Upland rice: an underdeveloped crop of Latin America

Rice is a staple of the Latin American diet and one of the most widely cultivated crops in the region Although mention of rice calls to mind carefully tended plots of irrigated land, that is not the typical method of cultivation in Latin America Over 70% of the rice grown is of the upland type, providing more than 50% of total production.     

Pay discrimination and imperfect competition in the labor market

Recent work has shown the prevalence of monopsony power in labor markets characterized by low pay. Monopsony has long been offered as a potential explanation of labor market discrimination. Yet, in the case of gender discrimination, most studies suggest that female labor supply is more elastic than that of males which, in a standard monopsony model, would imply higher pay for females. In the current paper we develop a theoretical framework capable of reconciling these empirical phenomena. We also attempt to explain: (i) the puzzle regarding the apparent trade-off between profits and discrimination in the standard neoclassical treatment of discrimination associated with the work of Becker (1957) and Arrow (1973) and (ii) the apparently paradoxical increase in female relative employment at a time of a significant rise in the relative price of female labor.     

Disparities in income elasticities by ethnic origin

This paper uses expenditure survey data to analyse disparities in income elasticities of demand by ethnic origin. Engel curve estimates indicate that the food elasticity varies with ethnic origin, while the others are quite similar. With data on five food commodities, the income elasticities display considerable disparities.     

Return on advertising: Another approach

With companies becoming more cost conscious the need for a more effective method of measuring the Return on Advertising is becoming more crucial. Previous attempts at measuring the return on advertising have focused on measuring either the sales effect or the communicative effect of an advertising campaign. However, both methods of measurement leave something to be desired and yet both techniques have strong points. This article proposes that one should synthesize the best elements of both measurement techniques into an objective design that will enable the practitioner to determine his ROA.     

The Bias Due to Omitting Income When Estimating Demand Functions

This paper obtains an expression of the bias when relevant explanatory variables are omitted in seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models. A simple demand system is provided to illustrate the direction of the bias terms when a variable is omitted.
L'article permet d'exprimer le biais qui résulterait de l'omission de variables explicatives pertinentes dans des modéles de régression sans corrélation apparente (SUR). Le système de demande simple qui est présente ici met en évidence le sens des éléments de biais lorsqu'on omet une variable.     

THE EFFECTS OF SPIN-OFFS ON CORPORATE INVESTMENT AND PERFORMANCE

We examine characteristics of firms involved in spin-offs and test whether these spin-offs induce changes in investment incentives and economic performance. We find that firms engaging in spin-offs are larger, more highly leveraged, and have higher asset turnover and lower real asset growth than their industry rivals. We also find that spin-offs generate significant increases in real asset growth and cash flow margin on sales for combined firm measures (spun-off firm plus parent firm). The gains result from increases in real asset growth for parent and spun-off firms, and improvements in cash flow margin on sales for parents. Our evidence is consistent with models in which spin-offs create value by improving investment incentives and economic performance.     

A future for wages councils in the hospitality industry in the U.K.?

In 1974, in an effort to stimulate discussion on the role played by the Licensed Residential Establishment and Licensed Restaurant Wages Council, Mitchell and Ashton (1974) posed the following question; ‘Wages councils: do they matter?’ The article below attempts to provide a contemporary answer to this question and to widen the scope of the discussion to include the other wages councils which operate within the hospitality industry. The passage of a decade would appear to mark a suitable point at which to carry out such a review. Furthermore the timing is appropriate in that the imminent expiry of an International Labour Office convention has initiated a debate over the future status of the whole of the wages council system in Britain. Consequently it is interesting to consider how the hospitality industry stands in relation to this debate particularly in view of the recent attempts made by the Employment Minister to influence the latest award made by the L.R.W.C.