Ex ante analysis of the benefits of transgenic drought tolerance research on cereal crops in low-income countries

This article develops a framework to examine the ex ante benefits of transgenic research on drought in eight low-income countries, including the benefits to producers and consumers from farm income stabilization and the potential magnitude of private sector profits from intellectual property rights (IPRs). The framework employs country-specific agroecological–drought risk zones and considers both yield increases and yield variance reductions when estimating producer and consumer benefits from research. Benefits from yield variance reductions are shown to be an important component of aggregate drought research benefits, representing 40% of total benefits across the eight countries. Further, estimated annual benefits of US$178 million to the private sector suggest that significant incentives exist for participation in transgenic drought tolerance research.     

亚太地区财富管理机遇来临

财富管理服务对亚太地区的金融机构产生了越来越强的吸引力,但后者需要在打造产品、销售和客户关系管理能力方面付出额外的努力。金融机构未来的成功来自于对客户偏好和风格的理解,对监管发展的认识,对系列产品的设计,以及发展良好的基础和交往平台,培养人才和进行轮岗项目等。     

Daily income target effects: Evidence from a large sample of professional commodities traders

We provide evidence of rational reference-dependent preferences in the proprietary trading of professional traders. We find increased trading effort and risk taking by traders following morning losses. Further analysis provides no evidence of a deterioration in trading performance subsequent to losses, as neither risk-adjusted performance nor trade execution appear to be negatively affected by prior losses. The evidence supports the existence of rational reference-dependent preferences in the form of trader daily income targets: these professional traders exhibit increased work effort subsequent to abnormal morning losses. The evidence is inconsistent with the alternative explanation of costly loss aversion.     

Is ‘NAFTA Plus’ an Option in the North American Agrifood Sector?

With the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) nearly complete, there are concerns that the easy gains in efficiency have been achieved and that additional steps towards the economic integration of the member countries are required. This poses a distinct challenge to the NAFTA governments, since the agreement did not create trinational institutions with the supranational authority to facilitate the deepening of the new trading environment. In any initiative to further the economic integration of the NAFTA countries, agriculture will be a difficult sector in which to make progress. However, at an aggregate level, the support provided directly to agricultural producers by the NAFTA governments is similar, as are tariffs at an aggregate level. All three countries have devised income support programmes that contain a countercyclical element. In each of these areas, as well as in the operation of ‘green box’ programmes that are consistent with the member countries’ obligations to the World Trade Organization, cooperation and consultation among the NAFTA members would seem crucial if they are to achieve greater integration in the agrifood sector. This article examines the opportunities and challenges facing the NAFTA members as they seek further integration in the agrifood sector.     

Developing effective e-recruiting websites: Insights for managers from marketers

In recent years, the practice of using corporate websites to recruit job applicants has increased steadily. Despite this trend, however, studies show that approximately 75% of job seekers find the sites too complicated to use successfully [Brown, D. (2004). Unwanted online job seekers swamp HR staff. Canadian HR Reporter, 17(7), 1-2] and that more than 20% have rejected job opportunities based on poorly designed websites [Pastore, M. (2000, March 29). http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=330331]. To address this problem, this article joins Internet marketing and employee recruitment research to offer six development implications for creating an effective “e-recruitment” source on a corporate website. Based on a job marketing approach to the recruitment process and consumer behavior research on persuasive communication and decision making, we present considerations important to creating an online recruiting website that effectively influences the search decisions and behaviors of a target market of desired job candidates.     

Quantifying Price Liberalization in Russia

We seek to quantify the success of Russia's attempt to achieve price-liberalization initiatives as part of the reforms established under the Big Bang of January 1992. We do so by studying the time-series behavior of commodity prices between 1992–1995 and focusing on the relationship between the behavior of prices of similar goods within and across cities. We supplement this analysis by examining city-level surveys that seek to quantify the extent to which firms are currently able to set and adjust commodity prices in accordance with market conditions. Our evidence suggests that price liberalization gradually gained momentum following the Big Bang and that prices generally reflected market conditions by the first quarter of 1995. However, regional pockets of resistance to price-reform efforts continue to persist, indicating that Russia has yet to achieve full market integration.J. Comp. Econom.,December 1998, 26(4), pp. 735–760. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260.     

A laingian view of the ‘advantage’ of advertisers over consumers

This paper discusses the advantage advertisers may enjoy over consumers in terms of R.D. Laing's Interpersonal Perception Method (Laing, Phillipson & Lee, 1966). It is suggested that the advertiser (A) has an advantage over the consumer (C) to the extent that (1) A operates more efficiently at higher order levels of perspective than does C; (2) A understands C, whereas C misunderstands A; (3) A causes C to feel understood by A; and (4) A realizes that he understands C, whereas C fails to realize that she misunderstands A. The differential orientations and skills of A and C would appear to support these conditions with some frequency.