Editorial

This paper reports the results of 16 market experiments designed to produce measures of the effects of nonresidential land uses on the prices of nearby dwellings. Each experiment consists of a sample of home sales in a homogeneous neighborhood located near a single nonresidential land use, e.g., industry, commercial, high-density dwellings, and highways. The data consist of price, physical characteristics of the dwelling, distance from the nonresidential use, and the date of sale for each transaction. Hedonic price indices are estimated and the significance of the distance effects assessed. No systematic relationship between nonresidential land use per se and housing prices is found.     

EDUCATION VOUCHERS IN PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE: A SURVEY

An education voucher system exists when governments make paymentsto families that enable their children to enter public or privateschools of their choice. The tax-funded payments can be madedirectly to parents or indirectly to the selected schools; theirpurpose is to increase parental choice, to promote school competition,and to allow low-income families access to private schools.Some opponents predict that vouchers will destroy the publicsystem, aggravate poverty, and foster segregation. Others fearthat voucher-receiving independent schools will be regulatedout of recognition. The main purpose of this article is to examine the recent emergenceof voucher systems as an interesting phenomenon in its own right.The evidence summarized relates to voucher systems operatingin twenty countries, provinces, and states. The typical "funds-follow-the-child"voucher system, in which governments subsidize "schools of choice"in strict proportion to enrollment, appears to be the favoriteform. This type of voucher has been adopted by developing countries—notablyBangladesh, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Lesotho—aswell as by industrial countries such as Poland, Sweden, theUnited Kingdom, and the United States. Much of the recordedexperience with such programs is pertinent to the longstandingtheoretical debates on the desirability of voucher systems.      

The influence of business strategy on annual report readability

Concerns about the complexity of firm disclosures have prompted regulators to initiate projects to improve the readability of annual reports. We investigate business strategy as a determinant of annual report readability. As business strategy fundamentally determines a firm’s product and market domain, technology, and organizational structure, it influences a firm’s operating complexity, environmental uncertainty and information asymmetry. Consequently, business strategy frames the level, wording, and complexity of disclosures. We capture a firm’s business strategy based on the Miles and Snow (1978) strategic typology and measure 10-K readability with Li’s (2008) Fog index. We find that firms pursuing an innovation-oriented prospector strategy have less readable 10-Ks relative to firms pursuing an efficiency-oriented defender strategy. We also find that prospectors display more negative and uncertainty tones while defenders exhibit more litigious tone in their 10-Ks. Our study provides useful insights to policy makers as it suggests that efforts to improve annual report readability may be limited for some firms given that business strategy is a fundamental determinant of readability and pronouncements accommodating different strategic orientations are not feasible.     

The impact of employee satisfaction on quality and profitability in high-contact service industries

The extant operations management literature has extensively investigated the associations among quality, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability. However, the influence of employee attributes on these performance dimensions has rarely been examined. In this study we investigate the impact of employee satisfaction on operational performance in high-contact service industries. Based on an empirical study of 206 service shops in Hong Kong, we examined the hypothesized relationships among employee satisfaction, service quality, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability. Using structural equations modeling, we found that employee satisfaction is significantly related to service quality and to customer satisfaction, while the latter in turn influences firm profitability. We also found that firm profitability has a moderate non-recursive effect on employee satisfaction, leading to a “satisfaction–quality–profit cycle”. Our empirical investigation suggests that employee satisfaction is an important consideration for operations managers to boost service quality and customer satisfaction. We provide empirical evidence that employee satisfaction plays a significant role in enhancing the operational performance of organizations in the high-contact service sector.     

Precautionary Savings in Mexico: Evidence From the Mexican Health and Aging Study

Precautionary saving is the additional saving done by individuals to protect them financially in situations of uncertainty and reduce their vulnerability for negative shocks that may affect their consumption levels. This paper investigates the existence and extent of savings motivated by precaution in Mexico for people aged between 50 and 75, using data from the Mexican Health and Ageing Study 2003. The empirical strategy is based on a test of the direct relationship between the accumulated wealth and the uncertainty generated by the social security status, in particular the availability of health insurance, accounting also for the expectation to receive a retirement pension. The endogeneity‐corrected estimates do not yield results that unequivocally support the existence of private savings as a risk protection mechanism, implying that the public protection system has an important role in reducing the vulnerability of the population studied.     

The Effect of Land Restitution on Poverty Reduction among the Khomani San “Bushmen” in South Africa

This paper looks at the impact of land restitution involving the Khomani San “bushmen” in the Kgalagadi area of South Africa. It seeks to investigate the effect of land restitution on poverty reduction among the beneficiaries. We run two‐stage least squares models of access to nature, per capita income and poverty status on the use of restituted land, among other variables. Our results suggest that the Khomani San beneficiaries have gotten more access to natural resources but that the use of restituted land has neither increased per capita income nor reduced poverty. In fact, the use of restituted land has contributed to increased poverty. Therefore, land restitution should become part of a broader, carefully crafted rural developmental strategy for it to be effective in reducing poverty. Otherwise, land restitution risks enabling indigenous communities to continue with their “traditional” way of life, and in fact thereby keep them poor.     

Student loans in developing countries: government versus company loans

Using data from the International Finance Corporation study on private investment in education, Tooley and West give details of two types of international experience with student loans. In particular they look at the government student loan scheme in Thailand and loan schemes offered by various for-profit and nonprofit education companies in Peru, Colombia and India. Difficulties are pointed out with regard to the government scheme, which it may be possible to alleviate under the company schemes.     

4种趋势影响未来养老生活

4种不可改变的趋势将形成巨大力量,对我们未来的养老产生深刻影响.如同四季更替,日出日没,月亮圆缺,潮涨潮落,我们无法改变它们,但可认识它们,就像在日光浴时带上防护衣、遮阳帽和护肤霜一样,通过改变自己的行为模式来减少未来养老时带来的问题.     

莫忽视购物小技巧

有两种关键因素可以对长远的经济状况产生影响：收入和支出。控制花费对长期的财务健康非常重要，许多年轻人养成了不好的消费习惯，浪费了大量金钱，随着年龄的增长，这些坏习惯很难改掉。在“购物狂热症”出现之前，需要做以下11件事情。