Using a dual-frame design to improve phone surveys on political attitudes: developing a weighting strategy for limited external information in Hong Kong

Quality & Quantity - In recent years, rapid increases in mobile phone ownership and decreases in landline users have led to potential biases in landline phone survey estimations. Mobile-only...     

Technical Efficiency Estimates of Scottish Agriculture: A Note

Within the UK there has been a lack of studies of technical efficiency at the Scottish level. This note compares the results obtained using Scottish data with a recent study by Hadley [Journal of Agricultural Economics (2006) Vol. 57, pp. 81–100] for English and Welsh farms. Four major sectors are investigated, namely: (i) cereals, (ii) dairy, (iii) sheep and (iv) beef over the period 1989 to 2004. Some distinct differences in efficiencies, returns to scale and causes of efficiency are found.     

Survivor Bonds: A Comment on Blake and Burrows

This article offers a critical assessment of the “survivor bonds” (SBs) proposal recently put forward by Blake and Burrows, which calls for the government to issue bonds whose coupon payments are contingent on the proportions of retirees surviving to particular ages. It suggests that the proposal has considerable merit and discusses the circumstances in which SBs would be useful risk management tools for insurance companies. It also discusses alternatives such as reinsurance, hedging with life contracts, dynamic hedging, and other forms of survivor derivative. Finally, it evaluates and rejects the argument that SBs should be issued by the state.     

The 1986 U.K. Insolvency and Company Directors' Disqualification Acts: An evaluation of their impacts upon small firm financing decisions

This paper examines the potential impact of the 1986 U.K. Insolvency and Company Directors' Disqualification Acts on small firm financing decisions. With the aid of a simplified Black and Scholes (1973) option model of financing decisions, the paper illustrates how the 1986 legislation reduces the incentives for owner-managers to gamble with creditor claims, particularly in situations of financial distress, by making them personally liable for unmet claims and/or by disqualifying them from holding office for a fixed period. For instance, example 3 in the paper shows the conflict that could result from the owner-manager reducing his/her opening equity position and it further argues how the legislation should act to alleviate the situation. It remains, however, an empirical question as to whether this reduction in creditors' exposure to the risk of uncompensated wealth transfers will ultimately result in a significantly greater number of company liquidations and disqualifications, particularly during a prolonged economic downturn, or an improved/less costly supply of finance to small firms.     

Building Brands through Brand Alliances: Does a Second Ally Help?

Several papers have been published demonstrating the positive effects a single, reputable ally has on evaluations of a focal brand. Interestingly, little research has been published examining the effects of multiple brand allies. We examine the effect of an alliance with two, one, or zero well-known brand allies on evaluations of a previously unknown focal brand. The presence of a single brand ally significantly increased perceived quality and hedonic and utilitarian attitudes. While multiple alliances improved focal brand evaluations relative to the no ally condition, the second ally did not increase evaluations relative to the single ally condition.     

Management Buyouts and Firm–Level Productivity: Evidence from a Panel of UK Manufacturing Firms

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the productivity effects of UK management buyouts (MBOs) over the period 1986–1997. It is the first study to use an augmented production function approach in order to determine and quantify: the Hicks–neutral productivity, the marginal productivity of labour, and the marginal productivity of capital effects of MBOs. The main findings are consistent with MBOs providing incentive and control systems that lead to improved firm–level productivity in the post–buyout organisation via reduced agency costs, debt bonding, and monitoring by buyout specialists.     

Issues in Marketing Online Insurance Products: An Exploratory Look at Agents' Use, Attitudes, and Views of the Impact of the Internet

This article uses a survey of insurance agents in Florida to examine the manner in which insurance agents use and view the Internet as a method of marketing insurance products. The results of the survey suggest that the agents’ use of the Web and their attitudes toward the Web do not vary by demographic characteristics (including age, education level, gender, and income). In addition, the agents’ perception of the Internet as a threat (rather than an opportunity) does not vary by age or education level and is not correlated with their attitudes toward the use of the Web. However, while Internet marketing and other means of direct selling are viewed by the agents as equal threats to their sales, the agents believe that such marketing by other companies is a greater threat than that done by the companies they represent.     

Common Agency and Partial Cooperation

A modified common agency model is used to investigate the impact of partial cooperation on agent incentives. In the case where principals move simultaneously, it is shown that partial cooperation is self-defeating from the organizing principals' perspective despite a strengthening of agent incentives and effort. In the second scenario, where the organizing principals have a first-mover advantage, it is demonstrated that not only are individual cooperating principals better off but the outcome in terms of agent incentives and effort is constrained Pareto efficient. This latter scenario illustrates the possibility that partial cooperation, when coupled with a strategic advantage, improves efficiency.     

Economic analysis of community‐based wildlife utilisation initiatives in Botswana

Financial and economic cost‐benefit models were applied to determine the worth of several planned community‐based, wildlife utilisation initiatives in Botswana, and to identify policy guidelines. Projects planned to incorporate small‐scale wildlife cropping. Rentals from safari‐hunting or wildlife‐viewing activities were found to have inherent viability, both financially and economically, particularly in the north of the country, where tourism is greatest. However, success is dependent on both good management and high densities of wildlife. In the Kalahari, game at low densities (more than 100 hectares per large stock unit) cannot be cropped profitably by communities and investments in game protection will result in economic gain. At higher game densities (between 100 and about 25 hectares per large stock unit), positive financial returns are possible with community‐based cropping but two considerations are important. First, investment in protection continues to pay economically and, second, cropping at close to maximum sustainable intensity is most profitable economically. Selective protection aimed at restoring proportions of drought‐sensitive game species also appears economically rewarding.