What makes a good conference? Analysing the preferences of labour economists

Conferences are an important element in the work of researchers, requiring substantial investments in fees, travel expenses and the time spent by the participants. The aim of this paper is to identify the preferences of participants with respect to conference characteristics. Based on a sample of European labour economists, preferences are measured using the vignette approach where participants are asked to choose between hypothetical European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) conferences. We find that the keynote speakers are the most important element in the preference for a conference, followed by the location of the conference. There is substantial heterogeneity in the taste of labour economists especially with respect to location, though the link between preference parameters and measured characteristics like gender, age and seniority is limited. Factor analysis suggests that the variety in preferences can be best described by a latent variable that reflects the weights people put on content versus fun.     

A BALANCE OF PAYMENTS ANALYSIS OF THE LATIN AMERICAN DEBT CRISIS

In this paper we offer a definition of a country "debt crisis" based upon the amount of new borrowing relative to the cost of servicing past debt. Policy implications for both debtor countries and their creditors are examined. An empirical application is made to Latin American countries, 1978–82. The causes of the debt problems created during this period are investigated with respect to the extent they were the result of rising interest rates vis à vis increased borrowing.     

Your Place in Space: Classroom Experiment on Spatial Location Theory

The authors detail an urban economics experiment that is easily run in the classroom. The experiment has a flexible design that allows the instructor to explore how congestion, zoning, public transportation, and taxation levels determine the bid–rent function. Heterogeneous agents in the experiment compete for land use using a simple auction mechanism. Using the data that is collected, a bid–rent function is derived, and the experimental treatment is altered over the course of three sessions to uncover core concepts in urban economics. Moreover, this provides a tangible experience that can be used to help undergraduates relate to urban issues such as the steep rent gradient found around many larger colleges and universities.     

The Labor Force Participation of Older Americans in 1900: Further Results

Data from the 1900 census are used to study the proper labor force classification of older male Americans experiencing 6 months or more of unemployment (the "long-term unemployed"). The evidence is consistent with the view that the older an individual was on entering the state of long-term unemployment, the greater the likelihood that he would leave the labor force in a short period of time. I conclude, however, that this is insufficient reason to exclude the long-term unemployed from the count of gainful workers in 1900, as has recently been advocated.     

Endometriosis,an unknown entity: the consumer's perspective

This paper reports the findings of a consumer‐driven investigation conducted by the Centre for Clinical Nursing Research at Epworth Hospital in conjunction with the Endometriosis Association (Victoria, Australia) aimed at identifying the information and support needs of women experiencing endometriosis. Women's experiences of endometriosis and laparoscopy were examined. A questionnaire was designed to explore women's experiences of, and informational need for, the four categories of: diagnosis of endometriosis, endometriosis, laparoscopy and managing at home. A total of 465 women who had a positive diagnosis of endometriosis, including patients at the Epworth Endometriosis Centre and members of the Endometriosis Association, were included. The data were analysed in terms of frequency of responses and themes that arose from the research. Five main themes consistently emerged from the overall analysis of the questionnaire; these included: lack of communication, no‐one listens, the emotional turmoil, expressions of gratitude to the Endometriosis Association and being young and helpless. Also identified was a lack of understanding of endometriosis and laparoscopy, on behalf of both the patient and the practitioner, which has led to communication of misinformation, extended physical pain and emotional distress. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for education strategies to be focused towards increasing awareness of endometriosis and for information to be disseminated using the preferred printed format and to be made available from gynaecologists, hospitals and schools. Through consumer participation, the information obtained in this study is of benefit to all women who come in contact with endometriosis by (a) validating women's experiences of endometriosis and (b) identifying women's needs in relation to the disease.     

WELFARE ECONOMICS AND THE MEASUREMENT OF NNP*

Some relationships between NNP and economic welfare are explored in the confines of a simple, static welfare maximization model. Various assumptions concerning both the measurement of NNP and the economic system underlying this model are dropped seriatem and the implications for the correspondence between NNP and economic welfare are examined. The following conclusions emerge. There are several classes of resource reorganization in which NNP and welfare move in the same direction, so that NNP can serve as an ordinal proxy for welfare. These include changes in taxes or competitive imperfections which result in product substitution and movements along the transformation function. With a general qualification, NNP-welfare correspondence is preserved for allocative changes which affect the real costs and prices of goods included in NNP or of non-included goods in inelastic demand; changes in involuntary unemployment; and changes in technological externalities affecting producers. There are other cases where changes in NNP and welfare are not positively correlated. Included here are changes in real costs of non-included goods for which demand is elastic and changes in technological externalities imposed on consumers.     

Explaining the postwar suburbanization of population in the United States: the role of income

The author uses data on household heads from the Public Use Sample of the 1950 U.S. census to analyze the relationship between household income and the probability of suburban residence. The results indicate that "slightly less than half of population suburbanization between 1950 and 1980 can be attributed to rising household incomes."     

Strategic troping in Sri Lanka: September eleventh and the consolidation of political position

This essay investigates the deployment of the trope of September eleventh in Sri Lanka from 11 September 2001 until Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections and change of government on 5 December 2001. The essay argues that September eleventh in the tropic form of synecdoche performed political work for both parties to Sri Lanka's long-running conflict – the People's Alliance Government and the Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and demonstrates how each belligerent used September eleventh and the lexicon associated with the US attacks and early global response to brand their adversary as terrorist, to recode political and conflict narratives in September eleventh terms, and to indicate the appropriate scale and scope of the war. The article raises important questions about the translation of geopolitical events from one domestic context to another, the representation of political violence as global terror, and the strategic power of narrative.     

The negative value of public information in the Glosten–Milgrom model

In the standard market-microstructure model of Glosten and Milgrom (1985), public information can have negative social value. Equivalently, an increase in informational asymmetry can raise the total surplus from trade.     

Judicial Views on Accounting in Britain Before 1889

This paper examines the accounting content of British legal cases decided in the fifty year period before the 1889 Court of Appeal decision in Lee v. Neuchatel Asphalte Company. Before the birth of what might be described as an ‘accounting literature’, these early cases dealt with such important topics as periodicity, uniformity, matching and realisation. Although consistent concepts of asset valuation and income determination are not evident, the discussions by the courts are among the earliest expositions on a variety of accounting topics, especially those relating to the development of accrual accounting.