How Much of the Gender Difference in Child School Enrolment Can Be Explained? Evidence from Rural India

There are significant gender differences in child schooling in the Indian states though very few studies explain this gender difference. Unlike most existing studies we take account of the implicit and explicit opportunity costs of schooling and use a bivariate probit model to jointly determine a child's participation in school and market jobs. Results obtained from the World Institute of Development Economics Research (WIDER) villages in West Bengal suggest that indicators of household resources, parental preferences, returns to and opportunity costs of domestic work significantly affect child school enrolment. While household resources have similar effects on enrolment of boys and girls, other arguments tend to explain a part of the observed gender difference. Even after taking account of all possible arguments, there remains a large variation in gender differences in child schooling that cannot be explained by differences in male and female characteristics in our sample.     

An EM algorithm for the destructive COM-Poisson regression cure rate model

In this paper, we consider a competitive scenario and assume the initial number of competing causes to undergo a destruction after an initial treatment. This brings in a more realistic and practical interpretation of the biological mechanism of the occurrence of tumor since what is recorded is only from the undamaged portion of the original number of competing causes. Instead of assuming any particular distribution for the competing cause, we assume the competing cause to follow a Conway–Maxwell Poisson distribution which brings in flexibility as it can handle both over-dispersion and under-dispersion that we usually encounter in count data. Under this setup and assuming a Weibull distribution to model the time-to-event, we develop the expectation maximization algorithm for such a flexible destructive cure rate model. An extensive simulation study is carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed estimation method. Finally, a melanoma data is analyzed for illustrative purpose.     

Sabotaging cost containment

We show that sabotage may be particularly profitable for a vertically-integrated provider (VIP) when its downstream rival can devote effort to reducing its operating costs. Demand-reducing sabotage limits the return the rival anticipates from its cost management activities, and thereby inhibits those activities. The resulting higher costs for the rival increase the VIP’s profit in settings where sabotage would not be profitable if the rival could not manage its operating costs. To limit sabotage by the VIP, the rival may find it profitable to intentionally diminish its ability to reduce its production costs. The diminished ability can produce Pareto gains.     

Will a matchmaker invite her potential rival in?

This paper analyzes optimal strategies of an incumbent intermediary, who matches agents on the two sides of a market, in the presence of entry threat under alternative scenarios. It shows that, when entry is free, strategic entry accommodation is the optimal choice of the incumbent—not entry deterrence, unless the variation in agents' types is small. Entry accommodation remains optimal for the incumbent for a wide range of parametric configurations even when there is a fixed cost of entry. These results are in sharp contrast to the predictions of existing models of entry.     

Determinants of occupational change and mobility in rural India

With a view to redress the dearth of economic analysis on occupational dynamics in rural household economies, this study examines the nature and characteristics of occupational change and mobility in rural India. Using the unique WIDER data-set from six villages in West Bengal, India the factors causing a change of primary occupation among those who tried to change occupation over a twelve-month recall period has been analysed. Bivariate probit estimates jointly determining the probability of trying to change occupation and having been successful suggest that success in changing occupation depends crucially on socially constructed ‘status’- being older, male, from larger farming families or having higher schooling experience. They also exemplify the effects of regional diversity, levels of prosperity and different patterns of employment between agricultural and non-agricultural activities.     

A limited-dependent analysis of the choice of regular labour contract in seasonal agriculture

The paper examines both theoretically and empirically the factors determining the demand for regular labour in seasonal agriculture. In an implicit contract framework it is argued that there are ‘hoarding costs’ of regular labour in the slack period when there is not much work to be done. Consequently, the number of regular labour employed is constrained by the hoarding cost where larger employment-intensive farms tend to hire more regular labour. Evidence from the ICRISAT villages in India, too, show that though the marginal costs of regular labour are zero, there are significant hoarding costs of regular labour among small farms so that larger farmers are the major demanders of regular labour. Estimates of the double-hurdle model jointly determining the probability of hiring regular labour and demand for regular labour-hours (if a regular labour is hired) are shown to be an improvement over univariate tobit estimates of the demand for regular labour-hours only.     

An Empirical Analysis Of Industrial Disputes: Evidence From Indian States

This paper investigates the determinants of industrial disputes using data for fourteen major states of India over fifteen years from 1981 to 1996. We document that other than purely economic factors (e.g. wages, provident fund and other benefits, and factory size); socio-economic, institutional, and political factors have significant impact on industrial disputes. This supports the political economic view of the trade union behavior. We also provide the evidence that liberalization of Indian economy has enhanced industrial peace. Region specific factors as well as the ideology and characteristics of political parties in power of the state governments influence industrial disputes. Fixed capital per employee and overall growth rate of per capita state domestic products has negligible impact on industrial disputes.

     

Ethical evaluations, intentions, and orientations of accountants: Evidence from a cross-cultural examination

Society has high expectations concerning accounting professionals. More than ever, accountants need professional values and ethics that allow them to operate successfully and with integrity in a changing world. This study is a first attempt to understand the ethical evaluations, intentions, and orientations of accounting professionals and students from Latin American countries. Another objective is to validate the multidimensional ethics scale used by Cohen et al. [1998] in an international setting. The results did not validate such a scale but offer interesting findings about the Latin American sample. In such a context, ethics appear to be a collective concern guided by a different concept of equity. The results indicate that the respondents consider justice a superior value over what is considered correct, acceptable, or good.     

Environmental standards as strategic outcomes: A simple model

This paper analyses the strategic nature of choice of environmental standards considering both local and global pollution under alternative regimes of international trade. It also compares and contrasts the strategic equilibrium environmental standards and levels of pollution, local and global, with the world optimum levels. It shows that, in case of open economies, environmental standards can be either strategic substitutes or strategic complements. On the contrary, in case of closed economies, environmental standards are always strategic substitutes. It also shows that the strategic equilibrium environmental standards in case of open economies are higher than the world optimum in certain situations. Whereas, in absence of international trade, countries set, in equilibrium, lower environmental standards than the world optimum.     

Financial reforms and technical efficiency in Indian commercial banking: A generalized stochastic frontier analysis

In this study we estimate technical efficiency of Indian commercial banks from 1989 to 2009, using a multiple-output generalized stochastic production frontier and analyze the effects of financial reforms on estimated efficiency. The generalized method estimates technical efficiency in the presence of multiple outputs, filling a gap in the existing literature. Our results show that Indian commercial banks were operating with 64% efficiency on average during the sample period. The initial phase of reform had a positive impact on while the later phase adversely affected technical efficiency of banks. Public sector banks show higher efficiency levels compared to private and foreign banks.