Would the payment of market rates for non‐executive directors strengthen charity governance?

This paper considers the academic literature suggesting that the governance and management of charities is far from perfect, a problem that is frequently attributed to the difficulty charities have in recruiting suitable people to act as trustees. The paper raises the question of whether charity governance has a value — and a price worth paying for. The paper describes research carried out to test the attitude of a section of potentially suitable managers to charity trusteeship and to remuneration for such responsibilities. It concludes that there are substantial numbers of able trustees willing to serve on a voluntary basis; the perceived shortage is more likely to arise from charities' own recruitment failings than from a shortage of supply. But it also concludes that the supply of suitable trustees could be doubled if reasonable remuneration were offered, and there is some evidence that existing trustees might give higher priority to their duties if they were paid. Results are based on a sample of just over 100 responses, but a further survey is in progress. Initial results broadly confirm the results reported here. Further research to explore the desirability and practicality of paying charity trustees is indicated. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Secondary upwelling instabilities developed in high Rayleigh number convection: Possible applications to hot spots

We have conducted numerical experiments for mantle convection in an axisymmetrical spherical-shell geometry from Rayleigh numbers ranging from three million to 10 billion for a purely basal heating configuration. We focus on the development of secondary instabilities developed from plumes and compare them with laboratory experiments by Skilbeck and Whitehead (1978) and Whitehead, (1982). For Rayleigh numbers between around thirty million to one billion, a string of these secondary instabilities can develop from a single plume. Analysis of the spectrum of wavelength associated with the fold instabilities shows that there is a window in the Rayleigh number between around ten million and one bilion where these secondary folding instabilities would develop. These results, when applied to the upper mantle, may explain the formation of hot-spots in a turbulently convecting upper-mantle with a Rayleigh number greater than ten million.     

DOMINANCE TESTING OF TRANSFERS IN ROMANIA

In this paper we compare the progressivity of different government transfers made to households in Romania. We use distribution free standard errors to examine the difference between concentration curves that may be correlated, and thereafter employ statistical tests that take into account the covariance matrix for the ordinate estimates. In addition, we estimate extended Gini coefficients for the same transfers to check their consistency with the tests of inequality dominance. The results show that almost all transfer payments in Romania are progressive, and that they have an important effect on the distribution of income. Rankings among different transfer payments are, however, not robust. In particular, sensitivity analysis using different household equivalence scales indicates that many results are not consistent across scales, and that lower size elasticities contribute to changes in ranking of Ginis and loss of statistical significance in dominance tests.     

THE CONCEPT OF EFFECTIVE SUBSIDY AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE CANADIAN FLOUR MILLING INDUSTRY*

The export subsidy has been a perennial bone of contention to competing exporters of various commodities in international trade, particularly in agricultural trade. A typical example is the world trade in flour. Export subsidies on flour exports by large competitors are generally thought to be one of the main causes of the decline in the Canadian share of the world flour market. Previous studies have been confined to an analysis of nominal subsidy rates on flour; quantifications are needed to estimate the effectiveness of the subsidies in fuller terms. Therefore, it is desirable to develop an appropriate concept for treating export subsidies explicitly. The present study attempts to develop a model to estimate the effectiveness of export subsidies net of input distortion so as to arrive at “the effective rate of subsidy.” Then, the mode! so developed is applied to the U.S. and Canadian exports of flour. The results show that Canada had negative effective rates of subsidy throughout the years 1960-61 to 1969-70 while the U.S. rates remained positive during this entire period. These estimations provide quantification of the disadvantage caused for Canadian flour exports by export subsidies on flour by large competitors. A fin ?étudier explictement les primes ?exporiations ont Aeté une source continuelle de mé-sentente entre les exponateurs compétitifs des diverses marchandises au sein du marché international. Ceci est paniculièremeni vrai en ce qui a trait au marché agricole. Un exemple lypique est le marché mondial des farines. ?on croit que i'une des principals causes de la baisse de la part Canadienne dans le marché mondial des farines sont les primes ?exporiations accordées aux gros compétiteurs. Les études précédenles furenl limitées à?analyse de taux nominal de subventions sur les farines; des estimations quan-titatives sont nécessaires afin ?évaluer ?efficacile des subventions en termes plus précis. Done, it est necessaire de développer un concept approprté afin ?étudier les primes ?exporiations explicitement. La préseme étude tente de développer un modèle ?évaluation de ?efficacité des primes ?exporiations libres de loutes déformations afin ?obtenir “un taux efficace de subvention.” Ce modèle est alors appliqué aux exportalions Américaines el Canadiennes de farine. Les résultats démontrent que le Canada possèdait des “taux efficaces de subventions” négalifs pendant les années 1960-61 à 1969-70 el que les taux Américains demeurerent positifs durant la même période. Ces résultats nous donnent la dimension du désavantage causé aux exportalions Canadiennes de farine par les primes ?exporiations accordees aux gros compétiteurs.     

