竞逐成功奖牌：顾问的作用

渴求金牌、追求第一的运动员们在平时训练时会全身心投入,训练会一丝不苟,如果他们再拥有自己的一流教练,更是如此。由于明白自己目前的能力还低于世界级水平,他们意识到需要去下工夫。但光有意识并不足以支撑运动员承受住夺冠所要经历的严格训练,更不用说达到与技艺高超的奥运会选手一争高低的水平。     

Leadership,power and racism: lifeguards’ influences on Aboriginal people’s experiences at a Northern Canadian aquatic facility

Using a Foucauldian and postcolonial lens, this case study examines the ways in which leadership styles used by lifeguards and supported by the structure, rules and regulations at a northern Canadian swimming pool influenced Aboriginal people’s experience of the facility. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to identify the ways in which Eurocentric lifeguard training, exercises of power, institutional racism and an absence of cultural competency can intersect to influence Aboriginal people’s use of a local pool and their considerations of lifeguarding as a potential employment opportunity. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the development and implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and procedures for swimming pools and the inclusion of cultural competency teachings in lifeguard training are necessary measures to enhance Aboriginal people’s experiences at northern swimming pools, to foster opportunities to become lifeguards and to augment Euro-Canadian lifeguards’ capacity to maintain a safe and welcoming aquatic environment in a cross-cultural context.     

Effects of Feedback and Task Predictability onTask Learning and Judgment Accuracy

This study examines the effect of different types of feedback on task learning and judgment accuracy across different levels of task predictability. The results of a laboratory study show that outcome feedback, alone, and in combination with task properties feedback, promotes judgment accuracy for both high and medium levels of task predictability. The beneficial impact of outcome feedback resulted from learning effects. Specifically , the outcome feedback improved judgment accuracy because of improved task knowledge and, in contrast to previous psychology research, it did not cause a deterioration in judgment consistency where task predictability was less than perfect. The results suggest that the negative effects of outcome feedback on judgment accuracy found in the psychology literature, where task predictability is less than perfect, may be limited in accounting settings where judges have experience with the task.     

General instrumental variables estimation under stochastic linear restrictions

This letter extends the Theil-Goldberger ‘mixed’ regression estimator, for models subject to stochastic linear restrictions, to the case of stochastic regressors. A general instrumental variables ‘mixed’ estimator is discussed. The asymptotic distribution of the estimator is obtained, and an asymptotic test of the compatibility of the sample and prior information is presented.     

Policy and trade issues for a future regional biofuels market in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the domestic political and legislative context surround biofuels initiatives to highlight what opportunities exist for establishing a biofuels trade network between South Africa (as an anchor market) and its neighbours, specifically in Zambia and Mozambique. By analysing global developments in major biofuel importers, reasons for policy inertia in South Africa, and recent experiences with biofuels investments, we suggest that the likelihood for a regional biofuels market developing is slender without addressing land-related challenges in producer countries and revising South Africa’s domestic legislation.     

Making benefits work

Finn, D. 1996: MAKING BENEFITS WORK: EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES AND JOB CREATION MEASURES. Manchester: Centre for Local Economic Strategies, £15.00 Pamphlet.     

FOOLING ALL OF THE PEOPLE

The public's expectations about government policy are a key influence on the economy and can be more important than the policy itself. By allowing the public to know that it is considering reflation outside the Medium Term Financial Strategy, the government is reducing the credibility of the MTFS. This Forecast Release draws on some of the latest developments in economic theory, in the field of 'time inconsistency', to argue that the early years of the MTFS suffered from continuing but incorrect expectations that the policy would be abandoned. To avoid repeating this mistake, the government should promptly concede the current calls for reflation if it is unable to resist them, although a preferable outcome for unemployment and inflation can be achieved by re-affirming the MTFS. A worse outcome than either of these is obtained if the government continues with the MTFS while leaving open the possibility of a sudden reflation.     

The Canadian underground and measured economies: Granger causality results

Using new time-series data for the size of the Canadian underground economy, the relationship between unreported and measured GDP in that country is examined. Granger causality tests are conducted, with a proper allowance for the non-stationarity of the data. It is found that there is clear evidence of such causality from measured GDP to ‘hidden’ output, but only very mild evidence of Granger causality in the reverse direction. This result supports similar evidence for New Zealand reported by the first author, and has several interesting policy implications.