Seasonal Adjustment in a Market for Female Agricultural Workers

This article explores seasonal adjustment in the market for temporary agricultural labor. We estimate a model of participation allowing for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity/selection bias using daily observations from Chilean panel data, and a model of daily earnings. Results indicate that seasonal wage variation is an important aspect of labor-market adjustment, contributing to a large change in labor force participation. The labor force participation rate of women is significantly more elastic to changes in the expected wage than is that for men. Nonetheless, we find evidence of substantial open unemployment during the slack season, especially for females, probably due to frictional and efficiency wage effects.     

Trust,acceptance and knowledge of technological and environmental hazards in Chile

Studies over the past decade have found empirical links between trust in risk management institutions and the risk perceptions and acceptability of various individual hazards. Mostly addressing food technologies, no study to date has explored wider possible relationships among all four core variables (risk, benefit, trust and acceptability) covering a heterogeneous group of hazards. Our prime objective was to ascertain effects among social trust in regulatory entities, and the public's perceived risk, perceived benefit and the degree of acceptability towards both technological and environmental hazards. We also assess whether trust in regulatory authorities is the cause (causal model) or a consequence (associationist model) of a hazard's acceptability for a wide and heterogeneous range of hazards on all four core variables. Using a web‐based survey, 539 undergraduates in Chile rated the five variables across 30 hazards. Implications for technology and environmental risk management organizations are discussed. Independent of the magnitude of the perceived risk or benefit surrounding a given hazard, or how knowledgeable the public claim to be of it, the trust sustained in regulatory institutions will either generate or be the consequence of public attitudes towards the hazard.     

The Mechanisms Underlying the Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantage: Three Examples from Australia

The growing debate on the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage has refocused discussion on the factors that influence this intergenerational process. This study provides a short review of the central mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage and illustrates the importance of these mechanisms using findings from three recent studies undertaken in Australia using Australian household and administrative longitudinal data.     

Factors Determining Citizen’s Attitudes Towards Agri-Environmental Property Rights

The purpose of this paper is to contribute further insights into individuals’ agri-environmental attitudes. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on how citizens think agri-environmental property rights should be assigned. This has been done by surveying how individuals consider the environmental policy should promote the implementation of a group of agri-environmental measures, allowing us to examine the determinants of individuals’ opinions about this matter. Results indicate that higher level of income and education support the implementation of obligatory agri-environmental measures with no financial support (property rights should rest on society) except for measures to improve public access to land for leisure activities and ecological farming which are seen more of the voluntary kind (property rights should rest on farmers). Additionally, rural residency has strong significant effect on agri-environmental attitudes as rural residents are more likely to support the implementation of voluntary (with/without financial support) agri-environmental measures. On the whole, this research proves to be a valuable tool to identify factors determining individuals’ attitudes towards agri-environmental property rights which can certainly help policymakers to provide customized, better response to social demands on this matter.     

Translation of IFRS: Language as a barrier to comparability

This study examines the translation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the official English version into Spanish by Mexican professional accountants. The use of IFRS in languages other than English creates the potential for translation differences that may introduce variation in accounting outcomes when different languages are used. In particular, given the move toward principles-based standards, with the corresponding increase in the proportion of generic phrases, the consistent translation of these terms is likely to become increasingly important. Thirty-eight participants translated (from English to Spanish) a total of 47 phrases excerpted from five different IFRS. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that translations of accounting-specific phrases have less variation in translation than generic phrases, as exhibited by greater inter-rater agreement and lower relative dispersion.     

Short-term employment transitions of the Canadian labour force: rural-urban differences in underemployment

Using data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for the period 1993–1996, we examine patterns and determinants of labour‐force transitions of adequately employed and underemployed workers in an attempt to explore whether employment dynamics significantly differ between rural and urban workers so as to disadvantage rural economic performance. The results indicate that rural adequately employed workers are significantly more likely to enter underemployment but once they are underemployed, they also have a higher probability of re‐entering adequate employment. Further, we also found weak evidence that the education level of workers has a lower impact on the probability of moving out of underemployment in rural than in urban areas. In addition, rural women are significantly less likely than their male counterparts and urban workers to enter adequate employment, although the presence of young children does not seem to especially constrain the employment of rural women. The results suggest that labour‐force transition in and out of adequate employment, and particularly underemployment, significantly differ between rural and urban workers and should be taken into account when evaluating employment hardship in rural Canada.     

Measuring Individual Preferences for Rural Multifunctionality: The Importance of Demographic and Residential Heterogeneity

We propose an approach to conceptualise ‘rural multifunctionality’ and further investigate peoples’ preferences for it. We use an opinion survey concerning individual preferences for several functions that rural spaces should provide. We use the analytical hierarchy process approach to assess the relative importance of each function. The results show how the social weightings of these functions are balanced, confirming that society demands truly multifunctional rural territories. Nonetheless, differences are found in individual preferences. We explore the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of these individual preferences, paying particular attention to the importance of heterogeneity using seemingly unrelated regressions. In short, results from this research could be employed as a useful informative element for the future development of public policies related to rural spaces.     

Female Participation and Labor Market Attachment in Rural Canada

This article explores the reasons for differences in female rural–urban participation rates by estimating a dynamic model of participation allowing for unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence using Canadian panel data. The results suggest that overall observed differences in rural–urban participation rates are primarily due to differences in observed socioeconomic characteristics. However, for women resident in low-income households, there is evidence that the operation of rural labor markets effectively lowers their participation rates.     

Panel Estimates of the Canadian Rural/Urban Women's Wage Gap

This article analyzes the female rural-urban wage gap in Canada using longitudinal data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics 1993–96. We estimate a two-step wage equation accounting for unobserved heterogeneity and sample selection. The results indicate that a statistically and economically significant rural-urban wage gap remains after controlling for observed and unobserved characteristics. Further, the results suggest this rural-urban wage difference is not simply induced by immobility between rural and urban markets. Rather, consistent with the effect of thinner rural labor markets, the evidence indicates that rural-urban differences in the impact of a number of explanatory variables are significant.     

Earnings Mobility of Rural versus Urban Workers in Canada

The policy choice to enhance household income for poor, working families depends on the dynamics of individual earnings and their direct, albeit imperfect, link to household income levels. This paper assesses the factors affecting the dynamics of low pay for rural versus nonrural individuals in Canada. Approximately one-quarter of the rural workers sampled in Statistics Canada's SLID data receive a wage less than two-thirds of the median wage for the period and the percentage is increasing over time. In contrast, an average of 17% of workers in urban areas receives wages below this threshold. The low pay in rural areas is also "longer lasting," either because the probability of an upward wage move is less, because the probability of moving out of the labor force is less, or because the probability of moving down from high pay is greater. Thus, direct mechanisms such as a minimum wage are likely to be more effective in rural areas. The higher probability of a move downward (either to low pay or out of the labor force) may be associated with greater seasonal work in rural areas. Hence, policy to address rural low pay may need to take seasonality into account more than in urban labor markets.