The Prophecy of Place: A Labor Market Study of Young Women and Education

This study demonstrates that place—defined in this article as labor market area (LMA)— provides a useful context for examining how youth manage gendered situations. Places vary by conditions in which gender is more, less or differently salient, and a particular mix of factors accommodates different individual outcomes. This study utilizes multi–level modeling to examine influence of LMA characteristics on over–time educational measures for young women (Center for Human Resource Research 1994). Hierarchical models determine place–level effects on both average outcomes (within and between LMAs) and attainment processes. A major finding of this study is that aggregate place effects channel personal decisions and outcomes of young women. Young women's educational aspirations are dependent on gender– specific variables such as the number of women in college or the number of young women married in a local area. Attainment depends on the percentage of women in higher education and a local labor market's average age at first marriage. Further, what are assumed to be positive environmental effects (e.g., manufacturing dominance) are based on structural advantages for men and actually depress outcomes for women. Notably, the influence of place is independent of strong individual–level determinants, including social class.     

Working While the World Sleeps: A Consideration of Sleep and Shift Work Design

The evolution of society and economic pressure has provided the impetus for operating on a 24-hr basis in many industries. This has occurred with relatively little attention toward sleep deprivation and related problems facing shift workers and the organizations employing them. This paper first documents the move toward shift work and some sleep problems associated with it. We then describe sleep disorders that impact job performance. Next, we describe alternative schedules and give suggestions for shift work implementation. Finally, we offer some normative advice regarding the treatment of shift employees.     

我国企业所得税改革的国外借鉴

20世纪90年代后期各主要发达国家为刺激经济发展进行了减税改革，其中公司所得税的改革是一个重点。我国企业所得税制存在许多亟待解决的问题，诸如内外资企业所得税制不统一、企业负担过重、税收优惠政策不合理等。借鉴国外税改经验，改革和完善我国企业所得税制。第一，合并内外资企业所得税，建立法人企业所得税制；第二，减轻企业负担，增强其竞争力；第三 ，改革和完善税收优惠政策。     

A Proposed Arbitration Mechanism to Ensure Free Trade in Livestock Products

Trade negotiations between Canada and the United States are to begin in the near future. For there to be an ongoing free movement of commodities the question of nontariff barriers must be addressed in the negotiations. Livestock commodities are particularly prone to nontariff barriers due to the public health aspects of domestic regulations and the perishability of the products. Potential nontariff barriers in livestock and meat products are identified and the problems of normal negotiation procedures outlined. A proposal for an arbitration mechanism for the settlement of disputes is developed. It's essential elements are pre-approval of changes to regulations, extremely short arbitration periods and decentralized adjudication.
Les négociations de commerce entre le Canada et les États-Unis commenceront bientôt. Pour avoir un mouvement continuel des denrées, la question des barrières nontarifaires doit être adressée dans les négotiations. Les denrées bestiaux sont particulièrement portées aux barrières nontarifaires à cause des aspects de la santé publique dans les régulations domestiques et la nature périssable des produits. On identifie les barrières nontarifaires potentielles en des produits bestiaux et de viande. On indique aussi les problèmes avec les processus de négotiation normale. Une proposition pour un mécanisme d'arbitrage pour la résolution des disputes est developpée. Les elements essentiels de cette proposition sont l'approbation en avance des changements aux régulations, les périodes d'arbitration très courtes et les prononcements de jugements décentralisés.     

What Prompts the People＇s Bank of China to Change Its Monetary Policy Stance？ Evidence from a Discrete Choice Model

In the present paper, we model the policy stance of the People＇s Bank of China （PBC） as a latent variable, and the discrete changes in the reserve requirement ratio, policy interest rates, and the scale of open market operations are taken as signals of movement of this latent variable. We run a discrete choice regression that relates these observed indicators of policy stance to major trends of macroeconomic and financial developments, which are represented by common factors extracted from a large number of variables. The predicted value of the estimated model can then be interpreted as the implicit policy stance of the PBC. In a second step, we estimate how much of the variation in the PBC＇ s implicit stance can be explained by measures of its policy objectives on inflation, growth and financial stability. We find that deviations of CPI inflation from an implicit target and deviations of broad money growth from the announced targets, but not output gaps, figure significantly in the PBC＇s policy changes.     

Time Series Concepts for Conditional Distributions*

The paper asks the question – as time series analysis moves from consideration of conditional mean values and variances to unconditional distributions, do some of the familiar concepts devised for the first two moments continue to be helpful in the more general area? Most seem to generalize fairly easy, such as the concepts of breaks, seasonality, trends and regime switching. Forecasting is more difficult, as forecasts become distributions, as do forecast errors. Persistence can be defined and also common factors by using the idea of a copula. Aggregation is more difficult but causality and controllability can be defined. The study of the time series of quantiles becomes more relevant.     

Dividend Omissions and Intraindustry Information Transfers

We examine potential information transfers from companies that announce dividend omissions to their industry rivals. Specifically, we examine the abnormal stock returns and abnormal earnings forecast revisions of rivals after a company makes a dividend‐omission announcement. Our results show negative and significant abnormal stock returns and negative and significant abnormal forecast revisions for rival companies in response to the announcement, and a significant and positive relation between the two. We conclude that a dividend‐omission announcement transmits unfavorable information across the announcing company's industry that affects cash flow expectations and ultimately stock prices.