Subprime Lenders and Mortgage Market Completion

Without a subprime market, some borrowers by virtue of poor credit history, unstable income, and other characteristics are unable to qualify for a mortgage. With a subprime market, there is a more complete credit supply schedule with the market pricing for poorer credit quality in the mortgage rate. By completing the capital market, subprime lenders reduce borrowing constraints. The result is a social welfare gain. Low-credit applicants otherwise denied funding are able to qualify by paying higher interest rates in exchange for offering more equity or lower loan-to-value ratios. This prediction is consistent with the subprime applicants financing or refinancing their mortgages at relatively low loan-to-value ratios.     

Trade Policy and Productivity Growth in OECD Manufacturing *

Trade liberalization may promote economic growth in a number of ways, including by accelerating the rate of technological change. Firms that face more intense import competition may be spurred to greater rates of innovation; firms which export may absorb new technologies through their contact with international markets. This paper examines evidence on trade policy and productivity growth for a sample of thirteen OECD countries and including eighteen manufacturing sectors, using data primarily from the 1980s. Within individual sectors, there are strong productivity convergence effects within the OECD. After controlling for convergence, we find a positive association between high rates of productivity growth and low tariffs, and between high productivity growth and strong export performance. We found no particular association between high productivity growth and import penetration. The results are consistent with the possibility of positive linkages between trade liberalization and accelerated productivity growth. [F1, O4]     

The Military Occupation of Burma

In this article we study diverse ways and means by which the military controls and oppresses the people, Burman and other ethnic groups, in the name of achieving the Tatmadaw’s (Burmese military’s) three main national causes, ‘non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity, and perpetuation of national solidarity’. We explore the ways the State uses their power to dominate civilian life and forms of resistance to this. State power is not uniformly practiced but occurs at different spatial scales of body, family, home, and village. Understanding the instrumentality of the State acts of violence through study of interrogation of political prisoners, offers ways to recognize the broader aspects of State pressure in the form of destruction of homes, villages, and means of livelihood. The private space of the body, home and the public village meant to shelter it has become the focus of Burmese State attempts to control the population.     

Segmenting the College Educated Generation Y Health and Wellness Traveler

Generation Y is considered to be the next largest cohort group to significantly impact the health and wellness travel industry. This study sought to create a profile of the Gen Y health and wellness traveler using push and pull motivations and perceived wellness. K-means clustering revealed five distinct traveler segments. Wellness was found to be a motivating factor as well as the other internal and external motivators used in this study. Men were found to travel more for escape and women for the nightlife. Opportunities to both seek and avoid contact with others were revealed. Suggestions for future marketing messages for the Gen Y wellness traveler are offered.     

Cooperative goals and team performance: Examining the effects of advice network

Based on the theory of cooperation and competition, this study examines the relationships between cooperative goals, advice network, and team performance, and their boundary conditions. Based on multi-source data from 189 teams in a military organization, results indicate that cooperative goals positively influence team performance via advice network density. Moreover, advice network centralization moderates the relationship between advice network density and team performance. In addition, advice network centralization moderates the indirect effect of cooperative goals on team performance via advice network density.     

Twentieth century female ad images: Cultural interconnections,social learning,and the dialectical logic of advertising

The study conducts a historical investigation of the linkages among the focused social learning of a few (such as ideas of feminists groups), the amplification of those ideas throughout the masses, and observable female images in ads. The Hegelian sublation or Aufgehoben dialectical framework is applied to deepen understanding of how ad strategies have reconciled multiple cultural conversations about the proper image and role of women through the years. The findings of the research reveal distinctive dialectical processes and strategies in the ever-evolving patterns of female images in ads. The results of the study indicate that the focused social learning of the few is amplified to the masses through more emergent ad female roles and images during prosperous and peaceful times and is thwarted during times of national distress.     

Means-end chain analysis explains soil fertility management decisions by peri-urban vegetable growers in Kenya

Past studies of the use of soil fertility management strategies by farmers usually model input use decisions based on the neoclassical utility/profit maximization principle in which farmers use soil fertility management inputs primarily to increase revenues and profits. However, there is, to date, no study that explains exactly how this decision-making process occurs and the role which personal values play in driving the choice of soil fertility management inputs. This article systematically maps the relationship between choice of soil fertility management strategy (attributes), its outcomes (consequences) and the personal values that motivate the choice. It specifically uses the means-end chain approach to construct hierarchical value maps that relate the attributes to consequences, and ultimately to the personal values. The study finds that the use of soil fertility management strategies by peri-urban fresh vegetable growers is driven by five personal values, namely happiness, comfortable life, independence, good/healthy life and achievement of life goals. It also finds that while farmers seek to increase profit (hence incomes), profit maximization is not the end driver of the use of soil fertility management inputs. It concludes that a lot more goes into farmers’ decision-making process relating to the use of soil fertility management practices than can be explained by the neoclassical profit/utility maximization principle. The study discusses the policy implications of these findings.     

Technology as a tool to rebuild heritage sites: the second life of the Abbey of Cluny

Technology has made changes in communication, lifestyle, and cultures, creating a new challenge to heritage sites. Technology can be the answer to connecting with local communities and tourists, reducing the gap between people and their inheritance, making it more understandable, creating awareness and value and eliminating time and space limitations. It can be used to communicate, interpret, teach, analyze, and make heritage accessible. And it can also be applied to make virtual reconstructions of what no longer exists. This paper analyzes the effect of technology at a heritage site, using the Abbey of Cluny as a case. This Abbey is a monument in France due to its importance during the Middle Ages as the monastic capital of Europe. Today, there are only a few traces of what the Maior Ecclesia used to be. New technologies were applied to rebuild what was destroyed with time using augmented reality and 3D reconstruction. Qualitative methods were used to describe what effects in visitors and promotion of the site were observable.     

Testing the effectiveness of online assignments in theory of finance

The authors investigated the effectiveness of online versus paper assignments using final examination scores in three cohorts of theory of finance. In particular, two cohorts were exposed to online assignments while another cohort was exposed to traditional assignments. The central result is that exposure to online assignments robustly leads to higher final exam scores, all else being equal. The authors also found a lower level of engagement as shown by low assignment completion rates for students exposed to online assignments.     

Statistical Inference,Learning and Models in Big Data

The need for new methods to deal with big data is a common theme in most scientific fields, although its definition tends to vary with the context. Statistical ideas are an essential part of this, and as a partial response, a thematic program on statistical inference, learning and models in big data was held in 2015 in Canada, under the general direction of the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute, with major funding from, and most activities located at, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. This paper gives an overview of the topics covered, describing challenges and strategies that seem common to many different areas of application and including some examples of applications to make these challenges and strategies more concrete.