Price expectations of sheep and goats by producers and intermediaries in Quetta market,Pakistan

Analysis of producers' and intermediaries' livestock price expectations was used to describe the market in Quetta, the largest livestock market in the highlands of Balochistan Province, Pakistan, and to identify factors that determine price expectations of small ruminants. A total of 4800 expected prices for sheep and goats were collected from producers and market intermediaries at monthly intervals between January 1991 and December 1992. In addition to the expected price of the animal, liveweight, species, sex, breed, body condition (fatness), calendar day and month were recorded, and whether data were collected on a meat or meatless day. Monthly rainfall data were also collected. Models of goat and sheep price expectations were built to compare the similarity of the behaviour of producers and intermediaries. Results indicated that producers and intermediaries expected high prices from November to January and during religious holidays. They expected premiums and discounts related to animals' attributes. Liveweight and seasonality had the strongest effect on prices. Rainfall in the current and previous month was positively related to seller's expected prices suggesting that livestock are retained to take advantage of favourable grazing conditions. The models of price expectations showed that producers adjusted expected goat prices (P ≤ 0.10) for seasonality, liveweight, body condition, age, sex and breed, while they adjusted sheep prices for seasonality and liveweight only. High pay-offs could be expected if extension efforts focused on factors that determine sheep meat quality; however, the retail ceiling price of meat and the lack of grading are a disincentive to work in this direction. Seasonality of supply and demand is important in determining prices and this study provides baseline information for market scheduling; however, scheduling of sales of transhumant pastoralists may be difficult to achieve. Further investigation is justified to understand the gap in marketing knowledge between producers who sell in the villages and those who sell in Quetta.     

Art for the masses or art for the few? Ethical issues in film marketing in the UK

This paper explores ethical issues in film marketing in the UK in terms of access to film. Based on an examination of film marketing theory, practice and policy, the paper identifies three main ethical issues pertaining to marketing in the film industry. These are the discrepancy between national policy and commercial practice in terms of social access, sustainability and diversity of choice. The paper proposes structural changes supported by government policy which promotes an integrated supply chain model as a method for redressing commercial as well as ethical challenges facing the industry. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

Social movements and globalization

Pierre Hamel, Henri Lustiger‐Thaler and Margit Mayer (eds.) Urban movements in a globalizing world John Guidry, Michael Kennedy and Mayer Zald (eds.) Globalizations and social movements: culture, power, and the transnational public sphere     

Inventories,sales uncertainty,and financial strength

We investigate the empirical linkages between sales uncertainty and firms’ inventory investment behavior while controlling for firms’ financial strength. Using large panels of manufacturing firms from several European countries we find that higher sales uncertainty leads to larger stocks of inventories. We also identify an indirect effect of sales uncertainty on inventory accumulation through the financial strength of firms. Our results provide evidence that financial strength mitigates the adverse effects of uncertainty.     

Does Real Exchange Rate Volatility Affect Sectoral Trade Flows?

This article investigates empirically the effect of real exchange rate volatility on sectoral bilateral trade flows between the United States and its top 13 trading partners. Our investigation also considers those effects on trade flows that may arise through changes in income volatility and the interaction between income and exchange rate volatilities. We provide evidence that (i) exchange rate volatility does not systematically affect sectoral trade flows, (ii) income volatility has little impact on trade flows, and (iii) the effect of the interaction term on trade flows is opposite that of exchange rate volatility, dampening its impact on trade flows.     

Contractual relationships in family firms： An agency theory interpretation from a managerial perspective

This study examines the contractual relationships from a managerial point of view by a sample of 55 family firms in an industrial zone in Turkey. The results show that the type of contract （i.e., behavior or outcome-based） is not affected by a professional manager＇s tenure, position and his/her education level. It is also presented that the type of contract does empirically not have a relationship with information asymmetry and risk taking/uncertainty in a family firm setting. Furthermore, its relationship to goal conflict and job complexity is weak and negative, which necessarily means that any increase in goal conflict or job complexity requires an outcome-based contract to be written between an owner and a professional manager. Yet, only goal conflict is significant in explaining the type of contract. From the managerial perspective, these findings imply that the agency theory is not suitable for relatively small family firms.     

Public debt and financial development: A theoretical exploration

In countries where the government is the major recipient of bank lending, public debt is likely to harm financial development. Moreover, the lower the financial depth, the greater the adverse effects of public borrowing on financial development and macroeconomic outcomes.     

Bank regulation and supervision and its welfare implications

This study provides a general equilibrium model to explore the welfare implications of bank regulation and supervision (RS). The model supports the basic expectations regarding the positive effects of RS on the growth rate, output, credit, investment, wages and profits; and its negative effects on the interest rate. In addition, RS is observed to lead to a convergence effect. Furthermore, it is observed that the decision of banks to monitor and charge differentiated interest rates to firms depends on the distribution of firm-specific moral hazard rates; bank monitoring increases profits as the distribution of producer type improves.     

Systematic risk and the cross section of hedge fund returns

This paper investigates the extent to which market risk, residual risk, and tail risk explain the cross-sectional dispersion in hedge fund returns. The paper introduces a comprehensive measure of systematic risk (SR) for individual hedge funds by breaking up total risk into systematic and fund-specific or residual risk components. Contrary to the popular understanding that hedge funds are market neutral, we find that systematic risk is a highly significant factor explaining the dispersion of cross-sectional returns while at the same time measures of residual risk and tail risk seem to have little explanatory power. Funds in the highest SR quintile generate 6% more average annual returns compared with funds in the lowest SR quintile. After controlling for a large set of fund characteristics and risk factors, systematic risk remains positive and highly significant, whereas the relation between residual risk and future fund returns continues to be insignificant. Hence, systematic risk is a powerful determinant of the cross-sectional differences in hedge fund returns.     

Religiosity versus rationality: Depositor behavior in Islamic and conventional banks

This study investigates the behavioral aspects of Islamic bank depositors in a dual banking system. By categorizing depositors into groups based on the amount of their deposited funds, we estimate the responses of these groups to interest rate changes. We take the findings of conventional banks as a comparative baseline and investigate the extent to which the changes in different Islamic depositor groups differ from conventional depositor groups. The findings show that depositors in both Islamic and conventional banks respond to interest rate changes. The analysis indicates that Islamic bank depositors are more responsive when their deposit sizes are larger. When Islamic bank depositors’ opportunity costs rise due to a rise in the interest rate, they do not hesitate to withdraw deposits. The relation between interest rate changes and deposits is more robust in Islamic banks than in conventional banks.