The Division of Labor, Inequality and Growth

We present a model that links the division of labor and economic growth with the division of wealth in society. When capital market imperfections restrict the access of poor households to capital, the division of wealth affects individual incentives to invest in specialization. In turn, the division of labor determines the dynamics of the wealth distribution. A highly concentrated distribution of wealth leads to a low degree of specialization, low productivity, and low wages. In that case workers are unable to accumulate enough wealth to invest in specialization. Hence, in a highly unequal society, there is a vicious cycle in which the degree of specialization, productivity and wages stay low, wealth and income inequality stays high and the economy stagnates. By contrast, greater equality increases investment in specialization and leads to a greater division of labor and higher long run development.     

FINANCIAL REGULATION,THE STATE AND THE MARKET: IS THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY AN UNNECESSARY EVIL?

The most successful stock exchanges developed without detailed regulation by the state. This article examines the role of the FSA in regulating stock market activity and finds that the justification for a statutory regulator is very weak. Indeed, one of the functions of a stock exchange is the development of a safe (private) regulatory environment for those using the exchange. Stock exchanges should be allowed to compete on the basis of the regulatory services they provide as it is only through a process of competition that regulation can be improved.     

Negative Film Plot and Tourists´ Image and Intentions: The Case of City of God

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of films with a negative plot on tourists’ cognitive and affective image about Brazil and behavioral intentions of visiting the country. The film selected is City of God, one of the most internationally acclaimed motion pictures produced in Brazil. The results suggest that films with a negative plot tend to negatively reinforce the viewers’ evaluations of the image attributes, although the influence on the general image tends to be subtle. Moreover, it was concluded that in the case of films with a negative plot, the imagery of landscapes is the element that is most likely to increase visiting intention.     

A study of hotel employee behavioral intentions towards adoption of information technology

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of perceived IT beliefs, task-technology fit, attitude, self-efficacy, and subjective norm on behavioral intention of adopting information technology in hotels in Hangzhou, China. A number of 458 usable self-administered questionnaires were collected. Results show that attitude, self-efficacy, and subjective norm are positively related to behavioral intention. Perceived IT beliefs had influence on the intention through attitude formation. Task-technology fit appears to interact with perceived IT beliefs towards attitude formation. Suggestions were provide for hotel practitioners to enhance employees’ intention of adopting new information technologies.     

An exploratory study of an internship program: The case of Hong Kong students

This study aimed to investigate the difference between expectations and perceptions of hospitality students towards their internship program, and to assess the relationship between the difference and overall satisfaction. Altogether, a total of 307 usable questionnaires were returned. The results show that three internship factors of supervisor, team spirit and involvement, autonomy and help from supervisor led to student overall satisfaction. Based on the findings, recommendations for hospitality schools, industry practitioners, and students were provided in order to enhance the quality of internship programs.     

Time series properties of an artificial stock market

This paper presents results from an experimental computer simulated stock market. In this market artificial intelligence algorithms take on the role of traders. They make predictions about the future, and buy and sell stock as indicated by their expectations of future risk and return. Prices are set endogenously to clear the market. Time series from this market are analyzed from the standpoint of well-known empirical features in real markets. The simulated market is able to replicate several of these phenomenon, including fundamental and technical predictability, volatility persistence, and leptokurtosis. Moreover, agent behavior is shown to be consistent with these features, in that they condition on the variables that are found to be significant in the time series tests. Agents are also able to collectively learn a homogeneous rational expectations equilibrium for certain parameters giving both time series and individual forecast values consistent with the equilibrium parameter values.     

ROBOTS,RIFs, and rights

The increasing use of technological advances in business operations very often leads to the displacement of the employee whose skills become obsolete in light of such advances. There is no doubt that the interests of both company and employee are significantly affected by the implementation of laborsaving devices. Given that those interests are pursued in an environment which is usually, if not essentially, competitive, then there arises the serious question of what rights should be accorded the employee and the company in the event that the employee is likely to be displaced by technological innovation. I argue that, given the constraints of a competitive environment, certain rights might be justified through a very limited application of the highly morally intuitive principles of utility, respect for persons, fairness, and the honoring of contracts. Alcott S. Arthur is Lecturer in Philosophy at Howard University, Washington, D.C. His most important publication is his doctoral dissertation: The Problem of Providing Adequate Grounds for Political Obligation,published by Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan (1981).     

Health and Female Self-Employment

This study uses data from the Mature Women's Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience (NLSLME). The sample (n = 1,412) comprises self-employed, wage-earning, and nonemployed women whose cumulative employment is measured by employment status between 1976 and 1995 and whose health status was measured in 1976 and in 1995. Three multivariate regression models, one for each type of employment status, are used to control for sociodemographic and for other factors thought to influence health status in 1995, including health status in 1976. The study finds that unemployment resulted in a significantly negative health status in 1995 compared to women of similar age, while the effect of working for wages results in significantly positive health relative to women of similar age. Self-employment had no statistically significant effect on health status in 1995, thus indicating that the health of the self-employed, while better than that of the nonemployed, substantially was worse than that of wage earners.     

Microcredit in Prefamine Ireland

Hundreds of independent, local, quasi-charitable microcredit societies, or “loan funds,” were lending to as many as 20% of Irish households in the mid-19th century. Their goal was to relieve poverty by providing credit to the “industrious poor” at competitive interest rates without public funding. They successfully mitigated informational, moral hazard, and enforcement problems, and operated at a surplus in a market where intermediation by the banks seems not to have been profitable. Loan fund activity offers new insights into capital formation in the 19th-century Irish economy and challenges traditional notions regarding the economic activities of the Irish poor. They are also relevant for economists studying current microcredit initiatives.