The influence of changing trade patterns on displacements of labor

Although there is extensive literature detailing the change in industrial employment resulting from changes in trading patterns, there is no significant literature that translates these changes in labor demand to actual worker hardship. This study provides evidence of the labor market effects of changes in import and export competition throughout the 1980s by focusing on the level of industry displacements, workers involuntarily separated from their industry of employment, rather than changes in the level of industry employment. The results therefore shed light on the number of workers who were measurably injured by changing trade patterns.

The analysis is based on a general equilibrium specification that yields an equation describing the influence of specific industry measures of competitiveness, along with changes in the aggregate environment, on displacements. This equation is subsequently estimated using import and export transactions prices maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor in conjunction with data from a series of Displaced Workers Surveys. Counterfactual analysis provides an estimate of the number of displacements resulting from changes in international competitiveness. These counterfactuals reveal that, overall, changes in the competitive position of the United States reduced the number of workers dislocated throughout the 1980s.     

The Creation of Service Markets to Solve Political-Sociological Problems: The Danish Home Service

In Denmark, the government has formulated a policy for creating a household service market by introducing economic support to Home Service firms. This political attempt at creating a market is analysed. Theoretically, it can test Gershuny's theory that households do their own housework by using machines, and the institutionalist market theory that households’ market behaviour is determined not only by the price, but also by social norms. The Home Service System is evaluated in relation to its development of business and its ability to solve the problems unemployment and moonlighting (informal work). The social consequences of an emerging household service sector are investigated. The conclusion is that it is very difficult to create a service market via the polity, and the Home Service system has not solved the problems it set out to overcome. Although it has introduced some improvements, at the same time it has created new labour market problems.     

The impact of ethical ideology on modifiers of ethical decisions and suggested punishment for ethical infractions

The present study sought to determine the extent to which individuals' ethical ideologies, as measured by Forsyth's (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), impacted the degree of punishment they advocated for differing ethical infractions, as well as their selection of non-ethics related variables that might be used to modify judgments of disciplinary action. The data revealed that individual ideology does impact both advocated punishment and choice of non-ethics related variables, but only in some measures. The data are discussed in terms of potential moderating variables that could be examined in future studies.Robert A. Giacalone is the author of over 40 management articles, as well as two books,Impression Management in the Organization andApplied Impression Management, and the Editor of a Special Issue of theJournal of Business Ethics on Behavioral Aspects of Business Ethics. In 1992, Sage Publications named him the Editor of the Sage Series in Business Ethics, a book series dedicated to ethics education for students and practitioners. Dr. Giacalone is currently Associate Professor of Management Systems at the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, University of Richmond.Scott Fricker is currently a doctoral student in the social psychology program at the University of California-Santa Barbara. The research described herein reflects, in part, research done as a psychology undergraduate at the University of Richmond.Jon W. Beard is currently Assistant Professor of Management Systems in the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond. His work primarily concerns behavioral and organizational issues related to the management of technology. He is currently editing a book titledImpression Management and Information Technology for Greenwood Press.     

Ethics in Small Minority Businesses

The management literature is replete with studies on business ethics. Unfortunately, most of these studies have dealt exclusively with ethics in large businesses. Although a handful of studies can be found on small business ethics, none has paid attention to the issue of ethics in small minority businesses. Similarly, several studies on ethics have utilized the Wood et al. (1988) 16-vignette ethics scale, although reliability and validity issues associated with the scale have never been fully addressed. In this study, a purification (via content analysis) of the above mentioned scale was performed. Three reliable factors were extracted from the purified scale. They were used to investigate the ethics in small minority businesses. The study found an association between business ethics and demographic and company-related variables. In the case of age of respondents, findings ran counter the usual relationship of age being positively related to ethical attitudes. The implications of these findings are also discussed.     

Vendros in Brazil: Negotiating an international technology transfer

Vendros Technologies, an American software and equipment vendor, entered into negotiations about a technology licensing agreement with Netcom Brasil, a Brazilian telecommunications company, in March 1999. The negotiations became a swirl of conflicting points of view due to differences between Vendros and the contractor that wrote the program supporting Vendros's technology, cultural differences between the Americans and the Brazilians regarding negotiating practices, differences in the legal systems of the two countries, and problems stemming from Brazil's then‐erratic economy. Further complicating the negotiations were substantial differences of opinion on ownership of the technology, rights to source code, operational guarantees, and payment/currency risk. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Assessing Total Factor Productivity Growth in Sub‐Saharan African Agriculture

The importance of the agricultural sector in the economic development process is well known. Improvements in agricultural productivity are often found to spill into other areas of a developing economy, potentially improving the standards of living of urban and rural workers alike. Given the importance of this sector, accurate measures of total factor productivity (TFP) across countries can be helpful in identifying conditions, institutions or policies that promote agricultural development. In this article, we estimate TFP growth in agriculture for a panel of 39 sub‐Saharan African countries from 1961 to 2007. We also develop a set of development outcome measures theoretically consistent with strong agricultural performance to serve as external validation of our results. We find that three estimation methods (stochastic frontier, generalised maximum entropy, and Bayesian efficiency) generate relative rankings that are consistent with the development outcome measures, providing external validation of the methods. However, the data envelopment analysis approach performs poorly in this regard.     

