Black women who head families: An economic struggle

Black families headed by women have much lower incomes and higher poverty rates than almost any other type of family. They are disproportionately dependent on welfare and are less likely to receive support from absent fathers. This is a very serious problem for the black community because of the increasing proportion of black families headed by women alone. This article outlines the dimensions of the economic problem and reviews the likely impact of recent policy changes on these families.     

Turnover culture in the hospitality industry

Although turnover culture is considered to be a major problem in the hospitality industry, there is little to no research examining its influence on an employee's decision to stay or leave. This study attempts to address this deficiency by testing a causal model of employee intent to leave using a sample of 246 employees from six five-star accommodation hotels in Australia. The results indicated that turnover culture was the most important determinant of intent to leave, followed by the variables of job search behaviour, job opportunity, organisational commitment, union loyalty, job satisfaction, career development, routinisation, promotional opportunity, role conflict, and negative affectivity. Based on these findings various HR strategies are formulated, which have wider implications for the management of turnover in other work settings.     

Expectations,the exchange rate,and the current account

A critical examination is undertaken of the relationship between the exchange rate and the current account in a small open economy. Theoretically, the correlation between the exchange rate and the current account seems to be ambiguous. In particular, the association between movements in the exchange rate and the current account is likely to depend in an essential manner on the nature of exogenous disturbances affecting the two variables simultaneously. Lastly, the question of the role of an optimal monetary policy and the choice of an exchange rate regime in an uncertain environment is raised.     

The Market for Residential Architecture: 19th Century Row Houses in Boston′s South End

This study explores the market response to a major 19th century American urban architectural form, the row house. The paper presents an hedonic price index for a set of housing characteristics including lot and house size, location amenities within the neighborhood, construction materials, architectural style, and detailed architectural features. The homogeneity in form and layout of the row houses coupled with the variety of architectural styles and detailed features provides an unusual opportunity to test the effect of architecture on market value. The housing characteristics included in the study account for 88% of the price variance across the sampled row houses. The evidence marshalled here suggests that residential architecture matters in the marketplace and that specific architectural features are more highly valued when they differentiate one row house from its immediate neighbors.     

A new research framework for family resource management applied to financial preparedness of mid‐life working couplesa

In order to continue to move forward, the field of family resource management needs rich research programmes based on holistic, synergetic approaches. To this end, this paper presents a multi‐perspective research framework for designing family resource management research programmes using insights from five existing perspectives to understand families: life cycle stages, life spiral across generations, unplanned life transitions, the historical context of the course of one's life, and the different levels of influence on daily life ranging from the cosmos to the unknown (spheres of influence perspective). A modernization of the life cycle perspective is proposed as well to accommodate the gap between the full nest and the empty nest. We then use this new research framework to shape the development of a programme targeting retirement preparedness of mid‐life working couples with dependents (children and aged or infirm adults). We anticipate that deeper, more holistic insights into family resource management strategies can be gained from using this new research framework.