Evaluating museum visitor experiences based on user-generated travel photos

ABSTRACT

This research introduces online travel photos published on social media platforms as a complementary data resource to examine the behavior and experience of museum visitors. The practical value of online travel photos is demonstrated through a case study of popular Hong Kong museums, particularly by using the photo content and metadata available from the Flickr platform. The proposed approach is a generic method for understanding museum visitor behavior and preferences, and supports museum practitioners in developing improved products for visitors. The case study findings are particularly beneficial for tourism managers, especially those in Hong Kong, in promoting and attracting tourists to visit local museums.     

Using R to teach econometrics

R, an open‐source programming environment for data analysis and graphics, has in only a decade grown to become a de‐facto standard for statistical analysis against which many popular commercial programs may be measured. The use of R for the teaching of econometric methods is appealing. It provides cutting‐edge statistical methods which are, by R's open‐source nature, available immediately. The software is stable, available at no cost, and exists for a number of platforms, including various flavours of Unix and Linux, Windows (9x/NT/2000), and the MacOS. Manuals are also available for download at no cost, and there is extensive on‐line information for the novice user. This review focuses on using R for teaching econometrics. Since R is an extremely powerful environment, this review should also be of interest to researchers. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of attitude in learning economics: Race and gender differences

This study identifies and analyzes factors that affect a learner's knowledge, comprehension, and application of economics by racial and gender grouping. A decomposition model is used to evaluate the impact of attitudinal effects and other exogenous variables on economic cognition. Preliminary findings suggest that the attitude of black students towards economics instruction differs from their white cohorts while no gender differences are found.     

Saving Accounts versus Stocks and Bonds in Household Portfolio Allocation

We study the structure of household portfolios of financial wealth by analyzing both the determinants of total financial wealth and the choice between risky (stocks and bonds) and riskfree assets (saving accounts). The econometric specification is a generalized trivariate Tobit model, estimated on a cross section of 3,077 households in the Netherlands in 1988. We account for endogeneity of financial wealth and for selectivity due to nonreporting. Results show that the level of financial wealth and the marginal tax rate are major determinants of the allocation between riskfree and risky assets.     

Moral Hazard and Risk Management in Agri‐environmental Policy

This paper develops the key finding of Ozanne, Hogan and Colman (2001) that risk aversion among farmers ameliorates the moral hazard problem in relation to agrienvironmental policy compliance. It is shown that risk averse farmers who face uncertainty in their production income are more likely to comply with such a policy as a means of risk management. In addition, it is shown that a principal who has control over both the level of monitoring and the size of penalty, if detected, can reduce non‐compliance by adjustments to these instruments which increase the variance of farmers' income but leave the expected penalty unchanged. It is concluded that risk management by both principals and agents has the potential to diminish the moral hazard problem, especially given proposed developments in agri‐environmental policy in the European Union.     

Seasonal variability,land values and willingness–to–pay for a forward wheat contract with protein premiums and discounts

This article investigates the impact of a protein premiums and discounts system on the income stream from growing wheat. Based on a biological relationship between protein and yield in uncertain seasonal conditions, it shows that such a system reduces the expected level and variability of wheat income. It is subsequently argued, using a numerical analysis, that protein payments affect both the attraction to wheat growers of forward contracts and the value of land used for wheat. The nature of both of these impacts is related to the level of seasonal variability affecting the land. Consequently, wheat growers in the more unreliable regions of the wheatbelt may have been particularly disadvantaged by the system.     

UK Asian communities: A profitable market for nonprofits?

The ethnic minority communities in the UK are an increasingly powerful force. But UK charities have not had a great deal of experience in approaching this market, despite a readily acknowledged desire to increase their own levels of cultural diversity. How many want a better ethnic representation among their donor base? How many want greater cultural diversity among volunteers, let alone staff? This paper examines the Asian communities within the UK, and suggests that these are groupings with which UK charities should be engaging. The communities are identifiable, with strong philanthropic traditions, they have increasing economic power and they are accessible. The paper also looks briejly at a positive response generated by one organisation-the Aga Khan Foundation (UK) — to a non-denominational, intercommunal appeal for funds from the Asian Communities in the UK.     

Exchange rates, tax-subsidy schemes, and the revenue from foreign trade in a centrally planned economy

Conclusions It has been argued that while in the traditional analysis of the classic CPE the exchange rate has only an accounting function, inappropriate methods of national income accounting can lead to changes in the exchange rate generating changes in the real economy, provided that trade in unbalanced in foreign currency prices. This thesis was explored by examining the way the profits from foreign trade were calculated by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and then transferred to the state budget. It was shown that the correct measure of the state's increased command over domestic resources from engaging in foreign trade, derived from the implicit taxes on that sector, was the ministry's profits on its domestic operations, the first term in (2). However, evidence was presented which suggested that its profits on foreign currency account measured in domestic currency, the second term in (2), were also passed over to the state budget. This implies that transferred profits from foreign trade will overstate the underlying command over resources when there is a balance of payments surplus, and understate them when there is a deficit. The consequence of this is that the domestic economy faces a series of erratic, though small, inflationary and deflationary impulses, regardless of changes in the exchange rate.The theoretical role of the preisausleich system was explored in some detail and it was argued that, although the system has been designed to insulate the domestic economy from external disturbances, there were clear reasons why it had come to play a major part in revenue raising. Specifically, it is administratively convenient to tax resources at their point of entry into or exit from the economy; the taxation of foreign trade widens the tax base and reduces the visibility of the tax system. But, of course, this grafting onto the preisausgleich of a second major function of revenue raising does lead to the development of a further channel through which external disturbances can pass into the domestic economy. That is external disturbances impact on the domestic economy not only through the production and welfare effects of changing exports and imports, and through whatever tenuous links are allowed between foreign and domestic prices, but also insofar as those disturbances affect the ministry's profits from foreign trade. In short, foreign economic disturbances show up in variations in the position of the non-inflationary government budget constraint. To that extent the second function of the preisausgleich impairs its ability to perform its original insulation function. In a minor way, the successful non-inflationary performance of the insulation function has always required adjustments in the government budget constraint. But the growth in the importance of foreign trade taxation has magnified the importance of this phenomenon, and led to a trade-off between the two functions.University of Bath. Initial research for this paper was carried out under ESRC grant HRP 7417/1.     

Dynamic modelling of pollution abatement in a CGE framework

This paper deals with the specification of pollution abatement in dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and analyses the dynamic feedback mechanisms between economy and abatement in the context of environmental policy. A Ramsey-type economic model is presented, in which bottom-up technical and economic information on abatement techniques is integrated in a top-down dynamic CGE context. The practical suitability of the specification is illustrated by an empirical application for climate change and acidification in the Netherlands. The results show that a mixture of some slowdown of economic growth, a substantial restructuring of the economy and implementation of most technical abatement measures is optimal.