Degree performance of Economics students in UK universities: absolute and relative performance in prior qualifications

We exploit individual‐level data on full cohorts of UK university leavers who were enrolled for an Economics degree during the period 1984–85 to 1992–93 or the academic year 1997–98. We analyse the determinants of degree performance and find that performance depends not only on prior qualifications as measured by A‐level scores, for example, but also on the individual student's ranking (based on their A‐level scores) within their cohort at their university. The students' performance is also enhanced by having previously studied mathematics, although there is no benefit from the prior study of Economics. We find that attendance at an Independent school has a negative effect on degree performance, and that there are comparatively few social class background effects. Females are more likely than males to obtain a good degree.     

Decimalization,trading costs,and information transmission between ETFs and index futures

The impact of changes in trading costs, due to decimalization, on informed trading and speed of information transmission between exchange‐traded funds (ETFs) and their corresponding index futures is examined. ETFs began to trade in decimals on January 29, 2001, and index futures continued to trade in their original tick sizes. The focus is on whether the decrease in the minimum tick size of ETFs influences the relative performances of these two types of index instruments in the price‐discovery process. It is found that for ETFs, the trading activity increases, but the market depth drops significantly after decimalization. The spreads for ETFs generally decrease, but the adverse selection component of ETF spreads increases. Furthermore, after decimalization, ETFs start to lead index futures in the price‐discovery process and its share of information also increases. Although index futures still assume a dominant role in information discovery, the information content of the ETFs' prices improves significantly after decimalization. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:131–151, 2006     

An exploration of rule configuration effects on the ethical decision processes of advertising professionals

This study explores the ethical perceptions of advertising professionals regarding two child-oriented television advertising issues: deceptive messages and host selling. Differences in ethical evaluative and decision processes are investigated for both issues, using two evaluative rules. The results indicate that variations in advertisers’ ethical judgments and ethical intentions are affected by the type of rule(s) used during the evaluative process, and by the degree to which the rules are embraced. The article concludes with recommendations for advertising management and implications for future research. She graduated with honors in 1989 from Mississippi State University with a D.B.A. in marketing. She has practical experience in marketing research and her research interests are ethics and social responsibility, and professional services marketing. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Michigan State University in 1980. He is the coauthor of two books on business ethics and has contributed numerous articles on ethics to various academic and applied business journals. He received his D.B.A. in marketing from Louisiana State University in 1969. He has coauthored two books on business ethics and has published articles on ethics in marketing journals. He is a frequent lecturer on business ethics. She graduated in 1990 from Mississippi State University with a D.B.A. in management. Her research interests are business ethics and student ethics, and corporate social responsibility.     

PIMS and BCG: New horizons or false dawn?

Strategic market opportunities arise either because a firm is exceptionally well placed competitively or because it recognizes the opportunity, on the basis of private information, before others. Strategic market analysis must reflect these two possible routes to attractive opportunities. Both the approaches developed by the Strategic Planning Institute (SPI) through its Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) and the Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) growth/share matrix fail to reflect the full impact of competitive expectations and risk. Analysis of PIMS data should be directed more towards generalities of limited direct economic significance whereas the BCG approach should be used mostly in the context of experience curve effects. Neither approach should dominate a full analysis of the specific nature and critical ambiguities in any strategic option.