Gender,Sibling Order,and Differences in the Quantity and Quality of Education: Evidence from Japanese Twins*

Using information on 1045 pairs of Japanese monozygotic twins, we examined differences in education by considering both the years of schooling (quantity) and the reputation of the last attended school (quality). We found that a difference in learning performance at 15 years of age is one of the key factors determining the differences. We also found that a female eldest child in the family from the 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts averaged 0.54 years less schooling than did her ‘younger’ twin. However, for the same birth cohorts, a male eldest child in the family generally had access to higher‐quality education than his ‘younger’ twin. Nonetheless, as the Japanese economy matured in the 1970s and thereafter, educational differences between twins disappeared, regardless of gender and sibling order.     

Big Data,Official Statistics and Some Initiatives by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Official statisticians have been dealing with a diversity of data sources for decades. However, new sources of data in the Big Data domain provide an opportunity to deliver a more efficient and effective statistical service. This paper outlines a number of considerations for the official statistician when deciding whether to embrace a particular new data source in the regular production of official statistics. The principal considerations are relevance, business benefit, and the validity of using the source for official statistics in finite population inferences or analytic inferences. The paper also describes the Big Data Flagship Project of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which has been established to provide the opportunity for the ABS to gain practical experience in assessing the business, statistical, technical, computational and other issues in using Big Data. In addition, ABS participation in national and international activities in this area will help it share experience and knowledge, while collaboration with academics will enable ABS to better acquire the capability to address business problems using the new sources of data as part of the solution.     

The ATO Longitudinal Information Files (ALife): A New Resource for Retirement Policy Research

The Australian Taxation Office release of annual longitudinally linked individual tax and superannuation records, known as the ATO Longitudinal Information Files (ALife), opens up opportunities for new research. In this study, we provide an overview of ALife, focusing on its use for retirement income research. To this end, we provide the first longitudinal estimates of superannuation outcomes for 1-year birth cohorts. Results show marked increase in disparity of super balances in the lead-up to retirement as those in the top quartile ramp-up their contributions, possibly to take advantage of the favourable tax treatment of superannuation income in retirement years.     

Impact evaluation for tourism development using the fuzzy set model: A case study of Kyongju,Korea

The Community tourism industry is primarily influenced by facilities, traffic systems, capacity, and development of tourism commodities. To develop tourism industry on a local basis, it is unavoidable to make investments on a large scale. Factor analysis for impact evaluation prior to undertaking of development projects, which this study intends to make, is more reasonable when related to the fuzzy numeric analysis of words or sentences than to a quantitative analysis of measured information. In this study the Euclidean distance method and Zadeh's fuzzy extension principle were used as linguistic approximation to establish the validity of decision‐ making in each factor category of impact degree. Therefore, this study introduces a general concept of Fuzzy theory through literature review of linguistic expressions. This study examined availability of the Fuzzy model in analyzing investment priorities for tourist development and applied it to Kyongju area, which unveiled the priorities for Kyongju tourism future in order of traffic system improvement, early construction of horse‐ racing track now under planning, promotion of Kyongju as tourism special zone to visitors and positive tourism events. In terms of methodology, this study disclosed that Fuzzy Model approach is greatly useful to decision‐making processes in tourist development.     

Reverse Price Discrimination with Bayesian Buyers

This paper studies price discrimination under the situation in which buyers' prior valuations are initially observable by a seller but buyers receive further information about a product or service which remains private thereafter. The buyers interpret new information via Bayes' rule. We show that, in this environment, prices are not monotone in buyers' prior valuations. Interestingly, this results in the possibility that a seller intentionally offers a higher price to a low valuation buyer rather than a high valuation buyer (Reverse Price Discrimination). We derive this result in both monopoly and duopoly markets.     

Breach of traveller privacy in location-based social media

The availability of location-based social media (LBSM) presents various opportunities for tourism researchers and businesses to understand and enhance the traveller experience. However, privacy concerns can prevent users from sharing their location data, impeding the future development of LBSM applications. Privacy issues of LBSM remain under investigation in the tourism literature probably because social media platforms are often assumed to feature good security mechanisms. This paper argues that risks of privacy disclosure exist not from direct access to private data but indirectly through seemingly harmless data published by users. We present a social link mining technique and demonstrate how private and sensitive information in the form of social relationships between travellers can be revealed. The ?ndings can support managers and researchers in realizing the potential privacy risks of LBSM so that effective strategies can be developed to protect users and promote the gains that LBSM can bring.     

A modeling framework for enhancing aid effectiveness

ABSTRACT

The development literature lacks consensus about the link between aid effectiveness and governance improvement. A basic rational actor model is introduced to clarify how donors can influence recipient behaviors and more broadly how foreign aid can support or impede governance quality improvement. Adopting the underutilized perspective of donor behavior, this study identifies mechanisms through which aid hinders governance improvement and offers substantive recommendations about how donors can enhance aid effectiveness, including strategies for donors to raise the level of effort recipients devote to project success.     

Stunting and academic achievement among Vietnamese children: new evidence from the young lives survey

Most of the empirical literature on the relationship between the health condition and skill development of school children are based on a static relationship between health and skill development. This article contributes to the literature by examining the dynamic relationship between stunting and school achievement using data from the first three waves of the Young Lives Survey in Vietnam. Using both structural equation and hybrid estimators, empirical results show that past school performance is the most significant predictor of the academic performance. Stunting has a significant negative effect on school performance, and its effect in the long run is as twice as much its effect in the short run. The empirical evidence also shows that the age of the child, mothers’ literacy, access to electricity and household consumption significantly affect school performance.     

Board effectiveness in Chinese fund management companies

With a generally weak investor protection environment and no governance voice in the fund management companies (FMC) to which their investment is entrusted, fund investors in China are left with the internal governance mechanisms to safeguard their interest. Using a panel data of 288 firm‐year observations covering more than 98% of FMC in China from the period between 2006 and 2010, the present paper examines the corporate governance challenges confronting the fledging Chinese fund management industry by analysing how key governance settings affect the performance of the board of directors in protecting the interest of fund investors. The results show that board effectiveness can be enhanced if a listed company is the controlling shareholder. In addition, having a female CEO or board chairperson and a small‐sized board may help to reduce investors’ fees. Other internal corporate governance mechanisms, such as shareholder concentration, having state‐owned financial companies as controlling shareholders and board independence, are found to exhibit no significant impact on the effectiveness of FMC boards.     

iPhone的二元价值容介态研究

iPhone的成功源于使用价值和虚拟价值的结合、容介和进化。品牌、创意、体验、人文艺术、服务等虚拟价值要素信息容入使用价值,促成iPhone的出现和其价值的进化;同时,iPhone释放出的时代象征、个体个性、社会潮流等信息又容纳入消费者的心理需求,进一步促使了iPhone的升级和成功。两个过程循环往复,交融并进,充分体现了广义虚拟经济理论的二元价值容介态。