Exploring the role of worker income and workplace characteristics on the journey to work

Traditional trip distribution processes that rely heavily on gravity models fail to capture how the characteristics of individuals or the heterogeneity in the attributes of attraction zones may influence the accessibility to jobs and, therefore, journey-to-work patterns. Different approaches, such as destination choice models, are not generally applied because of limited data availability and calibration requirements. This paper proposes an alternative approach to overcome this challenge by combining a utility-based measure of accessibility and a maximum range of commuting distance to predict the journey-to-work patterns of individual worker-agents using an open-access database. A multinomial logit model is estimated and an agent-based model is developed using data from the Census Transportation Planning Products (CTPP) 5-year database. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a case study based on Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and the results are compared to a double-constrained gravity model. Results indicate that the utility functions derived from the CTPP database can replicate the aggregated journey-to-work patterns by income levels. Furthermore, it was found that the utility functions for low-, middle-, and high-household income groups could be different. Finally, while a calibrated gravity model could produce a trip-length distribution and average commuting distance more similar to observed data, the destination choice model provides more insights into the trip patterns across different household income groups, thereby providing a better basis for policy analysis.     

Trust as belief or behavior?

Despite its proposed importance for economic performance, there seems to be little agreement on what trust really is. In economics, trust is generally viewed as a belief regarding the action that is to be expected from others. This contrasts with the view that trust is a way of acting. In his influential book on the nature of explanation in the social sciences, Jon Elster argues that trusting is to act with few precautions. I argue that it is possible to reconcile these seemingly conflicting views about trust. I develop a simple model of trust where both beliefs and precautions play an important role – and where Elster’s understanding of trust can be viewed as a special case.     

Network dependency and airline competition – Consequences for remote areas in Norway

Due to the long stretched shape of the country and sparse population many regions in Norway are dependent on air travel that involves chained trips with two or more legs. Northern Norway and the west coast are particularly dependent on such networks. In these areas a number of short take-off and landing airports and subsidised regional airlines engaged in a public service obligations route tendering systems. However, regions dependent on competitive network travel have not all benefited from the last ten years of competition which has lead to lower fares on the main routes and ‘through-fares’ for network travellers have become relatively expensive. This is because there is only one network airline offering through fares. Network travel where one leg is commercially provided and not covered by public service obligation rules, leaving regulation authorities to intervention when fares are excessively high on other legs.     

Local authorities, tourism and competition

Tourism development has become a popular pursuit for local authorities seeking to generate new economic horizons. This requires the existence of some special attraction or package, something to distinguish an area from the basic diet of potentials that everywhere else can offer, or a strong competitive edge in what might be labelled as conventional markets. Unfortunately, new ways of nurturing tourism activity are increasingly hard to find and the tourism development scene is an increasingly competitive arena. Yet, competition is an unspoken word within the realms of tourism professionals, and a matter that is rarely confronted in any overt way by researchers.     

Airport competition - Regional airports losing ground to main airports

Regional airports in Norway are losing market shares to nearby main airports on flights to the national capital, Oslo, and on international travel via Oslo. Travellers are willing to spend several hours extra driving to a larger airport in order to take advantage of lower fares and more convenient airline services. Traffic leakage from regional airports is high when the service from the regional airport is indirect and fare differences are large. Public service obligation tenders (PSO) set maximum fares on the regional legs, but do not cover through travel from regional airports which involve commercial legs. Traffic leakage is particularly evident in the leisure segment. Leakage levels tend to increase as competition is intensified at main airports, but the evidence is rather mixed. Logistic curves of airport market shares have proven to be useful when comparing spatial variations in leakage levels.     

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.     

Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature

America's economic ideology lacks a vocabulary of ethics. If, as we assume, an economic system requires a moral component for long-term survival, students in business schools must be exposed to a vocabulary of ethics that is consistent with the ideology of capitalism. We present a vocabulary of ethics and describe an approach to teaching business ethics based on business-related classic literature and moral philosophy.     

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.     

Exchange rate forecasting: the errors we’ve really made

We examine the real-time forecasting performance of standard exchange rate models, using dozens of different vintages of data. Favorable evidence of long-horizon exchange rate predictability for the DM and Yen found in Mark (American Economic Review 1995;85:201-218) is present in only a two-year window of data vintages around that originally used. Approximately one-third of the improved forecasting performance over a random walk is eventually undone by data revisions. We also find the models consistently perform better using original release data than fully-revised data, and sometimes forecast better using real-time forecasts of future fundamentals instead of actual future fundamentals, contradicting a cherished presumption dating back to Meese and Rogoff (Journal of International Economics 1983;14:3-24).