The Persistence of Mutual Fund Performance

This paper analyzes how mutual fund performance relates to past performance. These tests are based on a multiple portfolio benchmark that was formed on the basis of securities characteristics. We find evidence that differences in performance between funds persist over time and that this persistence is consistent with the ability of fund managers to earn abnormal returns.     

It's power that counts: reflections on recent consumer market-place research

The consumer protection literature relies for much of its theoretical support upon concepts such as ‘market power’ and ‘inequalities of bargaining power’. This article seeks to fill a perceived gap in the literature by providing examples of market place application of ‘power, will and skill’—concepts drawn from the literature of management strategy. These examples have arisen as side benefits from research into the workings of Fair Trading Act 1973 based codes of practice, the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and the Scottish used car market. The authors seek to demonstrate, for the benefit of those involved in the regulation of the consumer market place, how the effectiveness of regulation in a variety of forms and situations is determined, significantly, by economic muscle and by an associated will on the part of powerful enforcers to exercise meaningful sanctions on trader organizations.     

The Effects of Wealth and Income on Subjective Well‐Being and Ill‐Being*

The accepted view among psychologists and, increasingly, economists is that household income has statistically significant but only small effects on measures of subjective well‐being. Income, however, is clearly an imperfect measure of the economic circumstances of households. Using data drawn from the 2002 wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this paper demonstrates that wealth, which can be viewed as providing a degree of economic security, is at least as important to well‐being and ill‐being as income.     

JOB CENTERS: ARE FINDERS KEEPERS? A NOTE FROM JAPAN

Do job centers help unemployed people to find and keep jobs? Using the results of a unique survey by the Japanese government, this note examines the employment success of job center clients. Success in finding and keeping jobs varies systematically across distinct subgroups. Moreover, job center clients were not particularly successful in finding work that fit their qualifications. (JEL J60, J68, J40)     

MEASURING THE ATTRIBUTES OF POVERTY AND ITS PERSISTENCE: A CASE STUDY OF ERITREA

This paper tries to identify the correlates of poverty in urban Eritrea using an estimation technique (the DOGEV model) that also allows for the inclusion of a measure of “persistence” in poverty levels from cross‐sectional estimation. The results suggest that 17 percent of the probability of being moderately poor and 22 percent of the probability of being extremely poor in Eritrea was attributable to this “persistence”—a predisposition toward poverty likely due to latent attributes related to past experience of poverty itself. The results also suggest that, in the post‐war economy of the mid‐1990s, those with vocational training fared best among all education groups. Being a war veteran also had a strong negative association with the poverty—reflecting successful attempts to support that group. The receipt of remittances also reduced the likelihood of poverty; though receipts from outside Eritrea had a much stronger effect than receipts from within Eritrea.     

Precautionary Wealth Accumulation

When does an individual's expected wealth accumulation profile increase as earnings risk increases? This paper answers this question for multi-period models where earnings shocks are independent over time. Sufficient conditions are stated in terms of properties of a decision rule for savings and, alternatively, in terms of properties of preferences.     

The Age of Hiring and Deferred Compensation: Evidence from Australia

The factors affecting age of hiring are estimated using Australian establishment data. Lower ages of new hires are associated with training and with workplaces using steeper tenure–wage profiles. Lower ages of hires are associated with steeper profiles throughout the age of hire distribution, whereas lower ages of hires are associated with the provision of training only among younger hires. Moreover, the evidence confirms that larger employers are more likely to hire younger workers but that lower ages of hire continue to be associated with steeper tenure–wage profiles even among larger employers. The robust role of the tenure–wage profile suggests that it is too early to conclude, as some have, that specific training is the paramount reason for the reduced hiring prospects of the old.     

GENDER INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION IN CHINA: A META‐REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Although there is evidence that there was gender inequality in China's education system in the 1980s, the literature in China has mixed evidence on improvements in gender inequality in educational attainment over the past three decades. Some suggest gender inequality is still severe; others report progress. We seek to understand the progress China has made (if any) in reducing gender inequality in education since the 1980s. To meet this goal, we use a meta‐analysis approach which provides a new quantitative review of a relatively large volume of empirical literature on gender educational differentials. This article analyzes differences across both time and space, and also across different grade levels and ethnicities. Our results indicate that gender inequality in educational attainment still exists, but it has been narrowing over time. Moreover, it varies by area (rural versus urban) and grade level. There is nearly no significant gender inequality in the case of girls in urban areas or in the case of the 9 years of compulsory education (primary school and junior high school). Girls, however, still face inequality in rural areas (although inequality is falling over time) and when they reach high school or beyond. (JEL I24)