Stamps versus postal permits: A decisional guide for return postage in mail questionnaires

Considerable evidence indicates that stamped return envelopes prompt higher rates of response than business reply permits. The authors use a measure of margin efficiency gains between return postage types to develop optimum cost guidelines to aid mail survey researchers in their choices between return mailer types.     

Energy use and fruits and vegetables

The consumer has many options to save energy through small dietary changes. With no change in the variety of fruits and vegetables eaten, the consumer can save considerable amounts of energy by bringing them to the table without use of a home freezer, frequent long distance shopping trips and oven cooking. Other conservation measures include buying in large containers, eating uncooked food, using fresh produce rather than canned or frozen, except in the case of frozen juice concentrates, and having a home fruit and vegetable garden.     

The development of economic self‐sufficiency among former welfare recipients: lessons learned from Wisconsin’s welfare to work program

In 1996, the US Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, changing the culture of welfare from a system of dependency to one of personal responsibility and economic self‐sufficiency through workplace participation. Through the expert views of case managers and area employers of Wisconsin, this research sought to identify the problems and barriers to self‐sufficiency among former welfare recipients and other low‐income workers and the effectiveness of services and programs available to address these barriers. The study found situational barriers, education and learning experience barriers, personal issues and disabilities to impede the development of low‐income workers. The services found to promote the development of economic self‐sufficiency among former welfare recipients were support services, educational and learning programs, employer intervention services and counseling services. The findings suggest that these services could be expanded and made more effective through the collaborative efforts of welfare reform agencies, employers, educational institutions and community‐based organizations.     

The North American free trade agreement: International competitiveness for vegetables

Summary and conclusion This research contributes to the knowledge base of potential impacts of NAFTA using quadratic programming, which treats consumers and producers in different regions uniquely and specifies the direction and volume of trade between regions, net social payoff, as well as equilibrium prices to producers and consumers. Our results show that net social payoff and the volume traded between producing and consuming regions increases significantly under NAFTA. Mexican producers gain the most since their market share equalled 80 percent and 64 percent for cucumbers and cantaloupes, respectively, in the post-NAFTA scenario. California producers lose the most, e.g., their market share for cucumbers declined from 76 percent in the pre-NAFTA scenario to nearly zero in the post-NAFTA scenario. On the consumption side, the amount of total cantaloupes consumed more than doubled, while the amount of total cucumbers consumed increased slightly (2 percent). Mexico's producer prices for both crops was significantly lower compared to U.S. producer prices. Since net social payoff increased under NAFTA, the overall gains exceeded the overall losses. The authors with to thank Drs. Harry Hall, Michael Reed, and Angelos Pagoulatos (all from the University of Kentucky) for their helpful suggestions.     

Building service relationships: It’s all about promises

Her research focuses on customer evaluations of service, service quality, and service delivery issues. She has published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, and theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management. She is coauthor of the textServices Marketing (McGraw-Hill, forthcoming).     

Productivity growth and regulation of P/L insurance: 1980–1984

Measurement of productivity growth in a regulated industry is confounded by the effects of regulation on costs. Property-liability insurers are subject to premium regulation in some states; regulatory capacity constraints which limit output growth exist also. This research examines productivity growth for property-liability insurers and the interaction of their productivity growth with regulation. To control for regulatory effects, the Averch-Johnson model is generalized to apply to insurance. Statistical tests on a sample of 100 of the largest property-liability insurers support the hypothesis that regulatory requirements for these insurers resulted in higher rates in rate regulated states. Overall, productivity growth increased slightly over the sample period.The refereeing process of this paper was handled through E.F. Sudit.     

East European feed grain imports: An economic analysis

The economic factors influencing feed grain imports of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were analysed by the authors for the 1961–1974 period. They used an economic framework usually applied to trade behaviour of market economics but found it applicable to the centrally-planned countries studied. Imports were significantly affected by international grain prices, domestic grain and livestock production, and government policies toward agriculture.     

Research report: Energy requirements of mechanized aquaculture

The authors present the results of a comparative study on the energy inputs required for traditional fishing and various techniques of aquaculture in the USA. The importance of suitable environmental conditions for reducing energy costs is stressed.     

Factor market structure and technology choice in the Colombian brick industry

This paper examines the relationship between factor markets and an industry structure such that capital-intensity is correlated with size, and firms of different sizes coexist in the long run. Empirical evidence shows that wages vary positively with firm size after correcting for education, experience, turnover and firm location. Secondary source evidence suggests that capital access differs across entrepreneurs, according to their positions in Colombian society. These assumptions are combined in a model which can generate the industry structure observed. The alternative hypothesis that capital access improves over a firm's lifetime, so that industry structure represents a growth path, is examined and rejected.