Reaching those at highest risk to fires and burns: Young children,older adults,and people in low-income communities

Injury specialists have not successfully convinced policy makers and the public that injuries can be controlled. That failure may be due in part to the lack of a unified understanding of injury control. The two most important models utilized in injury control are Haddon's Matrix1 and the Public Health Approach (PHA). This paper argues that the PHA should be combined with the two axes of Haddon's Matrix to result in a model that is coherent and comprehensive. Thus it is better than either one of the original models on their own. Haddon's Matrix has two axes. The first includes elements of the epidemiological triad, host, vector, and environment and likens injury to disease. The second axis includes three time intervals, pre-event, event, and post-event. The importance of including time was that injury was conceptualized as predictable and preventable. The weakness of Haddon's matrix is that it lacks a systematic plan of action. The Public Health Approach is a methodology for addressing injury, which consists of a hierarchy of four levels; surveillance, risk factor identification, intervention evaluation and program implementation. The use of the PHA with no specific orientation or means of application is its weakness. The PHA lacks a systematic point of application. Haddon's Matrix lacks a systematic action plan. Therefore we propose the PHA as the systematic strategy for the more theoretical framework of Haddon's matrix. By combining these concepts a coherent and comprehensive three-dimensional framework is defined. The unified model closes the potential gaps in the two original models and includes a systematic approach not previously achieved. This unified model is practical in defining individual studies and groups of studies. It can be used as an inventory, for a complete understanding of a particular injury. Diagrams of the model are presented to help teach the concepts of injury described in this unitary model. In conclusion, we can say that the inclusion of three injury concepts in one framework provides a rigorous and coherent construct for the understanding of injury and implementation of control activities. It can therefore be used to design more comprehensive programs for injury control and promote policies and funding commensurate with the magnitude of the injury problem.     

Employment in Estate Agents: Some Evidence from South West England

The estate agency industry has recently undergone a transformation from what was essentially a cottage industry into one dominated by large financial institutions. Despite the high profile of the industry now, little information exists on its characteristics and operations. This article presents some information on employment characteristics in the industry in the south west, focusing particularly on inter-regional differences and illustrating the affects on employment of the recent acquisition boom. Special attention is paid to the gender occupation mix.     

The effect of ESOP adoptions on corporate performance: are there really performance changes?

Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOPs) have long been promoted as a motivational tool: employees become profit‐minded owners. Latterly, however, more ESOPs are being used as part of a takeover defense: here the ESOPs main purpose is to put more company stock in friendly hands—the employees—who, like existing management, could suffer layoffs, etc. in a hostile takeover. We find that, as a group, only the takeover‐related ESOPs are associated with increased leverage (itself a takeover defense). Non‐target firms show no long‐term increase in debt‐to‐assets. We find little evidence to support the motivation hypothesis: while actual labor costs are lower for ESOP firms, after industry‐adjusting they tend to be unaffected or higher. We find that a few measures of firm financial performance [return‐on‐equity (ROE), return‐on‐assets (ROA), net profit margin (NPM)] do improve significantly, but this appears to be largely a short‐term effect. Industry‐adjusted holding period returns appear to be unaffected by the ESOP; however, ESOP firms that leverage show evidence of long‐term market underperformance. We conclude that ESOPs provide, at best, only a short‐term boost to corporate performance. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A sequential selectivity model of the decisions of arbitrators

The study investigates arbitrator gender and grievant gender effects on the decisions of 146 arbitrators rendered on a hypothetical drug-testing case. The effects are estimated using a sequential selectivity model. This approach takes into account the sequential and conditional nature of arbitrators' decisions. The results indicate that arbitrators are more likely to overturn terminations when the grievant is female, and that female arbitrators are less likely to fully reinstate grievants when the termination is overturned. Other results include the finding that older arbitrators treated grievants more harshly by more often awarding only partial reinstatements. When suspensions are given, however, we find that older arbitrators award shorter suspensions than do younger arbitrators. It is also found that more experienced arbitrators awarded longer suspensions than less experienced arbitrators.     

Office Romances: The New Battleground Over Employees' Rights to Privacy and the Employers' Right to Intervene

Office romances have increased dramatically as more men and women work together for prolonged periods. The article reviews reasons why office romances are flourishing, examines the corporate response to office romances, discusses the rights and responsibilities of employees, co-workers, and employers, and recommends courses of action for each.     

Battling pirates? Patents may be the best defense

In the perilous high seas of international trade, girding the corporate ship with patents may be the best defense against piracy of your product or service ideas.     

Closing the Savings Gap? The Role of the Saving Gateway

The 2001 election manifesto committed Labour to introducing two innovative policies designed to increase savings and assets among future generations, and the low-income families of today. The Child Trust Fund aims to provide all children with an endowment of assets when they reach the age of 18. Child Trust Fund accounts became available in April 2005 to all children born from 1 September 2002. The Saving Gateway offers a new savings account for lower-income families, designed to encourage savings. The first Saving Gateway pilot took place between 2002 and 2004; a second, larger pilot is currently underway. This article outlines the key findings from the evaluation of the first Saving Gateway pilot.1 Overall, the results are positive—the scheme has encouraged participants to save, and to save regularly. In addition, it seems to have resulted in positive psychological and attitudinal changes among a significant proportion of participants.     

Financing New Farm Entrants: The Long-term Leasing Option

The financing of agriculture has received much attention in recent years, with particular emphases on the financing of new farm entrants. This has been brought about by the underlying economic conditions of the agricultural production system and the policy responses to these conditions. Canadian agriculture has experienced an almost complete boom-and-bust cycle in commodity prices since 1971. This led to a cycle in real estate values, causing financial stress on farms that resulted in an increase in farm failures. In response to this situation, various financial instruments have been proposed to alleviate this financial stress. Unfortunately, these have had no appreciable effect on the financial well-being of Canadian farms. Most of these responses take as a given that Canadian farms should be owned and operated by the same economic unit. This paper suggests that long-term leasing of real estate would reduce the financial stress for these farms by removing the cost-of-ownership component of a farm purchase and thus reduce the cash flow required to enter farming. A cash flow analysis is used to support these arguments, using a Saskatchewan grain farm case example. Le financement agricole a reçu beaucoup d'attention depuis ces derniéres années, tout particuliérement en ce qui attrait au financement de la reléve agricole. Ceci faisait suite aux conditions économiques actuelles du systéme de production agricole et des réformes politiques qui en découlent. L'agriculture canadienne a vu son prix des denrées soumis à un cycle presque complet de «boom and bust» depuis 1971. Le cycle des valeurs immobiliéres qui s'en est suivit a crée un stress financier qui entraîna une augmentation des faillites agricoles. Pour remédier au probléme, plusieurs outils financiers ont été proposés. Malheureusement, leur impact sur le bien-être financier des fermes canadiennes n'a pas eu l'effet escompté. La plupart de ces réponses prennent pour acquis que les fermes canadiennes devraient être possédées et opérées par la même unité économique. Ce papier suggére que la location à long terme des propriétés agricoles devrait réduire le stress financier, en éliminant le coût à la propriété lors de l'achat d'une ferme permettant ainsi de réduire le fond de roulement requis pour débuter en agriculture. L'analyse du fond de roulement est utilisé pour supporter ces arguments en employant comme example le cas d'une ferme cére Aaliére en Saskatchewan.