Addressing gender in agricultural research for development in the face of a changing climate: where are we and where should we be going?

Agricultural development efforts that do not address persistent gender gaps miss opportunities for greater impact. This synthesis reflects on key findings from integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses at the nexus of gender, agricultural development, and climate change. Linked farm household-, intrahousehold-, community-, and institutional-level data highlight significant and nuanced gender differences in adaptive capacity of individuals and communities to respond to climate change. The gender gap is also substantial in exposure to climate change and its impacts, and uptake of new practices that lower vulnerability. Women in agriculture will remain largely neglected by information and service providers unless their differing needs, access to, and control over resources are considered at policy and project design stage. Yet clear guidelines for addressing the needs of both men and women in different environments and agricultural systems are still lacking. Participatory ‘action research’ approaches with a focus on co-learning, and using innovative cell phone or social media-based approaches offer exciting new opportunities. Agricultural development decision-makers and project designers need to ‘design with gender in mind’. Equipping them with tools and knowledge of innovative gender-transformative practices and intervention options and creating accountability for serving women and men will be key.     

Macmillan's children? Young workers and trade unions in the early 1960s

The challenge facing unions in recruiting younger workers is a comparatively recent concern, prompted by years of decline. As such, there is very little comparable discussion prior to the 1980s. This article takes a longer view. Using previously unpublished survey data from the early 1960s, we show that patterns of membership and attitudes to unions were more complex than headline figures might suggest. Specifically, we highlight areas of weakness associated with organising strategy at the time, and suggest some implications with subsequent trends. More generally, the data presents a unique insight into the lives of young workers in the early 1960s and their relationship with their trade unions.     

Examining Determinants of Foreign Wage Premiums in China

We estimate foreign wage premiums for every 3‐digit manufacturing industry in China and discover a wide range of premiums both for ‘foreign’ ownership and for overseas Chinese ownership. Foreign ownership generates larger and more prevalent wage premiums than overseas Chinese ownership, but both produce premiums that respond similarly in estimates of determinants. Using the number of computers per worker to measure firms' technology levels, we find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that foreign firms pay higher wages to reduce the risk of worker turnover and the accompanying technology leakage in 76 to 78 per cent of industries. However, this determinant explains only 5 to 6 per cent of the foreign wage premium. We find the most intensive support for the ‘fair wage’ hypothesis that foreign firms pay higher wages because they are more profitable than domestic firms and workers in more profitable firms expect to be paid more, otherwise they will shirk. This hypothesis explains an average of 8 to 9 per cent of the foreign wage premiums, with support found in 72 to 75 per cent of the industries. When we consider the best combination of explanatory variables to include in each industry's wage regression, we find evidence consistent with our combined hypotheses in most industries, but we still find large residual foreign wage premiums.     

Book reviews

Business strategy and Information Technology Ewan Sutherland & Yves Morieux London, Routledge, 1991, 240 pp., £35.00.

Business strategy and Information Technology Ewan Sutherland & Yves Morieux (eds) London, Routledge, 1991,£35.00. (h/b).

Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications Derek Leebaert (ed.) Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1991, £26.95.

People and Computers: How to Evaluate Your Company's New Technology Chris Clegg et al. Chichester, Ellis Horwood, 1988, £39.00(h/b).

Alvey: Britain's Strategic Computing Initiative Brian Oakley & Kenneth Owen Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1989, £24.95.     

Book reviews

Technological Risk H. W. Lewis ,Yew York and London, W. W. Norton ,and Company, 1991, xiii+353pp., £15.95.

Towards Global Localisation: the computing and telecommunications industries in Britain and France Philip Cooke, Frank Moulaert, Erik Swyngedouw, Olivier Weinstein & Peter Wells with Martine Lamattre & Patrice Grevet London, UCL Press, 1992, 227pp., £30.00 hardback.

A Strategy of Change: concepts and controversies in the management of change David C. Wilson London, Routledge, 1992, 147pp., ISBN 0-4 15-053269, £10.00 pbk.     

RETIREMENT INCOME RIGHTS AS A COMPONENT OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES*

Americans have accumulated a considerable amount of future purchasing power in the form of Social Security and employer pension rights. These rights are a form of wealth. In this paper, we ask how their inclusion alters the wealth portfolios of a sample of Americans at or nearing normal retirement age. Data from the 1973 wave of the longitudinal Retirement History Study suggest that, for many Americans, retirement income rights are the dominant component of wealth, and are often more important than all other entries combined, including home equity. We also find that this wealth can be seriously eroded during times of high inflation. Because of differences in marketability, pension and Social Security rights are not perfect substitutes for more liquid assets. Nonetheless, since they are so large in magnitude, and have been shown to be key determinants of the behavior of older workers, they should not be ignored.     

The effect of tax-motivated income shifting on information asymmetry

We examine whether tax-motivated income shifting by U.S. multinational corporations affects information asymmetry. Using a new firm-year measure of income shifting and a two-stage least squares approach, we find income shifting is positively associated with four measures of information asymmetry. Cross-sectional tests reveal that this effect is more pronounced for firms with large differences between foreign and domestic earnings growth. Using SFAS 131 to improve identification and establish evidence consistent with a causal relation between income shifting and information asymmetry, we demonstrate that the adverse impact of income shifting on information asymmetry is concentrated in firms that discontinue geographic earnings disclosures. Overall, our study provides evidence that significant consequences of information asymmetry are associated with tax-motivated income shifting.