Contracting Incentives and Compensation for Property-Liability Insurer Executives

This article examines several hypotheses about the structure and level of compensation for 103 property‐liability chief executive officers (CEOs) from 1995 through 1997. The greater the level of firm risk and the larger the firm, the greater the use of incentive compensation. Insurers subject to more regulatory attention and those whose CEOs have greater stock ownership make less use of incentive compensation. There is some evidence that option grants and restricted stock awards provide CEOs with differing incentives. This article finds that corporate governance structures, managers' stock ownership, and regulatory attention are not adequate to prevent CEOs from receiving compensation levels in excess of what economic factors predict. Contrary to findings in prior studies, there is little evidence that use of incentive compensation or level of total compensation paid increases with insurer investment opportunities, as traditionally measured.     

Can information and communication technologies be pro-poor?

There is over 20 years of accumulated cross-country evidence on the link between telecommunications provision and economic growth. Looking at micro-studies from a range of countries including Bangladesh, Botswana and Zimbabwe, there is also some evidence that provision of telephony has a dramatic effect on the income and quality of life of the rural poor. This paper examines cross-country evidence to discover if teledensity (the number of telephones per capita) has a pro-poor growth impact—fostering increased average incomes while reducing inequality. It also examines the impact of telecommunications rollout on quality of life variables including infant mortality and literacy. It finds that, historically, telecommunications rollout has had a positive and significant impact on increasing inequality and little impact on quality of life variables. A reason for this is tested and preliminarily confirmed that rollout has (historically) only benefited the wealthy. The paper will then turn to emerging evidence on the role of the Internet in poverty relief and statistics on the access gap in provision between rich and poor, suggesting that this new ICT will also be a force for income divergence. Using the results of the cross-country analysis on telecommunications, the paper will conclude with a discussion of potential policy responses (such as sector reform and universal access programs) to turn telecommunications from a source of growth that also increases inequality to a source of growth that diminishes it.     

Food Crops as Cash Crops: The Case of Colonial Kigezi, Uganda

This article examines the case of Kigezi, where colonial efforts to introduce cash crops such as coffee and tobacco consistently failed. It argues that Kigezi farmers already had cash-earning crops, which were food crops. These were widely produced and traded in the pre-colonial and colonial periods, and the strength and vibrancy of this trade helps to explain the problems the colonial state encountered when it tried to introduce cash crops. Marketing policies introduced by the colonial state for different cash crops in Kigezi served only to discourage cash-crop production there, in contrast to food production.     

Contrasting “complainers” with “non‐complainers” on attitude toward complaining,propensity to complain,and key personality characteristics: A nomological look

This study examines the influence of four personality characteristics (self‐efficacy, Machiavellianism, perceived control, and risk‐taking) on consumer attitude toward complaining and propensity to complain. The proposed model is tested on two groups of consumers classified as “complainers” and “non‐complainers.” The findings reveal that the two groups differ distinctly on the pattern of relationships among the variables. The implications of these differences are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An examination of involvement in relation to superannuation consumption

This study examines consumer involvement in the context of superannuation in order to gain an understanding of this important consumer behaviour construct in a forced consumption situation, that is, compulsory superannuation. In doing so, associations between involvement and consumer knowledge, consideration of future consequences (CFC), age and education are proposed and tested. Data were gathered via self-report survey from 329 respondents from four regions in south-east Queensland representing a diverse socio-economic spread. The results of regression analysis clearly indicate that subjective knowledge, age and CFC are positively associated with involvement in relation to superannuation. Findings in relation to objective knowledge and education were not significant. The findings indicate that, in practical terms, marketing efforts should be concentrated, not only on the provision of information in relation to superannuation, but, more importantly, also on attitude change with the objective of stimulating need recognition in younger superannuation consumers.     

An examination of consumer embarrassment and repatronage intentions in the context of emotional service encounters

Using an experimental repeated-measures design (n=240), this study examines the level of felt embarrassment and repatronage intentions in relation to 13 embarrassing service encounters. The manipulation of two independent variables, i.e. embarrassment source (i.e., service provider, others present and consumer) and embarrassment stimuli (violations of privacy, awkward acts, forgetfulness/error, image appropriateness and criticism) are represented by 13 hypothetical scenarios included in a self-report survey. The findings have relevance for theory and practice and provide direction for future research in this area.     

Consumer Sovereignty in Healthcare: Fact or Fiction?

We pose the question: Is consumer sovereignty in the healthcare market fact or fiction? Consumer sovereignty in healthcare implies that society benefits at large when healthcare organizations compete to develop high quality healthcare products while reducing the cost of doing business (reflected in low prices), and when consumers choose wisely among healthcare products by purchasing those high quality products at low prices. We develop a theoretical model that encourages systematic empirical research to investigate whether consumer sovereignty in healthcare is fact or fiction. In doing so, we develop a series of theoretical propositions that may demonstrate that consumer sovereignty is more fiction than fact. Specifically, healthcare consumers lack the ability, motivation, and opportunity to choose healthcare products that are high in quality and low in price. Similarly, healthcare firms lack the ability, motivation, and opportunity to compete in ways to develop and market higher quality products at lower prices.     

Price spreads and residential housing market liquidity

Most studies of housing market liquidity have measured liquidity in terms of time on the market (TOM), and have sought to explain TOM in terms of property characteristics and measures of market conditions. This paper departs from past studies of housing market liquidity by examining the spread between the listing and contract prices.We develop theory to explain the price spreads in the residential housing market. The model includes the list price of the home, the cost of the search, the standard deviation of offer prices, and TOM. Empirical tests using 3,597 sales for 25 months show a robust relationship of housing market spreads and these variables. Listing price and cost of search have the predicted positive coefficients, and the standard deviation of price offers is found to be negatively related to the price spread.     

Classroom peer effects and academic achievement: Evidence from a Chinese middle school

This paper estimates peer effects on student achievement using a panel data set from a middle school in China. Unique features of the organization of Chinese middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) and panel data allow us to overcome difficulties that have hindered the separation of peer effects from omitted individual factors due to self-selection and from common teacher effects and to identify peer effects at the classroom level. We estimate peer effects for Math, English, and Chinese test scores separately. In a linear-in-means model controlling for both individual and teacher-by-test fixed effects, peers are found to have a positive and significant effect on math test scores, a positive but insignificant effect on Chinese test scores, but no effect on English test scores. Importantly, in Math and Chinese students at the middle of the ability distribution tend to benefit from better peers, whereas students at the ends of the ability distribution do not, suggesting that policy makers who want to exploit positive peer effects face difficult tradeoffs in classroom and school assignment.