The Consumer’s Micro-Micro Gasoline Buying Decision

A “micro-micro” consumer problem of gasoline purchases is examined using daily price data. Comparing the optimizing consumer with one who buys gasoline at random, the paper finds optimizers save about 4% of their annual gasoline bill. The paper also provides some evidence about the costs of non-optimal gasoline buying strategies.      

The economic performance of cities: A Markov-switching approach

This paper examines the determinants of employment growth in metro areas. To obtain growth rates, we use a Markov-switching model that separates a city's growth path into two distinct phases (high and low), each with its own growth rate. The simple average growth rate over some period is, therefore, the weighted average of the high-phase and low-phase growth rates, with the weight being the frequency of the two phases. We estimate the effects of a variety of factors separately for the high-phase and low-phase growth rates. Growth in the high phase is related to both human capital and industry mix, while growth in the low phase is related to industry mix only, specifically, the relative importance of manufacturing. Overall, our results strongly reject the notion that city-level characteristics influence employment growth equally across the phases of the business cycle.     

Identifying Decision Useful Information with the Matrix Format Income Statement

We conduct an experiment to investigate the potential benefits of an alternative format for the income statement, the matrix format, initially developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and UK Accounting Standards Board in their joint project on performance reporting. Sophisticated financial statement users (financial analysts and professional accountants) and less sophisticated financial statement users (MBA students) were asked to extract information from a set of financial statements that included an income statement either in the IAS 1 format or in the matrix format. We find that the matrix format improves the accuracy with which users extract financial information. This result is driven by greater accuracy, for all user groups, on “below‐the‐line” items. Furthermore, despite lack of familiarity with the matrix format, its use did not appear to affect the time taken, the ease of extracting financial information, or users' task completion confidence; further experience with the matrix format could lead to benefits along these lines as well. Our findings may assist the FASB and IASB in their joint project on financial statement presentation.     

Der alte psychisch kranke Mensch

Zusammenfassung  Pflegediagnose Orientierungsst?rung — Es gibt immer mehr alte Menschen in unserer Gesellschaft. Damit steigt die M?glichkeit, im Alter psychisch zu erkranken. Das Institut für Gesundheits-System-Forschung Kiel prognostiziert eine Steigerung von an Demenz erkrankten Personen in den Jahren 2000 bis 2050 von 149,4%.     

The Effect of Multiknowledge Individuals on Performance in Cross‐Functional New Product Development Teams*

This study examines the effect of multiknowledge individuals (especially those possessing both marketing and technological knowledge) on performance in cross‐functional new product development teams. A survey of 62 cross‐functional teams shows that the proportion of multiknowledge individuals has an indirect positive effect through information sharing on product innovativeness and a direct positive effect on time efficiency of new product development teams.     

Franchising the american elementary and secondary educational system

To solve the education “woes” of the U.S., many experts have looked to both command economies (standardized curriculum), and competitive markets (e.g. school choice and school vouchers), for answers. This normative research explores an optimal mix between market economies and command economies in education through the use of the business-format franchising structure. Franchising, an organizational form lying between the extremes of markets and hierarchies, would establish a standardized curriculum composed of those components of education that are deemed essential to the educational growth of our students. At the same time, franchising allows for levels of autonomy for educational institutions that would enable them to effectively target the additional needs and preferences of their local area, which in turn develops competitive markets in which schools compete for student enrollment thereby remedying the moral hazard problem. Finally, two additional characteristics that make this format attractive in tackling the problems in education are its continuous transfer of “know how” and its regular technical assistance. In the context of education, these characteristics translate into necessary links between educational theory and practice as well as national research and training grounds for teachers and administrators.