Does Economic Development Lead to Mangrove Loss? A Cross‐Country Analysis

Mangroves line one quarter of the world's tropical coastlines, and approximately 117 countries and territories have mangrove resources within their borders. Although over recent years mangrove deforestation has occurred at a phenomenal rate worldwide, there have been few economic studies of the underlying causes. The article attempts such an analysis and particularly examines the role of economic development, with specific reference to those activities that may result in mangrove deforestation, in determining the area of mangrove left within a country. The article develops a model of economic activity and mangrove conversion. From this model, a relationship is established between remaining mangrove area, economic activity, and other important causative factors. The mangrove area relationship is estimated empirically for a cross-section of 89 countries. Results show that shrimp aquaculture and agriculture are significantly associated with mangrove loss across all countries, whereas the higher the level of GDP per capita the more mangrove area remains. The number of protected areas, length of coastline and political stability were also important in determining the remaining mangrove area of a country. (JEL O13 , Q22 , Q23 , Q24 )     

Play It Again,Sam? Versioning in the Market for Second‐hand Video Game Software

Information goods are characterised by high fixed costs and low marginal costs of production. A potentially effective strategy that can be adopted by firms operating in such markets is versioning, whereby various features are added or subtracted from a number of distinct versions of the good. This effectively serves as a means of second‐degree price discrimination designed to extract prices closer to the maximum willingness to pay from different groups of consumers. This study tests the effectiveness of versioning as a means of exploiting differences in willingness to pay in second‐hand markets for information goods by undertaking the first hedonic price analysis of video gaming software. The empirical evidence presented in this paper is based on the analysis of an extensive cross‐sectional dataset consisting of over 5000 observations of pre‐owned video game prices in the USA. Controls are introduced for a variety of other observable characteristics, including the quality of the game‐play experience, the publisher, genre and theme of the game. The results are consistent with theoretical expectations and demonstrate that significant variations in willingness to pay can be exploited through the strategic use of versioning. The practice is therefore argued to represent an effective means by which firms in these markets can enhance revenues. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tax loss selling and the contrarian investment strategy

Tax loss selling is examined as a possible explanation for the long term price reversal patterns associated with the contrarian investment strategy. Our empirical results are consistent with a tax effect. When we adjust for size and potential tax loss selling, the abnormally high returns previously found in January are eliminated. These results suggest that short term tax effects are associated with the longer term overreaction or contrarian hypothesis, and at this point cannot be dismissed.     

Trends and developments in east central European industrial relations

This article overviews developments in industrial relations in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland since the fall of the communist regimes in 1989, and assesses the extent to which key developments in these countries reflect both change and continuity from the communist period. We explore the four main institutions through which industrial relations have been conducted: trades unions, workers’ councils, employer organisations, and the tripartite arrangements involving representatives of unions and employers with the state.     

A primal-dual approach to nonparametric productivity analysis: The case of U.S. agriculture

Nonparametric methods for measuring productivity indexes based on bounds for the underlying production technology are presented. Following Banker and Maindiratta, the lower bound is obtained from a primal approach while the upper bound corresponds to a dual approach to nonparametric production analysis. These nonparametric bounds are then used to estimate input-based and output-based distance functions. These radial measures provide the basis for measuring productivity indexes. Application to times series data on U.S. agriculture indicates a large gap between the primal lower bound and the dual upper bound. This generates striking differences between the primal and dual nonparametric productivity indexes.Respectively, professor and associate professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Seniority of authorship is equally shared. We would like to thank Rolf Färe and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. This research was supported in part by a Hatch grant from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.     

Social Security and Private Transfers in Developing Countries: The Case of Peru

Do social security systems "crowd out" private transfers fromyounger to older generations? This question has generated muchtheoretical discussion, but little empirical work exists toconfirm or refute this crowding-out hypothesis. We investigatethe connection between social security and private transfersin Peru, using the Peruvian Living Standards Survey, and findthat private transfers from young to old would have been nearly20 percent higher without social security benefits. This indicatesthat the Peruvian social security system is less effective atdelivering benefits to the elderly than a simple assignmentof government expenditures would suggest. Social security'sdisplacement of private transfers, while significant, is lessthan that predicted by models with widespread altruistic transfers.     

“Our five year mission— to boldly go where no man has been before… .”

The paper presents research conducted in New Zealand on the content, creation, use and impact of mission statements. Following a review of the literature the paper goes on to report an empirical study comparing the reality of mission statements with the theory. The paper concludes that practice rarely coincides with theory and that there are a wide variety of types of mission statement in current use. Recommendations are made for creating more actionable mission statements.