Union Effects on Earnings Dispersion in Australia, 1986–1994

In Australia a large decline in union density has occurred since the mid-1970s. This paper examines the effect of the decline in union density on the dispersion of earnings in Australia between 1986 and 1994. Changes in union density are found to have increased earnings dispersion for male employees over this period, but do not appear to have had a strong effect on earnings dispersion for female employees. The main cause of changes in earnings dispersion for both male and female employees has been an increase in the dispersion of earnings of non-union employees.     

A comparison of ethical evaluations of business school faculty and students: A pilot study

This paper reports the results of a pilot study of differences in ethical evaluations between business faculty and students at a Southern university. Data were collected from 137 business students (46 freshmen and 67 seniors) and 34 business faculty members. Significant differences were found in 7 of the 30 situations between freshmen and faculty and four situations between seniors and faculty. When the combined means for each group were tested, there was no significant difference in the means at the 0.05 level of significance. A trend was revealed, however, in that the majority of the time faculty members were the most ethically oriented followed by seniors and then freshmen.Dr. Robert E. Stevens is Professor of Marketing at Northeast Louisiana University and is the author of 11 books and more than 80 articles. Dr. Stevens has served as a consultant to local, regional, and national firms for research projects, feasibility studies, and market planning, and has been a partner in a marketing research company.Dr. O. Jeff Harris is Professor of Management at Northeast Louisiana University. Prior to coming to Northeast, he taught at Louisiana State University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Texas. Professor Harris has written three books and numerous articles and position papers. He is a consultant to many health care and processing organizations.Dr. Stan Williamson is an assistant professor of management at Northeast Louisiana University. He teaches strategy, human resource management, and management principles. Before this, he served as a senior executive for a regional health care system for 13 years and as a consultant in the health care field.     

Explaining variation in risk across insurance companies

The purpose of this study is to determine what firm-specific factors affect the risk of insurance companies. Traditional methods used to identify potential failures have been severely criticized. Thus, alternative approaches to risk assessment should be of interest to investors and managers of these companies. Models for measuring the impact of factors on risk are developed and empirically tested. The models employed explain a high proportion of variation in risk levels across companies. The sensitivity of insurance company risk to financial characteristics vary with the variable used as a proxy for risk and the type of insurance company assessed. Given the strong relationships between firm-specific characteristics and company risk, it appears that the risk of insurance companies can be effectively controlled with proper management.     

On Contracting Out: Some Labour Market Considerations

Fashion is the great governor of this world; it presides not only in matters of dress and amusement, but in law, physic, politics, religion, and all other things of the gravest kind.     

A multiple equilibrium model of indicative planning

This paper considers how indicative planning can improve outcomes in an imperfectly competitive economy. We adopt a model of multiple equilibria under imperfect competition based upon one presented by Diamond. We introduce exogenous uncertainty into this model and distinguish between the information provision and coordination roles of a planning agency.     

Specialization,product development,evolution of the institution of the firm,and economic growth

This paper considers the effects of the division of labor on economic growth and welfare in a general equilibrium environment where changes in individual specialization and product development can proceed simultaneously. The nature of the dynamic equilibrium is shown to depend on the interaction of transaction efficiency, economies of specialization, and economies of complementarity. Where the dynamic equilibrium involves evolution in the division of labor, this will be associated with increased per capita real income and hence economic growth. It is also shown that the emergence of firms is an aspect of the evolution of division of labor if transaction efficiency for a producer good is lower than that for labor used to produce this good.     

Perceived environmental turbulence and its effect on selected entrepreneurship,marketing, and organizational characteristics in industrial firms

Entrepreneurship and marketing are approached as proactive corporate responses to an increasingly dynamic, threatening, and complex external environment. Both represent organizational orientations built around creativity, innovativeness, flexibility, and risk-taking. A conceptual model is proposed relating the levels of entrepreneurship, marketing activity, and marketing-related structure of a firm to the degree of perceived environmental turbulence confronting the firm. Results of a survey involving personal interviews with managers in 93 firms representing six industries are reported. Turbulence is found to have a significant causal impact on both the levels of entrepreneurship and the marketing orientation of the firm, but not on structural variables.     

Determinants of dairy-product trade: Do subsidies matter?

Given the recent changes in the supply and demand of dairy products, many opportunities arise for exporting and importing countries. This paper examines determinants of dairy-product trade by applying the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) method to the gravity model using panel data on 49 exporting and 235 importing countries for the 17 years from 2000 to 2016. The gravity model is estimated using both interval data and dynamic analyses. The results show that domestic subsidies have a modest, but significant, impact on dairy-product trade across the models. For example, a 1% increase in subsidies leads to a roughly 0.02% increase in trade for an average country. Memberships in trade agreements, market size factors, and government institutions also positively affect dairy-product trade. However, tariffs are insignificant in the main model specification. Results from the lag-policy analysis show that the impact of subsidies disappears after the second year of distribution; whereas for the lead-policy analysis, results suggest at least 3 years of anticipatory effects on domestic subsidies.     

Accounting for United States Household Income Inequality Trends: The Changing Importance of Household Structure and Male and Female Labor Earnings Inequality

Using a shift‐share analysis on March CPS data, this paper estimates the degree to which changes in labor earnings, employment, and marriage patterns account for household income inequality growth in the United States since 1979. The factors contributing to the rapid rise in income inequality in the 1980s differ substantially from those contributing to its slower increase since that time. Unlike findings for the 1980s when changes in the correlation of spouses' earnings accounted for income inequality growth, this factor is no longer a major contributor toward its continued increase. Additionally, the 2000s business cycle is the first full business cycle in at least 30 years where changes in earnings of male household heads accounted for declines in income inequality. Instead, the continued growth in income inequality in the 2000s was accounted for primarily by increases in female earnings inequality and declines in both male and female employment.     

Reference Point Theory and Pursuit of Deals

Target and bidder reference points have separate and joint effects on merger deals. A firm whose stock price is more distant from its 52‐week high reference point is less likely to attract bids but has a greater likelihood of being acquired by its own managers (vs unaffiliated bidders). Firm propensity to submit a bid increases if its prevailing stock price is closer to its 52‐week high. When both parties’ reference points are close to their current stock prices, they are more willing to complete a deal. Hostile deals result when the bidder's stock price is closer to its reference point.