Das Verhalten von Fondsanlegern in der Schweiz

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Consumer Assessment of the Safety of Beef at the Point of Purchase: A Pan‐European Study

The paper employs structural equation modelling to explore the process by which consumers assess the safety of beef at the point of purchase. The data employed in the analysis are collected through a telephone survey in six European Union member states. The results indicate differences in the process by which the safety of beef is assessed by consumers between the study countries. The implications of the results for policy within the European Union are discussed.     

The impact of institutional reform from 1979 through 1987 on fertility in rural China

This empirical study brings together data on the local timing of the rural household responsibility system (HRS) reforms in China from 1979 through 1987 and assesses the association of the local reforms with individual parity-specific fertility changes as measured in the in-depth fertility survey. Fertility appears to have increased slightly in 1982 through 1984, but declined in 1985 through 1987, in the wake of these significant economic reforms. It is hypothesized that the reforms increased the private monetary and opportunity cost of childbearing and intensified market competition for the adoption of new production technologies that encouraged parents to educate their children better, while increasing the mobility of the rural labor force and thereby discouraging and delaying childbearing among rural Chinese.     

Crime Watch: Hurricanes and Illegal Activities

We investigate the relationship between hurricane strikes and crime for Jamaica. To this end, we construct hurricane damages and daily recorded criminal activity. Hurricanes are found to significantly increase crime by 35%, where the impact is stronger for more damaging storms, but this only lasts for the duration of the storm. Decomposing crime into its various subtypes, one finds that while aggravated assault, break‐ins, and shooting increase during a hurricane, murders, rapes, and robberies actually decline. The greatest increase is with shootings, whereas the greatest decline is with rape. Crucially, the impact of crime depends on the existence of a storm warning. Our results also show that high frequency data more accurately estimate the impact of hurricanes on crime.     

Thailand’s third five year plan

Thailand’s third Development Plan sketches the framework within which it is intended to press forward with the country’s economic and social development during 1972–76. The present article surveys and critically discusses the main traits of the new Plan.     

Age, Retirement, and Expenditure Patterns: An Econometric Study of Older Households

The paper explores the allocation of consumption expenditure by the older population among different categories of goods and services, and how expenditure patterns change with age within that population. Of particular interest is whether observed differences between pre-retirement and post-retirement patterns are a consequence of changes in tastes or reductions in income. An adapted form of the Deaton and Muellbauer [Am. Econ. Rev., 70:312–326, 1980] Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) is estimated with data from six surveys of family expenditure and used to investigate that question. The findings suggest that observed changes in budget allocations are most closely related to reductions in income.     

Stock Splits, Tick Size, and Sponsorship

A traditional explanation for stock splits is that they increase the number of small shareholders who own the stock. A possible reason for the increase is that the minimum bid-ask spread is wider after a split and brokers have more incentive to promote a stock. I document a large number of small buy orders following Nasdaq and NYSE/AMEX splits during 1993 to 1994. I also find strong evidence that trading costs increase, and weak evidence that costs of market making decline following splits. This is consistent with splits acting as an incentive to brokers to promote stocks.     

Changes in HRM and job satisfaction, 1998–2004: evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey

This paper examines the relationship between human resource management practices and job satisfaction, drawing on data from the 1998 and 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Surveys. The paper finds significant increases in satisfaction with the sense of achievement from work between 1998 and 2004; a number of other measures of job quality are found to have increased over this period as well. It also finds a decline in the incidence of many formal human resource management practices. The paper reports a weak association between formal human resource management practices and satisfaction with sense of achievement. Improvements in perceptions of job security, the climate of employment relations and managerial responsiveness are the most important factors in explaining the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement between 1998 and 2004. We infer that the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement is due in large part to the existence of falling unemployment during the period under study, which has driven employers to make improvements in the quality of work.