Precautionary advice about mobile phones: public understandings and intended responses

There is a widespread academic and policy debate about public responses to precaution in public health campaigns. This paper explores these issues in relation to the precautionary stance adopted in the UK around the regulation of mobile telecommunications. The aim of the paper is to examine the nature of attitudes to precaution, and the way in which these, along with other relevant variables, relate to the intention to adopt relevant behaviours. The results from an experimental study (n = 173) indicate that people distinguish between two dimensions of precaution: firstly in relation to its value or necessity per se and secondly as anchored to notions of governance. The two variables differentially relate to other variables including trust and uncertainty, and are predictive of intended behaviour change indirectly, through worry about mobile phone risks. Precautionary advice was generally interpreted as causing concern rather than providing reassurance. The results suggest that precaution may be considered a valuable stance but this does not mean that it is seen as good governance or that it will reduce concern. Whilst the discourse of precaution is aimed at reducing concern, it appears that the uptake of relevant behaviours is largely triggered by worry.     

Combining mean reversion and momentum trading strategies in foreign exchange markets

The literature on equity markets documents the existence of mean reversion and momentum phenomena. Researchers in foreign exchange markets find that foreign exchange rates also display behaviors akin to momentum and mean reversion. This paper implements a trading strategy combining mean reversion and momentum in foreign exchange markets. The strategy was originally designed for equity markets, but it also generates abnormal returns when applied to uncovered interest parity deviations for five countries. I find that the pattern for the positions thus created in the foreign exchange markets is qualitatively similar to that found in the equity markets. Quantitatively, this strategy performs better in foreign exchange markets than in equity markets. Also, it outperforms traditional foreign exchange trading strategies, such as carry trades and moving average rules.     

Educational qualifications mismatch in Europe. Is it demand or supply driven?

Most papers dealing with individual overeducation risks focus on labour supply characteristics and workers’ behaviour. On the other hand, only few studies consider labour demand characteristics and technological change. In this paper we analyse the influence of both demand and supply factors on educational mismatch in a set of 10 European countries. Our hypothesis, confirmed by results obtained using ordered probit model with sample selection, is that demand factors generally play a major role in reducing educational mismatch in technologically more advanced countries, whereas supply factors are more important in countries that are lagging behind in the international division of labour. At the same time, important cross-country and gender differences have been identified in how the demand/supply factors operate. All this calls for the fine-tuning of policies intended to tackle the problem of educational mismatch.     

Reshaping Community Mental Health Services in a Restructured State: New Zealand 1984-97

The concept of the hollow state has been proposed as a general framework for public sector restructuring, with New Zealand seen as a leader in reforming social and welfare services, including mental health. This article reports on documentary and interview research into the provision of community-based mental health services in terms of hollow state characteristics: privatization, decentralization and flexibilization. The evidence suggests that privatization occurred only at the margins, that decentralization led to significant regional differences in contractual arrangements and services and that flexibilization brought mixed blessings to the agencies involved. Consistent with findings from elsewhere related to hollow state mechanisms, performance assessment and accountability became more difficult. It is concluded that such frameworks are not appropriate for sectors such as mental health where there is high uncertainty and vulnerable service recipients. Recent policy changes suggest a retreat from privatization and flexibilization, and the emergence of a new balance between centralized and decentralized decision making.     

Toward a bias corrected currency equivalent index

The currency equivalent index measures the discounted economic capital stock of money producing the monetary service flow, but does so under assumptions that cause downward bias. We propose an extension that will correct for a significant amount of this bias.     

Pushing the DEA research envelope

This brief article first investigates key dimensions underlying the progress realized by data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodologies. The resulting perspective is then used to encourage reflection on future paths for the field. Borrowing from the social sciences literature, we distinguish between problematization and gap identification in suggesting strategies to push the DEA research envelope. Emerging evidence of a declining number of influential methodological (theory)-based publications, and a flattening diffusion of applications imply an unfolding maturity of the field. Such findings suggest that focusing on known limitations of DEA, and/or of its applications, while searching for synergistic partnerships with other methodologies, can create new and fertile grounds for research. Possible future directions might thus include ‘DEA in practice’, ‘opening the black-box of production,’ ‘rationalizing inefficiency,’ and ‘the productivity dilemma.’ What we are therefore proposing is a strengthening of the methodology's contribution to fields of endeavor both including, and beyond, those considered in the past.     

Finding a Working Balance Between Competitive and Communal Strategies*

abstract This paper presents a dynamic framework that describes how firms allocate limited resources between improving their competitive position relative to rivals and their communal position shared with rivals. This dynamic framework outlines how organizational field‐level dynamics influence industry attractiveness and thereby alter a firm's incentive to engage in communal strategy relative to competitive strategy. Communal strategy, in turn, can influence the institutions governing an organizational field and thereby shape industry attractiveness. Overall, the interplay between factors exogenous and endogenous to an industry cause change in an organizational field and so determine the nature of the communal environment shared by a firm and its rivals over time. Analysis of this interplay provides insight into the micro‐level drivers of macro‐level change and furthers understanding of the conditions under which rivalrous firms voluntarily contribute to collective betterment of their industry despite collective rationality.