Evolution of Employment Centers in Seoul

The objectives of this study are to identify employment centers in Seoul for 1981, 1991, and 1996 and to examine the dynamics of urban spatial structure. We found that Seoul has experienced polycentric spatial transformation since 1981, having one major center (CBD) and two sub–centers. Like most Western cities, Seoul has experienced significant CBD decline during 1981–1996. Employment share of the CBD has decreased dramatically from 34.5% in 1981 to 17% in 1996, and absolute number of employment in the CBD has decreased by about 170,000 during 1981–1996. As two sub–centers have emerged since 1981, the role of the CBD as a provider of high–order services such as FIRE has shifted into the sub–centers. We also found that the polycentric urban form in Seoul makes average commuting distance longer.     

The effect of consumers' involvement and innovativeness on the utilization of fashion wardrobe

This study proposed wardrobe utilization as a means of explaining consumer clothing use behaviour, and aimed to explore its relationship with other antecedent variables. We posit that use innovativeness functions as an antecedent of wardrobe utilization within a model comprised of fashion‐related variables, such as fashion innovativeness and fashion involvement. An empirical study was conducted to test this relationship with 211 adult women between the ages of 20 and 40 years. In order to calculate wardrobe utilization, the number of clothing items worn by each respondent was divided by the total number of clothes that the respective respondent owns. The findings of this study revealed a measureable effect of use innovativeness on wardrobe utilization and apparel purchase behaviour. In addition, fashion innovativeness and fashion involvement was shown to affect use innovativeness; however, the two variables did not have a significant impact on influencing wardrobe utilization. These results showed that use innovativeness plays a role of the full mediator variable in the path from fashion involvement and fashion innovativeness to wardrobe utilization. These also indicated that people who are very innovative in their use of fashion are likely to broadly utilize their respective wardrobes. Finally, the impact of purchase behaviour on wardrobe utilization was dismissed, as purchase behaviour and use behaviour were found to be clearly distinguished from one another. Clothing utilization is related to the life cycle of clothes including their purchase, usage and disposal. And in better understanding clothing utilization, the needless waste of clothing would be reduced and would encourage better management of clothes after their purchase. In the context of the product life cycle, this study of clothing use behaviour can assist in building a more sustainable environment for the textile and fashion industry.     

The Effect of Financial Incentives on Labour Supply: Evidence for Lone Parents from Microsimulation and Quasi‐Experimental Evaluation*

The aim of this paper is to analyse the work incentive effects of a change in the Australian tax and transfer system on lone parents in July 2000. To evaluate the effect of the total change only, microsimulation can be used; but for a subgroup of lone parents, a few components of this policy change can be analysed through two alternative approaches — microsimulation and quasi‐experimental evaluation. Both approaches examine the effects on the probability of employment and on average working hours. The results from microsimulation show that the combined changes introduced in July 2000 — involving reduced withdrawl rates, changed family payments and lower income tax rates — have increased labour supply for lone parents to a moderate extent. The estimated effect on average working hours when using microsimulation is very close to the effect estimated in a quasi‐experimental approach using matching techniques to control for alternative influences.     

Conditional conservatism and labor investment efficiency

Prior literature documents that asymmetric timely recognition of losses versus gains (also known as conditional conservatism) can induce management to make more efficient investment decisions by mitigating information asymmetry between management and investors and providing early signals about the profitability of projects that are undertaken. In this paper, we investigate the impact of conservatism on an important investment decision that has been overlooked, namely, investment in labor. We find that conservatism is negatively associated with labor investment inefficiency; more specifically, conservatism reduces inefficient investment practices on the labor market, including over-hiring, under-firing, under-hiring, and over-firing. Our results hold after controlling for managerial ability, corporate governance, and other investments.     

Is Corporate Governance in China Related to Performance Persistence?

This paper examines the relationship between performance persistence and corporate governance (as proxied for by board characteristics and shareholder structure). We document systematic differences in performance persistence across listed companies in China during 2001–2011, and empirically demonstrate that firms with better corporate governance show higher performance persistence. The results are robust over both the short and long terms. We also find that performance persistence is an important factor in refinancing, and it can lower companies’ costs of borrowing. Overall, our findings offer important implications for business ethics, as we demonstrate how corporate governance can lower companies’ costs of debt.     

Black-White Disparities in Test Scores: Distributional Characteristics

This paper investigates the distributional characteristics of racial differences in mathematics achievement, with particular attention to the potential influence of unexplained, and possibly unwarranted, racial differentials in rates of school suspension. It is well known that black students consistently score lower than whites on achievement tests, on average, even after controlling for family and schooling factors. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, we decompose the racial gap in mathematics test scores from the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised (PIAT-R) into a component due to racial differences in underlying characteristics and another component that is unexplained by differences in measured characteristics. We account for the possible endogeneity of suspensions in our analysis and show that the portion of the racial gap that is unexplained differs between the top and the bottom of the test score distribution. Our results suggest that researchers should pay more attention to the problem of concentration of black students among those at the bottom of the distribution and their scarcity among those at the top of the test score distribution to better understand the factors that account for the observed disparities.     

Shadow prices of environmental outputs and production efficiency of household-level paper recycling units in Vietnam

The production efficiency and shadow prices of three environmental outputs (BOD, COD, and SS) of 63 household-level paper-recycling units, from a recycling craft village in Vietnam, are assessed A two-stage procedure, linear programming and stochastic estimation, is used to estimate output distance function. Social capital as a production factor and environmental outputs are included in the output distance function. Results indicate that production efficiencies could potentially be improved by 28%. There is a substantial variation in the shadow prices of environmental outputs among the production units of different types of paper products. Furthermore, the average shadow prices of the three environmental outputs are all positive. This indicates a potential for improving environmental quality though introducing pollution-prevention methods to paper-recycling production processes in Vietnam (e.g., recirculation of wastewater), and suggests that it may be inappropriate to restrict the shadow prices of environmental outputs to be non-positive for the analysis of some production processes.     

Dynamic Properties of Income Support Receipt in Australia

Using administrative records on Australian income support (welfare) recipients over the period July 1995 to June 2002, we examine dynamic properties of income support receipt and the personal characteristics associated with alternative patterns of receipt. We draw on three concepts: churning–the process of ending a spell on income support and subsequently commencing a new spell; transferring–moving from one payment type to another within a spell on income support; and Total Time On payments (TTO)–the proportion of time on income support in a given period. We find that churning and transferring are significant features of income support receipt in Australia. For example, over half of recipients churn within five years of commencing an income support spell, and one‐fifth make a payment transfer within the same time frame. Examination of the characteristics associated with each of five distinct patterns of receipt reveals substantial differences in patterns by age, family composition, unemployment status, health status, and recent history of income support receipt.