RANDOM THOUGHTS ON SOME PROBLEMS OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION*

Within the profession of agricultural economics are found academics, government economists, farm organization economists, and others. Although the profession is based on general acceptance of principles and judgements, the outlook and activities of an individual are conditioned by his occupational status. Employment affiliations give rise to certain restraints and strains to communication between functional groups. The paper examines this problem, and presents a case for better understanding between the major institutional groups.     

An assessment of the reliability and validity of husband and wife self-report purchase decision making measures

An assessment was made of the reliability and validity of self-report measures of three separate constructs hypothesized to operate in husband and wife decision making for durable goods purchases. In addition to the traditional construct of Influence, Importance, and Participation in the decision were also examined through the use of constant sum scaled responses for both husbands and wives. Following Davis’ (1976) admonition to focus on the decision process, the present study conceptualized the purchase decision as consisting of three stages with multiple subdecisions in each stage. The results of a multitrait-multimethod matrix analysis support the use of a constant sum scaling approach to measuring the three constructs. The findings also indicate the existence of two dimensions within the purchase decision process for the durable goods of automobiles and family room furniture. These dimensions were labeled resource allocation and variant selection decisions. The findings also suggest that importance is a global construct in decision making while influence and participation are more purchase situation specific.     

Coalitions in the Uruguay round

Zusammenfassung Koalitionen in der Uruguay-Runde. - Die Verfasser beschreiben die Koalitionen von Entwicklungsl?ndern w?hrend der laufenden Uruguay-Runde des GATT und bewerten die verschiedenen Optionen für diese L?nder. Sie berichten, da\ die Koalitionen von Entwicklungsl?ndern bisher gemeinsame Vorschl?ge gemacht, aber keinen Austausch von Konzessionen ausgehandelt haben. Koalitionen zwischen einer gr?\eren Gruppe mittelgro\er Industriel?nder und einer kleineren Gruppe von Entwicklungsl?ndern sind für die bisher in der Runde erzielten Fortschritte entscheidend gewesen.

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Resumen Coaliciones en la Ronda de Uruguay. - Los autores describen las coaliciones de países en desarrollo en la actual ronda de negociaciones del GATT, la Ronda de Uruguay, y evalüan las diferentes opciones para esos países. Observan que si bien las coaliciones de países en desarrollo hasta ahora han formulado propuestas comunes, no han negociado un intercambio de concesiones. Las coaliciones entre un grupo mayor de países desarrollados medianos y uno más peque?o de países en desarrollo han sido cruciales para el progreso logrado hasta la fecha en la ronda.

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Résumé Les coalitions du ?Uruguay Round?. - Les auteurs décrivent les coalitions des pays en voie de développement (PVD) pendant le courant ?GATT-Uruguay-Round? et évaluent les options différentes pour ces pays. Ils rapportent que les coalitions des PVD ont déjà fait des propositions communes, mais ils n’ont pas encore négocié les échanges de concessions. Des coalitions entre un groupe assez grand constitué des pays développés de moyenne grandeur et un groupe pas si grand constitué des PVD ont été très importantes pour le progrès qu’on a atteint jusqu’à présent dans le ?Uruguay Round?.