports in the context of a multivariate framework in which a structural open economy vector autoregression is modified to accommodate multivariate GARCH-in-Mean errors, as detailed in Elder (Elder, J., 2004. Another perspective on the effects of inflation uncertainty. Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 36, 912–928). Our measure of exchange rate uncertainty is the conditional standard deviation of the forecast error of the change in the exchange rate. We isolate the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on exports and also analyze how accounting for exchange rate uncertainty affects the response of exports to exchange rate shocks. We estimate the model using aggregate monthly data for the United States, over the flexible exchange rate period (since 1973). We use full information maximum likelihood estimation procedures and find that exchange rate uncertainty has a negative and significant effect on US exports. We also find that accounting for exchange rate uncertainty tends to strengthen the dynamic response of exports to shocks in the exchange rate and that exports respond asymmetrically to positive and negative exchange rate shocks of equal magnitude.