Fertility pattern of Muslim Hausa women in northern Nigeria

This paper reports the results of a fertility survey conducted in 1980 in Malumfashi town in northern Nigeria. The study covered 302 Hausa-speaking households in 2 wards. Of the 302 married males surveyed, 168 were monogamous, 92 had 2 wives, 30 had 3 wives, and 12 and 4 wives (the maximum allowable). All 168 monogramous marriages were not monogamous at the start. The average duration of present marriage among respondents was 14.1 years for monogamous unions and 11.0 years for polygymous unions. The average number of children ever born to women over 45 years of age was 6.3 (6.7 in monogamous unions and 6.0 in polygamous unions). The average family size for all marriages was 3.6, but this value was 4.6 in monogamous unions and 3.4 in polygamous unions (age standardized values were 4.5 and 3.4, respectively). There were 80 live births in the survey sample during the 12 months preceding the study, with a mean age at childbirth of 28.7 years. The crude birth rate for the surveyed population was 48.06/1000 (46/1000 for monogamous families and 43/1000 for polygamous families). The infant mortality rate was 137.5/1000 live births. About 11% of women in the sample were sterile. The fertility rate observed in this study is lower than that in Nigeria as a whole, perhaps because of the prevalence of polygamous unions in this region. These results support the observation that women in polygamous unions have lower fertility than those in monogamous unions.     

Can total factor productivity explain value added growth in services?

This paper examines the factors responsible for generating the services led growth witnessed in the Indian economy during 1980–2005. A sectoral growth accounting exercise shows that total factor productivity (TFP) growth was the fastest for services; moreover this TFP increase was significant in accounting for service sector value added growth. A growth model with agriculture, industry and services as three principal sectors is calibrated to Indian data using sectoral TFP growth rates. The baseline model performs well in accounting for the evolution of value added shares and their growth rates, but is unable to capture sectoral employment share trends. The performance of the model with respect to value added shares improves when the post 1991 increase in service sector TFP growth following the inception of market-based liberalization reforms is accounted for. A modified version of the model with public capital can better track trends in sectoral employment shares.     

Joint governance in North American workplaces: a glimpse of the future or the end of an era?

North American innovations in joint governance (such as Saturn, NUMMI, Xerox, and Shell Sarnia), though limited in number, have drawn world-wide attention from line and staff practitioners, as well as policy makers. These voluntary initiatives in unionized North American settings stand as an important counterpoint to two alternative forms of innovation – legislated forms of joint governance such as European works councils and non-union high-commitment systems that are most common in North America. Current debates on workplace governance in North America are implicitly and sometimes explicitly choosing among these three innovative arrangements as alternative ‘ideal types’. This article begins with nine hypotheses on joint governance, which are derived from case-study analysis. The hypotheses focus on the antecedents, dynamics and consequences of joint governance. Together, they can help guide practitioners seeking diffusion of joint governance concepts. The hypotheses can also help guide the construction of public policy on workplace governance. Ultimately, the question remains – are these initiatives a glimpse of the future or do they mark the end of an era?     

Immigration, Race, and Labor: Unionization and Wages in the Canadian Labor Market

In Canada, most racial minorities have lower rates of unionization than do members of the majority workforce. Data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics ( N = 32,634) show that racial minority immigrants assimilate into unionization over time. However, unionization reduces net minority wage disadvantages only slightly. Union race relations policies should place more emphasis on collective bargaining as well as on unionization.     

Economic Value Added,Future Accounting Earnings,and Financial Analysts' Earnings Per Share Forecasts

Empirical research to date on the relative effectiveness of Economic Value Added (EVA) and earnings per share (EPS) as measures of firm performance for stock valuation has been mixed. In contrast to prior research, which primarily focuses on the correspondence of these measures with shareholder value and changes therein, we examine their relative effectiveness in predicting future earnings and their role in enhancing the accuracy of analysts' forecasts. Our results indicate that EVA contains information that is incremental to EPS in predicting future earnings. In addition, we find that despite this potential for EVA to add incremental value to analysts' forecasts of future earnings, analysts do not use the information in reported EVA appropriately, but appear rather to overweigh it.     

Interest rate and bank stock returns asymmetry: Evidence from U.S. banks

We use the multivariate extension of Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic (EGARCH) of Nelson, Econometrica, 59: 347–370, 1991 to test for spillover effects and examine the extent of asymmetries between short- and long-term interest rates and portfolios of money center, large, and medium-size banks in the U.S. Our results indicate the existence of price and volatility spillovers from short- and long-term interest rates to the three bank portfolios. We also provide evidence of response asymmetries for the portfolios of money center and large banks, suggesting that money center and large banks are more sensitive to negative than positive short- and long-term interest rate changes.

History of offshoring knowledge services

The offshoring of knowledge services has become the stuff of newspaper headlines and U.S. presidential debates. Here, we view the antecedents of the current state of affairs. In the 1980s services offshoring was a trivial portion of the economy, but the seeds of today's situation were planted then. A combination of U.S. government neglect, foreign government activism, a culture change among business people concerning service processes, technological advances, and cultural relationships among countries have created the specific services offshoring configuration of today.     

Are survey forecasts of individual and institutional investor sentiments rational?

We examine the effects of rational risk factors on investor sentiments. We find that institutional investor sentiments are more rational than individual investor sentiments. There are significant positive effects of, market return and dividend yield and negative effect of inflation on both types of sentiments. These risk factors have stronger effects on institutional than individual investor sentiments. Also, there are significant effects of term spread and HML on the institutional investor sentiments. The evidence suggests that linkages between sentiments and stock return stems from a combination of rational outlook and noise i.e. expectations that are not fully justified by information.