Teaching financial literacy: a survey of community‐based educators

A nationwide online survey of financial educators in adult community‐based financial education programmes in the US was conducted to examine teaching beliefs, related curriculum and teaching strategies used to reach underserved populations. A transformative learning theoretical framework was used to discover how financial education engages learners in relation to their own lives. Survey findings indicate in community‐based settings financial educators are largely White, female, college educated and with multiple years of experience; believe their role is to provide expert information to help learners make informed financial choices; and often adapt published materials to reflect the life circumstances of learners. Learners are more racially diverse than educators, most having attended high school, who identify their own financial need to attend the programmes. Programmes do not often target specific groups, are frequently free and can take place in a variety of face‐to‐face settings. Implications indicate best practices for financial educators require inclusive, culturally responsive pedagogies.     

Consumers' perceptions of food packaging: an exploratory investigation in Potchefstroom,South Africa

Consumers form perceptions of various food products through their comprehension of the visual stimuli on food packaging that attract their attention. These perceptions directly affect their purchasing decision at the point of purchase, which emphasizes the importance of attention‐capturing packaging attributes. However, little research is available regarding consumers' perceptions of food packaging, especially in the South African context. This study aimed to explore a sample of South African consumers' perceptions of food packaging and how these perceptions were formed through the perceptual process. A qualitative, exploratory study was conducted by means of 25 semi‐structured interviews and through the use of ambiguous mock packaging as a projective technique. Participants were questioned regarding their general perceptions of food packaging. The attention‐capturing ability of packaging as well as consumers' interpretation of this packaging after exposure to the mock packaging was also discussed. Findings from the study indicated that participants mainly based their perception of food packaging on its functional (being purposive, recyclable and informative) and physical attributes (being attractive, of high quality and hygienic). This study also indicated that information and visual attributes of packaging are important to gain consumers' attention in‐store. Participants' comprehension of packaging included general associations of specific food products with certain types of packaging, such as associations with quality and shelf life. Negative associations with packaging mostly entailed difficulty to handle the product, poor quality of the product and environmental problems. This study identifies those product attributes that participants regarded as the most important stimuli for forming positive perceptions regarding food packaging. It is important for manufacturers to pay attention to the information on perceptions that was gained in this study, as it might help them to create packaging that better fulfil consumer needs. These findings could also be applied in a larger study of a quantitative nature, which will ultimately result in more positive consumer shopping experiences and consumer satisfaction regarding food packaging.     

An agglomeration payment for cost-effective biodiversity conservation in spatially structured landscapes

Connected habitats are ecologically more valuable than isolated habitats for many species. A key challenge when designing payments for biodiversity in fragmented landscapes is to increase the spatial connectivity of habitats. Based on the idea of an agglomeration bonus we consider a scheme in which land-owners only receive payments if habitats are arranged in an ecologically favourable configuration. We compare the cost-effectiveness of agglomeration payments to spatially homogeneous payments on a conceptual level. Our results suggest that positive efficiency gains exist for agglomeration payments. We use Large Blue butterfly habitat in Germany as a specific case study, and find the agglomeration payments may lead to cost-savings of nearly 70% relative to homogenous payments.     

The selection of migrants and returnees in Romania

This paper uses census and survey data to identify the wage earning ability and the selection of recent Romanian migrants and returnees on observable characteristics. We construct measures of selection across skill groups and estimate the average and the skill‐specific premium for migration and return for three typical destinations of Romanian migrants after 1990. Once we account for migration costs, we find evidence that the selection and sorting of migrants are driven by different returns to skills in countries of destination. Our identification strategy for the effects of work experience abroad permits a cautious causal interpretation of the premium to return migration. This premium increases with migrants' skills and drives the positive selection of returnees relative to non‐migrants. Based on the compatibility of the results with rationality in the migration decisions, we simulate a rational‐agent model of education, migration and return. Our results suggest that for a source country like Romania relatively high rates of temporary migration might have positive long‐run effects on average skills and wages.     

International trade,integration and industrial location: The case of Germany

The paper confronts empirical results on the spatial distribution of integration effects and export activities in the FRG with prediction based on different theoretical approaches. It is proved that integration has at most very slightly favoured the higher agglomerated regions, and has not been to the detriment of the periphery. Export activities contributed to regional industrial despecialization and to decreasing interregional disparities. Population potentials, calculated with different distance parameters, regional productivity, the sectoral composition of industry, and average firm size are tested as explanatory variables. The results question that there are contemporary effective ‘regional’ determinants of integration effects.     

Proactive and politically skilled professionals: What is the relationship with affective occupational commitment?

The aim of this study is to extend research on employee affective commitment in three ways: (1) instead of organizational commitment the focus is on occupational commitment; (2) the role of proactive personality on affective occupational commitment is examined; and (3) occupational satisfaction is examined as a mediator and political skills as moderator in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Two connected studies, one in a hospital located in the private sector and one in a university located in the public sector, are carried out in Pakistan, drawing on a total sample of over 400 employees. The results show that proactive personality is positively related to affective occupational commitment, and that occupational satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. No effect is found for a moderator effect of political skills in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Political skills however moderate the relationship between proactive personality and affective organizational commitment.     

Anticipating Long‐Term Stock Market Volatility

We investigate the relationship between long‐term US stock market risks and the macroeconomic environment using a two‐component GARCH‐MIDAS model. Our results show that macroeconomic variables are important determinants of the secular component of stock market volatility. Among the various macro variables in our dataset the term spread, housing starts, corporate profits and the unemployment rate have the highest predictive ability for long‐term stock market volatility. While the term spread and housing starts are leading variables with respect to stock market volatility, for industrial production and the unemployment rate expectations data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters regarding the future development are most informative. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling pesticide risk: A marginal cost–benefit analysis of an environmental buffer-zone programme

A newly developed indicator of the pesticide risk for aquatic biocenosis in surface water bodies is applied within an economic sector model, and is used to evaluate alternative designs for an environmental policy programme. For rural districts (‘Landkreise’) across Germany, different widths of riparian buffer zones adjacent to surface water bodies are evaluated in terms of efficient cost/risk ratios.     

A toolkit in SAS for the evaluation of multiple imputation methods

This paper outlines a strategy to validate multiple imputation methods. Rubin's criteria for proper multiple imputation are the point of departure. We describe a simulation method that yields insight into various aspects of bias and efficiency of the imputation process. We propose a new method for creating incomplete data under a general Missing At Random (MAR) mechanism. Software implementing the validation strategy is available as a SAS/IML module. The method is applied to investigate the behavior of polytomous regression imputation for categorical data.