Policy Environment for the Tourism Sector's Adaptation to Climate Change in the South Pacific – The Case of Samoa

Samoa and its neighbouring Pacific Island Countries are highly vulnerable to climate change risks because their population and infrastructure are mostly located on low-lying coastal areas. Impacts of climate change are potentially disastrous to tourism, the major economic sector in the region. This research examines the conduciveness of the policy environment in Samoa for the tourism sector to adapt to climate change along three dimensions: stakeholders’ will and commitment, resources available, and policy-making mechanisms [Wong, E.P.Y., Mistilis, N., & Dwyer, L. (2011). A framework for analyzing intergovernmental collaboration – the case of ASEAN tourism. Tourism Management, 32, 367–376]. Samoa is used as an exemplar case study to understand how the Pacific island tourism sector can best adapt to climate change. It was found that the policy environment in Samoa is generally conducive. However, there is a strong need for closer public–private cooperation.     

The role of perceived costs and perceived benefits in the relationship between personality and risk‐related choices

This paper considers how perceptions of costs and benefits can influence the association between personality and risky choice behaviour. We assessed perceptions and behaviours in six domains (ethical; investment; gambling; health and safety; recreational; social) using the DOSPERT and measured personality using the NEO PI‐R. Results from structural equation modelling showed that personality had a direct effect on risky choice behaviour in four domains (social, ethical, gambling and recreational risk‐taking). In addition, perceived costs and benefits mediated the relations between personality and risk‐taking in the five domains (social, ethical, gambling, recreational and investment risk‐taking). Evidence for a mechanism that integrates both direct and indirect effects of personality on behaviour is discussed.     

The effect of organizational culture on deviant behaviors in the workplace

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of organizational culture (OC) on deviant behaviors in the workplace (workplace deviant behaviors: WDB). We tested the hypothesis that different types of OC (according to the Competing Values Framework model) had an impact on WDB, in addition to the effect of Big Five personality traits. Survey research was undertaken with 954 employees of 30 enterprises in the public and private field, using a hierarchical model approach (HLM) to test the effects of four types of OC (Clan; Adhocracy; Market, Hierarchy) on WDB, over and above the effect of Five Personality traits. The HLM results partially supported our hypotheses, showing that the OC had a significant effect on WDB, with the adhocracy and clan cultures characterized by lower levels of WDB. Managerial implications about the importance of managing the OC are discussed.     

Volatility spill-overs in commodity spot prices: New empirical results

The classical rational expectations model of commodity markets implies that expected spot price risk is an explanatory variable in spot price regressions; and also that inventory carryover, which is reduced by a larger price variance, creates autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic processes in spot prices. In order to falsify/verify this theory, it has typically been assumed that the square root of the conditional variance of spot prices, a proxy for spot price risk, enters the conditional mean function of spot prices. Based on this simple representation, a typical but counter intuitive outcome has been that spot price risk has an insignificant impact on spot prices, see, e.g., Beck (Beck, S., 1993. A Rational Expectations Model of Time Varying Risk Premia in Commodities Futures Markets: Theory and Evidence. International Economic Review 34, 149–168, Beck, S., 2001. Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Commodity Spot Prices. Journal of Applied Econometrics 16, 115–132). In this paper, we propose an alternative functional relationship (from GARCH(1,1) to GARCH(1,1)-AR(m)) between spot price risk and spot prices that is fully supported by the classical rational expectations model, and based on this new representation we are able to provide stronger empirical support for Muth's rational expectation theory.     

Technology Adoption,Vertical Coordination in Value Chains,and FDI in Developing Countries: Panel Evidence from the Dairy Sector in India (Punjab)

Review of Industrial Organization - (Global) value chains have contributed to agricultural technology adoption in transition countries and food export commodities in developing countries through...     

Information linkages between emission allowance and energy markets

We employ a rational expectations framework similar to that proposed by Fleming et al. (1998) to examine the source, and nature of, information linkages between the emission allowance and energy markets as gauged by the correlation of return volatilities. Estimating the model for bivariate pairings of securities suggests that market linkages arise from sensitivities to common information rather than from indirect spillovers, with emission allowances most strongly linked to the crude oil market.     

Bootstrap refinements for QML estimators of the GARCH(1,1) parameters

This paper reconsiders a block bootstrap procedure for Quasi Maximum Likelihood estimation of GARCH models, based on the resampling of the likelihood function, as proposed by Gonçalves and White [2004. Maximum likelihood and the bootstrap for nonlinear dynamic models. Journal of Econometrics 119, 199–219]. First, we provide necessary conditions and sufficient conditions, in terms of moments of the innovation process, for the existence of the Edgeworth expansion of the GARCH(1,1) estimator, up to the k$k$-th term. Second, we provide sufficient conditions for higher order refinements for equally tailed and symmetric test statistics. In particular, the bootstrap estimator based on resampling the likelihood has the same higher order improvements in terms of error in the rejection probabilities as those in Andrews [2002. Higher-order improvements of a computationally attractive k$k$-step bootstrap for extremum estimators. Econometrica 70, 119–162].     

DOES CONTRACEPTION BENEFIT WOMEN? STRUCTURE,AGENCY, AND WELL-BEING IN RURAL MEXICO

The authors of this paper examine Amartya Sen's contributions to the concept of human well-being from a gender perspective and argue that this concept is particularly useful for explaining women's decisions on contraceptive use. The study draws on data collected in six rural communities of Chiapas, Mexico. It emphasizes the ways in which public discourse articulates the apparent benefits of having small families; the context of the household and community in which rural women make reproductive decisions; and the impact of family planning programs on women's sense of subjective well-being. In particular, it questions the assumption that reduced fertility through contraception necessarily enhances women's well-being and points to the importance that women attach to being a party to reproductive decisions. The authors also explore the links between women's assessment of these decisions and of paid work, and their actual education levels and real possibilities of employment.     

Towards typologies of virtual maltreatment: sport,digital cultures & dark leisure

Abstract

A changing technological context, specifically that of the growth of social media, is transforming aspects of leisure behaviour, especially in terms of negative interactions between followers of sport and athletes. There is a growing body of research into the maltreatment of adult athletes, exploring issues such as abusive acts or behaviours against the individual, including acts of physical and/or psychological violence to the person. Existing research, however, focuses upon face-to-face behaviours, and to date the nature of abuse in online spaces has been overlooked. It is becoming ever more apparent that virtual environments create optimal climates for abuse to occur due to the ability for individuals to communicate in an instantaneous, uncontrolled and often anonymous manner in virtual worlds. Using a netnographic approach, an analysis of a popular social media platform (Twitter) was conducted to examine the types of abuse present in online environments. This paper presents a conceptual typology, identifying four broad types of abuse in this setting; physical, sexual, emotional and discriminatory; examples of each form are presented. Findings highlight how online environments can pose a significant risk to individual emotional and psychological safety.     

To Centralise or Disperse – A Question for Interpretation: A Case Study of Interpretive Planning in the Brecks

The connections between interpretation and sustainable tourism are gradually being realised and it is now generally accepted that interpretation, if planned carefully and sensitively, can contribute in a variety of ways to sustainable tourism development. This paper reports on a case study of sustainable interpretive planning in the Brecks countryside straddling the Norfolk–Suffolk border in the UK. The key question raised is: if interpretation is to be fully accepted as a mechanism in developing sustainable tourism practices should interpretation be planned and implemented in a dispersed or in a centralised fashion? A review of several projects undertaken in a variety of UK destinations illustrates that this question is far from straightforward, and that the results are far from conclusive. The paper discusses the way in which this question was addressed in the Brecks and why the dispersal option was adopted.