Toward an understanding of ethical climate: Its relationship to ethical behavior and supervisory influence

In recent years, theoretical and empirical developments in the area of organizational climate has provided the impetus for research concerning ethical climate. According to this latter research, ethical climate is a multi-dimensional construct which is manifested in organizations. Studies, however, have not focused on the relationship between ethical climate and ethical behavior. Furthermore, an enhanced understanding of the multi-dimensionality of ethical climate will likely advance what we know about organizational climate and culture in general. We propose further examination of ethical climate by: (1) showing the conceptual relationship between ethical climate and ethical (or unethical) behavior in organizations; and (2) examining supervision as one of the principle influences on ethical climate and concomitant subordinate behavior. Finally, we explore the implications for future research on ethical climate.James C. Wimbush is Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Management at Indiana University, Bloomington. His current research is about ethical issues in human resources management.Jon M. Shepard is Head of the Department of Management at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His most recent publications include Egoistic and Ethical Orientations of University Students Toward Work-Related Decisions (Journal of Business Ethics). His current research interests include ethical climate and the accountability of institutions.     

Factors influencing United States comparative advantage

One of the more famous results in international trade is Leontief's demonstration that the conventional wisdom of trade theory—the two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin model, coupled with the empirical judgement that the U.S. is capital-rich—does not appear to provide an explanation of the composition of U.S. trade. A major conclusion of many recent studies is that an adequate model of comparative advantage will be, of necessity, a multi-factor one. This paper examines the implications of a modified multi-factor-proportions model by measuring the simultaneous impact of a variety of factor intensities on the comparative advantage of all U.S. (trading) industries, classified and disaggregated by the 1958 input-output table. The novelty of the study lies in using a binary measure of comparative advantage. In order to by-pass several econometric difficulties, logit analysis is used to estimate the model. The principal conclusion of the paper is that capital-intensity has a significantly positive impact on the comparative advantage of U.S. manufacturing industries and, therefore, that the U.S. is, in fact, relatively capital-rich.     

Pictures of me: user views on their representation in homelessness fundraising appeals

There is a long‐standing ethical debate regarding the ‘right’ representation of recipients in charity marketing materials that are intended to accurately define and represent social problems whilst also prompting the maximum response in voluntary income. The study presented in this article makes a contribution to that debate by highlighting the views of charity beneficiaries regarding their representation in fundraising campaigns. Drawing on data from five focus groups conducted in cities across England, we explore the views of young homeless people regarding the images of homelessness that appeared in major charity campaigns aimed at raising money to fund homelessness services. Participants displayed a high level of reflexivity, demonstrating that they understood the issues involved with homelessness and the perceptions of people like themselves that exist in the public sphere and in the consciousness of potential donors. Although the participants held the view that maximising revenues through the use of simple, eye‐catching images is the prime goal of fundraising, they also expressed a desire for more nuanced campaigns that tell the dynamic stories of how people become homeless and the use of imagery that elicits empathy rather than merely arouses sympathy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organization‐Based Self‐Esteem,Psychological Contract Fulfillment,and Perceived Employment Opportunities: A Test of Self‐Regulatory Theory

This study addresses organization‐based self‐esteem (OBSE) development by examining the role of perceptions of employer psychological contract fulfillment, and the self‐regulatory processes by which OBSE evolves and produces its effects. Self‐regulatory theory helps reveal why psychological contract fulfillment relates to OBSE, how OBSE mediates its effects, and the ways in which OBSE might interact with perceived employment opportunities to affect job satisfaction, performance, and turnover intentions. The results show that OBSE is related to and mediates the relationships between relational contract fulfillment and employee job satisfaction and performance, but OBSE is not related to transactional contract fulfillment. Nor does OBSE mediate the relationships between transactional contract fulfillment and the dependent variables. Perceived employment opportunities moderate the relationships of OBSE with job satisfaction and turnover intentions. This study concludes with recommendations of ways managers can increase their sensitivity to the types of messages they communicate to employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.