The Fiscal Decentralisation and Economic Growth Nexus Revisited

This paper addresses two challenges that the fiscal decentralisation and economic growth nexus faces – namely, endogeneity problems and inaccurate measurement of fiscal decentralisation. We introduce novel instrumental variables based on common legal system origin, common federal system, geographical position and relative country size. The positive relationship between fiscal decentralisation and economic growth that we find remains valid when using these instrumental variables. Using fiscal decentralisation measures that better reflect the autonomy of subnational governments changes this relationship. This finding, however, is the result of the accompanying changes in the sample rather than the use of these alternative measures themselves.     

Opening a stock exchange

A large body of theoretical and empirical literature has established a positive relationship between levels of stock market development and economic growth. However, previous empirical work has been based on samples of approximately 40 countries with the most highly developed financial systems. Since 1950, over 70 countries have opened their first national stock exchanges. Can such exchanges increase economic growth? I present a data set of my construction that describes the exchange openings that occurred between 1960 and 1998, and find that these exchanges have generated increases in growth during their first 5 years of existence, although the longer-term results are ambiguous.     

Who Goes to Metropolitan Parks? A Latent Class Analysis Approach to Understanding Park Visitation

This study aimed to identify typologies of park visitors and to examine associations among these typologies and socio-demographic characteristics. In 2013, intercept interviews were completed with 794 adult park visitors at two large parks located in Melbourne, Australia. Latent class analysis identified three classes of visitor: physically active visitor, with dog (12.4%); physically active visitor, with no dog (35.7%); and infrequent, low active, social visitor (51.9%). Respondents who were older and owned a dog had higher odds of being in Class 1 and Class 2. Respondents who had children had higher odds of being in Class 3. Respondents who reported poor health were less likely to be in Class 2 than in Class 3. Park users can be distinguished by the behaviors in which they engage. Understanding typologies of visitors will assist with the development of intervention strategies to optimize park visitation and park-based physical activity.     

旅游道德感知结构与行业实践的影响

旅游伦理研究是国内外旅游学界较少关注的研究领域,而日益凸显的旅游伦理问题又决定了行业和学界都迫切需要这方面的理论指导.为此,文章通过理论建构与实证检验,从个体微观角度,初步分析了旅游道德感知的组成结构及个体旅游实践经历对旅游道德感知的影响作用.研究结果表明:通过道德注意力、相对主义伦理立场、理想主义伦理立场所建构的旅游道德感知结构具有很好的可靠性及外部有效性;旅游行业实践经历与个体旅游道德感知的关系显著,能够显著影响个体的旅游道德感知.在理论方面,该研究适度拓展了旅游道德感知的研究内容,说明了旅游道德感知的架构具有较好的外部有效性.研究结果对指导旅游伦理教育、企业内部伦理建设及学生个体的道德感知提升均具有指导意义.     

Corporate Governance and Company Performance in Australia

This study tests whether the adoption of Australian best practice corporate governance recommendations is associated with financial performance measured by return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q. Results suggest that recommended corporate governance structures relating to the adoption of board sub‐committees are sound policy recommendations that enhance performance using the accounting measure ROA and the market‐based measure Tobin's Q. In contrast, the emphasis on board independence guidelines, specifically having outside independent directors, has a negative impact on ROA and Tobin's Q. However, there are conflicting significant results between the accounting and market measures for having a dual CEO/chairperson and board size.     

ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND HUMAN CAPITAL: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract Grossman proposed an individual's health can be viewed as one aspect of their human capital. Following this line of thought a number of recent papers have reported a positive impact of alcohol consumption on earnings. The rationale for the existence of such a relationship is the positive impact of alcohol on physical and mental health. We conduct a meta‐analysis to determine whether such factors as: the estimation technique, the presence of ex‐drinkers in the sample, possible sample selection bias and publication bias may all contribute to these findings. An additional suggestion for the positive relationship between alcohol and wages is the presence of a common set of personality traits that determines drinking behaviour and also leads to higher earnings. We examine this relationship by reviewing the literature that investigates if the personality influencing aspects of alcohol consumption influences measures of human capital. We also survey the significant body of research that has examined how alcohol consumption has been found to influence educational outcomes and the work force participation of problem drinkers.     

创意香港——香港创新科技及设计博览会

香港社誉为亚洲的设计中心.目前,在香港从事创意产业的人员超过17万,每年创造的经济价值超过530亿港元.创新科技与创意产业是香港六大优势产业中的其中两项,创意工业产值约占香港GDP的4%.