Linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases: A new perspective for a globalising world

In light of the shift in policy paradigm in agriculture from state intervention to market liberalisation and globalisation, this paper develops a series of hypotheses on the relationship between agricultural policies and consumer diets. The first hypothesis is that the paradigm shift has led to greater specialisation of production, so changing the ability and incentive for producers to supply certain foods relative to others. Second, the shift has affected farmgate prices (both up and down), so creating opportunities for the industries which purchase farm commodities (the food consuming industries – FCIs) to substitute lower priced ingredients, thereby influencing the nutritional quality and content of foods available in the marketplace. Third, it has increased the ability of the FCIs to “add value” through product innovation and marketing, creating a market characterised by highly differentiated products targeted to individualised preferences, thus increasing the acceptability of a wider variety and quantity of food products.     

Ethics of care and co‐worker relationships in UK banks

Utilising an analytical framework based on an ethics of care approach, this article examines the changing nature of co‐worker relationships in UK banks under the rise of performance management practices. It illustrates that with the implementation of performance management practices in general, and electronic performance management monitoring in bank branches in particular, co‐worker relationships have become increasingly objectified, resulting in disconnected and conflict‐ridden forms of engagement. The analysis reveals the multi‐layered and necessarily complex nature of co‐worker relationships in a changing technologically driven work environment and highlights the possibilities for people to defend the capacity to care for others from the erosive tendencies of individualised processes.     

Does reputation enhance response rates?

Declining response rates and the potential for deterioration in the quality of survey data require reconsideration of the role of incentives to participate in interviews. This article argues that the strategies associated with linking public goods to private goods to establish reputation effects for the private goods involved can also be used to enhance confidence in the objectives of the request for an interview. In this literature, an assured reputation is established for those selling products by offering to contribute some of the proceeds of a sale to charity. The results of our field experiment indicate that combining charity with financial incentives appears to increase confidence in survey objectives for those familiar with the interview process.     

Fragmentation and complementarity: The case of EFPs

With the proliferation of alternative markets, concerns have arisen that they may induce lower liquidity on centralized exchanges. In futures markets, the use of an alternative trading mechanism known as exchange of futures for physicals (EFPs) has increased sharply in recent years. EFPs provide a means to obtain futures positions, coupled with offsetting cash positions, away from the centralized exchange. Traders use EFPs to ensure a desired price on complex packages of trades, thus avoiding the transactional risk (slippage) that is inherent in the centralized market. Theoretical analysis establishes that any detrimental effects of fragmenting the centralized market can be offset by traders' knowledge of another opportunity to trade without transactional risk. If EFPs attract more risk‐bearing capacity, there could even be a net benefit to the central market. An empirical analysis suggests that EFP trading is motivated by transactional risk because it represents a larger portion of total trading during periods of unusually high volatility when slippage is apt to be more of a problem. Consistent with the notion that alternative markets can be complementary to centralized exchanges, we find that EFP trading is not associated with reductions in market quality and may act as an outlet for extra volume when markets are under the most stress. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:697–727, 2002     

The utilisation of engineering services bulk infrastructure components in integrated development planning

In practice, infrastructure planning has generally tended to follow land-use planning, with infrastructure costs seeming to play no role in the generation of land-use strategies. To address this problem, a bulk infrastructure cost model has been developed to provide a tool for planners to ensure the incorporation of bulk infrastructure capacity and cost considerations into the early, land suitability assessment phase of the integrated development planning process. The output of the model is in the form of potential cost contours, which facilitates the relative comparison of infrastructure costs for different density scenarios. Bulk engineering services infrastructure relating to water, sanitation and electricity has been included in the model. The theoretical underpinning of the model is threshold analysis, and the three essential elements are threshold, density and cost. They are incorporated into the model through capacity analysis. The set density levels convert into the number of additional person units required which, in turn, is translated into infrastructure capacity demand. Existing infrastructure network and facility design capacities are compared with the current utilisation of infrastructure in order to quantify the capacity supply situation. The comparison of capacity demand with capacity supply determines whether or not additional infrastructure is required. If infrastructure is required, the required infrastructure investment is calculated. The resulting relative costs are mapped and incorporated into a wider land suitability assessment model. Infrastructure costs vary with location according to local land use, geotechnical, environmental and built conditions, making the role of the geographic information system in the model appropriate and important.     

Progress report on the new history of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Work began in 2001 on a new official history of the RBNZ, focusing on the period since publication of Gary Hawke's study of the Bank in 1973. This paper discusses the arrangements under which the current project is managed, explains the significance of the RBNZ for central banking, and indicates the challenges facing the historians. A brief outline is given of the planned contents of each chapter. It is hoped that the book arising from this project will be of value to those interested in central banking and monetary policy as well as in the recent history of New Zealand. Over the years, a number of leading central banks, including the Bank of England, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Deutsche Bundesbank, have commissioned institutional histories. The present research project on the history of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ or the 'Bank') falls within this tradition.     

Foreign GTAs Can Be Effective Teachers of Economics

The authors tested whether student performance in the principles of economics course is affected by the use of graphs as part of a lecture. They conducted two experiments at the University of South Carolina, one in spring 1995 and another in spring 1997. Students were randomly assigned to either a nographs lecture or a lecture with graphs. The main hypothesis was that students in the lectures with graphs would show higher gain scores than those in the nograph lectures (both lectures were videotaped). The authors found that students in the lecture with graphs in 1995 had significantly lower gain scores than those in the no-graphs lecture. For 1997, they found no significant differences in student performance between the two groups.