Comparing random and deterministic time series

Summary This paper addresses the question of distinguishing the output of a stochastic process from that of a deterministic process. An impossibility theorem is described which states that time a series resulting from deterministic B-processes is observationally equivalent to, and hence indistinguishable from, the output of a continuous time Markov process on a finite number of states.This is an expanded version of a lecture presented at Cornell University in June, 1992 in a conference honoring Roy Radner on his 65th birthday. I would like to thank the organizers of this conference, especially Mukul Majumdar. The author is partially supported by a grant from the NSF.     

Public–Private Sector Wage Gap in Australia: Variation along the Distribution

Previous research on public–private wage differentials in Australia has focused on the mean of the conditional wage distribution. Using six waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, this study employs quantile regressions to examine whether the sectoral wage effect varies along the wage distribution. For females, public sector wage premiums are relatively stable for almost the entire distribution. For males, they decrease monotonically and are negative for the top half of the distribution. The decomposition results show that the observed differences in individuals and job characteristics explain a substantial proportion of the sectoral wage gap.     

How far does evolution take us? Comment on Elinor Ostrom’s: do institutions for collective action evolve?

Elinor Ostrom’s article in this issue suggests that institutions for collective action evolve, highlights parallels between biological and institutional evolution, and describes an hypothetical example of institutional evolution related to an irrigation system. The article is provocative but not definitive in that it does not demonstrate that evolution is more than a metaphor for institutional change and that institutions actually evolve. This commentary unpacks the concept of evolutionary change and evaluates how well various aspects of institutional change fit within this model of change. The analysis supports Ostrom’s contention that evolution is not just a metaphor for institutional change, but also suggests that not all institutional change can be classified as evolutionary. The commentary highlights the need for further conceptual and theoretical development to delineate various forms and processes of institutional change, distinguish between evolutionary and non-evolutionary change, and draw out the consequences of various forms of change.     

Reorganizing School Lunch for a More Just and Sustainable Food System in the US

Public school lunch programs in the United States are contested political terrains shaped by government agencies, civil society activists, and agri-food companies. The particular organization of these programs has consequences for public health, social justice, and ecological sustainability. This contribution draws on political economy, critical food studies, and feminist economics to analyze the US National School Lunch Program, one of the world's oldest and largest government-sponsored school lunch programs. It makes visible the social and environmental costs of the “heat-and-serve” economy, where widely used metrics consider only the speed and volume of service as productive work. This study demonstrates that such a narrow understanding of the labor of lunch devalues care and undercuts the potential for school food provisioning to promote ecological and feminist goals. Further, it proposes a “high road” alternative and outlines an agenda for reorganizing school food provisioning to maximize care in all its dimensions.     

Technology‐push,market‐demand and the missing safety‐pull: a case study of American Airlines Flight 587

Through a critical case study of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, this paper draws upon ‘the Social Shaping of Technology’ (SST) approach to offer a reconceptualisation of the technology‐push and market‐demand model for High‐Reliably Organisations (HROs), providing support for a third factor, called here a ‘safety‐pull’. A safety‐pull is defined as organisationally supported reflexivity in which technology innovators and frontline operators collaborate to consider the potential implications of adopting new technologies in HROs and the complex ways this change may impact human operators' work performance, often in risky and unanticipated ways. In contrast to accidents occurring solely as the result of individual operator error, analysing the safety‐pull provides a way to tease out the wide range of factors that can contribute to HRO failures and offers a new SST perspective through which to examine high‐risk operations.     

Has Dodd–Frank affected bank expenses?

Journal of Regulatory Economics - This paper examines the potential effects of the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 on banks’ noninterest expenses. Using data on U.S. bank holding companies from...     

The sixteenth‐century price rise: new evidence from Scotland, 1500–85

This article contributes to the emerging belief among early modern economic historians that sixteenth‐century inflation was primarily caused by monetary factors. The Scottish case study reveals a strong relationship between coinage debasement and rising prices, a contention strengthened by the fact that the Scottish experience of inflation was high in European terms, and, in particular, stands at a considerable distance from the English pattern. This study includes the first scholarly examination of prices during the 1540s, and reveals that substantial inflation first emerged during this hitherto neglected decade. Prices plateaued during the 1550s, and rose consistently from 1560 to 1585. Meanwhile real wages declined during the 1540s and from 1560 onwards. This article is methodologically innovative in constructing two baskets of commodities, designed to represent the elite experience, alongside a more traditional basket based on a working household. These reveal the divergent experiences of the price rise within Scotland: rising prices hit the poor harder than the rich due to the high cost of domestic agricultural goods in the subsistence basket and the deflationary impact of wages and luxury goods upon the overall elite basket.     

Above and beyond? How businesses can drive sustainable development by promoting lasting pro-environmental behaviour change: An examination of the IKEA Live Lagom project

Current global changes require new business approaches driving sustainable development on all fronts. To date, most business approaches have focused on sustainable marketing and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In this field study, we examine IKEA's Live Lagom project, a 3-year behaviour change initiative that aimed to explore how to go above and beyond conventional approaches demonstrating how businesses could support sustainable development by supporting their customers' attempts to live more sustainable lifestyles. We examined the effectiveness of the project involving multifaceted behaviour change interventions, testing for behavioural changes both during and after the project period. In addition, we explored changes in participants' attitudes towards the company. Findings show that the extensive set of interventions led to changes in pro-environmental behaviours across all three participant groups with potentially positive impacts on the customer–company relationship. The article thus provides a call for further businesses to engage in similar behaviour change projects that would allow citizens to engage in more sustainable lifestyles and behaviours across contexts.     

Marketing cereal to children: content analysis of messages on children's and adults' cereal packages

This study compares messages displayed on children's and adults' cereal boxes. In total, 127 cereal boxes were collected and content analysed. On the front panel, we found an interesting contradiction between health‐related textual and graphical messages. The nutrient claim appeared on more than half of cereals for children, which is significantly higher coverage compared with that of adult cereals. On the other hand, the representation of a bowl of cereal was far more likely to appear artificially coloured or sweetened on child‐targeted cereal boxes and contain less fruits and nuts compared with adult‐targeted cereals. Results on the back and side panels showed that messages targeting adults are mostly health related (e.g. well‐being, purity) while messaging to children focuses less on health‐related messages and more on games, toys and other entertaining topics. Nutritionally, child‐targeted cereals overall are less nutritious than adult‐targeted cereals and have higher rankings of sugar sources in the ingredients. This study calls for a critical consideration about not only on what is in the cereal box but also what is on the box.