Putting the 2007/2008 global food crisis in longer-term perspective: Trends in staple food affordability in urban Zambia and Kenya

Staple food prices in cities in eastern and southern Africa rose sharply between late 2007 and early 2009, leading to estimates of massive increases in food insecurity and hunger. However, in assessing the impacts of soaring food prices on urban consumers’ access to food it is important to consider food price changes relative to changes in per capita incomes. In this study, we use the case studies of Zambia and Kenya, where data are available on food prices, wage rates, incomes, and other indicators of urban purchasing power to answer two main questions: (i) how did staple food purchasing power at the height of the food price crisis compare to levels over the last 15 years? and (ii) did the food price crisis exacerbate an already declining trend in staple food purchasing power, or did it reverse a trend of stable or improving staple food affordability? Results indicate that staple food purchasing power in urban Zambia and Kenya improved markedly in the 10–12 years prior to the food price crisis. Most measures of bread and maize meal affordability at the start of the crisis in 2007 were at levels 1.0–4.3 times higher than in the mid-1990s. These gains for urban consumers were slashed but not completely reversed during the food crisis. Between 2007 and 2009, maize meal and bread were still more affordable in urban Zambia than all periods between 1994 and 2003. In urban Kenya, staple food purchasing power as of 2008/2009 was comparable to levels in 2000/2001–2004/2005 according to some indicators, while other measures suggest that the food price crisis reduced staple food purchasing power to levels lower than any other year in the period 1994/1995–2007/2008.     

THE DOMAIN AND SCOPE OF SCM'S FOUNDATIONAL DISCIPLINES — INSIGHTS AND ISSUES TO ADVANCE RESEARCH

The authors examine and take stock of the changing nature and landscape surrounding supply chain management, and the related disciplines of purchasing, operations management, logistics and marketing channels of distribution. They identify, describe and synthesize the nature of research in those academic disciplines that are identified to be some of the objectives with respect to supply chain management's integration goals. Their examination highlights the considerable evolution and significant advances occurring within and among these disciplines. Additionally, they find this new landscape to provide both insights and issues for scholarship to those attempting to understand the evolving nature of supply chain management and its related fields. Such insights and issues suggest a number of proposals for progress with regard to SCM's future development.     

The Regulation of the United Kingdom Electricity Industry: An Event Study of Price-Capping Measures

The privatization of United Kingdom utilities after 1979 established a regulatory regime based around price capping rather than return capping. This innovation was intended to provide a predictable framework that encouraged efficiency. An event methodology was used to examine stock market reaction to the main regulatory announcements affecting 12 Regional Electric Companies from flotation to 1995. The results indicate that the regulatory announcements were only a minor contributor to the persistent abnormal returns observed. The low connection between regulatory events, efficiency changes and abnormal returns at company level lead to a conclusion that the initial structural and control frameworks dominated the regulatory framework.     

Two centuries of bull and bear market cycles

Very few economic phenomena attract more attention than bull and bear market cycles do, and there is also agreement that bull markets are associated with persistently rising share prices, strong investor interest, and enhanced financial well-being. This paper identifies bull and bear market turning points using a formal turning-point identification procedure and finds that the bull and bear market phases are associated with distinct and persistent mean return shifts. The analysis highlights return evidence that distinguishes bull markets as distinct investment return regimes. The paper also emphasizes the properties of bull markets that can be important to investors, including the persistence of return differences between bull and bear markets as well as interrelationships amongst bull markets and investor interest.     

Joint production national income definitions and pricing in linear environmental models

Economic activity is explicitly modelled as a set of joint production processes encompassing the generation of environmental pollution. Particular results of Leontief, generalized by Lowe, which would finance environmental protection through a number of tax or pricing schemes, are shown to be inconsistent with strictly correct definitions of national income. Qualified use of linear joint production environmental models is accepted, where these use efficiency prices and recognize data limitations. Such models can aid understanding of the costs, in terms of other goods and services foregone, of attaining particular standards of environmental protection.     

Productive and harmful entrepreneurship in a knowledge economy

This paper develops an endogenous growth model with productive entrepreneurial activities and rent-seeking. Our purpose is to link contributions to the entrepreneurial and the endogenous growth literature. We deal with complementarity between productive entrepreneurship and harmful rent-seeking activities leading to potentially multiple equilibra in the economy. The degree of rent-seeking is endogenous in our model and is influenced by the economy’s legal and institutional framework as well as capital market imperfections. Policy which establishes the legal environment and financial institutions dealing with capital market imperfections together decides which of the potentially multiple equilibria is chosen by the economy. This institutional choice implies the solution to a trade-off between high economic growth on the one and a high level of productivity on the other hand.     

Quality-efficiency trade-off when the state is the sole provider of hospital services: Evidence from New Zealand

The purpose of this study is to explore the trade-off between technical efficiency and the quality of hospital services when the state is the sole provider. Data from 20 New Zealand District Health Boards from 2011 to 2017 is used to estimate technical efficiency using the data envelopment analysis technique, which employs an additive inverse formulation for undesirable outcomes. The estimated average quality-adjusted technical efficiency score is 0.69. In comparison, when the quality variable was removed, the efficiency declined to 0.66. More importantly, the ranking of district health boards stays consistent across both models, indicating that there is very little trade-off between quality and efficiency. A sensitivity analysis also confirms the lack of a trade-off between quality and efficiency.     

Entrepreneurial human capital,equity concentration and firm performance: Evidence from companies listed on China's Growth Enterprise Market

In this work, a sample of firms listed on China's Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) is employed to investigate the impact of human capital and equity concentration on firm performance. It shows that entrepreneurs' education level, industry experience and technical professional background have a positive impact on firm performance. Moreover, the higher the equity concentration, the better a firm's performance. Entrepreneurs with rich industry experience and a technical professional background tend to collect and condense equity, thereby increasing equity concentration. These findings reveal the relationship between entrepreneurial human capital and ownership concentration and enrich research on firm performance.