Why do people non-demand reveal in hypothetical double referenda for public goods?

Hypothetical contingent valuation surveys used to elicit values for environmental and other public goods often employ variants of the referendum mechanism due to the cognitive simplicity and familiarity of respondents with this voting format. One variant, the double referendum mechanism, requires respondents to state twice how they would vote for a given policy proposal given their cost of the good. Data from these surveys often exhibit anomalies inconsistent with standard economic models of consumer preferences. There are a number of published explanations for these anomalies, mostly focusing on problems with the second vote. This article investigates which aspects of the hypothetical task affect the degree of nondemand revelation and takes an individual-based approach to identifying people most likely to non-demand reveal. A clear profile emerges from our model of a person who faces a negative surplus i.e. a net loss in the second vote and invokes non self-interested, non financial motivations during the decision process.     

Art of conversation as an antidote to cultural exclusion

Over recent years it has become apparent that students on the Business Studies and Leisure degree programmes at the University of Glamorgan perform poorly in the core accounting modules. Given that a high proportion of undergraduate accounting courses in the UK are delivered to nonspecialists, research into the performance of such students is important. With reference to previous literature, this study investigates the extent to which background factors affect the performance of students studying the nonspecialist Level 1 and Level 2 modules. The study is based on the September 1998 intake of students utilizing background information collected from the student files and performance measures from the university's Student Administration System. Explanatory variables are analysed using a factor analytical approach via principal component analysis. Multiple regression analysis is then performed on the results of the three accounting modules. The findings of this study are that the explanatory power of such models is limited and that perhaps a more qualitative approach to assessing factors influencing student performance would be more worthwhile.     

Regional Competitiveness: Labor-Management Relations,Workplace Practices,and Workforce Quality

This paper examines regional competitiveness as it relates to regional labor-management relations. A survey of recent literature provides perspective and secondary evidence regarding labor-management relations, workplace practices, and workforce quality. It does not answer the question, “Are unions good or bad?” Rather, it investigates the themes of productivity, wage premium, job security, innovation, communication, and economic development—the larger picture to consider when evaluating the impact of unions. The information, issues, and data gained from the literature survey provided a background for several case studies that took the form of structured, group interviews that included both selected management and union representatives. Interview findings provide evidence that union-management cooperation in the workplace is both feasible and productive, supporting findings in the literature.     

Internal capital markets and the partial adjustment of leverage

Prior literature provides support both for the existence of target capital structures and internal capital markets (ICM). The issue of whether firms use internal capital markets to reduce deviations from target capital structures, however, has yet to be examined. We provide the first empirical evidence of a link between deviations from target leverage and ICM activity. Based on data that allow us to trace intra-group capital market transactions for property–casualty insurers, our findings provide the first joint evidence that affiliated insurance companies have target leverage ratios and that ICM activity is used to manage deviations from target leverage.     

Three-dimensional representation of company business and investigational activities

This paper describes a management aid devised to illustrate the inter-relationships between present company business activities and the investigational activities of the various company R&D functions. It is based on the- construction of a three-dimensional model in which the raw material, process and market parameters are the axes. Use of the model can facilitate project definition and selection in R and D departments and can be extended as a management aid in studies of R & D resource allocation and acquisition studies.     

Eli的冒险之旅

在IT业奋战了18个年头之后,SanDisk公司的CEO EliHarari确信,最大的成功还在前面.     

Changing the paradigm for telemedicine development and evaluation: a prospective model-based approach

Telemedicine is an application of information technology that provides the means to deliver healthcare services at a distance. Interest in telemedicine by the healthcare community has been highly variable since its beginnings in the early 1960s, in part due to the failure to quantitatively demonstrate its cost-effectiveness in delivering healthcare services. Although once again on the upswing, we argue that telemedicine will not fulfill its advertised promises unless the community adopts a new paradigm for its development and evaluation. The paper thus summarizes the prevailing approach—technology driven, retrospective evaluation, little planning—and describes a new one which is based on capability requirements and the use of models for prospective analysis and planning. A new program to develop structural models of the healthcare delivery system for this purpose is presented, including the program's modeling criteria, major components and processes of the healthcare system being considered, the development strategy being pursued, and the structure of specific models being developed.     

Nineteenth century African-American and white US statures: the primary sources of vitamin D and their relationship with height

Vitamin D is vital in all vertebrates because it allows them to absorb more calcium from their diets, contributing to stronger skeletal systems, and taller statures. Using a source of 19th century US state prison records, this study contrasts the statures of comparable African-Americans and whites by the primary sources of vitamin D production: time exposed to solar radiation, skin pigmentation, and nativity. Greater insolation (sunlight) is documented here to be associated with taller black and white statures, and a considerable share of the stature differential by socioeconomic status was related to insolation.     

Market Discipline in the Individual Annuity Market

Theoretical expectations related to market discipline generally suggest a positive relationship between firm financial strength and price. We examine market discipline in the individual annuity market by measuring annuity contract yields during the accumulation phase and find that, among other results, firm financial strength is positively related to yield (i.e., negatively related to price). We argue that this apparent anomaly can be viewed as a form of market discipline itself, for at least four related reasons, the foremost reason being that in order to compete in the asset accumulation market, an insurer has an incentive to provide a track record of historically strong credited interest rates within the annuity. In addition, the credited interest rates within an annuity are only revealed ex post over time, thus diminishing consumer ability to impose traditional market discipline relating firm financial strength and price, and also enabling financially weaker insurers to impose higher ex post prices in the form of lower realized annuity yields.