Horticultural exports,female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal

In this paper we analyse the indirect effects of the boom in horticultural exports in Senegal on child schooling. The export boom has caused a dramatic increase in female off-farm wage employment, which led to increased female bargaining power in the household. We investigate the causal effect of female wage income on primary school enrolment. We develop a collective household model with endogenous bargaining power to show that, if women have higher preferences for schooling than men, the impact of female wage income on school enrolment will be the result of a positive income effect, a negative labour substitution effect and a positive empowerment effect. We address the question empirically using original household survey data from Senegal. We use different econometric techniques and show that female off-farm wage income has a positive effect on primary school enrolment for both boys and girls, and that female empowerment is specifically important for the schooling of girls. Our results imply that the horticultural export boom in Senegal has indirectly contributed to the second and third Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary education.     

Part-time employment in Hong Kong: a gendered phenomenon?

In recent years, part-time employment in Hong Kong has grown considerably. Unlike Western industrialized countries where women play an overwhelming role in this form of employment, in Hong Kong a large proportion (44 per cent) of part-time workers are male. This study addresses the extent, patterns and trends in part-time employment in Hong Kong. In addition, it examines gender differences (such as age pattern, marital status, sectoral and occupational distribution) in this form of employment. Statistical analysis of survey data reveals that certain socio-demographic variables have differential effects on participation in part-time work for men and women. Finally, practical implications and future research directions are discussed.     

National culture and labour-market flexibility

This paper develops a cultural explanation for labour-market flexibility, building on the work of Lipset. Using Hofstede's conceptual framework for categorizing national cultures, certain hypotheses are derived concerning the association of various labour-market institutions and rigidities connected with employment, pay bargaining the treatment of the unemployed, and Hofstede's dimensions of national culture. These hypotheses are tested on data for OECD countries, using ordinary least squares regression. The results demonstrate a strong statistical association between Hofstede's cultural indices and the various labour-market rigidities. In particular, there is a strong inverse relationship between Hofstede's MAS variable and all our labour flexibility variables. Cultural values reflecting feminine gender structuring appear to be strongly associated with labour-market inflexibility. There is also a strong statistical association between scores on the UAI dimension, and employment rigidities and pay-bargaining practices. Cultural attitudes to power inequalities as reflected in the PDI index inversely related to rigidities in pay-bargaining practices. While the results demonstrate only statistical associations, they are suggestive of the possibility that culture plays more determining role. This has important implications for deregulation/regulation strategies.     

Operational planning and competitive strategies of male and female retailers

Interest in the managerial practices of females in business has increased over the past decade due to women's increased representation in business. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that women approach decision making differently from men. The purpose of this study is to determine if gender differences regarding managerial strategies exist in the retail setting. Targeted managerial strategies focused on short-term planning processes (personnel, financial, inventory and market planning) and competitive strategies in operation (differentiation, cost leadership and focus). In a sample of 459 retailers from a twelve-state region, MANOVA was used to determine if significant differences in managerial strategies existed between genders. The data on retail competitive strategies suggest that men and women more likely than male business owners to recognize in the importance of differentiation and focus as retail competitive strategies in their business operations. Gender differences were also found in the operational planning areas of market and inventory planning.     

Unions and Gender Pay Equity in Academe: A Study of U.S. Institutions

This paper uses 1994-95 faculty salary data from over 1,100 four-year U.S. academic institutions, about one-fourth of them with collective bargaining agreements, to ask if faculty unions make a difference to gender pay equity. Average gender salary differences are negative at every rank and at every category of U.S. institution with or without collective bargaining agreement. Unions may improve gender salary differentials somewhat, particularly at the assistant professor level. There is no evidence that this gain will be lost at higher levels, and mixed evidence that further gains occur for women at the full professor level. The most pervasive and robust consequence of unions is to increase the positive impact that higher proportions of women at senior faculty ranks make on relative salaries at the assistant professor level. However, the influence of these higher-ranked women on gender salary inequalities at the associate and full levels is lower in union schools than nonunion schools. By reducing the flexibility of existing salary structures, collective bargaining apparently reduces the influence of senior women faculty on the salaries of current women faculty members while increasing their attention and influence at entry levels.     

Not Only Gender: More on Debating Markets

The paper by Gudeman and Gudeman on the nature of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is a valuable contribution. This comment argues that they neglected one important aspect affecting CMC, namely ideology, and suggests that the ''Debating Markets'' exchange had long-term negative impacts on Femecon.     

日本发挥女科技工作者作用的政策及环境的研究

积极开发女性科技人力资源是日本推动科技发展的重要方针。日本政府采取一系列政策措施改善女科技工作者工作和成长环境，构建全社会支持女科技工作者平等发挥作用的氛围，解决女性面临的传统雇佣制度与单位内性别不平等、工作与家庭双重角色冲突与再就业困境、兼顾工作与养育子女的社会环境不够完善等种种困难，使女性科技工作者为实施科学技术立国战略做出贡献。     

EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF FORECASTER MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER ON JUDGMENTAL ADJUSTMENTS OF STATISTICAL FORECASTS

The growing adoption of demand collaboration initiatives such as Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) has made judgmental adjustments of forecasts, an already widespread forecasting practice, an increasingly routine part of many logistics managers' responsibilities. This article investigates how logistics managers might improve forecast accuracy by judgmentally adjusting statistical forecasts and potential factors that may influence the effectiveness of such adjustments. In particular, our goal is to expand current knowledge in this area by focusing on individual differences, specifically motivation and gender, which have been thus far neglected in the extant literature. Our findings indicate that motivation has a significant effect on accuracy improvement and this relationship is moderated by gender. Managerial implications of these findings and future research opportunities are also presented.     

The warren court,inequality and the poor

This paper presents a gender perspective of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. The TAA is the primary US policy to assist the transition of workers displaced due to trade related economic restructuring. In comparison to the relatively substantial research on gendering trade policies in developing economies there is very limited focus on gendering policy responses to trade in the US. We argue that there is a specific gender trend in the trade-displacement patterns in the US which calls for a gender sensitive policy response. We examine the TAA in light of this trend and offer some suggestions for a gendered approach to providing assistance to workers negotiating an increasingly flexible global labor market.     

Investor reaction to women directors

Existing studies on women directorships present equivocal results on the association between appointing women directors and firm performance. These studies tend to focus on western countries and largely ignore investors' reactions to such appointments. This paper applies the financial event study method and finds that investors generally respond positively to the appointment of women directors in Singaporean firms. Regression analyses also reveal that investors are most receptive when the women are independent directors and are least receptive when the directors assume the CEO role. This study not only tests the theory of gender diversity in an Asian context but also examines whether investors react systematically to the different positions that women directors hold on corporate boards, a question that has received little attention in prior studies.