Consumer and provider expectations and experiences in evaluating professional service quality

Providers of professional services have recently awakened to consumer challenges, competition and the realities of marketing. Looking at the expectations and experiences of providers and consumers can provide special insight into the services evaluation process and perceived service quality. By evaluating both professionals’ and consumers’ perspectives, differences in perceptions can be identified and characterized. Inconsistencies in perceptions between two parties to an exchange may result in dissatisfaction, while positive consistencies in these assessments aid in building on-going relationships.     

Global Ex-vessel Fish Price Database Revisited: A New Approach for Estimating ‘Missing’ Prices

The Global Ex-vessel Fish Price Database (Ex-vessel DB) reported in Sumaila et al. (J Bioecon 9(1):39–51, 2007) was the first comprehensive database that presents average annual ex-vessel prices for all commercially exploited marine fish stocks by nationality of the fishing fleet. It contained over 30,000 reported price items, covering the period from 1950 to the present, and supplemented missing prices with estimates based on prices from a different year, species group or fleet nationality. This paper describes a revised missing price estimation approach, focused on the computation of annual average international prices for each species group, adjusted to domestic prices using the real exchange rate based on national purchasing power parity. Key advantages of the new approach are that it allows a larger number of reported prices to be used in the price estimation, and accounts for relative price level differences that exist between countries. Our new approach should improve the estimates in regions where reported prices are scarce or non-existent by linking domestic prices to the trends in international prices. Our analysis, based on the revised ex-vessel price estimates (in real 2005 USD), shows that the global marine fisheries landings have generated total value of USD 4.2 trillion since 1950, including USD 100 billion in 2005.     

Information in the hiring process: A case study

A variety of theoretical models have been concerned with the extent to which economic agents base their decisions on full information. This paper describes the stages of the hiring process for secretaries in a large conglomerate, the information sources used at each stage, and then estimates the relative importance of each source. Almost all applicants are interviewed when they apply and the interviewer's comments are a significant source of information. But in spite of the firm's use of complex information, it appears that the people hired are not likely to do well than those applicants not hired.     

中国最耗油

根据国际能源署的最新数据,中国已超过美国,成为全球最大的能源消费国。这一里程碑反映出中国十年来经济强劲发展,以及作为工业大国快速扩张的未来需求。     

Bayesian clustering with priors on partitions

Traditional clustering algorithms are deterministic in the sense that a given dataset always leads to the same output partition. This article modifies traditional clustering algorithms whereby data are associated with a probability model, and clustering is carried out on the stochastic model parameters rather than the data. This is done in a principled way using a Bayesian approach which allows the assignment of posterior probabilities to output partitions. In addition, the approach incorporates prior knowledge of the output partitions using Bayesian melding. The methodology is applied to two substantive problems: (i) a question of stylometry involving a simulated dataset and (ii) the assessment of potential champions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.     

Freshman-Sophomore Learning Differentials: A Comment

Several principles of writing in different contexts are explained. Although the effect of writing on learning economics is yet to be established, students appreciate writing assignments because they see professional value in them.