Racial Discrimination and Mortgage Lending

Looking at a sample of conventional fixed-rate mortgages, this paper examines whether lending practices are consistent with the competitive hypothesis that the racial and ethnic composition of the borrower??s neighborhood affects the contract rate charged only to the extent that these characteristics objectively influence the probability of the loan defaulting or prepaying. Our results, however, reject this hypothesis, showing instead that borrowers in predominantly black neighborhoods pay a significantly higher contract rate than is consistent with evidence of their behavior.     

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.     

Non-Linearities in Electricity Demand and Temperature: Parametric Versus Non-Parametric Methods

This paper investigates the relationship between outside air temperature and the residential demand for space heating energy. These non-linearities are investigated empirically using high frequency panel data for a sample of UK households, and both parametric and non-parametric methods for identifying non-linearities are examined. The econometric evidence finds support for important non-linearities across the range of observed temperatures and points to limitations in the use of parametric functional forms.     

The luck of being of the right gender and color: a detailed discussion about the wage gaps in the Brazilian manufacturing industry

Quality & Quantity - This work analyzed the wage discrimination in the Brazilian manufacturing industry. By recurring to the most updated database, several gaps were analyzed between white and...     

The Arduous Journey of Private Labels: Insights From the South African Market and Further Afield

This article presents an overview of private label brands (PLBs) by considering both the status quo and emergent trends in this sphere. The initial focus is profiling private labels in the country of South Africa, with developments from abroad then being juxtaposed against the local retail landscape. Global market trends are brought to the fore at the end of the article. PLB adoption in South Africa currently sits at a paltry 18% (little moved in the last 5 years), compared with a European average penetration rate of 30%. The reasons for this lackluster growth are varied, with a lack of retailer R&D at the root cause. Yet the conditions are right for rapid growth of this merchandise should household incomes continue to remain under pressure and should consumers fully appreciate the value proposition of such brands. Furthermore, it is expected that the global share of the market will reach 50% by 2025 (double that presently) with retailers abandoning B-brands and replacing these with their own substitute PLBs.     

Assessing macro environment trends in Singapore: Implications for tourism marketers

The growth in the number of Singaporeans traveling overseas has been quite remarkable. In 1994, Singaporeans made over 2.4 million overseas trips. This was made possible by the increased affluence of the population, after several decades of continued economic development. At the same time, there are changes in the demographic and psychographic composition of the population which attracted the attention of tourism marketers not only locally and abroad. This paper attempts to examine these changes and discuss their implications. Several types of new tours are suggested for a tourism industry that must innovate and upgrade their products and services to meet the demands of a new breed of consumers.     

Gender,Risk, and Venture Creation Intentions

This paper is concerned with whether women are less likely to express business start‐up intentions because of a less favorable attitude to risk. Previous research suggests that attitude to risk differs significantly between genders, but has not addressed the question of whether this contributes to lower levels of female interest in venture creation. This paper describes a conceptual basis for this question, and investigates it using a survey of business start‐up intention from across a sample of European universities. A large proportion of the difference in average levels of intention between genders appears to be associated with attitude to risk.