The Demand for Broad Money in the United Kingdom, 1878–1993

Using annual data from Friedman and Schwartz (1982), Hendry and Ericsson (1991a) developed an empirical model of the demand for broad money in the United Kingdom over 1878–1975. We update that model over 1976–1993, accounting for changed data definitions and clarifying the concept of constancy. With appropriate measures of opportunity cost and credit deregulation, the model's parameters are empirically constant over the extended sample, which was economically turbulent. Policy implications follow for parameter nonconstancy and predictive failure, causation between money and prices, monetary targeting, deregulation and financial innovation, and the effect of policy on economic agents' behavior.     

Is the Information Deficiency in Real Estate Evident in Public Market Trading?

This paper examines the summary informativeness of trading in real estate securities. Prior literature on publicly traded real estate securities suggests that the information deficiency associated with local economies and unique rent dynamics will manifest itself as severe information asymmetry. To date, most studies concerned with these issues have focused on the conventional measures of liquidity (serial correlations, bid—ask spreads, etc.). However, the conventional measures have several shortcomings as pure measures of trading information. To address this issue, we use a vector autoregressive methodology pioneered by Hasbrouck. We examine the empirical proposition that information-gathering activities are related to trade informativeness. The evidence is consistent with a theoretical model in which traders are risk-averse and the number of information gatherers is small.     

Profiling exporting and nonexporting service firms: Critical differences to decision-makers

The internationalization of services has become a critical element in the global marketplace. While the internationalization of services has increased in importance, the lack of empirically based research has been a shortcoming. This article empirically examines key characteristics (i.e., total sales, number of employees, age of firm, management's desire to export, perceived profit potential from internationalization, top management's foreign language skills, and international work experience) separating exporting from nonexporting domestic-based service firms. It provides a profile for the exporting service firm that is distinctly different than that of the nonexporting service provider. These differences suggest important policy considerations for federal and state export promotion agencies and strategy considerations for service firm owners and management. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Does prenatal WIC participation improve birth outcomes? New evidence from Florida

We study the effects of prenatal receipt of nutritional and educational services provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on birth outcomes. Our identification strategy consists of two elements: (1) identifying families in a very tight income range surrounding the WIC eligibility threshold; and (2) exploiting a policy change that differentially influenced the WIC takeup rates of the families on each side of the eligibility threshold. We conduct this analysis by merging three large statewide administrative datasets from Florida concerning all births during the period 1997–2001. We match the birth records of infants and the school records of their older siblings in order to relatively precisely identify “marginally eligible” and “marginally ineligible” families that are very similar in their observable characteristics. We find that WIC participation has no effect on mean birth weight and gestational age, but substantially reduces the likelihood of adverse birth outcomes, e.g. birth weights below 2500 g.     

Public debt and financial development

We examine the role of public debt in financial development. The literature has highlighted its supportive role through providing collateral and benchmark. We contrast this “safe asset” view to a “lazy banks” view: developing banking sectors that lend mainly to the public sector may develop more slowly, because it could make banks profitable but inefficient. Results from country-level and bank-level regressions are more supportive of the “lazy banks” view, but the “safe asset” view seems to play a role at moderate levels of public debt held by banks. There is also evidence of a harmful interaction between public debt and financial repression.