A Method for Working with Sign Restrictions in Structural Equation Modelling

The paper sets out a method for handling sign restrictions in systems of simultaneous equations which are only partially identified. These sign restrictions might apply to either structural equation parameters or functions of them such as impulse responses. Initially a range of values for the unidentified parameters are generated and then the role of sign restrictions is to narrow the range. It is simple to apply and can be handled in packages such as EViews and Stata. Examples are given of how to implement it in a number of cases where there are both parametric and sign restrictions.     

Does history matter? Colonial education investments in India

Can good policy overcome or alter the effects of history? This question is addressed in this article using unique district‐level data for 148 districts of former British India. Controlling for observable differences in geography and income, the ordinary least squares estimates suggest a large and positive effect of colonial expenditures on rural primary education in 1911 on rural literacy up to 1991. However, instrumental variable estimates that control for the endogeneity of colonial investments suggest that the effects of historical spending are significant only up to 1971. Two policy changes can account for these findings: an increase in spending following the 1968 National Education Policy and a greater emphasis on the universal provision of public goods such as schools in the 1970s. Unlike recent studies documenting the persistent effects of historical investments on contemporary outcomes, this study emphasizes how effective policies can overturn the effects of history.     

The promotion of maize fertiliser packages: A cause of household food insecurity and peasant impoverishment in high rainfall areas of Zimbabwe

Child malnutrition is a continuing problem in Zimbabwe's communal areas. These include some high rainfall areas, which make a contribution to the country's maize surplus during non‐drought years. A survey of farmers and extension workers in four high rainfall communal areas was carried out to investigate the effects of following recommended practices for maize production on household economy and food security.

Thirty‐two per cent of communal farmers had applied all the officially recommended fertiliser to their 1990/91 maize crop, often by obtaining these inputs on credit in lieu of grain sales receipts from the subsequent harvest. Yet. yields were so low that 48 per cent of these farmers would have been unable to retain sufficient grain to satisfy their families’ minimum requirements, if they had reimbursed the full cost of the input credit.

The majority (64 per cent) of farmers had deviatedfrom the recommended practice by adopting ‘low external input strategies’. A key feature of most of these strategies was the substitution of manure for part or all of the recommended fertiliser. In three of the four communal areas studied, this had improved the chances not only of recovering input costs, but also of achieving maize self‐sufficiency.

These results suggest that policy‐makers should shift emphasis from a dependence on costly external inputs to the integration of low levels of fertiliser with a range of more natural methods of soil improvement, in an effort to improve household food security in the communal areas.     

Growth Volatility and Technical Progress: A Simple Rent-seeking Model

Recent empirical evidence demonstrates that a higher level of technical progress is associated with a lower level of growth volatility and higher expected economic growth. This paper builds a simple growth model which combines the insights of Angeletos and Kollintzas (2000) and Tse (2000; 2001; 2002) with endogenous productivity growth and rent-seeking behavior to account for these stylized facts. Our model complements the literature that focuses on the heterogeneity of different agents.     

Re-framing a ‘subfusc’ Institute: Building on the past for the future at Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London, 1965–1970

The study which follows traces the circumstances surrounding the rebuilding of Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London, from ca. 1965 to 1970, in order to show how the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales consciously utilised the architecture of its remodelled headquarters for status-building purposes and for adjusting public perceptions of its role in society. It proceeds by outlining the Hall's prehistory, dealing with the earlier use of architectural effect by the Institute to build its status when Chartered Accountants’ Hall was first built in 1893. Setting the Hall's extension in the context of post-World War II Britain and a rapidly expanding Institute, it details the practicalities associated with the rebuilding; it also outlines the architectural climate of the times and reveals the architect's design ideas and use of architectural metaphors and iconography for status building and related purposes. The study makes clear the role of key individuals within the Institute in forwarding the project, as well as emphasising the unique, creative contribution of the architect. It also offers some refinements to the findings of Macdonald (1989) and McKinstry (1997) concerning the role and use of professional headquarters as status symbols.     

Chief executive scanning emphases,environmental dynamism,and manufacturing firm performance

Chief executives must allocate their scarce time for scanning efforts among relevant domains of their firms' external environment and their firms' internal circumstances. We argue that high‐performing CEOs vary their relative scanning emphases on different domains according to the level of dynamism they perceive in their external environments. The concepts of dominant logic and sector importance were used to develop predictions about which external domains and which internal domains should receive relatively more or less scanning emphasis in external environments that, overall, are more dynamic or more stable. A field survey of 105 single‐business manufacturing firms evaluated CEOs' scanning emphases and firm performance. Results indicated that, for dynamic external environments, relatively more CEO attention to the task sectors of the external environment and to innovation‐related internal functions was associated with high performance. In stable external environments, however, simultaneously increased scanning of the general sectors in the external environment and efficiency‐related internal functions produced higher performance. These relationships were strongest between relative scanning emphases among domains and sales growth. We discuss the implications of these results for researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Timing of apology after service failure: the moderating role of future interaction expectation on customer satisfaction

Marketing Letters - When there is a service failure, it is often believed that employees should immediately apologize to customers before hearing their complaints. However, we argue that in certain...