DIMENSIONAL SIMPLIFICATION AND ECONOMIC THEORIES OF LEGISLATIVE BEHAVIOR

In many many places, the political parties and political contests seem to array themselves along a single dimension. If you look at their programs in detail it always turns out that it's much more complicated than that. But it would appear that in the minds of the voters they are literally frequently arrayed on a single continuum which, as a result of the organization of the French chamber of deputies, is usually referred to as a left/right.     

QUANTIFYING THE QUALITY OF TERTIARY EDUCATION ANNUAL REPORTS

Research methods for developing disclosure indices are evaluated in relation to measuring performance for tertiary education bodies. A critique of earlier unweighted, dichotomous studies such as Dixon, Coy and Tower [1991], reveals limitations of such an approach. An alternative method (AD-Score) is advanced using 3-point scales to differentiate for: i) the quality of disclosures and, ii) a weighting of the importance of each item. Annual reports from 33 New Zealand tertiary education bodies (1985-90) were analyzed using both approaches. The results show that the AD-Score is approximately 10 percentage points lower throughout. The AD-Score also changed some of the rankings of the institutions. The scoring systems were found to be significantly different in 1990 (but not 1989). Suggestions for further improvements of the AD-Score are also offered.     

Sources and directions of technological accumulation in France: a statistical comparison with FR Germany and the UK

Technological activities are an important determinant of national economic performance. Data on R&D and on the national origins of patenting in the USA show that, compared to those of FR Germany and the UK, French technological activities have the following characteristics: (1) a relatively high rate of growth over the past 20 years in aggregate activity; (2) concentration of technological strength in sectors dominated by state procurement and related R&D funding, rather than in “core” technologies; (3) stronger performance in fast-growing technologies in defence, electrical products and fine chemicals, than in electronics and motor vehicles; (4) a relatively stable and speialized sectoral pattern of technological strengths and weaknesses; and (5) sectoral patterns of trading strengths and weaknesses that broadly reflect those in technology. These characteristics of France's technological activities cannot be explained by their greater or lesser concentration, which is very similar to that found in both FR Germany and the UK, both in aggregate and in specific sectors. As in the other two countries, a few large firms have a major influence on national technological activities, especially in R&D-intensive sectors and automobiles. These results are on the whole consistent with the recent assessment by INSEE and CEPII of France's competitive position in international markets. However, they do show a strong Franch “niche” in technologies linked to state markets, and they do suggest certain advantages in long-term stability, rather than rapaid change, in technological priorities.     

The Effects of Estimation Period, Industry, and Proxy on the Calculation of the Degree of Operating Leverage

Much diversity exists in the approaches used by finance researchers to estimate a firm's degree of operating leverage (DOL). This diversity is partially attributable to the lack of accessible accounting data suitable for the calculations. As a result, researchers have devised various proxies for the degree of operating leverage from whatever accounting data are externally available. This paper examines the effects of estimation period, industry, and proxy on the calculation of DOL. The analyses indicate that the various proxies for DOL exhibit both conceptual and empirical differences that are generally consistent across industries and over estimation periods.