Political Resource Allocation: Benefits and Costs of Voter Initiatives

This article explores the benefits and costs of the voter initiative,a direct democracy device that allows policy decisions to bemade by voters rather than their elected representatives. Previousresearch suggests that by introducing "competition" into theproposal process, the initiative leads to policies that arecloser to the median voter's ideal point. In our model, in contrast,the effect of the initiative is conditional on the severityof representative agency problems and uncertainty about voterpreferences. The initiative always makes the voter better offwhen representatives are faithful agents, but when voter preferencesare uncertain, initiatives can cause "shirking" representativesto choose policies farther from the voter's ideal point. Ourevidence shows that initiatives are more common in states withheterogeneous populations, and initiatives reduce state spendingwhen Democrats control the government and when citizens havediverse preferences.     

SOME WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF OPTIMAL STABILISATION POLICY IN AN ECONOMY WITH CAPITAL AND STICKY PRICES

In this paper we review and extend some of the key lessons that seem to be emerging from the Ramsey‐inspired theory of dynamic optimal monetary and fiscal policies. We construct measures of the key distortions in our economy; we label these ‘dynamic wedges’. Inflation, actual or anticipated, distorts these wedges in the present period, shrinks the tax base and increases the deadweight loss. We show that, if possible, labour as well as capital ought to be subsidised in steady state. We point to a number of extensions to the Ramsey literature that may help in the formulation of actual policy.     

Bringing archaeology into the information age: entropy,noise, channel capacity,and information potential in archaeological significance assessments

Quality & Quantity - Most archaeology today is conducted by private cultural resources management (CRM) firms in compliance with preservation legislation. Industry archaeologists make decisions...     

A test of the relationship between person–environment fit and cross-cultural adjustment among self-initiated expatriates

Understanding an expatriate's cross-cultural adjustment to the various aspects of their host environment and organization has been a focal point of research for several decades. Person–environment (PE) fit refers to the degree of fit an individual has with various dimensions of their host environment, and past research suggests that successful PE fit positively influences adjustment. However, the strength of these relationships remains under-researched. Drawing upon data gathered from 369 self-initiated expatriate doctors working in Ireland, we examine the strength of the relationship between PE fit and cross-cultural adjustment. Our results suggest that dimensions of PE fit influence cross-cultural adjustment to varying degrees. Thus, person–job needs-supplies fit was the only fit dimension to influence interaction adjustment, while person–job demands abilities influenced both work adjustment and, to a lesser extent, interaction adjustment. Person–organization fit influenced work adjustment, while person–supervisor fit had no relationship with adjustment. These findings have implications for organizations when recruiting and supporting self-initiated expatriates.     

You’re Fired!: The Impact of Race on the Firing of Black Head Coaches in Major College Football

It is well known that the hiring rate of black head coaches in major college football is not representative of the number of student-athletes that are black. However, less obvious is the fact that black head coaches may be treated unfairly when decision-makers decide whether to retain or fire their institution’s current head coach. In this paper, I use a rich dataset of National Collegiate Athletic Associate football coaches from 1990 to 2012, containing measures of coaching performance and school expectations, as well as information on each coach’s race and whether he was fired or retained in each season. Using this data, I estimate a discrete-time hazard model of the probability that a head coach is fired, allowing the hazard rate of black head coaches and white head coaches to differ, and find that black head coaches are 5.28 percentage points more likely to be fired than their white counterparts. Additionally, I find that black head coaches are more likely to be fired in the initial 3 years of tenure, and again in their seventh and eighth years, but that the difference in the probability of release between black and white head coaches in the fourth through sixth years of tenure is small and statistically insignificant.     

Globalizing Historically Black Business Schools: A Case Study of the Application of Modern Pedagogical Theories of Internationalizing Higher Education

The AACSB and AIB have each issued reports aimed at ensuring the internationalization of business schools. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) – as underresourced entities serving an underprivileged constituency – may need additional attention. Unfortunately, neither the AACSB nor AIB reports mention HBCUs. The broader literature is similarly silent with respect to importance of ensuring that HBCUs, and the black business leaders they produce, are not left behind. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of globalizing business schools at HBCUs, and to offer the Memphis Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER)-related efforts as a real-world case study of the application of broad pedagogical theory on “internationalizing business schools” in an HBCU setting.     

Identifying Strategies to Mitigate Handling Risks in the Canadian Grain Supply Chain

The introduction of new generation agricultural products has generated an increased need for efficient and accurate product segregation across a number of Canadian agricultural sectors. As a key component of wheat handling in the Canadian grain industry, grading of wheat for value‐added blending has historically been accomplished by visual identification. As of 2008 in Canada, visual identification was eliminated for all primary classes of wheat and replaced by an alternative system of wheat declaration. Given the high costs of testing each truck and railcar for quality assurance, the declaration system must rely on incentives and trust as there is now considerable potential for accidental or opportunistic misrepresentation throughout the grain supply chain. This research attempts to identify cost‐effective handling strategies and policies so as to maintain the integrity of the supply chain under the new declaration system. An agent‐based simulation model is developed to capture the effects of individual heterogeneity as well as behavioral adaption to the declaration system within the modern wheat supply chain. The simulated results are used to identify superior testing strategies for handlers, along with the relative risks and costs associated with each of the testing strategies.