On the power function of the exact test for ther×c contingency table

Summary LetN=[n _ij ] (i=1, …,r;j=1, …,c) be the matrix of observed frequencies in anr×c contingency table fromr possibly different multinomial populations with respective probabilitiesp _i =(p _i1, …,p _ic ).Freeman andHalton have proposed an exact conditional test for the hypothesisH ₀ :p _i =(p ₁, …p _c ) of the exact test is derived. Numerical values forβ(p) were previously computed for the special case:r=3,c=2 [Bennett andNakamura, 1964].     

The role of trust and contract in the supply of business advice

The use of legal contract and personal trust are compared inthis paper for the relationships between clients and their differentadvisers who supply business advice. Personal trust betweenclient and adviser is found to operate as an exclusive meansto manage relational exchange only for social and family relationships.Using a sample survey of small and medium sized enterprises,results demonstrate that trust and legal contract are most commonlyoverlapping categories. Comparing different types of adviser,the level of trust, extent of legal contract, service intensity,service costs and client impact and satisfaction are each foundto interact. There are major differences between suppliers,but except in the case of social and family relationships toadvisers, higher reliance on trust alone is generally associatedwith lower levels of client impact and satisfaction received.The combination of trust with contract tends to be the routewhich is most associated with higher levels of client impactand satisfaction.     

Minimising Payment Vehicle Bias in Contingent Valuation Studies

The payment vehicle is a crucial element inapplications of the contingent valuation methodbecause it provides the context for payment. However,in many countries a relative unfamiliarity with theuse of tax levies and referenda can affect theplausibility of payment vehicles and lead to paymentvehicle bias. The most commonly used approach fordetermining whether payment bias exists is to usetests of convergent validity. It is demonstrated thatsimple tests of convergent validity can be ineffectivein diagnosing the existence of payment vehicle bias.Payment vehicle bias is found to occur because ofdifferences in the coverage of payment vehicles anddoubts about payment being one-off. When respondentsare found to be protesting against a particularpayment vehicle, the current state of the art approachis to delete them from the sample. In this paper analternative approach that relies on the recoding ofprotest responses is proposed.     

Shaping safe drinking cultures: evoking positive emotion to promote moderate‐drinking behaviour

Social marketing by Western governments that use fear tactics and threatening information to promote anti‐drinking messages has polarized ‘binge drinking’ and ‘moderate drinking’ through a continuum that implies benefits and harms for both individuals and society. With the goal of extending insights into social marketing approaches that promote safer drinking cultures in Australia, we discuss findings from a study that examines alcohol consumers' moderate‐drinking intentions. By applying the theory of planned behaviour and emotions theory, we discuss survey results from a sample of alcohol consumers, which demonstrate that positively framed value propositions that evoke happiness and love are more influential in the processing of an alcohol moderation message for alcohol consumers. The key limitations of this study are the cross‐sectional nature of the data and the focal‐dependent variable being behavioural intentions rather than behaviours. Research insight into the stronger influence of positive emotions on processing an alcohol moderation message establishes an important avenue for future social marketing communications that moves beyond negative, avoidance appeals to promote behaviour change in drinkers. These research findings will benefit professionals involved in developing social change campaigns that promote and reinforce consumers' positive intentions, with messages about the benefits of controlled, moderate drinking.     

What Determines TSR

Researchers have long wrestled with the question of what determines a company's total shareholder return, or TSR, and their results have been decidedly mixed. Some empirical studies come down in favor of dividends or earnings per share, while others favor return on capital or other profitability measures. In this article, the author takes a “first principles” approach that begins by demonstrating that TSR should be a function of a company's economic profit, or its Economic Value Added (or EVA). He shows that, from a theoretical standpoint, the sum of dividends and share price appreciation—which is the definition of TSR—is ultimately a function of increasing EVA and, along with it, a company's “aggregate NPV.” He further shows that if stock prices are determined by discounting expected cash flows, corporate NPV will equal the discounted value of EVA, and increasing NPV will come down to increasing EVA. In developing his argument, the author demonstrates that TSR is actually a leveraged version of a measure he calls “TIR,” or total investor return, which is the blended return that an investor would earn from owning the entire capital structure of a company, bonds as well as stock. He then presents the findings of regression analysis showing that a company's TIR and TSR are both strongly positively correlated with its EVA performance plus the change in its aggregate NPV (with R²s equal to 1.0 and 0.94, respectively). In a final step, the author shows that the change in EVA provides a better statistical explanation than other financial measures for changes in aggregate NPV and, hence, actual TSR     

A variable-production generalisation of Lerner's theorem

A government wishes to choose an optimal set of wage rates, but it is uncertain of individual characteristics. All it knows for certain is that each utility function is strictly quasi-concave and that the production function is linear. We assume that it can determine probability distributions, for each individual. of possible utility functions and ability levels. If each of these probability distributions is the same for every individual, expected social welfare is maximised by equalisation of wage rates. But since actual utility functions, and therefore labour supplies, will generally be unequal, incomes will then be unequal.