Enrolling in Higher Education: The Impact of Regional Mobility and Public-Private Substitution Effects

Abstract:

In this article, we study the enrollment decision of candidates to Portuguese public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). We classify candidates according to their revealed preference for regional mobility and measure the impact of their mobility status on the likelihood of enrollment. For instance, candidates succeeding to be placed in their home district are about fourteen percentage points more likely to enroll than those pushed away. We also show that distance deters enrollments, even for candidates that reveal a preference for migrating. Finally, we measure the impact of the availability of private sector alternatives in the home district on the likelihood of enrollment and show that their existence reduces the likelihood of enrollment by up to nine percentage points.     

Perceived value of charitable involvement: The millennial donor perspective

The importance of nonprofit relationship marketing continues to increase as organizations compete to attract and retain a younger loyal donor base. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of six determinants of charitable giving on millennial donor's perceived value received from their involvement with the charitable organization. A conceptual model and accompanying research hypotheses are tested on a sample of millennials from the U.S_(n = 227). Structural equation modeling is used to test the relationships in the model. Results suggest that five factors have a positive effect on donor's perceived value. Social recognition is found to be the most important factor, followed by attitude towards and trust in the charitable organization and attitude towards helping others. To a lesser degree, tax benefits and mitigation of guilt are also found to have an impact on donor's perceived value from charitable involvement. Although this study is limited to the examination of millennials, practical and social implications are noted for all donors. Organizations must recognize that donors are influenced by a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic factors when evaluating their value from charitable involvement. Most of all, donors seek a degree of social recognition from giving, so organizations are encouraged to provide ways for millennial donors to display or share their charitable involvement.     

Prices and promotions in U.S. retail markets

We provide generalizable results on the price and promotion tactics employed in the U.S. retail grocery industry. First, we document a large degree of price dispersion for UPCs and brands across stores, both nationally and at the local market level. Base price differences across stores and price promotions contribute to the overall price variance, and we show how to decompose the price variance into base price and promotion components. Second, we document that a large percentage of the variation in prices and promotion tactics across stores can be explained by retail chain and especially market/chain factors, whereas market factors explain only smaller percentage of the variation. Third, we show that the chain-level price and promotions similarity can be explained by similarity in demand. In particular, a large percentage of the variance in price elasticities and promotion effects can be explained by retail chain and especially market/retail chain factors. Further, price elasticities and promotion effects across stores of the same chain are hard to distinguish from the chain-market-level mean, and cross-price elasticities are typically imprecisely estimated. These findings suggest that retail managers may plausibly consider price discrimination across stores to be infeasible.

     

Unemployment and the business cycle in a small open economy: G.M.M. estimation and testing with French data

What is a relevant model for the European business cycle? In this paper, the empirical performances of three models are compared: a canonical Walrasian R.B.C. framework, its extension to the case of a small open economy, and a version of this model with search and wage bargaining on the labor market. Structural parameters of the models are estimated using G.M.M. and their abilities to reproduce the French business cycle, taken as representative of the European business cycle, are tested. Only the small open economy with unemployment is able to generate theoretical moments that match their empirical counterparts.     

Tourism and food production in the Caribbean

Foreign-exchange leakage through food imports for tourist consumption reduces the net economic impact of tourism in the Caribbean. Yet little is known on the interface between tourism and local food production. Tourism's competition for agricultural labor and land, and its impact on land values, land use and food prices, are disputed by researchers and are poorly understood. Thorough studies are needed on the nature and extent of tourism food imports and associated foreign-exchange leakages; the reasons a large proportion of the food for tourist consumption is imported; and the variation in food supply patterns according to quality, size, ownership, and location of tourist establishment. Further research will help formulate policies designed to increase the net economic impact of tourism.     

FURTHER EVIDENCE ON MEAN REVERSION IN THE AUSTRALIAN EXCHANGE RATE

In this paper we re‐examine the purchasing power parity (PPP) in Australia for the period February 1970 to April 2005 using an alternative method relative to the previous studies. We underlined large shocks due to depreciations that affected the Australian exchange rate, using outlier methodology. Once we adjusted the data of these outliers that had large, but either temporary or permanent effects on the series, our results show that there is no tendency for PPP in Australia to hold in the long run during this period.     

Employment flexibility,unions and companies in France

Employment flexibility–eg in relation to easier dismissal and the removal of most restrictions on temporary work–has grown in France during the eighties. This article traces and discusses its consequences for labour relations, collective bargaining and the labour movement.