Measuring the dynamics of APEC output connectedness

We examine the dynamics of output connectedness of Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies using time‐varying, region‐specific, generalised connectedness measures. We find that the connectedness of APEC economies with the rest of the world is quite substantial, with the 2008–09 Global Financial Crisis increasing the connectedness measures above their precrisis levels. The USA, China, and Korea are shown to be systemically important and to dominate APEC’s real activities, while outside the APEC region the roles of India and the UK are also non‐negligible. These results suggest that the majority of APEC economies are considerably open to output shocks from the dominant economies such that policymakers in APEC must be continuously conscious of headwinds originating from these sources.     

Evaluation of Sustainable Development Indicators for Regions of Russia

It has been shown how static and dynamic characteristics could be used for a comparative assessment of social, environmental, and economic development, as well as the development balance in social, economic, and ecological spheres. The proposed methodological toolkit has made it possible to identify problem areas and stably manifested dynamic disproportions in the investigated regions, which require corrective actions in order to ensure sustainable development.     

On Measurement of Economic Growth

This article continues the discussion raised in the pages of the journal on the methodological problems of justifying economic policy [1]. Problems of measuring the inflationary component of economic growth and in product competitiveness in the internal market and external markets are considered. A procedure to measure economic growth, taking into account the balance of interests of the current and future generations, is proposed.     

Determinants of Efficiency in the Electricity Industry: Bayesian Analysis

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Are Chinese nationals’ attitudes to wildlife tourist attractions different from those of other nationalities?

Many wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) have negative impacts on animal welfare and species conservation. In the absence of regulation, raising standards requires tourists to create market pressure by choosing to attend WTAs with benefits for wildlife. We surveyed respondents from five countries – China, Australia, Canada, UK, and USA – to quantify how attitudes to captive animals, and towards WTAs’ outputs and standards, may vary with nationality. Our aim was to provide a firm basis for behaviour change interventions to alter current patterns of tourist consumption of WTAs. All respondents agreed on the importance of conservation and animal welfare, but Chinese respondents were twice as likely to believe that WTAs would not be allowed to exist if they were bad for animals, and that WTAs’ promotional materials were reliable indicators of welfare and conservation standards. These findings indicate Chinese respondents had fundamentally similar attitudes to those from the other countries, but differed in how those attitudes were likely to be applied. Chinese tourists may experience more barriers to aligning their actions with their values with respect to WTAs. Removing these barriers may require information campaigns to highlight the lack of regulation, and the unreliability of some WTAs’ promotional materials and tourists’ reviews.     

Job stress,coping strategies,and burnout among hotel industry supervisors in Taiwan

The complex and changing environment of the hospitality industry presents a never ending array of stimuli, pressures and demands which can become sources of stress for hotel supervisors. A focus on the identification of current and potential stressors in organizations, and the development of strategies which individuals and management may use to manage and reduce stress effectively, is imperative. This study is to investigate the perceived level of stress of hotel supervisors, to establish frequency of the use of various coping strategies, and to determine the burnout rate. This study also empirically examines the relationships among stress, coping strategies, and job burnout. A convenient sample of hotel supervisors of large hotels in Taiwan was selected. The return of 298 questionnaires represented 74.5% of the total supervisors surveyed. The study findings suggest that the major job stress of hotel supervisors originates from task characteristic and workload. Moreover, a direct action coping strategy may allow one to perceive the situations as opportunities and may, in turn, contribute to reduce job stress. Furthermore, hotel supervisors experience a lower level of burnout if they apply more direct action strategies in coping with the pressures of their job. The results of this study can be used as part of guidelines including what should be considered to reduce job stress and burnout in the work environment.     

Playing the synthesizer with Canadian data: Adding polls to a structural forecasting model

Election forecasting has become a fixture of election campaigns in a number of democracies. Structural modeling, the major approach to forecasting election results, relies on ‘fundamental’ economic and political variables to predict the incumbent’s vote share usually a few months in advance. Some political scientists contend that adding vote intention polls to these models—i.e., synthesizing ‘fundamental’ variables and polling information—can lead to important accuracy gains. In this paper, we look at the efficiency of different model specifications in predicting the Canadian federal elections from 1953 to 2015. We find that vote intention polls only allow modest accuracy gains late in the campaign. With this backdrop in mind, we then use different model specifications to make ex ante forecasts of the 2019 federal election. Our findings have a number of important implications for the forecasting discipline in Canada as they address the benefits of combining polls and ‘fundamental’ variables to predict election results; the efficiency of varying lag structures; and the issue of translating votes into seats.