THE SUPPLY OF NON-DEGRADED AGRICULTURAL LAND*

Profitability increases because of favourable product or factor price changes provide incentives for profit-maximising farmers, who use soils in conjunction with other cooperant inputs, to increase their investment in the preservation of soil-quality, whenever there exist economically viable technologies for preserving soils. However, when such technologies do not exist, regardless of whether farmers utilise soils as non-renewable or renewable resources, such profitability increases are associated with a long-run deterioration in soil quality.     

An implicit food policy : Wheat consumption changes in Venezuela

The authors examine Venezuela's wheat and maize consumption in the light of the country's historical process of economic development. They show how certain development policies and strategies affected the consumption of wheat and maize and how, although generally lacking any explicit food policy content, these policies acted as implicit food policies aiding the progressive replacement of maize as the dietary staple by wheat.     

Product innovation in food processing—a Swedish survey

Abstract: Product development strategies in 20 major Swedish food processing companies are described and evaluated both from a company and a consumer point of view. Three types of company outcomes are focused on, technological, market and commercial success. Company variables related to success are size, ownership and research intensity. Strategic variables analyzed in relation to success are technology use, R and D cooperation and marketing. Consumer outcome is studied in terms of price differences, convenience, taste, nutritional benefit and medical value. As in previous studies carried out in the same research programme in more research and technology intensive industries, cooperating with the outside research environment and combining technologies is shown to be clearly associated with success in finding and developing new products. With regard to consumer outcome, convenience and taste differences are the most common attributes of new food products, differentiating them from existing products.     

The role of the ideal organization in comparative management: A cross cultural perspective of Japan & Korea

It is popular to talk of the Confucian Work Ethic when explaining the successes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. This is not an accurate impression. The authors of this article found significant differences in management practices — both actual and ideal — between Japan and South Korea.Professors Lane Kelley, Reginald Worthley and Harry Lie are from the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii while Professor Arthur Whatley is from the College of Business Administration & Economics, New Mexico State University.     

Basic improvement and pseudo-innovations and their impact on efficiency

Increasing gaps between needs and resources lead both directly and indirectly to many economic and political implications, and have a widely uncontrolled feedback to the national economy. In this situation preference of improvement policy is a real danger to the economy. It is necessary to distinguish clearly three directions of technological policy (push, compensation, and continuation) and three types of innovation: basic, improvement, and pseudo-innovation. Innovation classification can be made due to various criteria. In this study two criteria were combined to evaluate the importance of a given technological innovation: scientific-technological level and range of application. The role of basic and improvement innovation in the cyclical development of economic efficiency can be described by a periodic function over time and also as a simple optimization model for investment policy.     

Delivering effective performance feedback: The strengths-based approach

Performance feedback has significant potential to benefit employees in terms of individual and team performance. Moreover, effective performance feedback has the potential to enhance employee engagement, motivation, and job satisfaction. However, managers often are not comfortable giving performance feedback and such feedback, if improperly relayed, causes more harm than good. In this installment of HUMAN PERFORMANCE, we describe a shift from traditional weaknesses-based feedback (which relies on negative commentary focused on employees’ shortcomings) to the more constructive approach of strengths-based feedback (which relies on employee affirmation and encouragement). We explain why a strengths-based approach to performance feedback is superior to the weaknesses-centered approach, and offer nine research-based recommendations on how to deliver effective performance feedback employing a strengths-based method.     

EBCT measured coronary artery calcium scores in asymptomatic life insurance applicants

EBCT measured coronary calcium is fast becoming a standard screening tool in asymptomatic patients with and without risk factors who apply for life insurance. Since atherosclerotic plaques become calcified as part of their natural history, the calcium score is an excellent measure of total atherosclerotic burden. Over the past 5 years, various clinical studies have confirmed the predictive value of the coronary calcium score for both soft (revascularization, MI) and hard (MI and sudden cardiac death) events incrementally and independently of traditional coronary risk factors identified by the Framingham Heart Study. Accurate assessment of cardiac mortality risk in asymptomatic applicants for life insurance should include both traditional risk factor assessments in combination with age and gender specific percentiles for coronary calcium. New data from both new and ongoing clinical trials will seek to further support the predictive value of coronary calcium scores as an independent and incremental predictor of hard cardiac events.     

How Would One Extra Year of High School Affect Academic Performance in University? Evidence from an Educational Policy Change

This paper uses a unique policy change in Ontario, Canada, to provide direct evidence on how reducing the length of high school would impact student performance in university. After a five‐year educational program was eliminated from Ontario high schools and replaced with a four‐year program, two graduating cohorts with different amounts of high school education simultaneously entered university. The results demonstrate that students who receive one less year of high school education perform significantly worse than their counterparts in all subjects, even after the age difference between the cohorts is accounted for.     

Estimating the Dynamics of Mutual Fund Alphas and Betas

This article develops a Kalman filter model to track dynamicmutual fund factor loadings. It then uses the estimates to analyzewhether managers with market-timing ability can be identifiedex ante. The primary findings are as follows: (i) Ordinary leastsquares (OLS) timing models produce false positives (nonzeroalphas) at too high a rate with either daily or monthly data.In contrast, the Kalman filter model produces them at approximatelythe correct rate with monthly data; (ii) In monthly data, thoughthe OLS models fail to detect any timing among fund managers,the Kalman filter does; (iii) The alpha and beta forecasts fromthe Kalman model are more accurate than those from the OLS timingmodels; (iv) The Kalman filter model tracks most fund alphasand betas better than OLS models that employ macroeconomic variablesin addition to fund returns.