Output, prices, and the distribution of consumption in rural India

This article analyzes the relation among agricultural output, inflation, and the distribution of consumption in rural India, using both the Singh–Maddala and Dagum families to model the entire distribution parametrically. Employing a benchmark case in which growth is distributionally neutral and idiosyncratic shocks are completely smoothed, and using a GMM‐estimator to deal with potential simultaneity between output and consumption, we conclude that: (i) growth was not distributionally neutral; (ii) good harvests (relative to trend) yielded improvements according to first‐order stochastic dominance; (iii) slow growth before 1980 went with decreasing inequality; (iv) accelerated growth thereafter tended to increase inequality, though yielding improvements according to first‐order stochastic dominance; (v) consumption smoothing was incomplete.     

EARNINGS INEQUALITY IN GREAT BRITAIN 1975–90: THE ROLE OF AGE

This paper is concerned with the growing earnings dispersion among British men. The study is based on unit record data drawn from the New Earnings Survey. It is found that increases in inequality within age groups account for most of the rise in earnings inequality overall. Occupation too is a significant explanation of growing inequality among workers, but the major part of increased inequality within age groups remains unexplained.     

LAND TENURE AND OFFICIAL STATISTICS: A RESEARCH NOTE*

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion in the social sciences concerning the use of official statistics. This research note takes the case of official land tenure statistics, and, on the basis of material gathered in interviews with farmers in East Anglia, shows how these statistics are both technically and conceptually weak and fail to give a true picture of land tenure patterns on large agricultural holdings. The implications of this analysis for assessments of the impact of taxation changes on agriculture are briefly examined.     

Capturing benefits from water entitlement trade in salinity affected areas: A role for trading houses?

While there is potential for substantial benefits from water entitlement trade, external effects such as salinity may mean that traders cannot capture these benefits. This paper demonstrates that by creating a trading house as a single seller of water entitlements, with trade profits distributed to buyers, it is possible to achieve an allocation of entitlements which gives a social outcome higher than that possible from atomistic competition for entitlements. Such an outcome may be comparable to an optimally set uniform charge for water entitlements, but the trading house mechanism has the advantage that it makes use of trade to generate information on the optimal level of charging in the presence of salinity.     

Motivation for alumni donations: a social identity perspective on the role of branding in higher education

• As a result of decreasing government funds and increasing competition, institutions of higher education have propelled themselves into business practices such as branding. Despite the growing literature on branding in higher education, there is little research on the relationship between alumni donor motivations and the university brand. This study explores donor motivations from social identity and self‐congruity theoretical perspectives. The authors used zero‐inflated negative binomial regression to assess the relationship between identification and count of donations. The results showed that if the level of identification with the university increased, the expected number of donations would also increase. The study further assessing the “zeros” (non‐donors), the results suggested that if an alumnus were to identify with the university, he would be 43% less likely to be “certain zero” (definitive non‐donor) and would find a way to give money. Additionally, the authors analyzed responses about why alumni donate and why they choose not to donate. The authors offered observations on the basis of respondent commentary and also raised the question of what happens when university branding efforts conflict with the perceptions of a large stakeholder group such as alumni.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inductive research in last-mile delivery routing: Introducing the Re-Gifting heuristic

The last-mile problem presents a daunting challenge for many logistics service providers, especially some 7000 small, localized operations for whom the cost of complex software solutions is often prohibitive. As a result, last-mile dispatchers rely on simple heuristics to ensure adequate customer service at an acceptable cost. This research effort extends prior qualitative work by developing and testing a simple vehicle routing heuristic, based on behaviors observed in practice, that prioritizes customer service over cost against other simple vehicle routing heuristics across a variety of environments using simulation. The results support the inclusion of a customer service focus in vehicle routing and the addition of such heuristics to existing algorithm portfolios, specifically in urban areas with well-developed highway systems.     

Where is the Land of Hope and Glory? The geography of intergenerational mobility in England and Wales*

We present a new analysis of intergenerational mobility across three cohorts in England and Wales using linked decennial census microdata, focusing on occupation, homeownership, and education. Four main results emerge. First, area-level differences in upward occupational mobility are highly persistent over time. Second, measures of absolute and relative mobility tend to be spatially positively correlated. Third, there is a robust relationship between upward educational and upward occupational mobility. Last, there is a small negative relationship between upward homeownership mobility and upward occupational mobility, revealing that social mobility comparisons based on different outcomes can have different trends.