A Regional Analysis of Productivity Change in Canadian Agriculture, with Special Reference to Energy Prices

By using a profit specification for the agricultural sector instead of the conventional value-added production formulation, this paper explains changes to regional productivity in Canada in terms of changes in output prices, material prices, energy prices, capital deepening and technical progress. The results indicate that ignoring variable input and output price increases will generally result in an overstatement of the rate of technical progress. Most notably, in the 1973-79 period, energy price increases caused a reduction in average labor productivity, though increased capital deepening and rising output prices offset price increases for energy and other materials .
C'est en subsliluant une spécification du gain pour le secleur agricole à la formulation classique de la valeur ajoutée de la production, que cette communication explique les changements regionaux de la productivité au Canada en fonction des changements du rendement el des prix des matériaux el de ľénergie, en plus des changements du rapport capital/main-ďoeuvre el du progrès technique. Les résultals indiquent que si on ne tenait aucun compte des augmentations variables des prix ďenlrée el de sortie. ľaccélération du progrès technique serait, en général, exagéré. Pendant les années 1973 à 1979 en particulier, les augmentations des prix de ľénergie onl donné lieu à une réduction de la productivité moyenne de la main-ďoeuvre. Néanmoins, ľaugmentation du rapport capital/main-ďoeuvre el les prix croissants du rendement onl compensé les hausses des prix de ľénergie el ďaulres matériaux .     

U.K. Unit Trust Performance: Does it Matter Which Benchmark or Measure is Used?

We explore the validity of different benchmark specifications used to evaluate U.K. fund performance, and we examine the sensitivity of U.K. unit trust performance to the factor benchmark specification and two performance measures. Our findings suggest that the different benchmark specifications create some bias when we evaluate U.K. fund performance with either performance measure. We find that the performance of the trusts is sensitive to the factor benchmark specification used, but not to the performance measure. We also find significant time-series variations in the abnormal performance of the trusts.     

Share portfolios in the early years of financial capitalism: London, 1690–1730

The dramatic expansion of public and private financial markets in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution has received extensive attention. Despite this, little is known about how ordinary individual investors managed risk within this framework. Using a newly constructed dataset of share ownership for those joint‐stock companies listed in the financial press of the day, we reconstruct individual portfolio holdings for investors in these companies. We examine individual portfolio holdings first for the decade after the Glorious Revolution and then for the years around the South Sea Bubble. Despite a fivefold increase in the number of unique individuals in the market between the 1690s and the 1720s, we find that in each period roughly 80 per cent of those active in the equity market held shares in only one company, even though many shareholders had the capacity or wealth to diversify share portfolios. These outcomes suggest diversification against idiosyncratic liquidity risk. Overall, however, there is limited evidence that individuals were using their financial portfolios to protect against diversifiable shocks. For many, we argue, company‐specific voting and firm governance rules drove market activity.     

创业，任何时候都可以开始

永远不存在开始创业的最佳时机。如果你有抱负，并且愿意付诸努力，任何时机都是好时机。     

Does China have Inflationary Effects on the USA and Japan？

With China＇s share in global trade increasing rapidly, some argued in 2002-2003 that China was exporting deflation to other countries as it was dumping cheap goods in mature markets. Later, others argued that China was causing sharp increases in global prices. This paper uses several econometric techniques to assess the extent of the link between inflation rates between China and the USA and Japan. Only limited empirical evidence at the aggregate level is found for consumer price inflation in China leading to price changes in the USA and Japan. However, there is some evidence that inflation in the USA has an impact on Chinese inflation. The results seem consistent with the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan being concerned about inflation and, hence, adjusting policy such that inflation shocks have no significant effect on overall inflation. Recent Chinese price rises are unlikely to have a material effect on the USA or Japan.     

The Entry-Inducing Effects of Horizontal Mergers: An Exploratory Analysis

Antitrust law presumes that entry normally prevents or reverses anticompetitive effects from horizontal mergers. But when sunk costs associated with entry are at levels suggested by prevailing market structure, the opportunity for entry created by an anticompetitive merger plausibly is too small to induce entry, even absent Stiglerian ‘barriers to entry.’ This is illustrated for Cournot and Bertrand models. Significant entry also makes otherwise profitable Bertrand mergers unprofitable, assuming no efficiency gains. Consequently, the entry issue can be collapsed into the efficiency issue: if a presumably profitable merger does not generate significant efficiencies, it cannot be expected to induce entry.     

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes

Abstract

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.     

Friends or family? Revisiting the effects of high school popularity on adult earnings

Recent evidence has suggested links between high school popularity and wages during mid-life using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. This article revisits this question by first replicating the results using an alternative dataset that is very similar in structure. Similar to previous results, the Add Health baseline effects suggest that an additional high school friendship nomination is linked to a 2% increase in earnings around age 30. However, leveraging the unique structure of the Add Health shows that sibling comparisons eliminate any associations between popularity and earnings. The findings suggest that families, rather than friends, may be the cause of the association.     

Using narrative evidence synthesis in HRM research: An overview of the method,its application,and the lessons learned

The use of systematic approaches to evidence review and synthesis has recently become more common in the field of organizational research, yet their value remains unclear and largely untested. First used in medical research, evidence review is a technique for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing existing empirical evidence. With greater demand for the best evidence about “what works” in organizational settings, nuanced approaches to evidence synthesis have evolved to address more complex research questions. Narrative synthesis is perceived to be particularly suited to evaluating diverse evidence types spanning multiple disciplinary fields, characteristic of the HRM domain. This article evaluates the narrative evidence synthesis approach, explains how it differs from other techniques, and describes a worked example in relation to employee engagement. We consider its strengths, the challenges of using it, and its value in HRM research.