Measuring the consequences of promoting inner city homeownership

This paper examines low- and moderate-income households in the City of Philadelphia who are becoming homeowners for the first time. We examine two Nehemiah developments subsidized by the City of Philadelphia that offer newly constructed homes at well-below cost. This paper uses a unique survey of these new owners to measure what Nehemiah residents gain in terms of structure and community attributes as they make the transition from renting to owning. The new owners in the Nehemiah complexes significantly improve their housing structures while raising their exposure to crime and weak local public schools. As part of the City’s community development strategy, these developments were expected to increase economic activity near these sites. We document that there is no evidence of local benefit spillovers for census tracts where the Nehemiah developments were built. Our survey results suggest that the new housing developments represent an “oasis” where there are few interactions between the new homeowners and the incumbent residents of the greater community.     

Returning young adults: Implications for marketers

This article examines a growing phenomenon termed returning young adults or RYAs. It looks at currently held beliefs about the group, examines characteristics of a matched sample of RYAs and persons not living at home, and discusses implications about the viability of the RYA group as a segment of interest to marketers. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

New evidence on the incremental information content of earnings reported using the LIFO inventory method

This study extends prior research by comparing the relative information quality of LIFO earnings and non-LIFO earnings using updated data and methodology. Results suggest LIFO earnings are incrementally informative independent of tax reporting implications. In addition to shedding light on why the results of prior studies present conflicting evidence about the relative information content of LIFO, these findings are important in light of international accounting standards convergence efforts, under which LIFO is currently prohibited.     

Impact of deregulation on marketplace diversity in the USA

The current deregulatory mood sweeping Washington has changed the policy approach from one of government enforced diversity to one of marketplace-facilitated diversity. This is evidenced in the recent bills to revise the Communications Act of 1934, and the settlement of the AT&T antitrust suit. This article explores these public policy shifts as they relate to the information industries and suggests some impacts on the concept of diversity.     

Intra- and inter-country bank branch assessment using DEA

Increasingly globalized financial markets with considerable activity in the multinational sector have created the need to understand inter-country bank branch performance. This topic is relatively unstudied, primarily due to the immense difficulty encountered in gathering reliable data. Fortunately, we have been able to obtain data on a group of banks operating in one geographical market area, but in different countries. In this paper we critically assess bank branch profitability and productivity in seven national branch networks owned and operated by a multi-national financial services corporation. The corporate head office (owner) imposes its management philosophy equally on all of its subsidiaries, thus removing executive managerial and corporate disparity. Results suggest that countries in which branch performance is quite consistent amongst domestic branches are less productive and less profitable when compared to other countries that have more disparity in their efficiency scores. In addition, we discovered that, surprisingly, branches do not have to be productive in order to be profitable and this led us to somewhat of a major breakthrough in inter-country branch analysis. Significant managerial advice may be derived from these results vis-à-vis trans-national benchmarking and opportunity for performance improvements both at the branch level and nationally as well.

Applying Behavioural Theory to the Challenge of Sustainable Development: Using Hairdressers as Diffusers of More Sustainable Hair-Care Practices

The challenges presented by sustainable development are broadly accepted, yet resource use increases unabated. It is increasingly acknowledged that while technical solutions may play a part, a key issue is behaviour change. In response to this, there has been a plethora of studies into how behaviour change can be enabled, predominantly from psychological and sociological perspectives. This has resulted in a substantial body of knowledge into the factors that drive behaviour change and how they can be manipulated to achieve desired social goals. In this paper, we describe a study that draws on this body of knowledge to design an intervention to drive behaviour change across the hairdressing sector, and by the process of diffusion, across the vast social networks of this occupational group to influence domestic hair-care practices. The intervention was successful: hairdressers indicated positive intentions to adopt more sustainable practices within their salons and pass them onto their customers. The customer survey (N = 776) confirms this: customers surveyed after their hairdresser attended the Green-Salon-Makeover intervention were significantly more likely to report that environmental issues had been considered in their salon visit and that they themselves would consider such issues in their hair-care practices at home than customers who were surveyed before the intervention.     

VDSL-Netz: zeitlich befristete „Regulierungsfreistellung“?

Die Bundesregierung hat den „Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur ?nderung telekommunikationsrechtlicher Vorschriften“¹ eingebracht. Diese Novelle zum Telekommunikationsgesetz sieht in § 9a vor, da? „neue M?rkte“ nur ausnahmsweise in die Marktregulierung nach dem Zweiten Teil des Telekommunikationsgesetzes einbezogen werden. Wie ist diese Regelung ordnungs- und wettbewerbspolitisch zu bewerten? Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Kirchner, 62, ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für deutsches, europ?isches und internationales Zivil- und Wirtschaftsrecht und Institutionen?konomik an der Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin. ¹ Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur ?nderung telekommunikationsrechtlicher Vorschriften, BT-Drucksache 16/2581 vom 14.9.2006.