Anti‐microbial hand washes for domestic use – their effectiveness in vitro and in normal use

The killing or removal of microbes from the hands is a critical factor in food safety as many studies have shown the hands to be both an important source of microbes and powerful agents of cross‐contamination in hospital and domestic situations. In response to this concern, a number of novel hand‐washing products have appeared on the market. These products contain anti‐microbial agents and claim to be more effective at removing bacteria than soap bars and conventional liquid soaps. This study attempts to test these claims by comparing the effectiveness of a conventional soap bar, a conventional liquid soap and an anti‐microbial liquid soap containing triclosan. In vitro tests demonstrate that the anti‐microbial liquid soap is more effective than conventional liquid soaps in reducing the viability of six bacterial species and that this effect is both time and dose dependent. However, when the three soaps were compared for their ability to reduce microbial counts on the hands no differences were observed between the three products. For all three soaps, counts after washing sometimes went up and sometimes down when compared with pre‐wash counts. This was the case both when the soaps were used ‘normally’– that is, with great variation in the time taken, water and soap volumes used and method of washing and after a standardized, rigorous wash recommended in clinical situations. Furthermore, reduction in microbial counts from hands contaminated by handling raw meat was no greater for the anti‐microbial than for the conventional liquid soap.     

Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis Using Latent and Manifest Variables

The relative virtues of quantitative and qualitative research have been vigorously debated. Several researchers recommend combining methodologies but there is little evidence in the literature to suggest how different research methods might be integrated (Bryman, 1988). The current study addresses this deficiency in the research by examining the use of latent variables in quantitative and qualitative research as a means of blending the two approaches. A study of entrepreneurial Locus of Control where quantitative and qualitative data were available illustrates the methodological issues. Analysis of quantitative data was conducted using LISREL (7.20) and qualitative data were categorised using NUD.IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorising computer software). Detailed comparisons are made between the methods described in this paper and other approaches to content analysis.     

Seize the moment: Opportunism in Australian capital markets

This paper examines theories of capital structure using a dataset of listed Australian companies from 1993 to 2005. Companies appear to have target leverage but they take advantage of favorable firm characteristics to achieve these targets. Issuers issue debt when they are profitable. When firms are profitable and perform well in the market, they will issue both debt and equity.     

Tracking Resource Use in a Welfare Organization: Needs, Costs and Co-production

Public sector welfare organizations are situated at the sharp end of resource allocations in society and must cope in an environment where demand frequently far exceeds supply. In consequence, the resource problem of meeting the need for social welfare is never fully resolvable and evaluations of the ways in which scarce resources are used within the public sector are of critical importance for public policy. This paper draws on an empirical study of a welfare service for homeless young people in order to illustrate, first, the cost implications of two different approaches to service delivery (one more superficial – termed 'people-processing'; one more in depth – termed, 'people-changing') and, second, how the characteristics of the clients served (in particular, their ability to fully engage with the service termed –'co-production') can have a marked impact on the cost of the services delivered to them.     

Differentiated Products,Divided Industries: Firm Preferences over Trade Liberalization

The recent focus on firms in international trade suggests two conjectures about preferences over trade policy – only the most productive firms should support freer trade, and industries can be internally divided over reciprocal liberalization. This paper clarifies the content and scope of these claims. The most productive firms are generally not the greatest beneficiaries from trade liberalization and may oppose further liberalization due to increased competition in export markets from compatriot firms. Exporting industries will feature no support for trade if foreign competition is too strong or barriers too unequal. The key analytic factor generating intra‐industry division is product differentiation, both directly, by increasing export opportunities for less efficient firms, and by inducing home market effects wherein larger countries are more competitive. The implications of these findings for the distributional effects of liberalization and the study of trade politics are discussed.     

