An empirical assessment of commercial web-based professor evaluation services

We examined the validity of data found on a popular web-based, user-created commercial professor evaluation service, RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), in business school settings. We compared publicly available RMP data for two business schools with official faculty evaluations unavailable to the public. We find that students rate professors significantly lower on RMP than on official university evaluations. However, we also find that the rankings of official university evaluations and RMP are significantly correlated (p < .001), with correlation values high enough to provide useful data to students.     

Faith at Work Scale (FWS): Justification,Development, and Validation of a Measure of Judaeo-Christian Religion in the Workplace

Workplace spirituality research has sidestepped religion by focusing on the function of belief rather than its substance. Although establishing a unified foundation for research, the functional approach cannot shed light on issues of workplace pluralism, individual or institutional faith-work integration, or the institutional roles of religion in economic activity. To remedy this, we revisit definitions of spirituality and argue for the place of a belief-based approach to workplace religion. Additionally, we describe the construction of a 15-item measure of workplace religion informed by Judaism and Christianity – the Faith at Work Scale (FWS). A stratified random sample (n = 234) of managers and professionals assisted in refining the FWS which exhibits a single factor structure (Eigenvalue = 8.88; variance accounted for = 59.22%) that is internally consistent (Cronbach’s α = 0.77) and demonstrates convergent validity with the Faith Maturity Scale (r = 0.81, p > 0.0001). The scale shows lower skew and kurtosis with Mainline and Catholic adherents than with Mormons and Evangelicals. Validation of the scale among Jewish and diverse Christian adherants would extend research in workplace religion.     

“智慧的地球”是怎么回事？

＂智慧的地球＂并不只是围绕着一种概念,是真正一系列我们可以采取行动的技巧,能够应用在面对的所有挑战当中。     

How loss averse are investors in financial markets?

We investigate loss aversion in financial markets using a typical asset allocation problem. Our theoretical and empirical results show that investors in financial markets are more loss averse than assumed in the literature. Moreover, loss aversion changes depending on market conditions; investors become far more loss averse during bull markets than during bear markets, indicating their more profound disutility for losses when others enjoy gains. Contrary to most previous results, we find that investors are more sensitive to changes in losses than changes in gains.     

The effect of bank ownership and deposit insurance on monetary policy transmission

In this paper we develop a theoretical model with a representative bank whose ownership is shared between state and private sector. The bank faces a risk of failure and provides private and public explicit deposit insurance. Banks owned to a larger extent by the government are more able to counteract a restrictive monetary policy because of their capacity to raise additional volume of deposits. Therefore, the greater the state’s share in the bank ownership, the less the impact of a monetary tightening on the level of loan supply.     

An Empirical Analysis of Residential Property Flipping

Beginning with a time-dependent definition of a house flip, the analysis examines flipping activity in Las Vegas from 1994 through mid-2007. We find that flip homes tend to be older and smaller than non-flip homes. Moreover, as the residential property market in Las Vegas begins to take off, flip homes become a more significant percentage of total sales. At the height of the housing boom in 2004, a typical flip produces an annual rate of return exceeding 60%. Even after adjusting for opportunity costs, this translates to economic profits of nearly 20%. However, shortly thereafter, the frenetic pace of the market begins to subside, and by 2007, economic returns to a flip fall to 0.