Managerial Behavior of Young Families in Pursuit of Single-Family Home Ownership

The managerial behavior of young families in the pursuit of home ownership was explored with a sample of 1267 households from northwestern lowa. Young owners had higher incomes and higher monthly housing expenses than young nonowners, but the percentage of income devoted to housing did not differ between young owners and young nonowners. Young owners did not have a higher number of full-time workers per household than young nonowners. Young owners had higher persons-per-room ratios and had compromised neighborhood accessibility standards, but not housing quality standards. The findings indicate that a high level of monetary resources was a key factor in enabling young families to own a single-family detached dwelling, for there were few important compromises in housing space and quality.     

United States Trade in Consumer Products

The United States has experienced a large trade deficit in consumer products. This paper argues that the deficit is due in part to the institutional and behavioral frameworks in which consumer products are marketed. The existence of an effective mass distribution system, a large market relative to promotion expenditures and the change-orientation of the consumer can influence greatly the ability of nations to expand markets and stimulate sales of consumer products. These factors prevalent in the American economy have attracted imports. In contrast, their absence in the economies of our trading partners has limited our access to foreign markets. Policy implications of this situation and areas for further research are identified and discussed.     

Family variables,nutrient intakes and perceived health among Malawian women

This study emphasises the inter-relationships among family variables, nutrient intake and perceived health status among Malawian women. The sample consists of rural women residing in Zomba, Malawi, southern Africa. Data were collected from April to June 1993 on (1) family cohesion and adaptability, assessed by a modified version of Olson's FACES 11; (2) dietary intake using a modified food frequency questionnaire; and (3) a 24-item questionnaire on perceived health status, barriers to health and desired methods of communicating nutrition information in the village. The results indicated that Malawian rural women perceived their families as highly cohesive and adaptable. Diseases frequently identified as common in the family were not perceived as related to nutrition. Income significantly correlated with dietary adequacy. The study suggests that efforts to promote health and nutritional status should be directed at disease prevention and its ecological relationship with nutrition. Strategies for communicating nutrition information in rural Malawi are provided.     

Users versus nonusers of supplements: socioeconomic characteristics

The objective of this research was to determine the socioeconomic characteristics of supplement users versus nonusers. Seven western states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming) were surveyed to determine the socioeconomic profile of persons who either use or do not use supplements. Results indicated that 60.2% of the supplement users were female. The largest percentage was 31–40 years of age. By most definitions, supplement users tended to be well educated. Under adverse economic conditions, only a small percentage (7%) of users would give up supplements first when asked to choose from a variety of items that were considered to be nonessential.     

Financial Statement Fraud: Some Lessons from US and European Case Studies

This paper studies 14 companies that were subject to an official investigation arising from the publication of fraudulent financial statements. The research found senior management to be responsible for most fraud. Recording false sales was the most common method of financial statement fraud. Meeting external forecasts emerged as the primary motivation. Management discovered most fraud, although the discovery was split between incumbent and new management.     

U.S. Multinational Activity Abroad and U.S. Jobs: Substitutes or Complements?

Critics of globalization claim that firms are being driven by the prospects of cheaper labor and lower labor standards to shift employment abroad. Yet the evidence, beyond anecdotes, is slim. This paper reports stylized facts on the activities of U.S. multinationals at home and abroad for the years 1977 to 1999. We focus on firms in manufacturing and services, two sectors that have received extensive media attention for supposedly exporting jobs. Using firm‐level data collected by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in Washington, D.C., we report correlations between U.S. multinational employment at home and abroad. Preliminary evidence based on the operations of these multinationals suggests that the sign of the correlation depends on the crucial distinction between affiliates in high‐income and low‐income countries. For affiliates in high‐income countries there is a positive correlation between jobs at home and abroad, suggesting that foreign employment of U.S. multinationals is complementary to domestic employment. For firms that operate in developing countries, employment has been cut in the United States, and affiliate employment has increased. To account for firm size, substitution across firms and entry and exit, we aggregate our data to the industry level. This exercise reveals that the observed “complementarity” between U.S. and foreign jobs has been driven largely by a contraction across all manufacturing sectors. It also reveals that foreign employment in developing countries has substituted for U.S. employment in several highly visible industries, including computers, electronics, and transportation. The fact that there were U.S. jobs lost to foreign affiliates in key sectors, despite broad complementarity in hiring and firing decisions between U.S. parents and their affiliates, helps explain why economists view the impact of globalization on U.S. jobs as benign despite negative news coverage for declining industries.