Market linkages between the U.S. and Japan: an application to the fisheries industry

Recent trends in globalization of Pacific Basin commodity markets raises important questions concerning the nature of market integration and price linkages. This paper examines this issue by testing for price linkages between the United States and Japan for two species whose exports from the U.S. to Japan have risen considerably over the past decade. Empirical results indicate segmentation of price linkages for sablefish but probable price linkages for some thornyhead markets. Findings suggest that markets for these species may be less sensitive to price changes in Japan than would be expected based on commodity flows.     

Management as a professional discipline*

The nature of management as a discipline is problematic. Drawing on Aristotle’s concepts of poiesis and techne, it can however be seen as one of a class of professional disciplines such as medicine, law, engineering or teaching which are characterized by their instrumentality, contingency and processuality. These three attributes suggest three basic questions (What do managers do? What affects what they do? How do they do it?) which in turn yield a three‐dimensional model. While the contents of the model must be regarded as tentative, its form offers one way in which management can constitute itself as a discipline and re‐position itself within higher education. Questions arise in relation to the nature and status of the model, the segmented nature of management work, its varying internal/external focus and the locus of management decisions. However the model appears to provide a useful, heuristic framework within which practitioners can address specific, concrete problems and decisions.     

Do lenders who redline make more money than lenders who don’t?

While it is widely recognized that racial minorities and residents of distressed urban communities experience relatively greater difficulty in obtaining mortgage loans, there is little consensus on the causes of such lending patterns. This study examines the relationship between lender profitability and the percentage of their loans and loan dollars that are invested in Milwaukee’s central city and to racial minorities throughout the metropolitan area. Findings suggest that to understand broader industry-wide patterns, it is important to focus on the characteristics of lending institutions themselves, particularly those that yield discriminatory lending patterns, and not solely on the income, credit rating, and other socioeconomic characteristics pertaining to the risk and profitability associated with various population groups and community areas. Policy and research implications that will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of, and more effective solutions for, urban credit availability or redlining problems are discussed.     

精益制造将成明日之星

精益制造正在舞台上绽放光芒,是制造商的拯救者!这当然是夸张之言,但精益制造确能让制造商提高竞争力及在新兴的以需求为本的供应链中有效地运作,更可让企业在短时间内生产多种类但小批量产品的订货,以满足客户需要.过去十五年工业形态的不断转变无疑给制造业建立了一个全新的面貌,让制造商更努力地去提高生产效率.……     

Insurance redlining and the process of discrimination

Insurance redlining and the racially discriminatory consequences of the sale of property insurance have been documented in several cities throughout the United States. In this study teams of “testers”—comparably qualified insurance consumers who differed only in the racial composition of the neighborhood of the homes they sought to insure—contacted three Milwaukee area insurance companies regarding the possibility of purchasing insurance for their homes. Though no blatantly discriminatory behavior was exhibited, agents representing these companies expressed a clear preference to pursue business in white communities and placed additional barriers in the way of testers from nonwhite neighborhoods. These findings parallel changes in other institutional sectors of the housing industry where blatantly discriminatory behavior has generally given way to more subtle forms of bias. Policy recommendations are offered to reduce existing racial disparities in the availability of insurance and to open up housing markets in general for minorities.     

Excess Capacity and Asymmetric Information in Developing Country Fisheries: The Malaysian Purse Seine Fishery

Excess capacity poses a problem in many developing country fisheries. These countries often pursue a development strategy aimed at expanding capacity under open access. Sustainable development, however, requires management. Principal-agent issues from asymmetric information between the regulator and fishers, which potentially form serious obstacles to fisheries management, arise in the likely forms of management. This article discusses principal-agent issues and examines the principal-agent moral hazard issue, which is due to divorce of ownership and vessel operations. The article also illustrates a method for estimating capacity when information is limited. The Peninsular Malaysian purse seine fishery forms a case study.     

Investment performance of high income stocks over up and down markets

This paper presents empirical tests of the hypothesis that high-dividend-yield stocks offer investors significantly lower systematic risk in down markets. While high-yield stocks have lower levels of systematic risk overall, there is no evidence in this study that lower systematic risk is achieved in down markets for stocks with high-yield components in their total rates of return. This finding is robust over a variety of test procedures and provides additional support for dividend irrelevance propositions.     

Economic Benefits of Dolphins in the United States Eastern Tropical Pacific Purse-Seine Tuna Industry

This paper provides a profit-maximizing modelwith vessel-level dolphin mortality limits forpurse seiners harvesting tunas in the easterntropical Pacific Ocean. The model analyticallyderives the shadow price (estimated economicvalue) for dolphin mortality, the fishing-fleetsize, and the annual tuna harvest as functionsof a few key fishing parameters. The model alsoprovides a statistical method to determine theaccuracy of all needed parameter estimates. Thepaper then applies the model to the year 1996and the period from 1985 to 1987. The shadowprice measures the economic value to the UStuna fleet of dolphins lost in the harvestingof tuna. This value is essential whenattempting to evaluate the economic benefitsand costs to society of any action designed toreduce the mortality of dolphins in theharvesting of tuna in the eastern tropicalPacific Ocean.