Measuring returns to scale and technological change in co-operative banks: A provincial analysis of Canadian credit unions and caisses populaires

In Canada economies of scale in credit unions come not only from large single office arrangements but from external economies realized from belonging to central provincial credit unions. Making use of aggregate provincial time series and cross-sectional data, this study begins by employing a sequential Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) test to select the most appropriate model. This procedure permits the isolation of economies of scale from technological change effects. For all provinces, economies of scale are discovered to be significantly different from 1, and for five of the eight provinces examined, technological change was statistically significant from zero. The larger the provincial organization, as illustrated by the Quebec caisses populaires, the higher we find estimates of returns to scale and technological change. An implication may be that both expansion and more centralization should be encouraged and that other provinces may be able to increase efficiency by imitating some of Quebec's operational and administrative practices.     

Can Asset Pricing Models Price Idiosyncratic Risk in U.K. Stock Returns?

I examine how well different linear factor models and consumption‐based asset pricing models price idiosyncratic risk in U.K. stock returns. Correctly pricing idiosyncratic risk is a significant challenge for many of the models I consider. For some consumption‐based models, there is a clear tradeoff in the performance of the models between correctly pricing systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk. Linear factor models do a better job in most cases in pricing systematic risk than consumption‐based models but the reverse is true for idiosyncratic risk.     

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND THE TIME BETWEEN TRADES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Previous studies propose that the time between trades is a measure of the existence of information and a manifestation of the demand and supply of liquidity. I find evidence that the time between trades is a measure of the existence of information. However, the evidence does not imply that liquidity constraints are an unimportant determinant of price changes. Further investigation indicates that price changes are partially related to liquidity constraints, when the liquidity constraint is measured by the availability of multiple counterparties. Finally, I find some evidence that information about trades, not necessarily related to information about the underlying asset, also affects price changes.     

Ethical issues in the selection interview

This article evaluates various aspects of the selection interview in terms of the major principles of business ethics. It looks at both interviewer and interviewee behavior and examines the ethical questions that arise around five key themes: Preparation for the interview; Openness, disclosure and the invasion of privacy; Honesty and impression management; Power relationships in the interview; The use of interview information in decision making. It is argued that clear guidelines for ethical behavior in the interview are needed and would actually serve to increase the effectiveness of the method. Various topics that require empirical investigation are identified, and some parallels drawn with research on other assessment methods.Clive Fletcher is Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. He completed his Ph.D., then spent seven years as a psychologist in the British Civil Service, before taking up an academic post. His research interests focus on assessment centres, performance management and the selection interview     

Reclaiming the ‘L’ word: Leisure Studies and UK Higher Education in neoliberal times

Leisure is a major sphere of both private and public life. It is thus of concern that the identity and profile of Leisure Studies in the Higher Education curricula of the United Kingdom have declined in prominence over the past decade. This trend is not peculiar to Leisure Studies; the social sciences as a whole are threatened by a neoliberal economic discourse which increasingly informs Higher Education strategic management. The aim of this article is to investigate the impacts of the declining status of Leisure Studies as experienced by lecturers and researchers in the subject field. It is based upon a project commissioned by the Higher Education Academy in 2015. It was found that Leisure Studies faces two principal challenges. The first is to re-establish its status as a subject field within the social sciences, the second is to ensure it retains a relevance to leisure practice, particularly in terms of the management of its provision. The article proposes greater academic engagement in ideational ‘border crossings’ to advance thinking on leisure in the social sciences and to explore opportunities for collaboration within them. We conclude that Leisure Studies arguably suffers from a crisis of representation, as opposed to a crisis of relevance.     

Investor Heterogeneity and the Cross-section of U.K. Investment Trust Performance

We use the upper and lower bounds derived by Ferson and Lin (2010) to examine the impact of investor heterogeneity on the performance of U.K. investment trusts relative to alternative linear factor models. We find using the upper bounds that investor heterogeneity has an important impact for nearly all investment trusts. The upper bounds are large in economic terms and significantly different from zero. We find no evidence of any trusts where all investors agree on the sign of performance beyond what we expect by chance. Using the lower bound, we find that trusts with a larger disagreement about trust performance have a weaker relation between the trust premium and past Net Asset Value (NAV) performance.     

Neighborhood change at Love Canal: contamination, evacuation and resettlement

This paper examines neighborhood change at Love Canal since 1978 when it was discovered that hazardous waste had contaminated homes and schools in the area. It begins with an introduction and background to set the context for the case and the analysis. The following sections address the extent of contamination in various parts of the neighborhood as well as government activities to remediate the problem, including the evacuation of residents and the resettlements that followed. The research is based on archived files of the Love Canal Task Force, a body of the New York State Government (USA), which oversaw the remediation process.     

人力资本跨国流动与中国经济增长——基于外商直接投资视角的研究

跨国人力资本作为外商直接投资(FDI)技术外溢重要载体的观点已被众多文献所探讨,但其对东道国经济增长的作用很少被详细的研究过。本文首先通过一般均衡模型描述了多样化的跨国人力资本和有形资产对东道国经济增长的作用。为了检验理论模型关于经济变量间关系的预测,采用中国1992-2007年29个地区的面板数据考察跨国人力资本流动对于我国经济增长的作用。将跨国人力资本变量引入传统的经济增长回归模型中,并运用SYS-GMM计量方法测算它对经济增长的效应。结果表明,基于FDI的跨国人力资本流动与经济增长显著正相关,在控制其他因素如人口和制度变量后,这一结果仍然稳健有效。     

The governance of the Boscombe Artificial Surf Reef,UK

The Boscombe Artificial Surf Reef (ASR) is the first ASR in Europe and is the flagship project of an ambitious scheme to regenerate Boscombe Spa, a resort-suburb of Bournemouth, UK. The Boscombe ASR therefore presents a unique coastal management challenge in Europe for which there is no precedent and little pre-existing management capacity. Through a multi-stage research process, this paper identifies the likely governance challenges that will face the Boscombe ASR. These were found to include overcrowding, a lack of surf skill and etiquette amongst visitors, conflict between different uses, and localism. Through a consideration of approaches to surf governance elsewhere, suggestions are identified for management interventions that may work in Boscombe. The paper concludes by identifying underlying tensions between the need to attract visitors to support the regeneration of Boscombe, the surf safety issues created by an influx of novice surfers, and the potential for the breakdown of the norms governing the self-regulation of surfing.