Food choice,health information and functional ingredients: An experimental auction employing bread

In this paper we present the results of an experimental auction conducted to examine the influence of health and nutritional information on food choice and in particular estimate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for bread that contains functional ingredients. Employing a sandwich we find that consumers are WTP more for a whole grain and whole grain granary bread sandwich than other bread types including white bread that contains a functional ingredient. We also find that consumers react positively to the provision of nutritional and health benefit information but that this effect occurs regardless of whether we supply specific or non-specific health benefit information. We discuss information provision and health policy implications that emerge from our analysis for bread products in the sandwich market.     

Racing To Invest? The Dynamics of Competition in Ethical Drug Discovery

Recent advances in the theoretical literature have greatly expanded our understanding of the forces that shape the competitive dynamics of research and development, but a paucity of sufficiently detailed empirical data has left these insights relatively untested. We draw on unusually detailed qualitative and quantitative infernal data provided at the research program level by 10 major pharmaceutical firms to explore the usefulness of the modern literature as a source of insight into the dynamics of competition in ethical drug discovery. Our analysis focuses on one particularly compelling aspect of the literature: the suggestion that in “winner take all situations,” competition in R&D becomes a Prisoner's Dilemma, leading to overinvestment in research. Without adequate measures of the social return to innovation, we can say nothing about whether there is “too much” or “too little” research undertaken by the industry, but our results do not support the suggestion that R&D investment in drug discovery is driven by the “tit-for-tat” or simple reaction function models hinted at by the institutional literature. First, R&D investment is only weakly correlated across firms once common responses to exogenous shocks are accounted far, and second, rivals' R&D results are positively correlated with own research productivity, which we interpret as evidence for extensive R&D spillovers rather than the depletion externality implied by “winner take all” models. These results are not, of themselves, sufficient to reject the hypothesis that investment behavior in the industry is driven by strategic considerations since there is theoretical support for a wide variety of observable behavior as equilibrium outcomes of strategic interaction. Nonetheless, they suggest that the more extreme forms of rent dissipation identified in the literature are probably poor characterizations of the reality of competition in pharmaceuticals. Our results point both to the need to develop theories that incorporate richer models of possible payoff structures, adjustment costs, and firm heterogeneity and to the need to collect empirical data that is comprehensive enough to enable one to test them.     

Pesticides,Preference Heterogeneity and Environmental Taxes

In this paper we present results from two choice experiments (CE), designed to take account of the different negative externalities associated with pesticide use in agricultural production. For cereal production, the most probable impact of pesticide use is a reduction in environmental quality. For fruit and vegetable production, the negative externality is on consumer health. Using latent class models we find evidence of the presence of preference heterogeneity in addition to reasonably high willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for a reduction in the use of pesticides for both environmental quality and consumer health. To place our WTP estimates in a policy context we convert them into an equivalent pesticide tax by type of externality. Our tax estimates suggest that pesticide taxes based on the primary externality resulting from a particular mode of agricultural production are a credible policy option that warrants further consideration.     

The Distribution of Public Expenditure across the UK Regions

The distribution of UK revenue to the regional and territorial governments, administrations and authorities that spend the money is based on a hotchpotch of badly designed formulae. This is widely recognised. The Barnett formula, which allocates money to the devolved territories, has been attacked from all sides, its consequences described as ‘terribly unfair’ by its progenitor, Lord Barnett. The mechanism by which resources are distributed to local authorities within the English regions has been abandoned by the government, although its replacement has not yet been determined. This paper argues that a common basis for government spending across the regions and territories of the UK will be more equitable and efficient, and may even depoliticise the financial framework of the UK.     

Visual Attention and Attribute Attendance in Multi‐Attribute Choice Experiments

Decision strategies in multi‐attribute choice experiments are investigated using eye‐tracking. The visual attention towards, and attendance of, attributes is examined. Stated attendance is found to diverge substantively from visual attendance of attributes. However, stated and visual attendance are shown to be informative, non‐overlapping sources of information about respondent utility functions when incorporated into model estimation. Eye‐tracking also reveals systematic nonattendance of attributes only by a minority of respondents. Most respondents visually attend most attributes most of the time. We find no compelling evidence that the level of attention is related to respondent certainty, or that higher or lower value attributes receive more or less attention. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.