An environmental performance index for products reflecting damage costs

Several studies have demonstrated how to use DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) based techniques to estimate environmental performance indices. None of these studies, however, are taking information on the environmental damage costs of the pressure types considered into account. This study is bridging a gap between environmental indices founded in physical pressures and damage costs founded in welfare economics. The aim of the paper is twofold: first, to demonstrate how to implement the information on environmental damage costs within a DEA based environmental performance index, and second, to estimate these indices at product level by using Danish input-output data and environmental data from 1997.     

Locating emergency medical services in small town and rural settings

Locating emergency medical services in small town and rural settings presents subtle, but significant differences to those in metropolitan areas. The lack of service mix and unit choice, the measurement of response time in minutes rather than seconds, and the limits of the planning environment are discussed. Using time-distance comparisons and location-allocation techniques within a microcomputing environment, some aspects of planning emergency medical services are illustrated within the context of the Kingston (Ontario) Regional Ambulance Service.     

Inference with dependent data using cluster covariance estimators

This paper presents an inference approach for dependent data in time series, spatial, and panel data applications. The method involves constructing t and Wald statistics using a cluster covariance matrix estimator (CCE). We use an approximation that takes the number of clusters/groups as fixed and the number of observations per group to be large. The resulting limiting distributions of the t and Wald statistics are standard t and F distributions where the number of groups plays the role of sample size. Using a small number of groups is analogous to ‘fixed-b’ asymptotics of [Kiefer and Vogelsang, 2002] and [Kiefer and Vogelsang, 2005] (KV) for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent inference. We provide simulation evidence that demonstrates that the procedure substantially outperforms conventional inference procedures.     

Finding Form: Looking at the Field of Organizational Aesthetics

abstract Organizational research has long focused on the instrumental sphere with its questions of efficiency and effectiveness and in recent decades there has been interest in the moral sphere with its questions of ethics. Within the last decade there has also emerged a field that draws on the aesthetic sphere of our existence in organizations. In this review we look at the field of organizational aesthetics in terms of content and method, suggesting four broad categories of organizational aesthetics research: intellectual analysis of instrumental issues, artistic form used to look at instrumental issues, intellectual analysis of aesthetic issues, and artistic form used to look at aesthetic issues. We then suggest how organizational scholars might pursue artistic aesthetic organizational research.     

Econometric evaluation of asset pricing models

In this article we provide econometric tools for the evaluationof intertemporal asset pricing models using specification-errorand volatility bounds. We formulate analog estimators of thesebounds, give conditions for consistency, and derive the limitingdistribution of these estimators. The analysis incorporatesmarket frictions such as short-sale constraints and proportionaltransactions costs. Among several applications we show how touse the methods to assess specific asset pricing models andto provide non-parametric characterizations of asset pricinganomalies.     

Illegal Landings: An Aggregate Catch Self-Reporting Mechanism

To solve the problem of illegal landings this article proposes a new tax mechanism based on the regulator's own aggregate catch estimates and ex ante self-reports of planned catch by fishermen. We show that the mechanism avoids illegal landings while ensuring (nearly) optimal exploitation and generating (nearly) correct entry and exit incentives. Finally we simulate the mechanism for the Danish cod fishery in Kattegat to obtain a rough indicator of the size of the tax. It turns out that the average tax payment as a percentage of profit is surprisingly low.     

The Value of a Utilitarian Curriculum: The Case of Technological Education

The position taken in this paper is that narrow conceptions of human development and the purposes of schooling have tended to displace rather than situate subjects like technology in the curriculum. Arguments which support this position, however, are only possible when the paradigm through which schooling is operationalized, is inverted. Viewing classic school subjects as abstractions which perpetuate narrow conceptions of pedagogy is a contentious position to take. But taking it and understanding how a utilitarian curriculum spawns real human development and learning gives a whole new perspective to curriculum theory and practice.     

Output and expected returns

This paper shows for 1929–2003 U.S. data and also for international G-7 data that the ratio of share prices to GDP tracks a large fraction of the variation over time in expected returns on the aggregate stock market, capturing more of that variation than do price–earnings and price–dividend ratios and often also providing additional information about excess returns. The price–output ratio tracks long-term U.S. cumulative stock returns almost as well as the cay-ratio of Lettau and Ludvigson [2001a. Journal of Finance 56, 815–849, 2005. Journal of Financial Economics 76, 583–626], although the cay-ratio tracks variation in U.S. excess returns better. The price–output ratio, however, involves no parameter estimation and is easily constructed for non-U.S. countries.