Economic Growth in Transition

This paper sets the contributions to this issue in the context of a large and rapidly growing literature. It argues, on theoretical and empirical grounds, that future research should focus on transitional growth dynamics.     

Consumer socialization and frequency of shopping with children

This study examines co-shopping frequency (mothers shopping with children) from a consumer socialization perspective. It also compares consumer orientations and socialization behaviors of heavier, moderate and lighter co-shoppers. Results indicate that these groups differ in desires to develop children’s consumer competence, consumer roles played by children, consumption motivations and values, and potential efforts to mediate marketing influence.     

The adoption and impact of engineering‐type measures to address climate change: evidence from the major grain‐producing areas in China

Employing an endogenous switching regression model, we investigate the drivers underlying the adaptations made by farm households and their impacts on crop net incomes for adopters and nonadopters, based on a large panel survey data set across the major grain‐producing provinces in China. The results show that: (i) access to public climate information and technical or physical support increases the likelihood that farmers adapt to climate change by undertaking irrigation and/or drainage measures; and (ii) decisions to adapt increased crop yield, but they did not significantly increase crop profit margins. This point appears to have been ignored by previous studies. Based on these new empirical results, the paper suggests that government should continue to provide climate information and various types of supports to improve farmers’ adaptation abilities and help to reduce the levels of factor input by, for example, substituting organic for chemical fertiliser inputs. Such government‐led policies should be supported alongside the implementation of domestic agricultural supply‐side reform.     

Why is there controversy regarding China’s staple grain food market integration? Evidence and implication from price convergent club analysis

There remains ongoing controversy regarding the degree to which Chinese food markets are integrated. Some economists conclude that China’s grain economy is well integrated, while others argue that China’s gradual reforms have led to fragmented domestic markets while others conclude that previous studies have produced mixed results. To reconcile the debate, this article models and analyses the behaviour of China’s food grain retail markets by testing for the existence of the convergent price clustering clubs using appropriate econometric methods and price data over 1997–2010. The article finds evidence as to why the controversy remains by identifying a number of small divergent price clustering clubs where it is hard to conclude that China’s food grain markets are fully integrated. However, given that large convergent clustering clubs were also identified, it can be concluded that the degree to which Chinese grain food retail markets are integrated is ‘high’. This finding is important for those who plan to investigate the economic behaviour of grain production under the assumption of a pure, fully integrated, food market economy in China.     

PHYSICAL STATURE IN NINETEENTH‐CENTURY NEW ZEALAND: A PRELIMINARY INTERPRETATION

During the late nineteenth century, the physical stature of New Zealand‐born men stagnated, despite an apparently beneficial public health environment and growth in per‐capita incomes. We examine trends and differentials in male stature through World War I enlistment and casualty records. Stature varied by social class, with professionals and men in rural occupations substantially taller than their peers. There is not enough evidence to show that the indigenous Maori population differed in height from men of European descent. Stagnation in stature in late nineteenth‐century New Zealand is consistent with patterns observed in Australia, North America, and Western Europe.     

TEN THINGS WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TIME SERIES

Abstract Time series data affect many aspects of our lives. This paper highlights 10 things we should all know about time series, namely, a good working knowledge of econometrics and statistics, an awareness of measurement errors, testing for zero frequency, seasonal and periodic unit roots, analysing fractionally integrated and long memory processes, estimating VARFIMA models, using and interpreting cointegrating models carefully, choosing sensibly among univariate conditional, stochastic and realized volatility models, not confusing thresholds, asymmetry and leverage, not underestimating the complexity of multivariate volatility models, and thinking carefully about forecasting models and expertise.     

Testing equity market efficiency around terrorist attacks

This article uses the nine major bombings since 1998 that have been attributed to Al Qaida to examine market efficiency, including a test of rumours that investors traded with advance knowledge of attacks. Analysis of these related, but individually unexpected, events confirms markets are semi-strong efficient: it now takes well under a trading day to fully price in a completely unexpected attack. On balance, markets also proved strongly efficient with no conclusive evidence of insider trading.     

LIMITED COMMITMENT MODELS OF THE LABOUR MARKET

We present an overview of models of long-term self-enforcing labour contracts in which risk-sharing is the dominant motive for contractual solutions. A base model is developed that is sufficiently general to encompass the two-agent problem central to most of the literature, including variable hours. We consider two-sided limited commitment and look at its implications for aggregate labour market variables. We consider the implications for empirical testing and the available empirical evidence. We also consider the one-sided limited commitment problem for which there exists a considerable amount of empirical support.