Living to 100 and beyond--implications of longer life spans

The challenge of longer life spans will center on the problem of allocating individual, family and social resources most effectively. To create a context for understanding the significance of measuring and forecasting mortality trends, this article addresses concerns about the implications of increasing longevity to very high ages for families, businesses and society as a whole.     

Influence of cultural factors on price clustering and price resistance in China's stock markets

This paper builds on prior research by analysing the impact of cultural factors on both price clustering and price resistance in China's stock markets. The results support the presence of cultural factors impacting on price clustering with the digit 8 showing a higher propensity for clustering and the digits 4 and 7 showing a lower propensity in the A‐share market, where stock is denominated in renminbi and traded by mainland Chinese. These results are further supported by an analysis of the B‐share market, where cultural factors have no (or less) impact on the price of Chinese stocks traded by foreign investors in US dollars (or in Hong Kong dollars). A range of measures for price resistance show the digits 0 and 5 to be significant resistance points in the A‐share market. Although digit 8 cannot be considered as a resistance point, its resistance level is highest among the remaining numbers. In conclusion, cultural factors help to explain not only price clustering in the Chinese stock markets but price resistance levels as well, albeit at a weak level.     

Brand‐Building Efforts and Their Association with SME Sales Performance

The objective of this paper was to investigate the association between branding, captured by the combined use of the number of corporate and product trademarks and marketing expenses, and small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) sales performance in the fashion industry. The results of the panel regression model indicate that corporate trademarks and marketing expenses do have a positive association with SMEs sales performance, and in particular, marketing expenses show the highest estimates. These results suggest that branding may also play a relevant also in the SME context, thus opening new paths for research within this field.     

Movements of People for Movements of Goods?

Whilst it is well established to think of international tourism as a type of exports, namely ‘home’ exports, the potential of tourism flows as an engine for fostering trade among countries is a poorly studied topic. In this paper, we show that this relationship can be studied at a very detailed level by exploiting the disaggregation of existing information on international trade and inbound tourism. We consider a sample of 25 countries belonging to the European Union, a region that has been interested by common shocks such as the establishment of the euro as the new currency for many countries and the liberalisation in the air transport market. We carry out a panel data analysis by means of which we assess whether international tourist arrivals by a given country activate additional exports towards the same country. We find not only that tourism can promote exports, but also that this effect displays important differences depending on whether or not consumption goods are considered. This finding is consistent with the idea that the experience of tourists in a given destination reduces the fixed costs of trade, thus facilitating access to the advantages of international trade for more peripheral economies.     

Social Position and Behaviour: A Formalization

Modern society has witnessed anever-increasing development in the social sciences;partly due to changes in mentality, and partly due tothe growing requirements of the economic and political world – requirements which frequently takeon the guise of necessity, as for instance in thecases of market research and electoral opinion polls.Such development has produced an increasing paralleldemand for mathematical accuracy and exactitude inthese fields.The intention here is to rationalize the basic logicand methodology of the sociological procedure; anintention, it is hoped, which could be influential inimproving practical sociological work by rendering itmore comprehensible. This requires the employment offairly sophisticated mathematical and statisticalnotions.Section 1 outlines the definitions considered essential for the rationalization of the basiclogic framework previously described.Section 2 discusses the general concept of statisticalvariance. Section 3 introduces the notion of ``heterogeneity'and offers several propositions linked to this concept.Section 5 revolves around the notion of ``inaccuracy'.Section 6 presents a theorem relating to theimmersion of metric spaces in Banach spaces, andshows how the theorem can be used to constructtheoretically satisfactory immersion algorithms.Section 7 together with the material, which ispreviously introduced in Section 4, outlines thecluster analysis and the principal components methodologies.     

Restoring balance: How history tilts the scales against privacy. An Actor-Network Theory investigation

In this paper we problematize the metaphor of balance employed in the area of information privacy. Using Actor-Network Theory we conduct an historical investigation into the continuous release of the same personal data over the course of eight decades. Through the examination of actual enactments of balance over time we find that, in practice, balancing acts are conducted at local levels by local actor-networks within organizations, with limited overall organizational knowledge, raising challenges around interpreting statements made by organizational spokespersons. We also find a surprising lack of knowledge possessed by these local actor-networks about what is subsequently done with personal data and the extent to which networks that extend beyond the organization gravitate towards and form around available data. Through tracing and revealing this historical Actor-Network Theory investigation provides a means of probing and examining actual acts of balance in the area of information privacy and, through revelation, aid in the creation of the possibility of bringing the act of balance more in line with the concept.     

Information Leakage Prior to Company Issued Guidance

We find that information leakages prior to public guidance issued by company management exist even after Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD), and are more pronounced when characteristics of the firm, the guidance, or the industry reflect higher levels of information asymmetry. Since public guidance is only partially leaked, this information leakage can be used to anticipate the information content of the impending public guidance. We simulate a trading strategy based on the preguidance leakage in the period after Regulation FD, which suggests that information leakage is an effective signal of the information content within impending public guidance.     

A Tale of Two Models: Comparing structuralist and neoclassical computable general equilibrium models for South Africa

This paper compares two working models of the South African economy, an orthodox, neoclassical computable general equilibrium model in which savings drive investment, and a more structuralist, eclectic, model for which there is an independent investment function. Both models are calibrated to the same social accounting matrix. Comparative statics of simplified prototype models are presented and identical simulations with the corresponding applied versions are compared. It is seen that the neoclassical model fully supports the principles of the 'Washington Consensus' while the structuralist model requires a far more heterodox set of policies to avoid slow growth or high inflation.     

Japanese management style in China? Production practices in Japanese manufacturing plants

Through an examination of twenty Japanese owned manufacturing plants in China, this article seeks to question the usefulness of identifying Japanese competitive success as being associated with specific Japanese production management techniques. Rather Japanese plants adopt, seemingly profitably, various and differentiated production methods, depending on local and parent company circumstances.