‘All in a day's leisure’: gender and the concept of leisure

This paper suggests that leisure conceptualized as time or activity alone poses problems for gender. The underlying idea of leisure as freely-chosen, self-actualizing experience is presented as a basis for broadening the concept. Both the limitations and the freedoms inherent in the leisure experience of women and men may be explained through such a concept of leisure.

This concept leads us to explore new areas of literature, in particular feminist analyses of power. Women's lack of autonomy in comparison with men is highlighted. Finally, further research and future policy can be enhanced by this broader concept of leisure.     

An analysis of corporate ethical code studies: “Where do we go from here?”

The dramatic increase in the number of corporate ethical codes over the past 20 years has been attributed to the Watergate scandal and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ethical codes differ somewhat from profesional codes and mission statements; yet the terms are frequently interchanged and often confused in the literature. Ethical code studies are reviewed in terms of how codes are communicated to employees and whether implications for violating codes are discussed. Most studies use content analysis to determine subjects in codes. Little information is available about how codes are communicated, whether they are accepted and used by employees, and whether they affect employee/corporate behavior. More research on ethical codes is needed to answer some of these questions.Betsy Stevens is a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Business Administration. She received her Ph.D. in 1992 in organizational communication. Her research interests are corporate ethical codes and human resource issues such as employment-at-will.     

Hog Producer Preferences for Marketing Contract Attributes

We use a stated preference instrument to elicit producer preferences for the attributes of risk-shifting hog marketing contracts and express acceptable producer trade-offs between contract attributes in a convenient dollar metric. Respondents value an increase in a window contract's price ceiling three to five times more than the same increase in the price floor, which suggests that hog producers dislike contracts that limit up-side price potential (limit positive skewness). The contractor's organizational form is also important. Cooperative forms are preferred by many respondents, particularly those who state that trust in the contractor is an important antecedent for any contractual relationship.     

Keynes,the socialisation of trade,and international monetary institutions

While Keynes began formulating his ideas concerning the post-WWII international financial system in the early 1940s, the genesis of these ideas can be traced to his earlier work. The Keynes Plan represents the culmination of his search for adequate institutions that guide economic activity for the public good. The reasons given by Keynes for the establishment of an International Clearing Bank are relevant in the modern international economy, given the current imbalances in international trade. As Keynes argued for the socialisation of investment as a method to achieve full-employment in the domestic economy, he argued for the “socialisation of trade” as a method to achieve international economic balance among nations.     

Smith and Living Wages: Arguments in Support of a Mandated Living Wage

Adam Smith was a proponent of living wages for labor for reasons of growth and for reasons of equity. There is ample evidence in the body of Smith's work to support the thesis that Smith would support public policies that might ensure the achievement of a living wage. The argument rests, in part, on the conclusion that Smith had reservations concerning the ability of the economy to experience sufficient growth and the ability of growth, if achieved, to secure living wages. This article argues that, given Smith's views about justice and given Smith's ideas, as part of the Scottish Enlightenment, of how the rules of justice evolve, a living wage law could be one of the general rules of which Smith could approve.     

The Evolution of the Allied Social Science Associations

The organization of the meetings of the approximately 50 economics associations of the Allied Social Science Associations has evolved over the past 140 years, beginning with meetings of the American Social Science Association in 1865, which included social scientists from political science, history, sociology, and economics. Out of this association, the separate disciplines formed their own organizations beginning in the 1880s. Though several of these associations continued to meet together until the 1930s, each discipline gradually separated its meetings from those of the others. During the 1940s, however, other newly formed economics associations began meeting at the same time and place as the AEA, and the Allied Social Science Associations evolved out of these meetings. Though the name of the organization includes “social science,” the associations meeting together are predominately, if not completely, economics associations. These associations, however, profess many different approaches to the study of economics. This paper traces the evolution of these meetings and attempts to come to some conclusions concerning the significance of this association, the most important of which is the role of the ASSA in providing a broad and tolerant platform and a vehicle through which different points of view toward economic theory and policy can be discussed.     

The influence of executive compensation on the dispersion of security analyst forecasts

This study examines the association between executive compensation and security analyst forecast dispersion in an agency setting. It is hypothesized that firms that compensate their managers with long-term performance plans and high percentages of managerial stock will be less likely to engage in manipulation of financial statements and their financial performance will be easier to predict, thus resulting in less disperse forecasts. The results provide evidence that firms that compensate their managers with long-term performance plans and higher levels of the company stock have less dispersion associated with their security analyst forecasts and greater dispersion of their long-term growth in earnings.     

Glenn Adamson. Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003. xi + 219 pp. ISBN 0-262-01207-3, $45.00 (cloth); 0-944110-81, $25.00 (paper).

Brooks Stevens participated in the transformation of the modernsetting of everyday life into a designed environment. Althoughhardly a household name, he influenced the conceptual infrastructureof mid-twentieth-century consumer culture as he worked withproduct manufacturers and communicated his understanding ofAmerican business and consumer product design. In this way,as well as in his design of many consumer products and vehicles,Stevens shaped our world and the way we have moved through it. Industrial