Consumer Pesticide Concerns: A 1965 and 1984 Comparison

Concern with pesticide use is a major issue for consumers. The present paper examines changes over time in consumer attitudes toward pesticide use. The study also examines the relationship between socioeconomic factors and consumer concern with pesticide use. Findings suggest that consumers were more concerned with pesticide issues in 1984 than in 1965. Concern has increased in terms of the impact of pesticides on wildlife, on farmers, and on individual health. Concern about pesticides is widespread and is not centered in any particular population group.     

THE EMPLOYER SIZE-WAGE EFFECT: CAN DYNAMIC MONOPSONY PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION?

In this paper we argue that a dynamic monopsony model (basedon labour market frictions) predicts a positive relationshipbetween wages and employer size, but also that the effect willbe larger in the non-union sector than in the union sector,and larger for women than for men. We examine evidence on theemployer size-wage effect using several microeconomic data sources,and find it to be generally consistent with these predictions.After examining other theoretical explanations, our conclusionis that at least part of the employer size-wage effect is aresult of monopsony power in the labour market.     

Predictors of Behavioral Loyalty Among Hikers Along the Appalachian Trail

In recent years, conceptual and empirical papers have begun to appear in the leisure literature examining the processes leading to the formation of recreationist loyalty. While this work is still in its infancy, current understanding suggests that leisure involvement plays a formative role in the development of social psychological commitment, which in turn, is an antecedent to loyalty to a brand or organization. In the context of natural resource-based recreation the concept of loyalty is most often used to refer to recreationists' attachments to specific recreation areas. The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of the first order structural relations among involvement (i.e., Centrality, Attraction, Self Expression), commitment (i.e., Social Investment, Financial Investment, Position Involvement, Informational Complexity, Volitional Choice), resistance to change (i.e., Activity Resistance, Place Resistance) and behavioral loyalty for hikers along the Appalachian Trail. These data provided partial support of our hypothesized model. The strength of the structural models varied and not all predictors were significant. Also, the valence of the dimensional relations varied. These data highlight several measurement related issues relating to each of the constructs modeled. These measurement issues inhibit progress toward a fuller understanding of the relationships between each of the constructs and their dimensions.