Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict public sector training participation

Workplace learning is essential to the continuous improvement and competitiveness of organizations. Antecedent training conditions are crucial for training participation. Despite its recognized importance, few studies have proposed theory-based models for predicting the antecedents of training participation. The principal objective of this study was to test the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) for predicting public sector training participation. The second aim was to elucidate the factors that influence, directly or indirectly, employee intentions and behaviours to participate in training. A sample of 1108 participants was analysed by structural equation modelling to assess path suitability and significance. The empirical results confirmed the applicability of TPB for predicting training participation in the public sector.     

Divestiture of Generation Assets in the Electricity Pool of England and Wales: A Computational Approach to Analyzing Market Power

The task of developing an adequate modeling approach to understanding strategic behavior in competitive electricity markets is still a major open research question. In this paper, we develop an based on computational modeling and simulation. We apply the new approach to analyzing the second round (1999) of capacity divestiture proposals, which the government and regulatory authorities in England and Wales required in order to improve the efficiency of the wholesale power market. In this context, we suggest that, for a second time, the level of market power may be underestimated and that although the proposed amount of divestiture is substantial, it may still be insufficient to avoid the need for further regulatory controls in the short term.     

Transfer Pricing, Incentive Compensation and Tax Avoidance in a Multi-Division Firm

This article examines the relation between transfer pricing and production incentives using a model of a vertically integrated firm with divisions located in different tax jurisdictions. We show that if divisional profits are taxed at the same marginal rate, the transfer price should be set to minimize the compensation risk faced by the manager of the buying division. For the case where divisional profits are taxed at different marginal rates, we are able to characterize the trade-off between the tax savings from setting transfer prices to reduce profitability in the high tax jurisdication and the loss of effort attributable to the impact of tax avoidance on the incentive compensation system. Further, we show that if it is feasible to compensate the division managers using multiple performance measures, the transfer price should be used to minimize the firm's overall tax liability. Finally, we show that when authority to determine the transfer price must be delegated to one of the division managers, it is optimal to assign responsibility for setting the transfer price to the manager of the division with the most production uncertainty.     

The technology evolving culture: character and consequence

Out of the Renaissance, a new Technology Evolving Culture emerged that transformed every aspect of personal and social existence. The part of the world that has participated only peripherally in this process is now riven with an antithetical movement that challenges the existence of the Technology Evolving Culture. Evidently, for both sides survival is at stake.     

Measurement of the Quality of Life for Economic Evaluation and the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) Mark 2 Instrument

Including the quality of life in the economic assessment of health and medical services is well established in the literature and a number of multi‐attribute utility (MAU) instruments are available which purport to measure health state utilities. One of these, the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument was developed in Australia and uses Australian importance weights. The present article discusses some of the methodological problems encountered by existing instruments. It outlines the construction of the AQoL Mark 2 and the methodological innovations which have attempted to overcome some of these problems. Technical and other details may be obtained in Richardson et al. (2003a, 2003b, 2003c) and Peacock et al. (2003). These papers may be accessed from the Health Economics Unit web site at 〈 http://heu.buseco.monash.edu.au 〉.     

Analysing the Agricultural Costs and Non‐market Benefits of Implementing the Water Framework Directive

Implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) represents a fundamental change in the management of water in Europe with a requirement that member states ensure ‘good ecological status’ for all water bodies by 2015. Agriculture is expected to bear a major share of WFD implementation costs as it is compelled to reduce the emission of diffuse water pollutants. The research outlined here comprises interdisciplinary modelling of agricultural land use, hydrology and consequent water quality effects to consider both agricultural costs and the non‐market recreational use (and potentially non‐use) values that implementation of the Directive may generate. A theme throughout the research is the spatial distribution of the costs and benefits of WFD implementation, which is addressed through the use of GIS techniques in the modelling of agricultural land use, the integration of land use and hydrological models, and the estimation, aggregation and transfer of the economic value of the benefits.