Modelling Deforestation and Land‐Use Change: Sparse Data Environments

Land‐use change in developing countries is of great interest to policy‐makers and researchers with diverse interests. Concerns about consequences of deforestation for global climate change and biodiversity have received the most publicity, but loss of wetlands, declining land productivity and watershed management are also problems facing developing countries. Analyses of these problems are especially constrained by lack of data. This article reviews modelling approaches for data‐constrained environments that involve discrete choice methods including neural nets and dynamic programming, and research results that link individual household survey data with satellite images using geographic positioning systems.     

Systematic and Nonsystematic Mortality Risk in Pension Portfolios

We study the effects of nonsystematic and systematic mortality risks on the required initial capital in a pension plan, in the presence of financial risks. We discover that for a pension plan with few members the impact of pooling on the required capital per person is strong, but nonsystematic risk diminishes rapidly as the number of members increases. Systematic mortality risk, on the other hand, is a significant source of risk in a pension portfolio.     

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A Macroeconomic Monitoring Framework

This paper presents a macroeconomic approach to monitoring progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Sub‐Saharan Africa. At the heart of our framework is a macro model which captures key linkages between foreign aid, public investment (disaggregated into education, infrastructure and health), the supply side and poverty. The model is then linked through cross‐country regressions to indicators of malnutrition, infant mortality, life expectancy and access to safe water. A composite MDG Indicator is also calculated. The functioning of our framework is illustrated by simulating the impact of an increase in foreign aid to Niger at the MDG horizon of 2015, under alternative assumptions about the degree of efficiency of public investment. Our approach can serve as the building block for Strategy Papers for Human Development (SPAHD), a more encompassing concept than the current ‘Poverty Reduction’ Strategy Papers.     

The role of wealth in the money demand function: A comment

This paper raises two criticisms with respect to the result advanced by Ando and Shell according to which money demand should be independent from wealth variations. First, it is shown that, even within the assumptions of the Ando and Shell model, there is in general a range of wealth variation over which money balances respond positively to wealth. Second, the result of those authors is criticized on the basis that it essentially derives from an inadequate comparative statics experiment on asset demands.     

The Disciplinary Effect of the Single Market on Swedish Firms

In the 1980s it became increasingly clear that the European Community market was still segmented by national borders because of non-tariff barriers to trade. A major objective of the Single Market Program in 1992 was to remove these barriers, thereby enforcing intra-union competition. In this paper, a panel of Swedish firm-level data is used to evaluate whether domestic market power has been curtailed as a consequence of the SMP and of the Swedish membership in the European Union in 1995. Evidence of increased competition emerges, as price-cost margins have declined in industries with high non-tariff barriers prior to 1992. JEL Classification Numbers: F15, L11, C33     

Learning organization at higher education institutions in the EU: proposal for implementing philosophy of learning organization—results from research

Quality & Quantity - For an organization to develop, to improve, and to innovate in this information age, it requires a management system that will maximize use of human potential that it has...     

Power perceptions and modes of complaining in higher education

This study examines the relationship between student perceptions of different types of educator power and different modes of student complaining behaviour in the case of university education. A large sample of marketing students in the business school responded to the study from a state university in Northeastern United States. Factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis are used to explore the relationships between five bases of power perceptions (referent, expert, reward, legitimate, and punishment) and four modes of complaining behaviour (voice, negative word of mouth, third party, and exit). The results indicate that students engage in different modes of complaining as they perceive different types of educator power. The predominant complaining mode is found to be voice under referent or expert power, third party under legitimate power, and exit under reward or punishment power. Our findings offer important implications for student satisfaction, retention, and completion rates in higher education.     

Fitting room or selling room? Millennial female consumers’ dressing room experiences

As retail experiences have become more important to the modern consumer, the store environment has taken on greater significance. The store environment is especially of great significance to the millennial consumer. These consumers tend to spend more time in the fashion retail store, while their expenditure on fashion items increases on a yearly basis. The dressing room must be seen as the clothing retailer's selling room – the place where the retail environment plays an immense role with regard to a consumer's cognitions, emotions and purchasing behaviour. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe young millennial clothing consumers' Functional, aesthetic, emotional and symbolic dressing room experiences. A qualitative research strategy was followed. Two unstructured interviews were held with 15 participants. Participants had to take photos of retailers' dressing rooms before the second interview. A photo‐elicitation technique was employed during the second interview. Findings revealed that participants had specific expectations with regard to the functionality and aesthetics of the dressing room, as well as with regard to the symbolic messages and the emotions that they expected to experience. If the dressing room did not meet their expectations they got disappointed, experienced negative emotions and thoughts and the need to leave the dressing room. The behavioural response of avoidance strongly came to the forth. Findings of this research point to the importance of the dressing room as part of the retail experience and have implications for consumer specialists and retailers.     

The Outlook for the Euro Changeover: A Summary and General Analysis

In this paper, the procedures and problems of the changeover to the euro are reviewed. The legal elements involved are discussed as are the psychological aspects. Various practical problems and proposed solutions are described. The possibility of resistance from the consumers in certain segments of the Member State populations is also addressed. One reason for any such resistance might be that for many citizens, the change of currency appears to have little bearing on their everyday concerns.Particular attention is devoted to the scenario for the period 1 January to 1 July 2002, during which coins and notes in euros and national monetary units can be in circulation at the same time.