Sunday shopping and promotion possibilities

This is an empirical study of the Sunday shopper. Demographic data, motives and attitudes and the Sunday Shopping trip are all examined. Cues from the empirical information are identified for possible use in developing an effective promotional strategy.     

Wages,work, and unemployment

This paper provides new evidence on unemployment durations for individuals in Great Britain using a three state Markov framework in a competing risk setting and a nationally representative data set. The analysis is based on the premise that an individual's movements between labour market states can be represented by a Markov process. The modelling procedure combines the dynamic properties of the search approach to unemployment while using the labour supply decision at each moment in time in response to the expected wage to include participation decisions. Using this framework, we are able to determine the effect of individual characteristics, including the expected wage, on labour market behaviour. The model is estimated separately for men and women, and for young and mature workers, to investigate whether labour market behaviour differs for these groups. The validity of the Markov assumptions are tested using different model specifications, and changes in the model over calendar time are also presented.     

Experiential Reciprocity: The Role of Direct Experience in Value Perceptions

This research proposes experiential reciprocity as the process underlying the relationship between direct experience of a national park and perceived value of the park system and its role in preserving the environment. Cross-sectional data of people's experience and perceptions of the United States National Park Service and their values and beliefs related to the park system indicate that a direct experience of a park increases the intrinsic value of the park, even for those who are already environmentally conscious. Consistent with the norm of reciprocity, direct experience of a park also increases willingness to finance the park directly. Given the role of direct experience of the park in fostering an intrinsic appreciation for its role in preserving the environment, waving access fees is offered as a way to promote experiential reciprocity.     

Safety performance differences between unionized and non-union motor carriers

This paper analyzes the safety performance differences between union and non-union motor carriers. Based primarily on the safety and health provisions of a national agreement between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and a major unionized motor carrier, a hypothesis is developed that union carriers have a positive safety impact. The hypothesis is tested using safety performance data. Key findings are that union membership has a statistically significant positive impact on both driver and vehicle safety performance. Union membership results in significantly fewer crashes as well.     

Technological Progress, Job Creation, and Job Destruction

New technology embodied in capital equipment can be adopted either through destruction of existing jobs and the creation of new ones or by renovation, updating the job's equipment. Under the assumption that the destruction of jobs generates worker layoffs, we show that higher productivity growth induces lower unemployment when renovation costs are low, but that the response of employment to growth switches from positive to negative as the cost of updating existing technology rises above a unique critical level. The effects of idiosyncratic productivity differences and cross sector mobility on the aggregate relationship between growth and unemployment are also studied.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Numbers: D92, E24, J41, J63, J64.     

Unemployment Responses to 'Skill-biased' Technology Shocks: the Role of Labour Market Policy

Do skill-biased shocks that increase the spread of labour productivities, interacting with different policy regimes, explain the rise in unemployment in Europe relative to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s? The hypothesis is an implication of a version of the Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) model of equilibrium unemployment which allows for worker heterogeneity. A calibrated version of the model implies that a similar unemployment increase would have occurred in the United States over this period, given changes in relative productivity by education implied by observed wage changes, had unemployment compensation and employment protection policies been at European levels.     

The Business Model in Integrated Reporting: Evaluating Concept and Application

A key feature of the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC) agenda to improve corporate reporting is to encourage companies to use Integrated Reports to disclose their underlying business models. However, extant research suggests that the IIRC's distinctive business model concept is not well understood. This paper aims to unpack and critically evaluate the core features of the IIRC's business model concept. To unpack the IIRC's business model, the paper conducts a structured comparative analysis of the IIRC's model against eight influential alternatives in prior business model research. The paper then evaluates the extent to which Integrated Reporting's distinctive business model is: (1) internally coherent and consistent; and, (2) consistent with the IIRC's broader reporting objectives. The paper identifies tensions in both these areas. Since the IIRC's business model is central to its agenda to improve corporate reporting, these tensions are relevant to both Integrated Reporting research and broader discussions about whether, or how, disclosing business models advances mainstream reporting frameworks.